#Macedonian king as priest

[jeannereames]

“I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And... I was really... I was alive.”

Do you think the spirit of this phrase applies to Alexander?

Yes…and no. The “alive” part, perhaps, but not the “I did it for me.” That phrase sounds very modern.

Why modern? It’s me-focused.

Although Alexander certainly chased “kleos” or fame/notoriety, he grew up in a world where his role as king carried with it certain obligations to the people of whom he’s king. Does he ask them to do things to forward his glory? Yes. TBH, unfairly so at times. And they resent him for it too, at times.

But as king, he also would have believed he was responsible for them in a way foreign to most celebrities these days. Kings were also (high) priests. Every morning, Alexander made a sacrifice to his “ancestral gods” (ta patria) on behalf of the Macedonian people. EVERY morning. It was the last thing he continued to do when he lay dying in Babylon … get up and make that sacrifice, then go back to bed. He only stopped when he literally, physically couldn’t do it. Kings/generals sacrificed before battles and after, they sacrificed when crossing rivers, seas, or other borders. They carried the burden of tychē (Fortune) for their people.

So yes, he asked them to risk their lives for him (and his kleos), but HE had a return responsibility: to lead them in combat, to adjudicate appeal cases, to provide them with pay/loot, and to act as an intermediary between them and the gods (of whom he believed himself descended).

A Macedonian king was never a private individual playing a public role. He was, from birth, a public individual, and belonged to Macedonia, her gods, and her army. To his mind, his glory was also Macedonia’s glory.

[etymology-of-the-emblem]

Xander / マークス and Ryoma / リョウマ

Xander is the crown prince of the kingdom of Nohr and wielder of the sword Siegfried in Fire Emblem Fates. The name Xander is a short form of Alexander, a Greek-based name. Considering he is a major character and face of the Conquest route, he is likely named after Alexander the Great, the famous Macedonian king and general; he widely expanded his kingdom to one of history's largest empires. Much like Nohr, Greece under Alexander's rule looked eastward, invading through India until halted by the Persian Empire. Considering that Xander's mother Katerina (or Yekaterina in Japanese) is named after Russian Empress Catherine the Great, there may be an intentional throughline of powerful rulers carrying the "Great" epithet. There could also take influence from Catherine's grandson Alexander I of Russia, emperor during the Napoleonic Wars. Ironic in a sense, this would make the prince of the invading nation named after an emperor who was unsuccessfully invaded.

In Japanese, Xander's name is マークス (rōmaji: mākusu), romanized as Marks. The name is most likely a corruption of マルクス (rōmaji: marukusu). While this can be used for the name Marx like early fan translations addressed the character by, it also can be used for the Latin name Marcus (also rendered as マーカス; rōmaji: mākasu). This choice is most associated with Roman political figure Marcus Antonius, better-known thanks to Shakespeare as Mark Antony (マーク・アントニー; rōmaji: māk antonī). Mark Antony was a general serving under Gaius Julius Caesar in the Gallic Wars and, after the conquest and rising tensions among the First Triumvirate, during the Civil War. Before war erupted, he went to the Roman Senate in an attempt to peacefully settle the conflict, but his pleas were largely resisted. After Caesar became dictator of Rome, Antony served as his second in command and, after the formation of his cult, the high priest. Following the assassination of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony agreed to be a member of the Second Triumvirate alongside Caesar's heir Octavian and Marcus Lepidus, and divided the Roman Republic amongst them. However, tensions between him and Octavian were high, especially as after his marriage to the young Caesar's sister he maintained an affair with Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. Eventually, this strain birthed the War of Actium between Rome and Egypt, with Antony declared a traitor. When the couple had their backs against the wall as Rome invaded Egypt, they took their own lives, leaving Octavian as the sole ruler of Rome, which he soon converted into the Roman Empire under his new name Caesar Augustus. Xander seems to take influence from Mark Antony more so as they both were respected military leaders with tense relations to the powers they support - Garon and Julius Caesar - but proudly follow them despite such. Additionally, Shakespeare popularized the image of Mark Antony being a tragic figure in Antony and Cleopatra. Especially in Birthright Xander can be interpreted as a tragic figure, like most following the "Camus-archetype" in the Fire Emblem series. It could also be argued based on some of Xander's lines that his death in Birthright was of his own intention, further relating to Mark Antony.

Ryoma (JP: リョウマ; rōmaji: ryouma) is the high prince of the kingdom of Hoshido and wielder of the blade Raijinto. He is named after Sakamoto Ryouma (坂本龍馬), a master swordsman and political activist following the end of Japan's isolationist policy brought about by the forceful arrival of United States Commodore Matthew Perry. Born to a low-ranking samurai family, Sakamoto dropped out of school at an early age to pursue the blade in Edo, becoming a master kenjutsu instructor come his early twenties. Soon after returning to his home domain of Tosa, he was an early member of the Tosa Loyalist Party, one of many organizations that were dissatisfied with the Tokugawa Shogunate (a military dictatorship) and desired power to lie in the hands of the Imperial Court once more. As the Tosa Loyalists, purely focused on their domain, began plotting the assassination of the local governor - a man largely focused on modernization - Sakamoto, whose interests lay more with the army of Satsuma marching on Edo, left Tosa. The act of leaving one's clan was not acceptable and brought about the death penalty and left one denounced as a rōnin. He traveled back to Edo, where he and a colleague planned to assassinate Katsu Kaishu, a member of the Shogunate and a major influence on Japan's westernization. Upon meeting Katsu, however, Sakamoto was convinced of the need for westernization and the development of Japan's naval force. He became an assistant and mentee of Katsu. When Katsu was dismissed by the shogunate and his naval training center done away with, Sakamoto and other students were taken in by the Satsuma domain. Here he established Kameyama Shachū, a trading and shipping company through which he allied the opposing domains of Satsuma and Chōshū. Together, Satsuma and Chōshū were able to best the Tokugawa Shogunate and brought about the Meiji Restoration. Shortly before the start of the Boshin War, however, Sakamoto Ryouma was assassinated by the Mimawarigumi, a police force established by the shogunate. Fire Emblem's Ryoma obviously takes inspiration from the historical figure as a skilled wielder of katanas, but also in his participation in a revolution, seen in his affiliation with the Chevois Rebellion. A comparison can also be made between Ryoma's sudden disappearance from Hoshido to support the western-based revolt and Sakamoto Ryouma's leaving of Tosa to support the movement against the Tokugawa Shogunate, while growing in understanding of the westernization movement from his superior. Additionally, Sakamoto bringing peace between the feuding Satsuma and Chōshū domains to dismantle the shogunate may have some influence upon Corrin being able to bring peace between Nohr and Hoshido to bring war to Valla.

There are notable parallels between the purported namesakes of Xander and Ryoma. Both Mark Antony and Sakamoto Ryouma were major political figures in times of unrest in their countries during the buildup of a shift from militaristic dictatorships to placing power in the hands of an emperor followed by a period of peace. Both instances feature the subject as a major player in the conflicts leading to an imperial system but dies shortly before such a change is adopted. The endings of both of their lives can be reflected in Xander and Ryoma, who in their respective route opposing Corrin die in battle shortly before peace is found between the warring kingdoms.

[orthodoxydaily]

Saints&Reading: Friday, December 28, 2023

december 16_december 28

THE HOLY PROPHET AGGEI/HAGGAI (500 B.C.)

The Holy Prophet Haggai was the tenth of the Twelve Minor Prophets. He was of the Tribe of Levi and he prophesied during the times of the Persian emperor Darius Hystaspis (prior to 500 B.C.). Upon the return of the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity, he persuaded the people to build the Second Temple at Jerusalem, and he proclaimed that the Messiah would appear in this Temple in the last times.

It is believed that Haggai was buried with the priests at Jerusalem, since he was descended from Aaron.

THE BLESSED EMPRESS THEOPHANIA OF BYZANTUM (893)

Saint Theophanó was a pious and virtuous Empress, who was greatly praised by the chroniclers of her time because of her evangelical life, her almsgiving, and her exceptional piety. She born in Constantinople, the daughter of Constantine Martinakios and his wife Anna, who raised their daughter with diligence. When she was of a marriageable age, Emperor Basil the Macedonian chose her to be the wife of his son Leo the Wise (886 - 912), with whom she dwelt in marital fidelity for twelve years.

The Holy Empress Theophanó and her husband Leo were imprisoned for three years, because Leo was falsely accused of plotting to assassinate his father, Emperor Basil. After obtaining her freedom,Theophanó spent her life in prayer and fasting, earnestly struggling for her salvation. She was recognized as a Saint and a wonderworker, even during her lifetime, because of the many good works which she performed out of love for her neighbor.

Though she lived in the world, she renounced everything worldly, and became a benefactor of the poor. She also built churches and monasteries, or restored those in need of repair. She was a true mother to her subjects, caring for widows and orphans, and consoling the sorrowful.

Despite all the grandeur and wealth surrounding her, she preserved her customary humility and modesty. She preferred to dress in simple clothing so that she would not recognized. Accompanied by two trusted servants, she would visit the homes of the poor and the persecuted, offering her assistance. Her faith was such that she was found worthy of the gift of performing miracles. When medical science gave up on a patient because it could not heal him, Saint Theophanó restored him to health. In spite of all the bitterness she had experienced in her life, Saint Theophanó could still sing praises to the Lord, according to the words of the Prophet King David: "Sing praises to the Lord, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises" (Psalm 46/47:6).

Saint Theophanó reposed circa 893-894. Even before her death, her husband started to build a church, intending to dedicate it to Theophanó, but she forbade him to do so. It was Emperor Leo who decreed that the Sunday after Pentecost be dedicated to All Saints. Believing his wife to be one of the righteous, he knew that she would also be honored whenever the Feast of All Saints was celebrated.

The incorrupt relics of Saint Theophanó are preserved in the Patriarchal Church of Saint George, at the Phanar in Constantinople. A particle from her relics is in Dionysiou Monastery on Mount Athos.

Source: Orthoodox Church in America_OCA

HEBREWS 11:8,11:16

8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 11 By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude-innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. 13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. 15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

MARK 9:33-41

33 Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, "What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?" 34 But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest. 35 And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all." 36 Then He took a little child and set him in the midst of them. And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them, 37 Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me. 38 Now John answered Him, saying, "Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us." 39 But Jesus said, "Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me. 40 For he who is not against us is on our side. 41 For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.

[zooterchet]

Spider-Man:

Online Arrests Filed, through "Glamour Girl":

1996: Andrew Wachowski, "nil".

1997: Carrie-Anne Moss, "Damn-Yankee".

1998: Brian Monaghan, "qwerty".

1999: Keanu Reeves, "Howie".

2000: Rich Kyanka, "Toggan".

2001: Anthony Weiner, "Betty".

2002: Larry Wachowski, "Apathy".

2003: Hugh Jackman, "Ghul".

2004: Sayed Adnan, "Petula".

Hannibal Rising:

Michael Charlebois: "Cain", a spy's accountant, out of "Chutzpah", a political artist.

Alice O'Neill: "Kilpatrick", a female spy, out of "U'Niall", a spy's slaver.

Kenny Winston: "Weinstein", a Gentile's banker, out of "Cromwell", a German fire fighter.

Ryan Taylor: "Gaylord", a Buddhist assassin, out of "Polk", an optometrist.

Katie Stevens: "Stevenson", a Jamaican drug runner, out of "Alexander", a Macedonian inventor.

Matthew Lennox: "Satan", a Jewish king, out of "Nigger", a Parisian actor's mother to Scipio Africanus.

John Remby: "Roosevelt", a poverty demanded leader, out of "Alexander", a Macedonian inventor.

Pasquale Acosta: "Ibn Rashid", a Medina Arab, out of "Princeps", a Central Powers mercenary.

William Morgan: "Davis", a Southern cotton obsessive, out of "Hamilton", a treasurer's informant's officer.

Mark Salib: "Harding", a munitions developer, out of "Gilgamesh", a sugar salesman.

Cassie-Leigh Stock: "Donalban", a Puerto Rican Aryan, out of "Gould", a fascist writer for Francisco Franco.

Alexandra Gaetano: "Crowley", an Irish priest, out of "Brian", the victim of Christ.

Jenna Williamson: "Bundy", a Canadian spy, out of "Booth", a Mossad hired assassin.

Zach Savell: "Morales", a firefighter's inventor, out of "Aragorn", the first cowboy.

Maureen Harrison: "Harrison", a poisoner artist Gadze, out of "Cornwallace", a disgraced general.

Jen McDade: "Aensley", a British banker, out of "Lemerise", a British cop family.

Jeremy Stevens: "Mosley", a Group Force Leader, out of "Oswald", a British undercover agent.

Raven Bush: "Desperado", a Comanche Sheriff, out of "Joseph", a defeated Greek.

David Cohen: "Adolph", a German Turkish spy, out of "Ataturk", a cigarettes salesman.

Nicholas Maynard: "Hayes", a patent swindler, out of "Bourbon", a female transgender.

Allison Haimes: "Chi Minh", a CIA undercover, out of "The Duke of York", a professional British knife fighter.

Greg Connolly: "Visser", an Afrikaans Irish, out of "Lan Ray", a Boer Holocaust victim.

Brian Monaghan: "Myers", a KGB Ireland, out of "Carnegie", a Scottish Knight.

Ivan Tomasic: "Dahmer", a professional first strike mutually assured destruction pilot, out of "Ljudovich", an Austrian Black Shirt.

Christopher Sweeney: "Sween", a Black Baron Schultzstaffel, out of "Washington", a Romalian Boelyn.

Joshua Moen: "Van Zant", a professional raconteur assassin, out of "Chaucer", a Knight's Guard.

Bernice Lamb: "De Salvo", a Nietzschean Ubermensch, out of "Panzram", a sculptor author.

Joshua Golden: "Eshkol", an intelligence programs founder, out of "Mosaic", a Hittite Prince.

Uma Thurman: "Magnusdotter", a bodybuilder assassin, out of "Catherine", a surmised monarch.

