Back to Hank

Readying for Better Weather

During the spring oil changes, I swapped out the timing cover...

...and the Derby cover, since I had to remove it anyway to do the primary fluid.

Very soon now those dawns will be right.

Georgia Warhorse

Canadian Freedom

Courtesy of the USA, of course. Their government wasn't going to loosen regulations if left to its own devices.

Berry Diversity in North America

A pretty neat series of maps. 

Anabasis XXV: Conclusion

There's only one more adventure related to us by Xenophon in his account of his time with the Ten Thousand -- which, by the way, is estimated to have shrunk to just over half that size by this point. It's a relatively small-scale battle involving only a few hundred men, which occurred while they were awaiting their new Spartan commander Thibron and his larger force of which they were to become a quasi-independent subordinate command.

Following a sacrifice to Zeus in his aspect as the giver of wealth, which an oracle tells Xenophon he has been neglecting, the nearly-broke Xenophon finally receives some rewards for his efforts. Friends even buy back the horse he had to sell, which is good because his campaigns are not finished. They then go to Pergamon in what is now Turkey, where their hostess Hellas suggests they capture a Persian warlord and his household while they wait for the main army. Omens suggest that this will be the source of further rewards. 

Xenophon takes about three hundred men on the raid. He encounters an enemy that turns out to be fortified in a tower that is described as eight brick-layers thick. In an overnight assault, Xenophon's men break through the tower but are unable to seize the occupants who are well-armed and defended. Fearing themselves near rout due to injury and exhaustion, they form up into the hollow-square formation they used on a much larger scale in Persia and retreat with captured cattle and members of the household who were caught outside (mostly slaves I gather). 

However, this assault provoked the warlord and his family to decamp from the fortification. Intending to evacuate the area, they were instead captured by the main army of Thibron now arriving. Xenophon is awarded his choice of the captured wealth of this man and his family given that his raid was the proximate cause of the easy capture. Xenophon takes his choice and generously distributes it among his friends and supporters who have fought with him for so long. 

The book closes with Xenophon's yielding of command to Thibron, who takes the whole force to battle their old enemy Tissaphernes.

That is the last thing we learn from Xenophon about his time with the Myriad. There are a few other sources for what happened during that period, and for what happened afterwards, but for the next five years we really don't know what Xenophon was doing. Many assume he spent the whole period in Spartan service given what we know of his success, life, and position afterwards. He may have stayed with his old companions for a long time; he may have been one of the last of them still in service when he gained a new friend the Spartan King Agesilaus with whom Xenophon shared mutual admiration and support.

Despite the traditional secrecy fostered by the Spartiates, the reign of Agesilaus is particularly well-known thanks to the works of his friend Xenophon, who wrote a large history of Greece (the Hellenica) covering the years 411 to 362 BC, therefore extensively dealing with Agesilaus' rule. Xenophon furthermore composed a panegyric biography of his friend, perhaps to clean his memory from the criticisms voiced against him. Another historical tradition—much more hostile to Agesilaus than Xenophon's writings—has been preserved in the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia, and later continued by Diodorus of Sicily. Moreover, Plutarch wrote a biography of Agesilaus in his Parallel Lives, which contains many elements deliberately omitted by Xenophon.

It was Agesilaus who established Xenophon with the estate near Scillus that he mentioned earlier in the Anabasis as a pleasant place with all sorts of game. With the goodwill of the Spartans who, for the moment, controlled this region, he can enjoy the good life and have time to become the prolific writer that he did. In the introduction to the Warner edition I have been reading, George Cawkwell writes:

Like the typical Peloponnesian gentleman, he looked to Sparta as the inspiration of the good life, and sent his sons there for the best education that he deemed Greece could offer; he visited the city at its chief festivals; he was entertained by Agesilaus, meeting in his company along with other aristocratic clients.... At the Olympic festival, he was well placed to return hospitality, and we may picture him and his guests nodding sage approval of the Panhellenic speeches.... Altogether it was a time of happiness, and of leisure to reflect and to begin to write. [Xenophon, The Persian Expedition, trans. Rex Wagner (London & New York: Penguin Books, 1972), 15.]

