The "Gracchi"

You're probably familiar with the "Ides of March" -- a grim anniversary (Mar.15) marking the murder of Julius Caesar by the Roman Senate (44BC). But did you also know that the Roman Senate, in mob-like fury, murdered two other Roman leaders?

The "Gracchi" family was rich, powerful, and well-connected in Roman politics (ca 160BC). Two brothers, TIBERIUS and GAIUS, would pose a very real threat (like Caesar) to the Roman Senate. Tiberius was a proponent of land reform in a time when the Roman peasantry was truly suffering. The poor had become impoverished, and with Roman land in the hands of the wealthy "Elites" (many of whom were Senators) there was little farming to be had. The Roman people were starving. Tiberius proposed a limitation on the amount of land the Elites could own, and he wanted parcels of excess land given to the poor. For his efforts, he was clubbed to death in 132BC by angry Senators. It was the first time a dispute in the Senate would be settled by bloodshed.

Tiberius' brother, Gaius, was also a proponent of land reform. However, Gaius had the backing of an army of followers, making his threat to the power of the Senate very real and immediate. He had his own angry mob of followers ready to take back the excess lands of the rich by force. There was, indeed, a need for land reform and redistribution... but the wealthy Elites would have none of this. The Senate was responsible for murdering Gaius in 121BC, only eleven years after they had murdered his brother. They would go even further and demand the deaths of Gaius' followers... and it is likely that almost 2500 people were murdered on command by the Senate.

Caesar's assasination is more vivid, and it is probably because he was more famous. The "Pater Patria," 80 years later, was more like a "King" inside Rome. He had himself named "Dictator for Life." Here was the man who had defeated Pompey, who had conquered the Gauls, and who had embroiled himself in controversy with Cleopatra in Egypt (the two had a son together). When the Senate conspired to murder him it was done in the same way as they had dispatched Tiberius and Gaius -- a mob moved against Caesar, clubbed him, and then drew their daggers to stab him almost thirty times.

Lawrence has asked about Hammurabi's Code in relation to what I wrote about earlier, with the Sumerians and their first writings on law.
The Sumerians existed much earlier (ca. 3500 BC) than Hammurabi, and their cuneiform writings appeared during their early dynastic period (ca. 3100 BC). Their concepts of law tended toward their own business dealings with other peoples in the Mesopotamia region. They did recognize "morality" in their writings, and as such, their notions of "Law" are more comprehensive. They dealt with "right" and "wrong" -- and this is remarkable in such an early society.
Hammurabi was the sixth king of the Babylonian Empire, and he lived from 1792 - 1750 BC.
He was, indeed, more harsh in his approach toward his people (he had endured a series of wars with neighboring peoples), and the famous "Hammurabi Code" involved "retaliation" over any legal or moral truths. Because of this, it was really more a "codification" of harsh penalties for wrongs committed. These included things like mutilation, drowning, and sometimes even impalement. Things like theivery or false accusations were dealt with in severe extremes. For example, a man who accuses another might be forced to jump into a river... if he did not drown, the accusations were assumed to be true.
Hammurabi's Code makes for a long and detailed text, and as king he was able to excercise great control over the people in his realms. It is interesting that his codes (nearly 300 of them) were inscribed in stone and then put on display for his people -- many of whom could not read.
So, LK, what I will say is that the Sumerians came first, and their notions of "Law" were far more advanced than Hammurabi's "Codes." I do have a soft-spot in my heart for the Sumerians, but I won't let that taint my historical approach or judgement (ha!). I find the Sumerians fascinating... and Hamm's Code, well, not so much.