Joseph Biden: "Capone", a police officer criminal, out of "James of Scotland", a legal reformer.

Lloyd Ahlquist: "Agnew", a Rabbinical entomologist, out of "Bin Laden", a prison convicts manager.

Will Ferrell: "Adams", a carnival's lover, out of "Pedro II", a harbormaster.

Joseph Kennedy III: "Kenway", a pork meats distributor, out of "Kennedy", a Tepes, a cannibal.

Star Wars Episode 1-3:

Leadership:

"Duo": Shaun Wilcox, Hawaiian Coastal Engineer, US Navy Japan.

"Libra": James Holmes, DC Comics Development, Mossad Counter-Bay Station.

"Leo": Jeffrey Lange, Cleveland Rotary Association, Finance and Debitures Apartment.

Duo:

"Blueberry": Police code on APB scanner, to catch "ranger patrols", off cented Mounted and Royal Mounted sections (Canadian-German, Protestant Universalist).

"WTC Location Grab": Profiling of Osama Bin Laden, three days after 9/11, to DC Comics Location and Transition Wards, Mossad Afghanistan; Tora Bora Prison Complex.

"San Andreas": Capture of Toris Nelby, British Co Anchor Author, "Crack Underground"; while in live transit of threat of CIA agent Peter Tsapatsaris, "Nails", posing as "Peebo" on internet as fraud of Russian-Jewry infiltrating CIA Annex Three; Winchester Frauds, IDF Biotech Experiments. Toris Nelby, "Peebo", detained and "destroyed", by fired rounds, from Eric Frein.

Libra:

"British Exemplar": Takeover of Japan by Warerra Party, masquerading Clone Wars film, recently released, by "Lucas Arts", as actual factual plan of attack; Pearl Harbor, as represented by "Kleinmen", Rohypnol dealers for Mossad.

"Gutwill Five": Seizure of criminal resources and allies of Framingham Narcotics, rogue Israeli Defense Forces section of Massachusetts cops, out of Jewish gangsters in Ohio; biker gangs, Canadian Freemasons.

Leo:

"Assassin's Creed": Creation of Assassin's Creed concept, as alternative to parents pamphlets to place children in Mossad underground as "Moslems" or "Mussulman".

"Guantanamo Live Range Agent": Use of third degree interrogator's training from mother's Marine NCO doctor, "Glen", to hunt his killers inside INTERPOL's top ranks; Gwenn Pratt, John Washburne, Steven Charlebois, Brian Monaghan, Alexandra Gaetano, and John Kerry.

"Philips Freemasons of Boston": Stage point of removal of Ted Bundy catchem code, to take over Boston Triads for FBI and State Police, through Cyber Command aegis helix on Los Angeles Police Department server scans; return of Chinese to American policing, as FBI informants and cover agents, against rising tide of Taiwanese nationalism; unions and Russian-Jewish consortiums of film and media logic.

"Pinkville": The strike on the Hell's Angels as a capture turn of the Canadian Freemasons for operating criminal ventures in factories, sports leagues, and boarding schools, to turn children into slaves and writers and prison convicts; the French and British Freemasonic attempt to undo Bill Clinton's peace for labor, athletics, and prison inmates.

"Hideous Karl": Use of Jack Unterweger's serial killer profile, tying a necktie for a business meeting, taught by Scoutmasters in male and female scout troops, for any career or American act, to pen research work for Christopher Nolan, MGM, and FOX.

"The Steroids Scandal": Outing American-Japanese pharmaceuticals, and MI-6 doctors, for selling performance enhancing steroids, Suboxone, for decades, under different brands and claim of brands; the public lawsuit against Dr. Joshua Golden, of United Health Associates, by the Attorney General of Massachusetts, Maura Healey.

"The Kennedy Campaign": Legalized marijuana, certified safe and non-sprayed by tree surgeons elected by towns, free from media myth presented on Holland and British telecasts, or by journalist work by High Times magazines authors. Held under tax stamps, through the State Police.

"Spiral": The culmination of three decades of work, as an NSA, from kindergarten to the mid-thirties, in the takedowns of INTERPOL, On Leong Tong, the Unitarian Church, and MI-6. The culmination of years of experience, placed in two blog reformatories, "Lex Luthor and the Sudbury Boys", and "Spiral - The Batman Killer", the prior academic references, the latter actual career references. The shutdown of the "United Nations Security Council", by planting a forged work on American Marxism from 2003, from an economics business professor at UMass-Amherst, Gerald Friedman, through the actual United Nations; published independently overseas, by those dependent on the United Nations as an American CIA entity; falsely framed as MI-6. The same NSA trick, used on Stephen Glass, a Vatican affiliated lawyer out of the Italian government's Nortel structure.

Spiral:

Joshua Moen: Keep the President's secret about Raven Bush getting stoned, or Cam Hollopeter marries your wife. But you don't have a wife, you're in love with Superman. Not Batman.

Method: Men's writing and literature styles, conflict terms of endearment in imago transformation.

Keanu Reeves: Clear Ben Brown of raping Raven Bush, or place yourself in perpetuity of your film, "The Matrix 1", being owned by the Crown Government.

Method: RTS counselor first sight response, however on public Majesty's review in Court.

Jenna Williamson: Place wired testimony through VFW, and accept your draft into the United States photographic corps unit for an upcoming military conflict.

Method: Coverage of the USS Cole bombing, being varied into a "K", the "Kierney" Amish mark on Marlboro cigarettes.

Ben Brown: Admit into economics program despite not earning a valedictorian's GPA through gymnastic and academic marks in highschool, or a military tour on apprenticeship to warrant officer status.

Method: US Presidential merits and statuses of badge, passed, during freshman year orientation.

Matthew Lennox: Separation from Raven Bush, under her alias, "Silver Laventi", at UMass-Amherst; attempting to engage for Elks Club, the Drake family, to remove from David's vicinity and allow him to take a law career for the Winchester CIA undercover in Israeli biotech medical testing on "Goyim", humans that have done DXM.

Method: Interjection through a Coen, the "Chutzpah" family, and placement of Raven inside the German underground as a medical advisor.

Peter Tsapatsaris: Outing that the name and alias used, is false, linking instead to a black drug dealer murdered on the MUSH.

Method: Interpreting with the actual alias, as the individual being extorted by the claimed name, out of Brian Monaghan's connection to NEWS Harvard, the studio print for the Boston Herald.

Brett Norman: Moving between ExSec operations controller, Andre Berube, after being recruited for role, and a permanent incarceration in Pembroke, watched by Steven "The Rifle" Flemmi.

Method: Placement in Pembroke military ward facility, to remove Rhode Island judge in league with Israeli Medical Authority.

The Matrix:

British Commonwealth (UK) Positions:

Boris Yeltsin: Claim, working through America for economic reestablishment.

Elie Wiesel: Claim, working to prevent anti-Semitism in United States.

Stan Lee: Claim, working in an MI-6 brand to teach police morals.

Queen Elizabeth II: Claim, defending British Isles against Adolf Hitler's traditions.

George W. Bush Jr.: Claim, Shriner's Freemasonic Lodge of England.

Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) Roles:

Boris Yeltsin: National Rifle Association.

Elie Wiesel: Romalian Federation.

Stan Lee: Hitler Youth.

Queen Elizabeth II: Catholic-Sepulchre Jewish Orthodoxy.

George W. Bush Jr.: Kaiser's Lodge.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 7.10 (after 1950)

1951 – Korean War: Armistice negotiations begin at Kaesong. 1962 – Telstar, the world's first communications satellite, is launched into orbit. 1966 – The Chicago Freedom Movement, co-founded by Martin Luther King Jr., holds a rally at Soldier Field in Chicago at which as many as 60,000 people attend. 1973 – The Bahamas gain full independence within the Commonwealth of Nations. 1974 – An EgyptAir Tupolev Tu-154 stalls and crashes at Cairo International Airport, killing all six people on board. 1976 – Four mercenaries (one American and three British) are executed in Angola following the Luanda Trial. 1978 – President Moktar Ould Daddah of Mauritania is ousted in a bloodless coup d'état. 1985 – The Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior is bombed and sunk in Auckland harbour by French DGSE agents, killing Fernando Pereira. 1985 – An Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-154 stalls and crashes near Uchkuduk, Uzbekistan (then part of the Soviet Union), killing all 200 people on board in the USSR's worst-ever airline disaster. 1991 – The South African cricket team is readmitted into the International Cricket Council following the end of Apartheid. 1991 – Boris Yeltsin takes office as the first elected President of Russia. 1991 – A Beechcraft Model 99 crashes near Birmingham Municipal Airport (now Birmingham–Shuttlesworth International Airport) in Birmingham, Alabama, killing 13 of the 15 people on board. 1992 – In Miami, former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega is sentenced to 40 years in prison for drug and racketeering violations. 1997 – In London, scientists report the findings of the DNA analysis of a Neanderthal skeleton which supports the "out of Africa theory" of human evolution, placing an "African Eve" at 100,000 to 200,000 years ago. 1997 – Miguel Ángel Blanco, a member of Partido Popular (Spain), is kidnapped (and later murdered) in the Basque city of Ermua by ETA members, sparking widespread protests. 1998 – Catholic Church sexual abuse cases: The Diocese of Dallas agrees to pay $23.4 million to nine former altar boys who claimed they were sexually abused by Rudolph Kos, a former priest. 1999 – In women's association football, the United States defeated China in a penalty shoot-out at the Rose Bowl near Los Angeles to win the final match of the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup. The final was watched by 90,185 spectators, which set a new world record for attendance at a women's sporting event. 2000 – EADS, the world's second-largest aerospace group is formed by the merger of Aérospatiale-Matra, DASA, and CASA. 2000 – Bashar al-Assad succeeds his father Hafez al-Assad as President of Syria. 2002 – At a Sotheby's auction, Peter Paul Rubens's painting The Massacre of the Innocents is sold for £49.5 million (US$76.2 million) to Lord Thomson. 2006 – A Pakistan International Airlines Fokker F27 Friendship crashes near Multan International Airport, killing all 45 people on board. 2007 – Erden Eruç begins the first solo human-powered circumnavigation of the world. 2008 – Former Macedonian Interior Minister Ljube Boškoski is acquitted of all war-crimes charges by a United Nations Tribunal. 2011 – Russian cruise ship Bulgaria sinks in the Volga River near Syukeyevo, Tatarstan, causing 122 deaths. 2011 – Amid widespread backlash to revelations of phone hacking, British weekly tabloid News of the World publishes its final issue and shuts down after nearly 168 years in print. 2012 – The Episcopal Church USA allows same-sex marriage. 2016 – Portugal defeats France in the UEFA Euro 2016 Final to win their first European title. 2017 – Iraqi Civil War: Mosul is declared fully liberated from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant by the government of Iraq. 2018 – A group of Thai school children and their teacher get stuck in a cave for a few days; they are all rescued but one rescuer doesn't make it. This is known as the Tham Luang cave rescue. 2019 – The last Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the line in Puebla, Mexico. The last of 5,961 "Special Edition" cars will be exhibited in a museum.

[ancientegyptdaily]

THE ROSETTA STONE is a broken part of a bigger stone slab. It was an important clue that helped experts learn to read Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The writing on the Stone is an official decree about the king (Ptolemy V, r. 204–181 BC). The decree was copied on to large stone slabs called stelae, which were put in every temple in Egypt. It says that the priests of a temple in Memphis (near Cairo) supported the king. The Rosetta Stone is one of these copies, so not particularly important in its own right.

The important thing for us is that the decree is inscribed three times, in hieroglyphs (suitable for a priestly decree), Demotic (the native Egyptian script derived from hieroglyphs used for daily purposes, meaning ‘language of the people’), and Ancient Greek (the language of the administration – the rulers of Egypt at this point were Greco-Macedonian after Alexander the Great’s conquest).

The Rosetta Stone was found broken and incomplete. It features 14 lines of hieroglyphic script, 32 lines in Demotic, and 53 lines of Ancient Greek. The importance of this to Egyptology is immense. When it was discovered, nobody knew how to read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Because the inscriptions say the same thing in three different scripts, and scholars could still read Ancient Greek, the Rosetta Stone became a valuable key to deciphering the hieroglyphs.

[source]

[gardenofkore]

The Egyptian descendants of Agathocles of Syracuse and his third wife Theoxena

ARCHAGATHUS OF LYBIA (Άρχάγαθος) son Agathocles by his third wife Theoxena, a Greek Macedonian noble. When only a child, he was forced to leave Syracuse with his mother and sister Theoxena the Younger. They found refuge in Egypt, at the court of his maternal grandmother Berenice I and his step-grandfather Ptolemy I. Given his family background, Archagathus was a man of high status. He served as an epistates under Ptolemy I, Ptolemy II (who was Archagathos’ half-uncle) and possibly even under Magas (his full blooded maternal uncle) when he served as Ptolemaic Governor and later became King of Cyrene. At some point, he married a noblewoman named Stratonice. Together with his wife, Archagathus made a dedication of a temenos to Isis and Serapis at Alexandria on behalf of his uncle Ptolemy II and his grandmother Berenice. No mention is made anywhere about any children fathered by Archagathus.

THEOXENA THE YOUNGER see

AGATHOCLES (Ἀγαθοκλῆς) son of Theoxena the Younger and her unnamed husband. Agathocles, born and raised in Egypt, was named after his maternal Sicilian grandfather, Agathocles tyrant of Syracuse. Despite being closely related to the Ptolemaic royal family, very little is known about him. He married an  Egyptian Greek noblewoman called Oenanthe, who bore him four children: Agathocles, Agathoclea and two unnamed daughters. After his death, his widow remarried to Theogenes (also known as Theognetos or Diognetos), a prominent Egyptian Greek. 

