Polybius's Histories

Wikipedia:

Polybius (c. 200 – c. 118 BC) was an ancient Greek historian of the middle Hellenistic period. He is noted for his Histories, a universal history documenting the rise of Rome in the Mediterranean in the third and second centuries BC. It covers the period 264–146, recording in detail events in Italy, Iberia, Greece, Macedonia, Syria, Egypt and Africa, and documents the Punic Wars and Macedonian Wars among many others.

Polybius's Histories is important not only for being the only Hellenistic historical work to survive in any substantial form, but also for its analysis of constitutional change and the mixed constitution. Polybius's discussion of the separation of powers in government, of checks and balances to limit power, and his introduction of "the people", all influenced Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws, John Locke's Two Treatises of Government, and the framers of the United States Constitution.

Polybius was a close friend and mentor to the Roman politician and general Scipio Aemilianus (also called Scipio Africanus the Younger), and had a lasting influence on his decision-making and life.

 . . .Polybius was considered a poor stylist by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, writing of Polybius's history that "no one has the endurance to reach [its] end". Nevertheless, clearly he was widely read by Romans and Greeks alike. He is quoted extensively by Strabo writing in the 1st century BC and Athenaeus in the 3rd century AD.

His emphasis on explaining causes of events, rather than just recounting events, influenced the historian Sempronius Asellio. Polybius is mentioned by Cicero and mined for information by Diodorus Siculus, Livy, Plutarch and Arrian. Much of the text that survives today from the later books of The Histories was preserved in Byzantine anthologies.

His works reappeared in the Western world first in Florence during the Italian Renaissance. Polybius gained a following in Italy, and although poor Latin translations hampered proper scholarship on his works, they contributed to the city's historical and political discourse. Niccolò Machiavelli in his Discourses on Livy evinces familiarity with Polybius. Vernacular translations in French, German, Italian and English first appeared during the 16th century. Consequently, in the late 16th century, Polybius's works found a greater reading audience among the learned public. Study of the correspondence of such men as Isaac Casaubon, Jacques Auguste de Thou, William Camden and Paolo Sarpi reveals a growing interest in Polybius's works and thought during the period. Despite the existence of both printed editions in the vernacular and increased scholarly interest, however, Polybius remained a "historian's historian", not much read by the public at large.

Polybius's political analysis has influenced republican thinkers from Cicero to Montesquieu to the Founding Fathers of the United States. John Adams, for example, considered him one of the most important teachers of constitutional theory. Since the Age of Enlightenment, Polybius has in general held appeal to those interested in Hellenistic Greece and early Republican Rome, while his political and military writings have lost influence in academia. More recently, thorough work on the Greek text of Polybius, and his historical technique, has increased the academic understanding and appreciation of him as a historian.

Video Title: Brian McGing introduces Polybius: The Histories. Source: Oxford Academic (Oxford University Press). Date Published: March 29, 2012. Description:

In this short film, Brian McGing of Trinity College, Dublin, introduces the work of the ancient Greek historian, Polybius. His edition of Polybius's Histories, translated by Robin Waterfield, is available as an Oxford World's Classic. 

 

Video Title: Greek and Roman Historians: Lecture Nine: Polybius. Source: Fr. Dn. Matthew Keil. Date Published: March 21, 2014.

The Assassination of Gaddafi's Son, The Assad Getaway, And The Dynastic Principle In Politics

After reading Robert Worth's "The Fall of The House of Assad" published on February 6 in The Atlantic, I just have to say, man, what a disgrace. 

So many good men died for that piece of shit. He didn't even have the decency to make one final speech and explain to Syrians why he abandoned them in the middle of the night. It was like he was never their leader. He just happened to occupy an office he inherited from his father. 

I don't think he ever wanted to be the president of Syria. As I've said in the past, the honourable thing to have done was to commit suicide, not hop on a jet to Moscow as soon as the clock struck midnight.

