Numbers of the Trojan War

The Trojan War was the war that lasted TEN years and was caused by ONE face that launched a THOUSAND ships. It was the battlefield of Achilles and Hector, the stage for great kings such as Priam and Agamemnon and the location of what was possibly sly Odysseus's greatest triumph.

Aeneas Flees Fallen Troy

But there are lots of numbers in the story of the Trojan War, told in Homer's great work of poetry and the first western story, the Iliad. Below are some of these numbers and their significance to the story of ancient Greece's greatest victory.

1. THREE - The judgement of Paris is often used to explain the causes of the Trojan War. In the myth, Eris, goddess of strife and discord, after not being invited to the wedding of Achilles parents, bought a golden apple to the event and said it should only be awarded to the most beautiful goddess there. Hera, Athena and Aphrodite all claimed the apple, Zeus not wishing to offend any of them, declared that Paris, a trojan prince, should judge. After various inducements, he gave the apple to Aphrodite after she promised him the love of the most beautiful women in the world, Helen, the wife of Spartan King Menelaus. 
2. ONE - When the suitors of Helen could not describe who should be awarded her hand in marriage, it was clever Odysseus alone that came up with the idea that all her suitors should swear an oath to support and defend the marriage, regardless of which suitor was chosen. 
3. TWENTY EIGHT - The number of contingents from mainland Greece that sent ships to the war in support of Agamemnon and Menelaus. 
4. ONE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED - The number of ships that Thucydides records as making up the Greek army in his History of the Peloponnesian War Book One Chapter Ten.
5. FIFTEEN - The number of Trojan allies listed in the second book of the Iliad, ultimately led by Hector the Prince of Troy.
6. NINE - The number of years that the Greeks besieged Troy for. This period is little recorded in myth or tales in favour of the exciting and bloody final year of the war. 
7. ELEVEN and TWELVE - The number of cities and islands that Homer records as Achilles conquering in the first book of the Iliad.
8. TWELVE - The number of days that Achilles abused the body of Hector after he had killed him in single combat. It was only after the gods intervened and only after Priam, led by Hermes, came to recover his son's body personally, that Achilles relented and returned the body. 
9. TWO - The number of people who advised against keeping the gift of the Trojan Horse. Cassandra, who had the gift of prophesy but was cursed never to be believed, and Laocoon who along with his two sons was eaten by serpents from the sea. 
10. EIGHT - The number of years it took for Menelaus to return home from Troy, with Helen in tow completely forgiven, his wife and queen again. 

The Laocoon from The Vatican Museum

It seems a shame after TEN years and a THOUSAND ships, that the story should end with Helen returning home to Sparta, the ONE wife and queen of the very man she had run away from in the first place. But, who doesn't love a happy ending?

Thanks for Reading

James

An Emperor, A Fisherman and a Crab

There are some days when you wonder why you even bothered to get out of bed. Times when you try to do the right thing only for it to fail, or occasions where a simple attempt at kindness, results in a huge fish being rubbed all over your face.

Bust of Tiberius fromThe British Museum

Tiberius Caesar Divi Augusti Filus Augustus was the second Emperor/Princeps of Rome and the cruelty and capricious nature of the later years of his rule, are what have come to define his time in power. The Step-son of Augustus after his mother Livia married him, Tiberius was a faithful, if not occasionally reluctant lieutenant of the burgeoning Roman Empire and to Augustus. Inheriting power in 14 AD after Augustus' death, his rule was marked with events like the controversial death of the beloved Germanicus, and tiring of the politics of Rome he retired to Capri.

"Yet conceived so intense a loathing for the municipalities, the colonies, and all things situated on the mainland, that he vanished into the Isle of Capreae"

Tacitus Annals Book 4 Chapter 67

It is during his time on the island, in his palace on the cliffs that many of his debauched and depraved activities are recorded. The swimming in pools with small children he named "minnows" nibbling at him, the throwing of guilty men from the cliffs to be beaten with paddles as they fell and finished off if they survived and many more are recorded. 

"When the restraints of shame and fear were gone, and nothing remained but to follow his own bent, he plunged impartially into crime and ignominy"

Tacitus Annals Book 6 Chapter 51

A possible apocryphal tale from Suetonius tells the tales of an unfortunate man who tried to present the gift of a large mullet he had caught to the Princeps. Suetonius was a historian from nearly a hundred years after the time of Tiberius during the reign of the Emperor Domitian, and his Twelve Caesar's is one of the main sources we have for the period, especially wonderful for its particular focus on gossip, hearsay and tall tales. 