AGATHOCLES (Ἀγαθοκλῆς) son of Agathocles (son of Theoxena the Younger) and his wife Oenanthe. Thanks to his mother’s meddling, he was introduced to Ptolemy IV (his father Agathocles’ half-second cousin) and took advangate of his own sister’s affair with the Pharaoh to increase his influence over the court. In  216/215 BC Agathocles served as eponymous priest of the Ptolemaic cult of Alexander the Great.  When Ptolemy died in 205 BC, Agathocles, his sister Agathoclea and their party tried to kept the event secret to get the chance to plunder the royal treasure without any interference. When the plan to name Agathocles the new Pharaoh failed, together with Sosibius (chief minister of the late Ptolemy IV), his sister plotted to make the same Agathocles the regent for the new young King Ptolemy V. To achieve this, the Queen mother Arsinoe was murdered. When Ptolemy and Arsinoe’s death were made public, Sosibius presented the young Ptolemy V and crowned him as the new King. Sosibius later read out Ptolemy IV's will (Polybius thought that it was a forgery produced by Sosibius and Agathocles themselves), which made Sosibius and Agathocles regents and placed Ptolemy V in the personal care of Agathoclea and her mother Oenanthe. At some point Agathocles may have killed his former ally Sisibius, although all particulars of these events are lost to us.  Soon the Egyptians and Greeks of Alexandria grew exasperated at Agathocles' outrages and in 203/202 BC rose against him. They surrounded the palace in the night, and forced their way in. Agathocles was killed by his friends, who wanted to spare him a more cruel ending. 

AGATHOCLEA (Ἀγαθόλεια), daughter of Agathocles (son of Theoxena the Younger) and his wife Oenanthe. Like her brother, thanks to her mother’s meddling, she was introduced to Ptolemy IV and quickly became his mistress. Agathoclea’s influence over the Pharaoh didn’t diminish even after he married his sister Arsinoe in 220 BC. In late  210 BC, Agathoclea may have bore Ptolemy IV a son, who have died shortly after his birth. When Ptolemy died in 205 BC, Agathoclea and her party tried to kept the event secret to get the chance to plunder the royal treasure without any interference. When the plan to name her brother the new Pharaoh failed, together with Sosibius (chief minister of the late Ptolemy IV), she plotted to make Agathocles the regent for the new young King Ptolemy V. To achieve this, the Queen mother Arsinoe was murdered. Ptolemy IV's (likely forged) will placed Ptolemy V in the personal care of Agathoclea and her mother Oenanthe. In 203/202 BC the Egyptians and Greeks of Alexandria rose against Agathocles and his party. They surrounded the palace in the night, and forced their way in. Agathoclea, with her sisters and mother, had taken refuge in a temple. With no regard of the sacredness of the place, they were dragged out by the angry mob, stripped, led to the stadium naked on horseback and tore their body limb from limb. 

TWO UNNAMED DAUGHTERS of Agathocles (son of Theoxena the Younger) and his wife Oenanthe. Nothing is known about these girls, except they shared the horrible fate of their infamous mother and sister. After being dragged out of their shelter, they were slaughtered and mutilated by the crowd.

see here the Epirote descendants of Agathocles

see here the Syracusan descendants of Agathocles

[lordelmelloi2]

In general, myth was responsible for legitimizing conquests and governments, but Alexander went even further. It had been a long time since the religious tradition of the Greeks had witnessed the birth and feats of a child of a god and a mortal, an acceptable event for the Greek mind. During his undertakings of conquest, Alexander did not limit himself to the emulation of heroes and gods, but also wanted to break the line, which for him was tenuous, between “humanity” and “divinity” acquiring the status of a son of Zeus-Amon, beyond having a biological father, Philip II of Macedonia. As narrated by Curtius, Arrian and Justine, this recognition came about in the famous visit to the “Oracle of Amon” at Siwah, in Egypt. Would Alexander truly be the son of Zeus?

The visit to Siwah and the consultation with Ammon’s oracle removed all doubt. Alexander was recognized as the God’s son. […] This recognition of Alexander’s Divine Sonship by the oracle of Ammon and by the priests of Memphis elevated Alexander to a new heights in the mythological family tree. In fact, his new status as the son of Zeus-Ammon put him in the same rank as the greatest Heroes of Greek myth.

Honestly this whole thing makes me want to throw up a little just out of being overwhelmed 😵 like genuinely in the culture of that time he was genuinely considered son of the Divine. He functionally acted as a demigod, recognized by all, and there were no questions about it, and it justified his conquest as well. The mythicism of Alexander has been a tool at his disposal since he was born!!! Imagine being able to wield that kind of power!!! Of everyone agreeing that you are a partly divine being since you were even created!!! My god !!

Paradoxically, the same character that in a few works could be considered a hero of Persian culture, in others he was a destroyer, or better yet, the “Destroyer”. A good illustration of such ambiguity is the work Shahnameh (“Book of the Kings”), written by the Persian poet Firdawsi between 980 and 1010 CE. At the same time that it contains a legitimization of Alexander as the successor to the Persian throne, linking him to the legendary and celebrated dynasty of the Kaianid, he is also considered an enemy.

It would be really interesting to see this concept of Alexander in fateverse but... I think they’ve done enough damage already... 

The advent of the Macedonian conquest broke a powerful principle, according to which the king chosen by Ahuramazda had the function to rule and maintain order in the Persian Empire. Alexander’s reign was one historical anomaly to the Persians and the memory what he did was very much alive among them, although always evoked in a mixture of myth and history.

Again it’s super important to remember who and what Alexander was to the Persians and how that shaped the way that his legend was passed on in Persian culture after the Hellenic Empire 

[holidays-events]

Happy 🐣Quarantine 😷 Easter  🐇

🥀 🌷 💓🥚 🐣 🐥 🐰 🌹 🍫 💖🥕 🐇 💝  😷 🌸

Beyond Ishtar: The Tradition of Eggs at Easter

Don’t believe every meme you encounter. Scientific American Krystal D’Costa

Eggs occupy a special status during Easter observances. They're symbols of rebirth and renewal—life bursts forth from this otherwise plain, inanimate object that gives no hint as to what it contains. In this regard it is a handy symbol for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but it is is a symbol that has held this meaning long before Christianity adopted it.

 There is a meme that some people have rallied around and shared as a "truth" of Easter. It proclaims:

Easter was originally the celebration of Ishtar, the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility and sex. Her symbols (like the egg and bunny) were and still are fertility and sex symbols (or did you actually think eggs and bunnies had anything to do with the resurrection?) After Constantine decided to Christianize the Empire, Easter was changed to represent Jesus. But at its roots, Easter (which is how you pronounce Ishtar) is all about celebrating fertility and sex. 

Clearly, we all know that memes are the ultimate source of information—particularly when they makes a biting point about something or some group that is not particularly favorably viewed. But it is well known that under the Roman Empire, Christianity did indeed adopt the pagan rituals of conquered peoples in an effort to help convert them. It worked pretty well as a strategy as it allowed the conquered peoples to continue a semblance of their observances as they remembered, and with time the population would be replaced with those who only knew the new traditions. This is not a secret. However, there are a few things wrong with the Ishtar meme that a simple Google search will turn up:

Ishtar was the goddess of love and war and sex, as well as protection, fate, childbirth, marriage, and storms—there's some fertility in there, but as with Aphrodite, there is also an element of power. Her cult practiced sacred prostitution, where women waited at a temple and had sex with a stranger in exchange for a divine blessing (and money to feed hungry children or pay a debt).

Ishtar's symbols were the lion, the morning star, and eight or sixteen pointed stars—again, symbols of power.

The word Easter does not appear to be derived from Ishtar, but from the German Eostre, the goddess of the dawn—a bringer of light. English and German are in the minority of languages that use a form of the word Easter to mark the holiday. Elsewhere, the observance is framed in Latin pascha, which in turn is derived from the Hebrew pesach, meaning of or associated with Passover. Ishtar and Easter appear to be homophones: they may be pronounced similarly, but have different meanings.

Our helpful meme places the egg in Ishtar's domain, but Ishtar doesn't seem to be connected to eggs in any explicit way. However, there are plenty of other older traditions that involve the egg as a symbol of rebirth and feature it prominently in creation mythologies:

Ancient Egyptians believed in a primeval egg from which the sun god hatched. Alternatively, the sun was sometimes discussed as an egg itself, laid daily by the celestial goose, Seb, the god of the earth. The Phoenix is said to have emerged from this egg. The egg is also discussed in terms of a world egg, molded by Khnum from a lump of clay on his potter's wheel (1).

Hinduism makes a connection between the content of the egg and the structure of the universe: for example, the shell represents the heavens, the white the air, and the yolk the earth. The Chandogya Upanishads describes the act of creation in terms of the breaking of an egg:

The Sun is Brahma—this is the teaching. A further explanation thereof (is as follows). In the beginning this world was merely non-being. It was existent. It developed. It turned into an egg. It lay for the period of a year. It was split asunder. One of the two egg-shell parts became silver, one gold. That which was of silver is this earth. That which was of gold is the sky … Now what was born therefrom is yonder sun (1).

In the Zoroastrian religion, the creation myth tells of an ongoing struggle between the principles of good and evil. During a lengthy truce of several thousand years, evil hurls himself into an abyss and good lays an egg, which represents the universe with the earth suspended from the vault of the sky at the midway point between where good and evil reside. Evil pierces the egg and returns to earth, and the two forces continue their battle (2).

In Findland, Luonnotar, the Daughter of Nature floats on the waters of the sea, minding her own business when an eagle arrives, builds a nest on her knee, and lays several eggs. After a few days, the eggs begin to burn and Luonnotar jerks her knee away, causing the eggs to fall and break. The pieces form the world as we know it: the upper halves form the skies, the lower the earth, the yolks become the sun, and the whites become the moon (3).

In China, there are several legends that hold a cosmic egg at their center, including the idea that the first being or certain people were born of eggs. For example, the Palangs trace their ancestry to a Naga princess who laid three eggs, and the Chin will not kill the king crow because it laid the original Chin egg from which they emerged (3).

The Sun God, Ra with an egg-shaped disk over his head. Public domain. These are some of the stories that build the foundation for the tradition of eggs at Easter. Contrary to the assertion of our meme, eggs and bunnies actually do have something to do with the idea of resurrection: in these early stories, the creator often emerged from the egg itself in some form:  The cosmic egg, according to the Vedic writings, has a spirit living within it which will be born, die, and be born yet again. Certain versions of the complicated Hindu mythology describe Prajapati as forming the egg and then appearing out of it himself. Brahma does likewise, and we find parallels in the ancient legends of Thoth and Ra. Egyptian pictures of Osiris, the resurrected corn god, show him returning to life once again rising up from the shell of a broken egg. The ancient legend of the Phoenix is similar. This beautiful mythical bird was said to live for hundreds of years. When its full span of life was completed it died in flames, rising again in a new form from the egg it had laid (4).

The Phoenix was adopted as a Christian symbol in the first century AD. It appears on funeral stones in early Christian art, churches, religious paintings, and stonework. The egg from which it rose has become our Easter egg. As with many symbols, the Easter egg has continued to shift. When the Lenten fast was adopted in the third and fourth centuries, observant Christians abstained from dairy products, including milk, cheese, butter, and eggs. In England, on the Saturday before Lent, it was common practice for children to go from door to door to beg for eggs—a last treat before the fast began.

Even the act of coloring eggs is tied to the idea of rebirth and resurrection. While egg decorating kits offer a vibrant means of decorating eggs today, the link between life and eggs was traditionally made by using a red coloring. Among Christians, red symbolizes the blood of Jesus. Among Macedonians, it has been a tradition to bring a red egg to Church and eat it when the priest proclaims "Christ is risen" at the Easter vigil and the Lenten fast is officially broken (5). 

I love the Easter traditions at Church. The lighting of the Easter candle reminds me of my childhood Diwali celebrations and the lighting of Christmas lights as they all represent means of driving away darkness. Ishtar may well have some connection to the rites of Spring, and admittedly Easter itself is an observance of Spring, but in an age when so much wrong has been done in the name of religion, and religion is a focal point for criticism and debate, it's worth remembering that the overlap of time and history has given us richer traditions than any of us can truly be aware of—and that memes shouldn't be taken at face value. 

References Newall, Venetia. (1967) "Easter Eggs," The Journal of American Folklore Vol 80 (315): 3-32. RE Hume, ed. (1931) The Thirteen Upanishads. London: 214-215

Notes:   Newall: 4    Hume: 214   Newall: 7   Newall: 14   Newall: 22

Krystal D'Costa is an anthropologist working in digital media in New York City. You can follow AiP on Facebook.

 The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/beyond-ishtar-the-tradition-of-eggs-at-easter?utm_source=pocket-newtab

[orthodoxydaily]

Saints&Reading: Thursday, December  29, 2022

december 29_december 16

THE HOLY PROPHET HAGGAI (500 BC)

The Holy Prophet Haggai was the tenth of the Twelve Minor Prophets. He was of the Tribe of Levi and he prophesied during the times of the Persian emperor Darius Hystaspis (prior to 500 B.C.). Upon the return of the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity, he persuaded the people to build the Second Temple at Jerusalem, and he proclaimed that the Messiah would appear in this Temple in the last times.

It is believed that Haggai was buried with the priests at Jerusalem, since he was descended from Aaron.

SAINT THEOPHANIA THE WONDERWORKER, WIFE OF EMPEROR LEO THE WISE  (B893)

Saint Theophanó was a pious and virtuous Empress, who was greatly praised by the chroniclers of her time because of her evangelical life, her almsgiving, and her exceptional piety. She born in Constantinople, the daughter of Constantine Martinakios and his wife Anna, who raised their daughter with diligence. When she was of a marriageable age, Emperor Basil the Macedonian chose her to be the wife of his son Leo the Wise (886 - 912), with whom she dwelt in marital fidelity for twelve years.

The Holy Empress Theophanó and her husband Leo were imprisoned for three years, because Leo was falsely accused of plotting to assassinate his father, Emperor Basil. After obtaining her freedom,Theophanó spent her life in prayer and fasting, earnestly struggling for her salvation. She was recognized as a Saint and a wonderworker, even during her lifetime, because of the many good works which she performed out of love for her neighbor.

