. . . an Anglican
"I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth; And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit. . .
—The Apostles Creed
. . . a Conservative
Conservative [kənˈsərvədiv]: adjective 1. attitudes and values and cautious about change and innovation, in relation to politics or religion.
. . . an Apologist
"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man who asketh you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear."
—1 Peter 3:15
. . . a Historian
His·to·ri·an [hiˈstôrēən]: noun. An expert in or student of history, especially that of a particular period, geo-graphical region, or social phenomenon.
"a military historian"
. . . an Occidentalist
Occidentalist [ɒk sɪˈdɛn tlˌɪzt]: noun. A person who is an enthusiast for Western civilization and its distinctive culture.
Middle English, borrowed from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French, borrowed from Latin occidentālis, from occident-,
. . . a Traditionalist
Traditionalist [trə-ˈdish-nə-list]: noun. 1: adherence to the doctrines or practices of an advocate of maintaining tradition 2: the beliefs of those opposed to modernism, liberalism, or radicalism.
I administer & curate content on these social media properties:
● Plato: Discover the Classics
● Herodotus: Discover History: Ancient, Medieval, & Modern
● Xenophon: Relive the Greatest Battles in History
. . . an American
"The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations."
—George Washington
A man of letters is a man who is conversant in humanities, literature and scholarly pursuits. That's me. From an early age, I was always fascinated by the world around me. I am intrigued by architecture, arts, the Bible, the classics, economics, high culture, high culture, history, humanities, literature, military science, philosophy, political science, theology, and Western Civilization.
. . . an Agrarian
agrarian [ə-ˈgrer-ē-ən]: adjective. 1. of or relating to fields or lands or their tenure.
2 a: of, relating to, or characteristic of farms or their way of life. "He's a promoter of agrarian virtues."
b: organized or designed to promote agricultural interests.
"He belongs to an agrarian movement."
. . . a Conservationist
Conservationist [känsərˈvāSHənəst]: noun. A person who advocates or acts for the protection and preservation of the environment and wildlife.
. . . a Bibliophile
"I cannot live without books"
—Thomas Jefferson
. . . a Classicist
clas·si·cist [ˈklasəsəst]: noun 1. a person who studies the Classics (of ancient Greek and Latin). 2. a follower of classicism in the arts.
. . . an Alt-History Buff
Alternate history is a genre of speculative fiction of counter-factual stories in which various historical events occur and are resolved differently than in our established real life timeline.
. . . a Protestant
The Protestant Reformation was a major sixteenth-century European movement aimed initially at reforming the beliefs and practices of Christianity so as to be more consonant with Scripture.
. . . a Medievalist
Medievalist: noun. An expert in medieval history, literature, philosophy, etc. A person who is greatly attracted to the art, culture, spirit, etc., of the Middle Ages.
. . . a Scandophile
Scandophile [ˈskan dō fil]: A person who admires & is fascinated by the cultures, languages, & varied geography of Scandinavia (i.e. Denmark, Norway, Sweden).
e.g. "After Ryan find out he had Vikings in his family tree, he's a veritable Scandophile."
. . . a Celtophile
Cel·to·phile [ˈkel-toˌfīl]: noun 1. a person who is a lover of all things Celtic or Gaelic, as exemplified by the cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, et al. regions.
. . . a Christian
Christian [kris-chən]: noun. A person who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ.
"The Christian Church promotes the teachings and way of salvation manifest in the revealed revelation of Jesus Christ, the incarnate logos, that is God in the flesh."
NOTABLE QUOTABLES
"The moral imagination is the principal possession that man does not share with the beasts. It is man’s power to perceive ethical truth, abiding law, in the seeming chaos of many events. Without the moral imagination, man would live merely day to day, or rather moment to moment, as dogs do. It is the strange faculty—inexplicable if men are assumed to have an animal nature only—of discerning greatness, justice, and order, beyond the bars of appetite and self-interest."
―Russell Kirk,, Enemies of Permanent Things
"All the decent drapery of life is to be rudely torn off. All the superadded ideas, furnished from the wardrobe of a moral imagination, which the heart owns, and the understanding ratifies, as necessary to cover the defects of our naked shivering nature, and to raise it to dignity in our own estimation, are to be exploded as a ridiculous, absurd, and antiquated fashion. On this scheme of things, a king is but a man; a queen is but a woman; a woman is but an animal; and an animal not of the highest order. All homage paid to the sex in general as such, and without distinct views, is to be regarded as romance and folly. . . . On the scheme of this barbarous philosophy, which is the offspring of cold hearts and muddy understandings, and which is as void of solid wisdom as it is destitute of all taste and elegance, laws are to be supported only by their own terrors, and by the concern which each individual may find in them from his own private speculations, or can spate to them from his own private interests. In the groves of their academy, at the end of every vista, you see nothing but the gallows . . . Nothing is more certain than that our manners, our civilization, and all the good things which are connected with manners, and with civilization, have, in this European world of ours, depended for ages upon two principles; I mean the spirit of a gentleman, and the spirit of religion."
―Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
"I was born for the storm and the calm does not suit me."
—Andrew Jackson
This past year on 17 July 2020, Rev. Canon Dr. James (Jim) Innell Packer, the English-born Anglican clergyman that was so influential on my spiritual formation, and indeed my recognition that I am but a desperate sinner in need of grace, has gone home to glory to spend eternity with our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:8). At a young age, Packer was setback by a debilitating injury incidental to a car accident whereby he was struck as a pedestrian crossing a street. He was scarred for life, and it left a visible indentation in his skull where it was fractured. Yet he lived! He grew closer to God! In his youth, Jim won a scholarship to Oxford where he cultivated his brilliant intellect in service of Christ's Kingdom. He was a treasure in his own time! An acclaimed author, churchman, friend to sinners, professor, and Bible teacher, Packer elicited respect across denominations and communions as one of the foremost systematic theologians of the past century. Jim drew his inspiration from Scripture, and was deeply ingrained in the works of Bucer, Calvin, Cranmer, and the English Puritans. He revived Puritan devotionals into something of an art form, and he elicited notoriety as a catechist who stressed the value of sound doctrine, and reminded his students of the immense value of cultivating spiritual disciplines, such as memorizing Scriptures and catechesis. As of 17 July 2020, his faith has yielded to sight! He's in eternity with our Lord Jesus!
Video Above: In this short documentary, author and theologian J.I. Packer reflects back on his career and ministry, and what he's found to be the most meaningful work he's done. Hosted by Packer biographer Dr. Leland Ryken.
Additional content from the original memorial upload is archived on my blog at https://blog.ryansetliff.online/index.php/2022/02/11/j-i-packer/
This is the personal homepage of Ryan Setliff, a gentleman scholar, who draws much inspiration from the Bible, the classics of Hellenic & Roman Civilization, history, the humanities, liberal learning, and the Great Books tradition
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After the page loads, you may click a link below in the navigation menu to scroll to a particular topic. Contents vary from primary source documents to embedded video documentaries to affiliated social media properties.
. . . an Aesthete
aes·thete [ˈes-ˌthēt} one having or affecting sensitivity to the beautiful especially in art
"That which is beautiful is always loved."
—Norwegian Proverb
. . . an Anglophile
An·glo·phile [aNGɡləˌfīl]: noun 1. a person who is fond of or greatly admires England or Britain. adjective 1. fond or admiring of England or Britain.
. . . a Creedalist
creed·al·ism | \ kreed-ᵊlˌizəm \ insistence upon traditional statements, doctrine, or formula of belief.
. .a Student of the Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period.
. . . an Evangelist
evan·ge·list | \ i-ˈvan-jə-list: noun. 1 often capitalized : a writer of any of the four Gospels. 2 : a person who evangelizes specifically : a Protestant minister or layman who preaches at special services. 3 : an enthusiastic advocate.
. . . Ecumenical
ec·u·men·i·cal | \ ˌe-kyə-ˈme-ni-kəl : noun.1 a: of, relating to, or representing the whole of a body of churches. b: promoting or tending toward worldwide Christian unity or cooperation.
. . . a Nationalist
Nationalist: 1: an advocate of or believer in nationalism. 2: a member of a political party or group advocating national independence or effective national government.
aesthete
An aesthete is someone affected by beauty, whether exemplified in art, sculpture, or flora and fauna, or beauty found in humankind.
“Nobody who is alert to beauty, therefore, is without the concept of redemption—of a final transcendence of mortal disorder into a ‘kingdom of ends’. In an age of declining faith art bears enduring witness to the spiritual hunger and immortal longings of our species. Hence aesthetic education matters more today than at any previous period in history.”
―Roger Scruton, Beauty: A Very Short Introduction
"“The ascent of the soul through love, which Plato describes in the Phaedrus, is symbolized in the figure of Aphrodite Urania, and this was the Venus painted by Botticelli, who was incidentally an ardent Platonist, and member of the Platonist circle around Pico della Mirandola. Botticelli’s Venus is not erotic: she is a vision of heavenly beauty, a visitation from other and higher spheres, and a call to transcendence. Indeed, she is self-evidently both the ancestor and the descendant of the Virgins of Fra Filippo Lippi: the ancestor in her pre-Christian meaning, the descendant in absorbing all that had been achieved through the artistic representation of the Virgin Mary as the symbol of untainted flesh. . ..”
―Roger Scruton, Beauty: A Very Short Introduction"
Since my youth, I was enamored of art and architecture. I studied architectural drawing in high school, and actually designed houses for a building contractor as a teenager. I was enamored of traditional architecture and ascertaining the various styles throughout time with an eye to western architecture. I drew sketches from a young age, such as a Baracuda fish, which was gifted to my father's best friend, among many other pieces.
Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art. To me, aesthetics is objective. There is an ideal form of art and sculpture manifest in realism, and the rise of modernism and postmodernism has given rise to artistic expression that eschews form and is just a speckled melange of colors and vague ambiguous forms. Soviet Communist commissioned art and sculpture countenanced the post-modern formless ambiguity.
"It is in Christianity that our arts have developed; it is in Christianity that the laws of Europe have—until recently—been rooted. It is against a background of Christianity that all our thought has significance."
—T.S. Eliot, Christianity and Culture
Art Above: Raphael, Madonna (Niccolini-Cowper), 1508 A.D.
The Niccolini-Cowper Madonna is a painting by the Italian High Renaissance artist Raphael, depicting Mary and Child, against a blue sky.
Art Above: Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus (c. 1484–1486)
Art Above: Johannes Vermeer, Girl With Pearl Earring, c. 1665. (Mauritshuis Collection in The Hague, the Netherlands.)
Art Above: A Classical Beauty by John William Godward (1892).
BIBLIOPHILE
“I cannot live without books," proclaimed Thomas Jefferson. My attraction to books is twofold. First, I value knowledge for its own sake. Likewise I value the ability to acquire knowledge that comes from reading and contemplating the content of various books. When I was a child and discovered the public library, my summers were spent making pilgrimages to borrow books while taking full advantage of their generous lending practices that allowed for a large volume of books at the time of check-out.
I've included a selection of some of my favorite books that are available for purchase online. Just point and click the books to link to the purchase form, and they can be dropped shipped directly to your home or office. Commissions paid by Amazon.com to me help to offset the cost of operating this web site's server.
A BIBLIOPHILE IS A LOVER OF BOOKS. . . NEW SELECTIONS. . .
The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century by Paul Collins (Public Affairs, 2014).
The tenth century dawned in violence and disorder. Charlemagne's empire was in ruins, most of Spain had been claimed by Moorish invaders, and even the papacy in Rome was embroiled in petty, provincial conflicts. The stability once provided by Imperial Rome had dissolved, leaving a perilous landscape behind. Yet the story of the tenth century is the story of our culture's birth. This was the moment that civilization emerged from the Dark Ages into the light of day.
The Birth of the West tells the story of a transformation from chaos to order, exploring the alien landscape of Europe in transition. It thoroughly renovates older conceptions of feudalism and what medieval life was actually like. The result is a wholly-new vision of how civilization sprang from the unlikeliest of origins, and proof that our tenth-century ancestors are not as remote as we might think.
Chaining Down Leviathan: The American Dream of Self-Government by Marco Luigi Bassani
As a distinguished historian of political thought at the University of Milan, Italy, Marco Bassani brings a cosmopolitan perspective to the study of American political thought unencumbered by such self-congratulatory myths as "American exceptionalism." He sees America as an extension of European civilization. Having unleashed the modern state upon the world, Europeans now had the problem of how to control its inherent disposition to centralize power; they failed.
This was not the case with the American founding. Whereas Europeans were burdened with heavy taxation, debt, and stood in fear of large standing armies, Americans, after 1800, paid no inland federal taxes, and by 1835 the national government was out of debt. By 1860, the national government had actually diminished in power to tax, spend, and incur debt from what it could do in 1790—while central power in modern European states grew continuously during that period. Yet Americans fought two major wars, built the industrial revolution, and more than tripled its territorial size. Bassani explains how the Constitution made this possible and how it was derailed by Lincoln's decision to invade and conquer eleven states that had lawfully voted to secede, rather than negotiate a separation.
A Students Guide to Natural Science by Stephen M. Barr (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2006).
Physicist Stephen Barr's enlightening Student's Guide to Natural Science endeavors to explain to the reader about the nature, history, and great ideas emanating from the discipline of natural science from antiquity to modernity. Enormous clarity of focus is given to the systematic usage of reason and the reality that phenomena often have natural explanations. Barr contextualizes the medieval antecedents of the later scientific revolution in the seventeenth century, which has shaped our approaches to epistemology and science.
The Closing of the American Mind
by Allan Bloom (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1987, 2012).
First published in 1987, Bloom's book is a trenchant cultural critique by the eminent political philosopher Allan Bloom. In an incisive analysis, Bloom persuasively argues that the deep cultural, moral, political, and social crises of our age are symptomatic of a larger intellectual crisis: the product of a dangerous enervation of the intellect, and shunning the old spirit of discovery and curiosity. Now, with more than a million copies in print, this twenty-fifth-anniversary edition of Bloom's book is complemented by a new essay written by journalist Andrew Ferguson who offers an assessment of the impact of Bloom’s overall scholarly argument, which in its heyday caused such an uproar at the time of its initial release, and had many scholars revisiting its arguments in the ensuing years to follow. Our culture today continues to resist the many truths that make of the substance of Bloom's brilliant scholarly work.
"Don't just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind. They are very helpful, but it would be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized their contents."
―Epictetus, Discourses
ANGLICAN
Historical Anglicanism: Confessional Protestant, and Reformed
Introduction
"Historical Anglicanism" aims to be a succinct exposition of historic Anglicanism for laypersons, and builds upon the findings of the article "The Anglican Way" by Dr. Gerald Bray, and this exposition points towards a more historic Anglicanism as the model — one deeply imbued in its Protestant and Reformed heritage.[1]
My ancestral family were participants in the English Reformation, not just as spectators. Sir Matthew Sutcliffe, Dean of Exeter and Chaplain to King James I of England (James VI of Scotland), rigorously defended His beloved Anglican Church.* In addition to being a trusted confidant of King James, the Cambridge-educated lawyer and divine, administered the Word and Sacrament, and was a patron of Anglican ministers and ran a school in Chelsea for polemical studies. His name is invoked in the 1620 Charter of the New England Confederation as "our well beloved, Sir Matthew Sutcliffe," and he was a prominent investor in the Plymouth Adventurers’ Company and personal friends with Captain John Smith. For all these reasons, rediscovery of historical Anglicanism is very much like returning to the church of my forefathers.[2]
Table of Contents [click the link to jump to a topical section]
I. Historical Anglicanism: Introduction
II. De nobis fabula narratur ["their story is our story."]
III. Hoc est corpus meum ["this is my body."]
IV. Agnus dei, qui tolis peccata mundi ["this is the lamb that takes away the sins of the world."]
V. Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum ["the Word of the Lord endures forever."]
VI. Post Tenebras Lux ["After darkness light."]
VII. Sola Scriptura ["By the Word Alone"]
VIII. Lex orandi, lex credendi ["The law of praying is the law of believing."]
IX. Soli Deo Gloria ["To God Alone Be The Glory."]
X. Sola Christus ["Christ alone is the Head of the Church."]
XI. Closing Salvos
De nobis fabula narratur ["their story is our story."]
The tenets of historical Anglicanism are deeply embedded in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion (1571 anno domini) and implemented through the liturgical practice of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer bequeathed to us by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. It's a communion devoted to Christ-centered worship, sound biblical expository preaching, an apostolic view of the sacraments, and orderly worship.[3]
Drawing from a rich religious heritage rooted in the British Isles that arguably dates back to the third-century anno domini, we embrace the Anglican faith of our Christian forefathers. It was the faith of notable Christians such as Saint Patrick, King Alfred the Great, and Æthelwulf, and later Protestant reformers such as John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, William Perkins, Matthew Parker, and Matthew Sutcliffe, and modern voices such as J.C. Ryle, and J.I. Packer. [4] Gerald McDermott posits that the distinctiveness of the English practice of Christianity was manifest long before the English Reformation as its rootedness was manifest as early as 200 A.D. The Celtic church cultivated a unique spirituality possessed of doctrinal rigor, emphasizing an orthodox trinitarian theology, which shaped Anglican culture for centuries. The English church was anti-Roman long before the Synod of Whitby (633 A.D.) on a plethora of issues, such as the date of Easter, penance, and Eucharistic consecration. The English church's resistance to Papal authority continued through the years provoking the Pope's deposition of King John in the thirteenth century and John Wycliffe's repudiation of the Roman primacy and transubstantiation. The English Church, accordingly, took on a unique identity before the Reformation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. [5]
So, what does it mean to confessionally profess 'Historical Anglicanism? What does it mean to concurrently avow being Christian, Catholic, Confessional, Evangelical, and Protestant, and Reformed?Participants follow the liturgy, practices, and reforms of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer.
Image Above: Early Anglo-Saxons following their conversion to catholic Christianity and the reign of Æthelberht of Kent.
Hoc est corpus meum. [“This is my body.”]
First, we are catholic (i.e., a term meaning 'universal'), in the sense that we adhere to God's universal church, rooted in the apostolic Christian faith and in accord with the early church councils of Nicaea (325), Constantinople (381), Chalcedon (451), et al. As John Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury observes in Apologia Ecclessiae Anglicanae: "We believe that there is one Church God and that it is not shut up in one corner of the world or one kingdom, as was formerly the case with the Jews, but that it is Catholic or universal and spread throughout the whole world, so that there is now no nation which has to complain that it is shut out, and cannot belong to the Church and people of God." [6] J.I. Packer notes, "Basic Anglicanism. . . sees itself as mainstream Christianity, as pure and well-proportioned and well-balanced by biblical standards as any version of Christianity that you can find anywhere in Christendom." [7] Hence Anglicanism is rooted in an historical, catholic Christian faith — simultaneously reformed and apostolic in practice.
Cyril of Jerusalem (d. 386) notes in his Catechetical Instructions:
The Church is called Catholic or universal because it has spread throughout the entire world, from one end of the earth to the other. Again, it is called Catholic because it teaches fully and unfailingly all the doctrines which ought to be brought to men’s knowledge, whether concerned with visible or invisible things, with the realities of heaven or the things of earth. Another reason for the name Catholic is that the Church brings under religious obedience all classes of men, rulers and subjects, learned and unlettered. Finally, it deserves the title Catholic because it heals and cures unrestrictedly every type of sin that can be committed in soul or in body, and because it possesses within itself every kind of virtue that can be named, whether exercised in actions or in words or in some kind of spiritual charism. [8]
The Anglican sense of identity does not start tabula rasa in the English Reformation, rather its rooted in the apostolic church progressing to the early missions of Celto-Roman Britain spanning from the third to the sixth centuries, nor can it be understood apart from the English Reformation. "I make not the least doubt in the world that the Church of England before the Reformation and the Church of England after the Reformation are as much the same Church as a garden before it is weeded and after it is weeded, is the same garden; or a vine, before it be pruned and after it is pruned and freed from luxuriant branches, is one and the same vine," observed John Bramhall in 1854, Archbishop of Armagh (1661-63), and Bishop of Derry (1641-61). [9] Anglicans claim a line of apostolic succession through the original twelve apostles. Bishops and priests are ordained through the laying on of hands of elders, and this tradition represents a thread back through the apostolic church. [10]
Picture above: A wall painting of the Apostles' Creed from Wales, dating to the early modern era.
Art Above: This illumination from a 13th-century manuscript shows the apostles writing the Creed, receiving inspiration from the Holy Spirit.
The Faith We Confess: An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles by Gerald Bray (London, UK: Latimer Trust)
The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion are one of the three historic 'formularies' of the original Church of England, which serve as its constitutional documents. Along with the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal, these documents indelibly shaped the distinctive identity of the English Church at the time of both the English and Continental Reformation, an identity which has had a formative influence on worldwide Anglicanism. These formularies shaped the Anglican Communion in profond ways, and though the tendency among liberals has been to ignore the Articles and Anglo-Catholics to engage in counter-factual reinterpretation of the Articles, their revival constitutes a basis for enlivening the common Anglican tradition.
The 1662 Book of Common Prayer: International Edition edited by Thomas Cranmer, rev. by Samuel L. Bray and Drew N. Keane
One of the most beloved liturgical foundations in English church history, this text remains a definitive expression of Anglican identity, used worldwide in public worship and private devotion. While preserving its majestic cadences, its beautiful language has been mildly updated in contemporary English, and state prayers for England have been rendered more universal so as to allow for adaption in other countries, (such as the United States).
Image Above: This mosaic from Ravenna depicts the Apostle Paul who helped proclaimed the way of salvation through Jesus Christ in the first century anno domini.
"My frequent quoting of the Westminster Confession may raise some eyebrows, since I am an Anglican and not a Presbyterian. But since the Confession was intended to amplify the Thirty-nine Articles, and most of its framers were Anglican clergy, and since it is something of a masterpiece, “the ripest fruit of Reformation creed-making” as B. B. Warfield called it, I think I am entitled to value it as part of my Reformed Anglican heritage, and to use it as a major resource."
—J.I. Packer, Concise Theology: A Guide To Historical Theology
Painting Above: Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, father of the English Reformation.
A Brief History of the English Reformation by Derek Wilson (London, UK: Robinson Publishing, 2001).
In his intriguing historical account of the English Reformation, Wilson describes the discrete impacts of political, economic, social, and religious change upon English identity in the wake of Reform, as well as its subsequent influence upon England's precarious relationship with its European neighbours on the continent, such as the 'Catholic superpowers' of France, Spain and Portugal.
Anglican Foundations: A Handbook to the Source Documents of the English Reformation
This handbook offers a full suite of doctrinally determinative documents of the English Reformation and an annotated commentary.
Emblem of Faith Untouched : A Short Life of Thomas Cranmer by Leslie Winfield Williams
Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556) was the first Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, the author of the Book of Common Prayer, and a central figure in the English Protestant Reformation. Few theologians have led such an eventful life: Cranmer helped Henry VIII break with the pope, pressed his vision of the Reformation through the reign of Edward VI, was forced to recant under Queen Mary, and then dramatically withdrew his recantations before being burned alive. This lively biography by Leslie Williams narrates Cranmer's life from the beginning, through his education and history with the monarchy, to his ecclesiastical trials and eventual martyrdom. Williams portrays Cranmer's ongoing struggle to reconcile his two central loyalties--allegiance to the crown and fidelity to the Reformation faith--as she tells his fascinating life story.
God Truly Worshipped: A Thomas Cranmer Reader (Canterbury Studies in Spiritual Theology) by Jonathan Dean
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556) played a formative role in the creation of the Church of England, the development of its liturgy as he compiled the Book of Common Prayer. From his intriguing appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1532, through his granting of Henry VIII's divorce from Queen Katharine, his emergence under Edward VI as a passionate church reformer with the fervor of his European contemporaries such as Calvin and Bullinger, and his memorable martyr's death under Mary Tudor in 1556 defined his life as a champion of the Gospel. He is remembered as the prime editor and creator of the two Books of Common Prayer of 1549 and 1552, and these indeed stand at the head of Anglican liturgical identity and tradition. Their influence and importance cannot be overstated.
Reformation Anglicanism: A Vision for Today's Global Communion
Conceptualized under the deeply-held belief that the future of the global Anglican Communion hinges on a lucid, well-defined, and theologically rich vision, this reference tome was created with the aim of helping clergy and educated laity grasp the beauty, coherence, depth and theological soundness of the historical Reformation Anglican tradition.
To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism by J.I. Packer
Catechesis is an ancient practice of disciple making in according with the apostolic teachings and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It utlizes a simple question-and-answer format to instruct new believers, and church members in the tenants of Christianity. Written by a team of evangelicals leaders in order to renew this oft-forgotten tradition for contemporary Christians. This book features over 360 questions and answers, plus Scripture references to support each teaching.
The Tragedy of 1662: The Ejection and Persecution of the Puritans
In these days of spiritual ignorance in the country and doctrinal laxity in the church, many Anglicans look back to former times with a certain degree of wistfulness. One date lingers in the collective Anglican memory as suggestive of a golden era: 1662.
Writings of Thomas Cranmer, Vol 1, Writings and Disputations Relative to the Lord's Supper by Thomas Cranmer
Cranmer functioned as a spiritual father of the Anglican Church, and he set its standard in accord with apostolic fathers and early ecumenical councils such as Nicaea and the Chalcedon Definition. This particular selection of his writings focuses on his theological understanding of what is commonly referred to as the Eucharist, Communion, or the Lord's Supper.
The Oxford History of Anglicanism: Reformation and Identity c. 1520-1662 (Oxford, England, UK: Oxford Univ Press, 2017).
This rich historical book examines an epoch when the substance of 'Anglicanism' was contested and the source of disputation. Rather than merely tracing the emergence of primordial developments that we associate with later Anglican doctrine and practice, the contributors instead discuss the malleable nature of the Church of England's religious identity in these formative years while the church's destiny, shape, and form were being hammered out by the reformers who debated and tendered the parameters of an 'Anglican' orthodoxy. After the cursory introduction and narrative chapters give credence to an historical background, later chapters then analyse different understandings of the early church and church history; variant readings of the meaning of the royal supremacy, the role of bishops and canon law, and the significance of cathedrals; the very diverse experiences of religion in parishes, styles of worship and piety, church decoration, and Bible usage; and the competing claims to 'Anglican' orthodoxy represented by puritanism, 'avant-garde conformity' and Laudianism. Also analysed are the debates over the Church of England's confessional identity and its associations with the continental European Reformed Churches, and other models tendered by English Protestant sects in Ireland, Scotland and North America. The English reforms of the 1640s and 1650s are given attentiveness. The volume concludes that historical circumstances of disputation, with many disputations still going on today, have not solidified a definitive 'Anglican identity' in the popular imagination, however, considering the shape of Anglicanism of the seventeenth century at the behest of Cranmer and English Reformers gives us an appreciation of the ideal. For many like myself, this primordial Reformation Anglicanism is a window to its true chracter without the blemishes and disfigurement wrought by later liberals, Arminians, and the Oxford Movement.
“I remain an Anglican out of conviction that here is the right place, for here I possess the truest, wisest and potentially richest heritage in all Christendom.."
—J.I. Packer, The 39 Articles: Their Place and Use Today
"The theology of the founding documents of the Anglican church—the Book of Homilies, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion—expresses a theology in keeping with the Reformed theology of the Swiss and South German Reformation. It is neither Lutheran, nor simply Calvinist, though it resonates with many of Calvin’s thoughts," notes Michael P. Jensen. [24] Among distinctive Reformed doctrines are great stress upon the normative authority of the Word of God, thus superior to any extra-biblical traditions of man, and a passion for expository preaching and confessional Protestantism rooted in the historical creeds and the XXXIX Articles. Historical Anglicans yearn for sound Gospel preaching, proclaimed with authority and believed with sincerity, and a liturgy that finds itself thoroughly rooted in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. [25]
Anglican Reformed soteriology is monergistic in fealty to the Augustinian-Pauline understanding of salvation, and the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, as salvation is all of God, by grace alone, through faith alone, and is contrasted with the synergism that became ascendant in the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodoxy during the early middle ages. Soli deo gloria! ("All glory be to God!")[26] The Elizabeathan settlement represented an unraveling of this consensus later however.
As the English Reformation embraced continuity within a catholic Christianity and a good sense of its past, the English Reformers are sharply contrasted with the radical reformation of the antinomians, anabaptists, Mennonites and Quakers. [27]
Image to the Right: Augustine of Hippo, the prominent western church father articulated a salvation rooted in monergism in fealty to the apostolic teachings and the teachings of our Lord.
Lex orandi, lex credendi ["The law of praying is the law of believing."]
Gerald Bray notes, "The first Book of Common Prayer appeared in 1549. It contained services for daily worship, both morning and evening, and forms for the administration of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, along with other ceremonies that were used less often." [28] This proved to be a great innovation, not only mainstreaming the English language of the common man in daily devotion, but: "The Prayer Book was common not only in the sense that it was uniform across the country, but also in the sense that it was shared among the community for the common good, and in this sense it was precisely an evangelical project: an endeavour to spread the good news of the gospel" observed Ethan H. Shagan. [29]
Anglican services were rich in biblical aphorisms and imagery; and Anglicans absorbed much insight into the Holy Scripture from this prayer book, which was oft repeated and easily memorized. Attentiveness was given to the Lord’s Supper. Bray notes that Cranmer incorporated medieval liturgies like the Sarum rite (e.g., "Sarum" is Latin for the town of Salisbury), an eleventh century liturgy drawn from Norman, Anglo-Saxon, and Roman traditions. Cranmer, notes Bray, consciously restructured the liturgies, in a manner to effect the primacy of justification by faith alone among Anglican parishioners. "The communicant's attention was directed away from the consecration of the bread and wine, which recalled the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, and refocused on his spiritual state, in line with Reformed teaching." [30]
In 1552, with the judicious aid of Martin Bucer and John Knox, Thomas Cranmer effected composition of a more radically Protestant Prayer Book. Later Queen Mary would ban the 1552 book, though it was eventually restored in England with slight modification. The early Episcopal Church of eighteenth century America drew from the more 'high church' Anglican tradition with its revised 1786 prayer book, thus reflecting a Romish slant. [31]
Soli Deo Gloria ["To God Alone Be The Glory"]
In 1595, the Lambeth Articles were drawn up by Dr. William Whitaker, Regius Professor of Divinity in Cambridge, in consultation with Dr. Richard Fletcher, Bishop of London, Dr. Richard Vaughan, Bishop-elect of Bangor, and Humphrey Tyndall, Dean of Ely. These succinct articles articulated a formulaic monergistic soteriology with regards to predestination, redemption, justification, et al. [32]
Engraving Right: John Knox, the Scottish Reformer collaborated with Thomas Cranmer in shaping a Reformed liturgy.
1. God from eternity hath predestinated certain men unto life; certain men he hath reprobated. 2. The moving or efficient cause of predestination unto life is not the foresight of faith, or of perseverance, or of good works, or of any thing that is in the person predestinated, but only the good will and pleasure of God. 3. There is predetermined a certain number of the predestinate, which can neither be augmented nor diminished. 4. Those who are not predestinated to salvation shall be necessarily damned for their sins. 5. A true, living, and justifying faith, and the Spirit of God justifying [sanctifying], is not extinguished, falleth not away; it vanisheth not away in the elect, either finally or totally. 6. A man truly faithful, that is, such a one who is endued with a justifying faith, is certain, with the full assurance of faith, of the remission of his sins and of his everlasting salvation by Christ. 7. Saving grace is not given, is not granted, is not communicated to all men, by which they may be saved if they will. 8. No man can come unto Christ unless it shall be given unto him, and unless the Father shall draw him; and all men are not drawn by the Father, that they may come to the Son. 9. It is not in the will or power of every one to be saved. [33]
Queen Elizabeth I gave opposition to the Lambeth Articles and opposed their enactment. The court of King James I of England (VI of Scotland) convened the Hampton Court Conference in 1604 with several prelates who met with the Puritan ministers. Dr. Reynolds formally requested that the "nine orthodoxal assertions concluded on at Lambeth might be inserted into the Book of Articles." [34] Though they were never formally added to the Church of England’s XXXIX Articles. They were subsequently accepted by the Dublin Convocation of 1615 and formally ingrafted onto the Irish Articles (1615), which are believed to be the work of the Bishop of Armagh, James Ussher, who would later become Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland in 1625. "And since the Churches of England and Ireland were so closely allied, some English churchmen argued that the Irish Articles could appropriately be used to explain the English ones," noted Stephen Hampton. [35]
The Lambeth Articles made an appearance at the Synod of Dordt in the Netherlands by the English deputies as the judgment of the Church of England on soteriological matters and in regards to the Arminian question. [36]
Sola Christus ["Christ alone is the Head of the Church"]
The Westminster Assembly of Divines was a council of divines (aptly theologians in modern parlance) authorized by a mandate from the English Parliament. Members of the Assembly were appointed to restructure the Church of England and convened from 1643 to 1653. Several Scotsman of renown also attended, and the Westminster Assembly's work was formally adopted by the Church of Scotland. "The Westminster divines realized that the Articles [of Religion] were products of their time and needed supplementing even in the mid-seventeenth century, and few voices would dissent from that judgment today," observed Gerald Bray. "What the Articles say is fair enough, but they need to be developed further if their doctrine is going to be appreciated and used in the modern church. Whether this can be done in the current state of the Anglican Communion is doubtful," opined Bray, "but the Articles remain a touchstone of Reformed Anglicans, and perhaps their brief and judicious statements will one day gain them greater acceptance within the wider Reformed community." [37]
Engraving Left: William Whitaker was an Anglican clergyman and instructor at Cambridge University.
Photo Above: A contemporary photo of Hampton Palace, the site of the 1604 Hampton Court Conference where the Lambeth Articles were articulated, and many theological discussions held concerning the Church of England.
Above Video: An introduction to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer by Pastor Matt Everhard.
Left Facsimile Image: The introduction page of an original 1662 Book of Common Prayer printed in Cambridge, England.
Third, we are evangelical in the sense that we recognize the imperative need for embracing the Lord's call to evangelism and discipleship. The moniker "evangelical" comes from the Greek word euangelion (εὐαγγέλιον), meaning "the good news" or the "gospel." This "gospel" of Jesus Christ is the news of the coming of the Kingdom of God (Mark 1:14-15), manifest in the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ's earthly ministry, and Christ's triumphant atoning death, burial and climatic resurrection—all in order to restore people's relationship with God and glorify God. [14]
Image Above: A stained-glass mural that is emblematic of Agnus Dei, which represents the Lamb who has come to take away the sins of the world.
Sola Scriptura ["By the Word Alone"]
Fifth, we are Reformed in the sense that we embrace the Reformation inheritance rooted in the labors of the English, Scottish and continental Reformers who sought to renew, revitalize and reform the church in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Ashley Null observes that the Reformers "confessed what all catholic Christians had always held to be true everywhere in the early church" and "the Protestant Reformers championed the ancient creeds and believed in the nature of the Trinity and of Christ as taught by the first four general councils." [19]
John Wycliffe, a proto-reformer, emerged in the fourteenth century and tendered a theology of reformation that was quickly suppressed by both civil and ecclesiastical authorities. Tyndale translated the Bible from Latin to the English language making it accessible to laity. He was burned at the stake for this offense. The later church struggle effected the martyrdom of Anglican priests, such as Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley and Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Thomas Cranmer, who sacrificed their lives for the purity of the Gospel. [20] Cranmer defied the Papacy’s errant teachings by way of remonstrance and teaching. [21] In 1850, Thomas Cranmer surmised his disapprobation with Rome whereby he compared "beads, pardons, pilgrimages, and such other like popery" with extraneous weeds. [22] G.W. Bromiley observes of Cranmer, "He gave to his church a Bible, biblical preaching, a catechism, a Prayer Book and a confession of faith. If he has nothing much to offer in the way of dogmatic treatises, the reforms for which he himself was the main responsible are all at the theological level." [23]
Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum
["the Word of the Lord endures forever."]
Second, we are confessional about our beliefs and doctrine. We recognize a belief in the virtue of an unambiguous assent to the entirety of a religious teaching. We eschew the notion of divergent interpretations within a communion, especially those in direct opposition to a held teaching, such as the foundational articles of an apostolic and catholic Christianity, namely the Nicene Creed. Teachings contrary to Christian orthodoxy simply cannot be accommodated. [12] According to the Apostle Paul's second epistle to Timothy, sound doctrine is the cherished religious heritage of any communion that is to be revered in this generation and faithfully transmitted to the next (2 Tim. 3:16, c.f. Mark 7:7-8). J.I. Packer observed, "The word catechesis comes from the Greek, and it enshrines a Greek verb kætəˈkiːsɪs (κατήχησις), which means ‘instruct.’ The nature and essence of catechesis is instruction in which two things happen together—the two things that actually make up Gospel instruction through the New Testament and the church’s life. The two things are the doctrine by which Christians live and how to live by it is taught also. In Sunday Schools, in pulpits, and study gatherings during the week, those things are not always linked in the way in which catechesis links them." [13]
Image Above: Archbishop Thomas Cranmer.
Art Above: A portrait of Bishop James Ussher of the Church of Ireland, a reformer who consciously model his reforms on the English Reformation.
Post Tenebras Lux
["After Darkness, Light"]
Fourth, we are Protestant as we acknowledge our religious heritage in the two millennium church, and in reaction to the Roman Catholic Church's errant teachings, which encrusted upon the pure apostolic faith in the mode of barnacles on a fisherman's wharf, thus warranting extirpation. Continental Reformers endeavored to effect reform of the church in fealty to the untarnished Gospel of the apostolic church. When the Papal Magisterium mounted much resistance by way of counter-reformation, the Protestants in turn opted for separation, making recourse to the centuries-old precedent denying the primacy of the Roman Bishop over other bishops that the Papacy claims. The term Protestant derives from the letter of protestation from German princes in 1529 against an edict of the Diet of Speyer condemning the teachings of Martin Luther as heretical. We Protestants are in the words of the Apostle Paul: "separated to the gospel of God" (Rom. 1:1). [16]
Having tendered protest and remonstrance for reformation from the fourteenth to the fifteenth century, English Reformers opted for formal separation from the Roman patriach in furtherance of Reformed ideals. Robert Charles Sproul notes, "From Wittenberg directly to England, or from Wittenberg to Geneva to England, in this roundabout route, the seeds of the Reformation that were planted in Germany sprouted into full bloom as they made their way into the English empire." [17] So far from being a via media (i.e., 'middle way') between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, Historical Anglicanism is a via media between Wittenberg and Geneva—that is to say between Lutheran Reformation and Swiss Reformation. Historic Anglicans are less interested in ritual, pomp and ceremony, and much more interested in Christ-centered worship, biblical expository preaching, and orderly worship in accord with the apostolic teaching. [18]
Anglicanism focuses on the "good news" of salvation brought to sinners by the Lord Jesus Christ. Evangelicals, by their very nature, are growth-oriented and seek to expand the church body by maintaining a faithful Gospel witness through the ages (Matthew 28:19-20). Historic Anglicanism is rooted in its evangelical traditions of "conversionism, activism, biblicism and crucicentrism" as noted by historian David Bebbington. [15]
Image Below: Christian theologian and Proto-Reformer John Wycliffe (c. 1320-1384) introduced the Bible to English laity and clergy in an English translation. His efforts set the stage for the later English Reformation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Closing Salvos
"Basic Anglicanism. . . sees itself as mainstream Christianity, as pure and well-proportioned and well-balanced by biblical standards as any version of Christianity that you can find anywhere in Christendom."
—J.I. Packer
The Church of England's liturgical expressions were meant to be expressions of beauty and aesthetic marvel, from the vibrant homilies to the rich sacred choral music to the monumental gothic and baroque style cathedrals, which invigorates worship in the mind of parishioners as to the glory and majesty of God. Anglicanism as established maintains a vibrant confessional witness, in order to "make the Gospel credible, attractive, show ourselves totally committed to it, demonstrate its power in our own lives, but always with the outward look for the Kingdom of God is meant to spread worldwide," surmises J.I. Packer. [38]
The monarchal episcopate and the political fusion of church and state (i.e., caesaropapism) had led to a numbing mediocrity when Christianity's grip over the culture lessened in the twentieth-century Western world. The 'politicized church' molded and transformed nearer to the worldliness of the popular culture. With the power of hindsight being 20/20, later-day Anglicans are reluctant to idealize the monarchal episcopate and the mode of church-state relations manifest in England in the last hundred years. A more charitable estimate of the historic episcopate being rooted in the diaconate (servanthood) whereby every archbishop is concurrently a priest and a deacon, so he thus remains a servant, and reflects the servant leadership exemplified by the original apostles and Christ. The polity is both representative and hierarchical.
Contemporaneously the Church of England in England would be regarded by the original English Reformers as apostate owing to its antinomian stances on marriage and sexuality. (This apostasy extends to the mainline liberal heirs of the Church of England in the Americas, Asia, and Oceania remain in communion with this body.) As well, Anglicanism rooted in the English Reformed tradition is not in the similitude of the so-called Anglo-Catholicism that also claims an Anglican pedigree yet deviates from the 39 Articles and formularies. Today the later-day Anglicans embracing the liturgy of the original 1662 Book of Common Prayer are no longer indicative of the majority of claimants to the name, Anglican, but nevertheless, the legacy of Historical Anglicanism lives on through them.
Anglicans feel a deep spiritual bond and historical kinship to the apostolic and early Christian church. Accordingly Reformed Anglicanism endeavors for a purer order of worship, rather than pretending that the voluminous doctrinal errors, liturgical and sacramental excesses that coalesced in the middle ages somehow finds any credible basis in the example of the early apostolic church, but are rather the errors of the Roman Bishop. Sir Matthew Sutcliffe notes that Anglicans "detest. . . all those errors and corruptions in doctrine both concerning faith and manners, which the synagogue of Rome and her lovers. . . have received, professed and taught, either contrary to the doctrine & institution of Christ and his apostles, or else above the same, and above the faith of the ancient primitive church." Sutcliffe granted that the Papacy "does hold an profess the articles of the [Apostles] Creed, and divers other points deduced of them, or consonant unto them, which both the Apostles and ancient fathers, and we also believe and profess." [11]
Video Lectures on Historical Anglicanism
J.I Packer - The Anglican Heritage
Michael Reeves - The English ReformationRyan Reeves - Henry VIII & Early Anglicanism
Ryan Reeves - Calvin, England, and Scotland
For more information on Reformation Anglicanism: See my blog article "Reformation Anglicanism" featuring a video interview with John Yates, III, on the topic of Reformation Anglicanism and John Jewel's classic An Apology for the Church of England.
Above Video: R.C. Sproul - "The Task of Apologetics" - This message will define apologetics and explain its basic task and purpose.
"The Christian faith is an objective faith; therefore, it must have an object that is worthy of faith. Salvation comes not from the strength of our beliefs, but from the object of our beliefs. Yes, salvation comes through faith (Eph. 2:8, 9; John 6:29), but the merit of faith depends upon the object believed (not the faith itself).”
―Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Life-Changing Truth for a Skeptical World
I'm an apologist for the Christian faith, specifically orthodox Nicene Trinitarian Christianity revealed in the Holy Scriptures. Why? Theologian Robert Charles Sproul, paraphrasing the First Epistle of Peter, writes that "The defense of the faith is not a luxury or intellectual vanity. It is a task appointed by God that you should be able to give a reason for the hope that is in you as you bear witness before the world." The First Epistle Peter reads: "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with" (1 Pet. 3:15).
Accordingly, I believe in theism, and a personal Creator God, that formed all the universes, galaxies, and worlds. I believe in special creation and intelligent design. The basic building block of life itself, DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, manifests evidence of intelligent design and a highly sentient programmer, namely the creator God.
I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is God incarnate in man, that he lived a perfect, sinless life, and He forms the singular and only sound basis for the salvation of humanity, specifically all those that believe in Christ's meritous works and lay hold of His righteousness on the basis of faith in his atoning death, burial, and resurrection. Mankind is under the curse of sin and death, having fallen from a previous state of grace, because of the willful volition of the first man, Adam, to choose sin, knowledge of good and evil, thus partaking of the consequences of the fall, which entailed spiritual separation from God, and inevitably both physical and spiritual death. God is omnipotent, omnipresent, just, holy, and righteous, and accordingly God persisted in showing a subsect of humanity forbearance, patience, and grace, and made a way of redemption and salvation possible through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Belief alone wasn't the only action necessary for salvation. Christ said, "Unless you repent ye shall all likewise perish?" Repent meant to turn around literally, and change. Christ issued commands as strategic imperatives for Christians, namely to "Love the Lord your God. . ." and to "Love one another. . ." and we show our love for God and our fellow man, but striving to do good, to exhibit love, to be deferential, and respectful of one another.
"'But of the many things he did, one of the most striking to me is his forgiving of sin.' 'Really?' I said, shifting in my chair, which was perpendicular to his, in order to face him more directly. 'How so?' 'The point is, if you do something against me, I have the right to forgive you. However, if you do something against me and somebody else comes along and says, I forgive you, what kind of cheek is that? The only person who can say that sort of thing meaningfully is God himself, because sin, even if it is against other people, is first and foremost a defiance of God and his laws. When David sinned by committing adultery and arranging the death of the woman’s husband, he ultimately says to God in Psalm 51, ‘Against you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight.’ He recognized that although he had wronged people, in the end he had sinned against the God who made him in his image, and God needed to forgive him.”
―Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus
Down through history, God gave us a road-map, namely the Bible, a manifestation of the providence and sovereign intervention of God in human history, so as to effect the redemption of a fallen humanity. God foretold various signs, covenants, and conditions imposed upon his flock through His prophets. These prophets spoke of things that mankind should watch for so that the Messiah would be both recognized following his earthly appearance and also believed to be who he says he is. These signs, prophecies, and shadows were given to us in the Old Testament, the most substantial component of the Bible, written prior to the Incarnation of Jesus Christ on earth. Its writings were completed in 450 B.C. Though the Bible was compiled and written hundreds of years before Jesus' birth, it contains over 300+ prophecies that Jesus Christ fulfilled through his Incarnation, earthly ministry, life, death, burial, and resurrection. Mathematically the odds of any single person fulfilling this amount of prophecy are mind-boggling. The odds of a singular person fulfilling 300+ prophecies are phenomenal. The intricacy, magnificent detail of these prophecies substantiate the Bible as the inspired Word of God, renowned for its historical details, accuracy, and breadth of knowledge and wisdom. The New Testament was written following the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It stood as the disciples and apostles means of substantiating a testimony to the veracity of Jesus Christ, his person, and the doctrine that he is who he says he is.
"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:1-3).
The Case for Christ trailer
Film starring: Mike Vogel, Erika Christensen, Faye Dunaway. Based on the story of journalist Lee Stroebel, author of The Case for Christ, and other apologetics books made a journey from atheism to Christianity by God's grace, and proceeded to compile and tender evidences for belief, and eventually sought ordination as an evangelical pastor.
Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Life-Changing Truth for a Skeptical World by Josh McDowell (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2015).
The modern apologetics classic that started it all is now completely revised and updated—because the truth of the Bible doesn’t change, but its critics do. With the original Evidence That Demands a Verdict, bestselling author Josh McDowell gave Christian readers the answers they needed to defend their faith against the harshest critics and skeptics. Since that time, Evidence has remained a trusted resource for believers young and old. Bringing historical documentation and the best modern scholarship to bear on the trustworthiness of the Bible and its teachings, this extensive volume has encouraged and strengthened millions. Now, with his son Sean McDowell, Josh McDowell has updated and expanded this classic resource for a new generation. This is a book that invites readers to bring their doubts and doesn’t shy away from the tough questions.
The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus (Expanded Edition) (Paperback) [Kindle Edition] by Lee Strobel (Zondervan, 2016).
Is there credible evidence that Jesus of Nazareth really is the Son of God? Former atheist and Chicago Tribune journalist Lee Strobel says yes! In this revised and updated bestseller, The Case for Christ, Strobel cross-examines a dozen experts with doctorates from schools such as Cambridge, Princeton, and Brandeis, asking hard-hitting questions - and building a captivating case for Christ's divinity. Strobel challenges them with questions like, How reliable is the New Testament? Does evidence for Jesus exist outside the Bible? Is there any reason to believe the resurrection was an actual event? Winner of the Gold Medallion Book Award and twice nominated for the Christian Book of the Year Award, Strobel's tough, point-blank questions read like a captivating, fast-paced novel. But it's not fiction. It's a riveting quest for the truth about history’s most compelling figure.
Why I Believe (Revised Edition) by D. James Kennedy (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2005).
In this compelling declaration of both belief and conviction, the late Donald James Kennedy, a Presbyterian minister at Coral Ridge Ministries in the Presbyterian Church of America, explores the biblical and spiritual foundations of the Christian faith. He offers reasons to believe for skeptics, and especially new believers, and seasoned Christians. This book will butress the faith of its readers by offering compelling answers to a number of relevant questions concerning the character and nature of God, the reality of heaven and hell, the imperative of moral absolutes, such as right and wrong, the resurrection, Christianity, the new birth, the person of the Holy Spirit, and the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels by J. Warner Wallace (Colorado Springs, CO: David Cook, 2013).
Written by a Los Angeles County homicide detective, former atheist, and born-again Christian, Cold-Case Christianity examines the claims of the New Testament using the competencies, skills, and strategies of a skeptical criminal investigator. The claims of Christianity could be deemed analogous to a “cold case," for the reason, it makes a claim about an event from the distant past for which there is little forensic evidence. In this gripping book, J. Warner Wallace uses his detective methodologies to closely examine and scrutinize the available evidence and eyewitnesses behind Christian beliefs. Including compelling stories from his decades-long career, and visualization techniques he developed for usage in court trails, Wallace uses illustration to examine the compelling evidence that indeed validates the claims of Christianity. Wallace inspires readers to have confidence in the Bible's teachings, claims, and revealed truth regarding the person and deity of Jesus Christ as it prepares them to articulate an apologetical case for Christianity.
Video Below: "Always Ready" - Stephen Nichols - A sermon by Stephen Nichols explaining the purpose and rationale for Christian apologetics which emanates from an apostolic imperative exhorting believers to be prepared to give a reason for their hope in the resurrection.
"The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this. Just as every natural event is the manifestation at a particular place and moment in Nature’s total character, so every particular Christian miracle manifests at a particular place and moment the character and significance of the Incarnation.."
―C.S. Lewis, Reflections
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear. . ."
―1 Peter 3:15
"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:1-3).
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Three-Hundred and Fifty Plus Prophecies Fulfilled by Jesus Christ ". . .all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me" Jesus Christ, Luke 24:44 "For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me." Jesus Christ, John 5:46
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Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity by Nabeel Qureshi
Nabeel Qureshi offers an intriguing overview of his dramatic transition from being a devotee of the Islamic religion to a born again Christian, and follower of Jesus Christ. This book explains the friendships, inquiries, and supernatural dreams along the way. Qureshi offers a backdrop of his early life in a devout Muslim home, and he was possessed of a passion for Islam before the providential happenstance of being drawn to Christianity, finding evidence that Jesus rose from the dead, and claimed to be God in the flesh. Qureshi became unable to deny the claims of Christianity after initially researching it with the intention of debunking it. The author describes the inner turmoil of ex-Muslims and those coming to faith in Christ from Islamic families, and why it's an often difficult path to choose. This book tells a compelling story of the clash between Islam and Christianity as it occurred in one man's mind and heart, but also elucidates upon the peace he ultimately found in Christ Jesus.
Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith by Douglas Goorthuis (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2011).
The religion of the Christian, and its sacred Scriptures, posits answers to the most enduring questions of human existence. But are those answers trustworthy? In this systematic apologetics textbook, Douglas Groothuis makes a systematic apologetical case for the rationality and veracity of Christian theism, first proceeding from a defense of objective truth to an overview of pertinent arguments for God. Therein, he covers a number of bases, including the case for Christ, His Deity, Incarnation, and Atoning Death, Burial, and Resurrection! Throughout, Groothuis considers alternative views and how they fare intellectually. This stimulating book is a must-read for new Christians, skeptics, and seasoned students of apologetics and theology.
The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions by David Berlinski (New York, NY: Crown Forum, 2008).
Militant atheism is on the rise. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens produce New York Times bestselling books all aimed at denigrating religious belief and attacking the epistemic foundations of Christianity. These 'New Atheist' authors are merely the leading edge of a movement–one that now includes much of the scientific community. David Berlinski, however, tenders a cogent series of arguments that give one cause for skepticism of skepticism. Pardon the pun!
John of Damascus, First Apologist to the Muslims: The Trinity and Christian Apologetics in the Early Islamic Period by Daniel J. Janosik (Author), Peter G. Riddell (Foreword)
A significant part of the world nowadays is convulsed in an epic struggle between the Christian West and Islam. Followers of both faiths, scholars, and onlookers seeking to understand these sensitive issues scour the annals of history and religious documents in order to unearth the roots of this conflict. Of immense value in this endeavor are the writings of an eyewitness, a Christian devotee, who served as Treasurer and Comptroller of the Umayyad Empire, John of Damascus (675-750 A.D.), who wrote his influential corpus of writings in the formatives years of Islam, when it emerged out of the Arabian peninsula and was fast developing into the creed of a new militant empire founded on conquest and devotion to its purported god, Allah. John of Damascus authored Heresy of the Ishmaelites and The Disputation between a Christian and a Saracen, all in order to provide an apologetic response to followers of Islam from a Christian perspective.
Why God Won't Go Away - Engaging with the New Atheism by Alister McGrath
The recent rise of the New Atheist movement has aroused the interest of Christian believers and skeptics alike. Both sides toss up questions of fundamental importance, which have a vigorous public discourse. Building on this discourse, Alister McGrath asks Why God Won't Go Away and invites us to consider the issues at stake. This intriguing tome surveys the main ideas of the New Atheism, as expressed in the works of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. Its foundational views are examined and scrutinized cosely, put under the microscope, and appeals to the words of New Atheists themselves. Among the many questions addressed, as originally posed by the New Atheists: the issue of whether religion is delusional and evil; the belief that human beings are fundamentally goodl whether we should have faith only in what can be proved through reason and science; and the idea that the best hope for humanity is a 'New Enlightenment.' The result is a lively, thought-provoking debate that poses a number of interesting questions.
Understanding the Times: A Survey of Competing Worldviews by David Noebel (Summit Books, 2015).
Your view of God determines your view of the world. This tome offers an insightful, expansive look at the how the tenets of the Christian worldview compares with the five major competing worldviews of our day: Islam, Secular Humanism, Marxism, New Age, and Postmodernism. This is a systematic way to understand the ideas that rule our world. While this resource is expansive, the engaging, easy-to-understand prose invites you to discover the truths of God – and our world, and enables you to articulate, understand, and defend a Christian worldview.
creationist
b I believe in intelligent design and special creationism. I belive God is the prime mover that started it all (Psalm 14:1). I accept microevolution (and inclusive with microevolution, the premises of genetic drift and and natural selection) as opposed to the broader macroevolutionary theory, which presumes that mankind evolved from single-cell organisms to rodents to apes. Microevolution studies reveal small changes in alleles that occur within a discrete population. Over time, the culmination of these small changes can accumulate, resulting in profound differences within the overall population. Domesticated dogs have been selectively breed by humans for certain traits, resulting in a wide range of breeds with a broad range of divergent characteristics from retrieving wild game to guarding livestock in pastoral environments. Dogs now kept by humans as pets and service animals originated from wolves prior to their domestication by humans. Christian apologist David Noebel observes:
Before examining the latest scientific discoveries related to the origin of life, we need to make a distinction between two aspects of evolutionary theory. The idea that living things incorporate small, adaptive changes over time is termed 'microevolution.' These minor changes within a species have produced a wide variety of dogs and breeds of cows that produce more milk. These are well-established, observable facts of science. However, scientists extrapolate on this theory to posit that micro-adaptive changes can produce novel features and new species. This is called 'macroevolution'—the idea that a first speck of life that emerged from non-living material slowly evolved into one-celled organisms, which in turn, through eons of genetic mutations and natural selection, eventually turned into homo sapiens. This grand scheme of amoeba-to-man (or better yet, of spontaneous generation-to-man) is what is commonly understood when we use the term 'evolution.' Yet, large- scale changes leading to new species have never been observed and, therefore, cannot technically support a 'scientific' theory, much less fact, as the evolutionists would have us believe. Rather, evolution is an extrapolation from microevolution based on naturalistic assumptions.[1]
Macroevolution faces a number of predicaments that undermines its plausibility from a scientific perspective. It's generally accepted that life cannot spontaneously emanate from non-life, yet naturalistic macroevolutionists operate on such premises to explain primordial life appearing out of an ooze of amino acids amid electrical charges. A Creator God solves this problem (Genesis 1-2; Exodus 3:14). Intelligent design declares that various facets of nature are best explained by an intelligent cause rather than an undirected cause such as the chance apperance of life from non-life followed by natural selection. Advocates of Intelligent Design, so-called Design Theorists, posit that we find biological structures with informational properties we generally find in objects we understand to be the result of design. This finely-tuned, purposeful arrangement of parts in machines are examples of the encoded information contained in DNA. If the cell is the product of design, then it stands to reason that we would expect to find language-like encoded information throughout natural sciences research. The biology of the cell itself confirms these expectations of design. Our DNA contains an incredible array of encoded information. These living cells transform these encoded chemical messages into cellular machines requisite for biochemical functions that sustain the life of complex organisms. The conversion of DNA into various proteins, substrates, and enzymes relies upon a software-like system that elicits commands from preprogrammed biochemical codes. DNA functions like an operating system on a 'cellular computer.' The protein-machines produced by our DNA are irreducibly complex. Irreducible complexity entails a purposeful arrangement of components, so if any part is removed or deformed, then the structure ceases to assemble or function properly.[2] Jonathan Wells notes, "When a machine or structure or process performs a function, but its inner workings are unknown, scientists call it a 'black box.' To Darwin, the cell was a black box. He and his [nineteenth-century] contemporaries were almost completely ignorant of the inner workings of the cell; they believed that a cell was simply a blob of jelly with special properties. Modern microbiologists and biochemists, however, have discovered in living cells an amazing world of highly efficient microscopic machines and precisely integrated biochemical systems."[3]
As Stephen C. Meyer notes, "With odds standing at 1 chance in [10 to the 164th power] of finding a functional protein among the possible 150-amino-acid compounds, the probability is 84 orders of magnitude (or powers of ten) smaller than the probability of finding the marked particle in the whole universe. Another way to say that is the probability of finding a functional protein by chance alone is a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion times smaller than the odds of finding a single specified particle among all the particles in the universe."[4] Biologists Marc W. Kirschner and John C. Gerhart observed: "Everything about evolution before the bacteria-like life forms is sheer conjecture," since "evidence is completely lacking about what preceded this early cellular ancestor."[5] Biochemist Dean Kenyon, a former chemical evolutionist, now concedes, "When all relevant lines of evidence are taken into account, and all the problems squarely faced, I think we must conclude that life owes its inception to a source outside of nature":[6]
Kenyon based this conclusion on four premises: (1) the impossibility of the spontaneous origin of genetic information; (2) the fact that most attempts to duplicate the conditions necessary for chemical evolution yield non-biological material; (3) the unfounded nature of the belief (necessary for the chemical evolutionists) that prebiotic conditions encourage a trend toward the formation of L amino acids; and (4) the geochemical evidence that oxygen existed in significant amounts in the Earth’s early atmosphere (organic compounds decompose when oxygen is present).[7]
I thus find creedance for my adherence to intelligent design not merely on the basis of my belief in the truth of Christianity and the credibility of a divinely-inspired Bible, which is reason alone to believe for me, but also on the basis of credible scientific evidence and theories. There's enormous reasons to doubt Darwin's macroevolutionary theories―and subsequent hypotheses intended to deal with its problems such as punctuated equilibrium―based on scientific laws, counterveiling scientific theories, and precepts.
Biology and chemistry have both collectively yielded an abundance of findings that point to intelligent design, such as the complexity and organization of the cell, as well as the irreducible complexity of complex life-forms, such organ systems, or the eye. If one enzyme or substrate is out of place, these complex life systems cease to function. The intricacy, the detail, and the programming manifest in DNA, all point to intelligent design. Biochemist David Goodsell describes the problem at length: "The key molecular process that makes modern life possible is protein synthesis, since proteins are used in nearly every aspect of living. The synthesis of proteins requires a tightly integrated sequence of reactions, most of which are themselves performed by proteins."[8] "The code is meaningless unless translated," observed Jacques Monod, to which he added: "The modern cell’s translating machinery consists of at least fifty macromolecular components which are themselves coded in DNA: the code cannot be translated otherwise than by products of translation."[9] Scientists now ascertain that this translation process actually requires more than a hundred proteins altogether.[10] In The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin admitted: "If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down."[11] Biochemist Michael Behe observed in his book Darwin's Black Box: "What type of biological system could not be formed by ‘numerous successive, slight modifications? Well, for starters, a system that is irreducibly complex. By irreducibly complex I mean a single system composed of several well-matched interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning."[12]
"The result of these cumulative efforts to investigate the cell—to investigate life at the molecular level—is a loud, clear, piercing cry of 'design!' The result is so unambiguous and so significant that it must be ranked as one of the greatest achievements in the history of science. The discovery rivals those of Newton and Einstein, Lavoisier and Schrödinger, Pasteur, and Darwin.”
―Michael J. Behe, Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution
Geology too has yielded an abundance of evidence that tosses a veritable monkey-wrench into macroevolutionary theory's credibility and serves to buoy the case for intelligent design and special creation. Darwin himself concedes: "The geological record is extremely imperfect . . . [and this fact] will to a large extent explain why . . . we do not find intermediate varieties, connecting together all the extinct and existing forms of life by the finest graduated steps. . . He who rejects these views on the nature of the geological record, will rightly reject my whole theory." David Nobel explains the predicament following the discovery of trilobites in lower Cambrian strata with complex body and eye structure yet they don't have any primordial ancestors leading up to trilobites.
"If Darwin is right, Agassiz argued, then we should find not just one or a few missing links, but innumerable links shading almost imperceptibly from alleged ancestors to presumed descendants. Geologists, however, had found no such myriad of transitional forms leading to the Cambrian fauna. Instead, the stratigraphic column seemed to document the abrupt appearance of the earliest animals. Agassiz."
―Stephen C. Meyer, Darwin's Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design
The culmination of this aforementioned evidence collectively buoys the case for intelligent design and special creation:
“The conclusion of intelligent design flows naturally from the data itself. . . Inferring that biochemical systems were designed by an intelligent agent is a humdrum process that requires no new principles of logic or science. It comes simply from the hard work that biochemistry has done over the past forty years, combined with consideration of the way in which we reach conclusions of design every day.”
―Michael J. Behe, Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution
Do you want to learn more about special creationism and intelligent design? Contrary to popular belief, science is not wholly against special creationism and intelligent design. There are credible inductively-reasoned (probabilistic) rationales based on scientific evidence for the irreducible complexity of living organisms that precludes the Darwinian theory of macroevolution and this likewise precludes subsequent revisionism by contemporary macroevolutionary thinkers such as the theory of punctuated equilibrium.
Adherence to intelligent design and special creationism is apt to elicit criticism from the secular academy and naturalists. For instance, Richard Sternberg, a Smithsonian scientist with two Ph.D.s in evolutionary biology, was fired as editor of a Smithsonian science journal for publishing an article written by Stephen Meyer. Why? In his own words, "Because Dr. Meyer’s article presented scientific evidence for intelligent design in biology, I faced retaliation, defamation, harassment, and a hostile work environment at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History that was designed to force me out as a Research Associate there."† In spite of the fact that Sternberg himself was an adherent of macroevolutionary Darwinian theory, he committed the cardinal sin among the establishment. He published an article by a Cambridge-educated scientist, Stephen Meyer, tendering scientific reasons to accept 'intelligent design.' Meyer suggested naturalistic theories cannot provide a satisfactory explanation for the great complexity and intricacy which we encounter in the universe, rather there were compelling reasons for an embrace of intelligent design. A later report in the Washington Post revealed that Sternberg was dismissed as a result of a concerted effort by the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), a lobbying group that perpetually fights to keep criticism of naturalistic public schools out of the academy.‡ It was not that Meyer tendered unsound arguments on the surface that they were rejected, rather these self-anointed scientific elites deemed that the questioning of naturalistic evolution was not permitted. The effect of Sternberg's firing has had a chilling effect on academic freedom. Many biology, chemistry, and geology professors refrain from expressing their doubts about macroevolutionary theory, because they fear for the integrity of their careers and employability. I nevertheless stand by the courage of my convictions that there are compelling reasons to reject the Darwinian worldview and the specious notion that my primordial ancestors were ape-men. Naturalist philosopher Richard Rorty, a famous twentieth century academic, admitted:
The fundamentalist [by which he means Christian] parents of our fundamentalist students think that the entire “American liberal establishment” is engaged in a conspiracy. These parents have a point. When we American college teachers encounter religious fundamentalists, we do not consider the possibility of reformulating our own practices of justification so as to give more weight to the authority of the Christian scriptures. Instead, we do our best to convince these students of the benefits of secularization. Rather, I think these students are lucky to find themselves under the benevolent Herrschaft [teaching] of people like me, and to have escaped the grip of their frightening, vicious, dangerous parents.
†"Smithsonian Controversy," RichardSternberg.com. www.richardsternberg.com/smithsonian.php
‡Robert L. Crowther, II , "Smithsonian Scientist Was Demoted for Views Critical of Darwinian Evolution," Evolution News and Science Today https://evolutionnews.org/2006/12/the_house_government_reform_su/
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Nevertheless as a Christian, I ultimately accept the special creation narrative of the Bible on the basis of faith. Here is my reading list that I have compiled based on my scholarly explorations and research, and it tenders credible reasons to beleive in God's hand in special creation and intelligent design. I am clearly in favor of Design Theory, special creationism, and acknowledging the legitimacy of micro- as opposed to macro- evolution. As such, I have included a variety of bibliographical sources to aid in researching Intelligence Design and Special Creationism, (and I even include a few so-called theistic macroevolutionary theorists) for the sake of comparison and contrast.
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A Comprehensive Bibliography and Reading List of Creationist Apologetics & Intelligent Design Resources
Media Resources
Darwin's Dilemma. Director: Lad Allen. DVD. (La Habra, CA: Illustra Media, 2010).
Metamorphosis: The Beauty and Design of Butterflies. DVD. (La Habra, CA: Illustra Media, 2012).
The Privileged Planet. Director: Lad Allen. DVD. (La Habra, CA: Illustra Media, 2010).
Unlocking the Mystery of Life: The Scientific Case for Intelligent Design. DVD. (La Habra, CA: Illustra Media, 2004).
Sproul, R.C., Creation or Chaos: Modern Science and the Existence of God. CD-Audio. (Sanford, FL: Ligonier Ministries, 2000).
Books
Alexander, Denis. Creation or Evolution: Do We Have to Choose? (Toronto, ON: Monarch Books, 2008).
Ashton, John F. In Six Days: Why Fifty Scientists Choose to Believe in Creation (Green Forest, AR:New Leaf Publishing, 2001).
Aston, John, and Michael Westacott. The Big Argument: Does Got Exist? Twenty-Four Scholars Explore How Science, Archaeology, and Philosophy Haven't Disproved God (Green Forest,AR: Green Leaf Pub., 2005).
Behe, Michael J., William A. Dembski, Stephen C. Meyer, Science and Evidence for Design in the Universe (The Proceedings of the Wethersfield Institute Vol. 9) (SanFrancisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2000).
Behe, Michael J. Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution, Rev. 2nd Ed.(New York, NY: Free Press, 1996, 2006).
Behe, Michael J. The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism (New York, NY:Free Press, 2007).
Berlinski, David, Casey Luskin, Stephen C. Meyer, Paul Nelson, Jay Richards and Richard Sternberg, Signature of Controversy: Responses to Critics of Signature in the Cell, David Klinghoffer, ed. (Seattle, WA: Discovery Institute Press, 2011).
Berlinski, David, The Deniable Darwin and Other Essays (Hillsdale, MI: Hillsdale College Press,2010).
Berlinski, David. The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and its Scientific Pretensions (New York, NY:Basic Books, 2009).
Bigalke, Ron. The Genesis Factor: Myths and Realities (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2008).
Black, Jim Nelson. The Death of Evolution: Restoring Faith and Wonder in a World of Doubt (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010).
Boice, James Montgomery. Genesis. 3 vols. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Pub., 1998, 2006).
Brown, Walt. In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood. 8th Ed. (Center for Scientific Creation, 2008).
Campbell, Heidi, and Heather Looy, eds., A Science and Religion Primer (Adi, MI: Baker Academic, 2009).
Chaffey, Tim, and Jason Lisle. Old Earth Creationism on Trial: The Verdict Is In. (Green Forest,AR: New Leaf Publishing, 2008).
Colling, Richard G. Random Designer: Created from Chaos to Connect with the Creator (Bourbonnais, IL: Browning Press, 2004).
Collins, Francis. The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief (New York, NY:Free Press, 2006).
Collins, Francis. The Language of Life: DNA and the Revolution in Personalized Medicine (New York, NY: Harper, 2010).
Dembski, William A., and Michael Ruse, eds. Debating Design: From Darwin to DNA (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Dembski, William A., and Charles W. Colson. The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions About Intelligent Design (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004).
Dembski, William A., and Jonathan Wells. The Design of Life: Discovering Signs of Intelligence In Biological Systems (Richardson, TX: Foundation for Thought and Ethics, 2007).
Dembski, William A., ed. Uncommon Dissent: Intellectuals Who Find Darwinism Unconvincing (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2004).
Dembski, William. Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science and Theology (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
Dembski, William and Jonathan Witt. Intelligent Design Uncensored: An Easy-to-Understand Guide to the Controversy (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2010).
Dembski, William. The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
Dembski, William. The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions about Intelligent Design (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004).
Denton, Michael. Evolution: A Theory In Crisis - Why New Developments in Science Are Challenging Orthodox Darwinism (London, England: Burnett Books, 1985).
Dewolf, David K., John G. West, Casey Luskin, and Jonathan Witt. Traipsing Into Evolution: Intelligent Design and the Kitzmiller v. Dover Decision (Seattle, WA: Discovery Institute Press, 2012).
Flannery, Michael A. Nature's Prophet: Alfred Russel Wallace and His Evolution from Natural Selection to Natural Theology (Univ. of Alabama Press, 2018).
Flew, Anthony. There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind (New York,NY: Harper Collins, 2007).
Fowler, Thomas B., and Daniel Kuebier. Evolution Controversy, The: A Survey of Competing Theories (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Pub., 2007).
Frederick, Fr Justin B. A., Wayne J. Downs, and William A. Dembski. The Patristic Understanding Of Creation: An Anthology Of Writings From The Church Fathers On Creation And Design (Erasmus Press, 2008).
Gauger, Ann, Douglas Axe, and Casey Luskin. Science and Human Origins (Seattle, WA: Discovery Institute Press, 2012).
Geisler, Norman L. Creation and the Courts: Eighty Years of Conflict in the Classroom and the Courtroom (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2007).
Geisler, Norman L., and Frank Turek. I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (Wheaton, IL: Crossway,2004).
Giberson, Karl W. and Francis S. Collins. The Language of Science and Faith: Straight Answers to Genuine Questions (Westmont, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2011).
Giberson, Karl W. Saving Darwin: How to Be a Christian and Believe in Evolution (New York, NY: K.S. Giniger, 2008).
Gitt, Werner. Did God Use Evolution? Observations from a Scientist of Faith (Green Forest, AR: New Leaf Publishing, 2006).
Gitt, Werner. Without Excuse (Powder Springs, GA: Creation Book Pub., 2011).
Godfrey, W. Robert. God’s Pattern for Creation: A Covenantal Reading of Genesis 1 (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Pub., 2003).
Gonzalez, Guillermo, and, Jay Richards, The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2004)
Gordon, Bruce L. and William Dembski. The Nature of Nature: Examining the Role of Naturalism in Science (Wilmington, DE: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2011).
Jeffrey, Grant R. Creation: Remarkable Evidence of God's Design (Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook Press, 2003).
Johnson, Phillip. Darwin on Trial (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1991).
Johnson, Phillip. Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997).
Jordan, James B. Creation in Six Days: A Defense of the Traditional Reading of Genesis One (Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 1999).
Kelly, Douglas. Creation And Change: Genesis 1.1 - 2.4 in the Light of Changing Scientific Paradigms (Mentor, 2000).
Larson, Edward J., and Richard B. Russell. 3rd Ed. Trial and Error: The American Controversy Over Creation and Evolution (New York, NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 1985, 1989,2003).
Lennox, John. God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design Is It Anyway? (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007).
Lennox, John. God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? (Chicago, IL: Lion, 2006, 2009).
Lennox, John. Seven Days That Divide the World: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004).
Lisle, Jason. Taking Back Astronomy: The Heavens Declare Creation (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2006).
Lubenow, Marvin L. Bones of Contention: A Creationist Assessment of Human Fossils (Ada, MI: Baker Pub., 2004).
MacArthur, John. The Battle For the Beginning: Creation, Evolution and the Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2005).
Machen, J. Gresham. Christianity and Liberalism (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B.
Eerdmans, 2009).
Marsden, George. Fundamentalism and American Culture, 2nd Ed. (New York, NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006).
Meyer, Stephen C. Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design (New York, NY: Harper, 2013).
Meyer, Stephen C. Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design (New York, NY: Harper Collins, 2009).
Miller, Kenneth B., Only A Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul (New York, NY: Penguin, 2008).
Monton, Bradley. Seeking God in Science: An Atheist Defends Intelligent Design (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2009).
Moreland, J.P., The Creation Hypothesis: Scientific Evidence for an Intelligent Designer (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994).
Muncaster, Ralph O. Dismantling Evolution: Building the Case for Intelligent Design (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2003).
Nagel, Thomas. Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False (New York, NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 2012).
Nash, Ronald H. Worldviews in Conflict: Choosing Christianity in a World of Ideas (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1992).
Nevin, Norman. Should Christians Embrace Evolution? (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Pub., 2011).
Noebel, David. Understanding the Times: The Religious Worldviews of Our Day and the Search for Truth, 7th Ed. (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 1995).
Noll, Mark. The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1995).
Numbers, Ronald L. The Creationists: The Evolution of Scientific Creationism (Los Angeles, CA: Univ. of California Press, 1992).
Pearcey, Nancy R., and Charles B. Thaxton. The Soul of Science: Christian Faith and Natural Philosophy (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1994).
Plantinga, Alvin. Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism (New York, NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 2011).
Poythress, Vern Sheridan. Redeeming Science: A God-Centered Approach (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2006).
Ratzch, Del. Science and Its Limits: The Natural Sciences in Christian Perspective (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009).
Rose, Seraphim, Fr. Genesis, Creation and Early Man (Platina,CA: St. Herman Press, 2000).
Safarti, Jonathan. By Design: Evidence for Nature's Intelligent Designer—the God of the Bible (Powder Springs, GA: Creation Book Pub., 2008).
Safarti, Jonathan. Refuting Compromise: A Biblical and Scientific Refutation of "Progressive Creationism" (Billions of Years) As Popularized by Astronomer Hugh Ross (Powder Springs, GA: Creation Book Pub., 2011).
Safarti, Jonathan. Refuting Evolution (Powder Springs, GA: Creation Book Pub., 1999, 2008).
Safarti, Jonathan. Refuting Evolution 2 (Powder Springs, GA: Creation Book Pub., 2011).
Schroeder, Gerald L. The Hidden Face of God: Science Reveals the Ultimate Truth (New York, NY: Free Press, 2002).
Schroeder, Gerald L. The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom (New York, NY: Free Press, 2009).
Sewell, Granville. In The Beginning And Other Essays on Intelligent Design (Seattle, WA: Discovery Institute Press, 2010).
Sire, James. The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog. 5th Ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009).
Smith, Wolfgang. Theistic Evolution: The Teilhardian Heresy (Tacoma: WA: Angelico Press, 2012)
Snoke, David. Biblical Case for an Old Earth (Ada, MI: Baker Pub., 2006).
Spitzer, Robert J. New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2010).
Sproul, R.C. Classical Apologetics: A Rational Defense of the Christian Faith and a Critique of Presuppositional Apologetics (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004).
Sproul, R.C. Defending Your Faith: An Introduction to Apologetics (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2003, 2009).
Sproul, R.C. The Consequences of Ideas: Understanding the Concepts that Shaped Our World (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2003, 2009).
Sproul, R.C., Not a Chance: The Myth of Chance in Modern Science and Cosmology (Adi, MI: Baker Pub., 1999).
Strobel, Lee. The Case For A Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005).
Van Til, Cornelius. Christian Apologetics, 2nd Ed. (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing,2003).
Van Til, Cornelius. The Defense of the Faith. K. Scott Oliphint, ed. 4th ed. (Phillipsburg, NJ:P&R Publishing, 1967, 2008).
Walton, John H. The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009).
Weikart, Richard. From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany (Palgrave MacMillan, New York, NY: 2004).
Wells, Jonathan. Icons of Evolution: Science or Myth? Why Much of What We Teach About Evolution Is Wrong (Washington, DC: Regnery, 2002).
Wells, Jonathan. The Myth of Junk DNA (Seattle, WA: Discovery Institute Press, 2011).
Wells, Jonathan. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2006).
West, John, ed. The Magician's Twin: C.S. Lewis on Science, Scientism, and Society (Seattle,WA: Discovery Institute Press, 2011).
West, John. Darwin's Conservatives: The Misguided Quest (Seattle, WA: Discovery Institute Press, 2006).
Woodward, Thomas, James Gills, The Mysterious Epigenome: What Lies Beyond DNA (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2011).
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"In the beginning God created the Heavens and the earth. . ." (Genesis 1:1)
Above Video: Revolutionary - Michael Behe and the Mystery of Molecular Machines. This video documentary explains Michael Behe, a biochemist and former macroevolutionist's repudiation of macroevolutionary theory, his credible reasoning for this change of thought, and his ultimate acceptance of intelligent design.
Above Video: Unlocking the Mystery of Life by Illustra Media. This video documentary explains how prominent scientists came to take issue with the academy's orthodoxy of macroevolutionary theory, and come to accept the reasonableness of the intelligent design argument.
Darwin Devolves: The New Science About DNA That Challenges Evolution by Michael Behe (Harper One, 2019).
The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism by Michael Behe (Free Press, 2006).
Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution (Free Press, 2001).
In his controversial bestseller Darwin’s Black Box, biochemist Michael Behe challenged Darwin’s theory of evolution, arguing that science itself has proven that intelligent design is a better explanation for the origin of life. In The Edge of Evolution, Behe presents presents the evidence of the genetics revolution — the first direct evidence of nature's mutational pathways — to radically redefine the debate about Darwinism. In Darwin Devolves, Behe advances his argument, presenting new research that offers a startling reconsideration of how Darwin’s mechanism works, weakening the theory’s validity even more.
A system of natural selection acting on random mutation, evolution can help make something look and act differently. But evolution never creates something organically. Behe contends that Darwinism actually works by a process of devolution—damaging cells in DNA in order to create something new at the lowest biological levels. This is important, he makes clear, because it shows the Darwinian process cannot explain the creation of life itself. “A process that so easily tears down sophisticated machinery is not one which will build complex, functional systems,” he writes.
In addition to disputing the methodology of Darwinism and how it conflicts with the concept of creation, Behe reveals that what makes Intelligent Design unique—and right—is that it acknowledges causation. Evolution proposes that organisms living today are descended with modification from organisms that lived in the distant past. But Intelligent Design goes a step further asking, what caused such astounding changes to take place? What is the reason or mechanism for evolution? For Behe, this is what makes Intelligent Design so important.
The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions About Intelligent Design by William A. Dembski (Intervarsity Press, 2004).
The Design Revolution by William A. Dembski was a 2005 Gold Medallion finalist. It asks the question regarding the posited theory of intelligent design? Is it scientific? Is it merely religious? What is the Design Revolution precisely? Today scientists, including biologists, chemists, physicists, as well as mathematicians, and philosophers have joined the intelligent design movement and posing a challenge to a popular view within the scientific community. These men and women challenge the notion that there is scientific reason to exclude the consideration of sentient intelligence, agency, design, and even planned purpose from truly scientific research. These intellectuals maintain that science already gives credeence to these factors. William A. Dembski endeavors to answer questions surrounding this so called Design Revolution, which challenges orthodox Darwinian macroevolutionary theory, and he nimbly answers questions posed to challenge the intelligent design program. Dembski makes his research accessible to laity with easy-to-understand terms, and explanations.. Dembski makes it resoundingly clear that The Design Revolution will challenge the scientific community to reevaluate its faulty epistemology, methodologies, and bias that are deliberately orchestrated all with the purpose of suppressing and denying inductive reasoning and evidences that lend credence to intelligent design. By reading this erudite work, the reader will have a better idea of the prospects of this revolution in thinking.
Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science and Theology by William A. Dembski (IVP Academic, 2002).
William Dembski address the challenges and criticisms posed agaisnt the intelligent design movement. In this erudite tome, Dembski addresses evidences for divine action in nature, why the significance of miraculous divine supernatural intervention should be considered, and the fate of British natural theology. Dembski illustrates astutely how intelligent design can be inferred as a theory of information and it rests upon a plausible epistemological foundation. Phillip Johnson dubs this crucial book "one of the most important of the design theorists who are sparking a scientific revolution by legitimating the concept of intelligent design in science."
CREEDALIST
With Christianity losing its former ascendancy in the modern West, and the conformist tendency to make the church more like the world, it's often suggested that we minimize secondary doctrine for the sake of Christian unity. I would insist that this doctrinal minimalism is in fact the wrong approach, and is woefully misguided. Tom Hicks notes, "Creedalism prevents innovative and inferior theological formulations. Some pastors and teachers, who call themselves 'biblicists,' approach the Bible independently and innovatively without consulting the careful work of historical theology. They do this, even though teachers and pastors have been hard at work formulating doctrine, throughout the history of the church, so that the full meaning of Scripture is clear while errors are avoided and excluded." Rather just as all true Christians should stand for the furtherance of Christ's Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven, we should also stand athwart the militant secularism. We need a confessional faith. Theopedia notes: "There are numerous passages of Scripture which are considered by many to essentially qualify as creeds or declarations of faith. . . (Deut. 6:4; 1 Cor. 8:4; John 6:68-69, Rom. 10:9; Phil. 2:11; 1 Cor. 15:3-7; 1 John 4:2). We furthermore benefit by creeds and confessions to extrapolate the teachings of the Bible. For all these reasons, we need robust biblical expressions of Christianity.
Creedalism has apostolic authority as Paul himself bids the believer to "follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith. . ." (2 Tim. 1:13–14.) Carl Trueman observes, "Conspicuously, Paul does not simply say to Timothy, 'Memorize the Old Testament or the Gospels or my Letters' any more than he ever defines preaching as the reading of the same. The form [pattern] of sound words is something more [that is: a pattern of words that explains the content of Scripture, as in creeds]. Anyone who claims to take the Bible seriously must take the words of Paul to Timothy on this matter seriously. To claim to have no creed but the Bible, then, is problematic: the Bible itself seems to demand that we have forms of sound words, and that’s what creeds are" (The Creedal Imperative, pp. 75–76).
Since the popular culture, or global anti-culture, continues to assail Christianity in these troubled times, we need the Bible's comprehensive theological support structure, and its rich teachings find an articulate exposition in the historical creeds, confessions, and formularies of the Christian Church. Paul stressed the importance of "sound doctrine. . ." (Titus 2:1). When the popular culture is against the Gospel, our evangelism and discipleship efforts must be theologically robust, doctrinally sound, and impassioned. To this end, creeds and confessions inform our understanding. While postmodern philosophy casts doubts that words can have any objective meaning, Tom Hicks observes, "God chose to reveal Himself by the inscripturated words of the Bible. Like the Bible, confessions of faith convey God’s truth through words. Creeds insist that words are suitable vehicles for the communication of objective truth." Accordingly, catechesis, creeds, and confessions are a valuable reservoir of distilled Christian dogma and thought. "The Lord our God, the Lord is one" (Deut 6:4, 1 Cor 8:4).
“The stories the modern world tells us are powerful: the future-oriented promise of science, the technology that privileges the young, the materialistic paradise offered by consumerism, which is always just around the next corner, the dying of confidence in words, the fragmentation of human nature, the distrust of traditional structures and notions of authority, and the wicked results of saying that somebody else is wrong and does not belong. All of these in their different ways make the idea of doctrinal Christianity, expressed in creeds and confessions, both implausible and distasteful; and all of them are part of the cultural air we all breathe.”
―Carl R. Trueman, The Creedal Imperative
The Truth of the Council of Nicea
by Ryan M. Setliff
The person of the Lord Jesus Christ was at center stage in the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., and all subsequent councils appealing to the precedent, weight and authority of the First Council. As Augustine of Hippo opined, ". . .we make our own the profession of the faith that we carry in our heart. . . We have the catholic faith in the creed, known to the faithful and committed to memory, contained in a form of expression as concise as has been rendered admissible by the circumstances.” In the creed was affirmation of belief in the authority of the Word of God, the incarnate Logos, namely the Lord Jesus Christ:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. (John 1:1-5)
In the span of church history, the cities of Alexandria and Antioch figure prominently as centers of theological influence as well as dissension. Both heroes of the faith and heretics hailed from either of these two cities. Erstwhile a young Berber from Libya studied theology at the Christian catechetical school in Antioch under the mentorship of Lucian of Antioch, a protege of heretic bishop Paul of Samosata. Though none of Lucian’s extant writings are today known, scholars attribute to him a number of heresies in the early Christian church.