"A fisherman appeared unexpectedly and offered him a huge mullet; whereupon in his alarm that the man had clambered up to him from the back of the island over rough and pathless rocks, he had the poor fellow's face scrubbed with the fish"

Suetonius The Life of Tiberius Chapter 60

There are several things remarkable about this tale. Firstly that the old client system of presenting yourself to your patron no longer applied to the Emperor, arguably a patron to the whole empire. The Emperor was no longer an approachable man, He was hidden by guards and gates from the very people he patronised. 

Secondly that the power of the Princeps had grown in under a hundred years to the point where he could command that someone be tortured with a fish and it happened with the fisherman being ex-foliated with a fish being able to do nothing about it.

Tiberius' Villa on Capri

"And because in the midst of his torture the man thanked his stars that he had not given the Emperor an enormous crab that he had caught, Tiberius had his face torn with the Crab also"

Suetonius The Life of Tiberius Chapter 60

The tale of the the fisherman is perhaps a warning to us all then, to not merely present ourselves to an Emperor. However, it shows an Empire in evolution. Clearly the fisherman of the tale still viewed himself in a world where the client/patron system was working, where he could merely arrive at the house of the Princep and give him a gift. But by this time, the subtle consolidating of power through the control of access was already being established. 

At this point in the early empire was the Princeps already seeing himself as a "king", higher and more important than those he ruled, even if his kingdom covered the whole of the Mediterranean? Unfortunately for our brave fisherman, Tiberius, through either superiority or paranoia was not the sort of Emperor you could walk up to with a fish. Let alone a crab. 

Thanks for Reading

James

Rome's City of Skyscrapers - Insulae and the Pomererium

Cities around the world throughout history have often come across the same problem, space. New York and Hong Kong for example are both geographically limited by space and as a result have built upwards. Their skylines are famous and iconic around the globe and yet are inimitably practical.

But where did this need to go vertical come from? In the city of Rome, perhaps the first city of skyscrapers, the insulae (apartment buildings housing all levels of class and some standing as much as nine storeys high) came about for a very simple and highly religious reason, the Pomerium.

Insulae

The Pomerium was a religious boundary around Rome. Everything within the Pomerium was Rome, everything outside was not. Myth says that the path of the Pomerium followed the line that Romulus, the legendary founder of the city, ploughed while laying the foundations for the cities original walls.

"Remus leaped over the new walls in mockery of his brother, whereupon Romulus in great anger slew him, and in menacing wise added these words withal "So perish whoever else shall leap over my walls!"

Livy Ab Urbe Condita Book 1 Chapter 7

The area of the Pomerium was extended by the Dictator Sulla in 80 BC to aid the growing city, as well as no doubt showing off his own immense power at a time of civil war among the Roman Senate. Augustus enlarged the city during his reign and finally the Emperor Claudius also extended the Pomerium during his reign, making the "sacred" city larger again.

"The Caesar also enlarged the pomerium, in consonance with the old custom, by which an expansion of the empire confers the right to extend similarly the boundaries of the city"

Tacitus Annals Book 12 Chapter 23

Insulae at Ostia

The Pomerium brought with it certain rules and regulations. No dead bodies could be buried within the sacred boundary. magistrates with imperium power had to resign their powers before crossing the threshold, with the exception of the day he celebrated a Triumph, when he and his soldiers would march through Rome in a great procession. Weapons were prohibited within the Pomerium, the Praetorian Guard under the times of the Emperors were the only soldiers allowed to carry weapons withing the sacred city.

The constraints the Pomerium put upon the city had the effect of limiting the space of the sacred city and as with cities throughout history, when you cant build out, you build up.

The word Insulae is Latin for island and these individual buildings were incredibly similar to the New York apartment building. The ground floor would be a shop or tavern, while the first floor would be lived in by the wealthiest residence with the poorer living in the floors as you go higher.

"Timber and stones for the building of houses, which goes on unceasingly in consequence of the collapses and fires and repeated sales (these last, too, going on unceasingly); and indeed the sales are intentional collapses, as it were, since the purchasers keep on tearing down the houses and build new ones"

Strabo Geography Book 5 Chapter 3

The reason that the best flats were on the lower floors were due to the general cheap and shoddy nature of the construction. Due to this, the closer you lived to the ground the better in a building prone to fire and collapse. The height of Insulae were restricted by the Emperors Augustus and Nero, in an attempt to limit dangerous nature of these buildings being six or seven (or even eight or nine) storeys high.