Though she lived in the world, she renounced everything worldly, and became a benefactor of the poor. She also built churches and monasteries, or restored those in need of repair. She was a true mother to her subjects, caring for widows and orphans, and consoling the sorrowful.

Despite all the grandeur and wealth surrounding her, she preserved her customary humility and modesty. She preferred to dress in simple clothing so that she would not recognized. Accompanied by two trusted servants, she would visit the homes of the poor and the persecuted, offering her assistance. Her faith was such that she was found worthy of the gift of performing miracles. When medical science gave up on a patient because it could not heal him, Saint Theophanó restored him to health. In spite of all the bitterness she had experienced in her life, Saint Theophanó could still sing praises to the Lord, according to the words of the Prophet King David: "Sing praises to the Lord, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises" (Psalm 46/47:6).

Saint Theophanó reposed circa 893-894. Even before her death, her husband started to build a church, intending to dedicate it to Theophanó, but she forbade him to do so. It was Emperor Leo who decreed that the Sunday after Pentecost be dedicated to All Saints. Believing his wife to be one of the righteous, he knew that she would also be honored whenever the Feast of All Saints was celebrated.

The incorrupt relics of Saint Theophanó are preserved in the Patriarchal Church of Saint George, at the Phanar in Constantinople. A particle from her relics is in Dionysiou Monastery on Mount Athos.

MARK 9:10-16

10 So they kept this word to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant. 11 And they asked Him, saying, "Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" 12 Then He answered and told them, "Indeed, Elijah is coming first and restores all things. And how is it written concerning the Son of Man, that He must suffer many things and be treated with contempt? 13 But I say to you that Elijah has also come, and they did to him whatever they wished, as it is written of him. 14 And when He came to the disciples, He saw a great multitude around them, and scribes disputing with them. 15 Immediately, when they saw Him, all the people were greatly amazed, and running to Him, greeted Him. 16 And He asked the scribes, "What are you discussing with them?"

HEBREWS 7:1-6

1For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 2 to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated "king of righteousness," and then also king of Salem, meaning "king of peace," 3 without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually. 4 Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. 5 And indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham; 6 but he whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.

[zooterchet]

Famous Bloodlines Encountered (A Life of Scum and Villainy)

Michael Charlebois: "Cain", a spy's accountant, out of "Chutzpah", a political artist.

Alice O'Neill: "Kilpatrick", a female spy, out of "U'Niall", a spy's slaver.

Kenny Winston: "Weinstein", a Gentile's banker, out of "Cromwell", a German fire fighter.

Ryan Taylor: "Gaylord", a Buddhist assassin, out of "Polk", an optometrist.

Katie Stevens: "Stevenson", a Jamaican drug runner, out of "Alexander", a Macedonian inventor.

Matthew Lennox: "Satan", a Jewish king, out of "Nigger", a Parisian actor's mother to Scipio Africanus.

John Remby: "Roosevelt", a poverty demanded leader, out of "Alexander", a Macedonian inventor.

Pasquale Acosta: "Ibn Rashid", a Medina Arab, out of "Princeps", a Central Powers mercenary.

William Morgan: "Davis", a Southern cotton obsessive, out of "Hamilton", a treasurer's informant's officer.

Mark Salib: "Harding", a munitions developer, out of "Gilgamesh", a sugar salesman.

Cassie-Leigh Stock: "Donalban", a Puerto Rican Aryan, out of "Gould", a fascist writer for Francisco Franco.

Alexandra Gaetano: "Crowley", an Irish priest, out of "Brian", the victim of Christ.

Jenna Williamson: "Bundy", a Canadian spy, out of "Booth", a Mossad hired assassin.

Zach Savell: "Morales", a firefighter's inventor, out of "Aragorn", the first cowboy.

Maureen Harrison: "Harrison", a poisoner artist Gadze, out of "Cornwallace", a disgraced general.

Jen McDade: "Aensley", a British banker, out of "Lemerise", a British cop family.

Jeremy Stevens: "Mosley", a Group Force Leader, out of "Oswald", a British undercover agent.

Raven Bush: "Desperado", a Comanche Sheriff, out of "Joseph", a defeated Greek.

David Cohen: "Adolph", a German Turkish spy, out of "Ataturk", a cigarettes salesman.

Nicholas Maynard: "Hayes", a patent swindler, out of "Bourbon", a female transgender.

Allison Haimes: "Chi Minh", a CIA undercover, out of "The Duke of York", a professional British knife fighter.

Greg Connolly: "Visser", an Afrikaans Irish, out of "Lan Ray", a Boer Holocaust victim.

Brian Monaghan: "Myers", a KGB Ireland, out of "Carnegie", a Scottish Knight.

Ivan Tomasic: "Dahmer", a professional first strike mutually assured destruction pilot, out of "Ljudovich", an Austrian Black Shirt.

Christopher Sweeney: "Sween", a Black Baron Schultzstaffel, out of "Washington", a Romalian Boelyn.

Joshua Moen: "Van Zant", a professional raconteur assassin, out of "Chaucer", a Knight's Guard.

Bernice Lamb: "De Salvo", a Nietzschean Ubermensch, out of "Panzram", a sculptor author.

Joshua Golden: "Eshkol", an intelligence programs founder, out of "Mosaic", a Hittite Prince.

Uma Thurman: "Magnusdotter", a bodybuilder assassin, out of "Catherine", a surmised monarch.

Joseph Biden: "Capone", a police officer criminal, out of "James of Scotland", a legal reformer.

Lloyd Ahlquist: "Agnew", a Rabbinical entomologist, out of "Bin Laden", a prison convicts manager.

Will Ferrell: "Adams", a carnival's lover, out of "Pedro II", a harbormaster.

Joseph Kennedy III: "Kenway", a pork meats distributor, out of "Kennedy", a Tepes, a cannibal.

[alexandreaiteiaabronia]

Plutarch’s Biography and its Purpose

The aims of the modern historian were not necessarily shared by the ancient. Values change and the modern emphasis on objectivity and impartiality—which in itself is an impartial desire—was for many Roman historians replaced by an emphasis on morality and character. For Plutarch, who considered himself a biographer and not a historian at all, this was particularly true. As he famously wrote, “I am writing biography, not history, and the truth is that the most brilliant exploits often tell us nothing of the virtues or vices of the men who performed them ….” Plutarch may have meant this as indicative of his Lives as a whole, or perhaps just this particular example. Either way, Plutarch was interested in the morality of Alexander, and in examining whether his morality was a driving force behind his success. As Barton said, “Plutarch’s lives are linked to an explicit moral programme: of improvement by impressing on his readers the importance of political arête, excellence.” In painting his portrait of Alexander, Plutarch clearly had decided that Alexander’s character was, for the most part, praiseworthy. It may not be possible to say with certainty that Plutarch, writing in late 1st and early 2nd century CE, was defending Alexander against this tradition. Plutarch’s rendition was not pure apology,—he did in fact record some of Alexander’s ignoble deeds—but he did chose to portray Alexander in a largely a positive light. Considering that he was certainly aware of the vulgate tradition and that many of the previous works had a far more negative stance, it is very likely it seems likely that he was, to some degree, consciously defending Alexander.

Plutarch plotting.

The vulgate tradition, for all that it is considered the “bad” perspective, remains Hellenic-centric and does not truly defile the memory of Alexander. There is an emphasis on his debauchery and of the alienation and murder of some of his men, but the slaughtering of thousands of barbarians and razing of cities is not nearly as emphasized as one might expect from what is considered the negative tradition. Nonetheless, the extant sources do show that by the first and second century CE Alexander had become at best a controversial figure. A look at some of more prominent critiques of Alexander should help to establish the tradition that Plutarch broke from with his interpretation.

Many of the writers that preceded Plutarch had been critical of the Macedonian King, and Plutarch’s portrait broke with recent tradition. Diodorus Siculus, Curtuis Rufus, and possibly Trogus, working at least partially with the tradition of Cleitarchus, certainly portrayed Alexander in a largely negative light.

Not this negative though

Cleitarchus, who may have been reacting to Callisthenes’ official version, is credited with beginning the Vulgate tradition. He may not have been held in high regard by the later historians and rhetoricians, but his influence was undeniable. Diodorus, writing in the first century BCE, was not a mere compiler as has been suggested, but his Biblotecha Historia—especially book 17—is rife with inconsistencies and falsehoods. Trogus, from the little that can be glimpsed via Justin, likely wrote during the reign of Augustus, may have been a good historian but he must be judged through the filter of his epitomater and he suffers greatly from Justin’s distortions. Curtius Rufus, who likely wrote in the first century CE under Claudius, seems to be a more discerning historian, but suffers from the Roman affliction of overemphasizing morality and his work is, like Plutarch’s, more literary than historical. These works differ in content and quality, of course, but share a similar view of Alexander. He is portrayed as cruel and also lucky—Justin suggests the Battle of Issus was not won because of his strategy but due to a fortuitous chance of the battlefield, and attributes the victory at the Siege of Tyre to a mysterious, unnamed act of treachery. Justin also provides examples of Alexander’s ruthlessness, claims he bribed the priests of Zeus-Ammon to proclaim his divinity, and as being a malignant threat to his army and supporters Finally, Cleitus’s death is portrayed to show Alexander in as bad a light as possible. Curtius states a similar opinion—that Alexander was overwhelmed by good fortune.

Another, even more disparaging, perspective was held by the Stoics, as shown in the works of Seneca the Younger and his protégé Lucan. Seneca scorned Alexander as a tyrant of the worst sort, on a par with Cyrus and Cambyses. Seneca repeats his attacks on Alexander in various works, notably in the De Clementia 1.25.1, De Beneficiis 1.13.1, 2.16.1, 5.6.1,and Epistle 119. Seneca’s nephew Lucan, for his part, portrays Alexander in a highly negative way as well. Though not a Stoic, Livy’s famed digression provides an earlier, equally disapproving assessment of Alexander as well.

This, then, was the backdrop when Plutarch chose to write. He used many sources, 24 he himself cited[19]. While Plutarch does seem to have relied on Cleitarchus as one of his many sources, it is clear that he did not appropriate the historian’s bias along with his facts. It is not certain he was deliberately defending Alexander against Cleitarchus and Vulgates, there are times that he does indeed seem to be doing just that. Plutarch wrote of the Battle of Issus: “Fortune certainly presented Alexander with the ideal terrain for the battle, but it was his own generalship which did most to win the victory.” This may have been a response to the Vulgate claim that Alexander’s luck was responsible for his victories. Perhaps the only certainty is that a debate concerning Issus only mentioning terrain and Alexander’s generalship as possible factors in the outcome leaves excludes too many aspects—for instance, Persian dissension, Alexander’s own generals, or Philip’s über-weapon the sarissa—to claim accuracy. Likewise, chapter 28 seems to be at least a partial attempt to refute the Stoic charge that Alexander’s belief in his own divinity was a sign of his delusions of grandeur.

Plutarch does descend—at times—into something close to apology. His claims that Alexander never slept only with Barsine before his marriage to Roxanne seems an anachronistic attempt of Plutarch’s morality thrust upon his subject. Worse still is the claim that:

Alexander was also more moderate in his drinking than was generally supposed. The impression that he was a heavy drinker arose because when he had nothing else to do, he liked to linger over each cup, but in fact he was usually talking rather than drinking: he enjoyed talking rather than drinking….

These tendencies are coupled with attempts to justify Alexander’s megalomania and, related the tale of Alexander lighting his servant with naptha and nearly burning him alive with nary a comment on the underlying cruelty. He is certain that

“Alexander was by nature exceptionally generous and became even more so as his wealth increased.” In the struggle between Alexander’s ambitions and his soldiers desire to return home, Plutarch portrays the soldiery as ungrateful: “They found his expeditions and campaigns an intolerable burden, and little by little went so far as to abuse and find fault with the king.” He later describes their actions as full of “baseness and ingratitude.” The overall picture is of a great man, whose occasional flaws detract neither from his achievements or his morality. His tendency was to emphasize Alexander’s successes—as opposed to Arrian, for instance, who for obvious reasons stressed Ptolemy’s contributions.

The statement that Plutarch is not a completely trustworthy source is obviously a truism. The Greek biographer at times at times relied on dubious sources, such as the ephemerides that he felt trumped all other sources. His versions of the battles are atrocious: Hamilton notes that “It is safe to say that we could not understand any of the battles from Plutarch’s narrative.” Because of his well-documented methodology, Plutarch was able to choose stories completely at his whim. If an anecdote was not to his liking, or did not fit into his argument, it would be easy to leave it out as not fitting his criteria. This was shown most famously when accepts the tradition that Solon met Croesus despite the fact that it was temporally impossible. In Alexander, the examples of Philip the Acarnanian’s supposed poisoning attempt, the so-called plotting of Philotas, and the Page’s Consipiracy are “significant for Plutarch’s view of the development of his [Alexander’s] character…his actions are almost always direct and open.” His aims were not what a modern historian—or even biographer—would prefer. Life of Alexander does not address many of the questions raised by the other sources but instead “with the question whether Alexander’s achievements were due more to good fortune or to his own character” (Barrow 121).

This results partially from the difference between biography and history, but this does not provide a complete explanation of Plutarch’s deficiencies. Hamilton complains that even as a biography of Alexander the Life is inadequate,” noting that battles, future plans, and overall administration are glossed over or left out entirely. Plutarch was not, however, interested in the workings of the Alexandrian government or detailed battle tactics. His biography examined Alexander’s character and morality, and though he found Alexander succumbed at times to anger and pride, the ultimate assessment was that Alexander was worthy of the praise heaped upon him. Plutarch’s comments about biography are perhaps over-emphasized. Just as Curtius’ work should not be dismissed because of the famous dictum plura transcribe quam credo, Plutarch’s Life has historical value despite his assertion that he was not, in fact, writing history.

Even Alexander’s harshest critics were not without praise. Arrian, perhaps Alexander’s least critical chronicler, does not refrain from the occasional negative about his subject. Plutarch is more balanced than Arrian, though he used his sources selectively, to better try to prove that power corrupted Alexander absolutely. On the other side, even Justin/Trogus were not without some positive feedback on the Macedonian king. As Pearson (241) has noted:

The mistake has commonly been made of trying to divide Alexander’s historians into two classes, favourable and unfavourable. The distinction is a false one… the evidence indicates that they were not particular about the consistency in characterization.