Supposedly the heresy of Arius, owed to the influence of Lucian, a protégé of Paul of Samosata, was an overreaction to another perceived heresy, namely that of Sabellianism (modalism.) One of the great ironies of the swinging pendulum of heresy is it often produces peculiar reactionaries, themselves heretical in nature, who by ignorance or passion, overcompensate and soon slip up themselves. As riots broke out on 318 A.D., in Alexandria, over the contests between Arius’ followers and the the followers of Bishop Alexander, presbyters from afar took note of the ordeal. In 321, Bishop Alexander summarily expelled Arius from the city of Alexandria. His expulsion did not end the matter. Arius made flight to Palestine and promoted his ideas there. Alexander wrote several epistles to the churches in the area issuing cautionary warnings. Word of the affair quickly spread. Not long thereafter, bishops throughout Christendom endeavored to enter the fray of controversy and address the heretical voices for the sake of the integrity of the Gospel and unity of the church.
Accordingly the church held its first ecumenical catholic (“universal”) council to settled longstanding doctrinal and ecclesiastical conflicts: namely the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. The presbyters (elders) of the church were summoned for the express purpose of giving a more concrete exposition of the nature of Jesus' relationship to the Father, thus reaffirming His unique status as "Son of God", the incarnate "Word" or "Logos", and His divinity, in light of divine revelation manifest in Scriptural truth.
Presided over by Emperor Constantine, drawing from the wellspring of knowledge in the Holy Scriptures, and with prayers and supplications in appeal to the Holy Spirit for divine guidance, the Council articulated the rudiments of an orthodox Christian theology, as it tendered the classical orthodox Christology and the Doctrine of the Trinity. The resultant creed that capstones their labors became known as the Nicene Creed and later a final clarion statement appeared in the Niceno-Constantinopolian Creed in 381 A.D. Excepting the apostolic council in Jerusalem recorded in Acts of the Apostles, chapter fifteen, Nicea stands above other early councils of the church given the depth of its focus, the clarity and solemnity of its subsequent authoritative creedal statements.
The council was no rash innovation as revisionists and pseudo-Christian cultists claim. Among its Scriptural truths reaffirmed was Christ’s divinity. Earlier Melito of Sardis (c. 170-180) gave a second century exposition on the widely understood apostolic church teaching of the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ:
And so he was lifted up upon a tree and an inscription was provided too, to indicate who was being killed. Who was it? It is a heavy thing to say, and a most fearful thing to refrain from saying. But listen, as you tremble in the face of him on whose account the earth trembled. He who hung the earth in place is hanged. He who fixed the heavens in place is fixed in place. He who made all things fast is made fast on the tree. The Master is insulted. God is murdered. The King of Israel is destroyed by an Israelite hand.
The creeds that emanated from the ecumenical councils of the early Christian church have served as effective guardrails, in effect keeping God's people marching on a path of truth. These early church fathers under the guidance of the Holy Spirit articulated these beautiful sublime statements of faith in fealty to the Holy Scriptures with an eye to upholding its integrity and adherence to the true Gospel of Jesus of Christ and the faith of the apostles. Though not infallible, these wise statements of faith form an enduring legacy and serve as a barometer of theological truth in age torn asunder by relativism and trendy theological fads.
Gerald Bray remarks, “the creeds of the Early Church. . . are intended to express the content of belief necessary for salvation. Because of this, they are brief and as comprehensive as possible.” The Nicene truth would be transmitted to faraway lands and was a testament to unity within the church, for as Saint David of Wales avowed: "Be joyful, and keep your faith and your creed. Do the little things that you have seen me do and heard about. I will walk the path that our fathers have trod before us." The simple Nicene creed is a sublime statement of Christian orthodoxy and finds expression in worship within the Christian church’s confessional tradition.
The creed makes available a reliable way to learn the doctrinal tenets of an orthodox Christianity. In teaching the catechetical creed of Jerusalem circa 350 A.D., Cyril of Jerusalem, explained that believers are aided by a concise formula of belief, a confession, in order to keep as close to the center of the apostolic faith as possible, by God’s grace and in and through the power of His Holy Spirit. The creed is that:
which has been built up strongly out of all the Scriptures. For since all cannot read the Scriptures, some being hindered from the knowledge of them by lack of learning, and others because they lack leisure to study, in order that the soul should not be starved in ignorance, the church has condensed the whole teaching of the faith in a few lines. This summary I wish you both to commit to memory when I recite it, and to rehearse it with all diligence among yourselves, not writing it out on paper, but engraving it by the memory upon your heart, taking care while you rehearse it that no catechumen may happen to overhear the things which have been delivered to you. I wish you also to keep this as a provision through the whole course of your life, and beside this to receive no alternative teaching, even if we ourselves should change and contradict our present teaching. (Catechetical Lectures 5.12)
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Above Video: "Arius and Nicea" - Lecture by Ryan Reeves
Ryan M. Reeves (Ph.D Cambridge) is Assistant Professor of Historical Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and here he lectures on the controversy settled at the Council of Nicea following the church's reaction to the heresy of Arius, which resulted in the censure and excommunication of Arius and his followers.
The Creedal Imperative by Carl Trueman (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012).
What if contrary to so called non-denominational evangelical wisdom, the aphorism “No creed but the Bible” is actually unbiblical? What if damage is done to the dissemination and preservation of "sound doctrine" among the church body by the rejection of the historic statements of belief embraced and affirmed by the early Christian church? The historic role of confessions and creeds has been the basis of on-going debate today, and it has profound implications for the future of the Christian church. Many confessional Christians are embracing the summons to return to Christianity’s ancient roots, which includes esteem for the early apostles, the church fathers, and the authority of the early ecumenical councils, such as First and Second Councils of Nicaea, the Chalcedonian Council, the Council of Ephesus, and the Council of Orange. Advocating on behalf of the historic creeds and confession, Reformed Protestant theologian Carl Trueman tenders an insightful analysis of why these historical formularies are vitally requisite, how they came into being and have been appropriated over time, and how they can continue to function in the church.
I Believe: Exploring the Apostles' Creed by Alister McGrath (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Press).
The rudiments of Christian faith have remained the same for centuries, timeless, unchanged, and are reflected by the teachings of the sacred inspired scripture of the Bible itself. Affirmed by the church for centuries all around the world, these sacred truths are summarized in formularies known as creeds. Among these statements, the Apostles' Creed is one of the most enduring. In this succinct overview, religious scholar Alister McGrath introduces the reader to the essential truths about the persons of the Trinity, namely God the Father, the person and work of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. These sacred truths are embodied in the Apostles Creed, and McGrath offers a cogent scholarly exposition upon the Apostles Creed.
What We Believe: Understanding and Confessing the Apostles' Creed by R.C. Sproul (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015).
What do Christians believe about God the Father, Jesus Christ, the church, salvation, eternal life, and more? This contemporary classic from theologian R. C. Sproul provides a matchless introduction to the basics of the Christian faith.
What Christians Ought to Believe: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine Through the Apostles’ Creed by Michael Bird (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan).
Modern Christians have entertained a strain of thought that makes them reluctant to affirm the ancient creeds because of their uninformed “nothing but the Bible” tradition. In this insightful apologetic for the historical formulary of the Apostles Creed, theologian Michael Bird opens our eyes to the possibilities of the Apostle’s Creed as a way to explore and understand the basic teachings of the Christian faith. As Jeremy Treat of Biola notes, "We all have a tradition through which we read Scripture, and Michael Bird argues that the Apostle’s Creed ought to be that tradition. Far from competing with the Bible, this ancient summary of the faith is an aid in rightly understanding the Bible. Bird approaches the creed as a syllabus for teaching basic Christian belief, and like the experienced professor that he is, guides his readers through the creed by highlighting the contours of the narrative and the convictions of the faith."
J.I. Packer, Affirming the Apostles' Creed (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008).
The learned Anglican theologian, J.I. Packer, offers insights into the theology of one of the most fundamental creeds of Western Christendom, the Apostles Creed. This scholarly work gives a biblical rationale for the theology of the creed, and helps the layperson better ascertain the Trinitarian theology and christology manifest in this essential formulary of Christian orthodoxy. J. I. Packer (DPhil, Oxford University) serves as the Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology at Regent College. Packer is the author of countless books and scholarly articles, including the best-seller Knowing God. Packer served as general editor for the English Standard Version (ESV) Bible and as the theological editor for the ESV Study Bible.
Above Video: The Nicene Creed sung as hymnody
Above Video: "What is the Apostles Creed? (In 90 Seconds)," Lecture by Ryan Reeves
Many churches affirm the Apostles Creed from the early church or Patristic period. But who wrote the Apostles Creed? Did the 12 apostles of Jesus write the Apostles Creed or someone else? This 90 second (or so) video explains how the Apostles Creed was written in the early centuries of the Christian church.
Above Video: "Chalcedonian Definition" Lecture by Ryan Reeves, Cambridge PhD
The Chalcedonian Definition is a diophysite declaration of the two natures of Christ, adopted at the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451. Chalcedon was an early centre of Christianity located in Asia Minor.
Above Video: "Creeds and Councils: What are they?" - Lecture by Ryan Reeves
Ryan M. Reeves (Ph.D Cambridge) is Assistant Professor of Historical Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and here he lectures on the role of the creeds and early ecumenical councils of the Church.
ECUMENICAL
Ecumenical by definition has two denotations according to Merriam-Websters' Dictionary. First, "of, relating, or representing the whole of a body of churches;" and second, "promoting or tending toward worldwide Christian unity or cooperation. . ." To the extent I am ecumenical, I acknowledge a diversity of bodies, communions, congregations, and indeed peoples within Christ's church, and this comes attendant to the universal Gospel. After all, the redeemed church of Christ shall embody: ". . . a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. . ." (Revelation 7:9) The nuance I add is that I do not believe that the truth of the Gospel should be sacrificed in pursuit of ecumenicalism; there are good and bad forms of ecumenicalism.
"Christian unity," remarks J.I. Packer, "is a matter should be taken seriously because God takes it seriously. . . In the Bible, the Lord Jesus prays that all of his disciples everywhere, at all times, will be one. One in their fellowship with Him. One in their life together. When the Apostle Paul writes the church it talks about the unity of spirit as a given reality, which embraces all Christians here and now. So, church unity, doesn’t mean primarily or even essentially church union. A lot of people make that mistake and think it does. Christian unity means acknowledging that all of us are sharers in the love of the same Savior, the power of the same Holy Spirit, and the worship of the same Heavenly Father. And being together in that brings us together as brothers and sisters in a single family, so that all Christians, straight away, must see themselves as brothers, sisters, and friends straight away to every Christian in the world."
The Apostle Paul exhorts us to "be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph. 4:3). Here we see the person of the Holy Spirit represented as a giver of unity within the body of Christ, which aims to promote love among the brethren. "In one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and all were made to drink of one Spirit" (1 Corithians 12:13). The Nicene credal orthodoxy views the Bible as a basic unity, with both the Old and the New Testaments declaring the one triune God, one Savior from sin, one way of salvation, and one covenant of grace. This orthodoxy reflects the "sound doctrine" that Paul spoke of. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God, the Apostle Paul wrote:
I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith you were called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all” (Ephesians 4:1-6).
Accordingly if we truly care about showing our community, family, friends and even enemies the truth, love and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ, we should heed His summons to unity. We should demonstrate our unity in faith. Unity and peaceful harmonious relations among the brethren serves the cause of Jesus Christ. Our demonstrated unity as believer is important evidence to the truth of the Gospel, which can offer to an unbelieving and sinful world:
I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me (John 17:20-23)
As the Psalmist writes, “How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity!" (Psa. 133:1). As 1 Peter 3:8 notes, unity entails being "like-minded," possessed of "love" for "one another, and "sympathetic." And indeed the Gospel serves a purpose not simply in the salvation of souls, the glory of God, but to "bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ" (Eph. 1:10.)
Christian Unity, but at what cost?
Sound, or healthy, doctrine points to a pattern of worship that, when followed, promotes unity within the body of Christ, as well as faith and love among the brethren (Jn. 4:23; Eph. 4:11-13). It should go without saying that this unity does NOT come at the expense of "sound doctrine" (2 Tim 2:2). Compromise of the integral truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is properly understood, a cause for division (Amos 3:3). "I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them" (Rom. 16:17-20). Division separates the brethren and causes strife and conflict (Col. 3:13-14).
The Apostle Paul admonished the discordant church at Corinth to unity. It was a body divided into competing sects; disorder prevailed in their assemblies; the Lord's Supper had been corrupted with people partaking of it in an unworthy manner; sins such as adultery were even tolerated, and some even denied the future bodily resurrection of believers. Paul endured with them amid heresy, dissension and lawlessness. But, why? Foremost Paul loved God. Also he loved the body and wanted to see them extirpate all impediments to true worship and Christian fraternity. He instructed them under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 1:11). He was steadfast in renouncing their sin, and exhorting them to repentance. However, Paul subjected the practitioners of lawlessness and heretics to discipline, effecting their expulsion from among the assembly, in the hope that certain individuals find true faith, repentance and restoration.
"Error, indeed," wrote Irenaeus, "is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed, it should at once be detected. But it is craftily decked out in an attractive dress, so as, by its outward form, to make it appear to the inexperienced. . . more true than the truth itself." With an eye to the Gnostic sect who read and quoted from the Bible, the orthodox Irenaeus had in mind Jesus' admonition in the Gospel of Matthew 7:15 about false prophets who come in sheep's clothing but are inwardly as ravenous wolves. Some may represent themselves as Christ followers, but by their words and deeds they deny the true Gospel of Jesus Christ (Mt. 7:21-22, Mt. 12:37; Gal. 1:8-9).
For example, the Gnostic sect fundamentally rejected the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul is clear in his epistle to the Galatians about the perils of perverting the Gospel: "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed" (Gal. 1:8.) Here Paul declares the spiritual condition of such a man as being under God’s curse, thus "dead in your transgressions and sins" (Eph. 2:1). This is not a condition that points to possessing the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul expressly warned of those "having a form of godliness but denying its power. . ." as they are "always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." "And from such people turn away!" (2 Tim. 3:5-7.)
Unity without the Gospel is a worthless unity; rather it is the very unity of hell.”
—J.C. Ryle
One of the ways Satan has strives to strike at the integrity of the Gospel and at His church is nurturing the Spirit of Error: "And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14). When contrasting the temperament of the Apostle Paul, it’s worthy of notation that he was gentle and conciliatory with non-believers pertaining to his witness as 2 Timothy 2:24-25 observes, however, when "wolves" appeared within the assembly, manifesting the "doctrines of devils" (Mt. 7:15; 1 Tim. 4:1), Paul was sharp in his rebuke, and censure of those espousing heresy that threatened the adherence of the flock to the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, thus spreading error and heresy, which justifies excommunication of the guilty parties in absence of demonstrated repentance (Mt. 18:15-20).
Hymenaeus and Alexander were men in the early church in Ephesus who had "suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith" and so were "handed over to Satan" by the Apostle Paul (1 Tim. 1:19–20). What does it mean when a prominent apostolic figure hands one over to Satan? It certainly implies a loss of favor from God, and precludes salvation if such a state is not reversed, yet God "makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Mt. 5:45.) If an excommunicated party, professes faith in the true Gospel, demonstrates repentance, and recognizes his error through the power of the Holy Spirit, he may be received once more by the church (Eph. 2:1; Titus 3:5).
God in His sovereign grace and mercy utilized the disputation within the apostolic church to allow the apostles, under the inspiration, guidance and direction of the person of the Holy Spirit, to reproof error, discipline the lawlessness, and to effect the removal of tares from the body of Jesus Christ who through grave moral sin, disobedience or heresy threatened the health of the body of Jesus Christ.
A short lesson with the late author and theologian J.I. Packer.
"I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love."
―The Aposle Paul, Ephesians 4:1-16
Christian Unity by Richard Baxter
In these pages, English churchman Richard Baxter addresses Christians in a time of religious upheaval in Britain and continental Europe. Here, he strives to demonstrate how Christians of all backgrounds can be unified, which embodied a most unique stance given at occurred against the backdrop of decades of religious warfare between Roman Catholics and Protestants. In two treatises on Ephesians 4:3 and Romans 14:1, he lays out a vision for how Christian love could heal the schisms separating the divergent forms of Christianity in his time.
Christian Unity: An Exposition of Ephesians 4:1-16 by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1962, 1998).
Vital themes behind Christian unity are often overlooked in the press of sentiment for greater ecumenicity. This study seeks to examine the depths of true spiritual unity. Christian unity is the result of a shared faith in Christ and His gospel among the body of Christ. This is what emerges from Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones' consideration of John 17 and Ephesians 4 in the addresses to the Westminster Fellowship republished here. His thorough presentation demonstrates that Christian unity is never something arrived at by minimizing truth. For the reason, it elucidates timeless truths about the truth of Scripture, this trenchant exposition of the issues underlying unity is still relevant in spite of first appearing in 1962.
Heresies: Heresy and Orthodoxy in the History of the Church by Harold O. J. Brown
The history of Christian theology is in large part a history of heresies, because Jesus and the claims he made . . . seemed incredible," writes the author. Heresies tenders "the story of how succeeding generations of Christians through almost twenty centuries have tried to understand, trust, and obey Jesus Christ." Attentiveness by the author is given to christology and trinitarianism. The author also summons the four major creeds of the church Apostles', Nicene, Athanasian, and Chalcedonian to separate orthodoxy from heresy. He acknowledges that heresy has done much more than confuse and divide the church. It has also helped the church to classify orthodoxy. Just as heresy served this purpose historically, so it serves this purpose pedagogically in Heresies.
An evangelist bears good tidings of joy, which come through sharing the good news, or the Gospel, about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Theopedia notes, "the proclamation of salvation in Christ to those who do not believe in him, calling them to repentance and conversion, announcing forgiveness of sin, and inviting them to become living members of Christ's earthly community and to begin a life of service to others in the power of the Holy Spirit." The Gospel puts the person of Jesus Christ at center stage in its proclamation: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." (Mark 1:15) Through Christ's atoning death, burial, and resurrection, the elect believers among humanity find hope of redemption in the next life (John 3:16; Acts 1:2; Acts 2:32; Romans 6:3-4; 1 Corinthians 15:1-8). He constitutes the perfect sacrifice for our sins, and He lived a holy, righteous, and just life as the model human being who was perfect and without blame (1 Peter 2:22; Hebrews 4:15; 1 John 1:15). He was God in the flesh, and the miracle of the Incarnation manifests God's great love for humanity who bear His image (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6; John 1:14; Luke 17:24; Galatians 4:4). As Theopedia states of the Gospel, in part it is "the proclamation of God in Jesus Christ that the kingdom of God has come near and that it is a call for the proper response of repentance." There's a sense of urgency that Christ's followers or His disciples more aptly proclaim the Good News about Jesus!
Because we as humanity share in the Image of God (Imago Dei), we're culpable morally for how we live in this life (Romans 14:12). Each of us are posessesed of will and volition, yet ensnared by the perilous consequences of the fall of man, thus tainted with a depraved sin nature, and accordingly, we must embrace the righteousness of Christ that comes as a free gift on the basis of faith in Christ's finished work (Romans 3:23, 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-10). The fruit of a geniune saving faith is walking day-by-day in hope of the future bodily resurrection (John 5:28-29; Hebrews 12:1-2), abiding love, joy, charity, and goodwill towards our fellow man (Galatians 5:22-23). We should find motivation to live and share our faith with others, not least being because God has commanded us to do as such (Mark 16:15).
“The preacher should work to convert his congregation; the wife should work to save her unbelieving husband. Christians are sent to convert, and they should not allow themselves, as Christ's representatives in the world, to aim at anything less. Evangelizing, therefore, is not simply a matter of teaching, and instructing, and imparting information to the mind. There is more to it than that. Evangelizing includes the endeavor to elicit a response to the truth taught.”
—J.I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God
The solace of the evangelist who acts, and preaches and proclaims the Good News of Jesus Christ is that He did act, and out of a desire to please God, He endeavored to proclaim the Gospel as He was commanded to do. That he did as His Savior instructed him to do, by proclaiming the truth of the atoning death, burial, and resurrection of His Lord Jesus Christ manifests obedience to the received teachings of Scripture. It's imperative that evangelist proclaim why it's both right and necessary to receive the free gift of salvation on the basis of "grace through faith" in the risen Savior! There's no other way but Jesus Christ to redemption (John 14:6), and certainly no hope for mortal man apart from faith in Jesus Christ (Hebrews 9:27).
I began evangelism after my college years. I confess when I first started, I was not entirely satisfied with the means by which I was undertaking my evangelistic endeavors. I wasn't brash nor was I rude. I wasn't shy, though I didn't embrace sufficient forethought about my word choice and presentation either. But the modus operandi of others in my college surroundings were too apt to beguile the recipient into a hasty confession of faith. It's better to simply faithfully proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ and His Salvation, which comes on the basis of His grace through faith in his meritous atonement for sins!
I endeavored to study a modus operandi of evangelism more consonant with the Scriptures. I ate up the words of the Apostle Paul on the subject and committed them to memory (2 Timothy 2:24-15, 4:2; 1 Peter 3:15). I first went to the Bible. The simplest reason a Christian is to evangelize is that He's commanded to do so by God himself (Matthew 10:7; Mark 16:15; Luke 9:2). God, in fact, blesses and rewards the endeavor as an act of faith (Matthew 6:19-21). Later I went to resources, such as Living Waters Ministries, which produces Ray Comfort's series The Way of the Master.
Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die by John Piper
The most important question any person will confront in their lives, are usually along the lines of: "Why was Jesus Christ crucified?"; "Was Jesus Christ the Son of God, and what does this mean?"; "Why did he suffer so much, and why was this necessary?"; "What has all of this to do with me?"; "Who sent Jesus to his death?"
The answer to the last question is that God did. Jesus gave himself willingly as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of a fallen humanity, and by his sacrifice atonement was to made on behalf of the faithful believers, who embrace the truth of the Gospel on the basis of faith in the meritous atoning death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and likewise by repentance. Jesus was God's Son. His suffering was unsurpassed, and substantial, but the tenor of the entire message of the Scriptures was that it was not without purpose, and certainly not in vain. No Christ didn't deserve this suffering for He was perfect and without reproach. The fundamental issue of Christ's death is not the cause, but the meaning. That book endeavors to explore and answer that question. The distinguished evangelical pastoral minister John Piper has gathered from the New Testament more fifty reasons why Jesus came to die, all in an effort to explain what God achieved on behalf of sinners like you and I by sending His Son in the world to suffer for us, and take our justly deserved punishment for our sins, and fallen nature.
The School of Biblical Evangelism: 101 Lessons - How to Share Your Faith, Simply, Effectively, Biblically... The Way Jesus Did by Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron [Kindle Edition] (Alachua, FL: Bridge-Logos Publishers, 2018).
In this informative book, you will learn how to share your Christian faith simply, effectively, and in a manner honoring God's Word. Discover the God–given evangelistic tools that will enable you to speak with confidence about your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by J.I. Packer [Kindle Edition] (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2012).
If God is all-powerful, or omnipotent, all-knowing, or omnipresent, and basically in control of virtually everything, wouldn't it stand to reason that Christ-followers could sit back, and not bother to evangelize? Does man's role in the work of redemptive history and active evangelism imply that God is not really sovereign? J.I. Packer astutely examines these issues in the new edition of a popular IVP Classic, and reveals how these attitudes and views are false. Drawing from the rich tapestry of inspired Scripture, Packer brilliantly shows how a right understanding of God's sovereignty is not so much a wall to effective evangelism, but rather an incentive and support for the endeavor. With over 100,000 copies of this successful work in print, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God is truly a classic that should be read by every Christian.
Questioning Evangelism: Engaging People's Hearts the Way Jesus Did by Randy Newman, Forward by Lee Strobel (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2017).
Randy Newman's book challenges the Christian reader to understand Jesus' method and means of evangelism, which penetrated the hearts of those he spoke to with a persuasive quality, and an empathy-based approach that manifests love and concern with his audience with whom he spoke. Jesus had a mission. He had a purpose. He tasked his disciples and apostles with telling sinful man about that life, mission, and purpose, all in order to effect the redemption of his flock. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever shall believe in him shall not perish, but shall have eternal life" (John 3:16).
“What Is the Motive for Evangelizing? There are, in fact, two motives that should spur us constantly to evangelize. The first is love of God and concern for his glory; the second is love of man and concern for his welfare.”
― J.I. Packer, Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God
The Bible Project - Luke Ch. 3-9
The second in a five-part series on the Gospel of Luke. We watch Jesus launch his ministry of good news for the poor and how he brought together people from very diverse backgrounds to live together in peace.
The Bible Project - Euangelion: "Gospel"
“Gospel” is one of the most common words in a Christian’s vocabulary. But what does it mean in the original languages of the Bible? In this video, we’ll discover that “gospel” is a royal announcement about Jesus, who is the crucified and risen King of the world who overcame death with his love.
The Bible Project - "The Gospel of Kingdom"
In this video, we trace the origins of the word “gospel” and how it ties the story of the Old Testament together with the story of Jesus and his announcement of God’s kingdom. Jesus brought God’s rule and reign to the world in a very upside-down way, which is the best news you could ask for.
The Bible Project - Luke Ch. 1&2
The first in a five-part series on the Gospel of Luke. We explore the amazing events surrounding the birth of Jesus. The humble conditions of his family and their low status in Israelite society foreshadow the upside-down nature of Jesus’ kingdom.
The Bible Project - Luke Ch. 9-19
Part three explores the central part of Luke's Gospel. Jesus continues his controversial announcement of good news for the poor during his long road-trip to Jerusalem, which increases conflict with Israel’s religious leaders. This tension provides the setting for the famous parable of the Prodigal Son.
Video Above: The future inheritance for those in Christ is much closer than many would think. The era of tranquility and peace that will be bestowed upon each child who calls upon His Name is also unimaginable in that we will be perfected & changed. Our capacity to think, imagine, see, hear and touch will also be enhanced. Most importantly; our capacity to love and receive love will be increased; making the things to come in the next life to be a truly extraordinary experience.
"For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed" (1 Corinthians 15:44).
protestant
John Calvin: Man of the Millennium by Philip Vollmer (Author), Wesley Strackbein (Editor) (San Antonio, TX: Vision Forum, 2009).
The famous Genevan's life and labors shook the foundations of the Western world, and blazed a trail for liberty and Gospel proclamation around the globe, making him arguably the most influential men of the last millennium. Calvin's worldview inspired Huguenot freedom-fighters to stand athwart Bourbon-Papal tyranny in France, ignited evangelistic missionary outreach to pagan tribes world-wide, and, with John Knox's aid, rekindled the faith among the Scottish worthies.
The Emergence of Liberty in the Modern World by Douglas F. Kelly (P & R Publishing, 1992).
A thoughtful challenge to conventional Enlightenment historiography. Kelly's book illustrates the influential Protestants roots of ordered liberty in the Western world, particularly in the United States today. The forgotten founding father of America was really John Calvin. Douglas Kelly illustrates how Calvin and Knox inspired the Protestant doctrine of interposition by the lesser magistrates and public officers against the usurpations of absolutists and despots in the higher echelons of power, and on behalf of the people. Some manner of institutionalized corporate resistance is vitally requisite to preserve any free constitution. The animating force behind the ideas fueling the colonial resistance precipitating the American Revolution of 1775 were the ideas of John Calvin more so than John Locke. The American colonial charters preceded the birth of Enlightenment thinkers John Locke, John-Jacques Rousseau and Montesquieu by more than a century, and they were invoked in Christ's name, and it was an appeal to the customs and conventions of those charters, and professed want of their preservation, which compelled the colonial resistance led by James Otis and Samuel Adams to denounce the Tory oppression, and pronounce justification of separation.
Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther
Roland Bainton’s biography is a sweeping introduction to the great Reformer and is obligatory reading for anyone seeking to understand this luminary historical figure.
Luther the Reformer: The Story of the Man and His Career by James M. Kittelson
Engrossing and informative, Kittleson's popular biography of the German Reformer is here ― represented with a new cover and new preface by the author. His single-volume biography has become a go-to guide for those who wish to delve into the depths of the Reformer without drowning in a sea of scholarly concerns.
Martin Luther: Visionary Reformer by Scott H. Hendrix
The sixteenth-century German friar whose very open and public conflict with the medieval Bishop of Rome, i.e., the Papacy, triggered the Protestant Reformation, which proved to be a watershed event in Western Civilization with profound effects in its aftermath. Aspirant Reformer Martin Luther was neither an unblemished saint nor a single-minded religious zealot according to this compelling biography. Luther emerges as a man of his time: a well-read, educated scholar, a teacher, and a gifted albeit flawed man imbued by an optimistic vision of “true religion.”
"So when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: 'I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also!'"
―Martin Luther
"The three great elements of modern civilization, Gun powder, Printing, and the Protestant religion.."
―Thomas Carlyle
“I cannot choose but adhere to the word of God, which has possession of my conscience; nor can I possibly, nor will I even make any recantation, since it is neither safe nor honest to act contrary to conscience! Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God! Amen.”
―Martin Luther
"In short, I will preach it, teach it, write it, but I will constrain no one by force, for faith must come freely without compulsion. Take myself as an example. I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philipp and Amsdorf, the Word … did everything.”
―Martin Luther
"What made Luther’s stance so outrageous was not that he valorized the Bible. That is hardly unusual for Christians. What was shocking was that he set it above everything else. He treated the views of the early church fathers, of more recent scholars, even of church councils, with great respect, but he would not be constrained by them. In the end, anything outside the Bible, including anyone else’s interpretation of the Bible, was a mere opinion. This was the true and enduring radicalism of Protestantism: its readiness to question every human authority and tradition."
―Alec Ryrie, Protestants: The Faith That Made the Modern World
I am a Protestant by faith and conviction. A Protestant is a disciple of any of those Christian bodies that isolated from the Church of Rome during the Reformation, or any subsequent group that dropped from their ranks. During the Reformation, the term protestant was not utilized outside of German politics. The term derives from the Protestation at Speyer from German Lutheran Princes in 1529 against a declaration of the Diet of Speyer that had earlier denounced the lessons of Martin Luther as blasphemous and contrary to the church. These Protestants, however, reject the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal supremacy, its ecclesiology, and its teachings on the sacraments which it saw as encrustations of barnacles with man-made, extrabiblical doctrines and superstitions. They instead emphasize salvation in Christ alone (sola christus) (John 14:6), the priesthood of all believers (1 Corinthians 4:1), justification by faith alone (sola fide) (Romans 3:28) rather than faith in tandem with good works, (though they saw good works as the fruit of a saving faith, but not as the instrument of our justification); and they held to the highest authority of the Bible alone (rather than also with sacred tradition) in faith and morals (sola scriptura.) Though there were prior breaks and endeavors to change the Roman Catholic Church—outstandingly by Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, and Jan Hus—only Luther prevailed in starting a more enduring enterprise that continues to this present day. In the sixteenth century, Lutheranism spread from Germany into greater Scandinavia—Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and Iceland. Reformed (or Calvinist) sects proliferated in Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Scotland, Switzerland and France at the behest of reformers, for instance, John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, and John Knox. The political partition of the Church of England from the pope under King Henry VIII started Anglicanism, bringing England and Wales into this broader Reformation development. The Protestant Reformation was a significant sixteenth century European development that brought the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church into question while affirming the authority of the early ecumenical councils. Its strict perspectives were enhanced by aspiring political rulers who needed to expand their capacity and control to the detriment of the Church. The Reformation finished the solidarity forced by medieval Christianity and, according to numerous history specialists, flagged the start of the cutting edge time.
Throughout the hundreds of years, there had been many change endeavors inside the Catholic Church. On 31 October 1517, in one of the significant occasions of western history, Martin Luther, a German Augustinian priest, posted 95 postulations on the congregation entryway in the college town of Wittenberg. That demonstration was a normal scholarly act of the day and filled in as an encouragement to discuss. Luther's suggestions tested a few segments of Roman Catholic regulation and various practices.
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[1] Richard Pratt, Jr., "Reformed Theology Is Covenant Theology," Ligonier Ministries. 1 Jun 2010. https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/reformed-theology-covenant-theology/
[2] Ibid.
"The mainstream Reformation was not concerned with establishing a new Christian tradition, but with the renewal and correction of an existing tradition. On the basis of their assertion that Christian theology was ultimately grounded in Scripture, reformers such as Luther and Calvin argued for the need to return to Scripture as the primary and critical source of Christian theology."
—Robert Kennerson, author, “The theological agenda of the Reformation”
Video Above: Ryan Reeves (Cambridge Ph.D) lectures on how Martin Luther started the Reformation in 1517 when he posted the 95 Theses. But did Luther mean to leave the Catholic Church? Or did Luther want to reform the church from within? This video explains the early years of the Protestant Reformation and Luther's theology.
“It is true, of course, that great preachers are always few and far between in any age. But in every age there should be enough preachers to do the job, preachers who are conscientious, who know what it is to labor over Scripture during the week and then on Sunday deliver its truth with some conviction, with some insight, with some depth, and with some application to life, and in the Holy Spirit’s power.”
―David F. Wells, The Courage to Be Protestant: Reformation Faith in Today's World
Video Above: Ryan Reeves (Cambridge Ph.D.) - 'The Importance of the Reformation' - Why did the Protestant Church leave the Roman Catholic Church? Martin Luther and other Protestants led the Reformation out of the medieval period, and this short video explains why.
Video Above: Ryan Reeves (Cambridge, Ph.D) - 'Luther's Breakthrough on Justification' - While still a monk, Martin Luther had a breakthrough in his view on justification by faith alone. But what was Luther's breakthrough? What changed in Luther's view of salvation that led to the Protestant Reformation? This video explains Luther's breakthrough and his new understanding of justification by faith.
“It is true, of course, that great preachers are always few and far between in any age. But in every age there should be enough preachers to do the job, preachers who are conscientious, who know what it is to labor over Scripture during the week and then on Sunday deliver its truth with some conviction, with some insight, with some depth, and with some application to life, and in the Holy Spirit’s power.”
―David F. Wells, The Courage to Be Protestant: Reformation Faith in Today's World
Video Above: Ryan Reeves (Cambridge Ph.D) lectures on the issue of whether or not Jan Hus predicted the rise of another reformation within 100 years of his execution. Jan Hus allegedly said "In 100 years, God will raise up a man whose calls for reform cannot be suppressed." But did Jan Hus predict Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation? This eight minute video explains.
“Therefore, faithful Christian, seek the truth, listen to the truth, learn the truth, love the truth, tell the truth, learn the truth, defend the truth even to death. Love the truth. Let others have their truth, and the truth will prevail.”
―Jan Hus
The above admonition by Hus first appeared in “Vyklad Viry” from Opera Omnia, as quoted in Thomas A. Fudge, Jan Hus: Religious Reform and Social Revolution in Bohemia (I.B. Tauris, 2017).
Video Above: R.C. Sproul (M.Div, Drs., Ph.D.) - 'What Was the Reformation All About?' - More than 500 years ago, a monk named Martin Luther started a protest that exploded into a worldwide movement. In this short video, R.C. Sproul explains the Reformation. Share it with your family and friends and listen in a wide variety of languages.
“The Reformation is a much broader event than that singular day. To be sure, the Reformation began on that day. The Reformation, however, spanned two centuries and encompassed a cast of characters from a variety of nations. Luther may very well be at the center of the Reformation, but he does not stand alone.”
—Stephen J. Nichols, author, The Reformation
Video Above: Ryan Reeves (Cambridge, Ph.D) - 'Huguenots and the French Reformation' - The French Reformation gave us the Huguenots or French Calvinism. The Huguenot movement, though, is often not understood. This video tells the story of the Huguenots, French Calvinists, and the French Wars of Religion.
Here in audiobook format is Foxe's Book of the Martyrs narrated by Tim Côté. For nearly two millennia, courageous men and women have been tortured and killed because of their confessions of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Stories of heroic bravery and triumphant faith were recalled vy John Foxe. Here are stories of an abiding love of God and Christ, which exalt virtues of sacrifice, and above all: the amazing grace of God that enabled faithful men, women, and children to endure persecutions and horrible deaths.
"No man is excluded from calling upon God, the gate of salvation is set open unto all men: neither is there any other thing which keepeth us back from entering in, save only our own unbelief."
—John Calvin
Video Above: Ryan Reeves (Cambridge, Ph.D) - 'Is Sola Fide the Doctrine the Church Stands or Falls With?'
"The testimony of scripture is so plain that to add anything were superfluous, were it not that the world is almost now come to that blindness, that whatsoever pleases not the princes and the multitude, the same is rejected as doctrine newly forged, and is condemned for heresy."
―John Knox
Centuries on, what the English Reformation was and what it accomplished remain controversial. Peter Marshall's sweeping history posits that 16th-century England was a society neither desperate for nor allergic to change, but stood open to ideas of "reform" in various modes. King Henry VIII wanted an orderly, uniform Reformation, though the intent didn't always lead to quiet deliberation, but tumult and social upheavel. Here is a monumental sweeping history of the reform of the English church, which inspired counter reforms, and later spin-offs such as Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians.
Artist Credit: Unknown. Oil painting c. 1660 A.D. It's probably of English or Dutch origin. This allegorical painting illustrates the leading figures of the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth Century in an imaginary gathering. Grouped around a table in front of a burning candle, these Reformers are metaphorically confronted with the forces of Roman Catholicism, caricatured as four figures at the bottom of the scene.
Reformed
The Doctrine on Which the Church Stands or Falls: Justification in Biblical, Theological, Historical, and Pastoral Perspective by Matthew Barrett (Author, Contributor), D. A. Carson (Foreword) (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019).
Numerous factors and historical circumstances coalesced to give rise to the Protestant Reformation, however one of the most noteworthy was the discussion over the convention of the doctrine by justification alone. Truth be told, Martin Luther contended that this understanding is the principle on which the congregation stands or falls. This exhaustive volume of twenty-six papers from a large group of researchers investigates the doctrine from the focal points of history, the Bible, theology, and pastoral practice—uncovering the lasting significance of this mainstay of Protestant religious teaching.
Christ Alone: The Uniqueness of Jesus as Savior: What the Reformers Taught...and Why It Still Matters (The Five Solas Series) by Stephen Wellum
In Christ Alone, Stephen Wellum considers Christ's particular uniqueness and centrality scripturally, generally, and today, in our pluralistic and postmodern age. He inspects the underlying foundations of the tenet, particularly in the Reformation period, and afterward shows how the uniqueness of Christ has gone under explicit assault today. At that point, he guides readers through the Biblical narrative, from Christ's one of a kind personality and work as prophet, priest, and lord, to the use of his work to adherents and our covenantal union with him to show that Christ there is the only basis of salvation. Wellum shows that we should recuperate a strong scriptural and philosophical doctrine of Christ's humanity, person and work even with the present difficulties. He clarifies why a new examination of the Reformation truth of Christ alone is required of us today.
Faith Alone: The Doctrine of Justification: What the Reformers Taught...and Why It Still Matters (The Five Solas Series) by Michael Barrett
In Faith Alone – The Doctrine of Justification researcher Thomas Schreiner explores the historical and scriptural foundations of justification by faith alone. He condenses the historical backdrop of the doctrine, spanning breadth of history from the early church to the works of a few of the Reformers. At that point, he directs his concentration toward the Scriptures and guides readers through an assessment of the key messages in the Old and New Testament. He talks about whether support is transformative or forensic and acquaints readers with the contemporary difficulties to the Reformation teaching of sola fide, with specific regard for the new point of view on Paul.
Grace Alone: Salvation As A Gift of God by Carl Trueman
This volume by Carl Trueman discusses grace, and the exclusivity of Christ's free and meritous grace as the basis of our salvation as believers in Him!
God's Word Alone: The Authority of Scripture: What the Reformers Taught...and Why It Still Matters (The Five Solas Series) by Matthew Barrett
In God’s Word Alone: The Authority of Scripture, scholar and pastor Matthew Barrett looks at the historical and biblical roots of the doctrine that Scripture alone is the final and decisive authority for God’s people. He examines the development of this theme in the Reformation and traces the crisis that followed resulting in a shift away from the authority of Scripture.
God's Glory Alone: The Majestic Heart of Christian Faith and Life by David Vandrunen
Historians and theologians have perceived that the core of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation were five declarations, often referred to as the ‘solas’: sola scriptura, solus Christus, sola gratia, sola fide, and soli Deo gloria. These five euphemisms encapsulate much of what Reformation theology was about, and they help differentiate Protestantism from other expressions of the Christian faith such as Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. Protestants place ultimate authority in the Scriptures as opposed to the traditions of men, and they acknowledge and stress the work of Christ alone as sufficient for redemption, and they further recognize that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, and theyseek to do all things for God’s glory.
Charles Hodge: The Pride of Princeton (American Reformed Biographies) by W. Andrew Hoffecker
Charles Hodge (1797-1878) is viewed by countless scholars and theologicans as among the more influential American scholars of the nineteenth century. Hodge drove forward the development of philosophical training, advanced the study of theology, and added to Presbyterianism's wide-going impact in modern life. His support of Reformed theology conventionality joined with pietistic devotion challenged Old School Presbyterianism and renewed it with a peculiarly American zeal. Hodge pioneered a distinctive clerical model—the pastor-scholar—which made a lasting impact upon Reformed Christian social circles contemporaneously.
John Williamson Nevin: High-Church Calvinist (American Reformed Biographies) by D.G. Hart
This biography explores the life of Nevin and the various facets of Nevin's far-reaching critique of the revivalist tradition, and explores its relevance today. Hart delves into the past of this little-known nineteenth-century theologian, and highlights his impact and contemporary relevance amid debates in balancing church practice with liturgical emphases or a revivalist mode of worship. This book is well-documented, and features a substantial bibliographical essay and a comprehensive indices. Nevin (1803—1886) taught at Mercersburg Seminary in a town in Pennsylvania sharing the name of the seminary. During that tenure, he wrote The Anxious Bench (1843) and The Mystical Presence (1846), tomes dealing with revivalism and the Lord's Supper as well. Contemporaneously there is a newfound interest in this figure in theological certains, who was a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary and who substituted for Hodge during his two-year study-leave in Europe.
(See also "John Williamson Nevin," 5 Minutes in Church History with Stephen Nichols for a cursory background.)
“I cannot choose but adhere to the word of God, which has possession of my conscience; nor can I possibly, nor will I even make any recantation, since it is neither safe nor honest to act contrary to conscience! Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God! Amen.”
―Martin Luther
"In short, I will preach it, teach it, write it, but I will constrain no one by force, for faith must come freely without compulsion. Take myself as an example. I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philipp and Amsdorf, the Word … did everything.”