The Anabasis was not his most famous book anywhere near his lifetime. His works pertaining to Agesilaus had more interest to his contemporaries, as did his work on horsemanship. His Education of Cyrus was far more famous during the Roman period; Caesar was said to keep a copy with him. His accounts of Socrates have been of more interest to philosophers throughout the times during which we have had access to them. The Anabasis' fame may chiefly arise, in fact, from the period when every educated man had to learn to read Classical Greek: it is fairly straightforward grammatically, and contains an interesting story to which young men could be relied upon to devote their attention. It was thus ideal for students, generations of whom followed the Ten Thousand to "The Sea! The Sea!"

I hope you've enjoyed working through this book with me. As the winter ends and the spring brings better weather for new adventures, let us bring this series to a close.

UPDATE: For those who requested that I add the series to the sidebar, this has been done.

Blood Moon

We rose last night at two-thirty to go out and witness the totality of the Blood Moon eclipse. It was a clear night here in the mountains, with both the moon and the stars sharp in the sky. 

Free Speech Arguments

I've always believed in free speech, even very nasty speech that I personally wouldn't say or enjoy hearing. There are strong arguments for protecting even jerks who say terrible things, for example, so you'll know who the jerks who think terrible things are. It's always the jerks you are supporting in this game, in fact, because they're the ones who are going to run afoul of limits. 

Thus I appreciate this thoughtful critique of some actions that the present administration is taking that arguably are unconstitutional transgressions of the First Amendment. These are not the usual suspects for whom that administration can do no right but ever wrong; rather, they're supporters more or less who are pointing out that some of this is over the line. Not all of it, though, and they try to draw out where the lines really are or ought to be.

Grimgard

This sounds like a fun project from our friends at Grimfrost.

Anabasis XXIV

Their new employer Seuthes holds a welcoming banquet; he has cleverly seeded it with a man whose job is to solicit bribes from any wealthy men among his new charges. Xenophon is embarrassed because he doesn't really have anything to offer, but he does give a generous speech pledging friendship of himself and the army. Seuthes does manage to get a nice Persian carpet, which apparently was a thing even back then; Xenophon discusses them in other of his books as well.

Seuthes is a sensible man, and so when the Greeks propose an alteration to his usual method of night-marching he is able to see the tactical sense and agree to it. Xenophon demonstrates excellence as an officer again in their initial attack: Seuthes sends him forward with his men, and then asks why Xenophon is dismounting when speed is wanted.

When they had reached the villages, Seuthes, with about thirty troopers, rode up, exclaiming: "Well, Xenophon, this is just what you said! the fellows are caught, but now look here. My cavalry have gone off unsupported; they are scattered in pursuit, one here, one there, and upon my word, I am more than half afraid the enemy will collect somewhere and do them a mischief. Some of us must remain in the villages, for they are swarming with human beings." "Well then," said Xenophon, "I will seize the heights with the men I have with me, and do you bid Cleanor extend his line along the level beside the villages." When they had done so, there were enclosed--of captives for the slave market, one thousand; of cattle, two thousand; and of other small cattle, ten thousand.

Seuthes burns the village and sends the plunder to market so that he can assure pay for the soldiers. This is indeed a more sensible approach to mercenaries than the ones the Spartans attempted at Byzantium!

The warning of burning the first village causes the villagers of others nearby to flee, thus obtaining for the army a winter camp with plenty of buildings and supplies. At first this seems good for the army because it is already bitterly cold: Xenophon remarks that they suddenly understood the Thracian fondness for fur caps. Yet Xenophon quickly realizes that the tactical position is poor: the enemy is not only still close, they are the experts on the structure of the encampment because they are the ones who built it. Sure enough, when the attack comes each party is led by the owner of the house being attacked. They know its layout and location perfectly. Xenophon and his men are in some peril of being burned alive as the parties set fire to the houses, but the Greeks manage to hold out long enough to be rescued by the cavalry.

The man who was sent to sell off the plunder returns, but only has enough to pay for twenty days' pay rather than the full month owed. He and Xenophon clash over this, and he afterwards begins slandering Xenophon (so we are assured by Xenophon!) to Seuthes. This causes a chilly relationship between Xenophon and Seuthes. The soldiers also begin to be irritated with Xenophon as they are not getting any more pay at this time.

Yet the expedition is going very well. Seuthes' basic goal is to recapture his family's old country for himself, and people are coming and pledging loyalty to him just as he desired. The army is quite successful. The only problem is what to do with them now that they've served their purpose. 