The "Sumerian" civilization is credited with the invention of writing... but did you know they are also responsible for many of the stories we find in "Genesis," as well as man's first concepts of "time" and "law" ?
Little is known of the earliest Sumerians, but the hot, harsh climate of Mesopotamia would cultivate settlements that were flourishing as early as 3000 B.C. They were perhaps nomadic wanderers who made their way from the mountains into the valley regions, but little is known of their origin because they were simply unrelated to any other people or language of the time (ca. 3500 B.C.)
I always found them interesting because they give us our first glimpse of "historical" writings. They used a pictographic language and their texts were written by pressing the end of a reed or thin animal bone into wet tablets of clay. The tablets were baked, and this produced a wedge-shaped form of writing we know as "Cuneiform." It was a difficult and time-consuming, and as such, there were only a few scribes working on documents in this era.
The Sumerians had a complex government and society, despite the fact that they lived in a region of extreme heat, sweeping sandstorms, a white-hot sun, and very little rain. When the rains did come they were in the form of sudden flash-floods, and farming soil was left damp, marshy, and untendable.
What these people DID have was a very good form of trade. They were masters in metals, glass, textile-weaving, and they worked with the precious items of bronze, copper, gold, and iron. This trade brought them in touch with many different cultures -- and it's very probable their contact with the early Hebrews gave rise to many of the stories used in the Old Testament, particularly the first book of "Genesis." For example, the Sumerians were the first to have a story of the "Tree of Knowledge" and they spoke of a "Paradise" that had been lost to man. This is paralleled in the later Hebrew texts and the Biblical "Garden of Eden." The Sumerians also told a story of a "Great Flood" and the "Tower of Babylon," too, was theirs.
It is interesting that the "Great Flood" shows up in one of the earliest works of literature, the Babylonian "Epic of Gilgamesh." I have not read this (someday I will find time!) but it is based on a series of older Sumerian stories about the mythical king "Aggas" of Kish.
The Sumerians also provided the earliest concepts of "divine law" and a "divine justice." It can be argued that the Hebrews, likewise, developed a strong sense of these two elements in their religion -- although they focused on one "God" while the Sumerians had many different gods.
We also take our notion of the "foot" having 12 inches from them.
And the fact that minutes and hours each have units of "60."
And also that a "Day" has 24 hours.

Here is a nice story, a tale of heroism and selflessnes, and a deeper look at the grace and kindness of humanity in the face of what was perhaps the greatest calamity ever to befall mankind. (I was asked to write something kind on the Blog; it pains me to do it)
The bubonic plague ravaged the villages, towns, and cities of Europe from 1348 - 1350. This was a disease that infected people via fleas (via rats) and took its toll swiftly, killing those infected in a period of days, or hours. It is believed this disease originated in the steppes of Asia, was transmitted to the Tartars, and was carried to Europe by Genoese sailors who traded (and made warfare) with them. Indeed, ships sailing into medieval ports in Sicily in 1348 were rife with men who were dead or dying. Those afflicted showed strange boils and blotches, and swellings known as "buboes" were open and seeping with pus or blood. These men were burning with high fever, their bodies were damp with sweat, and they were coughing up phlegm and blood.
This was a disease that moved quickly, and seemed to carry with it what people believed to be the wrath of an angry God. In 1347 the plague was in Genoa and Venice; by early 1348 it penetrated France; by the terrible hot summer of 1348 it had reached Rome, then Florence, and was teeming in England. The sheer number of people to die was staggering -- in cities it was recorded that 400 to 800 were dead every day; in the towns perhaps four out of five died; smaller villages were wiped out completely, some of them lost forever.
It is hard to imagine that kind of death; it is harder when you consider that people were dying too quickly for them to be buried. Graveyards were full, and streets were littered with rotting corpses. The church bells tolled endlessly... until there was no one left to actually ring them. The plague was highly transmittable through touch, and was even more virulent in its "pneumatic" (breath) form. People turned on each other, they abandoned friends, and even families deserted one another. A brother might leave his father, a husband his wife, a mother her child -- it was as if a man's heart had grown cold, and one person shunned another. (Boccacio)
So it is in this time that I give you the selfless nuns, in the "Hotel Dieu," in Paris.
These were the charitable women who kept to the tenets of their faith and took in, selflessly, victim after victim of the plague. People with purple-black skin and oozing sores would appear from the streets and the nuns would dutifully care for them... even when touching such a person meant certain death. Daily there were carts of people being taken to burial pits (or else left to be scattered in the streets) and the nuns were soon among them. It did not matter; they were constantly being replaced by newer members, by newer nuns who knew what their fate must be. They tended to the sick, cooled their fevers, washed them with water, and tried to dress the open, festering sores... even when it meant that they, too, might be dead within hours.
This was an act of bravery and kindess that stands out, momentarily, from the terrible dark pages of this time period. These women were able to care for strangers in a way that friends or even family did not. It is unthinkable to believe a mother would leave her child, or that a child would abandon his parents. These remarkable women were not afraid to show us that history is about humanity, and the ways we are compassionate and kind, and the stories we need to share.
(It so hurts me to be nice)