But Assad was never a fighter. That's clear now. Putin, the Ayatollahs and Hezbollah propped up a mouse. They wasted men and money on a nobody.

And now a sly fox has captured the chickens. 

The current Al-Qaeda figurehead in Damascus is illegitimate. He was not popularly elected, and his hold on power is tenuous because he gained the throne largely without a fight. Backdoor dealing and political intrigue elevated him to the president's chair, not military conquest. 

Even now, fourteen months after seizing the capital, he still has to rely on Turkey, the United States, Israel, France, England, the EU, and the Arab monarchs to impress his power on Syrians. 

And many of them have already defied him, most recently the tribes that left the Kurdish-led administration in the north of the country to join the Damascus government. Apparently they want a cut of the oil money that they grown used to getting for the past decade which they're not receiving presently. 

The government of Damascus thinks they're ruling over scared slaves. But things have changed. A decade of war, starvation sanctions, and high inflation has turned Syrians more combative towards the government. Many of them are armed. These are tough people. They aren't willing to acquiesce so cheaply and suffer another dictatorship, even one couched in religious appeal.

The country is still a mess, and it will be for the foreseeable future. An Al-Qaeda inspired regime cannot bring political stability to a country of diverse sects and ethnicities. And I'm guessing that's what Israel is banking on.

Libya still hasn't recovered from the disaster in 2011, and now Gaddafi's second son and successor is dead, so the country's future looks even more bleak.

The problem with Assad, Gaddafi, and ad hoc political dynasties is that they forget about the succession. 

Gaddafi should have handed power over to his son many moons ago. Assad should have transferred his dying regime to other, more capable hands since he was never interested in ruling.

These Arab dictators were outwitted by the Jews because of their own frailties and weaknesses. They thought they were lions, but true lions prepare for succession and don't allow their kingdoms to be taken over by hyenas.

Sir Robert Anderson - The Coming Prince

 

Wikipedia:

Sir Robert Anderson KCB (29 May 1841 – 15 November 1918) was the second Assistant Commissioner (Crime) of the London Metropolitan Police, from 1888 to 1901. He was also an intelligence officer, theologian and writer.

. . .He was especially close to some of the greatest biblical teachers of his day, including James Martin Gray, Cyrus Scofield, A. C. Dixon, Horatius Bonar and E. W. Bullinger. He also preached with John Nelson Darby in the West of Ireland. Anderson was a member of the Plymouth Brethren, first with Darby then with the Open Brethren party, before returning to his Presbyterian roots. He wrote numerous theological works: C. H. Spurgeon commented that Anderson's book Human Destiny was "the most valuable contribution on the subject" that he had seen.

Today he is best known for his book, The Coming Prince, linked below, in which he explained the prophecy of the Book of Daniel 9:24. Daniel said the Jewish Messiah would come 483 years after the commandment (of Artaxerxes, king of Persia) to rebuild and restore Jerusalem. Anderson's calculations showed that Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem to public acclaim, Luke 19, known as the Triumphal Entry, on the precise day that was prophesied by Daniel.

An excerpt from, "The Coming Prince" by Sir Robert Anderson, 1894, Chapter 15:

The personality of Satan and his interest in and close connection with our race throughout its history, are among the most certain though most mysterious facts of revelation. The popular classification of angels, men, and devils, as including intelligent creation, is misleading. The angels[18] that fell are "reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the Great Day." (Jude 6) Demons are frequently mentioned in the narrative of the Gospels, and they have also a place in the doctrine of the Epistles. But THE DEVIL is a being who, like the Archangel, seems, in his own domain, to have no peer.

     Another fact which claims notice here is the hold which serpent worship has had upon mankind. Among the nations of the ancient world there was scarcely one in whose religious system it had not a place. In heathen mythology there is scarcely a hero or a god whose history is not connected in some way with the sacred serpent. "Wherever the devil reigned the serpent was held in some peculiar veneration."