Lo and Behold, some Spartan emissaries arrive with a solution to that problem. Tissaphernes, whom you will remember as the Persian leader who murdered the Ten Thousand's first generals and led the Persian pursuit of them all the way into Kurdistan, has been appointed Satrap of Cyrus' old satrapy. That territory borders the Greek world, and runs up against the part controlled by the Spartans. They want to hire the Myriad to go to war with him. 

Initially Seuthes and his advisors thinks this is a great way to get rid of the army without paying them, but that doesn't work. The offer does provoke a dramatic dispute between Xenophon and his soldiers, but in the end he convinces them to stay and fight for their money before taking any Spartan job. The plundering of this newly-won land quickly produces enough upset among Seuthes' new citizens to convince him to pay up after all. The army is delighted to receive their back wages -- which they had definitely earned, since they fully succeeded in their mission -- and now has a new job.

Requiescat in Pace “Patch”

My friend “Patch” has died. He was a former member of the Outlaws MC turned Harley mechanic. His nickname arose from a missing eye, which he often covered in piratical fashion. 

I liked and respected him. He was a good man as well as a skilled mechanic. I respected his skill at fabrication, which is an area of mechanics that I admire because it is so much more difficult than simply replacing parts. He could machine you something that worked, and worked perfectly. 

Nor would he accept even reasonable compensation for this skill. I always had to argue with him to get him to take more than he asked, because ‘a workman is worthy of his hire,’ and I couldn’t have worked his miracle with any amount of time. He was always offering to take ‘twenty bucks’ or something like that for spending hours of his time turning something out. 

He was a good man and husband. He celebrated his turn to the latter life, which he felt was better than his youth. 

A man of honor. 

Christianity and Foreign Affairs

Two articles today that sort of tread the line on AVI's 'news or not' division. The first one is not really news, but a meditation on how St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas guide US grand strategy. It calls for a grand strategy of "Justice, Fortitude, Restraint and Temperance." 

The second article is a little more newsy because it looks at some present-day applications from the same perspective. What duties do Christians have towards the Christians being massacred in Syria and elsewhere right now? 

“Involvement does not mean military,” contended Perkins. “I don’t believe we should be sending our troops everywhere. But, as you pointed out, there are other means.”

“I would be in the front line of arguing that the neoliberal interventionism that had so possessed the United States over the course of the last 40 or 50 years — it has proved itself to be unworkable,” Mohler granted. “Our massive investments of blood and treasure all over the world, in causes that we declared won, only to have them lost again, are a grave warning against believing that we can just make our will [happen] wherever we want it around the world.”

Sadly -- tragically -- accurate as a pragmatic assessment of the last decades.  

Anabasis XXIII

Once the riot has been quelled and discipline restored, Xenophon tries to make peace with the governing authorities of Byzantium. They are not quite sure what to do with him. Finally they agree to let him come inside the town, with a view towards leaving the army and sailing home.

The army begins to break up, some men selling their arms and returning home as well. Some of the generals try to convince it to remain under new orders, either to go to Seuthes (who had bribed two of the generals, one with a horse and one with a woman) or to serve the Spartans (here "Lacedaemonians," which I assume you all know is another name for the Spartans and the root of our word 'laconic'). 

A historical note not made clear in the text: these events coincide with the end of the Spartan year, which was in the autumn, and thus there are some changes of office about to happen. Byzantium will get a new governor and admiral, for example, and they have different ideas about the Ten Thousand. Likewise, whatever remains of the army will have to find a place to winter. There are also about to be changes in the leadership of the Persians whose territory begins, as you will recall, not all that far away: Cyrus had been in charge of the satrapy bordering the Greek world.

The new Spartan governor of Byzantium begins selling former soldiers of Cyrus' into slavery. Xenophon suggests that members of the Ten Thousand may have been sold, but it isn't clear if he means all four hundred he mentions were of the Ten Thousand, or if other soldiers of Cyrus' old territories had come to Byzantium seeking refuge from the Persian King. 

The former Spartan admiral Anaxibius, finding himself cut off from support now that he no longer possesses a powerful office, summons Xenophon and gives him command of a warship and a letter of authority to retake command of the Ten Thousand. Anaxibius had been pleased to see them breaking up while he was an admiral, but now he would like to pull as many of them as possible back together to serve his own interests. Xenophon agrees, and the army celebrates his return. Xenophon begins trying to get them shipped across to Asia for their new contract.