Lawrence has asked me to post something about American History, so I will do it, just for him, to make him well-happy. It's not that I don't "like" Am Hist -- it's just that I've studied more European History and I'm into things like the Crusades, the Church, Byzantium, and the Black Death. So, LK, my buddy, this one is all for you. I love ya.
You may be familiar with the Salem Witch Trials. They took place between 1692 - 93 in the American colony of Massachussetts. This was a larger part of a conflict between the traditional "farmer" way of life common to the early colonists -- and the new, more secular colonists who were more interested in commercialism than religious tradition. It's possible you're not familiar with one elderly farmer named GILES CORY, who was put to death for his alleged involvement in "witchcraft" in 1693. Like the women accused of such crimes, Cory was sent to trial before a panel of men, most of whom represented the older "Puritan" and "Patriarchical" ways of colonial tradition. The old farmer (Cory was nearly 80) was asked to show these men what he had been accused of -- namely, being "possessed" by a supernatural spirit. Cory refused to answer and was then committed to be "pressed to death."
The poor man was laid on his back, and then wooden slats were placed on top of him. Then rocks were placed upon the wood, one after another, over a period of days until the weight was no longer sustainable... and he was crushed to death.
What has always interested me is the fact that this was an old, old man who was perhaps not fully aware of the charges being leveled against him. He was not fully coherent and was perhaps not able to answer his accusers. Indeed, he would not have been able to speak to them at all, given the weight being pressed down on him. It is recorded that he bit off his own tongue as he gasped and struggled for air. And his accusers, in an effort to gain the truth, stood on top of the rocks and eagerly tried to press down on them.
Next Week -- a more pleasant story, I promise.
We'll go back to the Crusades.

Pope John XXII (r. 1316 - 1334) was known for giving lavish feasts. His pontificate would set the tone for the what was known as the "Avignon Papacy" in France. This was a period in History where the Papal See had been moved from Rome to Avignon in what the Italian poet PETRARCH referred to as "The Babylonian Captivity."
The writer went much further to call the Papal Court a veritable "Hell on Earth" and referred to it as a "sink of iniquity" and the "cess-pool of the world."
Indeed, the Papal Court was elaborate, extravagant, lavish, and decked with wanton greed, avarice, simony, and favors given freely to royalty.
In celebrating the marriage of his grand-neice in 1324, Pope John XXII went to extremes.
According to record, the guests at the newly erected Papal Palace in Avignon would consume over 4000 loaves of bread, 8 oxen, 55 sheep, 8 pigs, 4 boars, and vast quantities of fish, chicken, partridge, rabbits, duck, and other wild game. So, too, they would consume over 300 lbs of cheese, over 3000 eggs, and nearly 450 liters of royal wine.
Many were disgusted by such a display and there were calls for the Pope to return to "simpler" ways in following a life for Christ. Unfortunately, the Popes would not be released from their "Captivity" for another 40 years. In 1377 they would leave Avignon and return back to Rome.

Hannibal was famous for crossing the Alps (218BC) with his elephants, and for using the animals in his battles against Rome during the Punic Wars.
But long before elephants it was the use of camels that proved effective in War.
The "Battle of Thymbra" took place in 546BC.
Cyrus the Great (Cyrus II) sought to expand his rule, and the rule of the "Persians," in the central and southern regions of Asia (modern-day Iran).
He was forcefully opposed by the "Lydians," a small empire that had itself arisen from the fallen Hittite kingdoms nearly five hundred years before. There was much wealth to be found in conquering these people, and the warfare between Cyrus and the Lydian King Croesses was vividly detailed in the histories of the day.
Cyrus was pressing against Croesses, seeking the fabulously wealthy city of "Sardis," when he devised a plan to use camels as weapons in his attack. These were pack-animals, but the camels were instead placed in the front of the marching army, and as the Persians approached the Lydians it was the Lydian horses that withdrew in terror. The horses feared the smell of the camels and they reared back, throwing off their riders, and it was not difficult for the Persians to rush forward, cutting down man after man... until they soon found themselves ankle-deep in Lydian blood. The battle quickly became a massacre, and it secured Cyrus' position over Lydia.
Cyrus would continue his quest for "Empire" and soon captured territories in Greece, Babylonia, Syria, Egypt, and Palestine -- with his camels in battle beside him.
Cyrus' grandson, "Darius I," would later become famous in the Persian conflicts against the Greeks and the "Battle of Marathon" in 490BC.