     The true significance of this depends on a just appreciation of the nature of idol worship. It may be questioned whether idolatry as popularly understood has ever prevailed except among the most debased and ignorant of races. It is not the emblem that is worshipped, but a power or being which the emblem represents. When the Apostle warned the Corinthian Church against participating in anything devoted to an idol, he was careful to explain that the idol in itself was nothing. "But" (he declared) "the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, not to God, and I would not that ye should have fellowship with demons." (1 Corinthians 10:20.)

     This will afford an insight into the character of the predicted serpent worship of the last days.[21] Satan's master lie will be a travesty of the incarnation: he will energize a man who will claim universal worship as being the manifestation of the Deity in human form. And not only will there be a false Messiah, but another being, his equal in miraculous power, yet having for his only mission to obtain for him the homage of mankind. The mystery of the Godhead will thus be parodied by the mystery of iniquity, and the Father, the Son, and the Spirit will have their counterpart in the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet.

A silent heaven marks this age of grace. Whirlwind and earthquake and fire may awe, yet, as in the days of the old Hebrew prophet, God is not in these, but in the "still small voice" which tells of mercy and seeks to win lost men from the power of darkness to Himself. But the very silence which betokens that the throne of God is now a throne of grace is appealed to as the crowning proof that God is but a myth; and the coarse blasphemer's favorite trick is to challenge the Almighty to declare Himself by some signal act of judgment. In days to come, the impious challenge will be taken up by Satan, and death shall seize on men who refuse to bow before the image of the Beast.

     The Antichrist will be more than a profane and brutal persecutor like Antiochus Epiphanes and some of the Emperors of Pagan Rome; more than a vulgar impostor like Barcochab. Miracles alone can silence the skepticism of apostates, and in the exercise of all the Dragon's delegated power, the Beast will command the homage of a world that has rejected grace. "All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life." (Revelation 8:8) If it were possible, the very elect would be deceived by his mighty "signs and wonders"; (Matthew 24:24) but faith, divinely given, is a sure, as it is the only, safeguard against credulity and superstition.

     But this is what he will become in the zenith of his career. In his origin he is described as a "little horn," (Daniel 7:8) – like Alexander of Macedon, the king of a petty kingdom. Possibly he will be the head of some new Principality to arise in the final dismemberment of Turkey; it may be on the banks of the Euphrates, or perhaps upon the Asian shore of the Aegean Sea. The name of Babylon is strangely connected with events to come, and Pergamus, so long the home of serpent worship in its vilest forms, is the only place on earth which Scripture has identified with Satan's throne (Revelation 2:13).

     Of the great political changes which must precede his advent, the most conspicuous are the restoration of the Jews to Palestine, and the predicted division of the Roman earth. The former of these events has already been considered in a previous chapter, and as regards the latter there is but little to be said. The attempt to enumerate the ten kingdoms of the future would involve a profitless inquiry.[26] History repeats itself; and if there be any element of periodicity in the political diseases by which nations are afflicted, Europe will inevitably pass through another crisis such as that which darkened the last decade of the eighteenth century. And should another revolution produce another Napoleon, it is impossible to foretell how far kingdoms may become consolidated, and boundaries may be changed. Moreover in forecasting the fulfillment of these prophecies, we are dealing with events which, while they may occur within the lifetime of living men, may yet be delayed for centuries. Our part is not to prophecy, but only to interpret; and we may well rest content with the certainty that when the Apocalyptic visions are in fact fulfilled, their fulfillment will be clear, not merely to minds educated in mysticism, but to all who are capable of observing public facts.

Through the gradual unfolding, it may be, of influences even now in operation; or far more probably as the outcome of some great European crisis in the future, this confederation of nations[27] shall be developed, and thus the stage will be prepared on which shall appear that awful Being, the great leader of men in the eventful days which are to close the era of Gentile supremacy.

     If we are to understand aright the predicted course of the Antichrist's career, certain points connected with it must be clearly kept in view. The first is that up to a certain epoch he will be, notwithstanding his pre-eminence, no more than human. And here we must judge of the future by the past. At two-and-twenty years of age, Alexander crossed the Hellespont, the prince of a petty Grecian state. Four years later he had founded an Empire and given a new direction to the history of the world.