The dichotomy is not, however, entirely false. The tradition surrounding Plutarch in his lifetime, regardless of when he actually wrote his Lives, was largely negative. Plutarch broke from this tradition but does not seem to have influenced many to follow in his footsteps. Perhaps that was not his intent. Duff (65) comments on this:

The Alexander of Plutarch’s Life is not simply the champion of Greek culture…the ideal philosopher-king, as he is in the speeches On the fortune or virtue of Alexander, nor is he a paradigm of the dangers of drink and despotism as he is in Curtius Rufus and in Stoic writers such as Seneca.

Plutarch had stated in De Alexandri Fortuna his argument that Alexander had achieved his unprecedented success not because of Fortune but despite it. That theme still exists to some extent in the Life of Alexander but it has become less overt; it becomes a subconscious assertion beneath the larger assessment of Alexander’s character. His biography is perhaps an antecedent to a modern scholar’s balanced assessment—his subject is neither wholly good nor wholly bad. Based on the specific arguments Plutarch advances, as well as his overall estimation of Alexander’s character, it is indeed likely that he meant his work, to some degree, to be a defense of his subject.

[1] Plut. Alex 1.1

[2] Duff (21) argues that “Plutarch’s words in the Alexander prologue, then, are tailored specifically to the Life which they introduce” but does not question their applicability to this particular Life.

[3] Barton 49.

[4] For instance, Alexander’s betrayal and subsequent slaughter of the Indian mercenaries in Plut. Alex 59.7.

[5] Hammond argues that both the terminology ‘Vulgate tradition’ and the underlying assumption of Cleitarchus as a common source are erroneous—but does not question that all three are more hostile than either Arrian or Plutarch.

[6] See Pearson’s discussion 212-213 in The Lost Histories of Alexander the Great.

[7] Justin Epitome 11.6.15.

[8] Ibid 11.10.14.

[9] Ibid 11.5.1-2.

[10] Ibid 11.11.6.

[11] Ibid 12.5.1.

[12] Ibid 12.6.3.

[13] Curtius Rufus 3.20

[14] Seneca De Beneficiis 7.2.5.

[15] Ibid 7.3.1.

[16] Lucan Bellum Civile 10.20-52.

[17] Livy Ab Urbe Condita 9.17-19.

[18] Though not all of the aforementioned for certain lived before him, each of them could and indeed seems most likely to have.

[19] A considered analysis of this is provided by Powell’s “The Sources of Plutarch’s Alexander.”

[20] Pearson 218.

[21] Pearson feels that role fell instead to Arrian, whose “work, whether earlier or later than Quintus Curtius, should probably be regarded as a protest against the popularity of Cleitarchus’ unsound history” (218).

[22] Plut. Alex 20.

[23] Plut. Alex 21.

[24] Plut. Alex. 23.

[25] Ibid 28

[26] Ibid 35.

[27] Ibid 39

[28] Ibid 41

[29] Ibid 71.

[30] For a more detailed discussion, see especially Hamilton’s “The Letters in Plutarch’s Alexander” and Samuel’s “Alexander’s ‘Royal Journals.’”

[31] Hamilton xl.

[32] Plut. Sol. 27.

[33] Plut. Alex. 19.

[34] Plut. Alex 48.

[35] Plut. Alex 55.

[36] Mossman 94 in Stadter Plutarch and the Historical Tradition.

[37] Hamilton lxv.

[38] Such as Powell’s assessment that “Plutarch’s Life of Alexander cannot have been used by Arrian…because a priori a historian of Alexander would not glean his material in scraps from brief and derivative works like the biographies of Plutarch” (Powell 231).

Picture: Olympias, Philip II. and Alexander

[armeniaitn]

A Brief History Of Armenia

New Post has been published on https://armenia.in-the.news/culture/a-brief-history-of-armenia-50129-14-08-2020/

A Brief History Of Armenia

The Armenian origin 

There are several theories about the history of Armenia. Legends opine that the descendants of bisbisnipote (great great grandson) of Noah, Hayk are known as the Armenians. It is said that after the floods, Noah’s Ark ran aground on Mount Ararat. Since then to mark this tradition, the Armenians call it their country and the place came to be known as Hayastan.

However, historians have spoken differently about the history of Armenia. Historians have linked the origin of Armenians to the birth of a tribal group in Hayasa-Azzi between 1500 BC-1200 BC. The tribals lived to the west of the Armenian plateau.

As the Hayasa-Azzi lived close to the Hittite empire, violent confrontations often broke out between the two. The clashes continued till the end of the Bronze age when the Hayasa-Azzi was finally defeated by the Hittites.

The rise of Urartu Kingdom 

According to the history of Armenia, the Armenian empire fell under a group of kingdoms, referred to as Nairi (land of rivers) by the Assyrians between 1200 and 800 BC. These kingdoms finally assimilated with the kingdom of Urartu.

The kingdom of Urartu is a civilization that developed in between 800 and 600 BC is the East Asia minor and the Caucasus. The kingdom was known as the first Armenian empire.

King Aramu was the first to unite the empire as per the history of Armenia. The empire stretched from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea and also spread across the majority of Eastern Turkey. 

The Urartu kingdom enjoyed its maximum prosperity under King Sardui II. He extended the borders of the kingdom beyond River Tigris and river Euphrates, much similar to Lake Aleppo and Urmia.

Urartu was also known as the ‘kingdom of Ararat.’ Through the various manuscripts about the history of Armenia, it is learned that Urartu and Armenia were often referred to as the same country. 

The Behistun’s inscription, carved in three languages in 520 BC is a prime example. Built under the orders of Persia’s Darius the great, the inscription refers to the kingdom as Harminuia in Elamite, Armenia in Old Persian, and Urartu in Babylon.

Between the end of the seventh century and early sixth century, the Urartu kingdom was substituted by the Armenian kingdom. Orontid, the Armenian dynasty ruled over this empire.

The Rule of the Orontid dynasty, the Birth of Armenian Kingdom

The dynasty of Orontid established their rule over the empire of Armenia after the fall of the Urartu kingdom in 600 BC. The Orontids had captured the Armenian empire during the invasion of the Medes and the Scythians. Around this period, the Armenians took to Iranians traditions and names.

The Orontids acted as provincial governors or satraps to the Persian kings. However, after the death of Persia’s Cambyses II, the Armenians led a revolution that was disrupted by Persia’s Darius the I.

Soon after the changes in the Persian Empire, the Armenian empire too was divided into many satrapies. In 480 BC, the satrapies had assigned troops for the Xerxes invasion. The proximity of the Persians and the Armenians were broken by the Macedonian conquest. 

After the invasion of Alexander the Great, the Persian empire crumbled, and just like other regions, the Armenian empire was soon divided into two parts.

One region, Sophene or great Armenia was located between the Tigris headwaters Euphrates’s middle course. Later it was bifurcated into Sophene and Armenia. 

The other region, Armenia Pontica or little Armenia was located between the headwaters of Ali and Lico and the Euphrates.

According to the history of Armenia, the different regions were subjected to different fates. Little Armenia came under the rule of the very powerful king Pontus in the second century BC. 

Meanwhile, Sophene lost its independence and survived under the rule of king Cappadocia for a brief period.

A different Armenian history says that Great Armenia established itself as a state by escaping the rule of the Seleucids. The Seleucids could not capture the region because of its mountainous region which acted as a barrier against Greek invasions. The other reason was the Persian characteristics ingrained in the Armenians that involuntarily opposed Greek influence.

Armenia’s Second Kingdom

As per Strabo, during this time the Armenians started speaking one language, the Armenian language. Soon the Armenians announced their independence with the defeat of the Seleucides by the Roman empire.

Between 95 to 66 BC, under the leadership of Tigranes II the Great, the empire spread from the Caucasus to the present eastern region of Turkey, from Syria to Lebanon and across the ‘kingdom of three seas’- the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea, and the Mediterranean sea.

The capital of the second Armenian empire which was born cannot be located to date. However, Tigranes II succumbed in the hands of the Roman troops, and the Armenian major was ruled by the Romans.

The Advent of Rome

In 37 AD the Armenians were forced to surrender under the Parthians soon to be taken over by the Roman after 10 years. The Romans lost the empire shortly after.

Under Nero’s rule between 55-63 AD, the Romans again fought against the Parthians ruling over Armenia. Capturing the Armenian empire in 60 AD and losing it in 62 AD, the Romans finally captured the region in 63 AD. However, In the battle of Rhandeia, the Parthians lost. The Parthian king forcibly signed a treaty assigning his brother Tiridates the throne of Armenia. The crowning of the king took place under Nero’s rule. Thus rose Armenia’s Arcadis dynasty.

Armenia Christianized

The Armenian history records the Armenians as the first to officially be termed as Christians after its conversion in 301 AD, long before the Romans adapted to it. 

According to the King Tiridates’ historic Agatangelo, the Christianization took place due to a clash between king Tiridates III and Son of Anak, Gregory.

The Armenian history says that Gregory was instructed to make sacrifices to goddess Anahit which he refused in the name of his faith for Christianity. Upon his refusal, he was subjected to severe torture which didn’t deter him from his opinion. Finally, he was ordered to be thrown into a deep well filled with snakes, a place where none had been before. But Gregory survived his time in the well with the blessings of a widow.

Meanwhile, several attempts were made by Diocletian, a Roman emperor, to seduce Hripsime. Smelling the danger, Hripsime had escaped to Armenia to seek protection. 

Amidst this, Tiridates fell in love with Hripsime and wanted to be with her. After several rejections from Hripsime, Tiridates tortured and killed her. 

As a traditional punishment marked in the history of Armenia, the king was transformed into a wild boar. He came back to his human form after rescuing Gregory from the pit after thirteen years.

Witnessing the miracle of being transformed into the human form, Tiridates decided to take to Christianity. He also baptized the Armenians and the official religion of the Armenians came into being.

Soon Gregory and Tiridates started destroying the Pegan’s worship places and started building churches.

The Armenian history also speaks about a vision of Jesus Christ that Gregory saw. Following the vision, Gregory built a church in Vagarshapat. The place came to be known as the Etchmiadzin meaning a place where the only-begotten descended. 

Soon the Pegan priests were taught about Christianity. They became ministers of the new religion. Pegan children went on to priests in churches. Thereafter, Gregory left the kingdom and settled as a hermit. His son became a bishop and head of the church.

Despite several historical theories about Armenians, the period of 301 AD- the Christianization of Armenians and 404 AD- the initiation of the Armenian alphabets by Mesrop Mashtots will remain evidence of the Armenian history.

The clash of the Three-Byzantine, Arab, and Seljuk 

In 591, the Persians were crushed by the Emperor Maurice of Byzantine. The emperor captured a vast part of Armenian territory. In 629 AD, Emperor Heraclius completed the capture only to lose it to Muslim Arabs in 645 AD. Following this, the Armenians came under the Caliph rule. 

Being ruled by a prince, the region soon came under the pressure of being converted to Islam. However, a treaty was signed which allowed the Armenians to practice Christianity.

The Armenians went through an economic, political, and cultural renaissance between 884-1045 AD until captured by Byzantium.

Ani, a new capital was founded which had a population of 200,000 people and 1001 churches. Armenian history says that at this time the population of European capitals had not reached 20,000.

Armenia gained prosperity after Ani came into the picture. It is said that Armenia was said to have a political impact on neighboring countries after Ani was built. However, the country’s loyalty faded as the feudal system became powerful in the region,

The greater Armenia was finally conquered by the Seljuk Turks In 1071 AD. Fearing slavery and death, several families fled from Armenia to settled places like Poland, Cilicia, etc.

It is mention-worthy that among the escapists was Ani’s last king, Rupen, Gagik II’s relative who settled in Cilicia.

The Death of the Armenian Independence

In 1080, Rupen founded the Cilician kingdom also known as Little Armenia or Armenia Minor after arriving on the Mediterranean Sea’s Gulf of Alexandretta. 

Thus the Rupenid dynasty was found which was a part of the Bagratid dynasty. Sis Sis became the capital of the kingdom. Although being squeezed between several Muslim states, the Christian kingdom was able to establish a powerful relationship with important Italian maritime cities that have been prospering for three hundred years. Colonies were built by Genoa, Venice, and Pisa on the kingdom’s coast.

The Mamelukes invaded Cilicia in the latter part of the fourteenth century. In 1375 the capital of Sis was captured by them which brought an end to the ongoing reign. 

The last independent king of the Armenian kingdom, Leo VI escaped for exile in Paris where he breathed his last is 1393.

In the Armenian history, Armenia lost its sovereignty during this period for atleast the next six centuries and was ruled by several foreign kings.

The Dominating Rule of the Ottoman and Persian 

The Armenian culture lost itself in the period between the fall of the Cilician empire and the end of the seventeenth century. 

Tamerlane forced his rule in Eastern Europe and Central Anatolia at the end of the fourteenth century but soon his kingdom was crushed.

The Ottoman Empire and the Safavids dynasty in Central Iran rose during the middle of the fifteenth century. The two dynasties battled against each other for about a hundred years for capturing Caucasus areas and Eastern Anatolia. 

The fight came to an end with the victory of the Ottomans. In 1585, the Ottomans successfully conquered Armenia’s eastern part.

At the onset of the seventeenth century, the Ottomans were forced to leave the Armenian territory by Shah Abbas I who failed in his repeated attempts. 

While he was withdrawing from the kingdom, he demanded the Armenians migrate from Julfa city. 

Following the incident, the city of New Julfa was founded by the migrants in Esfahan where they had settled. The region prospered commercially and culturally throughout the 17th century and early 18th century. The economic activities took place from India to Britain and Italy.

In 1736, the enmity between Persians and Ottomans settled with the defeat of the Ottomans by the Persians. The Persians established rule over the southern part of Transcaucasia which included Armenia.