―Martin Luther
"What made Luther’s stance so outrageous was not that he valorized the Bible. That is hardly unusual for Christians. What was shocking was that he set it above everything else. He treated the views of the early church fathers, of more recent scholars, even of church councils, with great respect, but he would not be constrained by them. In the end, anything outside the Bible, including anyone else’s interpretation of the Bible, was a mere opinion. This was the true and enduring radicalism of Protestantism: its readiness to question every human authority and tradition."
―Alec Ryrie, Protestants: The Faith That Made the Modern World
I am a Reformed by faith and conviction. "Reformed theology is often associated with 'covenant theology.' If you listen carefully, you’ll often hear pastors and teachers describe themselves as 'Reformed and covenantal.' The terms Reformed and covenant are used together so widely that it behooves us to understand why they are connected."[1] Covenant theology alludes to one of the essential convictions that Calvinists have held about the Bible. Faithful to the legacy of Calvin and Luther, all Protestants affirm Sola Scriptura, the conviction that God and the Bible is our predominant authority, and God has spoken to us through His inspired Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Covenant Theology contrasts the Reformed perspective on Scripture from other Protestant standpoints by underlining that God's covenants bind together the lessons of the whole Bible.[2] The late James Montgomery Boice, former pastor of Tenth Street Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia warrants being quoted at length in his enduring description of what Reformed theology is:
Reformed theology gets its name from the sixteenth century Protestant Reformation, with its distinct theological emphases, but it is theology solidly based on the Bible itself. Believers in the reformed tradition regard highly the specific contributions of such people as Martin Luther, John Knox, and particularly John Calvin, but they also find their strong distinctives in the giants of the faith before them, such as Anselm and Augustine, and ultimately in the letters of Paul and the teachings of Jesus Christ. Reformed Christians hold to the doctrines characteristic of all Christians, including the Trinity, the true deity and true humanity of Jesus Christ, the necessity of Jesus' atonement for sin, the church as a divinely ordained institution, the inspiration of the Bible, the requirement that Christians live moral lives, and the resurrection of the body. They hold other doctrines in common with evangelical Christians, such as justification by faith alone, the need for the new birth, the personal and visible return of Jesus Christ, and the Great Commission. What, then, is distinctive about reformed theology.
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[1] Richard Pratt, Jr., "Reformed Theology Is Covenant Theology," Ligonier Ministries. 1 Jun 2010. https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/reformed-theology-covenant-theology/
[2] Ibid.
“Antinomianism and legalism conspire in forcing us to make a false choice: Is salvation a matter of God's forgiveness or is it moral transformation? This is a trick question from the Reformers' point of view. Calvin reasons, 'Surely those things which are connected do not destroy one another!' Forensic justification through faith alone is not the enemy but the basis of sanctification.”
―Michael S. Horton, Calvin on the Christian Life: Glorifying and Enjoying God Forever
Video Above: Ligonier Ministries - 'What is Reformed Theology?' - Liberal, Catholic, Dispensational, Pentecostal, Evangelical, Reformed… with so many different theologies out there, where do you start? Beginning this series about Reformed Theology, Dr. Sproul examines distinctive aspects of Reformed worldview that set it apart from the many theologies that have developed over time.
Video Above: Ryan Reeves (Cambridge, Ph.D) - 'Calvin, England, and Scotland' - This video explores the cross-pollination of ideas of the magisterial Reformer John Calvin based in Geneva, Switzerland and the English and Scottish Reformations which transpired on the British Isles.
"The testimony of scripture is so plain that to add anything were superfluous, were it not that the world is almost now come to that blindness, that whatsoever pleases not the princes and the multitude, the same is rejected as doctrine newly forged, and is condemned for heresy."
―John Knox
Video Above: Ryan Reeves (Cambridge, Ph.D) - 'Calvin and French Reform' - This video explores the efforts of French-born Reformer John Calvin who had cast his fortunes with the persecuted Huguenots, and though he had aspirations to reform the Christian church in France, but was compelled to take refuge in Geneva, Switzerland.
“Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God’s majesty.”
— John Calvin
Video Above: Ryan Reeves (Cambridge, Ph.D) - 'Organization of Geneva' - This lecture articulates why the magisterial Reformer French-born John Calvin should be understood as an organizer of the Reformation and of Geneva, Switzerland itself.
Video Above: Ryan Reeves (Cambridge, Ph.D) - 'Martin Luther on Justification' - Why did Martin Luther characterize Justification as "the article upon which the church rises or falls. . ."
Video Above: Ryan Reeves (Cambridge, Ph.D) - 'Calvin on Early Geneva' - Protestant Reformed John Calvin shaped the political theology of Geneva, Switzerland and articulated a political theology rooted in the Scriptures, reflective of his efforts to reform the church in accord to the Word of God. Here Ryan Reeves lectures on the influence of Calvin post-Reformation.
(American Reformed Biographies)
THEOLOGIAN
Video Above: History and theology of the early Christians, presented by Ryan M. Reeves (PhD Cambridge), the Assistant Professor of Historical Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. This video outlines the history and theology of the earliest Christians, and the apostolic fathers.
Adapted from Monergism Book's Reader's Guide to the Christian Life
Introductory Reading
Christianity is not about knowing a lot of things. It is about deeply knowing the one true God in order that your whole person may be conformed into His image.
Core Christianity | Michael Horton
Christian Life | Sinclair Ferguson
Basic Christianity | John Stott
Truth for All Time | John Calvin
A Summary of Christian Doctrine | Louis Berkhof
Bible Overview | Steve Levy
God's Big Picture | Vaughan Roberts
An Introduction to the Christian Faith | Michael Reeves
Reformed Confessions Harmonized | editor, Joel Beeke
Intermediate Reading
Grow deeper in the knowledge of God by studying how the Gospel trains us in every area of life.
Attributes of God | Arthur Pink
Church History in Plain Language | Bruce Shelly
Pilgrim Theology | Michael Horton
Desiring God | John Piper
Finally Alive | John Piper
Holiness of God | R. C. Sproul
How People Change | Timothy Lane & Paul Tripp
In Christ Alone | Sinclair Ferguson
Just Do Something | Kevin DeYoung
Knowing God | J. I. Packer
Knowing Scripture | R. C. Sproul
Prayer and the Knowledge of God | Graeme Goldsworthy
Putting Amazing Back Into Grace | Michael Horton
Redemption Accomplished & Applied | John Murray
Seeing with New Eyes | David Powlison
Today's Gospel | Walter Chantry
Whatever Happened to the Gospel of Grace? | J. M. Boice
When Grace Comes Home | Terry L. Johnson
Advanced Reading
Some things God has revealed about himself are difficult to understand. Careful study of these works will be greatly rewarding.
Chosen for Life | Sam Storms
Economy of the Covenants | Herman Witsius
The Existence and Attributes of God | Stephen Charnock
Christless Christianity | Michael Horton
All That Is in God | James Dolezal
Courage to be Protestant | David Wells
Doctrine of the Knowledge of God | John Frame
Systematic Theology | Wayne Grudem
Reformed Dogmatics (4 Volume Set) | Herman Bavinck
Reformed Dogmatics | Geerhardus J. Vos
Systematic Theology | Louis Berkhof
Institutes of the Christian Religion | John Calvin
The Christian's Reasonable Service, 4 Vols. | Wilhelmus Brakel
Systematic Theology - (3 Volume Set) | Charles Hodge
Institutes of Elenctic Theology - (3 Volume Set) | Francis Turretin
Systematic Theology | John Frame
Westminster Confession | Westminster Divines
Reformation Theology: A Systematic Summary | Matthew Barrett, .ed
A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life | Joel Beeke, Mark Jones
The Trinity
There is one only and true God, but in the unity of the Godhead there are three coeternal and coequal Persons, the same in substance.
The Holy Trinity | Robert Letham
The Forgotten Trinity | James White
The Trinity | Augustine
Delighting in the Trinity | Michael Reeves
Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 2 | Herman Bavinck
The Deep Things of God | Fred Sanders
The Triune God (New Studies in Dogmatics) | Fred Sanders
The Doctrine of God | Gerald Bray
The Doctrine of God | John Frame
Reformed Dogmatics: Theology Proper | Geerhardus J. Vos, Jr.
The Attributes of God | A. W. Pink
The Existence and Attributes of God | Stephen Charnock
All That Is in God | James Dolezal
"Theology is the doctrine or teaching of living to God.”
―William Ames
"We must not at all depart from the evangelical precepts. Disciples should observe and do the same things that the Master both taught and did . . . So, then, neither the apostle himself nor an angel from heaven can preach or teach anything other than what Christ has once taught and that his apostles have announced. Therefore, I wonder very much from where this practice has originated. For it is contrary to evangelical and apostolic discipline."
―Cyprian
"We need theology for the sake of people. Theology is the application of the Word by persons to the world and all areas of human life."
―John Frame, Salvation Belongs to the Lord, p. 72
"Theology is the intellectual, relational and spiritual act of knowing God through the disciplined and communal practice of understanding and applying His word to all areas of life."
―Michael Horton, Covenant and Eschatology, p. 4
"All speculative theology, which rests on philosophical reasoning rather than biblical revelation, is at fault here. Paul tells us where this sort of theology ends: “The world by wisdom knew not God” (1 Cor 1:21 KJV). To follow the imagination of one’s heart in the realm of theology is the way to remain ignorant of God, and to become an idol-worshipper, the idol in this case being a false mental image of God, made by one’s own speculation and imagination.”
―J.I. Packer, Knowing God
William Ames declares, "Theology is the doctrine or teaching of living to God." [Joel Beeke, Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology: Vol. 1: Revelation and God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), 226] Theology, the term, translates literally to "the study of God." It is derived from two Greek words. Theos is the Greek word for God. Logos can translate to "discourse" or "the study of." Theology, accordingly, is studing about the nature, character, and being of God.
We want to deepen our knowledge of the Bible if indeed we believe that the Bible is the Word of God, that it is divinely inspired (2 Timothy 3:16) and that those who wrote were compelled to do so under the influence of the person of the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). We can cultivate our understanding of God through reading his inspired Word in the text of the Holy Bible. J.I. Packer notes, "It has been said that a habit of personal Bible study makes the study of theology unnecessary. But in fact you penalize yourself as a Bible student by not studying theology, for theology (that is, an overall grasp of Bible teaching) enriches Bible study enormously. How? By enabling you to see more of what is there in each passage."
"We need theology for the sake of people," declares John Frame. "Theology is the application of the Word by persons to the world and all areas of human life." The Bible states that every Christian begins to personally know God when they believe in Jesus Christ (John 17:3). The path to God is one of enrichment and spiritual knowledge (1 Corinthians 1:5). "Theology is a joyful and glorious activity because it is ultimately about the glory and joy of our God," avows Sinclair Ferguson. "Theology is the intellectual, relational and spiritual act of knowing God through the disciplined and communal practice of understanding and applying His word to all areas of life," declares Michael Horton. However God has a perfect standard upon which one can reflect, namely his inspired Word―the Holy Bible. Spiritual richness emanates from knowing and learning about the living God. Everyone has their own beliefs about God (whether true, false, or an amalgam of truth and falsehood.) In this sense, everyone is a theologian. Theology is of necessity multi-faceted. J.I. Packer notes in Concise Theology:
Theology is the first activity of thinking and speaking about God (theologizing), and second the product of that activity. . . As an activity, theology is a eat's cradle of interrelated though distinct disciplines: elucidating texts (exegesis), synthesizing what they say on things they deal with (biblical theology), seeing how the faith was stated in the past (historical theology), formulating it for today (systematic theology), finding its implications for conduct (ethics), commending and defending it as truth and wisdom (apologetics), defining the Christian task in the world (missiology), stockpiling resources for life in Christ (spirituality) and corporate worship (liturgy), and exploring ministry (practical theology).
Early Church Primary Source Documents
The Martyrdom of Polycarp (c. 2nd cent. A.D.)
Pastor Harmae ("The Shepherd of Hermas") (c. late 2nd cent.)
Irenæus of Lyons, Against Heresies (c. 174-189 A.D.):
Clement: First Epistle of Clement (c. 70 A.D. to 96 A.D.)
Athanasius of Alexandria: Against the Heathens (c. 318 A.D.)
Athanasius of Alexandria: On Incarnation (c. 318 A.D.)
Presbyters and Deacons of Alexandria: The Deposition of Arius (c. 320-321 A.D.)
Cyril of Jerusalem (313-386 A.D.), Catechetical Lectures (348-350 A.D.)
Mystagogic Catecheses:
First Council of Constantinople: Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (381 A.D.)
Justin the Martyr: First Apology of Justin (381 A.D.)
Ambrose, Bishop of Milan: On the characteristics suitable for a bishop (c. 396 A.D.).
Augustine of Hippo: Confessiones ("Confessions") (397-400 A.D.)
Augustine of Hippo: De doctrina Christiana ("On Christian Doctrine") (Books I-III, 397 A.D.; Book IV, 426 A.D.)
Augustine of Hippo: De baptismo contra Donatistas ("On Baptism, Against the Donatists") (400 A.D.):
Augustine of Hippo, De Trinitate ("On the Trinity") (400-415 A.D.)
Augustine of Hippo: De civitate Dei contra paganos ("On the City of God Against the Pagans") (426 A.D.)
Chalcedonian Ecumenical Council: Definition of Chalcedon (481 A.D.)
2nd Council of Orange: Canons (529 A.D.)
The Apostles' Creed (542 B.C.)
Second Council of Constantinople: Anathemas (553 A.D.)
Gregory the Great (c. 540-604): Liber Regulae Pastoralis ("On Pastoral Rule") (590 A.D.)
Ante-Nicene Fathers
The Writings of the Church Fathers through 325 A.D.
Volume I. The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus
[Clement of Rome, Mathetes, Polycarp, Ignatius, Barnabas, Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus.]
Volume II. Fathers of the Second Century
[Hermas, Tatian, Theophilus, Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria]
Volume III. Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian
[Three Parts: I. Apologetic; II. Anti-Marcion; III. Ethical]
Volume IV. The Fathers of the Third Century
[Tertullian Part IV; Minucius Felix; Commodian; Origen]
Volume V. The Fathers of the Third Century
[Hippolytus; Cyprian; Caius; Novatian; Appendix]
Volume VI. The Fathers of the Third Century
[Gregory Thaumaturgus; Dinoysius the Great; Julius Africanus; Anatolius and Minor Writers; Methodius; Arnobius]
Volume VII. The Fathers of the Third and Fourth Centuries
[Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, Homily, Liturgies]
The Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementia, Apocrypha, Decretals, Memoirs of Edessa and Syriac Documents, Remains of the First Ages
Volume IX. Recently Discovered Additions to Early Christian Literature; Commentaries of Origen
[The Gospel of Peter, The Diatessaron of Tatian, The Apocalypse of Peter, The Visio Pauli, The Apocalypses of the Virgin and Sedrach, The Testament of Abraham, The Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena, The Narrative of Zosimus, The Apology of Aristides, The Epistles of Clement (Complete Text), Origen's Commentary on John, Books I-X, Origen's Commentary on Mathew, Books I, II, and X-XIV]
Volume X. Bibliographic Synopsis; General Index [not reproduced]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers
Series I
St. Augustine Volumes
Volume I. Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
Volume II. The City of God, Christian Doctrine
Volume III. On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Volume IV. The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Volume V. Anti-Pelagian Writings
Volume VI. Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Volume VII. Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Volume VIII. Expositions on the Psalms
St. Chrysostom Volumes
Volume X. Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew
Volume XI. Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans
Volume XII. Homilies on First and Second Corinthians
Volume XIV. Homilies on the Gospel of St. John and the Epistle to the Hebrews
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers
Series II
Volume II. Socrates: Church History from A.D. 305-438; Sozomenus: Church History from A.D. 323-425
Volume III. Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
Volume IV. Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Volume V. Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises; Select Writings and Letters
Volume VI. Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Volume VII. Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Volume VIII. Basil: Letters and Select Works
Volume IX. Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus
Volume X. Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Volume XI. Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
Volume XII. Leo the Great, Gregory the Great
Volume XIII. Gregory the Great II, Ephriam Syrus, Aphrahat
An Invitation to Analytic Christian Theology by Thomas H. McCall
In recent decades a new intellectual school has arisen, bringing the conceptual tools of analytic philosophy to bear on theological reflection. Dubbed analytic theology, it seeks to bring a clarity of thought and a sound appropriation of logic as discpline to the work of constructive Christian theology. McCall makes the clarion case for analytic Christian theology yet maintains that the inherent mystery of the Christian, and myriad mysteries surrounding it, must not be confused with logical incoherence. Indeed logic becomes the friend of the faithful.
Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom by Peter J. Leithart (Basic Books, 2011).
Of Constantine, we know that he:
issued the Edict of Milan in the year 313 anno domini.
outlawed paganism and decreed Christianity the official religion of the Roman (Byzantine) Empire.
manipulated the Council of Nicea in the year 325
exercised absolute authority over the church, co-opting it for the aims of empire
If the legacy and role of Constantine the emperor were not problem enough, we all know that Constantinianism has been very bad for the church, right? Or do we really know these things? Peter Leithart addresses these claims and finds them wanting. Moreover, as modern eyes have focused on these historical mirages, in turn, we have failed to notice the true cultural, historical, political, and theological significance of Constantine and Rome baptized. For beneath the surface of this contested story there emerges a deeper narrative of the end of Roman sacrifice—a tectonic shift in the political theology of an empire—and with far-reaching implications. In this incisive and informative book Leithart examines the real Constantine, weighs the charges against Constantinianism, and sets the terms for a new dialogue about this pivotal emperor and the Christendom that emerged—forever changing history and the Western world.
HISTORIAN
Polybius [c. 200-118 B.C.] - "Rome at the End of the Punic Wars," History, Book 6
An Analysis of the Roman Government:
THE THREE kinds of government, monarchy, aristocracy and democracy, were all found united in the commonwealth of Rome. And so even was the balance between them all, and so regular the administration that resulted from their union, that it was no easy thing to determine with assurance, whether the entire state was to be estimated an aristocracy, a democracy, or a monarchy. For if they turned their view upon the power of the consuls, the government appeared to be purely monarchical and regal. If, again, the authority of the senate was considered, it then seemed to wear the form of aristocracy. And, lastly, if regard was to be had to the share which the people possessed in the administration of affairs, it could then scarcely fail to be denominated a popular state. The several powers that were appropriated to each of these distinct branches of the constitution at the time of which we are speaking, and which, with very little variation, are even still preserved, are these which follow.
The consuls, when they remain in Rome, before they lead out the armies into the field, are the masters of all public affairs. For all other magistrates, the tribunes alone excepted, are subject to them, and bound to obey their commands. They introduce ambassadors into the senate. They propose also to the senate the subjects of debates; and direct all forms that are observed in making the decrees. Nor is it less a part of their office likewise, to attend to those affairs that are transacted by the people; to call together general assemblies; to report to them the resolutions of the senate; and to ratify whatever is determined by the greater number. In all the preparations that are made for war, as well as in the whole administration in the field, they possess an almost absolute authority. For to them it belongs to impose upon the allies whatever services they judge expedient; to appoint the military tribunes; to enroll the legions, and make the necessary levies, and to inflict punishments in the field, upon all that are subject to their command. Add to this, that they have the power likewise to expend whatever sums of money they may think convenient from the public treasury; being attended for that purpose by a quaestor; who is always ready to receive and execute their orders. When any one therefore, directs his view to this part of the constitution, it is very reasonable for him to conclude that this government is no other than a simple royalty. Let me only observe, that if in some of these particular points, or in those that will hereafter be mentioned, any change should be either now remarked, or should happen at some future time, such an alteration will not destroy the general principles of this discourse.
To the senate belongs, in the first place, the sole care and management of the public money. For all returns that are brought into the treasury, as well as all the payments that are issued from it, are directed by their orders. Nor is it allowed to the quaestors to apply any part of the revenue to particular occasions as they arise, without a decree of the senate; those sums alone excepted. which are expended in the service of the consuls. And even those more general, as well as greatest disbursements, which are employed at the return every five years, in building and repairing the public edifices, are assigned to the censors for that purpose, by the express permission of the senate. To the senate also is referred the cognizance of all the crimes, committed in any part of Italy, that demand a public examination and inquiry: such as treasons, conspiracies, poisonings, and assassinations. Add to this, that when any controversies arise, either between private men, or any of the cities of Italy, it is the part of the senate to adjust all disputes; to censure those that are deserving of blame: and to yield assistance to those who stand in need of protection and defense. When any embassies are sent out of Italy; either to reconcile contending states; to offer exhortations and advice; or even, as it sometimes happens, to impose commands; to propose conditions of a treaty; or to make a denunciation of war; the care and conduct of all these transactions is entrusted wholly to the senate. When any ambassadors also arrive in Rome, it is the senate likewise that determines how they shall be received and treated, and what answer shall be given to their demands.
In all these things that have now been mentioned, the people has no share. To those, therefore, who come to reside in Rome during the absence of the consuls, the government appears to be purely aristocratic. Many of the Greeks, especially, and of the foreign princes, are easily led into this persuasion: when they perceive that almost all the affairs, which they are forced to negotiate with the Romans, are determined by the senate.
And now it may well be asked, what part is left to the people in this government: since the senate, on the one hand, is vested with the sovereign power, in the several instances that have been enumerated, and more especially in all things that concern the management and disposal of the public treasure; and since the consuls, on the other hand, are entrusted with the absolute direction of the preparations that are made for war, and exercise an uncontrolled authority on the field. There is, however, a part still allotted to the people; and, indeed, the most important part. For, first, the people are the sole dispensers of rewards and punishments; which are the only bands by which states and kingdoms, and, in a word, all human societies, are held together. For when the difference between these is overlooked, or when they are distributed without due distinction, nothing but disorder can ensue. Nor is it possible, indeed, that the government should be maintained if the wicked stand in equal estimation with the good. The people, then, when any such offences demand such punishment, frequently condemn citizens to the payment of a fine: those especially who have been invested with the dignities of the state. To the people alone belongs the right to sentence any one to die. Upon this occasion they have a custom which deserves to be mentioned with applause. The person accused is allowed to withdraw himself in open view, and embrace a voluntary banishment, if only a single tribe remains that has not yet given judgment; and is suffered to retire in safety to Praeneste, Tibur, Naples, or any other of the confederate cities. The public magistrates are allotted also by the people to those who are esteemed worthy of them: and these are the noblest rewards that any government can bestow on virtue. To the people belongs the power of approving or rejecting laws and, which is still of greater importance, peace and war are likewise fixed by their deliberations. When any alliance is concluded, any war ended, or treaty made; to them the conditions are referred, and by them either annulled or ratified. And thus again, from a view of all these circumstances, it might with reason be imagined, that the people had engrossed the largest portion of the government, and that the state was plainly a democracy.
Such are the parts of the administration, which are distinctly assigned to each of the three forms of government, that are united in the commonwealth of Rome. It now remains to be considered, in what manner each several form is enabled to counteract the others, or to cooperate with them.
When the consuls, invested with the power that has been mentioned, lead the armies into the field, though they seem, indeed, to hold such absolute authority as is sufficient for all purposes, yet are they in truth so dependent both on the senate and the people, that without their assistance they are by no means able to accomplish any design. It is well known that armies demand a continual supply of necessities. But neither corn, nor habits, nor even the military stipends, can at any time be transmitted to the legions unless by an express order of the senate. Any opposition, therefore, or delay, on the part of this assembly, is sufficient always to defeat the enterprises of the generals. It is the senate, likewise, that either compels the consuls to leave their designs imperfect, or enables them to complete the projects which they have formed, by sending a successor into each of their several provinces, upon the expiration of the annual term, or by continuing them in the same command. The senate also has the power to aggrandize and amplify the victories that are gained, or, on the contrary, to depreciate and debase them. For that which is called among the Romans a triumph, in which a sensible representation of the actions of the generals is exposed in solemn procession to the view of all the citizens, can neither be exhibited with due pomp and splendor, nor, indeed, be in any other manner celebrated, unless the consent of the senate be first obtained, together with the sums that are requisite for the expense. Nor is it less necessary, on the other hand, that the consuls, how soever far they may happen to be removed from Rome, should be careful to preserve the good affections of the people. For the people, as we have already mentioned, annuls or ratifies all treaties. But that which is of greatest moment is that the consuls, at the time of laying down their office are bound to submit their past administration to the judgment of the people. And thus these magistrates can at no time think themselves secure, if they neglect to gain the approbation both of the senate and the people.
In the same manner the senate also, though invested with so great authority, is bound to yield a certain attention to the people, and to act in concert with them in all affairs that are of great importance. With regard especially to those offences that are committed against the state, and which demand a capital punishment, no inquiry can be perfected, nor any judgment carried into execution, unless the people confirm what the senate has before decreed. Nor are the things which more immediately regard the senate itself less subject than the same control. For if a law should at any time be proposed to lessen the received authority of the senators, to detract from their honors and pre-eminence, or even deprive them of a part of their possessions, it belongs wholly to the people to establish or reject it. And even still more, the interposition of a single tribune is sufficient, not only to suspend the deliberations of the senate, but to prevent them also from holding any meeting or assembly. Now the peculiar office of the tribunes is to declare those sentiments that are most pleasing to the people: and principally to promote their interests and designs. And thus the senate, on account of all these reasons, is forced to cultivate the favor and gratify the inclinations of the people.
The people again, on their part, are held in dependence on the senate, both to the particular members, and to the general body. In every part of Italy there are works of various kinds, which are let to farm by the censors, such are the building or repairing of the public edifices, which are almost innumerable; the care of rivers, harbors, mines and lands; every thing, in a word, that falls beneath the dominion of the Romans. In all these things the people are the undertakers: inasmuch as there are scarcely any to be found that are not in some way involved, either in the contracts, or in the management of the works. For some take the farms of the censors at a certain price; others become partners with the first. Some, again, engage themselves as sureties for the farmers; and others, in support also of these sureties, pledge their own fortunes to the state. Now, the supreme direction of all these affairs is placed wholly in the senate. The senate has the power to allot a longer time, to lighten the conditions of the agreement, in case that any accident has intervened, or even to release the contractors from their bargain, if the terms should be found impracticable. There are also many other circumstances in which those that are engaged in any of the public works may be either greatly injured or greatly benefited by the senate; since to this body, as we have already observed, all things that belong to these transactions are constantly referred. But there is still another advantage of much greater moment. For from this order, likewise, judges are selected, in almost every accusation of considerable weight, whether it be of a public or private nature. The people, therefore, being by these means held under due subjection and restraint, and doubtful of obtaining that protection, which they foresee that they may at some time want, are always cautious of exciting any opposition to the measures of the senate. Nor are they, on the other hand, less ready to pay obedience to the orders of the consuls; through the dread of that supreme authority, to which the citizens in general, as well as each particular man, are obnoxious in the field.
Thus, while each of these separate parts is enabled either to assist or obstruct the rest, the government, by the apt contexture of them all in the general frame, is so well secured against every accident, that it seems scarcely possible to invent a more perfect system. For when the dread of any common danger, that threatens from abroad, constrains all the orders of the state to unite together, and co-operate with joint assistance; such is the strength of the republic that as, on the one hand, no measures that are necessary are neglected, while all men fix their thoughts upon the present exigency; so neither is it possible, on the other hand, that their designs should at any time be frustrated through the want of due celerity, because all in general, as well as every citizen in particular, employ their utmost efforts to carry what has been determined into execution. Thus the government, by the very form and peculiar nature of its constitution, is equally enabled to resist all attacks, and to accomplish every purpose. And when again all apprehensions of foreign enemies are past, and the Romans being now settled in tranquility, and enjoying at their leisure all the fruits of victory, begin to yield to the seduction of ease and plenty, and, as it happens usually in such conjunctures, become haughty and ungovernable; then chiefly may we observe in what manner the same constitution likewise finds in itself a remedy against the impending danger. For whenever either of the separate parts of the republic attempts to exceed its proper limits, excites contention and dispute, and struggles to obtain a greater share of power, than that which is assigned to it by the laws, it is manifest, that since no one single part, as we have shown in this discourse, is in itself supreme or absolute, but that on the contrary, the powers which are assigned to each are still subject to reciprocal control, the part, which thus aspires, must soon be reduced again within its own just bounds, and not be suffered to insult or depress the rest. And thus the several orders, of which the state is framed, are forced always to maintain their due position: being partly counter-worked in their designs; and partly also restrained from making any attempt, by the dread of falling under that authority to which they are exposed.
The Military Institutions of the Romans: As soon as the consuls are declared, the military tribunes are next appointed. Of these, fourteen are taken from the citizens who have carried arms in five campaigns; and ten more from those who completed ten. For every citizen, before he arrives at the age of forty-six, is obliged to serve either ten years in the cavalry, or sixteen in the infantry: those alone excepted who are placed by the censors below the rate of four hundred drachmae; and who are all reserved for the service of the sea. In the case of any pressing danger the time of continuing in the infantry is extended to twenty years. No citizen is permitted by the laws to sue for any magistracy before he has completed the serving of ten campaigns.
When the enrollments are to be made the consuls give notice before to the people of a certain day, upon which all the Romans that are of sufficient age are required to attend. This is done every year. And when the day arrives, and the men all appear at Rome, and are assembled afterwards in the Capitol, the tribunes of the youngest order divide themselves, as they are appointed either by the consuls or the people, into four separate bodies. For this division corresponds with the first and general distribution of all the forces into four separate legions. Of these tribunes, therefore, the four first named are assigned to the first legion; the three next to the second; the following four to the third; and the last three appointed to the fourth. Of the tribunes of the oldest order the two that are first named are placed in the first legion; the three second in the second; the two that follow in the third; and the remaining three in the fourth. By this distribution and division an equal number of commanders is allotted to each legion.
When this is done, the tribunes of each legion, having taken their seats apart, draw out the tribes one by one by lot; and calling to them that upon which the lot first falls, they select from it four young men, as nearly equal as is possible in age and stature. And when these are brought forward from the rest, the tribunes of the first legion first choose one; then those of the second a second; those of the third take the third; and those of the fourth the last. After these four more are made to approach. And now the tribunes of the second legion first make their choice; then those of the rest in order; and last of all the tribunes of the first. In the same manner again, from the next four that follow, the tribunes of the third legion choose the first; and those of the second the last. And thus, by observing the same method of rotation to the end, it happens that the legions, with respect to the men of which they are composed are all alike and equal. The number allotted to each legion is four thousand and two hundred; and sometimes five thousand, when any great and unusual danger is foreseen. After these had been thus selected it was anciently the custom to choose the cavalry; and to add two hundred horsemen to each four thousand of the infantry But in the present times, the citizens, of whom the cavalry is composed, are first enrolled; having been before appointed by the censors, according to the rate of their revenue; and three hundred are assigned to every legion.
When the enrollments are in this manner finished, the tribunes having assembled together in separate bodies the soldiers of their respective legions, choose out a man that seems most proper for the purpose, and make him swear in the following words: "that he will be obedient to his commanders, and execute all the orders that he shall receive from them to the utmost of his power." The rest of the soldiers of the legion, advancing one by one, swear also that they will perform what the first has sworn. About the same time, likewise, the consuls send notice to the magistrates of the allied cities of Italy, from which they design to draw any forces, what number of troops are wanted, and at what time and place they are required to join the Roman army. The cities, having raised their levies in the same manner that has now been mentioned, and administered to them the same oath, send them away attended by a paymaster and a general.
At Rome the tribunes, after the ceremony of the oath is finished, command all the legions to return without arms upon a certain day, and then dismiss them. And when they are met together again at the appointed time, those that are youngest, and of the lowest condition, are set apart for the light-armed troops. From the next above these in age are selected the hastati; from those that are in full strength and vigor, the principes; and the oldest of all that are enrolled are the triarii. For every legion is composed of all these different bodies; different in name, in age, and in the manner in which they are armed. This division is so adjusted that the triarii amount to six hundred men; the principes are twelve hundred; the hastati an equal number; and all the rest light-armed. If a legion consist of more than four thousand men, the several bodies are increased in due proportion; except only that the number of the triarii always remains the same.
The youngest of these troops are armed with a sword, light javelins, and a buckler. The buckler is both strongly made, and of a size sufficient for security. For it is of a circular form, and has three feet in the diameter. They wear likewise upon their heads some simple sort of covering; such as the skin of a wolf, or something of a similar kind; which serves both for their defense, and to point out also to the commanders those particular soldiers that are distinguished either by their bravery or want of courage in the time of action. The wood of the javelins is of the length of two cubits, and of the thickness of a finger. The iron part is a span in length, and is drawn out to such a slender fineness towards the point, that it never fails to be bent in the very first discharge, so that the enemy cannot throw it back again. Otherwise it would be a common javelin.
The next in age, who are called the hastati, are ordered to furnish themselves with a complete suit of armor. This among the Romans consists in the first place of a shield of a convex surface; the breadth of which is two feet and a half; and the length four feet, or four feet and a palm of those of the largest size. It is composed of two planks, glued together, and covered first with linen, and afterwards with calves' skin. The extreme edges of it, both above and below, are guarded with plates of iron; as well to secure it against the strokes of swords, as that it may be rested also upon the ground without receiving any injury. To the surface is fitted likewise a shell of iron; which serves to turn aside the more violent strokes of stones, or spears, or any other ponderous weapon. After the shield comes the sword, which is carried upon the right thigh, and is called the Spanish sword. It is formed not only to push with at the point; but to make a falling stroke with either edge, and with singular effect; for the blade is remarkably strong and firm. To these arms are added two piles or javelins; a helmet made of brass; and boots for the legs. The piles are of two sorts; the one large, the other slender.
Of the former those that are round have the breadth of a palm in their diameter; and those that are square the breadth of a palm likewise is a side. The more slender, which are carried with the other, resemble a common javelin of a moderate size. In both sorts, the wooden part is of the same length likewise, and turned outwards at the point, in the form of a double hook, is fastened to the wood with so great care and foresight, being carried upwards to the very middle of it, and transfixed with many close-set rivets, that it is sooner broken in use than loosened; though in the part in which it is joined to the wood, it is not less than a finger and a half in thickness. Upon the helmet is worn an ornament of three upright feathers, either red or black, of about a cubit in height; which being fixed upon the very top of the head, and added to their other arms, make the troops seem to be of double size, and gives them an appearance which is both beautiful and terrible. Beside these arms, the soldiers in general place also upon their breasts a square plate of brass, of the measure of a span on either side, which is called the guard of the heart. But all those who are rated at more than ten thousand drachmae cover their breasts with a coat of mail. The principes and the triarii are armed in the same manner likewise as the hastati; except only that the triarii carry pikes instead of javelins.
From each of these several sorts of soldiers, the youngest alone excepted, ten men of distinguished merit are first selected; and after these, ten more. These are all called commanders of companies; and he that is first chosen has a seat in the military council. After these, twenty more are appointed to conduct the rear; and are chosen by the former twenty. The soldiers of each different order, the light troops excepted, are then divided into ten separate parts; to each of which are assigned four officers, of those who have been thus selected: two to lead the van, and two to take the care of the rear. The light-armed troops are distributed in just proportion among them all. Each separate part is called a company, a band, or an ensign; and the leaders, captains of companies or centurions. Last of all, two of the bravest and most vigorous among the soldiers are appointed by the captains to carry the standards of the company.
It is not without good reason that two captains are assigned to every company. For as it always is uncertain, what will be the conduct of an officer, or to what accidents he may be exposed; and, as in the affairs of war, there is no room for pretext or excuse; this method is contrived, that the company may not upon any occasion be destitute of a leader. When the captains therefore both are present, he that was first chosen leads the right, and the other the left of the company. And when either of them is absent, he that remains takes the conduct of the whole. In the choice of these captains not those that are the boldest and most enterprising are esteemed the best; but those rather, who are steady and sedate; prudent in conduct, and skillful in command. Nor is it so much required, that they should be at all times eager to begin the combat, and throw themselves precipitately into action; as that, when they are pressed, or even conquered by a superior force, they should still maintain their ground, and rather die than desert their station.
The cavalry is divided also into ten parts or troops. In each of these, three captains first are chosen; who afterwards appoint three other officers to conduct the rear. The first of the captains commands the whole troop. The other two hold the rank and office of decurions; and all of them are called by that name. In the absence of the first captain, the next in order takes the entire command. The manner in which these troops are armed is at this time the same as that of the Greeks. But anciently it was very different. For, first, they wore no armor upon their bodies; but were covered, in the time of action, with only an undergarment. In this method, they were able indeed to descend from their horses, or leap up again upon them, with greater quickness and facility; but, as they were almost naked, they were too much exposed to danger in all those engagements. The spears also that were in use among them in former times were, in a double respect, very unfit for service. First, as they were of a slender make, and always trembled in the hand, it not only was extremely difficult to direct them with exactness towards the destined mark; but very frequently, even before their points had reached the enemy, the greatest part of them were shaken into pieces by the bare motion of the horses. Add to this, that these spears, not being armed with iron at the lowest end, were formed to strike only with the point, and, when they were broken by this stroke, were afterwards incapable of any farther use.
Their buckler was made of the hide of an ox, and in form was not unlike to those globular dishes which are used in sacrifices. But this was also of too infirm a texture for defense; and, as it was at first not very capable of service, it afterwards became wholly useless, when the substance of it had been softened and relaxed by rain. The Romans, therefore, having observed these defects, soon changed their weapons for the armor of the Greeks. For the Grecian spear, which is firm and stable, not only serves to make the first stroke with the point in just direction and with sure effect; but, with the help of the iron at the opposite end, may, when turned, be employed against the enemy with equal steadiness and force. In the same manner also the Grecian shields, being strong in texture, and capable of being held in a fixed position, are alike serviceable both for attack and for defense. These advantages were soon perceived, and the arms adopted by the cavalry. For the Romans, above all other people, are excellent in admitting foreign customs that are preferable to their own.
As soon as this partition of the troops is finished, and the necessary orders given by the tribunes concerning their arms, they are then commanded to return to their respective habitations, till the day arrives, upon which they are bound by oath to assemble together in a certain place appointed by the consuls. Each of the consuls usually appoints a different place for the assembling of his whole army: for to each of them are allotted separately two Roman legions, together with an equal part of the allies. No pretense of accident is at any time allowed to those that are enrolled; nor any excuse admitted, in opposition to their oath, to discharge them from appearing on the day prescribed; unless some auspices should intervene, or some disaster happen, which renders their attendance absolutely impracticable. When they are all met together, the distribution of the allies, who are assembled also with the Romans, is regulated by twelve officers, called prefects, and appointed by the consuls, in the following manner. They first choose out from all the allies a body of the bravest and most skillful soldiers, both cavalry and infantry, to serve near the person, and under the immediate orders, of the consuls. These are called the extraordinary, or selected troops. The whole infantry of the allies is usually the same in number with that of the Romans; but the cavalry three times as many. Among these, about a third part of the cavalry, and a fifth part of the infantry, are set apart as extra-ordinaries. The rest are then divided by the prefects into two equal bodies; one of which is called the right, and the other the left wing. When all things are thus prepared, the tribunes direct both the Romans and the allies to encamp.
As soon as the encampment is completed, the tribunes, having assembled together all the persons, both free men and slaves, that are in the army, administer to every one of them apart the following oath: "That they will not steal any thing from the camp; and even if they find any thing that they will bring it to the tribunes." Two companies are then selected from the principes and the hastati of each legion; to whose care is assigned the ground that lies before the tents of the tribunes. For as the Romans usually pass the whole time of day in this open space, they employ great care to keep it continually cleansed and sprinkled. Of the remaining eighteen companies three are allotted to every tribune. For in every legion there are twenty companies of principes and hastati, as we have already mentioned, and six tribunes. The service which these three companies are obliged to perform in turn for the tribune to whom they are respectively assigned is to fix his tent, to make the ground around it plain and level, and to cover his baggage, if it be necessary, with a fence. It is their duty likewise to place a double guard near him for his security. This guard consists of four soldiers, two of whom are stationed before the tent, and two behind it, near to the horses. As three companies are thus allotted to every tribune, and as each company, without including the triarii and the light-armed troops, who are both exempted from this duty, contains more than a hundred men, this service falling to each company in turn upon every fourth day only, becomes very light and easy; and, while it ministers in all things that are necessary to the convenience of the tribunes, renders their office likewise more illustrious, and brings respect to their authority.
The triarii are discharged from bearing any part in this attendance. But each of their companies is obliged to furnish every day a guard to the troop of cavalry that lies close behind it. The duty of this guard, among other functions, is principally to observe the horses; that they may not at any time be rendered unfit for service by being entangled in the bands that hold them; or by breaking away, and falling in among other horses, create tumult and disorder in the camp. One company alone, which is selected in turn from the whole body of these troops, is stationed round the tent of the consul; as well to secure his person against all surprise, as for the sake of adding splendor also to his dignity.
The entrenchment is made by the allies, on those two sides, near to which their wings are encamped. The two other sides are left to the Romans; to each legion, one. Each side is divided into certain portions, according to the number of the companies: and a centurion assigned, to overlook the work in every portion. The whole side is afterwards examined and approved by two of the tribunes; whose office it is to attend to every thing that is done in the camp. For the tribunes, dividing among themselves the time of their campaign, and presiding, two in turn, during two months of the six, have the supreme direction of every kind of necessary work and service, that falls within the time of their command. The same duty is performed, in the same manner likewise, among the allies, by the officers who are called prefects. As soon as daylight appears, the leaders of the cavalry, and the centurions, attend all together at the tents of the tribunes; and the tribunes at that of the consul. The necessary orders are then delivered by the consul to the tribunes; by the tribunes to the centurions and the leaders of the cavalry; and by these, as the proper time for each arrives, to the rest of the army.
The delivery of the signal for the night is secured in the following manner. Every tenth cohort, both of infantry and cavalry, is lodged at the extreme end of those lines which form the separate streets. From each of these a soldier is selected, who is discharged from all the duties of the guard. This soldier, every day about the time of the setting of the sun, goes to the tent of the tribune, and receives from him the signal; which is a flat tablet of wood, with some word inscribed upon it; and having returned back again to his own company, he then delivers the tablet with the signal, in the presence of some witnesses, to the leader of the cohort that is lodged next to his own. From him again, it passes to the following cohort; and, in the same manner, through all the rest in order, till it arrives at the first cohorts, which lie nearest to the tents of the tribunes; and from thence it is carried back again to the tribunes, while it is yet day. If all the tablets that were delivered are brought back, the tribune then perceives that the signal has passed through all the camp. But if any one be wanting, he immediately examines into the fact; and, having discerned by the inscriptions in what quarter the tablet has been stopped, inflicts a suitable punishment upon those that have been the cause of that neglect.
The guards for the night are thus disposed. One entire company is always stationed around the consular tent. The tents of the tribunes, and the cavalry, are guarded by soldiers taken ,rom each company, in the manner that has before been mentioned. Each separate company appoints a guard likewise for itself from its own body. The other guards are disposed as the consul directs. But the usual custom is, to allot three soldiers to the quaestor; and two to each of the members of the council. The external sides of the camp are guarded by the light-armed forces; who are distributed every day along the whole entrenchment. From the same body, ten men are also stationed before every gate that leads into the camp.