     In the career of Napoleon Bonaparte, modern history affords a parallel still more striking and complete. When, now just a hundred years ago, he entered the French military school at Brienne, he was an unknown lad, without even the advantages which rank and wealth afford. So utterly obscure was his position that, not only did he owe his admission to the school to the influence of the Governor of Corsica, but calumny has found it possible to use that trifling act of friendly patronage to the disparagement of his mother's name. If then such a man, by the gigantic force of his personal qualities, combined with the accident of favoring circumstances, could attain the place which history has assigned to him, the fact affords the fullest answer to every objection which can be urged against the credibility of the predicted career of the man of prophecy.

     Nor will it avail to urge that the last fifty years have so developed the mental activity of civilized races, and have produced such a spirit of independence, that the suggestion of a career like Napoleon's being repeated in days to come involves an anachronism. "In proportion as the general standard of mental cultivation is raised, and man made equal with man, the ordinary power of genius is diminished, but its extraordinary power is increased, its reach deepened, its hold rendered more firm. As men become familiar with the achievements and the exercise of talent, they learn to despise and disregard its daily examples, and to be more independent of mere men of ability; but they only become more completely in the power of gigantic intellect, and the slaves of pre-eminent and unapproachable talent."

By the sheer force of transcendent genius the man of prophecy will gain a place of undisputed pre-eminence in the world; but if the facts of his after career are to be understood, considerations of a wholly different kind must be taken into account. A strange crisis marks his course. At first the patron of religion, a true "eldest son of the church," he becomes a relentless and profane persecutor. At first no more than a king of men, commanding the allegiance of the Roman earth, he afterwards claims to be divine, and demands the worship of Christendom.

     And we have seen how this extraordinary change in his career takes place at that epoch of tremendous import in the history of the future, the beginning of the 1, 260 days of the latter half of Daniel's seventieth week. Then it is that that mysterious event takes place, described as "war in heaven" between the Archangel and the Dragon. As the result of that amazing struggle, Satan and his angels are "cast out into the earth," and the Seer bewails mankind because the devil is come down into their midst, "having great wrath because he knoweth that he hath but a short time" (Revelation 12:7, 12).

     The next feature in the vision is the rise of the ten-horned Beast. (Revelation 13:1) This is not the event described in the seventh of Daniel. The Beast, doubtless, is the same both in Daniel and the Apocalypse, representing the last great empire upon earth; but in the Apocalypse it appears at a later stage of its development. Three periods of its history are marked in Daniel. In the first it has ten horns. In the second it has eleven, for the little horn comes up among the ten. In the third, it has but eight, for the eleventh has grown in power, and three of the ten have been torn away by it. Up to this point Daniel's vision represents the Beast merely as "the fourth kingdom upon earth," the Roman empire as revived in future times, and here the vision turns away from the history of the Beast to describe the action of the little horn as a blasphemer and persecutor.

It is at this epoch that the thirteenth chapter of Revelation opens. The three first stages of the history of the empire are past, and a fourth has been developed. It is no longer a confederacy of nations bound together by treaty, with a Napoleon rising up in the midst of them and struggling for supremacy; but a confederacy of kings who are the lieutenants of one great Kaiser, a man whose transcendent greatness has secured to him an undisputed pre-eminence. And this is the man whom the Dragon will single out to administer his awful power on earth in days to come. And from the hour in which he sells himself to Satan he will be so energized by Satan, that "ALL power and signs and lying wonders" shall characterize his after course.