As portrayed in the history of Armenia, the Persian Armenia soon feel into the hands of Russia and became a part of the USSR due to the Treaties of Gulistan and Turkmanchay,1813 and 1828, respectively. 

The Armenian region which was still under the Ottomans aimed at getting independence. Revolution started in the latter part of the 19th century with the formation of revolutionary committees based on a model by the nihilists of Russia. 

Sultan Abdul-Hamid struck back fiercely and the first mass killing of the Armenians took place in 1894, August-September. 

The second Armenian massacre happened in 1895-1896 during which thousands of Armenians were slaughtered by Hamidiés. 

Thus started the Armenian massacre which was to continue for the next thirty years under the regime of various Turks.

The Massacre

As the ‘Union and Progress’ party rose, the Armenians living in Turkey continued to suffer. The ‘young Turks’ tried to establish the supremacy of the Turks in the Ottoman region.

As the Turks had lost the Ottoman region in Europe, hey decided that the only way to expand was to reunite the Turks of Central Asia namely Tatars, Uzbeks, Kazakhs etc. 

The idea of Pan-Turkism in the history of Armenia originated from two main cultures. The first ideology was that of Marxism which taught the Young Turks about equality which said that all Ottomans must be equal, if so then all Ottomans must be Turks and in turn Muslims.

The second ideology focused on the Turks of the steppes of Central Asia and their reunion as the expansion of the European region was getting out of hand.

The idea of Pan Turkism was opposed by Christians, Armenians, Indo-Europeans, and Kurdish minorities. The Kurds being Muslims had no problem in getting along with the Turks. But the Christians and Armenians being of completely different origins posed a problem in accepting the Turks. Thus, they had to be removed.

In a view to eliminating the Armenians, in 1909 the massacre of Adana was led by the Turks who grabbed the opportunity at the eruption of the first world war.

During this period, the young Turks started eliminating the Armenians referred to as “Metz Yeghèrn,’ the Great Crime, the Armenian Genocide.

The initial genocide of the 20th century took place between 1915 to 1923. The history of Armenia recorded the massacre of nearly 1.5 people. The Armenian genocide let to the deportation and death of people in the Syrian desert. 

The survivors of the Armenian Genocide sought refuge in the Republic of Armenia.

The Republic of Armenia was born after the battle of Sardaraparat in which the Armenians defeated the Turks. Many people also took refuge in Syria, Israel, Europe, the United States, Egypt, and Lebanon.

In 1920, after the war, the Treaty of Sèvres forced the Turks to free the Armenians and hand over Armenia’s Ottoman territories. 

The Turkish national movement rejected the treaty. The leader of the movement, Mustafa Kemal toppled the Ottoman sultanate and announced a national secular republic. 

On 24th September, the Turks with the help of the Russians waged the Armenian-Turkish war. The war ended with the Treaty of Alexandropol signed on 2nd December 1920. The treaty marked the victory of the Turks.

However, on December 4th, Yerevan of Armenia was occupied by the Soviet Eleventh Army. This marked the end of the independent Democratic Republic. 

Soviet Power 

Armenia became a part of the Soviet Union on 4th March 4th, 1922.

On 11 September 1922 the Treaty of Kars was signed which made Turkey give up the Batumi port in exchange for cities like Iğdır, Kars, and Ardahan.  

The communist economic system-aided Soviet Armenia. It became an industrial economy from an agricultural one. Several villages transformed into cities. The Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic broke down in 1936.

Thereafter, Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan gained the title of independent republics of the USSR.

During the fifteenth anniversary of the Armenian genocide, the Armenians protested on the streets for the incident to be recognized by the Russian government. However, the order was restored by the Soviet troops.

To steer clear of further protests, a monument was built honoring the ones who died in the Armenian genocide. 

In Yerevan, a memorial was constructed in 1967 which consisted of a 44-meter stele. This symbolized the rebirth of the Armenians. The monument also had twelve monoliths in a circle which signified the twelve provinces which now belonged to the Turkish territories. 

A flame burning in the center of the circle represents the memory of the deceased in the Armenian genocide. A 100-meters long memorial hall leading to the monument displays the names of the villages where the Armenian genocide took place.

Nagorno-Karabakh War

Armenia announced its independence on 23 August 1990 which was a year prior to the downfall of the Soviet Union. But Armenia’s independence wasn’t acknowledged officially until 21 September 1991. On this day the new Republic of Armenia was declared.

The history of Armenia mentions that the rivalry between Armenia and Azerbaijan regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh territory kept growing and resulted in war. The war continued even after a cease-fire notice in 1994 and is still unresolved.

Present Armenia 

Since Armenia’s independence, it has gone through several developments even after blocked borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey. It has been referred to as “the Tiger of the Caucasus” since then and is appreciated for its high growth rate. 

The region receives funds worth $1.5 billion every year which accounts for about 20% of the GDP. Although poverty exists, the government involves the export of powerful technology and human capital for development. 

However, after the violent history of Armenia, it has been able to establish itself as a country that promises growth and has successfully maintained friendly relations with neighboring countries like Russia, Iran, and Georgia.

The development is funded by the international network of expats of the diaspora, who pay $ 1.5 billion each year: about 20% of GDP. Poverty is still widespread: to fight it the government supports exports focused on high technology and human capital and, although in the last five years the economic boom has been resized, Armenia is still a country with a strong growth thanks to the friendly relations maintained with the other neighboring Countries: Russia, Georgia, and Iran.

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[deerheadlights]

Going to be posting parts of my Nanowrimo from 2017 because everyone else is posting things for people to read while bored in quarantine xD You may need a web PhD in 335-330 BC to really feel it hit different...

“What are you waiting for?!” Podaleirus was shouting at the Athenian commander. “Their focus is on the walls, a quick sortie to the back and you’ll be the heroes of Greece, throwing off the Macedonian yoke!”

“They have a rear guard” he answered, gaze shifting from one man to the other. Three men stood at the crest of the lowest foothill of the Kithairon, watching the surge of troops around the 7 gates of Thebes. Tydeus could see from the Athenian’s eyes that no talk of glory would get him and his fellows to face the sarissas of Alexander the Macedonian’s rear guard. He cut off as Podaleirus drew another breath “We’ll scout out a route around them.”

 Tydeus could feel his friend’s rage even in the darkness. “How much money have I given that man, and his family, and his handlers and the whole damn Acropolis to have them stand here and cower before that boy Macedonian? I can’t believe this is happening”

“Athenians have always been all talk.” Tydeus gazed along the siege lines. He had hoped after the nightmare at Charonea he would never see that many Macedonians in Boeotia ever again. The combined strength of Athens and Thebes had been crushed, and the Sacred Band, the military symbol of Thebes that he and Podaleirus had once been part of, had been decimated. Noblemen like Podaleirus had fled the new regime and settled in Athens, and Tydeus had followed.

“Not just that. They said the boy king was dead. No one even reported him crossing Thermopylae and he’s already here.” Now that had been news, the report of Alexander’s death while fighting Illyrians. The last three months had gone by quick as a blink. The people had risen up and killed the leader of the Macedonian garrison. Tydeus, Podaleirus and all of the Theban exiles in Athens had come running back, there had been celebrations for days. The idea had buoyed them through the news that a Macedonian army had come down to mete out punishment for killing the garrison. Even then they had insisted it must be Antipater, who had been closer to Greece. To assuage fears Podaleirus and other nobles had brought their families  back to the city: when the army came, they wouldn’t leave again. That was the real source of Podaleirus’s desperation.

 “Alkyone is safe in the Temple of the Amphion with the other noble women” Tydeus tried to assure his friend. “The seven gates of Thebes won’t be breaching without a longer assault, enough time for our Southern friends to steel their livers and get to fighting” “I know, but I should have never let it get so close”

 They had moved towards the western edge of the city where farms lay abandoned to the siege. The rows of troops started to ebb. “There’s a gap forming here, already gotten busy looting easy picki—“ Tydeus’s blood ran cold, the gap wasn’t from troops moving outward into the farmlands, but moving inward.

“The moon gate is breached”

“No – That’s not—“ He felt Podaleirus stiffen at his side then just empty space. “You go back to Commander [name], I have to get my daughter!” the call came from the darkness. What? He can’t go in there alone, it’s suicide. Tydeus was running after him before the thought had run it’s course. Unfortunately he knew, from every childhood foot race, to the [Chithraon] games to their training races as part of the Sacred Band, Podaleirus was faster than him.

 He could already hear the yelling from the fighting inside the gates. Luckily outside the phalanx the Macedonian troops didn’t have their signature sarissas, the longest spears in the world, but their formation was wreaking havoc on the disorganized just-freed slaves that were the first defence of the city. They didn’t expect an attack from the rear though. He dropped a man with a chop against the back of the knees, keeping against a slum wall. His cry in the back of the formation caused enough confusion to break through a gap. His shield was unslung and he gave one of the front rankers its rim in the teeth before continuing towards Podaleirus.

 But a wave of Illyrian skirmishers swept in to separate them. Tattooed barbarians. Tydeus’s short sword caught a man through the gap in his cresent moon shield. Another one with blue dogs or frogs or some other wild northern garbage tattooed on his face took his place. The tight focus of years of training slowed everything. A spear point crashed against his shield, and Tydeus’s sword was caught against his as the man went down. He was already arcing a blow before the man’s Boeotian voice stopped him “Sir! Are you here with the Athenian reinforcements?” A farm slave with a scythe, leader of a ragtag group of farmers and herme makers had saved him.

“Ay, they’re here, on that hill to the south, gawking”

“What do you mean—“

But Tydeus had already gone. I should rally them, he thought, what kind of citizen am I? But he had only one goal on his mind. Podaleirus had evaded the Illyrians and going up the Sacred Way in a full sprint. Then he leaped and came down on his face. Why? Why had he jumped? It made no- Tydeus saw the spear shaft in his back, like it had miraculously grown like a sapling. Then he heard the yelling behind him. He turned, and there was the tattered Macedonian garrison, that had held out, waiting for Alexander to arrive and free them from their siege within a siege in the stockade on the Cadmea. The man who had thrown the javelin was still following through when the sword caught him in the neck, ground against the spine. Then they were all on him. Tydeus had been a champion at duels, but fighting off a regiment single handedly was the sort of foolishness a bard dreams up and no real soldier believes. He covered himself with his shield, trying to step back to Podaleirus’s side. “Macedonians on the Sacred Way!” He found his voice “Macedonians climbing towards the Temple of the Amphion!”

 And suddenly the men of Thebes were at his side. The farmers, freedmen, potters, dyers, herme-makers, sculptors, just like a normal day on the Agora, but with swords and knives and scythes in their hands. His throat was thick with emotion, whatever the Sacred Band had been, this was the true phalanx of Thebes. But he could see beyond them, more and more Macedonians thronging the Moon Gate. Not just Macedonians, Plataeans and other citizens of cities that had lurid histories with Thebes were part of the army, cutting people down in the street and charging into houses. “Position Change!” Tydeus roared, shoved the man beside him in his place and made for Podaleirus.

 He was flat as a deer struck with a javelin, and it twitched with his breaths. Tydeus’s hope fled as he saw it was lodged in his left kidney. How could this happen? Podaleirus turned to him suddenly, like a spooked horse and spoke in gasping exhales “Go. Get Alkyone. Not Athens. Go to. Rhodes. Or Sardis. Ionians. And. Persians” “Shhhhh” He settled him in his arms. We lived through Charonea, Leuctra, fought alongside Epamonidas, saw Thebes become the star of Boeotia and then Greece… to be speared in the back by a Macedonian dog. “Get out. Now. Leave me. I… did this.” He blames himself for financing the rebellion, Tydeus thought. “Shhh, no the Macedonians did.” But it was too late, the blankness was coming over his eyes and his muscles gave their last jerks. My brother. My erastes. The cold fury came over him then, only once before had he felt it, when Podaleirus had been wounded in the Lacedamonian campaign. But now it was worse, so much worse. He wrapped him in his chlamys, dropped his shield to balance the weight, and sprinted up to the Temple.

Alkyone tugged a curled tendril. It was already limp and had been uneven anyway. She’d had to do the curling herself after all the slaves have been requisitioned for the extra work to defend the city, then freed. Gods knew that Thraka could probably kill people as well as she curled hair, she had heard Thracians trained their women like men. I wish I had some training, or a sword, or even a curling stone Alkyone reflected. Stuck in the temple amongst the other high born ladies and some priests she felt like a bullock in the slaughter pen. The dark sidelong looks coming her way from everyone else weren’t helping either. Her father had promised to bring back Athenian aid before he left last week, but no one had expected Alexander the Macedonian to come down the coast so quickly.

“Stand up tall as a beacon, you are a Podaleirid descended from Aphrodite (Asklepios??), and it is up to you to keep the people’s spirits up” he had said before he left. Well she was standing tall, only because if she bent only a little she was sure she would topple over and vomit. The bright saffron dyed veil she had chosen looked enough like a beacon, she saw to her chagrin that most women had chosen more somber dress. Most of her clothes were still in the house they had been staying at in Athens for the past 3 years since Macedon defeated the combined might of Athens and Thebes. Father had bought her the veil when the news had come that their old King Phillip had been killed. “Soon you’ll be wearing this on the slopes of the Kithairon for the Daedala again, little dove” her father had said, but the king’s young son hadn’t been the pushover everyone had bargained for.

 She saw a priestess of Athena give a meaningful look to her companion and caught the word “abandoned.” No, father would never abandon us, abandon me, she thought, he said himself he was only bringing me back from Athens because he knew we could beat the Macedonians. But then, where was he? The din outside sounded like a festival day, but edged with bronze and clanging, like there was a whole parade of bronze beaters instead of just a few in a contingent. She wished she could just fly away like her pet heron she had released in the morning. Hopefully he’d be smart enough to fly back to the courtyard in Athens.