The new Spartan admiral, whose name is Aristarchus, tells Xenophon that by no means will he allow this, and in fact will sink any ships that try to transport the Ten Thousand anywhere. 

Xenophon conducts a sacrifice whose victims apparently conveyed a way for him to get his army to Seuthes after all. Exactly how this worked is a little mysterious. Seuthes' army is nearby, also in need of a winter camp. They link up with Xenophon and the Myriad, and Seuthes and Xenophon plus their aides de camp have a celebration of friendship (i.e. they drink together as is customary, the text says in Thrace, but indeed for soldiers almost everywhere and in every era). 

Seuthes proposes to employ the Ten Thousand in trying to restore his family domain from another family that had conquered it. He promises the Ten Thousand a home in this country if they will help him regain his own command of it.

Aristarchus offers a counterproposal that they fight for him in forcing their way to "the sacred mountain" (you may think of Olympus, but it's more likely Mount Ida in what is now Turkey). The army discusses the two, asks some questions of Seuthes, and then votes to back Seuthes' effort on the strength of logistical concerns: he has the ability to help them winter before the campaign, knowing the location of many places where they can obtain resources for their army as well as his own.

We are coming to the end of this story.

* The online translation describes the Byzantine reaction to a proposal from Xenophon as them being "at sixes and sevens," as opposed to the Warner translation which merely says they are "split up into a number of hostile camps." This is not at all a Greek phrase, but does date to at least Geoffrey Chaucer and has an interesting history.

Black Danes & White Danes

In the British Isles, sometimes the Vikings were categorized as “White Danes” or as “Black Danes.” Unlike the monks who were subjected to a similar categorization scheme by the color of the robes their Order wore, the Vikings were assigned the color based on whether they tended to be blue eyed and light haired (and thus from Norway) or dark haired and eyed (and this from Denmark). 

It turns out that the White Danes were much more violent. At least this seems to be the case if measured by extrajudicial killings. Presumably this was because Norway was lawless for longer, quite a bit longer in places. The government killings don’t count. 

Social Workers and Police

You almost certainly remember the stories from back in 2020 about 'defunding the police' and replacing them with social workers -- or, in a more sober form, maybe putting some resources into having social workers who would be able to assist with certain kinds of calls. 

Locally, some of our small towns have been trying a version of that. The police aren't being defunded at all, and the social workers are college student interns or grad students from the local university. It is, however, working pretty well. They don't send the social worker instead of police, but rather on some kinds of calls a cruiser where a social worker volunteer is riding along is the one selected to respond.

Likewise, Chief David Adams said he was initially skeptical about having a social worker responding to calls when the conversation hit the mainstream in 2020; however, he admitted that he’s been “pleasantly surprised.” Despite his initial apprehension, Adams called the Sylva police chief to see how the program was working over there. When he heard how well things were going, he became intrigued and got onboard.  

Now, not only is [social worker Kasey] Curcio viewed as a valuable asset for the department, another social work intern from WCU, Tom Hines, is doing his internship with WPD and is also excelling.

It's an encouraging story, and another demonstration of how voluntary citizen non-coercive approaches can improve things. By coincidence that removes the tension around departments worrying about being 'de-funded,' and instead allows them to embrace the change rather than resisting it or feeling threatened by it.

By All Means Raise Chickens

We've got quite a few eggs at a time when eggs and egg prices are problems for many Americans.

The high point of the collection.

The reason is that my wife decided to take up raising chickens as a hobby. I was unsure about this but, as usual when my uncertainty conflicts with her determination, she got her way. For a long time I really didn't love the chickens, especially the screaming roosters (which I took satisfaction in killing and eating). However, the eggs have really won me over. I now regard at least the hens as welcome additions to our little enclave on the mountain. Even the current rooster isn't so bad, because I know he produces more hens to replace the old ones as they stop laying. 

The Washington Post doesn't like the idea, though, because they associate it with the (second?) most hated person in their world. "No harm, no fowl: Trump recommends a return to subsistence farming."

“How do we solve for something like this?” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins asked on Fox News. “People are sort of looking around and thinking, ‘Wow, maybe I could get a chicken in my backyard,’ and it’s awesome.”