     There is a danger lest in dwelling on these visions as though they were enigmas to be solved, we should forget how appalling are the events of which they speak, and how tremendous the forces which will be in exercise at the time of their accomplishment. During this age of grace Satan's power on earth is so restrained that men forget his very existence. This, indeed, will be the secret of his future triumphs. And yet how unspeakably terrible must be the dragon's power, witness the temptation of our Lord! It is written, "The devil, taking Him up into an high mountain, showed unto Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time; and the devil said unto Him, All this power will I give Thee, and the glory of them, for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give it. If Thou, therefore, wilt worship me, all shall be Thine." (Luke 4:5-7)

     It is this same awful being who shall give to the Beast his throne, his power, and great authority, (Revelation 8:2) – all that Christ refused in the days of His humiliation. The mind that has realized this stupendous fact will not be slow to accept what follows:

"And power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations; and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb" (Revelation 13:7, 8).

Of the events which afterwards must follow upon earth, it behooves us to speak with deep solemnity and studied reserve. The phenomenon of sudden and absolute darkness is inconceivably terrible, even when eagerly looked for with full intelligence of the causes which produce it. How unspeakable then would be its awfulness, if unexpected, unaccounted for, and prolonged, it may be for days together. And such shall be the sign which Holy Writ declares shall mark the advent of earth's last great woe. The signs and wonders of Satanic power shall still command the homage of mankind, while the thunders of a heaven no longer silent will break forth upon the apostate race. Then will be the time of "the seven last plagues," wherein "is filled up the wrath of God," – the time when "the vials of the wrath of God" shall be poured out upon the earth. (Revelation 15:1; 16:1.) And if in this day of grace the heights and depths of God's longsuffering mercy transcend all human thoughts, His WRATH will be no less Divine. "The day of vengeance of our God," "the great and the terrible day of the Lord," – such are the names divinely given to describe that time of unexampled horror.

     And yet when in the midnight darkness of the last apostasy, Divine longsuffering will only serve to blind and harden, mercy itself shall welcome the awful breaking of the day of vengeance, for blessing lies beyond it. Another day is still to follow. Earth's history, as unfolded in the Scriptures, reaches; on to a Sabbatic age of blessedness and peace; an age when heaven shall rule upon the earth, when, "the Lord shall rejoice in all His works," (Psalm 104:31) and prove Himself to be the God of every creature He has made (Psalm 145:9-16).

     Further still, the veil is raised, and a brief glimpse afforded us of a glorious eternity beyond, when every trace of sin shall have been wiped out for ever, when heaven will join with earth, and "the tabernacle of God" – the dwelling place of the Almighty – shall be with men, "and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God"[33]

     It was a calamity for the Church of God when the light of prophecy became dimmed in fruitless controversy, and the study of these visions, vouchsafed by God to warn, and guide, and cheer His saints in evil days, was dismissed as utterly unprofitable. They abound in promises which God designed to feed His people's faith and fire their zeal, and a special blessing rests on those who read, and hear, and cherish them. (Revelation 1:3) One of the most hopeful features of the present hour is the increasing interest they everywhere excite; and if these pages should avail to deepen or direct the enthusiasm even of a few in the study of a theme which is inexhaustible, the labor they have cost will be abundantly rewarded.

The Jewish Question, The Indian Problem, And The Muslim Headache

Below are some early morning thoughts on a few of the global problems I've been thinking about the past couple of days. 

My mind always goes back to the British. They authored a lot of long-standing problems that we're still facing today.

II.

1. The Jewish question is no longer one of statehood and self-determination for the Jewish people. It is now greater in scope and more challenging to solve on a political, civilizational, and religious level.

It is an old problem that's rearing its ugly head once again, and with it, it has reanimated the corpse of anti-Semitism which the Holocaust myth was engineered in part to bury in history.

The problem is ancient Jewish supremacists are now armed with nukes and are blackmailing the most powerful empire of our age to prosecute their wars. They feel emboldened.

Jewish supremacists in the 5th, 10th, 15th, or 18th century could be laughed at. They were an annoyance. In the 21st century they threaten all life on earth. 

Damn the British for giving birth to Israel. They unleashed a problem that's still unsolved a century later.