Among those that are appointed for the watch, one soldier from each guard, the same whose duty it is to take the first watch, is carried in the evening to the tribune, by one of the conductors of the rear of every company. The tribune, having given to all of them some small tablets of wood, inscribed with a certain character, and appropriated to each particular guard, dismisses them to their respective stations.
The care of making the rounds is entrusted to the cavalry. The captain of the first troop in each of the legions is bound to send his orders in the morning to one of the conductors of the rear; commanding him to appoint, before the time of dinner, four soldiers of the troop to go the rounds; and to send notice also afterwards, in the evening, to the leader of the second troop, that it is his turn to inspect the watch on the following day. The leader of the second troop gives notice, in like manner, for the third day; and the same method is observed through all the rest. The four soldiers, who are thus selected from the first troop by the conductor of the rear, having determined among themselves each particular watch by lot, go afterwards to the tent of the tribune, and receive from thence in writing an account of the several posts, and of the number of guards, which they are required to visit. They then take their station near to the first company of the triarii. For the leader of this company has the care of marking the time of every watch by the sound of a trumpet. And when the signal is made, he, to whose inspection the first watch was allotted, taking with him some of his friends as witnesses, goes round to all the posts that are recited in his orders, and visits all the guards: not those alone that are stationed round the entrenchment, and before the gates, but those also that are placed in every single company and in every troop. If he finds the sentinels awake and fixed in their several stations, he receives from them the wooden tablets. But if he discovers that any one is sleeping, or has left his post, he desires those that are present to bear testimony to the fact, and then retires. The same method is observed in all the following watches. The care of sounding the trumpet, by which notice is given in the same moment both to the sentinels and the inspectors of the watch, is left, as we have said, to the captains of the first company of the triarii, who perform this duty alternately, day by day.
As soon as the morning appears, those who have made the rounds carry the tablets to the tribune. If they bring the full number back they are suffered to depart without any question. But if the number be less than that of the guards, the inscriptions are immediately examined, in order to discover from what particular guard the tablet has not been returned. When this is known, the centurion is ordered to attend and to bring with him the soldiers that were appointed for that guard; that they may be questioned face to face with him who made the rounds. If the fault be in the guard, he that made the rounds appeals at once to the testimony of his friends who were present. Such evidence always is demanded from him; and in case that he is not able to bring this proof, the whole blame rests upon himself. The council is then assembled; the cause is judged by the tribune, and the guilty person sentenced to be bastinadoed. This punishment is inflicted in the following manner.
The tribune, taking a stick into his hand, gently touches the criminal; and immediately afterwards all the soldiers of the legion attack him with sticks and stones; so that the greatest part of those that are thus condemned are destroyed immediately in the camp. If any one escapes, yet he is not saved. For all return into his country is shut against him: nor would any of his friends or kindred ever dare to receive him into their houses. Those, therefore, who have once fallen into this misfortune are lost without resource. The conductor of the rear, and the leader of the troops, if ever they neglect to give the necessary notice in due time, the first to the inspectors of the watch, and the second to the leader of the succeeding troop, are subject also to this punishment. From the dread of a discipline so severe, and which leaves no place for mercy, every thing that belongs to the guards of the night is performed with the most exact diligence and care.
The soldiers are subject to the control of the tribunes, as these are to that of the consuls. The tribunes have the power of imposing fines, and demanding sureties, and of punishing with stripes. The same authority is exercised by the prefects among the allies. The punishment of the bastinadoe is inflicted also upon those who steal any thing in the camp; those who bear false testimony; who, in their youth, abuse their bodies; and who have been three times convicted of one fault. These offenses are punished as crimes. There are others that are regarded as the effects of cowardice, and disgraceful to the military character. When a soldier, for example, with a view of obtaining a reward, makes a report to the tribunes of some brave action which he has not performed. When any one, through fear, deserts his station, or throws away his arms in the time of engagement. For hence it happens that many, through the dread of the allotted punishment, when they are attacked by much greater numbers, will even encounter manifest destruction, rather than desert that post which they had been ordered to maintain. Others again, when they have lost their shield, or sword, or any other part of their arms in the time of action, throw themselves precipitately into the very midst of the enemy; hoping either to recover what they have lost, or to avoid by death the reproaches of their fellow-soldiers, and the disgrace that is ready to receive them.
If it happens that many are at one time guilty of the same fault, and that whole companies retire before the enemy, and desert their station; instead of punishing all of them by death, an expedient is employed which is both useful and full of terror. The tribune, assembling together all the soldiers of the legion, commands the criminals to be brought forward: and, having sharply reproached them with their cowardice, he then draws out by lot either five, or eight, or twenty men, according to the number of those that have offended. For the proportion is usually so adjusted, that every tenth man is reserved for punishment. Those, who are thus separated from the rest by lot, are bastinadoed without remission in the manner before described. The others are sentenced to be fed with barley instead of wheat; and are lodged without the entrenchment, exposed to insults from the enemy. As the danger, therefore, and the dread of death, hangs equally over all the guilty, because no one can foresee upon whom the lot will fall; and as the shame and infamy of receiving barley only for their support is extended also alike to all; this institution is perfectly well contrived, both for impressing present terror, and for the prevention of future faults.
The method by which the young men are animated to brave all danger is also admirable. When an action has passed in which any of the soldiers have shown signal proofs of courage, the consul, assembling the troops together, commands those to approach who have distinguished themselves by any eminent exploit. And having first bestowed on every one of them apart the commendation that is due to this particular instance of their valor, and recounted likewise all their former actions that have ever merited applause, he then distributes among them the following rewards. To him who has wounded an enemy, a javelin. To him who has killed an enemy, and stripped him of his armor, if he be a soldier in the infantry, a goblet; if in the cavalry, furniture for his horse; though, in former times, this last was presented only with a javelin. These rewards, however, are not bestowed upon the soldiers who, in a general battle, or in the attack of a city, wound or spoil an enemy; but upon those alone who, in separate skirmishes, and when any occasion offers, in which no necessity requires them to engage in single contest, throw themselves voluntarily into danger, and with design provoke the combat. When a city is taken by storm, those who mount first upon the walls are honored with a golden crown. Those also who have saved the lives of any of the citizens, or the allies, by covering them from the enemy in the time of battle, receive presents from the consul, and are crowned likewise by the persons themselves who have thus been preserved, and who, if they refuse this office, are compelled by the judgment of the tribunes to perform it.
Add to this, that those who are thus saved are bound, during the remainder of their lives, to reverence their preserver as a father, and to render to him all the duties which they would pay to him who gave them birth. Nor are the effects of these rewards, in raising a spirit of emulation and of courage, confined to those alone who are present in the army, but extended likewise to all the citizens at home. For those who have obtained those presents, beside the honor which they acquire among their fellow soldiers, and the reputation which immediately attends them in their country, are distinguished after their return, by wearing in all solemn processions such ornaments as are permitted only to be worn by those who have received them from the consuls as the rewards of their valor. They hang up likewise in the most conspicuous parts of their houses the spoils which they have taken, as a monument and evidence of their exploits. Since such, therefore, is the attention and the care with which the Romans distribute rewards and punishments in their armies, it is not to be thought strange that the wars in which they engage are always ended with glory and success.
The military stipends are thus regulated. The pay of a soldier in the infantry is two obols by the day; and double to the centurions. The pay of the cavalry is a drachma. The allowance of corn to each man in the infantry consists of about two-third parts of an Attic bushel of wheat by the month. In the cavalry, it is seven bushels of barley, and two of wheat. To the infantry of the allies the same quantity is distributed as to that of the Romans: but their cavalry receives only one bushel and a third of wheat, and five of barley. The whole of this allowance is given without reserve to the allies. But the Roman soldiers are obliged to purchase their corn and clothes, together with the arms which they occasionally want, at a certain stated price, which is deducted by the quaestor from their pay.
In breaking up the camp the following order is observed. When the first signal is made, the soldiers all take down the tents, and collect the baggage. No tent, however, is at any time either set up or taken down until those of the consul and the tribunes are first set up, or first removed. Upon the second signal the baggage is placed upon the beasts of burden; and at the third, the foremost of the troops begin their march, and the whole camp is put in motion. In the van are usually placed the extra-ordinaries; and after these the right wing of the allies, which is followed by the baggage of both these bodies. Next to these marches the first of the Roman legions, with its baggage also behind it. The second legion follows; having behind it likewise both its own baggage, and the baggage of the allies, who are in the rear; for the rear of all the march is closed with the left wing of the allies. The cavalry marches sometimes in the rear of the respective bodies to which it belongs; and sometimes on the flanks of the beasts that are loaded with the baggage; keeping them together in due order, and covering them from insult. When an attack is expected to be made upon the rear, the extra-ordinaries of the allies, instead of leading the van, are posted in the rear. In all the other parts the disposition remains the same.
Of the two legions, and the two wings of the allies, those that are on one day foremost in the march, on the following day are placed behind; that, by thus changing their rank alternately all the troops may obtain the same advantage in their turn, of arriving first at water and at forage. There is also another disposition which is used when any immediate danger threatens, and the march is made through an open country. At such times, the hastati, the principes, and the triarii, are ranged in three parallel lines, each behind the other, with the baggage of the hastati in the front. Behind the hastati is placed the baggage of the principes, who are followed likewise by that of the triarii; so that the baggage and the several bodies are mingled in alternate order. The march being thus disposed, the troops, as soon as an attack is made, turning either to the left or to the right, advance forwards from the baggage towards that side upon which the enemy appears. And thus, in a moment of time, and by one single movement, the whole army is formed at once in order of battle; except only that the hastati are perhaps obliged to make an evolution; and the beasts of burden also, with all those that attend upon the baggage, being now thrown into the rear of all the troops, are covered by them from all danger.
At the end of a march, when the army arrives near the place of their encampment, a tribune and some centurions, who are appointed always for this purpose, advance before the rest. And having surveyed the whole ground upon which the encampment is to be made, they first determine the place of the consular tent, and on which side of it the legions may most commodiously be lodged. When this is done, they measure out the space that is allotted for the consul; and then draw a line for the place of the tents of the tribunes; and parallel to it another line, below which the legions are to be encamped. In the same manner also the several portions of the ground, which lies on the other side of the consular tent, and which we have already particularly described, are ascertained by lines. And as the distances are fixed, and well known by use, the admeasurement of the whole is easy, and soon completed. Four ensigns are then planted in the ground, the first in the place in which the tent of the consul is to be set up; the second, on that side of the consular ground which has been chosen for the front of the camp; the third in the middle of the line that is designed for the tents of the tribunes; and the last upon the other parallel line below which the legions are to be encamped. These ensigns are all of a purple color; that of the consul excepted, which is white. The portions on the other side of the consular ground are sometimes marked by simple pikes fixed in the ground, and sometimes by ensigns of some different color. Last of all, the several streets are drawn out by measure, and pikes also planted to denote the limits of each particular street.
The necessary effect of this method is, that when the troops upon their march approach so near as to discover the place of their encampments, they are able to discern at once all the different parts of the camp; being taught by the ensign of the consul to point out and distinguish all the rest. And as they all occupy the same place always in the camp, so that each man knows in what particular street, and in what part also of the street, he is going to be lodged, their entrance very much resembles that of a body of soldiers into their own native city. For as these, already knowing, both in general and in particular, the quarters of the city in which their habitations stand, turn aside immediately from the gates, and arrive at their several houses without mistake; just so it happens in the Roman camp. It is to this facility indeed that the Romans chiefly attend upon such occasions; and, for the sake of obtaining it, pursues contrary a method to that of the Greeks. For the Greeks, when they encamp, consider principally the natural strength of the place that is chosen, and accommodate their disposition to it; being partly studious to avoid the labor of throwing up an entrenchment; and partly persuaded also, that fortifications raised by art are always less secure than those that are made by nature. In compliance, therefore, with what the nature of the ground demands, they not only are obliged to give every kind of figure to their camp, but to vary also the position of the several parts, as the place for each is favorable or improper. And from hence it happens that the soldier never knows with certainty either his own place in the camp, or that of the body to which he belongs. But the Romans willingly submit to the task of making an entrenchment, and to other painful works, for the sake of the advantage that is found, in employing a method which is never changed, and which renders all the parts of the camp familiar to the army.
Such then in general are the institutions of the Romans, which belong to the establishment of their armies, and more especially to the manner of their encampment.
Rome and Carthage Compared:
The government of Carthage seems also to have been originally well contrived with regard to those general forms that have been mentioned. For there were kings in this government, together with a senate, which was vested with aristocratic authority. The people likewise enjoy the exercise of certain powers that were appropriated to them. In a word, the entire frame of the republic very much resembled those of Rome and Sparta. But at the time of the war of Hannibal the Carthaginian constitution was worse in its condition than the Roman. For as nature has assigned to every body, every government, and every action, three successive periods; the first, of growth; the second, of perfection; and that which follows, of decay; and as the period of perfection is the time in which they severally display their greatest strength; from hence arose the difference that was then found between the two republics. For the government of Carthage, having reached the highest point of vigor and perfection much sooner than that of Rome, had now declined from it in the same proportion: whereas the Romans, at this very time, had just raised their constitution to the most flourishing and perfect state. The effect of this difference was, that among the Carthaginians the people possessed the greatest sway in all deliberations, but the senate among the Romans. And as, in the one republic, all measures were determined by the multitude; and, in the other, by the most eminent citizens; of so great force was this advantage in the conduct of affairs, that the Romans, though brought by repeated losses into the greatest danger, became, through the wisdom of their counsels, superior to the Carthaginians in the war.
If we descend to a more particular comparison, we shall find, that with respect to military science, for example, the Carthaginians, in the management and conduct of a naval war, are more skillful than the Romans. For the Carthaginians have derived this knowledge from their ancestors through a long course of ages; and are more exercised in maritime affairs than any other people. But the Romans, on the other hand, are far superior in all things that belong to the establishment and discipline of armies. For this discipline, which is regarded by them as the chief and constant object of their care, is utterly neglected by the Carthaginians; except only that they bestow some little attention upon their cavalry. The reason of this difference is, that the Carthaginians employ foreign mercenaries; and that on the contrary the Roman armies are composed of citizens, and of the people of the country. Now in this respect the government of Rome is greatly preferable to that of Carthage. For while the Carthaginians entrust the preservation of their liberty to the care of venal troops; the Romans place all their confidence in their own bravery, and in the assistance of their allies. From hence it happens, that the Romans, though at first defeated, are always able to renew the war; and that the Carthaginian armies never are repaired without great difficulty. Add to this, that the Romans, fighting for their country and their children, never suffer their ardor to be slackened; but persist with the same steady spirit till they become superior to their enemies. From hence it happens, likewise, that even in actions upon the sea, the Romans, though inferior to the Carthaginians, as we have already observed, in naval knowledge and experience, very frequently obtain success through the mere bravery of their forces. For though in all such contests a skill in maritime affairs must be allowed to be of the greatest use; yet, on the other hand, the valor of the troops that are engaged is no less effectual to draw the victory to their side.
Now the people of Italy are by nature superior to the Carthaginians and the Africans, both in bodily strength, and in courage. Add to this, that they have among them certain institutions by which the young men are greatly animated to perform acts of bravery. It will be sufficient to mention one of these, as a proof of the attention that is shown by the Roman government, to infuse such a spirit into the citizens as shall lead them to encounter every kind of danger for the sake of obtaining reputation in their country. When any illustrious person dies, he is carried in procession with the rest of the funeral pomp, to the rostra in the forum; sometimes placed conspicuous in an upright posture; and sometimes, though less frequently, reclined. And while the people are all standing round, his son, if he has left one of sufficient age, and who is then at Rome, or, if otherwise, some person of his kindred, ascends the rostra, and extols the virtues of the deceased, and the great deeds that were performed by him in his life. By this discourse, which recalls his past actions to remembrance, and places them in open view before all the multitude, not those alone who were sharers in his victories, but even the rest who bore no part in his exploits, are moved to such sympathy of sorrow, that the accident seems rather to be a public misfortune, than a private loss. He is then buried with the usual rites; and afterwards an image, which both in features and complexion expresses an exact resemblance of his face, is set up in the most conspicuous part of the house, inclosed in a shrine of wood. Upon solemn festivals, these images are uncovered, and adorned with the greatest care.
And when any other person of the same family dies, they are carried also in the funeral procession, with a body added to the bust, that the representation may be just, even with regard to size. They are dressed likewise in the habits that belong to the ranks which they severally filled when they were alive. If they were consuls or praetors, in a gown bordered with purple: if censors, in a purple robe: and if they triumphed, or obtained any similar honor, in a vest embroidered with gold. Thus appeared, they are drawn along in chariots preceded by the rods and axes, and other ensigns of their former dignity. And when they arrive at the forum, they are all seated upon chairs of ivory; and there exhibit the noblest objects that can be offered to youthful mind, warmed with the love of virtue and of glory. For who can behold without emotion the forms of so many illustrious men, thus living, as it were, and breathing together in his presence? Or what spectacle can be conceived more great and striking? The person also that is appointed to harangue, when he has exhausted all the praises of the deceased, turns his discourse to the rest, whose images are before him; and, beginning with the most ancient of them, recounts the fortunes and the exploits of every one in turn. By this method, which renews continually the remembrance of men celebrated for their virtue, the fame of every great and noble action become immortal. And the glory of those, by whose services their country has been benefited, is rendered familiar to the people, and delivered down to future times. But the chief advantage is, that by the hope of obtaining this honorable fame, which is reserved for virtue, the young men are animated to sustain all danger, in the cause of the common safety. For from hence it has happened, that many among the Romans have voluntarily engaged in single combat, in order to decide the fortune of an entire war. Many also have devoted themselves to inevitable death; some of them in battle, to save the lives of other citizens; and some in time of peace to rescue the whole state from destruction. Others again, who have been invested with the highest dignities have, in defiance of all law and customs, condemned their own sons to die; showing greater regard to the advantage of their country, than to the bonds of nature, and the closest ties of kindred.
Very frequent are the examples of this kind, that are recorded in the Roman story. I shall here mention one, as a signal instance, and proof of the truth of all that I have affirmed. Horatius, surnamed Cocles, being engaged in combat with two enemies, at the farthest extremity of the bridge that led into Rome across the Tiber, and perceiving that many others were advancing fast to their assistance, was apprehensive that they would force their way together into the city. turning himself, therefore, to his companions that were behind him, he called to them aloud, that should immediately retire and break the bridge. While they were employed in this work, Horatius, covered over with wounds, still maintained the post, and stopped the progress of the enemy; who were struck with his firmness and intrepid courage, even more than with the strength of his resistance. And when the bridge was broken, and the city secured from insult, he threw himself into the river with his armor, and there lost his life as he had designed: having preferred the safety of his country, and the future fame that was sure to follow such an action, to his own present existence, and to the time that remained for him to live. Such is the spirit, and such the emulation of achieving glorious action, which the Roman institutions are fitted to infuse into the minds of youth.
In things that regard the acquisition of wealth, the manners also, and the customs of the Romans, are greatly preferable to those of the Carthaginians. Among the latter, nothing is reputed infamous, that is joined with gain. But among the former, nothing is held more base than to be corrupted by gifts, or to covet an increase of wealth by means that are unjust. For as much as they esteem the possession of honest riches to be fair and honorable, so much, on the other hand, all those that are amassed by unlawful arts, are viewed by them with horror and reproach. The truth of this fact is clearly seen in the following instance. Among the Carthaginians, money is openly employed to obtain the dignities of the state: but all such proceeding is a capital crime in Rome. As the rewards, therefore, that are proposed to virtue in the two republics are so different, it cannot but happen, that the attention of the citizens to form their minds to virtuous actions must be also different.
But among all the useful institutions, that demonstrate the superior excellence of the Roman government, the most considerable perhaps is the opinion which the people are taught to hold concerning the gods: and that, which other men regard as an object of disgrace, appears in my judgment to be the very thing by which this republic chiefly is sustained. I mean, superstition: which is impressed with all it terrors; and influences both the private actions of the citizens, and the public administration also of the state, in a degree that can scarcely be exceeded. This may appear astonishing to many. To me it is evident, that this contrivance was at first adopted for the sake of the multitude. For if it were possible that a state could be composed of wise men only, there would be no need, perhaps, of any such invention. But as the people universally are fickle and inconstant, filled with irregular desires, too precipitate in their passions, and prone to violence; there is no way left to restrain them, but by the dread of things unseen, and by the pageantry of terrifying fiction. The ancients, therefore, acted not absurdedly, nor without good reason, when they inculcated the notions concerning the gods, and the belief of infernal punishments; but much more those of the present age are to be charged with rashness and absurdity, in endeavoring to extirpate these opinions. For, not to mention effects that flow from such an institution, if, among the Greeks, for example, a single talent only be entrusted to those who have the management of any of the public money; though they give ten written sureties, with as many seals and twice as many witnesses, they are unable to discharge the trusts reposed in them with integrity. But the Romans, on the other hand, who in the course of their magistracies, and in embassies, disperse the greatest sums, are prevailed on by the single obligation of an oath to perform their duties with inviolable honesty. And as, in other states, a man is rarely found whose hands are pure from public robbery; so, among the Romans, it is no less rare to discover one that is tainted with this crime. But all things are subject to decay and change. This is a truth so evident, and so demonstrated by the perpetual and the necessary force of nature, that it needs no other proof.
Now there are two ways by which every kind of government is destroyed; either by some accident that happens from without, or some evil that arises within itself. What the first will be is not always easy to foresee: but the latter is certain and determinate. We have already shown what are the original and what: the secondary forms of government; and in what manner also they are reciprocally converted each into the other. Whoever, therefore, is able to connect the beginning with the end in this enquiry, will be able also to declare with some assurance what will be the future fortune of the Roman government. At least in my judgment nothing is more easy. For when a state, after having passed with safety through many and great dangers, arrives at the highest degree of power, and possesses an entire and undisputed sovereignty; it is manifest that the long continuance of prosperity must give birth to costly and luxurious manners, and that the minds of men will be heated with ambitious contest, and become too eager and aspiring in the pursuit of dignities. And as these evils are continually increased, the desire of power and rule, and the imagined ignominy of remaining in a subject state, will first begin to work the ruin of the republic; arrogance and luxury will afterwards advance it: and in the end the change will be completed by the people; as the avarice of some is found to injure and oppress them, and the ambition of others swells their vanity and poisons them with flattering hopes. For then, being with rage, and following only the dictates of their passions, they no longer will submit to any control, or be contented with an equal share of the administration, in conjunction with their rulers; but will draw to themselves the entire sovereignty and supreme direction of all affairs. When this is done, the government will assume indeed the fairest of all names, that of a free and popular state; but will, in truth, be the greatest of all evils, the government of the multitude.
As we have thus sufficiently explained the constitution and the growth of the Roman government; have marked the causes of that greatness in which it now subsists; and shown by comparison, in what view it may be judged inferior, and in what superior, to other states; we shall here close this discourse. But as every skillful artist offers some piece of work to public view, as a proof of his abilities: in the same manner we also, taking some part of history that is connected with the times from which we were led into this digression and making a short recital of one single action, shall endeavor to demonstrate by fact as well as words what was the strength, and how great the vigor, which at that time were displayed by this republic.
When Hannibal, after the battle of Cannae, had taken prisoners eight thousand of the Romans, who were left to guard the camp; he permitted them to send a deputation to Rome, to treat of their ransom and redemption. Ten persons, the most illustrious that were among them, were appointed for this purpose: and the general, having first commanded them to swear that they would return to him again, suffered them to depart. But one of the number, as soon as they had passed the entrenchment, having said that he had forgotten something, went back into camp, took what he had left, and then continued his journey with the rest; persuading himself that by his return he had discharged his promise, and satisfied the obligation of the oath. When they arrived at Rome, they earnestly entreated the senate not to envy them the safety that was offered, but to suffer them to be restored to their families, at the price of three minae for each prisoner, which was the sum that Hannibal demanded; that they were not unworthy of this favor; that they neither had through cowardice deserted their post in battle, nor done anything that had brought dishonor upon the Roman name; but that having been left to guard the camp, they had been thrown by unavoidable necessity, after the destruction of the rest of the army, into the power of the enemy.
The Romans were at this time weakened by repeated losses; were deserted by almost every one of their allies; and seemed even to expect that Rome itself would instantly be attacked; yet when they had heard the deputies, they neither were deterred by adverse fortune from attending to what was fit and right, nor neglected any of those measures that were necessary to the public safety. But perceiving that the design of Hannibal in this proceeding was both to acquire a large supply of money and at the same time to check the ardor of his enemies in battle, by opening to their view the means of safety, even though they should be conquered, they were so far from yielding to this request, that they showed no regard either to the distressed condition of their fellow citizens, or to the services that might be expected from the prisoners: but resolved to disappoint the hopes and frustrate the intentions of this general, by rejecting all terms of ransom. They made a law also, by which it was declared that the soldiers that were left must either conquer or must die; and that no other hope of safety was reserved for them, in case that they were conquered. After this determination they dismissed the nine deputies, who, on account of their oath were, willing to return, and taking the other, who had endeavored to elude by sophistry what he had sworn, they sent him bound back to the enemy; so that Hannibal was much less filled with joy from having vanquished the Romans in the field, than he was struck with terror and astonishment at the firmness and magnanimity what appeared in their deliberations.
Sketch of Aurelius Constantine
“History, like love, is so apt to surround her heroes with an atmosphere of imaginary brightness.”
― James Fenimore Cooper
Video Above: Kings and Generals' historical animated documentary series on the history of Ancient Civilizations and Ancient Greece continue with a video on the Library of Alexandria, as we ask what was lost when the library burned.
Video Above: Epic History TV - "The Napoleonic Wars" [Parts 1-6]
"The Napoleonic Wars (1803 - 1815) brought upheaval and destruction to Europe on an unprecedented scale. This is the story of the first half of those wars, when Napoleon Bonaparte, self-crowned Emperor of the French, ruled supreme on the battlefield and international stage - the greatest man of his age. But in the midst of victory, the seeds of his eventual downfall were sown.
Video Above: Epic History - "Napoleon's Marshals" [All Parts] - In 1804 Napoleon created 18 'Marshals of the Empire', to serve as the senior officers of the Grande Armée. He created a further 8 before his abdication in 1814. A few were aristocrats, but others were the sons of shopkeepers or tailors. The most favoured became princes and kings. Among their ranks were legendary figures such as Marshals Lannes, Ney, Soult, Davout and Masséna, but also less well know figures like Pérignon, Brune and Moncey. Our series explores the lives of all 26 Marshals, and ranks them according to our own judgement of their achievements as Marshals.
Video Above: "The Napoleonic Wars" [Parts 7-15] - This compilation of our Napoleonic Wars series covers the period from 1809 to the Emperor's abdication in 1814. Along the way we encounter the horrors of the French occupation of Spain and Portugal, Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia, and the great struggle for German in 1813. The series concludes with arguably Napoleon's finest campaign - his doomed defence of Paris in 1814.
The Evolution of Civilizations: An Introduction to Historical Analysis by Caroll Quigley
Carroll Quigley was a renowned professor at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. His course on the history of civilization was superb in its breadth and scope of material covered, and manifest its legacy in the enduring impact upon students that enrolled in the course. The companion text, The Evolution of Civilizations, made the course materials accessible to the masses. It offers an extensive and insightful look at the factors behind the rise and fall of civilizations. Quigley poses a division of culture into six levels from the abstract to the more concrete. He then tests those hypotheses by an analysis of these five major civilizations: the Mesopotamian, the Canaanite, the Minoan, the classical, and the Western. Quigley defines a civilization as “a producing society with an instrument of expansion." Quigley drew attention to the primordial tendency among ancients whereby mobile equestrian nomads would often excel in the conduct of warfare, and subjugate more sedentary pastoral and farming tribes, and then proceed to setup a hierarchal civilization in the aftermath.
Europe: A History by Norman Davies (New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 1998)
Here is Norman Davies' magnum opus, which is brilliant historical narrative that spans the chasm of time from the Ice Age to the Space Age. It tells the tale of a continent people primarily by Indo-Europeans that arose in the steppes of southern Russia along the Black Sea and the Caucasus Mountains. Norman Davies's breadth and scope of history should give the reader insight into a number of key events in the annals of time—including the rise and fall of Athens, the rise and fall of Rome, the barbarian invasions by Goths, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Alans, Vandals and Magyars, the Anglo-Saxon invasion of England, the later Norman Conquests, the struggles for ecclesial power surrounding the Papacy, the Renaissance of classical culture, and the Protestant Reformation, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Europe's rise to hegemony over the entire world, and its subsequent eclipse in power occurring in our own century, which followed two cataclysmic world wars. This breathtaking work gives balanced coverage of all of Europe—Western, Central, and Eastern—and it illuminates the presence of ethnic and religious minority communities that appeared in Europe. With an astute historical narrative, a strong factual basis for its claims, and appendices awash in illustrations, maps, figures, and data, the reader is armed with precious knowledge on one of the most influential continents and peoples in the world to date.
They Went That-A-Way: How the Famous, the Infamous, and the Great Died by Malcolm Forbes
Anecdotes record the deaths. some graceful, some disgraceful, of famous people from the past three millenia, from Christopher Columbus to Hermann Goering to Jim Morrison.
“The truth is this: The march of Providence is so slow, & our desires so impatient; the work of progress is so immense and our means of aiding it so feeble; the life of humanity is so long, that of the individual so brief, that we often see only the ebb of the advancing wave & are thus discouraged. It is history that teaches us to hope."
―Robert E. Lee, 1870
Picture to the Left:
Bust of Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France
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Video Above: The Man in the High Castle is an American television series depicting a dystopian alternate history. The series is based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick. In the series' alternate version of 1962, the Axis powers have won World War II and divided the United States into the Greater Nazi Reich, comprising more than half of the eastern part of the continent, and the Japanese Pacific States to the west.
“In his deathbed delirium, Jackson had cried out, 'Order A.P. Hill to prepare for action . . . Pass the infantry to the front.' These laurels were richly deserved, for Hill was inseparable from Jackson’s string of victories. He effected a system of command and discipline within his division which made it a model within the Army of Northern Virginia. His emphasis on speed led it to become known as the 'Light Division,”'despite its large size (six brigades).” ―Peter G. Tsouras, Gettysburg: An Alternate History
How Few Remain: A Novel of the Second War Between the States by Harry Turtledove
From the master of alternate history, Harry Turtledove, comes an epic narrative of the second American Civil War. Glory, then disaster, precipitated the events of 1881. More than a generation after the South won its independence, America was once again swept into a tumultous bloody war. Upset over the Confederate annexation of valuable Mexican territory, the United States declared total war against its southern neighbor in 1881. This was a new kind of war, fought on a hostile frontier where former enemies battled not only each other, but the Apache, the outlaw, the French, and the English. As Confederate General Thomas J. 'Stonewall' Jackson once again put his military expertise on display, the United States struggled to find a leader who could rival his martial prowess. In the Second War Between the States, the actors, the times, the stakes, and the lines had changed--and so would history. . .
1862: A Novel by Robert Conroy (San Francisco, CA: Presidio Press, 2006.)
1862 is an alternate history novel by Robert Conroy first published in June 2006. The novel depicts an alternative version of the American Civil War in which the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland allies itself with the Confederacy after the Trent Affair. In our timeline, Great Britain's voices for non-intervention prevailed after the seizure of the RMS Trent by Union forces, and the British merely rattled sabers through diplomatic channels by recognizing the Confederacy as a belligerent power, instead of merely being an internal rebellion. But in Conroy's novel, the Trent Affair becomes the occasion for British intervention against the Union and on behalf of the Confederacy as an ally.
An Astounding Atlas of Altered States: The Real Stories of States That Never Came to Be by Michael Trinklein
Everyone knows the fifty United States--but what about the hundreds of other statehood proposals that never came to pass? This tome is a tribute to such great unrealized dreams as Franklin, Hazard, Lost Dakota, Montezuma, Texlahoma, Transylvania, West Florida, and Yazoo. Some of these states came close to becoming a reality and formally acceding to the union while countless others never had a chance. Are you living in a part of the United States that once fancied itself a newly independent state? Each story offers an astonishing look at the alternative America that might have become--along with a plethora of characters, bureaucratic red tape, and political brinksmanship. These tales are complimented by beautifully rendered maps detailing the proposed state boundaries and topographic features therein, plus images of real life artifacts and ephemera. Satisfy your historical curiosities, and enjoy this fascinating atlas of lost, abandoned, and altered states.
Wrestling with the 'What If?' questions of History.
'Alternative history' or simply 'Alt-Hist' is a genre of speculative fiction consisting of stories in which one or more historical events occur differently. These stories usually contain 'what if' scenarios at crucial points in history, and they present counter-factual outcomes other than those known in the established historical record. They often start with what is characterized as 'a point of divergence.' The stories are conjectural but are sometimes based on fact. Alternate history has been seen as a subgenre of literary fiction, science fiction, or historical fiction; the genre itself is often subsumed in questions of alternative military decisions and battle outcomes.
The measure of good 'alternative history' is often said to emanate from the combination of an engrossing narrative that elicits the readers' attention, as well as a credible backstory, a plausible point of divergence from established events, and generally, the writer needs to have comprehension of the background history to write good, feasible alternative history. Novels based on alternative history run the gamut from plausible military battle decisions changing the outcome of a familiar war in our historical timeline to science fiction elements such as time travel such as Harry Turtledove's The Guns of the South.
Louis-Napoléon Geoffroy-Château wrote one of the earliest works of alternative history, entitled Napoleon and the Conquest of the World 1812-1832: A Fictional History, and it engaged in speculation about what would have happened had Napoleonic France succeeded in its conquest of Russia and Britain.
Alt-Hist has spawned hundreds of books, as well as PC / Video Games thematically organized around real historical events in the past meeting a climatic point of divergence from our known historical timeline. Some are written as novellas or pure fiction. Other Alt-Hist books are written in more technical terms, such as the popular anthologies of essays by military historians describing alternate battle outcomes based on divergent strategic decisions and outcomes at odds with our established historical timeline.
For instance, what if Lee's Special Order 191, also known as the "Lost Order", was not lost? This was a general movement order issued by Confederate Army General Robert E. Lee on 9 September 1862, during the Maryland Campaign of the American Civil War. Lee may not have faced the subsequent disaster of Antietam, and may have instead won a battle or two, and then marched on Washington, D.C. itself?
What if the Western Allies bungled the D-Day landings at Normandy Beach during the Second World War, and the Germans successfully repulsed the Allied landings at Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno And Sword? What ensuing alternative history may have transpired from these changing events?
What if the Cold War turned into a hot war, and the United States and the Soviet Union actually fought a world war? The point of divergence could have came for instance in 1945 with General George S. Patton hearing of Soviet atrocities against British and American Prisoners of War and in a fit of anger, Patton unilaterally executes reprisal against the Red Army, thus kicking off a climatic World War with the Soviet Union on the heels of military extirpation of Nazi Germany. Or perhaps the Red Army and NATO clash following the Cuban Missle Crisis.
“Chance – invisible, furtive, and silent – is the vast canvas upon which all the rest of war is painted. Skill, courage, ruse, character, the elements of nature, technology and all the other components of war all operate against the backdrop of chance. Again and again, chance has raised up and brought down empires, snatched laurels from one hand to throw to another, and destroyed the most finely wrought plans.”
―Peter Tsouras, Disaster at D-Day: The Germans Defeat the Allies,June 1944
Gettysburg: An Alternate History by Peter G. Tsouras
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. The difference between victory and defeat was as narrow and sharp as a knife edge. The culmination of all sorts of convergent events lead to the final outcome. And in those three horrific days of humid heat and roaring cannon fire, the outcome was the sum of all character, courage, and strategic decisions as well as the complexity of relationships and coincidence. What if a few key factors had gone another way? What if Lee's brilliant cavalry commander Jeb Stuart had arrived earlier? What if Pickett's Charge had been swift and strong? This exercise in alternative history fuses a chaotic clash of arms with a keen vision of how wars are fought and won-or lost. Most of all, this is a blow-by-blow reimagining of one of history's most famous battles and the way it might have been.
Classicist
Excerpted from"The Life of Greece" by Will Durant
III. LACONIA
South of Argos, and away from the sea, rise the peaks of the Parnon range. They are beautiful, but still more pleasing to the eye is the Eurotas River that runs between them and the taller, darker, snow-tipped range of Taygetus on the west. In that seismic valley lay Homer’s “hollowLacedaemon,” a plain so guarded by mountains that Sparta, its capital, needed no walls. At its zenith Sparta (“The Scattered”) was a union of five villages, totaling some seventy thousand population. Today it is a hamlet of four thousand souls; and hardly anything remains, even in the modest museum, of the city that once ruled and ruined Greece.
1. The Expansion of Sparta
From that natural citadel the Dorians dominated and enslaved the southern Peloponnesus. To these long-haired northerners, hardened by mountains and habituated to war, there seemed no alternative in life but conquest or slavery; war was their business, by which they made what seemed to them an honest living; the non-Dorian natives, weakened by agriculture and peace, were in obvious need of masters. So the kings of Sparta, who claimed a continuous lineage from the Heracleidae of 1104, first subjected the indigenous population of Laconia, and then attacked Messenia. That land, in the southwestern corner of the Peloponnesus, was relatively level and fertile, and was tilled by pacific tribes. We may read in Pausanias how the Messenian king, Aristodemus, consulted the oracle at Delphi for ways to defeat the Spartans; how Apollo bade him offer in sacrifice to the gods a virgin of his own royal race; how he put to death his own daughter, and lost the war.19 (Perhaps he had been mistaken about his daughter.) Two generations later the brave Aristomenes led the Messenians in heroic revolt For nine years their cities bore up under attack and siege; but in the end the Spartans had their way. The Messenians were subjected to an annual tax of half their crops, and thousands of them were led away to join the Helot serfs.
The picture that we are to form of Laconian society before Lycurgus has, like some ancient paintings, three levels. Above is a master class of Dorians, living for the most part in Sparta on the produce of fields owned by them in the country and tilled for them by Helots. Socially between, geographically surrounding, the masters and the Helots were the Perioeci (“Dwellers Around”): freemen living in a hundred villages in the mountains or on the outskirts of Laconia, or engaged in trade or industry in the towns; subject to taxation and military service, but having no share in the government, and no right of intermarriage with the ruling class. Lowest and most numerous of all were the Helots, so named, according to Strabo, from the town of Helus, whose people had been among the first to be enslaved by the Spartans.20 By simple conquest of the non-Dorian population or by importing prisoners of war, Sparta had made Laconia a land of some 224,000 Helots, 120,000 Perioeci, and 32,000 men, women, and children of the citizen class.*21
The Helot had all the liberties of a medieval serf. He could marry as he pleased, breed without forethought, work the land in his own way, and live in a village with his neighbors, undisturbed by the absentee owner of his lot, so long as he remitted regularly to this owner the rental fixed by the government. He was bound to the soil, but neither he nor the land could be sold. In some cases he was a domestic servant in the town. He was expected to attend his master in war, and, when called upon, to fight for the state; if he fought well he might receive his freedom. His economic condition was not normally worse than that of the village peasantry in the rest of Greece outside of Attica, or the unskilled laborer in a modern city. He had the consolations of his own dwelling, varied work, and the quiet friendliness of trees and fields. But he was continually subject to martial law, and to secret supervision by a secret police, by whom he might at any moment be killed without cause or trial.22
In Laconia, as elsewhere, the simple paid tribute to the clever; this is a custom with a venerable past and a promising future. In most civilizations this distribution of the goods of life is brought about by the normally peaceful operation of the price system: the clever persuade us to pay more for the less readily duplicable luxuries and services that they offer us than the simple can manage to secure for the more easily replaceable necessaries that they produce. But in Laconia the concentration of wealth was effected by irritatingly visible means, and left among the Helots a volcanic discontent that in almost every year of Spartan history threatened to upset the state with revolution.
2. Sparta’s Golden Age
In that dim past before Lycurgus came, Sparta was a Greek city like the rest, and blossomed out in song and art as it would never do after him. Music above all was popular there, and rivaled man’s antiquity; for as far back as we can delve we find the Greeks singing. In Sparta, so frequently at war, music took a martial turn—the strong and simple “Doric mode”; and not only were other styles discouraged, but any deviation from this Doric style was punishable by law. Even Terpander, though he had quelled a sedition by his songs, was fined by the ephors, and his lyre nailed mute to the wall, because to suit his voice, he had dared to add another string to the instrument; and in a later generation Timotheus, who had expanded Terpander’s seven strings to eleven, was not allowed to compete at Sparta until the ephors had removed from his lyre the scandalously extra strings.23
Sparta, like England, had great composers when she imported them. Towards 670, supposedly at the behest of the Delphic oracle, Terpander was brought in from Lesbos to prepare a contest in choral singing at the festival of the Carneia. Likewise Thaletas was summoned from Crete about 620; and soon after came Tyrtaeus, Alcman, and Polymnestus. Their labors went mostly to composing patriotic music and training choruses to sing it. Music was seldom taught to individual Spartans;24 as in revolutionary Russia, the communal spirit was so strong that music took a corporate form, and group competed with group in magnificent festivals of song and dance. Such choral singing gave the Spartans another opportunity for discipline and mass formations, for every voice was subject to the leader. At the feast of the Hyacinthia King Agesilaus sang obediently in the place and time assigned to him by the choral master; and at the festival of the Gymnopedia the whole body of Spartans, of every age and sex, joined in massive exercises of harmonious dance and antistrophal song. Such occasions must have provided a powerful stimulus and outlet to the patriotic sentiment.
