An End-of-Year Scrapbook

As the year draws to a close, I offer here a few anecdotes and observations that caught my attention from 2019's reading. Some may form the basis of future blog posts. I hope the rest prove as interesting (or startling) to my readers as to me.

Ashoka at Ramagrama, courtesy of Photo Dharma, Thailand

On the transmission of knowledge between Hellenistic Greece and India: Ashoka, the founder of the Mauryan dynasty, knew a fair amount about the “Yona” (Ionians, i.e., Greeks) living to his west and sent Buddhist missionaries to convert the subjects of “Antiyoho…and Turumaye” (Antiochus and Ptolomy). Apparently, they met with little success. Perhaps a fan of Harry Turtledove's could turn this episode into an alt-history tale. (Peter Thonemann, The Hellenistic Age: A Very Short Introduction (2018), p. 74.)

On live-action Dungeons and Dragons in the Middle Ages: To defend their subjects in southern Anatolia from Arab raiders, the Byzantines in the ninth and tenth centuries built “vast subterranean citadels” in which fleeing peasants could take refuge. These they carved into the soft rock in the vicinity of modern Cappadocia. (Peter Sarris, The Byzantines: A Very Short Introduction (2015), pp. 69-70.)

On bling: Like the modern Hmong, the medieval Norse literally wore their money. When purchasing goods, they would cut pieces off of the silver collars and arm bands they wore, and merchants would then weigh the “cash” they had received to determine its value. Archaeologists have found these merchants’ weights in sites from tenth-century Ireland, among other places. (Fintan O’Toole, A History of Ireland in 100 Objects (2013). ch. 37.)
 

Drogheda Massacre (1651), courtesy of Wikimedia.

On making Ireland less attractive to tourists: After Oliver Cromwell’s scorched-earth campaign of 1651-52, a traveler in Ireland observed that “You may ride twenty miles and scarce discern any thing…but dead men hanging on trees and gibbets.” (ibid, ch, 63.) Unpleasant fellow, that Cromwell.

On Tsar’s Alexander’s misunderstanding of the relationship between autocracy and popular ignorance: During an 1814 visit to England, Alexander I of Russia saw a display of the new “Lancastrian” method of education, whereby older students helped train newer and younger students. He was sufficiently impressed that he opened a Lancastrian school for Russian soldiers billeted in France. It proved very effective. So began a slow but dangerous climb in Russian literacy rates. (Christine Haynes, Our Friends the Enemies: The Occupation of France after Napoleon (2018), ch. 6.)

Roughly, "Shut up and win the war."

On Spanish antecedents to famous English novels: During the Civil War in Spain, George Orwell likely saw a Spanish communist poster “emblazoned with the image of a boot stamping ‘on all who resist forever.’” (D.J. Taylor, On Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Biography (2019), p. 38.)

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Happy holidays to all.