2. The Indian problem is a fundamentally a political problem, because it's not natural for entire cities and towns in the Western world to suddenly look like India. Our politicians imported millions of Indians without understanding that you can't integrate an entire culture overnight. That type of politically-motivated migration causes major infrastructure and social issues. 

Unlike China, which has tried to address its overpopulation in numerous ways, and successfully emancipated hundreds of millions out of poverty, the Indian elite has done jack shit. Their idea of addressing the problem is exporting it. 

Damn the British for colonizing India.

3. And damn the British once again for bringing back Islam from the dead. Throughout the last two centuries, in Egypt, India, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, basically any Muslim country, the British propped up Muslim figures and generated Muslim groups to take over these countries, oftentimes violently. 

West Asia was not destined to go down the road of political Islam. It was pushed in that direction during every political crisis and regime change opportunity. We're seeing it now in Syria, with the West backing an Islamic tyrant in Damascus.

And now these evil scumbags want to turn London and New York into Muslim cities.

It cannot happen.

Islam is not compatible with the modern world. It cannot reform. It must be destroyed.

Muslims are the retarded stepchildren of the Jews and Christians. It's Monotheism for dummies. They took the worst aspects of Judaism and Christianity and said it was a new revelation. 

I wouldn't be surprised if Rabbis invented the whole damn thing in the first place since the Jews needed an army to fight the Byzantines. In the 6th and 7th centuries they mobilized the Arabs to attack Jerusalem. That was their main target. And it could be because the Jews wanted to evict the Romans from their sacred city. They planned their revenge for a long time.

The Jews are a clever and powerful race. They've been mobilizing stupid Arabs to do their dirty work for centuries. It didn't begin with ISIS and Al-Qaeda. It probably began with Islam itself.

Momigliano's Pagans, Jews, and Christians

 

Wikipedia: 

Arnaldo Dante Momigliano (5 September 1908 – 1 September 1987) was an Italian historian of classical antiquity, known for his work in historiography, and characterised by Donald Kagan as "the world's leading student of the writing of history in the ancient world". He was a MacArthur Fellow in 1987.

. . .Momigliano was born on 5 September 1908 in Caraglio, Piedmont. In 1936, he became Professor of Roman History at the University of Turin, but as a Jew, soon lost his position due to the anti-Jewish Racial Laws enacted by the Fascist regime in 1938, and moved to England, where he remained. After a time at Oxford University, he taught Ancient History at the University of Bristol where he was made a lecturer in 1947. He went to University College London and was elected Chair of Ancient History from 1951 to 1975. He was a Fellow of the Warburg Institute and supervised the PhD of Wolf Liebeschuetz. Momigliano visited regularly at the University of Chicago where he was named Alexander White Professor in the Humanities, and at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. He wrote reviews for The New York Review of Books. In addition to studying the ancient Greek historians and their methods, he also took an interest in modern historians, such as Edward Gibbon, and wrote a number of studies of them.

After 1930, Momigliano contributed a number of biographies to the Enciclopedia Italiana; in the 1940s and 1950s he contributed biographies to the Oxford Classical Dictionary and Encyclopædia Britannica. In his retirement, he was made a distinguished visiting professor for life at the University of Chicago and held fellowships at All Souls College, Oxford and Peterhouse, Cambridge. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1969 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1971.In 1974 he was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

"On Pagans, Jews, and Christians" (Wesleyan University Press):

The focus of this book is the secular cultures of pagan Greece and imperial Rome, and the religious cultures of Judaism and Christianity which, in turn, grew from and influenced them and the modern world. For Momigliano, religion, secular ideology, and politics live in and illuminate the present. Chapters include "The Jews of Italy" (history viewed in the autobiographical perspective of the Momigliano family), "The Disadvantages of Monotheism for a Universal State," "How to Reconcile Greeks and Trojans," and "The Theological Efforts of the Roman Upper Classes in the First Century B.C."

"On Pagans, Jews, and Christians" By Arnaldo Dante Momigliano, Wesleyan University Press, 1987.