Terpander (i.e., “Delighter of Men”) was one of those brilliant poetmusicians who inaugurated the great age of Lesbos in the generation before Sappho. Tradition ascribed to him the invention of scolia or drinking songs, and the expansion of the lyre from four to seven strings; but the heptachord, as we have seen, was as old as Minos, and presumably men had sung the glories of wine in the forgotten adolescence of the world. Certainly he made a name for himself at Lesbos as a kitharoedos—i.e., a composer and singer of musical lyrics. Having killed a man in a brawl, he was exiled, and found it convenient to accept an invitation from Sparta. There, it seems, he lived the remainder of his days, teaching music and training choruses. We are told that he ended his life at a drinking party: while he was singing—perhaps that extra note which he had added at the top of the scale—one of his auditors threw a fig at him; which, entering his mouth and his windpipe, choked him to death in the very ecstasy of song.25
Tyrtaeus continued Terpander’s work at Sparta during the Second Messenian War. He came from Aphidna—possibly in Lacedaemon, probably in Attica; certainly the Athenians had an old joke about the Spartans, that when the latter were losing the Second War they were saved by a lame Attic schoolmaster, whose songs of battle woke up the dull Spartans, and stirred them to victory.26 Apparently he sang his own songs to the flute in public assembly, seeking to transform martial death into enviable glory. “It is a fine thing,” says one of his surviving fragments, “for a brave man to die in the front rank of those who fight for their country. . . . Let each one, standing squarely on his feet, rooted to the ground and biting his lips, keep firm. . . . Foot to foot, shield to shield, waving plumes mingling and helmets clashing, let the warriors press breast to breast, each sword and spear-point meeting in the shock of battle.”27 Tyrtaeus, said the Spartan King Leonidas, “was an adept in tickling the souls of youth.”28
Alcman sang in the same generation, as friend and rival of Tyrtaeus, but in a more varied and earthly strain. He came from far-off Lydia, and some said that he was a slave; nevertheless the Lacedaemonians welcomed him, not having yet learned the xenelasia, or hatred of foreigners, which was to become part of the Lycurgean code. The later Spartans would have been scandalized at his eulogies of love and food, and his roster of Laconia’s noble wines. Tradition ranked him as the grossest eater of antiquity, and as an insatiable pursuer of women. One of his songs told how fortunate he was that he had not remained in Sardis, where he might have become an emasculate priest of Cybele, but had come to Sparta, where he could love in freedom his golden-haired mistress Megalostrata.29 He begins for us that dynasty of amorous poets which culminates in Anacreon, and he heads the list of the “Nine Lyric Poets” chosen by Alexandrian critics as the best of ancient Greece.* He could write hymns and paeans as well as songs of wine and love, and the Spartans liked especially the parthenia, or maiden songs, which he composed for choruses of girls. A fragment now and then reveals that power of imaginative feeling which is the heart of poetry:
Asleep lie mountain-top and mountain-gully, shoulder also and ravine; the creeping things that come from the dark earth, the beasts that lie upon the hillside, the generation of the bees, the monsters in the depths of the purple sea; all lie asleep, and with them the tribes of the winging birds.†30
We may judge from these poets that the Spartans were not always Spartans, and that in the century before Lycurgus they relished poetry and the arts as keenly as any of the Greeks. The choral ode became so closely associated with them that when the Athenian dramatists wrote choral lyrics for their plays they used the Doric dialect, though they wrote the dialogue in the Attic speech. It is hard to say what other arts flourished in Lacedaemon in those halcyon days, for even the Spartans neglected to preserve or record them. Laconian pottery and bronze were famous in the seventh century, and the minor arts produced many refinements for the life of the fortunate few. But this little Renaissance was ended by the Messenian Wars. The conquered land was divided among the Spartans, and the number of serfs was almost doubled. How could thirty thousand citizens keep in lasting subjection four times their number of Perioeci, and seven times their number of Helots? It could be done only by abandoning the pursuit and patronage of the arts, and turning every Spartan into a soldier ready at any moment to suppress rebellion or wage war. The constitution of Lycurgus achieved this end, but at the cost of withdrawing Sparta, in every sense but the political, from the history of civilization.
3. Lycurgus
Greek historians from Herodotus onward took it for granted that Lycurgus was the author of the Spartan code, just as they accepted as historical the siege of Troy and the murder of Agamemnon. And as modern scholarship for a century denied the existence of Troy and Agamemnon, so today it hesitates to admit the reality of Lycurgus. The dates assigned to him vary from 900 to 600 B.C.; and how could one man take out of his head the most unpleasant and astonishing body of legislation in all history, and impose it in a few years not only upon a subject population but even upon a self-willed and warlike ruling class?33 Nevertheless it would be presumptuous to reject on such theoretical grounds a tradition accepted by all Greek historians. The seventh century was peculiarly an age of personal legislators—Zaleucus at Locris (ca. 660), Draco at Athens (620), and Charondas at Sicilian Catana (ca. 610)—not to speak of Josiah’s discovery of the Mosaic code in the Temple at Jerusalem (ca. 621). Probably we have in these instances not so much a body of personal legislation as a set of customs harmonized and clarified into specific laws, and named, for convenience’s sake, from the man who codified them and in most cases gave them a written form.* We shall record the tradition, while remembering that it has in all likelihood personified and foreshortened a process of change, from, custom to law, that required many authors and many years.
According to Herodotus,34 Lycurgus, uncle and guardian of the Spartan King Charilaus, received from the oracle at Delphi certain rhetra, or edicts, which were described by some as the laws of Lycurgus themselves, or by others as a divine sanction for the laws that he proposed. Apparently the legislators felt that to alter certain customs, or to establish new ones, the safest procedure would be to present their proposals as commands of the god; it was not the first time that a state had laid its foundations in the sky. Tradition further relates that Lycurgus traveled in Crete, admired its institutions, and resolved to introduce some of them into Laconia.35 The kings and most of the nobles grudgingly accepted his reforms as indispensable to their own security; but a young aristocrat, Alcander, resisted violently, and struck out one of the legislator’s eyes. Plutarch tells the story with his usual simplicity and charm:
Lycurgus, so far from being daunted or discouraged by this accident, stopped short, and showed his disfigured face, and eye beaten out, to his countrymen. They, dismayed and ashamed at the sight, delivered Alcander into his hands to be punished. . . . Lycurgus, having thanked them, dismissed them all, excepting only Alcander; and taking him with him into his house, neither did nor said anything severely to him, but . . . bade Alcander to wait upon him at table. The young man, who was of an ingenuous temper, without murmuring did as he was commanded; and being thus admitted to live with Lycurgus, he had an opportunity to observe in him, besides his gentleness and calmness of temper, an extraordinary sobriety and an indefatigable industry; and so, from being an enemy, became one of his most zealous admirers, and told his friends and relations that he was not that morose and ill-natured man they had taken him for, but the one mild and gentle character of the world.36
Having completed his legislation, Lycurgus (says a probably legendary coda to his story) pledged the citizens not to change the laws till his return. Then he went to Delphi, retired into seclusion, and starved himself to death, “thinking it a statesman’s duty to make his very death, if possible, an act of service to the state.”37
4. The Lacedaemonian Constitution
"When we attempt to specify the reforms of Lycurgus the tradition becomes contradictory and confused. It is difficult to say which elements of the Spartan code preceded Lycurgus, which were created by him or his generation, and which were added after him. Plutarch and Polybius `020438 assure us that Lycurgus redistributed the land of Laconia into thirty thousand equal shares among the citizens; Thucydides `020439 implies that there was no such distribution. Perhaps old properties were left untouched, while the newly conquered land was equally divided. Like Cleisthenes of Sicyon and Cleisthenes of Athens, Lycurgus ( viz., the authors of the Lycurgean constitution) abolished the kinship organization of Laconian society, and replaced it with geographical divisions; in this way the power of the old families was broken, and a wider aristocracy was formed. To prevent the displacement of this landowning oligarchy by such mercantile classes as were gaining leadership in Argos, Sicyon, Corinth, Megara, and Athens, Lycurgus forbade the citizens to engage in industry or trade, prohibited the use or importation of silver or gold, and decreed that only iron should be used as currency. He was resolved that the Spartans (i.e., the landowning citizens) should be left free for government and war.
It was a boast of ancient conservatives that the Lycurgean constitution endured so long because the three forms of government-monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy- were united in it, and in such proportions that each element neutralized the others against excess. Sparta's monarchy was really a duarchy, since it had concurrently two kings, descending from the invading Heraclids. Possibly this strange institution was a compromise between two related and therefore rival houses, or a device to secure without absolutism the psychological uses of royalty in maintaining social order and national prestige. Their powers were limited: they performed the sacrifices of the state religion, headed the judiciary, and commanded the army in war. In all matters they were subordinate to the Senate; and after Plataea they lost more and more of their authority to the ephors. The aristocratic and predominant clement of the constitution resided in the Senate, or gerousia, literally and actually a group of old men; normally citizens under sixty were considered too immature for its deliberations. Plutarch gives their number as twenty-eight, and tells an incredible story of their election.
When a vacancy occurred candidates were required to pass silently and in turn before the Assembly; and he who was greeted with the loudest and longest shouts
was pronounced elected.
Perhaps this was thought to be a realistic and economical abbreviation of the fuller democratic process. We do not know which of the citizens were eligible to such election; presumably they were the homoioi, or equals, who owned the soil of Laconia, had served in the army, and brought their quota of food to the public mess. The Senate originated legislation, acted as a supreme court in capital crimes, and formulated public policy.
The Assembly, or apella, was Sparta's concession to democracy. Apparently all male citizens were admitted to it upon reaching the age of thirty; some eight thousand males were eligible in a population of 376,000. It met on each day of the full moon. All matters of great public moment were submitted to it, nor could any law be passed without its consent. Few laws, however, were ever added to the Lycurgean constitution; and these the Assembly might accept or reject, but not discuss or amend. It was essentially the old Homeric public meeting, listening in awe to the council of chiefs and elders, or to the army-commanding kings. Theoretically sovereignty resided in the apella; but an amendment made to the constitution after Lycurgus empowered the Senate, if it judged that the Assembly had decided "crookedly," to reverse the decision. `020443 When an advanced thinker asked Lycurgus to establish a democracy Lycurgus replied, "Begin, my friend, by setting it up in your own family." Cicero compared the five ephors (i.e., overseers) to the Roman tribunes, since they were chosen annually by the Assembly; but they corresponded more to the Roman consuls, as wielding an administrative power checked only by the protests of the Senate. The ephorate existed before Lycurgus, and yet is not mentioned in such reports of his legislation as have reached us. By the middle of the sixth century the ephors had become equal in authority to the kings; after the Persian War they were practically supreme. They received embassies, decided disputes at law, commanded the armies, and directed, absolved, or punished the kings. The enforcement of the government's decrees was entrusted to the army and the police. It was the custom of the ephors to arm certain of the younger Spartans as a special and secret police (the krypteia ), with the right to spy upon the people, and, in the case of Helots, to kill at their discretion. This institution was used at unexpected times, even to do away with Helots who, though they had served the state bravely in war, were feared by the masters as able and therefore dangerous men. After eight years of the Peloponnesian War, says the impartial Thucydides,
the Helots were invited by a proclamation to pick out those of their number who claimed to have most distinguished themselves against the enemy, in order that they might receive their freedom; the object being to test them, as it was thought that the first to claim their freedom would be the most high-spirited and the most apt to rebel. As many as two thousand were selected accordingly, who crowned themselves and went round the temples, rejoicing in their new freedom. The Spartans, however, soon afterwards did away with them, and no one ever knew how each of them perished.
The power and pride of Sparta was above all in its army, for in the courage, discipline, and skill of these troops it found its security and its ideal. Every citizen was trained for war, and was liable to military service from his twentieth to his sixtieth year. Out of this severe training came the hoplites of Sparta- those close-set companies of heavy-armed, spear-hurling citizen infantry that were the terror even of the Athenians, and remained practically undefeated until Epaminondas overcame them at Leuctra. Around this army Sparta formed its moral code: to be good was to be strong and brave; to die in battle was the highest honor and happiness; to survive defeat was a disgrace that even the soldier's mother could hardly forgive. "Return with your shield or on it," was the Spartan mother's farewell to her soldier son. Flight with the heavy shield was impossible.
5. The Spartan Code
To train men to an ideal so unwelcome to the flesh it was necessary to take them at birth and form them by the most rigorous discipline. The first step was a ruthless eugenics: not only must every child face the father's right to infanticide, but it must also be brought before a state council of inspectors; and any child that appeared defective was thrown from a cliff of Mt. Taygetus, to die on the jagged rocks below. A further elimination probably resulted from the Spartan habit of inuring their infants to discomfort and exposure. Men and women were warned to consider the health and character of those whom they thought of marrying; even a king, Archidamus, was fined for marrying a diminutive wife. Husbands were encouraged to lend their wives to exceptional men, so that fine children might be multiplied; husbands disabled by age or illness were expected to invite young men to help them breed a vigorous family. Lycurgus, says Plutarch, ridiculed jealousy and sexual monopoly, and called it "absurd that people should be so solicitous for their dogs and horses as to exert interest and pay money to procure fine breeding, and yet keep their wives shut up, to be made mothers only by themselves, who might be foolish, infirm, or diseased." In the general opinion of antiquity the Spartan males were stronger and handsomer, their women healthier and lovelier, than the other Greeks.
Probably more of this result was due to training than to eugenic birth. Thucydides makes King Archidamus say: “There is little difference” (at birth, presumably) “between man and man, but the superiority lies with him who is reared in the severest school.”51 At the age of seven the Spartan boy was taken from his family and brought up by the state; he was enrolled in what was at once a military regiment and a scholastic class, under a paidonomos, or manager of boys. In each class the ablest and bravest boy was made captain; the rest were instructed to obey him, to submit to the punishments he might impose upon them, and to strive to match or better him in achievement and discipline. The aim was not, as at Athens, athletic form and skill, but martial courage and worth. Games were played in the nude, under the eyes of elders and lovers of either sex. The older men made it their concern to provoke quarrels among the boys, individually and in groups, so that vigor and fortitude might be tested and trained; and any moment of cowardice brought many days of disgrace. To bear pain, hardship, and misfortune silently was required of all. Every year, at the altar of Artemis Orthia, some chosen youths were scourged till their blood stained the stones.52 At twelve the boy was deprived of underclothing, and was allowed but one garment throughout the year. He did not bathe frequently, like the lads of Athens, for water and unguents made the body soft, while cold air and clean soil made it hard and resistant. Winter and summer he slept in the open, on a bed of rushes broken from the Eurotas’ banks. Until he was thirty he lived with his company in barracks, and knew none of the comforts of home.
He was taught reading and writing, but barely enough to make him literate; books found few buyers in Sparta,53 and it was easy to keep up with the publishers. Lycurgus, said Plutarch, wished children to learn his laws not by writing but by oral transmission and youthful practice under careful guidance and example; it was safer, he thought, to make men good by unconscious habituation than to rely upon theoretical persuasion; a proper education would be the best government. But such education would have to be moral rather than mental; character was more important than intellect. The young Spartan was trained to sobriety, and some Helots were compelled to drink to excess in order that the youth might see how foolish drunkenness can be.54 He was taught, in preparation for war, to forage in the fields and find his own food, or starve; to steal in such cases was permissible, but to be detected was a crime punishable by flogging.55 If he behaved well he was allowed to attend the public mess of the citizens, and was expected to listen carefully there so that he might become acquainted with the problems of the state, and learn the art of genial conversation. At the age of thirty, if he had survived with honor the hardships of youth, he was admitted to the full rights and responsibilities of a citizen, and sat down to dine with his elders.
The girl, though left to be brought up at home, was also subject to regulation by the state. She was to engage in vigorous games—running, wrestling, throwing the quoit, casting the dart—in order that she might become strong and healthy for easy and perfect motherhood. She should go naked in public dances and processions, even in the presence of young men, so that she might be stimulated to proper care of her body, and her defects might be discovered and removed. “Nor was there anything shameful in the nakedness of the young women,” says the highly moral Plutarch; “modesty attended them, and all wantonness was excluded.” While they danced they sang songs of praise for those that had been brave in war, and heaped contumely upon those that had given way. Mental education was not wasted upon the Spartan girl.
As to love, the young man was permitted to indulge in it without prejudice of gender. Nearly every lad had a lover among the older men; from this lover he expected further education, and in return he offered affection and obedience. Often this exchange grew into a passionate friendship that stimulated both youth and man to bravery in war.56 Young men were allowed considerable freedom before marriage, so that prostitution was rare, and hetairai here found no encouragement.57 In all of Lacedaemon we hear of only one temple to Aphrodite, and there the goddess was represented as veiled, armed with a sword, and bearing fetters on her feet, as if to symbolize the foolishness of marrying for love, the subordination of love to war, and the strict control of marriage by the state.
The state specified the best age of marriage as thirty for men and twenty for women. Celibacy in Sparta was a crime; bachelors were excluded from the franchise, and from the sight-of public processions in which young men and women danced in the nude. According to Plutarch the bachelors themselves were compelled to march in public, naked even in winter, singing a song to the effect that they were justly suffering this punishment for having disobeyed the laws. Persistent avoiders of marriage might be set upon at any time in the streets by groups of women, and be severely handled. Those who married and had no children were only less completely disgraced; and it was understood that men who were not fathers were not entitled to the respect that the youth of Sparta religiously paid to their elders.58
Marriages were usually arranged by the parents, without purchase; but after this agreement the bridegroom was expected to carry off the bride by force, and she was expected to resist; the word for marriage was harpadzein, to seize.59 If such arrangements left some adults still unmarried, several men might be pushed into a dark room with an equal number of girls, and be left to pick their life mates in the darkness;60 the Spartans thought that such choosing would not be blinder than love. It was usual for the bride to stay with her parents for a while; the bridegroom remained in his barracks, and visited his wife only clandestinely; “in this relation,” says Plutarch, “they lived a long time, insomuch that they sometimes had children by their wives before even they saw their faces by daylight.” When they were ready for parentage custom allowed them to set up a home. Love came after marriage rather than before, and marital affection appears to have been as strong in Sparta as in any other civilization.61 The Spartans boasted that there was no adultery among them, and they may have been right, for there was much freedom before marriage, and many husbands could be persuaded to share their wives, especially with brothers.62 Divorce was rare. The Spartan general Lysander was punished because he left his wife and wished to marry a prettier one.63
All in all, the position of woman was better in Sparta than in any other Greek community. There more than elsewhere she preserved her high Homeric status, and the privileges that survived from an early matrilinear society. Spartan women, says Plutarch,64 “were bold and masculine, overbearing to their husbands . . . and speaking openly even on the most important subjects.” They could inherit and bequeath property; and in the course of time—so great was their influence over men—nearly half the real wealth of Sparta was in their hands.65 They lived a life of luxury and liberty at home while the men bore the brunt of frequent war, or dined on simple fare in the public mess.
For every Spartan male, by a characteristic ordinance of the constitution, was required from his thirtieth to his sixtieth year to eat his main meal daily in a public dining hall, where the food was simple in quality and slightly but deliberately inadequate in amount. In this way, says Plutarch,the legislator thought to harden them to the privations of war, and to keep them from the degeneration of peace; they “should not spend their lives at home, laid on costly couches at splendid tables, delivering themselves up to the hands of their tradesmen and cooks, to fatten them in corners like greedy brutes, and to ruin not their minds only but their very bodies, which, enfeebled by indulgence and excess, would stand in need of long sleep, warm bathing, freedom from work, and, in a word, of as much care and attendance as if they were continually sick.”66 To supply the food for this public meal each citizen was required to contribute to his dining club, periodically, stated quantities of corn and other provisions; if he failed in this his citizenship was forfeited.
Normally, in the earlier centuries of the code, the simplicity and asceticism to which Spartan youth was trained persisted into later years. Fat men were a rarity in Lacedaemon; there was no law regulating the size of the stomach, but if a man’s belly swelled indecently he might be publicly reproved by the government, or banished from Laconia.67 There was little of the drinking and the revelry that flourished in Athens. Differences of wealth were real, but hidden; rich and poor wore the same simple dress—a woolen peplos, or shirt, that hung straight from the shoulders without pretense to beauty or form. The accumulation of movable riches was difficult; to lay up a hundred dollars’ worth of iron currency required a large closet, and to remove it, nothing less than a yoke of oxen.68 Human greed remained, however, and found an outlet in official corruption. Senators, ephors, envoys, generals, and kings were alike purchasable, at prices befitting their dignity.69 When an ambassador from Samos displayed his gold plate at Sparta, King Cleomenes I had him recalled lest the citizens be spoiled by alien example.70
The Spartan system, fearful of such contamination, was inhospitable beyond precedent. Foreigners were rarely welcomed. Usually they were made to understand that their visits must be brief; if they stayed too long they were escorted to the frontier by the police. The Spartans themselves were forbidden to go abroad without permission of the government, and to dull their curiosity they were trained to a haughty exclusiveness that would not dream that other nations could teach them anything.71 The system had to be ungracious in order to protect itself; a breath from that excluded world of freedom, luxury, letters, and arts might topple over this strange and artificial society, in which two thirds of the people were serfs, and all the masters were slaves.
Video to the Left: 'Greece in 18 Minutes' — Homer, The Minotaur, 300 spartans, Greek theatre, Parthenon, democracy — everything that you once knew, but forgot, in a crash course video.
Oil painting "Lycurgus of Sparta" (1791)
painted by Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825)
(public domain, creative commons).
Iliad & Odyssey (Leather-bound Classics) by Homer (Author), Samuel Butler (Translator)
No home library is complete without the classics! Iliad & Odyssey brings together the two essential Greek epics from the poet Homer in an elegant, leather-bound, omnibus edition-a keepsake to be read and treasured.
The Iliad and The Odyssey are two of the oldest works of western literature--yet these ancient myths still offer powerful lessons for our times. From the fascinating fall of Troy to Odysseus' perilous journey home, from the gods and goddesses to the Sirens and the suitors, the events and characters of these epic tales captivate us, teach us, and inspire us.
The Ethics of Rhetoric by Richard M. Weaver (Brattleboro, VT: Echo Point Books & Media, 2015).
In The Ethics of Rhetoric, Richard Weaver offers insights into the cultural and ethical dimensions of rhetoric and its implications for the broader civil society. Weaver appeals to classical insights on rhetoric found in Plato's Phaedrus, and he examines the multi-faceted dimensions of language usage, rhetoric, and the added implications of the manipulation of language. Weaver examines and scrutinizes the rhetoric of modern thinkers, such as Lincoln, Burke, and Milton. Weaver explains how the authors of rhetoric persuade and influence people. He further analyzes their varying levels of efficacy and credibility, and in final appeal makes manifest that the manner of argumentation, rhetoric, and the style are indicators of one's character. Weaver argues for the cultivation of pure, transparent, and honest language; he recognizes that it cultivates good ethics within people. Published in 1953, this seminal work gives a depth of understanding to the usage of rhetoric, drawing from Weaver's insights on the classical philosophy no less than the great modern thinkers of our age.
The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides (Auth.), Robert B. Strassler (Ed.), Richard Crawley (Trans.)
Thucydides aptly described his in-depth account of the wars between Athenians and Spartans as "a possession for all time," and this account remains his first and most well-known work, and it stands out as an exemplar of the classical Western historical tradition. This has been deemed essential reading for military strategists, statesmen, and philosophers. And in many ways the lessons to be learned from The Peloponnesian War represent a veritable gold mine of wisdom, spanning the chasm of multiple disciplines: military science, moral and political philosophy, and politics and the art of rulership and statesmanship.
The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories by Herodotus (Auth.), Robert B. Strassler (Ed.), Andrea L. Purvis (Trans.), and Rosalind Thomas (Intro) (Anchor Books, 2009).
Robert B. Strassler, the editor of the much celebrated The Landmark Thucyides has produced a new epic translation and commentary of The Histories by Herodotus. The Roman orator dubbed Herodotus "the father of history," and his only known surviving work that's with us today, The Histories, is considered among the first masterpieces of historical writing in Western literature. Herodotus was a trend setter that came to define historical methods and narrative story-telling as a chronologist of events in antiquity. With clear and concise prose, Herodotus gave an elucidating account of the rise of the Persian Empire, the rise of the Greek city-states, and tells the tale of the remarkable series of conflicts that emerged between the broader Hellenic and Persian civilizations. Breathtaking in its scope, this edition is illustrated, annotated, and pack full of informative and helpful maps and study aids—with an introduction by Rosalind Thomas, commentaries in the appendices written by highly respected scholars, and a new translation by Andrea L. Purvis—this impressive, scholarly edition of Herodotus' Histories brings one of the great historical works of antiquity back into the light of illumination.
The Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika (Softcover) by Xenophon (Auth.), Robert B. Strassler (Ed.), John Marincola (Trans.), and David Thomas (Intro) [Hardcover] (Anchor, 2010).
Hellenika covers the years between 411 and 362 B.C., a period in which Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and Persia were in fluctuating series of conflicts and shifting alliances. This work taken in tandem with Herodotus and Thucydides completes the narrative history of classical Greece and its contiguous civilizations.
The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander by Arrian (Author), James Romm (Editor), Robert B. Strassler (Series Editor), Pamela Mensch (Translator), Paul Cartledge (Introduction)
After more than twelve years of being tested by challenging military campaigns, Alexander the Great controlled an enormous empire whose territorial breadth spanned from the Adriatric Sea to the west and the northern borderlands of India to the east. Arrian, a military commander, also functions as an historian, and combines firsthand accounts with other ancient sources to tell the tale of Alexander's military campaigns.
Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician (Softcover) by Anthony Everitt [Hardcover | Kindle Edition]
This is an intriguing biography of Rome's most astute orator, rhetorician, and statesman, Marcus Tullus Cicero. Cicero, or Tully, as he's often nicknamed stood out as a lion among orators, and was the quintissential statesmen for his age. A magnificent public speaker, Cicero gripped the ancient Roman Senate by his spellbinding oratory and his polished rhetoric. Here Anthony Everitt brings the ancient politician back to life in this magnificent biographical sketch, entitled simply Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician.
Thermopylae: The Battle that Changed the World (New York, NY: Vintage, 2007).
In 480 B.C., the strong Persian army led by king Xerxes advanced on Greece, and marched into a narrow mountain pass, Thermopylae, anticipating little to no resistance in his bid to conquer Greece. The Greeks, however, led by Leonidas and a small army of Spartan warriors, took the battle to the Persians. This band of Spartans almost stopped the Persian advance. This is an intriguing tale of duty, combat, and courage.
Cicero: Selected Political Speeches (Penguin Classics) by Cicero (New York, NY: Penguin).
This is an anthology of the Roman statesman Cicero's more compelling political speeches, which stand out as persuassive works of rhetoric.
Hoplites: The Classical Greek Battle Experience ed. by Victor Davis Hanson
Incorporating research found in ancient literary, iconographic, epigraphic, and archaeological sources, this book explores the experiences of the soldiers who conducted battle on the small plains of ancient Greece.
Michael Grant, The Rise of the Greeks (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1987).
Michael Grant, the renowned classicist explores the hundreds of independent Hellenic city-states and offers insight into the everyday life of the citizens. With competency, he shows how the wisdom of the Ancient Greeks' civilization was by no means confined ot its Golden Age in the fifth century. For five-hundred years the Greek city-states achieved an unparalleled success that has been an inspiration to other civilizations for centuries afterwards.
The Devil Knows Latin: Why America Needs the Classical Tradition by E. Christian Knopf (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2003).
A respected classicist at the University of Colorado, Knopf believes that the removal of Latin and Greek from the standard university curriculum has severed American culture from the unique literature, history, philosophy, and political traditions that should rightly constitute its intellectual infrastructure. His cultural criticism is ultimately a summons for the restorative of a tradition classical liberal arts tradition, whereby students learn and interact with the classics in their original languages. He recommends reading Aristotle, Homer, Plato, Ovid, and the New Testament in the original Greek, whether Attica or Koine Greek. He advocates a radical reform of pedagogy and starting classics education from the time of elementary school.
The Rise of Rome: The Making of the World's Greatest Empire From by Anthony Everitt
From the bestselling author of acclaimed biographies of Cicero, Augustus, and Hadrian, comes a riveting, magisterial account of Rome and its remarkable ascent from an obscure agrarian backwater to the greatest empire the world has ever known.
The Penguin Historical Atlas of Greece (New York, NY: Penguin, 1997).
Ancient Greece was arguably the cradle of Western Civilization. Now you can learn about the ancient Greeks with this colorful series of historical maps with detailed descriptions and informative insights upon their exploits throughout ancient history.
The Penguin Historical Atlas of Rome (New York, NY: Penguin, 1997) by Charles Scarre.
The Roman Empire remains the formative influence on Europe. Rome's archaeological relics poxmark the landscape from Scotland to Syria. Its ancient cities formed the basis of the great metropolises of the continent. Roman law and institutions have indelibly shaped the world. Featuring more than sixty full-colour maps and a plethora of illustration, this atlas traces the rise and fall of the great multinational state. It examines its provinces and cities, its trade and economy, its armies and frontier defences; follows its foreign ward and internecine struggles; and charts its transformation into a Christian theocracy and its fall in 476.
this
The Life of Greece, Vol. II, The Story of Civilization by Will Durant [Audible Audiobook | Kindle Edition]
Durant's perennial classic, a history on Hellenic civilization from its early beginnings, and of civilization in the Near East from the times of Alexander the Great to the Roman conquest of Greece. This is the second volume of the classic Pulitzer Prize-winning book series, The Story of Civilization.
The Greeks: A Great Adventure by Issac Asimov (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1965)
This illuminating history tells the tale of the ancient Greeks, spanning the chasm of early antiquity as far back as 4,000 B.C. up through the present day, though its overarching focus is upon the classical Hellenic civilization of antiquity.
The Republic by Plato (Auth.) and Allan Bloom (Auth. and Trans.)
This translation has elicited notoriety as the most accurate rendering of Plato's Republic that has yet been published and translated to date, and this masterful translation and interpretative esssay by Allan Bloom represents among the first strictly literal translation of a timeless classic, as it draws out the deep esoteric meaning intended by Plato.
Wheelock's Latin 7th Edition (The Wheelock's Latin Series) 7th Edition by Richard A. Lafteur and Frederic M. Wheelock [Hardcover Edition | Kindle Edition]
Professor Frederic M. Wheelock's Latin first appeared in 1956, and it was greeted with widespread enthusiasm by both seasoned Latin classicists and new students alike. It was admired for its organization, brevity, and scope all packaged in one neat parcel. It has since become the standard instructive text for introducing students to elementary Latin. This new seventh edition has the familiar features, but has been improved and expanded. It features forty plus chapters with grammatical explanations and reading selections from the great classics of Rome, tutorial exercises for independent study and practice, an exhaustive English-to-Latin, Latin-to-English dictionary of vocabulary terms, and etymological aids explaining word origins, and other tools illustrating classical culture and its relevance today.
Workbook for Wheelock's Latin 3rd Revised Edition by Paul T. Comeau (Author), Richard A. LaFleur (Contributor)
This is a necessary companion to the landmark textbook on classical Latin. It features drills, vocabulary, and study materials, and follows a time-tested pedagogy for teaching Latin to generation after generation.
Wheelock's Latin Reader, (2nd Ed.): Selections from Latin Literature (The Wheelock's Latin Series) by Richard A. LaFleur (Author)
This intermediate-level Latin course offers a vibrant selection of classical Prose and poetry from a broad base of classical Roman authors, as well as medieval Latin.
The Landmark Julius Caesar: The Complete Works: Gallic War, Civil War, Alexandrian War, African War, and Spanish War by Kurt A. Raaflaub (Editor), Robert B. Strassler (Series Editor)
This tome chronicles the military campaigns of Julius Caesar, and presents a detailed picture of political and military developments in the Roman Republic as it evolved into an Imperium. The Gallic War presents Caesar's narrative account of his conquests of both Britain and Gaul (present-day France), Belgica (Belgium), and Helvetica (Switzerland). Caesar's account of the Civil War elucidates on the ensuing conflict that followed the death of his chief rival, Pompey, and the defeat of Pompey's heirs and supporters, which resulted in Caesar being the solitary power in ancient Rome. Caesar also produced other succinct works, given us accounts of the Alexandrian War, the African War, and the Spanish War, which were most likely written not by Caesar himeself but probably Roman military officers, and Caesar chose to incorporate them into his chronicle. Julius Caesar offered lucid, crisp prose which offers remarkable insight into ancient warfare, and it offers an intriguing view of the Roman people, and lastly it presents Caesar as a skillful, capable, and intelligent leader.
Paul Cartledge, The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece (New York, NY: Vintage, 2004) by Paul Cartledge.
The Spartans were a tribe of warriors that structured a militaristic society centered around hardship so as to inculcate virtues of duty, discipline, self-sacrifice, and extreme toughness. This book, written on Sparta, traces the rise and fall of this extraordinary Greek city-state, and its legacy. The author paints vignette sketches of legendary figures in Spartan history, such as its founder-king Lycurgus, and the later King Leonidas. Based on primary sources, this is one of the more intriguing books about this most fascinating culture of ancient Greece.
The Punic Wars: Rome, Carthage and the Struggle for the Mediterranean by Nigel Bagnall (Pimlico, 2008).
The Punic Wars, transpired during 264 to 146 B.C., and transformed Rome from a small city-state confederated with its neighbors into a Mediterranean superpower. Bagnall, a former British Army professional, tenders his insight on Rome's military innovations, and adoption of the Greek phalanx and the invention of the corvus (a naval boarding bridge) for ship raids. Bagnall elucidates upon the victories of Hannibal and Scipio Africanus.
Anthony Everitt, The Rise of Athens: The Story of the World's Greatest Civilization by Anthony Everitt
Athens produced one of the most influential civilizations in the world. It was Greece's capstone, and with Greece originally being a loose-knit confederation of states, Athens above all Hellenistic city-states succeeded in magnifying the influence of Greek culture throughout the known world, as it bridged the Occident and Orient.
Gladius: The World of the Roman Soldier by Guy de la Bédoyère
The Roman army was the mightiest fighting machine in the ancient world. The Roman Empire's very engine was its army, which defended its frontiers, and pushed those frontiers continually as it expanded not only occupied lands, but trade, commerce, and the attendant power that accompanied such expansion.
"Long before our own time, the customs of our ancestors moulded admirable men, and in turn these eminent men upheld the ways and institutions of their forebears. Our age, however, inherited the Republic like some beautiful painting of bygone days, its colors already fading through great age; and not only has our time neglected to freshen the colors of the picture, but we have failed to preserve its form and outlines. For what remains to us, nowadays, of the ancient ways on which the commonwealth, we are told, was founded? We see them so lost in oblivion that they are not merely neglected, but quite forgot. And what am I to say of the men? For our customs have perished for want of men to stand by them, and we are now called to an account, so that we stand impeached like men accused of capital crimes, compelled to plead our own cause. Through our vices, rather than from happenstance, we retain the word 'republic' long after we have lost the reality."
—Cicero, De Re Publica
The Bonfire of Humanities: Rescuing the Classics In An Impoverished Age [ebook |Kindle Edition] by Victor David Hanson.
The classics have become a beleagured discipline. The classics are continually assaulted by anti-western progressives, multiculturalists, and technocrats who want to subordinate all education to concern for job training rather than exhibit any concern for a deep educaton in the morality plays manifest in the study of the classics. This rich anthology of essays calls for a return to the study of the classics, and restoration of its study to its former prominence. This book is possessed of penetrating and substantive cultural criticism and serves up a masterful polemic against arrogant academics possessed of contempt for the classics of Greco-Roman Civilization. The recovery of the classics are vitally requisite for awakening literacy, and recovering the idea of striving for human excellence.
The Being of the Beautiful: Plato's Theaetetus, Sophist, and Statesman ed. and trans. by Seth Benardete
This unique anthology collects Plato’s three dialogues, namely the Theaetetus, Sophist, and Statesmen, in which Socrates formulates his conception of philosophy while preparing for trial. Classicist Seth Benardete’s prudent and meticulous translations magnify the dramatic and philosophical unity of these dialogues and capture Plato’s subtle interplay of language and structure.
The Bow and the Lyre: A Platonic Reading of Odyssey edited and translated by Seth Benardete.
In this interpretation of the Odyssey, Benardete suggests that Homer may have been the first to philosophize in a Platonic sense. He argues that the Odyssey concerns precisely the relation between philosophy and poetry and, more broadly, the rational and the irrational in human beings.
Plato's Symposium by Plato, A Translation by Seth Benardete with Commentaries by Allan Bloom and Seth Benardete [Hardcover | Kindle Edition] (Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2013).
Plato has been described as the philosopher of love by Allan Bloom, and his Symposium is perhaps his most seminal work on the nature of love. This edition translated by the acclaimed disciple of Leo Strauss, Seth Benardete, a classicist, offers an insightful commentary roundtable featuring Benardete's "On Plato's Symposium" and Allan Bloom's "The Ladder of Love. The occasion of the Symposium is Plato's recollection of a drinking party that follows an evening meal, and the luminaries in attendance include the poet Aristophanes, the drunken Alcibiades, and the wise, anointed Socrates. Here they discuss topics concerning love and desire, and the dialogues have the effect of drawing out Platonic philosophy's greatest insights, such as the relationship between philosophy and poetry, the nature of good, and the aesthetics of beauty and their relationship to desire and love.
Socrates' Second Sailing: On Plato's Republic [Softcover] by Seth Benardete (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1992). [Hardcover Edition]
Benardete persuassively reasons that Plato's Republic constitutes an illuminating holistic, esoteric analysis upon aesthetics as it relates to the nature of beauty, as well the notions of goodness and justice, and human excellence. This invigorating interpretation of Plato builds on the insights of Plato and Socrates, and unravels their cryptic allusions, paradoxes, and posits answers to the questions they raised. All in all, it's a brilliant and erudite contribution to modern classics scholarship, and well worth the read!
Greek Ways: How the Greeks Created Western Civilization by Bruce Thornton
Thorton elucidates upon the immense value of the classics and the importance of the study of classical civilization. Classicist Bruce Thornton challenges the polemical attacks of anti-western progressives, multiculturalists, and adherents of a bizarre counter-factual theory that the ancient Greeks 'stole' their culture from Egyptians.
More than seventy years, Edith Hamilton first published a book entitled, The Greek Ways, explaining the immense debt that the modern western world owes to classical Greece, and explains how a dozen city-states came to develop "the spirit of the West" some two and half millennium ago. Thornton's book is a worthy successor to Hamilton.
Above Video: 'Roman Conquest of Greece' - 'Kings and Generals' - Kings and Generals animated historical animated documentary series on the history of ancient Roman and ancient Greek history continue with a video explaining how Rome conquered Greece. In this video, we will cover the first Roman intervention into Greece during the First Macedonian War, followed by the Second Macedonian War, Seleucid War, Aetolian War, Third Macedonian War, Fourth Macedonian War, and the Achaean War, featuring famous battles like Pydna, Cynoscephalae, Aous, Magnesia, Thermopylae, Callinicus, and the prominent generals like Titus Quinctius Flamininus, Philip V, Perseus, Eumenes II, Antioch III, Hannibal, Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus and others.
The Landmark Xenophon's Anabasis by Xenophon, Shane Brennan and Robert B. Strassler (eds.)
The ancient classic--also known as The March of the Ten Thousand or The March Up Country--now in an elegantly designed, newly translated, definitive edition that features illuminating annotations, and copious maps and illustrations.
Above Video: 'Origin of the Germanic Tribes' - 'Kings and Generals' historical animated documentary series on the history of the ancient civilizations continues with a video on the ancient origin of the Germanic Tribes. This video covers the origin hypothesis, culture, religion, society, economy, and military of the ancient Germanic peoples and their first clashes with Rome - the Cimbrian War and the battle of the Teutoburg Forest.
The history and literature of the classics of our distant past, both pagan and Christian, are in need of proper reappropriation for our time, as their memory has been obfuscated and dimmed in the popular imagination. The classics offers lessons from history, moral ideas, insights, and examples of the virtues most conducive to good government and the civil society. As George Carey observes: "Conservatives have long accepted the teachings of the classics that underscore the need for regimes to cultivate and perpetuate the virtues appropriate for their character, if they are to endure."[2] The classicist recognizes that the present exists in continuity with the past. As Edmund Burke proclaimed, "People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors."[3] Speaking of the present Western Civilization's unique continuity with its classic past, Gary L. Gregg, II makes this erudite observation:
Cultures are organic. Fed by the humus of many ages and many nations, they grow and develop in ways the human mind can never truly develop. Attempts to do so have often led the philosopher down dangerous paths of abstraction and tyranny.[4]
We embrace continuity with the past through the classics:
The story of the West begins with a story. The blind bard, Homer (c. 8th century b.c.), recited tales so compelling that they seized the Greek imagination for centuries. Homer’s Iliad is the story of a fair young warrior, Achilles, who takes the leading role in the defeat of a great and ancient city, Troy. Achilles is one ideal of the Greeks. The Greeks were conscious that theirs was a “youthful” civilization. They knew that they inhabited a world in which there existed more ancient civilizations such as Egypt and Persia, and also a world in which civilizations had risen and fallen, such as that of the Minoans—and that the Greeks were implicated in that fall. In Plato’s dialogue Timaeus, an Egyptian priest says to the lawgiver of Athens, 'O Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always children, and there is no Greek who is an old man. You are all young in your souls, and you have in them no old belief handed down by ancient tradition, nor any knowledge that is hoary with age.' The Greek spirit was one of youthfulness; they were parvenus in a world that valued the wisdom of age. Consequently, there is a remarkable freshness to Greek writing, and that is a freshness that continues to define the West."[5]
Through promoting the classics, I hope to draw people to the bountiful morality plays that enrich our lives, and so richly shaped Western Civilization over the last two to three millennia.
Here are selections from two of the most prominent classical historians and geographers, Herodotus and Strabo respectively:
Regarded as 'the father of history,' Herodotus produced one of the earliest and most comprehensive historical works in the fifth century B.C. Detractors often question his credibility, but through inductive reasoning it's often easy to tell when he's shifted into a speculative mindset. This work is a treasure and provides an unprecedented glimpse into the past:
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Herodotus/home.html
Strabo, a widely traveled man who lived in Rome around the time of Christ, tendered an enigmatic work that offers a portrait of history and geography from hollowed antiquity. This offers invaluable context, and works well when read in tandem with other primary sources.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/home.html
Here are selections from other influential historical works concerning the classical history of Eurasian antiquity:
Isidore of Seville - History of the Goths, Vandals and Suevi:
An excellent example of a 'root' historical account, written nearly first-hand, by an impressive individual with a capable and just mind.
https://www.ryansetliff.online/classics/Isidore_of_Seville.pdf
Julius Caesar - The Gallic Wars:
This is a first hand biographical account written by one of the most influential political leaders in ancient Europe, and it documents the Roman conquests of Europe.
http://classics.mit.edu/Caesar/gallic.html
http://classics.mit.edu/Caesar/gallic.html
One of the earliest primary source histories of the Gothic peoples, written in approximately 500 A.D., which explores the origins of the Goths as well as an engrossing narrative.
https://people.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/texts/jordgeti.html
Josephus - Jewish Wars, Antiquities of the Jews:
No great insight into the history of the Jewish people of antiquity can be found apart from the Holy Bible itself, except in the works of the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus.
https://www.ryansetliff.online/classics/Josephus.html
Justinus - Epitome of Pompeius Trogus' "Philippic histories":
Pompeius Trogus originally wrote Philippic Histories and the Origin of the Whole World and the Places of the Earth but the manuscript was lost, and its reminiscene was only preserved in excerpts by various authors, such as Justinus. Because of its rootedness in other primary sources lost to time, Justinus' work is one of the most excellent historical primary sources on antiquity.
http://www.attalus.org/info/justinus.html
Diodorus Siculus - The Library of History:
This is a monumental account of history within the ancient world, and was written a few years before the time of Jesus Christ's parousia.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/home.html
Procopius - The Secret History:
A majestic work of history that defies belief often for those well-initiated in Eastern Roman History. Procopius' offers a hard-hitting first-hand account of the person and court of Justinian, his wife Theodora, and the intrigue surrounding Eastern Rome's dealings with the Goths, Huns, Vandals, and their long list of enemies, and the ensuing atrocities, betrayals, and intrigues.