 The din sounded so loud that when there was a thump on the door it was deafening. Everyone in the crowd gave a start, like flies on the beach buffeted in the wind. The old fat priest of Apollo squared his shoulders “This the ancient sacred precinct! No violence is to be done at the –“ “It’s Tydeus son of Medon” Alkyone felt a sigh of relief rise in her chest. Tydeus was practically her uncle, if he was here father must have sent him, everything would be alright! But then she saw his face, and the fresh stab of fear felt so much worse for the second’s respite. Once she had watched an old bear being baited, a rather poor show, he had just stood, huge and imposing, but with blank sad eyes. Tydeus had the same look about him, nothing but a huge bundle on his back. His eyes gazed around the crowd but looked past all of them at the same time. “…Tydeus?” she whispered, suddenly her throat was so tight she could hardly make a sound. His gaze snapped to her like a hawk to a song bird foolish enough to keep on singing “Alkyone! Come here! Come on!”

“Wait, what’s happening?!” The priest trailed in Tydeus’s wake, everyone moved aside as he walked towards her.

“The Moon Gate was breached, and the garrison got free.” So many gasped at once it sounded like a wind gust.

“But our men are fighting in the street! And the Athenians and Spartans have arrived?” The portly priest pushed his way in front of Tydeus, who turned his mad bear look upon him. “They’re sitting in the hills watching it happen. Alkyone –“ He grabbed her arm.

“So what are you doing?” The priests normally deep voice had risen to a hysterical octave “Grabbing your family and leaving? You coward! We agreed to fight to the last man!” He went to hit Tydeus’s unprotected side, but he just buffeted him with his other arm and knocked the priest flat. “The sacrilege—in the Amphion—“ he sputtered as Tydeus pulled Alkyone along and stepped over him. Suddenly everyone’s voices raised to compete with his. “What do you mean they’re not coming—“”Coward!” “Please take me too!” “Go back and fight, we can still win!” She saw one woman take out her pins and step forward threateningly. “Get ready to run” Tydeus said without looking at her. Alkyone nodded numbly at empty air. So we had lost but father hadn’t abandoned me. I was just going to have to run through a siege to god knows where.

 Some irate woman had torn her veil nearly in half before they got to the outside columns of the temple. Alkyone’s chest felt too tight. It was like that awful day after Charonea but a hundredfold worse. At least there had still been some sunlight left when the runners had come calling out the calamitous news. And when the people cried out in the agora, it was only from grief than physical pain. And when she had fled with her oika, at least when she looked back the towers and pillars of Thebes stood strong against the twilight sky. Now, as Tydeus half led, half dragged her towards the Clay Gate she could see the ruins of the barracks corner, houses set a-light and carts being plundered. It was all too much when, as she choked back a wail, Tydeus muttered “Good.” “What could possibly be good?!” Alkyone keened. Gods, I sounded like a fury. “They’re all pouring into the side gate so the walls are no longer surrounded” his voice sounded too eerily calm and consistent, like a steady wind in the blustery autumn. “But how will we get the gate open by ourselves?” The closest gate to the Cadmeia was opened with several men; it was 5 times the height of a man. “There are ways for just two people to scale a wall.” They stopped at the wooden gatehouse, pasted to the wall like a swallow’s nest. Within Alkyone saw coils of rope and a narrow stairway. Pressing to the top of the stairs, Tydeus secured his bundle to a large basket attached to the ropes. “What is all this?” “Getting grain in and out during seiges. The boys were getting it ready, thinking it would take longer to breach…” Running over a pulley, the rope slowly lowered the basket to the other side of the wall. When it returned, Tydeus gestured for her to get in. It was a large enough basket to fit comfortably. When she was lowered, Tydeus called down, trying to keep quiet but have his voice carry at the same time “Wait a bit for me, I need to find the counterweight,” and left her view.

 The large bundle he had carried sat opposite. Thank Hera for Tydeus, he knows just what to do and he brought supplies. What could be in there? She folded back a corner and felt bile climb her throat. A few fingers stuck out, just the brother and sister finger, but each had golden granulated rings, with swirling patterns etched in her memory. “Father?” The word wouldn’t come out. She pulled the cloak back further. The hand felt strange, not cold but just lukewarm. She heard the basket scrape along the wall but she couldn’t look up. She could barely see Tydeus cover the hand again through her tears. When he picked him back up and put him on his shoulders she just gazed down at the flattened grass. “What- what happened? Who killed him?” Suddenly that seemed extremely important. “Some Macedonian. I killed him.” Alkyone looked up. Tydeus had tears on his face too, and that horrible far away bear look. “But it was Alexander who truly killed him. He’ll have to die too.”

 A harsh call rang out, closer than either of them had expected. “We have to go” Tydeus said, marching ahead. “But Athens is the other way!” “We’re not going back to Athens, after they see this, they’ll be ready to lick that Macedonian’s cavalry boots. Anyone related to the rebels will get thrown to the wolves.” “What?!” But my clothes, my jewelry, my pet heron... “We’re going to Ionia. Sardis will be safe enough. We’ll lie low until the Great King of Persia shows the Boy King some discipline.” Alkyone got up, shivering slightly. Her rent veil wasn’t much protection against the year’s end chill. Ionia.

----

[cincinnatusvirtue]

Alexander III “The Great” Part 2: Where one empire falls, so must a new one rise...

Alexander the Great and the Macedonian army crossed the Hellespont into Asia Minor in 334 BC.  The composition of his army at this point was primarily Greek but did include some non-Greeks as well.  It consisted of a mix of cavalry and infantry.  His cavalry included light cavalry mixing Greek and Thracian horsemen.  While his elite cavalry was the heavy cavalry known as the Companions of which Alexander always lead into battle personally, leading his royal contingent, it was made of the Macedonian landed nobility which was personally quite loyal to the king.  This was combined with Thessalian heavy cavalry from Central Greece as well.  His infantry included missle and melee infantry ranging from the phalanx or phalangists to his hoplites and hypaspists and various armed skirmishers both Greek and Thracians such as the peltasts.

The Macedonian army was faced by the Persians who called on forces from all across the empire.  Persians, Bactrians, Scythians, Sogdians, Syrians, Indians and even Greeks as mercenaries.  They too had infantry, cavalry, archers and even armed chariots.  Memnon of Rhodes, a Greek mercenary commander in Persian service advocated for a strategic withdrawal and scorch and earth tactics which would stretch Alexander’s supply lines and deny his forces food and supplies to forage or “live off the land”.  However, the Persian satraps of Anatolia saw this move as both undermining to morale and not worthwhile because the scorched earth would be their own fertile lands, hurting long term commerce.  Their contention was to fight the Macedonians head on before they ventured too far into the Persian Empire.

The first major battle, was the Battle of Granicus fought in May 334 BC in what is now western Turkey along the Granicus river, as was often the case Alexander would fight many of his classic battles along rivers.  For his part this was strategic, the Persian armed chariots could not be effective on muddy river banks where mobility was slowed.  The Persians knew the Macedonians would attempt to cross the river and hoped to slow their  advance their by bunching up the Macedonian forces.  The battle started with a feint attack on the Macedonian left, commanded by a trusted general, Parmenion who commanded the Thracian and Thessalian cavalry.  The Persians shifted many of their forces to meet this attack but in doing so weakened part of their line, Alexander personally lead his noble Companion cavalry into battle in a flying wedge formation.  In the melee, Alexander personally killed a number of Persian nobles but was nearly killed himself by one until a timely intervention by a Greek general named, Cleitus the Black severed the Persian’s arm clean off with sword still in their hand, saving Alexander’s life.  The Macedonian center now had time bought and moved its phalanxes into place across the river, supported by the bulk of the army now pushed back the Persians, the speed of their advance surprised the Persian forces who after some tough fighting retreated.  The retreat happened before they could commit their forces, namely the Greek mercenaries to battle.  This resulted in the Macedonians killing their fellow Greeks in a general massacre, viewing them as a traitors for having served the Persians.  Granicus was a resounding Macedonian victory, their first major one over the Persians.

The battle opened up Anatolia to the Greeks who began conquering the lands.  Some Persian satraps in the next several months surrendered their territory without a fight, hoping to spare their damage.  Alexander sometimes let Persians stay in their positions of power so long as they supplied his army and swore loyalty to him.  Gradually, Alexander worked his way along the coast to neutralize the Persian naval bases that could cut off supply lines back to Greece.  He also visited the city of Gordium which contained the fabled Gordian Knot which presented a riddle to many in the ancient world, the complicated and varied tied knot was a puzzle that required challengers to unravel it, the one who solved the puzzle was said to be destined to rule all of Asia.  Many had contemplated how to unravel the knot but failed.  Alexander’s solution was simple, cut the knot with his sword.

From Anatolia, Alexander hoped to advance into Syria and threaten the Levant.  It was at this point that the Persian Shah, Darius III personally lead an army to counter the Macedonian threat.  Darius’s army actually ventured behind the Macedonian army hoping to cutoff its supply lines and trap it deep in Persian territory with no hope of reinforcement.  Alexander did however rise to meet Darius.  They did do along the Southern Anatolian coast along a small river called Issus.  The Battle of Issus was fought in a narrow ground between the mountains and the sea, the ground was chosen by Darius to limit the mobility of the Macedonian cavalry which had been so effective at Granicus.  Darius’s army was as typical of the Persian forces was multiethnic and once again they relied on Greek mercenaries, arguably their best troops which Darius placed at the center with his royal bodyguard.  The Macedonian advance across the river was slowed by the river itself, the Persians fortifying their bank of the river and the Greek mercenaries hard fighting.  However, Macedonian hypaspists, tasked with guarding the phalanxes weak and vulnerable flank and rear managed to break through a line in the Persian-Greek forces.  This allowed Alexander to see an opportunity to strike unexpectedly at the heart of the Persians.  Taking his Companion cavalry, Alexander drove his force on a right flank maneuver and then wheeled toward the Persian center, straight at Darius.  The speed and fury of the Macedonian charge at the Persian King of Kings completely unnerved Darius and he fled in his chariot.  This collapsed the morale of the Persian center which also fled.  On the left flank of the Macedonians, Persian cavalry held back Parmenion’s left flank cavalry.  Ever the observer and adapter to the situations on the battlefield, Alexander would wheel his forces  to hit the Persians now exposed rear.  This surprise attack combined with the holes being punched in their mercenary forces and the flight of their king lead to a rout of Persian forces.  The Macedonians pursued and killed off many retreating Persians, gaining yet another decisive victory.  In the wake of this, Alexander captured members of Darius’s family including his wife, mother and two daughters.  Alexander held them as prisoners though they were by all accounts well treated during their captivity.  Darius himself retreated to the Persian capital in Babylon.  

Over the next year or two Alexander consolidated his gains in Anatolia and advanced down the Syrian coast, taking the Levantine cities either by surrender and sparing them destruction or in the case of Tyre and Gaza having to besiege them and after many months finally captured both.  Alexander then advanced to Egypt where he was proclaimed Pharaoh.  He also visited a temple where the Egyptian priests declared him the son of their supreme god, Amon Ra.  He introduced the Greek presence into Egypt and the Levant, something that was to last for centuries with the Greeks serving as Pharaohs of Egypt until Roman rule, with a Greek-Egyptian named Cleopatra being their last famed ruler, a descendant of the Ptolemaic dynasty that was established by one of Alexander’ s general, Ptolemy in the wake of Alexander’s death.  Something new was happening due to Alexander and the Hellenic presence in Egypt.  Greek and Egyptian culture to a degree synthesized and Greek culture was being spread to Persia’s various provinces.  He would also found the first of many cities bearing his name, Alexandria, now one of Egypt’s major cities.  It would become a famed center of learning and culture throughout the ancient world, blending Greek, Egyptian, Persian and other traditions into one center.  This was to become a hallmark of Alexander’s rule and legacy, as he would spread Hellenic culture to other parts of the world and increasingly it would blend with the local culture becoming a hybrid of East meets West.  Reflected in art, religion, currency, governance, commerce, day to day life and military tradition.

Meanwhile, back in Greece the mighty Sparta which had remained silent during Alexander’s Asian and African adventures finally rose up to challenge the Macedonians, Alexander nor his father directly fought the legendary Spartans and the question was raised who was mightier Sparta or Macedon.  Antipater, one of Alexander’s generals who stayed behind in Greece would answer that burning question.  The Macedonian army crushed the Spartans at the Battle of Megalopolis virtually fighting to the last man, killing their king in battle too.  This subdued the Spartan rebellion and Greek discontent over taxes and Alexander’s rule in general.

Darius III offered several attempts at negotiations with Alexander as all of Persia’s western provinces and African ones, namely Egypt, were being conquered, some without a fight which was a humbling experience for the Persian Shah.  His last offer at peace was to offer half of the Persian Empire to Alexander, all the Western provinces, to become co-rulers of the empire, to taken several thousand pounds of silver and gold as payment and to arrange a marriage between Alexander and one of his daughters.  Alexander did seriously consider the offer and all but one of his generals argued against it.  Alexander, refused seeking to have all the empire and not just half.  The war would continue.

Alexander now marched his forces into Mesopotamia or modern Iraq with the goal of taking the Persian political capital, Babylon.  Darius is believed to have anticipated the Macedonians would take a more direct route through the deserts of central and southern Iraq which with extreme heat and lack of supplies would drain their army.  Darius however, once again realized he was dealing with no ordinary for.  Alexander ever the clever strategist took his army on an unexpected route through Northern Iraq instead, nearing mountains that would shade or cool his forces from the intense heat of the deserts to the south.  This caught the Persians off guard and Darius was forced to instead move his own army northward.   Some Persians figured the Tigris River which the Macedonians numbering shy of 50,000 men would have to ford was too deep and strong.  However, Alexander’s army did cross and was now moving toward Babylon on the east side of the river.  Darius decided to find ground of his own choosing to meet and defeat the Macedonians.  He found it on a relatively flat plain east of modern Mosul, Iraq at a place called Gaugamela. 