In no universe does it make economic sense for every American household — many of whom live in urban areas or even suburbs where it’s illegal to keep live poultry — to start farming their own food. The fact that we humans don’t have to spend all our time growing our own sustenance, and can instead specialize in other fields where we’re more productive, is a tremendous victory for our species.

Our post-agrarian society has allowed Americans to lead richer, healthier, longer, more leisure-filled lives. There’s a reason politicians a century ago promised “a chicken in every pot,” not a “chicken in every yard.”... 

It actually makes perfect sense for as many Americans as practical to begin raising some of their own food. In World War II we called that "Victory Gardens." In fact, we had one here during COVID that was quite large.

One of three raised beds; I was building a stone walkway when this was taken.

Our farming efforts have shrunk a bit since then, but it was a perfectly sound idea and even a very defensible public policy. It's a surge capacity Americans have used frequently in the past to get through hard times.

“Homesteading influencer” content might be trendy on social media, but surely the way to Make America Great Again does not involve having everyone raise their own livestock, log their own forests and galvanize their own steel wire. But that is, perhaps, the logical conclusion of Trump’s lifelong fixation with autarky, the idea that an economy should not engage in trade and instead be self-sufficient.

If countries should be economically self-supporting, why not states? If states, why not neighborhoods? If neighborhoods, why not every man, woman and child for themselves? Between bird flu and measles and other contagions, adopting the trad-wife/prepper lifestyle might sound pretty attractive right now.

I do in fact cut my own firewood to heat my own house, grow many of the vegetables we eat in warmer weather, can sauces made from tomatoes for use in colder weather, kill my own deer and butcher it too. It's hardly subsistence farming to do that, because it's coupled with a career of the sort she's talking about. It's just a way of being a little healthier, and a little more in control of my life, and a little closer to nature. 

In fact if she reflected on it, she'd probably recognize this scheme from a source she might like better: Karl Marx. 

For as soon as the distribution of labour comes into being, each man has a particular, exclusive sphere of activity, which is forced upon him and from which he cannot escape. He is a hunter, a fisherman, a herdsman, or a critical critic, and must remain so if he does not want to lose his means of livelihood; while in communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic. 

It turns out the communist society was not a necessary condition for this sort of life after all. I let the chickens out in the morning, split wood in the spring afternoon, hunt in the autumn, can in the summer, write commentaries on philosophical works in the cold winters. I'm not a professional hunter, maker of sauces, or livestock man of any kind. Occasionally I've written a book or a poem or two, but I don't make my living by it. What I do professionally is something else entirely. 

Raising chickens may or may not make sense for you, but don't let them talk you out of it if you want to -- no more than my wife let me talk her out of it! She was right about this one.

Anabasis XXII

The army crosses now to Byzantium. This is the same city that will one day become Constantinople, and later Istanbul. You may recall that Anaxibius, the admiral of Byzantium, had promised to hire the army if it came to him. Well, he does not in fact produce any pay, although he does produce orders for them to deploy -- and to feed themselves as best they may from the countryside. 

Not paying a large, disciplined army of mercenaries as promised is a terrible idea. The army riots, and even in its riot is able to take the city. This is potentially a disaster of extreme proportion, for even in those days Byzantium was a center of the trade of grains and foodstuffs throughout the region. Indeed, the Spartans had seized the city from Athens during the Peloponnesian War precisely to cut off Athens' grain supply; and while Athens later recaptured it, the Spartans are currently in control of it. The Spartan admiral who promised them money decamps from the city on a fishing boat(!), and escapes to a citadel from which he summons reinforcements.

Xenophon, gravely concerned about the future if he allows the army to plunder this city, manages to restore order and to have the whole army fall into ranks in a large square suitable for such a muster. He explains to them that they are in an inferior position to Athens' when it started its war with Sparta, and therefore can expect even worse results if they provoke open war between themselves and the Spartans. He is successful in reining them in using this rhetorical strategy, and he sends messages to the Spartan admiral to explain that the army feels it has been treated unfairly and would like some additional help in provisioning itself for the expedition he wants them to undertake. 

Xenophon has done some great things in this story, but this may be the greatest. Bringing a rioting army back to order is not an easy task. He accomplished it, got them to fall into their ranks, and then reasoned with them successfully to restrain them from the impulse to plunder. That is truly impressive to me.