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/procop-anec.asp
Tacitus offers an overview of the history of the early Germanic peoples, known in antiquity as the Goths. This manuscript constitutes one of the earliest surviving first-hand accounts of the ancient Germanic peoples.
https://www.unrv.com/tacitus/tacitusgermania.php
Thucydides - The History of the Peloponnesian War:
The Greek chronicler and historian Thucydides offers an insightful account on this epic war between Greek city-states.
http://classics.mit.edu/Thucydides/pelopwar.html
____
I am the co-founder of Plato - Discover the Classics in 2018, and as of 2020 I am the Lead Curator of the content therein, having previously served as the Creative Lead. With nearly ten thousand followers, it is your destination for content on the great books tradition, and the classics of antiquity. Celebrate the best of Western Civilization!
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity, hence a student of the Classics is regarded as a 'Classicist." The Western world traditionally renders Classical Greek and Roman literature and language as a focal point of their classical studies. Classics may also encompass philosophy, history, and archaeology as secondary subjects. The study of the Greek and Roman classics was traditionally considered to be the foundation of the humanities throughout Western Civilization, and dissemination of classics has been the cornerstone of Western pedagogy for centuries.
Of the virtues of studying the classics, Bruce Thornton surmises:
Classics is the discipline that studies the language, literature, history, and civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome, two cultures that bequeathed to the West the greater part of its intellectual, political, and artistic heritage. For centuries Western education comprised the study of Greek and Latin and their surviving literary monuments. A familiarity with classics provided an understanding of the roots of Western culture, the key ideals, ideas, characters, stories, images, categories, and concepts that in turn made up a liberal education, or the training of the mind to exercise the independent, critical awareness necessary for a free citizen in a free republic. Times of course have changed, and the study of Greek.[1]
Aeschines [390-314 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Internet Archive | MIT
Aeschylus [525-456 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Internet Archive | Loeb | MIT
Aesop [c. 6th cent. B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
MIT
Andocides [440-391 B.C]
Wrote in Greek
Internet Archive | MIT
Antiphon [480-411 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
MIT
Apollodorus [140 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Loeb | MIT
Apollonius [c. 295 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
MIT
Apuleius [125-170 A.D.]
Wrote in Latin
MIT
Aulus Licinius Archias [121-61 B.C.]
Aristophanes [450-388 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
MIT
Aristotle [384-322 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Loeb | MIT
Marcus Aurelius [121-180 A.D.]
Wrote in Latin and Greek
Augustus [63 B.C.-14 A.D.]
Wrote in Latin
Bacchylides [5th century B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Julius Caesar [100-44 B.C.]
Wrote in Latin
Internet Archive | Loeb | MIT
Cicero [106-43 B.C.]
Wrote in Latin
Internet Archive | Loeb | MIT
Demades [380-319 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Loeb | MIT
Demosthenes [384-322 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Loeb | MIT
Dinarchus [360-292 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Loeb | MIT
Diodorus [1st cent. B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Ennius [239-169 B.C.]
Wrote in Latin
Epictetus
Wrote in Greek
55-105 A.C.E.
Epicurus [341-270 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Loeb | MIT
Euclid [ca. 300 B.C]
Wrote in Greek
Loeb | MIT
Euripides [484-406 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
MIT
Galen [129-216 A.D]
Wrote in Greek
Loeb | MIT
Herodotus [484-430 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Loeb | MIT
Hesiod [c. 700 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Loeb | MIT
Hippocrates [460-377 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Classical Primary Source Archive of Hellenic and Roman Authors
Hirtius [90-43 B.C.]
Wrote in Latin
Internet Archive | MIT
Homer [c. 800 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Internet Archive | Loeb | MIT
Horace [65-8 B.C.]
Wrote in Latin
Internet Archive | Loeb | MIT
Hyperides [390-322 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Internet Archive | MIT
Isaeus [420-350 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Internet Archive | Loeb | MIT
Isocrates [436-338 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Internet Archive | Loeb | MIT | Tufts
Josephus [37-100 A.D.]
Wrote in Greek
Internet Archive | Loeb | MIT
Julian [331-363 A.D.]
Wrote in Latin
Livy [59 B.C.-17 A.D.]
Wrote in Latin
Internet Archive | MIT
Lucan [39-65 A.D.]
Wrote in Latin
Internet Archive | MIT
Leonidas of Tarentum [320-260 B.C.]
Lucretius [1st century B.C.]
Wrote in Latin
Loeb | MIT
Lycurgus [390-324 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
MIT
Lysias [445-380 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Nicander [2nd cent. B.C.]
Ovid [43 B.C.E.-17 A.D.]
Wrote in Latin
Loeb | MIT
Pausanias [143-176 A.D.]
Wrote in Greek
Internet Archive | MIT
Pindar [518-438 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Internet Archive | MIT
Plato [428-348 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Internet Archive | MIT
Plotinus [205-270 A.D.]
Wrote in Greek
Internet Archive | MIT
Plutarch [46-119 A.D.]
Wrote in Greek
Internet Archive | Loeb | MIT
Porphyry [234-305 A.D.]
Wrote in Greek
Internet Archive | Loeb | MIT
Quintus [ca. 375 A.D.]
Wrote in Greek
Internet Archive | MIT
Sallust [86-34 B.C.]
Wrote in Latin
Sophocles [496-406 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Internet Archive | MIT
Strabo [64 B.C.-23 A.D.]
Wrote in Greek
Loeb | MIT
Tacitus [56-120 A.D.]
Wrote in Latin
Internet Archive | Loeb | MIT
Timotheus [died 354 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Attalus
Thucydides [460-404 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Internet Archive | Loeb | MIT
Virgil [70-19 B.C.]
Wrote in Latin
Internet Archive | Loeb | MIT
Xenophon [431-349 B.C.]
Wrote in Greek
Zenon of Kanaus [3rd cent. BC]
Wrote in Greek
Excerpted from"The Life of Greece" by Will Durant
III. LACONIA
South of Argos, and away from the sea, rise the peaks of the Parnon range. They are beautiful, but still more pleasing to the eye is the Eurotas River that runs between them and the taller, darker, snow-tipped range of Taygetus on the west. In that seismic valley lay Homer’s “hollowLacedaemon,” a plain so guarded by mountains that Sparta, its capital, needed no walls. At its zenith Sparta (“The Scattered”) was a union of five villages, totaling some seventy thousand population. Today it is a hamlet of four thousand souls; and hardly anything remains, even in the modest museum, of the city that once ruled and ruined Greece.
1. The Expansion of Sparta
From that natural citadel the Dorians dominated and enslaved the southern Peloponnesus. To these long-haired northerners, hardened by mountains and habituated to war, there seemed no alternative in life but conquest or slavery; war was their business, by which they made what seemed to them an honest living; the non-Dorian natives, weakened by agriculture and peace, were in obvious need of masters. So the kings of Sparta, who claimed a continuous lineage from the Heracleidae of 1104, first subjected the indigenous population of Laconia, and then attacked Messenia. That land, in the southwestern corner of the Peloponnesus, was relatively level and fertile, and was tilled by pacific tribes. We may read in Pausanias how the Messenian king, Aristodemus, consulted the oracle at Delphi for ways to defeat the Spartans; how Apollo bade him offer in sacrifice to the gods a virgin of his own royal race; how he put to death his own daughter, and lost the war.19 (Perhaps he had been mistaken about his daughter.) Two generations later the brave Aristomenes led the Messenians in heroic revolt For nine years their cities bore up under attack and siege; but in the end the Spartans had their way. The Messenians were subjected to an annual tax of half their crops, and thousands of them were led away to join the Helot serfs.
The picture that we are to form of Laconian society before Lycurgus has, like some ancient paintings, three levels. Above is a master class of Dorians, living for the most part in Sparta on the produce of fields owned by them in the country and tilled for them by Helots. Socially between, geographically surrounding, the masters and the Helots were the Perioeci (“Dwellers Around”): freemen living in a hundred villages in the mountains or on the outskirts of Laconia, or engaged in trade or industry in the towns; subject to taxation and military service, but having no share in the government, and no right of intermarriage with the ruling class. Lowest and most numerous of all were the Helots, so named, according to Strabo, from the town of Helus, whose people had been among the first to be enslaved by the Spartans.20 By simple conquest of the non-Dorian population or by importing prisoners of war, Sparta had made Laconia a land of some 224,000 Helots, 120,000 Perioeci, and 32,000 men, women, and children of the citizen class.*21
The Helot had all the liberties of a medieval serf. He could marry as he pleased, breed without forethought, work the land in his own way, and live in a village with his neighbors, undisturbed by the absentee owner of his lot, so long as he remitted regularly to this owner the rental fixed by the government. He was bound to the soil, but neither he nor the land could be sold. In some cases he was a domestic servant in the town. He was expected to attend his master in war, and, when called upon, to fight for the state; if he fought well he might receive his freedom. His economic condition was not normally worse than that of the village peasantry in the rest of Greece outside of Attica, or the unskilled laborer in a modern city. He had the consolations of his own dwelling, varied work, and the quiet friendliness of trees and fields. But he was continually subject to martial law, and to secret supervision by a secret police, by whom he might at any moment be killed without cause or trial.22
In Laconia, as elsewhere, the simple paid tribute to the clever; this is a custom with a venerable past and a promising future. In most civilizations this distribution of the goods of life is brought about by the normally peaceful operation of the price system: the clever persuade us to pay more for the less readily duplicable luxuries and services that they offer us than the simple can manage to secure for the more easily replaceable necessaries that they produce. But in Laconia the concentration of wealth was effected by irritatingly visible means, and left among the Helots a volcanic discontent that in almost every year of Spartan history threatened to upset the state with revolution.
2. Sparta’s Golden Age
In that dim past before Lycurgus came, Sparta was a Greek city like the rest, and blossomed out in song and art as it would never do after him. Music above all was popular there, and rivaled man’s antiquity; for as far back as we can delve we find the Greeks singing. In Sparta, so frequently at war, music took a martial turn—the strong and simple “Doric mode”; and not only were other styles discouraged, but any deviation from this Doric style was punishable by law. Even Terpander, though he had quelled a sedition by his songs, was fined by the ephors, and his lyre nailed mute to the wall, because to suit his voice, he had dared to add another string to the instrument; and in a later generation Timotheus, who had expanded Terpander’s seven strings to eleven, was not allowed to compete at Sparta until the ephors had removed from his lyre the scandalously extra strings.23
Sparta, like England, had great composers when she imported them. Towards 670, supposedly at the behest of the Delphic oracle, Terpander was brought in from Lesbos to prepare a contest in choral singing at the festival of the Carneia. Likewise Thaletas was summoned from Crete about 620; and soon after came Tyrtaeus, Alcman, and Polymnestus. Their labors went mostly to composing patriotic music and training choruses to sing it. Music was seldom taught to individual Spartans;24 as in revolutionary Russia, the communal spirit was so strong that music took a corporate form, and group competed with group in magnificent festivals of song and dance. Such choral singing gave the Spartans another opportunity for discipline and mass formations, for every voice was subject to the leader. At the feast of the Hyacinthia King Agesilaus sang obediently in the place and time assigned to him by the choral master; and at the festival of the Gymnopedia the whole body of Spartans, of every age and sex, joined in massive exercises of harmonious dance and antistrophal song. Such occasions must have provided a powerful stimulus and outlet to the patriotic sentiment.
Terpander (i.e., “Delighter of Men”) was one of those brilliant poetmusicians who inaugurated the great age of Lesbos in the generation before Sappho. Tradition ascribed to him the invention of scolia or drinking songs, and the expansion of the lyre from four to seven strings; but the heptachord, as we have seen, was as old as Minos, and presumably men had sung the glories of wine in the forgotten adolescence of the world. Certainly he made a name for himself at Lesbos as a kitharoedos—i.e., a composer and singer of musical lyrics. Having killed a man in a brawl, he was exiled, and found it convenient to accept an invitation from Sparta. There, it seems, he lived the remainder of his days, teaching music and training choruses. We are told that he ended his life at a drinking party: while he was singing—perhaps that extra note which he had added at the top of the scale—one of his auditors threw a fig at him; which, entering his mouth and his windpipe, choked him to death in the very ecstasy of song.25
Tyrtaeus continued Terpander’s work at Sparta during the Second Messenian War. He came from Aphidna—possibly in Lacedaemon, probably in Attica; certainly the Athenians had an old joke about the Spartans, that when the latter were losing the Second War they were saved by a lame Attic schoolmaster, whose songs of battle woke up the dull Spartans, and stirred them to victory.26 Apparently he sang his own songs to the flute in public assembly, seeking to transform martial death into enviable glory. “It is a fine thing,” says one of his surviving fragments, “for a brave man to die in the front rank of those who fight for their country. . . . Let each one, standing squarely on his feet, rooted to the ground and biting his lips, keep firm. . . . Foot to foot, shield to shield, waving plumes mingling and helmets clashing, let the warriors press breast to breast, each sword and spear-point meeting in the shock of battle.”27 Tyrtaeus, said the Spartan King Leonidas, “was an adept in tickling the souls of youth.”28
Alcman sang in the same generation, as friend and rival of Tyrtaeus, but in a more varied and earthly strain. He came from far-off Lydia, and some said that he was a slave; nevertheless the Lacedaemonians welcomed him, not having yet learned the xenelasia, or hatred of foreigners, which was to become part of the Lycurgean code. The later Spartans would have been scandalized at his eulogies of love and food, and his roster of Laconia’s noble wines. Tradition ranked him as the grossest eater of antiquity, and as an insatiable pursuer of women. One of his songs told how fortunate he was that he had not remained in Sardis, where he might have become an emasculate priest of Cybele, but had come to Sparta, where he could love in freedom his golden-haired mistress Megalostrata.29 He begins for us that dynasty of amorous poets which culminates in Anacreon, and he heads the list of the “Nine Lyric Poets” chosen by Alexandrian critics as the best of ancient Greece.* He could write hymns and paeans as well as songs of wine and love, and the Spartans liked especially the parthenia, or maiden songs, which he composed for choruses of girls. A fragment now and then reveals that power of imaginative feeling which is the heart of poetry:
Asleep lie mountain-top and mountain-gully, shoulder also and ravine; the creeping things that come from the dark earth, the beasts that lie upon the hillside, the generation of the bees, the monsters in the depths of the purple sea; all lie asleep, and with them the tribes of the winging birds.†30
We may judge from these poets that the Spartans were not always Spartans, and that in the century before Lycurgus they relished poetry and the arts as keenly as any of the Greeks. The choral ode became so closely associated with them that when the Athenian dramatists wrote choral lyrics for their plays they used the Doric dialect, though they wrote the dialogue in the Attic speech. It is hard to say what other arts flourished in Lacedaemon in those halcyon days, for even the Spartans neglected to preserve or record them. Laconian pottery and bronze were famous in the seventh century, and the minor arts produced many refinements for the life of the fortunate few. But this little Renaissance was ended by the Messenian Wars. The conquered land was divided among the Spartans, and the number of serfs was almost doubled. How could thirty thousand citizens keep in lasting subjection four times their number of Perioeci, and seven times their number of Helots? It could be done only by abandoning the pursuit and patronage of the arts, and turning every Spartan into a soldier ready at any moment to suppress rebellion or wage war. The constitution of Lycurgus achieved this end, but at the cost of withdrawing Sparta, in every sense but the political, from the history of civilization.
3. Lycurgus
Greek historians from Herodotus onward took it for granted that Lycurgus was the author of the Spartan code, just as they accepted as historical the siege of Troy and the murder of Agamemnon. And as modern scholarship for a century denied the existence of Troy and Agamemnon, so today it hesitates to admit the reality of Lycurgus. The dates assigned to him vary from 900 to 600 B.C.; and how could one man take out of his head the most unpleasant and astonishing body of legislation in all history, and impose it in a few years not only upon a subject population but even upon a self-willed and warlike ruling class?33 Nevertheless it would be presumptuous to reject on such theoretical grounds a tradition accepted by all Greek historians. The seventh century was peculiarly an age of personal legislators—Zaleucus at Locris (ca. 660), Draco at Athens (620), and Charondas at Sicilian Catana (ca. 610)—not to speak of Josiah’s discovery of the Mosaic code in the Temple at Jerusalem (ca. 621). Probably we have in these instances not so much a body of personal legislation as a set of customs harmonized and clarified into specific laws, and named, for convenience’s sake, from the man who codified them and in most cases gave them a written form.* We shall record the tradition, while remembering that it has in all likelihood personified and foreshortened a process of change, from, custom to law, that required many authors and many years.
According to Herodotus,34 Lycurgus, uncle and guardian of the Spartan King Charilaus, received from the oracle at Delphi certain rhetra, or edicts, which were described by some as the laws of Lycurgus themselves, or by others as a divine sanction for the laws that he proposed. Apparently the legislators felt that to alter certain customs, or to establish new ones, the safest procedure would be to present their proposals as commands of the god; it was not the first time that a state had laid its foundations in the sky. Tradition further relates that Lycurgus traveled in Crete, admired its institutions, and resolved to introduce some of them into Laconia.35 The kings and most of the nobles grudgingly accepted his reforms as indispensable to their own security; but a young aristocrat, Alcander, resisted violently, and struck out one of the legislator’s eyes. Plutarch tells the story with his usual simplicity and charm:
Lycurgus, so far from being daunted or discouraged by this accident, stopped short, and showed his disfigured face, and eye beaten out, to his countrymen. They, dismayed and ashamed at the sight, delivered Alcander into his hands to be punished. . . . Lycurgus, having thanked them, dismissed them all, excepting only Alcander; and taking him with him into his house, neither did nor said anything severely to him, but . . . bade Alcander to wait upon him at table. The young man, who was of an ingenuous temper, without murmuring did as he was commanded; and being thus admitted to live with Lycurgus, he had an opportunity to observe in him, besides his gentleness and calmness of temper, an extraordinary sobriety and an indefatigable industry; and so, from being an enemy, became one of his most zealous admirers, and told his friends and relations that he was not that morose and ill-natured man they had taken him for, but the one mild and gentle character of the world.36
Having completed his legislation, Lycurgus (says a probably legendary coda to his story) pledged the citizens not to change the laws till his return. Then he went to Delphi, retired into seclusion, and starved himself to death, “thinking it a statesman’s duty to make his very death, if possible, an act of service to the state.”37
4. The Lacedaemonian Constitution
"When we attempt to specify the reforms of Lycurgus the tradition becomes contradictory and confused. It is difficult to say which elements of the Spartan code preceded Lycurgus, which were created by him or his generation, and which were added after him. Plutarch and Polybius `020438 assure us that Lycurgus redistributed the land of Laconia into thirty thousand equal shares among the citizens; Thucydides `020439 implies that there was no such distribution. Perhaps old properties were left untouched, while the newly conquered land was equally divided. Like Cleisthenes of Sicyon and Cleisthenes of Athens, Lycurgus ( viz., the authors of the Lycurgean constitution) abolished the kinship organization of Laconian society, and replaced it with geographical divisions; in this way the power of the old families was broken, and a wider aristocracy was formed. To prevent the displacement of this landowning oligarchy by such mercantile classes as were gaining leadership in Argos, Sicyon, Corinth, Megara, and Athens, Lycurgus forbade the citizens to engage in industry or trade, prohibited the use or importation of silver or gold, and decreed that only iron should be used as currency. He was resolved that the Spartans (i.e., the landowning citizens) should be left free for government and war.
It was a boast of ancient conservatives that the Lycurgean constitution endured so long because the three forms of government-monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy- were united in it, and in such proportions that each element neutralized the others against excess. Sparta's monarchy was really a duarchy, since it had concurrently two kings, descending from the invading Heraclids. Possibly this strange institution was a compromise between two related and therefore rival houses, or a device to secure without absolutism the psychological uses of royalty in maintaining social order and national prestige. Their powers were limited: they performed the sacrifices of the state religion, headed the judiciary, and commanded the army in war. In all matters they were subordinate to the Senate; and after Plataea they lost more and more of their authority to the ephors. The aristocratic and predominant clement of the constitution resided in the Senate, or gerousia, literally and actually a group of old men; normally citizens under sixty were considered too immature for its deliberations. Plutarch gives their number as twenty-eight, and tells an incredible story of their election.
When a vacancy occurred candidates were required to pass silently and in turn before the Assembly; and he who was greeted with the loudest and longest shouts
was pronounced elected.
Perhaps this was thought to be a realistic and economical abbreviation of the fuller democratic process. We do not know which of the citizens were eligible to such election; presumably they were the homoioi, or equals, who owned the soil of Laconia, had served in the army, and brought their quota of food to the public mess. The Senate originated legislation, acted as a supreme court in capital crimes, and formulated public policy.
The Assembly, or apella, was Sparta's concession to democracy. Apparently all male citizens were admitted to it upon reaching the age of thirty; some eight thousand males were eligible in a population of 376,000. It met on each day of the full moon. All matters of great public moment were submitted to it, nor could any law be passed without its consent. Few laws, however, were ever added to the Lycurgean constitution; and these the Assembly might accept or reject, but not discuss or amend. It was essentially the old Homeric public meeting, listening in awe to the council of chiefs and elders, or to the army-commanding kings. Theoretically sovereignty resided in the apella; but an amendment made to the constitution after Lycurgus empowered the Senate, if it judged that the Assembly had decided "crookedly," to reverse the decision. `020443 When an advanced thinker asked Lycurgus to establish a democracy Lycurgus replied, "Begin, my friend, by setting it up in your own family." Cicero compared the five ephors (i.e., overseers) to the Roman tribunes, since they were chosen annually by the Assembly; but they corresponded more to the Roman consuls, as wielding an administrative power checked only by the protests of the Senate. The ephorate existed before Lycurgus, and yet is not mentioned in such reports of his legislation as have reached us. By the middle of the sixth century the ephors had become equal in authority to the kings; after the Persian War they were practically supreme. They received embassies, decided disputes at law, commanded the armies, and directed, absolved, or punished the kings. The enforcement of the government's decrees was entrusted to the army and the police. It was the custom of the ephors to arm certain of the younger Spartans as a special and secret police (the krypteia ), with the right to spy upon the people, and, in the case of Helots, to kill at their discretion. This institution was used at unexpected times, even to do away with Helots who, though they had served the state bravely in war, were feared by the masters as able and therefore dangerous men. After eight years of the Peloponnesian War, says the impartial Thucydides,
the Helots were invited by a proclamation to pick out those of their number who claimed to have most distinguished themselves against the enemy, in order that they might receive their freedom; the object being to test them, as it was thought that the first to claim their freedom would be the most high-spirited and the most apt to rebel. As many as two thousand were selected accordingly, who crowned themselves and went round the temples, rejoicing in their new freedom. The Spartans, however, soon afterwards did away with them, and no one ever knew how each of them perished.
The power and pride of Sparta was above all in its army, for in the courage, discipline, and skill of these troops it found its security and its ideal. Every citizen was trained for war, and was liable to military service from his twentieth to his sixtieth year. Out of this severe training came the hoplites of Sparta- those close-set companies of heavy-armed, spear-hurling citizen infantry that were the terror even of the Athenians, and remained practically undefeated until Epaminondas overcame them at Leuctra. Around this army Sparta formed its moral code: to be good was to be strong and brave; to die in battle was the highest honor and happiness; to survive defeat was a disgrace that even the soldier's mother could hardly forgive. "Return with your shield or on it," was the Spartan mother's farewell to her soldier son. Flight with the heavy shield was impossible.
5. The Spartan Code
To train men to an ideal so unwelcome to the flesh it was necessary to take them at birth and form them by the most rigorous discipline. The first step was a ruthless eugenics: not only must every child face the father's right to infanticide, but it must also be brought before a state council of inspectors; and any child that appeared defective was thrown from a cliff of Mt. Taygetus, to die on the jagged rocks below. A further elimination probably resulted from the Spartan habit of inuring their infants to discomfort and exposure. Men and women were warned to consider the health and character of those whom they thought of marrying; even a king, Archidamus, was fined for marrying a diminutive wife. Husbands were encouraged to lend their wives to exceptional men, so that fine children might be multiplied; husbands disabled by age or illness were expected to invite young men to help them breed a vigorous family. Lycurgus, says Plutarch, ridiculed jealousy and sexual monopoly, and called it "absurd that people should be so solicitous for their dogs and horses as to exert interest and pay money to procure fine breeding, and yet keep their wives shut up, to be made mothers only by themselves, who might be foolish, infirm, or diseased." In the general opinion of antiquity the Spartan males were stronger and handsomer, their women healthier and lovelier, than the other Greeks.
Probably more of this result was due to training than to eugenic birth. Thucydides makes King Archidamus say: “There is little difference” (at birth, presumably) “between man and man, but the superiority lies with him who is reared in the severest school.”51 At the age of seven the Spartan boy was taken from his family and brought up by the state; he was enrolled in what was at once a military regiment and a scholastic class, under a paidonomos, or manager of boys. In each class the ablest and bravest boy was made captain; the rest were instructed to obey him, to submit to the punishments he might impose upon them, and to strive to match or better him in achievement and discipline. The aim was not, as at Athens, athletic form and skill, but martial courage and worth. Games were played in the nude, under the eyes of elders and lovers of either sex. The older men made it their concern to provoke quarrels among the boys, individually and in groups, so that vigor and fortitude might be tested and trained; and any moment of cowardice brought many days of disgrace. To bear pain, hardship, and misfortune silently was required of all. Every year, at the altar of Artemis Orthia, some chosen youths were scourged till their blood stained the stones.52 At twelve the boy was deprived of underclothing, and was allowed but one garment throughout the year. He did not bathe frequently, like the lads of Athens, for water and unguents made the body soft, while cold air and clean soil made it hard and resistant. Winter and summer he slept in the open, on a bed of rushes broken from the Eurotas’ banks. Until he was thirty he lived with his company in barracks, and knew none of the comforts of home.
He was taught reading and writing, but barely enough to make him literate; books found few buyers in Sparta,53 and it was easy to keep up with the publishers. Lycurgus, said Plutarch, wished children to learn his laws not by writing but by oral transmission and youthful practice under careful guidance and example; it was safer, he thought, to make men good by unconscious habituation than to rely upon theoretical persuasion; a proper education would be the best government. But such education would have to be moral rather than mental; character was more important than intellect. The young Spartan was trained to sobriety, and some Helots were compelled to drink to excess in order that the youth might see how foolish drunkenness can be.54 He was taught, in preparation for war, to forage in the fields and find his own food, or starve; to steal in such cases was permissible, but to be detected was a crime punishable by flogging.55 If he behaved well he was allowed to attend the public mess of the citizens, and was expected to listen carefully there so that he might become acquainted with the problems of the state, and learn the art of genial conversation. At the age of thirty, if he had survived with honor the hardships of youth, he was admitted to the full rights and responsibilities of a citizen, and sat down to dine with his elders.
The girl, though left to be brought up at home, was also subject to regulation by the state. She was to engage in vigorous games—running, wrestling, throwing the quoit, casting the dart—in order that she might become strong and healthy for easy and perfect motherhood. She should go naked in public dances and processions, even in the presence of young men, so that she might be stimulated to proper care of her body, and her defects might be discovered and removed. “Nor was there anything shameful in the nakedness of the young women,” says the highly moral Plutarch; “modesty attended them, and all wantonness was excluded.” While they danced they sang songs of praise for those that had been brave in war, and heaped contumely upon those that had given way. Mental education was not wasted upon the Spartan girl.
As to love, the young man was permitted to indulge in it without prejudice of gender. Nearly every lad had a lover among the older men; from this lover he expected further education, and in return he offered affection and obedience. Often this exchange grew into a passionate friendship that stimulated both youth and man to bravery in war.56 Young men were allowed considerable freedom before marriage, so that prostitution was rare, and hetairai here found no encouragement.57 In all of Lacedaemon we hear of only one temple to Aphrodite, and there the goddess was represented as veiled, armed with a sword, and bearing fetters on her feet, as if to symbolize the foolishness of marrying for love, the subordination of love to war, and the strict control of marriage by the state.
The state specified the best age of marriage as thirty for men and twenty for women. Celibacy in Sparta was a crime; bachelors were excluded from the franchise, and from the sight-of public processions in which young men and women danced in the nude. According to Plutarch the bachelors themselves were compelled to march in public, naked even in winter, singing a song to the effect that they were justly suffering this punishment for having disobeyed the laws. Persistent avoiders of marriage might be set upon at any time in the streets by groups of women, and be severely handled. Those who married and had no children were only less completely disgraced; and it was understood that men who were not fathers were not entitled to the respect that the youth of Sparta religiously paid to their elders.58
Marriages were usually arranged by the parents, without purchase; but after this agreement the bridegroom was expected to carry off the bride by force, and she was expected to resist; the word for marriage was harpadzein, to seize.59 If such arrangements left some adults still unmarried, several men might be pushed into a dark room with an equal number of girls, and be left to pick their life mates in the darkness;60 the Spartans thought that such choosing would not be blinder than love. It was usual for the bride to stay with her parents for a while; the bridegroom remained in his barracks, and visited his wife only clandestinely; “in this relation,” says Plutarch, “they lived a long time, insomuch that they sometimes had children by their wives before even they saw their faces by daylight.” When they were ready for parentage custom allowed them to set up a home. Love came after marriage rather than before, and marital affection appears to have been as strong in Sparta as in any other civilization.61 The Spartans boasted that there was no adultery among them, and they may have been right, for there was much freedom before marriage, and many husbands could be persuaded to share their wives, especially with brothers.62 Divorce was rare. The Spartan general Lysander was punished because he left his wife and wished to marry a prettier one.63
All in all, the position of woman was better in Sparta than in any other Greek community. There more than elsewhere she preserved her high Homeric status, and the privileges that survived from an early matrilinear society. Spartan women, says Plutarch,64 “were bold and masculine, overbearing to their husbands . . . and speaking openly even on the most important subjects.” They could inherit and bequeath property; and in the course of time—so great was their influence over men—nearly half the real wealth of Sparta was in their hands.65 They lived a life of luxury and liberty at home while the men bore the brunt of frequent war, or dined on simple fare in the public mess.
For every Spartan male, by a characteristic ordinance of the constitution, was required from his thirtieth to his sixtieth year to eat his main meal daily in a public dining hall, where the food was simple in quality and slightly but deliberately inadequate in amount. In this way, says Plutarch,the legislator thought to harden them to the privations of war, and to keep them from the degeneration of peace; they “should not spend their lives at home, laid on costly couches at splendid tables, delivering themselves up to the hands of their tradesmen and cooks, to fatten them in corners like greedy brutes, and to ruin not their minds only but their very bodies, which, enfeebled by indulgence and excess, would stand in need of long sleep, warm bathing, freedom from work, and, in a word, of as much care and attendance as if they were continually sick.”66 To supply the food for this public meal each citizen was required to contribute to his dining club, periodically, stated quantities of corn and other provisions; if he failed in this his citizenship was forfeited.
Normally, in the earlier centuries of the code, the simplicity and asceticism to which Spartan youth was trained persisted into later years. Fat men were a rarity in Lacedaemon; there was no law regulating the size of the stomach, but if a man’s belly swelled indecently he might be publicly reproved by the government, or banished from Laconia.67 There was little of the drinking and the revelry that flourished in Athens. Differences of wealth were real, but hidden; rich and poor wore the same simple dress—a woolen peplos, or shirt, that hung straight from the shoulders without pretense to beauty or form. The accumulation of movable riches was difficult; to lay up a hundred dollars’ worth of iron currency required a large closet, and to remove it, nothing less than a yoke of oxen.68 Human greed remained, however, and found an outlet in official corruption. Senators, ephors, envoys, generals, and kings were alike purchasable, at prices befitting their dignity.69 When an ambassador from Samos displayed his gold plate at Sparta, King Cleomenes I had him recalled lest the citizens be spoiled by alien example.70
The Spartan system, fearful of such contamination, was inhospitable beyond precedent. Foreigners were rarely welcomed. Usually they were made to understand that their visits must be brief; if they stayed too long they were escorted to the frontier by the police. The Spartans themselves were forbidden to go abroad without permission of the government, and to dull their curiosity they were trained to a haughty exclusiveness that would not dream that other nations could teach them anything.71 The system had to be ungracious in order to protect itself; a breath from that excluded world of freedom, luxury, letters, and arts might topple over this strange and artificial society, in which two thirds of the people were serfs, and all the masters were slaves.
Left:
An engraving of a bust
of
the Hellenic philosopher
Plato
Historian
Will Durant,
On Sparta
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Video Above: 'Kings and Generals' - 'Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa' (1212) - Reconquista is one of the most significant events in history. By 718 Islamic Invasion reached and then took over most of the Pyrenees sparring only a remote region in the north. The Spanish and Portuguese people fought for almost eight-hundred years to reconquer the Christian lands, and that epic struggle strengthened their sense of identity, and allowed to grow into empires that dominated the world for a few more centuries. This is a documentary on the general events of Reconquista and the decisive battle of Las Navas De Tolosa that took place in 1212 between the alliance of Aragon, Castile, Portugal, Navarre, knightly orders of Santiago, Calatrava, Templars and the Almohad Caliphate.
God's Battalions: The Case for the Crusades by Randy Stark (New York, NY: Harper One).
Peter Jenkins notes, God's Battalions "launches a frontal assault on the comfortable myths that scholars have popularized about the crusades. The results are startling. His greatest achievement is to make us see the crusaders on their own terms.” This book endeavors to be a popular history of the Crusades, explaining its rationale and repudiating revisionist politically correct efforts by anti-Christians, progressives, and Islamists to paint the war unfairly, rather it must be understood as a just war against various barbaric encroachments upon Christiandom by Muslims. Stark affirms that: "Current Muslim memories and anger about the Crusades are a twentieth-century creation, prompted in part by ‘post-World War I British and French imperialism and the post-World War II creation of the state of Israel.’ … Eventually, the image of the brutal, colonizing crusader proved to have such polemical power that it drowned out nearly everything else in the ideological lexicon of Muslim antagonism toward the West — except, of course, for Israel and paranoid tales about the worldwide Jewish conspiracy." Stark recognizes that Muslim aggression is trivialized by the agents of political correctness, and they attempt to whitewash the fact that Muslims waged violent, pitiless warfare with the goal of eradicating, conquering and ultimately subjugating Christian civilization, yet modern voices of political correctness have the audacity to fault the leaders of Christendom for the audacity to resist such encroachments and fight back! In Stark’s words: Many critics of the Crusades would seem to suppose that after the Muslims had overrun a major portion of Christendom, they should have been ignored or forgiven; suggestions have been made about turning the other cheek. This outlook is certainly unrealistic and probably insincere. Not only had the Byzantines lost most of their empire; the enemy was at their gates. And the loss of Spain, Sicily, and southern Italy, as well as a hose of Mediterranean islands, was bitterly resented in Europe. Hence, as British historian Derek Lomax (1933–1992) explained, 'The popes, like most Christians, believed war against the Muslims to be justified partly because the latter had usurped by force lands which once belongs to Christians and partly because they abused the Christians over whom they ruled and such Christian lands as they could raid for slaves, plunder and the joys of destruction.'"
The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise: Muslims, Christians, and Jews under Islamic Rule in Medieval Spain by Dario Fernandez-Morera (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books)
Advocates of multiculturalism have lauded the example of Moor-dominated Spain as a portent of the later-day multicultural civilization celebrated by progressives, Leftists, and cultural Marxists. Nevertheless this myth of “al-Andalus” as a multicultural paradise, a place where Muslims, Christians, and Jews ostensibly lived in relative harmony, is largely a contrivance of ideologues. In this seminal work, Northwestern University scholar Darío Fernández-Morera paints a radically different picture of Islamic-dominated Spain. The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise illuminates a secret history of Iberia under the invading Moors by appropriating a bountiful corpus of primary source materials that have been conveniently been ignored in pursuit of the politically incorrect agenda of celebrating the Andalusian multicultural paraise.
This supposed beacon of peaceful coexistence began, of course, with the Islamic Caliphate’s conquest of the Iberian peninsula. The encroachment of Islamists into Western Europe hardly established an age of religious tolerance, but rather Islamic Spain was weighed down by cultural repression, and the marginalization of Christians—all in service of a hegemonic, authoritarian ruling class of Muslim leaders.
Author and historian Dario Fernandez-Morera's book provides a much needed reevaluation of the history of medieval Spain challenging the pervasive mythology of cultural Marxists, progressives and their cohorts. As the progressive establishment continues to extol Islamic Spain as a model civilization for its “multiculturalism,” purported tolerance and “diversity,” Fernández-Morera paints a more realistic picture in marked contrast to the multiculturalist fantasy. Here we encounter the real world of Islamic Spain where Christians are subjugated, and repressed.
The Concise History of the Crusades (softcover) by Thomas F. Madden
What is the connection between the Medieval Crusades and the Modern Middle East problems? Was the crusades the equivalent of the Christian Muslim jihad? Historian Thomas F. Madden provides a brilliant and convincing overview of the crusades and their current significance in this sweeping yet crisp history.
The Crusades by Hillaire Belloc
Belloc shows that the Crusades were a titanic struggle between Christian civilization and the Turk, savage Mongols, who had embraced Islam. He explains the practical reasons why the Crusaders initially succeeded and why they ultimately failed then he predicts the re-emergence of Islam, since Christendom failed to destroy it in the 12th century. Makes history come alive and gives a rare, true appreciation of Christendom
The Crusades Were Defensive Wars by Thomas F. Madden (adapted from "The Real History of the Crusades," Crisis Magazine.
For starters, the Crusades to the East were in every way defensive wars. They were a direct response to Muslim aggression—an attempt to turn back or defend against Muslim conquests of Christian lands.
Christians in the eleventh century were not paranoid fanatics. Muslims really were gunning for them. While Muslims can be peaceful, Islam was born in war and grew the same way. From the time of Mohammed, the means of Muslim expansion was always the sword. Muslim thought divides the world into two spheres, the Abode of Islam and the Abode of War. Christianity—and for that matter any other non-Muslim religion—has no abode. Christians and Jews can be tolerated within a Muslim state under Muslim rule. But, in traditional Islam, Christian and Jewish states must be destroyed and their lands conquered. When Mohammed was waging war against Mecca in the seventh century, Christianity was the dominant religion of power and wealth. As the faith of the Roman Empire, it spanned the entire Mediterranean, including the Middle East, where it was born. The Christian world, therefore, was a prime target for the earliest caliphs, and it would remain so for Muslim leaders for the next thousand years.
With enormous energy, the warriors of Islam struck out against the Christians shortly after Mohammed’s death. They were extremely successful. Palestine, Syria, and Egypt—once the most heavily Christian areas in the world—quickly succumbed. By the eighth century, Muslim armies had conquered all of Christian North Africa and Spain. In the eleventh century, the Seljuk Turks conquered Asia Minor (modern Turkey), which had been Christian since the time of St. Paul. The old Roman Empire, known to modern historians as the Byzantine Empire, was reduced to little more than Greece. In desperation, the emperor in Constantinople sent word to the Christians of western Europe asking them to aid their brothers and sisters in the East.
That is what gave birth to the Crusades. They were not the brainchild of an ambitious pope or rapacious knights but a response to more than four centuries of conquests in which Muslims had already captured two-thirds of the old Christian world. At some point, Christianity as a faith and a culture had to defend itself or be subsumed by Islam. The Crusades were that defense.
Video Above: 'Real Crusades History' - 'The Crusades in Five Minutes' - This succinct video gives and overview of the main aspects of the Crusades, such as Pope Urban II's calling of the First Crusade, how the Reconquista in Spain became a Crusade, the nature of crusading and the motivation for crusading.
"Many critics of the Crusades would seem to suppose that after the Muslims had overrun a major portion of Christendom, they should have been ignored or forgiven; suggestions have been made about turning the other cheek. This outlook is certainly unrealistic and probably insincere. Not only had the Byzantines lost most of their empire; the enemy was at their gates. And the loss of Spain, Sicily, and southern Italy, as well as a host of Mediterranean islands, was bitterly resented in Europe. Hence, as British historian Derek Lomax (1933-1992) explained, 'The popes, like most Christians, believed war against the Muslims to be justified partly because the latter had usurped by force lands which once belonged to Christians and partly because they abused the Christians over whom they ruled and such Christian lands as they could raid for slaves, plunder and the joys of destruction.' It was time to strike back."
―Rodney Stark, God's Battalions: The Case for the Crusades
“It is significant that Muslim leaders punished their own if they suspected a lack of Islamic zeal. Muslim warriors could be punished with death for apostasy, which contributed to the fervor of the invaders. According to al-Qutiyya, when Musa Ibn Nusayr’s son was named governor, he married the wife of King Rodrigo and began adopting Christian ways—and military leaders cut his head off in the mihrab of a mosque and sent his head to the caliph.”
―Darío Fernández-Morera, The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise
Selections of Videos of Crusades Documentaries
Early Muslim Expansion - Khalid, Yarmouk, al-Qadisiyyah
Early Muslim Expansion - Arab Conquest of Iran and Egypt
Tours (Pontiers) (732 A.D.)
Reconquista of Spain (781 A.D.)
Rodrigo "El Cid" Diaz (c. 1043-1099 A.D.)
The Almoravids and the Battle of Sagrajas, Medieval Spain (c. 1086)
El Cid's Greatest Conquest - Valencia (c. 1094)
The First Crusade (1096–1099)
EH I EH2 | FPH i & FPH II | RCH
Normans in Spain (1013-1040 A.D.)
Ager Sanguinis: The Battle of the Field of Blood (1119 A.D.)
The Third Crusade (1189-1192 A.D.)
The Fourth Crusade (1202-1204 A.D.)
Sack of Constantinople (1204 A.D.)
K&G | Knowledgia 1 | Knowledgia 2
Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212 A.D.)
Fall of Constantinople (1453 A.D.)
indo-european Studies
The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World by David W. Anthony (Audio | Kindle)
This remarkable tome lifts the veil that has long shrouded the original Indo-European speakers in mystery and reveals how their domestication of horses and their usage of the wheel rapidly spread language over broad swathes of territory, breaking the stagnant isolation of peoples, and began transforming civilization and revolutionized warfare. From their cradle in the grassland steppes, the innovative people that pioneered the ox-wagon, horseback riding, and the warrior's chariot turned the Eurasian steppes into a thriving transcontinental corridor of communication, commerce, and cultural exchange.
In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology, and Myth by J.P. Mallory
This remarkable tome lifts the veil that has long shrouded the original Indo-European speakers in mystery and reveals how their domestication of horses and their usage of the wheel rapidly spread language over broad swathes of territory, breaking the stagnant isolation of peoples, and began transforming civilization and revolutionized warfare. From their cradle in the grassland steppes, the innovative people that pioneered the ox-wagon, horseback riding, and the warrior's chariot turned the Eurasian steppes into a thriving transcontinental corridor of communication, commerce, and cultural exchange.