By choosing an open expansive battlefield, Darius hoped not to be boxed in the way he had at Issus, this would allow more room for his chariots and cavalry to maneuver.  His force was estimated by modern scholars of being upwards of 100,000.  It included Indian war elephants and various contingents and mercenaries from all over the Persian Empire as was usual.  Alexander however as was often the case, took an unexpected maneuver and initiative which offset the Persians.  He moved his Companion cavalry from their right flank far out on what appeared to be an outflanking maneuver which deceived the Persians into thinking this was an maneuver that needed to be countered and indeed they sent a large force of cavalry from their left to meet and clash with the Macedonians.  As the Persians drew their forces to mirror and counter Alexander’s deep flank, they weakened their own center as was Alexander’s plan.  The deep flank was joined by his phalanx and hypaspists infantry which Alexander had gradually disengaged them from the flanking maneuver to meet the Persians center which fixed them in place.  Meanwhile, the Persian chariots armed with javelin throwers advanced only for the Macedonian regiments to part forming alleys for the chariots to pass through without causing damage, before the chariot riders were killed themselves.  Parmenion and the Thracian-Thessalian cavalry on the left also fixed the Persian right flank in place.  It was now time for Alexander’s decisive move.   The deep flank and the fixing in place of the Persian forces effectively weakened the Persian center by creating a gap which like at Issus, Alexander could strike at Darius’s jugular once more by driving his flying wedge Companion heavy cavalry right at the Persian center and split it’s force into pieces.  Darius, once again caught off guard by the Macedonian deception and fury fled the battlefield, causing panic and routing in his forces.  Parmenion’s left flank however was in jeopardy and just like as Issus, Alexander had to lead a counter charge to save his left from being overwhelmed which was encircled by Persian cavalry on all sides.  Darius fled and evaded capture or death as Alexander had hoped, but preservation of his army was more key to the long term goals of Alexander.  He attacked the Persians in their rear with some breaking off to loot the Macedonian camp before they were dispatched themselves.  The rest of the Persian army fled as the Macedonians shifted their forces to left to relieve Parmenion.  It was another victory and ultimately the final blow needed to defeat Darius and the Achaemenid Persian Empire.

Alexander entered the Persian capital of Babylon which he claimed to enter as a liberator, he also went onto the cities of Susa and the ceremonial capital of Persepolis which was in the Persian heartlands of modern Iran, he burned Persepolis as payback for the Persians burning Athens 150 years earlier in the Persian invasion of Greece under Xerxes.  Now he was declared by his new Persian nobility Persian Shah himself and Lord of Asia, in addition to his titles as King of Macedon, Hegemon of the Hellenic League and Pharaoh of Egypt.  Effectively the Persian Empire ceased to be a real force at least in the western provinces.  Darius gave an impassioned speech to carry on the war in the eastern half of the empire which remained unconquered.  However, his satraps, especially one by the name of Bessus had enough of defeats and retreat by Darius, they took him prisoner and murdered their Shah.  Bessus was then self-proclaimed Shah but Alexander viewed Bessus as little more than an impostor, with himself as the real Shah and he considered the act of murdering Darius, the rightful ancestral King of Persia as cowardly and little more than petty and unjust, a crime punishable by death.  

Darius’s body would be recovered by Alexander as he set off in pursuit of Bessus.  He gave him a proper burial in the ancestral tombs of his dynasty.  Alexander had respect for Darius’s position and an appreciation of the Persian monarchy’s history even if they were enemies on the battlefield.  He now set about trying to consolidate a hold on his conquests through a mix of his Macedonian generals and Persians who proclaimed loyalty to him, becoming his new nobility and serving as provincial administrators.  He began to administer Persia, though largely as Persia had been run, seeing himself not as a new conqueror but as rightful inheritor to the prior Persian dynasty, this admiration for Persia along with the adoption of certain Persian customs and the maintenance of Persian governors and administrators by Alexander started to cause some resentment among his generals who unlike Alexander simply despised the Persians and felt Greek traditions superior.  The first cracks in Alexander’s otherwise impenetrable self-armor were starting to appear.  Yet, there was much work to do, such as the capture of Bessus and the conquest of the eastern remnants of the nominal Persian Empire.   Alexander’s gaze was fixed to the east to the ends of Persia and beyond, to the edge of the known world...

[ofbloodandfaith]

Day 16 of 30 Days of Apollon

How do you think this deity represents the values of their pantheon and cultural origins?

Well, one of the main group of values of Hellenic polytheism is considered by most to be from Apollon, these are called the Delphic Maxims and is where the phrase, ‘Know Thyself’ comes from.

The Delphic maxims are a set of 147 aphorisms inscribed at Delphi. Originally, they were said to have been given by the Greek god Apollo's Oracle at Delphi, Pythia and therefore were attributed to Apollo.[1] The 5th century scholar Stobaeus later attributed them to the Seven Sages of Greece.[2] Contemporary scholars, however, hold that their original authorship is uncertain and that 'most likely they were popular proverbs, which tended later to be attributed to particular sages.'[3] Roman educator Quintilian argued that students should copy those aphorisms often to improve their moral core.[4] Perhaps the most famous of these maxims is 'know thyself,' which was carved into the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. The specific order and wording of each maxim varies among different versions (and translations) of the text. 

I believe Apollon (city/society/neighbourhood worship) along with Hestia (household/family/personal worship) had a strong hand in keeping the cultus of (the ancient version of) Hellenic Polytheism alive and along with the other gods made it their job to guide humans. He is considered, ‘The national divinity of the Greeks’, which to me means that when he shows himself he is not just Apollon but all the gods, a representative of the Olympians, in a similar way to how Hermes represents the gods as the messenger. Yet in a modern way, Apollon would be a foreign king/ambassador/politician while Hermes would a foreign correspondent/news reporter/politician.

Considering his cultural origins, he seemed to gain attributes from the gods around him (gods from different parts of Greece) through the years, which explains why he is considered by some a migratory god because it seems like he doesn’t take the place of most of these gods he learns a skill or power from them. 

For the Greeks, Apollo was all the Gods in one and through the centuries he acquired different functions which could originate from different gods. In archaic Greece he was the prophet, the oracular god who in older times was connected with "healing". In classical Greece he was the god of light and of music, but in popular religion he had a strong function to keep away evil.[50] Walter Burkert[51] discerned three components in the prehistory of Apollo worship, which he termed "a Dorian-northwest Greek component, a Cretan-Minoan component, and a Syro-Hittite component."

From his eastern origin Apollo brought the art of inspection of "symbols and omina" (σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα : sēmeia kai terata), and of the observation of the omens of the days. The inspiration oracular-cult was probably introduced from Anatolia. The ritualism belonged to Apollo from the beginning. The Greeks created the legalism, the supervision of the orders of the gods, and the demand for moderation and harmony. Apollo became the god of shining youth, ideal beauty, fine arts, philosophy, moderation, spiritual-life, the protector of music, divine law and perceptible order. The improvement of the old Anatolian god, and his elevation to an intellectual sphere, may be considered an achievement of the Greek people.[52]

In my experience and from reading other introductions to Hellenic polytheism, Apollon tends to be the first god you meet/explore from the Hellenic pantheon, which fits with his role as an ambassador who introduces humans to the divinity of the Olympians

So to answer the question I believe that he does represent the values of his pantheon and his cultural origins as he still portrays the attributes he procured in his Dorian:

The connection with the Dorians and their initiation festival apellai is reinforced by the month Apellaios in northwest Greek calendars.[66] The family-festival was dedicated to Apollo (Doric: Ἀπέλλων).[67] Apellaios is the month of these rites, and Apellon is the "megistos kouros" (the great Kouros).[68] However it can explain only the Doric type of the name, which is connected with the Ancient Macedonian word "pella" (Pella), stone. Stones played an important part in the cult of the god, especially in the oracular shrine of Delphi (Omphalos).[69][70]

The "Homeric hymn" represents Apollo as a Northern intruder. His arrival must have occurred during the "Dark Ages" that followed the destruction of the Mycenaean civilization, and his conflict with Gaia (Mother Earth) was represented by the legend of his slaying her daughter the serpent Python.[71]

The earth deity had power over the ghostly world, and it is believed that she was the deity behind the oracle.[72] The older tales mentioned two dragons who were perhaps intentionally conflated. A female dragon named Delphyne (Δελφύνη; cf. δελφύς, "womb"),[73] and a male serpent Typhon (Τυφῶν; from τύφειν, "to smoke"), the adversary of Zeus in the Titanomachy, who the narrators confused with Python.[74][75] Python was the good daemon (ἀγαθὸς δαίμων) of the temple as it appears in Minoan religion,[76] but she was represented as a dragon, as often happens in Northern European folklore as well as in the East.[77]

Apollo and his sister Artemis can bring death with their arrows. The conception that diseases and death come from invisible shots sent by supernatural beings, or magicians is common in Germanic and Norse mythology.[58] In Greek mythology Artemis was the leader (ἡγεμών, "hegemon") of the nymphs, who had similar functions with the Nordic Elves.[78] The "elf-shot" originally indicated disease or death attributed to the elves, but it was later attested denoting stone arrow-heads which were used by witches to harm people, and also for healing rituals.[79]

The Vedic Rudra has some similar functions with Apollo. The terrible god is called "The Archer", and the bow is also an attribute of Shiva.[80] Rudra could bring diseases with his arrows, but he was able to free people of them, and his alternative Shiva is a healer physician god.[81] However the Indo-European component of Apollo does not explain his strong relation with omens, exorcisms, and with the oracular cult.

Minoan:

it seems an oracular cult existed in Delphi from the Mycenaean age.[82] In historical times, the priests of Delphi were called Lab(r)yadai, "the double-axe men", which indicates Minoan origin. The double-axe, labrys, was the holy symbol of the Cretan labyrinth.[83][84] The Homeric hymn adds that Apollo appeared as a dolphin and carried Cretan priests to Delphi, where they evidently transferred their religious practices. Apollo Delphinios or Delphidios was a sea-god especially worshiped in Crete and in the islands.[85] Apollo's sister Artemis, who was the Greek goddess of hunting, is identified with Britomartis (Diktynna), the Minoan "Mistress of the animals". In her earliest depictions she is accompanied by the "Master of the animals", a male god of hunting who had the bow as his attribute. His original name is unknown, but it seems that he was absorbed by the more popular Apollo, who stood by the virgin "Mistress of the Animals", becoming her brother.[78]

The old oracles in Delphi seem to be connected with a local tradition of the priesthood, and there is not clear evidence that a kind of inspiration-prophecy existed in the temple. This led some scholars to the conclusion that Pythia carried on the rituals in a consistent procedure through many centuries, according to the local tradition. In that regard, the mythical seeress Sibyl of Anatolian origin, with her ecstatic art, looks unrelated to the oracle itself.[86] However, the Greek tradition is referring to the existence of vapours and chewing of laurel-leaves, which seem to be confirmed by recent studies.[87]

Plato describes the priestesses of Delphi and Dodona as frenzied women, obsessed by "mania" (μανία, "frenzy"), a Greek word he connected with mantis (μάντις, "prophet").[88] Frenzied women like Sibyls from whose lips the god speaks are recorded in the Near East as Mari in the second millennium BC.[89] Although Crete had contacts with Mari from 2000 BC,[90] there is no evidence that the ecstatic prophetic art existed during the Minoan and Mycenean ages. It is more probable that this art was introduced later from Anatolia and regenerated an existing oracular cult that was local to Delphi and dormant in several areas of Greece.[91]

and Anatolian origins:

A non-Greek origin of Apollo has long been assumed in scholarship.[7] The name of Apollo's mother Leto has Lydian origin, and she was worshipped on the coasts of Asia Minor. The inspiration oracular cult was probably introduced into Greece from Anatolia, which is the origin of Sibyl, and where existed some of the oldest oracular shrines. Omens, symbols, purifications, and exorcisms appear in old Assyro-Babylonian texts, and these rituals were spread into the empire of the Hittites. In a Hittite text is mentioned that the king invited a Babylonian priestess for a certain "purification".[52]

A similar story is mentioned by Plutarch. He writes that the Cretan seer Epimenides purified Athens after the pollution brought by the Alcmeonidae, and that the seer's expertise in sacrifices and reform of funeral practices were of great help to Solon in his reform of the Athenian state.[92] The story indicates that Epimenides was probably heir to the shamanic religions of Asia, and proves, together with the Homeric hymn, that Crete had a resisting religion up to historical times. It seems that these rituals were dormant in Greece, and they were reinforced when the Greeks migrated to Anatolia.

Homer pictures Apollo on the side of the Trojans, fighting against the Achaeans, during the Trojan War. He is pictured as a terrible god, less trusted by the Greeks than other gods. The god seems to be related to Appaliunas, a tutelary god of Wilusa (Troy) in Asia Minor, but the word is not complete.[93] The stones found in front of the gates of Homeric Troy were the symbols of Apollo. A western Anatolian origin may also be bolstered by references to the parallel worship of Artimus (Artemis) and Qλdãns, whose name may be cognate with the Hittite and Doric forms, in surviving Lydian texts.[94] However, recent scholars have cast doubt on the identification of Qλdãns with Apollo.[95]

The Greeks gave to him the name ἀγυιεύς agyieus as the protector god of public places and houses who wards off evil, and his symbol was a tapered stone or column.[96] However, while usually Greek festivals were celebrated at the full moon, all the feasts of Apollo were celebrated at the seventh day of the month, and the emphasis given to that day (sibutu) indicates a Babylonian origin.[97]

The Late Bronze Age (from 1700 to 1200 BCE) Hittite and Hurrian Aplu was a god of plague, invoked during plague years. Here we have an apotropaic situation, where a god originally bringing the plague was invoked to end it. Aplu, meaning the son of, was a title given to the god Nergal, who was linked to the Babylonian god of the sun Shamash.[21] Homer interprets Apollo as a terrible god (δεινὸς θεός) who brings death and disease with his arrows, but who can also heal, possessing a magic art that separates him from the other Greek gods.[98] In Iliad, his priest prays to Apollo Smintheus,[99] the mouse god who retains an older agricultural function as the protector from field rats.[33][100][101] All these functions, including the function of the healer-god Paean, who seems to have Mycenean origin, are fused in the cult of Apollo.