However, despite the limitations on height, it was always invariable that Rome would build upwards. The Pomerium put limitations upon a city on seven hills, that without it, could of theoretically spread outwards indefinitely over the surrounding area, creating a wide spaced city as opposed to a confined city of Roman skyscrapers.

Insulae point to the highly social, densely populated nature of the city of Rome. People lived one on top of each other right in the centre of an Empire of power stretching over the Mediterranean and the reason for this dense population is the Pomerium. Of course as Rome grew it spilled over the edges of the Pomerium, but that was not Rome, that was not the Sacred City.


Thanks for Reading
James

Lesson Learned - Greek Morals and Aesop

There is a point, where after you are served with trumped up charges of temple theft and thrown from a cliff, that you might wonder if you will leave any sort of legacy behind at all? Apparently moralising wasn't big in Deplhi and Aesop's valiant efforts as part of an envoy from King Creosus of Lydia, met with a decidedly unwelcome response.

"Fables are suitable for public speaking, and they have this advantage that, while it is difficult to find similar things that have really happened in the past, it is easier to invent fables"

Aristotle Rhetoric Book 2 Chapter 20

Aesop

"Aesop's Fables", the words alone conjuring vivid stories of right and wrong, anthropomorphic animals and lessons learned. These three tales of Aesop, the same way that the myths of wicked men and malicious women did, vividly show us not only what was considered "right" by ancient Greece, but also individually give little insights into their world. 

Fable 65 - The Astronomer

"An astronomer was in the habit of going out every evening to look at the stars. Then, one night when in the suburbs absorbed in contemplating the sky, he accidentally fell into a well. A passer-by heard him moaning and calling out. When the man realised what had happened, he called down to him:

'Hey, you there! You are so keen to see what is up in the sky that you don't see what is down here on the ground'".

This fable could be a message against boastful men who are incapable of doing everyday tasks, or a warning against that most Greek of all fears, Hubris, or excessive pride. Achilles, the great warrior of the Trojan War, is the most famous offender of hubris. 

"Let the Acheans be hemmed in at the sterns of their ships and perish on the sea shore, that they may reap what joy they may of their king, and that Agamemnon may rue his derangement in offering insult to the best of the Acheans"

The Iliad Book 1 Lines 410

The repeated warnings against hubris shows up all over Greek myth and stories. It is clear that in many ways, no man was viewed as being "above" the Polis or his fellow men and believing yourself to be, would result in being "trapped in a well".

Fable 32 - The Fox and the Bunch of Grapes

"A famished fox, seeing some bunches of grapes hanging from a vine which had grown in a tree, wanted to take some, but could not reach them. So he went away saying to himself "Those are unripe".

This famous fable gave way to the phrase "sour grapes" and its meaning is a simple one, people regularly blame circumstance over their own inefficiency. This is an interesting fable as it hints at an ancient world complex and involved, where individuals moved up and down a social scale. This short fable alludes to the intricate nature of many of the Poleis and lives of ancient Greeks in a few short lines. 

Fable 118 - Zeus and Shame

Body of a Youth "Kouros" from the British Museum

"When Zeus fashioned man he gave him certain inclinations, but he forgot about shame. Not knowing how to introduce her, he ordered her to enter through the rectum. Shame baulked at this and was highly indignant. Finally she said to Zeus; "All right! I'll go in, but on the condition that Eros doesn't come in the same way; if he does, I will leave immediately". Ever since then all homosexuals are without shame"

This fable has a simple message, those who are prey to homosexual lust lose all shame. Although for its simple message, it is more complicated than that. Mentor relationships, with an educational as well as sexual aspect, between an elder and and a young male in his teenage years was common through classical Greece. However there was great shame to be seen as an elder man besotted or at the beck of a younger man and there are few to no references of elder homosexual relationships. This fable must be a warning against these elder homosexual relationships. 

With the myths of ancient Greece, especially the tales of mortal men, there is a moral that go with the story. What those tales, along with the fables of Aesop show us is a complex society, with its own views of right and wrong. The underlying themes of avoiding hubris and not insulting the Gods run throughout Greek stories, Aesop himself has a fable for nearly every aspect of life and each one gives an insight into ancient life, be it the travelling merchant on the Mediterranean or washer woman by the beach. 

Whatever moral or teaching you take away from Aesop, it's lesson learned.

Thanks for Reading

James