Giving Unto Caesar
There is an interesting question buried beneath this dispute. It hails from Mark 12:17.
It's worth putting into context.
Later, they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to catch Jesus in His words. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that You are honest and seek favor from no one. Indeed, You are impartial and teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them or not?”But Jesus saw through their hypocrisy and said, “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to inspect.” So they brought it, and He asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”“Caesar’s,” they answered.Then Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”And they marveled at Him.
That last line is important. It's translated sometimes as them being "amazed," or that they "greatly marveled." The answer in other words is not meant to be simple, but amazing or marvelous. Which, by the way, refutes the quip made by one side to the Twitter discussion: "Whenever someone writes five paragraphs to try to avoid the very plain meaning of a verse I know I've won the argument." Hardly. You haven't even begun to understand the argument.
The discussion is among Jews of a particularly philosophical and religious bent. In that context, what does it mean to say "whose image is this?"
One answer is the one they give: It's Caesar's image, so perhaps it belongs to Caesar.
Another answer in the tradition, however, is that all men are made in God's image. So whose image is it really?
It's possible to go further than that. Because this object is currency, its value is partially (sub)created by Rome. Like Job's brave horse, men did something to bring out or perfect a quality that was only potential in the natural. The denarius was a silver coin, but because it was stamped by Rome it could be traded freely without anyone bothering to measure its weight. That convenience made it more valuable than, say, Viking hacksilver.
The silver was not made by Rome, though. Its nature and value arise from God's work: all its properties, but also all of our properties that make silver's properties valuable to us, those are things we did not make.
Ultimately the only part of the coin that Caesar might reasonably claim is this idea that the coin is worth something. That's the thing that you should give back to Rome, maybe. Give them back the idea that they've added anything, or that their money or the order they represent is worth something to you. The rest belongs to God.
To God, and not to you: certainly not to the state. Jesus' quite challenging teaching is that you should give up all these physical things. They aren't important, he says over and over. A man might even leave his dead father unburied, give away all his family wealth, and instead devote his life to God. That teaching is far more challenging than "Pay your taxes."
Three-hour tour
SpaceX could have rescued these guys a while back, but for the spite of the Biden administration. They were awfully happy to see their rescuers arrive at last.
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.
Canadian Freedom
Courtesy of the USA, of course. Their government wasn't going to loosen regulations if left to its own devices.
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.
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.
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