The Tarim Mummies - Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West by J.P. Mallory
Some of the oldest, and indeed best-preserved mummies in the world are found neither in Egypt nor the Andean civilization of Peru, but rather in the museums of Xinjiang, the westernmost province of contemporary China. For thousands of years, nomadic travelers from the Eurasian grassland steppes buried their dead in the barren sands of the Taklimakan desert. This arid climate served to preserve body and clothing, and it gave an unparalleled glimpse into the past lives and appearances of an ancient Indo-European people. These were not ancient Han Chinese but rather of Indo-European nomads that made settlements in the Tarim Basin on the western rim of present-day China some four millennia ago.
Ancestral Journeys: The Peopling of Europe from the First Venturers to the Vikings by Jean Manco
While drawing attention to the Paleo-Europeans, the original matriarchal agrarian-pastoralists of Europe, Manco explores later journeys of the invading Indo-Europeans, the nomadic horsemen that emerged from the grassland steppes of Eurasia at the confluence of the Black Sea and the Caucasuses into the heart of Europe.
The Scythians: Nomad Warriors of the Steppe by Barry Cunliffe.
An epic history of a primordial Indo-European people. The Scythians were nomadic tribes and masters of mounted warfare. Barry Cunliffe marshals an impressive breadth of scholarly materials, both archaeological and primary source historical texts, in an epic retelling of the lost world of the Scythians. Disparate groups of Scythians coalesced over time as successive waves of migrations occurred like the billows of ocean waves. Cunliffe offers an anthropological as well as archaeological perspective, and he provides a critical overview of the manner in which Greeks wrote about Scythians as 'other.'
The BP Exhibition - Scythians: Warriors of Ancient Siberia by St. John Simpson and Svetlana Pankova
The Scythians were an ancient nomadic people who lived in the south Russian steppe from 900 to 200 BC. They chartered a vibrant equestrian culture from the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia to the steppes bordering the northern Black Sea to northern and western China. Mobility and mastery of local resources were central to their culture and their achievements. They left no written records of their own and historians have previously relied on the descriptions by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, but archaeological research now adds considerable new information about their origins and lifestyle. They inspired successive equestrian cultures such as the Huns, Mongols, and Turks.
Marcus Junianus Justinus on the Scythians
The Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus, Rev. John Selby Watson, ed. and tr., Chapters 1-3 (London: Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Convent Garden, 1853).
1. In narrating the acts of the Scythians, which were very great and glorious, we must commence from their origin; for they had a rise not less illustrious than their empire; nor were they more famous for the government of their men than for the brave actions of their women. As the men were founders of the Parthians and Bactrians, the women settled the kingdom of the Amazons; so that to those who compare the deeds of their males and females, it is difficult to decide which of the sexes was more distinguished.
The nation of the Scythians was always regarded as very ancient; though there was long a dispute between them and the Egyptians concerning the antiquity of their respective races; the Egyptians alleging that, “In the beginning of things, when some countries were parched with the excessive heat of the sun, and others frozen with extremity of cold, so that, in their early condition, they were not only unable to produce human beings, but were incapable even of receiving and supporting such as came from other parts (before coverings for the body were found out against heat and cold, or the inconveniences of countries corrected by artificial remedies), Egypt was always so temperate, that neither the cold in winter nor the sun’s heat in summer, incommoded its inhabitants; and its soil so fertile, that no land was ever more productive of food for the use of man; and that, consequently, men must reasonably be considered to have been first produced in that country,1 where they could most easily be nourished."
The Scythians, on the other hand, thought that the temperateness of the air was no argument of antiquity; “because Nature, when she first distributed to different countries degrees of heat and cold, immediately produced in them animals fitted to endure the several climates, and generated also numerous sorts of trees and herbs, happily varied according to the condition of the places in which they grew; and that, as the Scythians have a sharper air than the Egyptians, so are their bodies and constitutions in proportion more hardy. But that if the world, which is now distinguished into parts of a different nature, was once uniform throughout; whether a deluge of waters originally kept the earth buried under it; or whether fire, which also produced the world,2 had possession of all the parts of it, the Scythians, under either supposition as to the primordial state of things, had the advantage as to origin. For if fire was at first predominant over all things, and, being gradually extinguished, gave place to the earth, no part of it would be sooner separated from the fire, by the severity of winter cold, than the northern, since even now no part is more frozen with cold; but Egypt and all the east must have been the latest to cool, as being now burnt up with the parching heat of the sun. But if originally all the earth were sunk under water, assuredly the highest parts would be first uncovered when the waters decreased, and the water must have remained longest in the lowest grounds; while the sooner any portion of the earth was dry, the sooner it must have begun to produce animals; but Scythia was so much higher than all other countries, that all the rivers which rise in it run down into the Maeotis, and then into the Pontic and Egyptian seas; whereas Egypt, (which, though it had been fenced by the care and expense of so many princes and generations, and furnished with such strong mounds against the violence of the encroaching waters, and though it had been intersected also by so many canals, the waters being kept out by the one, and retained by the other, was yet uninhabitable, unless the Nile were excluded,) could not be thought to have been the most anciently peopled; being a land, which, whether from the accessions of soil collected by its kings, or those from the Nile, bringing mud with it, must appear to have been the most recently formed of all lands.” The Egyptians being confounded with these arguments, the Scythians were always accounted the more ancient.
2. Scythia, which stretches towards the east, is bounded on one side by the Pontus Euxinus; on the other, by the Rhipaean Mountains; at the back, by Asia and the river Phasis. It extends to a vast distance, both in length and breadth. The people have no landmarks, for they neither cultivate the soil, nor have they any house, dwelling, or settled place of abode, but are always engaged in feeding herds and flocks, and wandering through uncultivated deserts. They carry their wives and children with them in waggons, which, as they are covered with hides against the rain and cold, they use instead of houses. Justice is observed among them, more from the temper of the people, than from the influence of laws. No crime in their opinion is more heinous than theft; for, among people that keep their flocks and herds without fence or shelter in the woods, what would be safe, if stealing were permitted? Gold and silver they despise, as much as other men covet them. They live on milk and honey. The use of wool and clothes is unknown among them, although they are pinched by perpetual cold; they wear, however, the skins of wild animals, great and small.8 Such abstemiousness has caused justice to be observed among them, as they covet nothing belonging to their neighbours; for it is only where riches are of use, that the desire of them prevails. And would that other men had like temperance, and like freedom from desire for the goods of others! There would then assuredly be fewer wars in all ages and countries, and the sword would not destroy more than the natural course of destiny. And it appears extremely wonderful, that nature should grant that to them which the Greeks cannot attain by long instruction from their wise men and the precepts of their philosophers; and that cultivated morals should have the disadvantage in a comparison with those of unpolished barbarians. So much better effect has the ignorance of vice in the one people than the knowledge of virtue in the other.
Herodotus on the Scythians
The History of Herodotus, George Rawlinson, ed. and tr., vol. 3, Bk. 4, Chapters 5-36, 46-81 (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1885.)
5. According to the account which the Scythians themselves give, they are the youngest of all nations. Their tradition is as follows. A certain Targitaus was the first man who ever lived in their country, which before his time was a desert without inhabitants. He was a child- I do not believe the tale, but it is told nevertheless- of Jove and a daughter of the Borysthenes. Targitaus, thus descended, begat three sons, Leipoxais, Arpoxais, and Colaxais, who was the youngest born of the three. While they still ruled the land, there fell from the sky four implements, all of gold- a plough, a yoke, a battle-axe, and a drinking-cup. The eldest of the brothers perceived them first, and approached to pick them up; when lo! as he came near, the gold took fire, and blazed. He therefore went his way, and the second coming forward made the attempt, but the same thing happened again. The gold rejected both the eldest and the second brother. Last of all the youngest brother approached, and immediately the flames were extinguished; so he picked up the gold, and carried it to his home. Then the two elder agreed together, and made the whole kingdom over to the youngest born.
6. From Leipoxais sprang the Scythians of the race called Auchatae; from Arpoxais, the middle brother, those known as the Catiari and Traspians; from Colaxais, the youngest, the Royal Scythians, or Paralatae. All together they are named Scoloti, after one of their kings: the Greeks, however, call them Scythians.
7. Such is the account which the Scythians give of their origin. They add that from the time of Targitaus, their first king, to the invasion of their country by Darius, is a period of one thousand years, neither less nor more. The Royal Scythians guard the sacred gold with most especial care, and year by year offer great sacrifices in its honour. At this feast, if the man who has the custody of the gold should fall asleep in the open air, he is sure (the Scythians say) not to outlive the year. His pay therefore is as much land as he can ride round on horseback in a day. As the extent of Scythia is very great, Colaxais gave each of his three sons a separate kingdom, one of which was of ampler size than the other two: in this the gold was preserved. Above, to the northward of the farthest dwellers in Scythia, the country is said to be concealed from sight and made impassable by reason of the feathers which are shed abroad abundantly. The earth and air are alike full of them, and this it is which prevents the eye from obtaining any view of the region.
8. Such is the account which the Scythians give of themselves, and of the country which lies above them. The Greeks who dwell about the Pontus tell a different story. According to Hercules, when he was carrying off the cows of Geryon, arrived in the region which is now inhabited by the Scyths, but which was then a desert. Geryon lived outside the Pontus, in an island called by the Greeks Erytheia, near Gades, which is beyond the Pillars of Hercules upon the Ocean. Now some say that the Ocean begins in the east, and runs the whole way round the world; but they give no proof that this is really so. Hercules came from thence into the region now called Scythia, and, being overtaken by storm and frost, drew his lion's skin about him, and fell fast asleep. While he slept, his mares, which he had loosed from his chariot to graze, by some wonderful chance disappeared.
9. On waking, he went in quest of them, and, after wandering over the whole country, came at last to the district called "the Woodland," where he found in a cave a strange being, between a maiden and a serpent, whose form from the waist upwards was like that of a woman, while all below was like a snake. He looked at her wonderingly; but nevertheless inquired, whether she had chanced to see his strayed mares anywhere. She answered him, "Yes, and they were now in her keeping; but never would she consent to give them back, unless he took her for his mistress." So Hercules, to get his mares back, agreed; but afterwards she put him off and delayed restoring the mares, since she wished to keep him with her as long as possible. He, on the other hand, was only anxious to secure them and to get away. At last, when she gave them up, she said to him, "When thy mares strayed hither, it was I who saved them for thee: now thou hast paid their salvage; for lo! I bear in my womb three sons of thine. Tell me therefore when thy sons grow up, what must I do with them? Wouldst thou wish that I should settle them here in this land, whereof I am mistress, or shall I send them to thee?" Thus questioned, they say, Hercules answered, "When the lads have grown to manhood, do thus, and assuredly thou wilt not err. Watch them, and when thou seest one of them bend this bow as I now bend it, and gird himself with this girdle thus, choose him to remain in the land. Those who fail in the trial, send away. Thus wilt thou at once please thyself and obey me."
10. Hereupon he strung one of his bows- up to that time he had carried two- and showed her how to fasten the belt. Then he gave both bow and belt into her hands. Now the belt had a golden goblet attached to its clasp. So after he had given them to her, he went his way; and the woman, when her children grew to manhood, first gave them severally their names. One she called Agathyrsus, one Gelonus, and the other, who was the youngest, Scythes. Then she remembered the instructions she had received from Hercules, and, in obedience to his orders, she put her sons to the test. Two of them, Agathyrsus and Gelonus, proving unequal to the task enjoined, their mother sent them out of the land; Scythes, the youngest, succeeded, and so he was allowed to remain. From Scythes, the son of Hercules, were descended the after kings of Scythia; and from the circumstance of the goblet which hung from the belt, the Scythians to this day wear goblets at their girdles. This was the only thing which the mother of Scythes did for him. Such is the tale told by the Greeks who dwell around the Pontus.
11. There is also another different story, now to be related, in which I am more inclined to put faith than in any other. It is that the wandering Scythians once dwelt in Asia, and there warred with the Massagetae, but with ill success; they therefore quitted their homes, crossed the Araxes, and entered the land of Cimmeria. For the land which is now inhabited by the Scyths was formerly the country of the Cimmerians. On their coming, the natives, who heard how numerous the invading army was, held a council. At this meeting opinion was divided, and both parties stiffly maintained their own view; but the counsel of the Royal tribe was the braver. For the others urged that the best thing to be done was to leave the country, and avoid a contest with so vast a host; but the Royal tribe advised remaining and fighting for the soil to the last. As neither party chose to give way, the one determined to retire without a blow and yield their lands to the invaders; but the other, remembering the good things which they had enjoyed in their homes, and picturing to themselves the evils which they had to expect if they gave them up, resolved not to flee, but rather to die and at least be buried in their fatherland. Having thus decided, they drew apart in two bodies, the one as numerous as the other, and fought together. All of the Royal tribe were slain, and the people buried them near the river Tyras, where their grave is still to be seen. Then the rest of the Cimmerians departed, and the Scythians, on their coming, took possession of a deserted land.
12. Scythia still retains traces of the Cimmerians; there are Cimmerian castles, and a Cimmerian ferry, also a tract called Cimmeria, and a Cimmerian Bosphorus. It appears likewise that the Cimmerians, when they fled into Asia to escape the Scyths, made a settlement in the peninsula where the Greek city of Sinope was afterwards built. The Scyths, it is plain, pursued them, and missing their road, poured into Media. For the Cimmerians kept the line which led along the sea-shore, but the Scyths in their pursuit held the Caucasus upon their right, thus proceeding inland, and falling upon Media. This account is one which is common both to Greeks and barbarians.
13. Aristeas also, son of Caystrobius, a native of Proconnesus, says in the course of his poem that wrapt in Bacchic fury he went as far as the Issedones. Above them dwelt the Arimaspi, men with one eye; still further, the gold-guarding griffins; and beyond these, the Hyperboreans, who extended to the sea. Except the Hyperboreans, all these nations, beginning with the Arimaspi, were continually encroaching upon their neighbours. Hence it came to pass that the Arimaspi drove the Issedonians from their country, while the Issedonians dispossessed the Scyths; and the Scyths, pressing upon the Cimmerians, who dwelt on the shores of the Southern Sea, forced them to leave their land. Thus even Aristeas does not agree in his account of this region with the Scythians.
14. The birthplace of Aristeas, the poet who sung of these things, I have already mentioned. I will now relate a tale which I heard concerning him both at Proconnesus and at Cyzicus. Aristeas, they said, who belonged to one of the noblest families in the island, had entered one day into a fuller's shop, when he suddenly dropt down dead. Hereupon the fuller shut up his shop, and went to tell Aristeas' kindred what had happened. The report of the death had just spread through the town, when a certain Cyzicenian, lately arrived from Artaca, contradicted the rumour, affirming that he had met Aristeas on his road to Cyzicus, and had spoken with him. This man, therefore, strenuously denied the rumour; the relations, however, proceeded to the fuller's shop with all things necessary for the funeral, intending to carry the body away. But on the shop being opened, no Aristeas was found, either dead or alive. Seven years afterwards he reappeared, they told me, in Proconnesus, and wrote the poem called by the Greeks The Arimaspeia, after which he disappeared a second time. This is the tale current in the two cities above-mentioned.
15. What follows I know to have happened to the Metapontines of Italy, three hundred and forty years after the second disappearance of Aristeas, as I collect by comparing the accounts given me at Proconnesus and Metapontum. Aristeas then, as the Metapontines affirm, appeared to them in their own country, and ordered them to set up an altar in honour of Apollo, and to place near it a statue to be called that of Aristeas the Proconnesian. "Apollo," he told them, "had come to their country once, though he had visited no other Italiots; and he had been with Apollo at the time, not however in his present form, but in the shape of a crow." Having said so much, he vanished. Then the Metapontines, as they relate, sent to Delphi, and inquired of the god in what light they were to regard the appearance of this ghost of a man. The Pythoness, in reply, bade them attend to what the spectre said, "for so it would go best with them." Thus advised, they did as they had been directed: and there is now a statue bearing the name of Aristeas, close by the image of Apollo in the market-place of Metapontum, with bay-trees standing around it. But enough has been said concerning Aristeas.
16. With regard to the regions which lie above the country whereof this portion of my history treats, there is no one who possesses any exact knowledge. Not a single person can I find who professes to be acquainted with them by actual observation. Even Aristeas, the traveller of whom I lately spoke, does not claim- and he is writing poetry- to have reached any farther than the Issedonians. What he relates concerning the regions beyond is, he confesses, mere hearsay, being the account which the Issedonians gave him of those countries. However, I shall proceed to mention all that I have learnt of these parts by the most exact inquiries which I have been able to make concerning them.
17. Above the mart of the Borysthenites, which is situated in the very centre of the whole sea-coast of Scythia, the first people who inhabit the land are the Callipedae, a Greco-Scythic race. Next to them, as you go inland, dwell the people called the Alazonians. These two nations in other respects resemble the Scythians in their usages, but sow and eat corn, also onions, garlic, lentils, and millet. Beyond the Alazonians reside Scythian cultivators, who grow corn, not for their own use, but for sale. Still higher up are the Neuri. Northwards of the Neuri the continent, as far as it is known to us, is uninhabited. These are the nations along the course of the river Hypanis, west of the Borysthenes.
18. Across the Borysthenes, the first country after you leave the coast is Hylaea (the Woodland). Above this dwell the Scythian Husbandmen, whom the Greeks living near the Hypanis call Borysthenites, while they call themselves Olbiopolites. These Husbandmen extend eastward a distance of three days' journey to a river bearing the name of Panticapes, while northward the country is theirs for eleven days' sail up the course of the Borysthenes. Further inland there is a vast tract which is uninhabited. Above this desolate region dwell the Cannibals, who are a people apart, much unlike the Scythians. Above them the country becomes an utter desert; not a single tribe, so far as we know, inhabits it.
19. Crossing the Panticapes, and proceeding eastward of the Husbandmen, we come upon the wandering Scythians, who neither plough nor sow. Their country, and the whole of this region, except Hylaea, is quite bare of trees. They extend towards the east a distance of fourteen' days' journey, occupying a tract which reaches to the river Gerrhus.
20. On the opposite side of the Gerrhus is the Royal district, as it is called: here dwells the largest and bravest of the Scythian tribes, which looks upon all the other tribes in the light of slaves. Its country reaches on the south to Taurica, on the east to the trench dug by the sons of the blind slaves, the mart upon the Palus Maeotis, called Cremni (the Cliffs), and in part to the river Tanais. North of the country of the Royal Scythians are the Melanchaeni (Black-Robes), a people of quite a different race from the Scythians. Beyond them lie marshes and a region without inhabitants, so far as our knowledge reaches.
21. When one crosses the Tanais, one is no longer in Scythia; the first region on crossing is that of the Sauromatae, who, beginning at the upper end of the Palus Maeotis, stretch northward a distance of fifteen days' journey, inhabiting a country which is entirely bare of trees, whether wild or cultivated. Above them, possessing the second region, dwell the Budini, whose territory is thickly wooded with trees of every kind.
22. Beyond the Budini, as one goes northward, first there is a desert, seven days' journey across; after which, if one inclines somewhat to the east, the Thyssagetae are reached, a numerous nation quite distinct from any other, and living by the chase. Adjoining them, and within the limits of the same region, are the people who bear the name of Iyrcae; they also support themselves by hunting, which they practise in the following manner. The hunter climbs a tree, the whole country abounding in wood, and there sets himself in ambush; he has a dog at hand, and a horse, trained to lie down upon its belly, and thus make itself low; the hunter keeps watch, and when he sees his game, lets fly an arrow; then mounting his horse, he gives the beast chase, his dog following hard all the while. Beyond these people, a little to the east, dwells a distinct tribe of Scyths, who revolted once from the Royal Scythians, and migrated into these parts.
23. As far as their country, the tract of land whereof I have been speaking is all a smooth plain, and the soil deep; beyond you enter on a region which is rugged and stony. Passing over a great extent of this rough country, you come to a people dwelling at the foot of lofty mountains, who are said to be all- both men and women- bald from their birth, to have flat noses, and very long chins. These people speak a language of their own,. the dress which they wear is the same as the Scythian. They live on the fruit of a certain tree, the name of which is Ponticum; in size it is about equal to our fig-tree, and it bears a fruit like a bean, with a stone inside. When the fruit is ripe, they strain it through cloths; the juice which runs off is black and thick, and is called by the natives "aschy." They lap this up with their tongues, and also mix it with milk for a drink; while they make the lees, which are solid, into cakes, and eat them instead of meat; for they have but few sheep in their country, in which there is no good pasturage. Each of them dwells under a tree, and they cover the tree in winter with a cloth of thick white felt, but take off the covering in the summer-time. No one harms these people, for they are looked upon as sacred- they do not even possess any warlike weapons. When their neighbours fall out, they make up the quarrel; and when one flies to them for refuge, he is safe from all hurt. They are called the Argippaeans.
24. Up to this point the territory of which we are speaking is very completely explored, and all the nations between the coast and the bald-headed men are well known to us. For some of the Scythians are accustomed to penetrate as far, of whom inquiry may easily be made, and Greeks also go there from the mart on the Borysthenes, and from the other marts along the Euxine. The Scythians who make this journey communicate with the inhabitants by means of seven interpreters and seven languages.
25. Thus far, therefore, the land is known; but beyond the bald-headed men lies a region of which no one can give any exact account. Lofty and precipitous mountains, which are never crossed, bar further progress. The bald men say, but it does not seem to me credible, that the people who live in these mountains have feet like goats; and that after passing them you find another race of men, who sleep during one half of the year. This latter statement appears to me quite unworthy of credit. The region east of the bald-headed men is well known to be inhabited by the Issedonians, but the tract that lies to the north of these two nations is entirely unknown, except by the accounts which they give of it.
26. The Issedonians are said to have the following customs. When a man's father dies, all the near relatives bring sheep to the house; which are sacrificed, and their flesh cut in pieces, while at the same time the dead body undergoes the like treatment. The two sorts of flesh are afterwards mixed together, and the whole is served up at a banquet. The head of the dead man is treated differently: it is stripped bare, cleansed, and set in gold. It then becomes an ornament on which they pride themselves, and is brought out year by year at the great festival which sons keep in honour of their fathers' death, just as the Greeks keep their Genesia. In other respects the Issedonians are reputed to be observers of justice: and it is to be remarked that their women have equal authority with the men. Thus our knowledge extends as far as this nation.
27. The regions beyond are known only from the accounts of the Issedonians, by whom the stories are told of the one-eyed race of men and the gold-guarding griffins. These stories are received by the Scythians from the Issedonians, and by them passed on to us Greeks: whence it arises that we give the one-eyed race the Scythian name of Arimaspi, "arima" being the Scythic word for "one," and "spu" for "the eye."
28. The whole district whereof we have here discoursed has winters of exceeding rigour. During eight months the frost is so intense that water poured upon the ground does not form mud, but if a fire be lighted on it mud is produced. The sea freezes, and the Cimmerian Bosphorus is frozen over. At that season the Scythians who dwell inside the trench make warlike expeditions upon the ice, and even drive their waggons across to the country of the Sindians. Such is the intensity of the cold during eight months out of the twelve; and even in the remaining four the climate is still cool. The character of the winter likewise is unlike that of the same season in any other country; for at that time, when the rains ought to fall in Scythia, there is scarcely any rain worth mentioning, while in summer it never gives over raining; and thunder, which elsewhere is frequent then, in Scythia is unknown in that part of the year, coming only in summer, when it is very heavy. Thunder in the winter-time is there accounted a prodigy; as also are earthquakes, whether they happen in winter or summer. Horses bear the winter well, cold as it is, but mules and asses are quite unable to bear it; whereas in other countries mules and asses are found to endure the cold, while horses, if they stand still, are frost-bitten.
29. To me it seems that the cold may likewise be the cause which prevents the oxen in Scythia from having horns. There is a line of Homer's in the Odyssey which gives a support to my opinion:-
Libya too, where horns hud quick on the foreheads of lambkins.
He means to say what is quite true, that in warm countries the horns come early. So too in countries where the cold is severe animals either have no horns, or grow them with difficulty- the cold being the cause in this instance.
30. Here I must express my wonder- additions being what my work always from the very first affected- that in Elis, where the cold is not remarkable, and there is nothing else to account for it, mules are never produced. The Eleans say it is in consequence of a curse; and their habit is, when the breeding-time comes, to take their mares into one of the adjoining countries, and there keep them till they are in foal, when they bring them back again into Elis.
31. With respect to the feathers which are said by the Scythians to fill the air, and to prevent persons from penetrating into the remoter parts of the continent, even having any view of those regions, my opinion is that in the countries above Scythia it always snows- less, of course, in the summer than in the wintertime. Now snow when it falls looks like feathers, as every one is aware who has seen it come down close to him. These northern regions, therefore, are uninhabitable by reason of the severity of the winter; and the Scythians, with their neighbours, call the snow-flakes feathers because, I think, of the likeness which they bear to them. I have now related what is said of the most distant parts of this continent whereof any account is given.
32. Of the Hyperboreans nothing is said either by the Scythians or by any of the other dwellers in these regions, unless it be the Issedonians. But in my opinion, even the Issedonians are silent concerning them; otherwise the Scythians would have repeated their statements, as they do those concerning the one-eyed men. Hesiod, however, mentions them, and Homer also in the Epigoni, if that be really a work of his.
33. But the persons who have by far the most to say on this subject are the Delians. They declare that certain offerings, packed in wheaten straw, were brought from the country of the Hyperboreans into Scythia, and that the Scythians received them and passed them on to their neighbours upon the west, who continued to pass them on until at last they reached the Adriatic. From hence they were sent southward, and when they came to Greece, were received first of all by the Dodonaeans. Thence they descended to the Maliac Gulf, from which they were carried across into Euboea, where the people handed them on from city to city, till they came at length to Carystus. The Carystians took them over to Tenos, without stopping at Andros; and the Tenians brought them finally to Delos. Such, according to their own account, was the road by which the offerings reached the Delians. Two damsels, they say, named Hyperoche and Laodice, brought the first offerings from the Hyperboreans; and with them the Hyperboreans sent five men to keep them from all harm by the way; these are the persons whom the Delians call "Perpherees," and to whom great honours are paid at Delos. Afterwards the Hyperboreans, when they found that their messengers did not return, thinking it would be a grievous thing always to be liable to lose the envoys they should send, adopted the following plan:- they wrapped their offerings in the wheaten straw, and bearing them to their borders, charged their neighbours to send them forward from one nation to another, which was done accordingly, and in this way the offerings reached Delos. I myself know of a practice like this, which obtains with the women of Thrace and Paeonia. They in their sacrifices to the queenly Diana bring wheaten straw always with their offerings. Of my own knowledge I can testify that this is so.
34. The damsels sent by the Hyperboreans died in Delos; and in their honour all the Delian girls and youths are wont to cut off their hair. The girls, before their marriage-day, cut off a curl, and twining it round a distaff, lay it upon the grave of the strangers. This grave is on the left as one enters the precinct of Diana, and has an olive-tree growing on it. The youths wind some of their hair round a kind of grass, and, like the girls, place it upon the tomb. Such are the honours paid to these damsels by the Delians.
35. They add that, once before, there came to Delos by the same road as Hyperoche and Laodice, two other virgins from the Hyperboreans, whose names were Arge and Opis. Hyperoche and Laodice came to bring to Ilithyia the offering which they had laid upon themselves, in acknowledgment of their quick labours; but Arge and Opis came at the same time as the gods of Delos, and are honoured by the Delians in a different way. For the Delian women make collections in these maidens' names, and invoke them in the hymn which Olen, a Lycian, composed for them; and the rest of the islanders, and even the Ionians, have been taught by the Delians to do the like. This Olen, who came from Lycia, made the other old hymns also which are sung in Delos. The Delians add that the ashes from the thigh-bones burnt upon the altar are scattered over the tomb of Opis and Arge. Their tomb lies behind the temple of Diana, facing the east, near the banqueting-hall of the Ceians. Thus much then, and no more, concerning the Hyperboreans.
36. As for the tale of Abaris, who is said to have been a Hyperborean, and to have gone with his arrow all round the world without once eating, I shall pass it by in silence. Thus much, however, is clear: if there are Hyperboreans, there must also be Hypernotians. For my part, I cannot but laugh when I see numbers of persons drawing maps of the world without having any reason to guide them; making, as they do, the ocean-stream to run all round the earth, and the earth itself to be an exact circle, as if described by a pair of compasses, with Europe and Asia just of the same size. The truth in this matter I will now proceed to explain in a very few words, making it clear what the real size of each region is, and what shape should be given them.
46. The Euxine sea, where Darius now went to war, has nations dwelling around it, with the one exception of the Scythians, more unpolished than those of any other region that we know of. For, setting aside Anacharsis and the Scythian people, there is not within this region a single nation which can be put forward as having any claims to wisdom, or which has produced a single person of any high repute. The Scythians indeed have in one respect, and that the very most important of all those that fall under man's control, shown themselves wiser than any nation upon the face of the earth. Their customs otherwise are not such as I admire. The one thing of which I speak is the contrivance whereby they make it impossible for the enemy who invades them to escape destruction, while they themselves are entirely out of his reach, unless it please them to engage with him. Having neither cities nor forts, and carrying their dwellings with them wherever they go; accustomed, moreover, one and all of them, to shoot from horseback; and living not by husbandry but on their cattle, their waggons the only houses that they possess, how can they fail of being unconquerable, and unassailable even?
47. The nature of their country, and the rivers by which it is intersected, greatly favour this mode of resisting attacks. For the land is level, well watered, and abounding in pasture; while the rivers which traverse it are almost equal in number to the canals of Egypt. Of these I shall only mention the most famous and such as are navigable to some distance from the sea. They are, the Ister, which has five mouths; the Tyras, the Hypanis, the Borysthenes, the Panticapes, the Hypacyris, the Gerrhus, and the Tanais. The courses of these streams I shall now proceed to describe.
48. The Ister is of all the rivers with which we are acquainted the mightiest. It never varies in height, but continues at the same level summer and winter. Counting from the west it is the first of the Scythian rivers, and the reason of its being the greatest is that it receives the water of several tributaries. Now the tributaries which swell its flood are the following: first, on the side of Scythia, these five- the stream called by the Scythians Porata, and by the Greeks Pyretus, the Tiarantus, the Ararus, the Naparis, and the Ordessus. The first mentioned is a great stream, and is the easternmost of the tributaries. The Tiarantus is of less volume, and more to the west. The Ararus, Naparis, and Ordessus fall into the Ister between these two. All the above mentioned are genuine Scythian rivers, and go to swell the current of the Ister.
49. From the country of the Agathyrsi comes down another river, the Maris, which empties itself into the same; and from the heights of Haemus descend with a northern course three mighty streams, the Atlas, the Auras, and the Tibisis, and pour their waters into it. Thrace gives it three tributaries, the Athrys, the Noes, and the Artanes, which all pass through the country of the Crobyzian Thracians. Another tributary is furnished by Paeonia, namely, the Scius; this river, rising near Mount Rhodope, forces its way through the chain of Haemus, and so reaches the Ister. From Illyria comes another stream, the Angrus, which has a course from south to north, and after watering the Triballian plain, falls into the Brongus, which falls into the Ister. So the Ister is augmented by these two streams, both considerable. Besides all these, the Ister receives also the waters of the Carpis and the Alpis, two rivers running in a northerly direction from the country above the Umbrians. For the Ister flows through the whole extent of Europe, rising in the country of the Celts (the most westerly of all the nations of Europe, excepting the Cynetians), and thence running across the continent till it reaches Scythia, whereof it washes the flanks.
50. All these streams, then, and many others, add their waters to swell the flood of the Ister, which thus increased becomes the mightiest of rivers; for undoubtedly if we compare the stream of the Nile with the single stream of the Ister, we must give the preference to the Nile, of which no tributary river, nor even rivulet, augments the volume. The Ister remains at the same level both summer and winter- owing to the following reasons, as I believe. During the winter it runs at its natural height, or a very little higher, because in those countries there is scarcely any rain in winter, but constant snow. When summer comes, this snow, which is of great depth, begins to melt, and flows into the Ister, which is swelled at that season, not only by this cause but also by the rains, which are heavy and frequent at that part of the year. Thus the various streams which go to form the Ister are higher in summer than in winter, and just so much higher as the sun's power and attraction are greater; so that these two causes counteract each other, and the effect is to produce a balance, whereby the Ister remains always at the same level.
51. This, then, is one of the great Scythian rivers; the next to it is the Tyras, which rises from a great lake separating Scythia from the land of the Neuri, and runs with a southerly course to the sea. Greeks dwell at the mouth of the river, who are called Tyritae.
52. The third river is the Hypanis. This stream rises within the limits of Scythia, and has its source in another vast lake, around which wild white horses graze. The lake is called, properly enough, the Mother of the Hypanis. The Hypanis, rising here, during the distance of five days' navigation is a shallow stream, and the water sweet and pure; thence, however, to the sea, which is a distance of four days, it is exceedingly bitter. This change is caused by its receiving into it at that point a brook the waters of which are so bitter that, although it is but a tiny rivulet, it nevertheless taints the entire Hypanis, which is a large stream among those of the second order. The source of this bitter spring is on the borders of the Scythian Husbandmen, where they adjoin upon the Alazonians; and the place where it rises is called in the Scythic tongue Exampaeus, which means in our language, "The Sacred Ways." The spring itself bears the same name. The Tyras and the Hypanis approach each other in the country of the Alazonians, but afterwards separate, and leave a wide space between their streams.
53. The fourth of the Scythian rivers is the Borysthenes. Next to the Ister, it is the greatest of them all; and, in my judgment, it is the most productive river, not merely in Scythia, but in the whole world, excepting only the Nile, with which no stream can possibly compare. It has upon its banks the loveliest and most excellent pasturages for cattle; it contains abundance of the most delicious fish; its water is most pleasant to the taste; its stream is limpid, while all the other rivers near it are muddy; the richest harvests spring up along its course, and where the ground is not sown, the heaviest crops of grass; while salt forms in great plenty about its mouth without human aid, and large fish are taken in it of the sort called Antacaei, without any prickly bones, and good for pickling. Nor are these the whole of its marvels. As far inland as the place named Gerrhus, which is distant forty days' voyage from the sea, its course is known, and its direction is from north to south; but above this no one has traced it, so as to say through what countries it flows. It enters the territory of the Scythian Husbandmen after running for some time across a desert region, and continues for ten days' navigation to pass through the land which they inhabit. It is the only river besides the Nile the sources of which are unknown to me, as they are also (I believe) to all the other Greeks. Not long before it reaches the sea, the Borysthenes is joined by the Hypanis, which pours its waters into the same lake. The land that lies between them, a narrow point like the beak of a ship, is called Cape Hippolaus. Here is a temple dedicated to Ceres, and opposite the temple upon the Hypanis is the dwelling-place of the Borysthenites. But enough has been said of these streams.
54. Next in succession comes the fifth river, called the Panticapes, which has, like the Borysthenes, a course from north to south, and rises from a lake. The space between this river and the Borysthenes is occupied by the Scythians who are engaged in husbandry. After watering their country, the Panticapes flows through Hylaea, and empties itself into the Borysthenes.
55. The sixth stream is the Hypacyris, a river rising from a lake, and running directly through the middle of the Nomadic Scythians. It falls into the sea near the city of Carcinitis, leaving Hylaea and the course of Achilles to the right.
56. The seventh river is the Gerrhus, which is a branch thrown out by the Borysthenes at the point where the course of that stream first begins to be known, to wit, the region called by the same name as the stream itself, viz. Gerrhus. This river on its passage towards the sea divides the country of the Nomadic from that of the Royal Scyths. It runs into the Hypacyris.
57. The eighth river is the Tanais, a stream which has its source, far up the country, in a lake of vast size, and which empties itself into another still larger lake, the Palus Maeotis, whereby the country of the Royal Scythians is divided from that of the Sauromatae. The Tanais receives the waters of a tributary stream, called the Hyrgis.
58. Such then are the rivers of chief note in Scythia. The grass which the land produces is more apt to generate gall in the beasts that feed on it than any other grass which is known to us, as plainly appears on the opening of their carcases.
59. Thus abundantly are the Scythians provided with the most important necessaries. Their manners and customs come now to be described. They worship only the following gods, namely, Vesta, whom they reverence beyond all the rest, Jupiter, and Tellus, whom they consider to be the wife of Jupiter; and after these Apollo, Celestial Venus, Hercules, and Mars. These gods are worshipped by the whole nation: the Royal Scythians offer sacrifice likewise to Neptune. In the Scythic tongue Vesta is called Tabiti, Jupiter (very properly, in my judgment) Papaeus, Tellus Apia, Apollo Oetosyrus, Celestial Venus Artimpasa, and Neptune Thamimasadas. They use no images, altars, or temples, except in the worship of Mars; but in his worship they do use them.
60. The manner of their sacrifices is everywhere and in every case the same; the victim stands with its two fore-feet bound together by a cord, and the person who is about to offer, taking his station behind the victim, gives the rope a pull, and thereby throws the animal down; as it falls he invokes the god to whom he is offering; after which he puts a noose round the animal's neck, and, inserting a small stick, twists it round, and so strangles him. No fire is lighted, there is no consecration, and no pouring out of drink-offerings; but directly that the beast is strangled the sacrificer flays him, and then sets to work to boil the flesh.
61. As Scythia, however, is utterly barren of firewood, a plan has had to be contrived for boiling the flesh, which is the following. After flaying the beasts, they take out all the bones, and (if they possess such gear) put the flesh into boilers made in the country, which are very like the cauldrons of the Lesbians, except that they are of a much larger size; then placing the bones of the animals beneath the cauldron, they set them alight, and so boil the meat. If they do not happen to possess a cauldron, they make the animal's paunch hold the flesh, and pouring in at the same time a little water, lay the bones under and light them. The bones burn beautifully; and the paunch easily contains all the flesh when it is stript from the bones, so that by this plan your ox is made to boil himself, and other victims also to do the like. When the meat is all cooked, the sacrificer offers a portion of the flesh and of the entrails, by casting it on the ground before him. They sacrifice all sorts of cattle, but most commonly horses.
62. Such are the victims offered to the other gods, and such is the mode in which they are sacrificed; but the rites paid to Mars are different. In every district, at the seat of government, there stands a temple of this god, whereof the following is a description. It is a pile of brushwood, made of a vast quantity of fagots, in length and breadth three furlongs; in height somewhat less, having a square platform upon the top, three sides of which are precipitous, while the fourth slopes so that men may walk up it. Each year a hundred and fifty waggon-loads of brushwood are added to the pile, which sinks continually by reason of the rains. An antique iron sword is planted on the top of every such mound, and serves as the image of Mars: yearly sacrifices of cattle and of horses are made to it, and more victims are offered thus than to all the rest of their gods. When prisoners are taken in war, out of every hundred men they sacrifice one, not however with the same rites as the cattle, but with different. Libations of wine are first poured upon their heads, after which they are slaughtered over a vessel; the vessel is then carried up to the top of the pile, and the blood poured upon the scymitar. While this takes place at the top of the mound, below, by the side of the temple, the right hands and arms of the slaughtered prisoners are cut off, and tossed on high into the air. Then the other victims are slain, and those who have offered the sacrifice depart, leaving the hands and arms where they may chance to have fallen, and the bodies also, separate.
63. Such are the observances of the Scythians with respect to sacrifice. They never use swine for the purpose, nor indeed is it their wont to breed them in any part of their country.
64. In what concerns war, their customs are the following. The Scythian soldier drinks the blood of the first man he overthrows in battle. Whatever number he slays, he cuts off all their heads, and carries them to the king; since he is thus entitled to a share of the booty, whereto he forfeits all claim if he does not produce a head. In order to strip the skull of its covering, he makes a cut round the head above the ears, and, laying hold of the scalp, shakes the skull out; then with the rib of an ox he scrapes the scalp clean of flesh, and softening it by rubbing between the hands, uses it thenceforth as a napkin. The Scyth is proud of these scalps, and hangs them from his bridle-rein; the greater the number of such napkins that a man can show, the more highly is he esteemed among them. Many make themselves cloaks, like the capotes of our peasants, by sewing a quantity of these scalps together. Others flay the right arms of their dead enemies, and make of the skin, which stripped off with the nails hanging to it, a covering for their quivers. Now the skin of a man is thick and glossy, and would in whiteness surpass almost all other hides. Some even flay the entire body of their enemy, and stretching it upon a frame carry it about with them wherever they ride. Such are the Scythian customs with respect to scalps and skins.
65. The skulls of their enemies, not indeed of all, but of those whom they most detest, they treat as follows. Having sawn off the portion below the eyebrows, and cleaned out the inside, they cover the outside with leather. When a man is poor, this is all that he does; but if he is rich, he also lines the inside with gold: in either case the skull is used as a drinking-cup. They do the same with the skulls of their own kith and kin if they have been at feud with them, and have vanquished them in the presence of the king. When strangers whom they deem of any account come to visit them, these skulls are handed round, and the host tells how that these were his relations who made war upon him, and how that he got the better of them; all this being looked upon as proof of bravery.
66. Once a year the governor of each district, at a set place in his own province, mingles a bowl of wine, of which all Scythians have a right to drink by whom foes have been slain; while they who have slain no enemy are not allowed to taste of the bowl, but sit aloof in disgrace. No greater shame than this can happen to them. Such as have slain a very large number of foes, have two cups instead of one, and drink from both.
67. Scythia has an abundance of soothsayers, who foretell the future by means of a number of willow wands. A large bundle of these wands is brought and laid on the ground. The soothsayer unties the bundle, and places each wand by itself, at the same time uttering his prophecy: then, while he is still speaking, he gathers the rods together again, and makes them up once more into a bundle. This mode of divination is of home growth in Scythia. The Enarees, or woman-like men, have another method, which they say Venus taught them. It is done with the inner bark of the linden-tree. They take a piece of this bark, and, splitting it into three strips, keep twining the strips about their fingers, and untwining them, while they prophesy.
68. Whenever the Scythian king falls sick, he sends for the three soothsayers of most renown at the time, who come and make trial of their art in the mode above described. Generally they say that the king is ill because such or such a person, mentioning his name, has sworn falsely by the royal hearth. This is the usual oath among the Scythians, when they wish to swear with very great solemnity. Then the man accused of having foresworn himself is arrested and brought before the king. The soothsayers tell him that by their art it is clear he has sworn a false oath by the royal hearth, and so caused the illness of the king- he denies the charge, protests that he has sworn no false oath, and loudly complains of the wrong done to him. Upon this the king sends for six new soothsayers, who try the matter by soothsaying. If they too find the man guilty of the offence, straightway he is beheaded by those who first accused him, and his goods are parted among them: if, on the contrary, they acquit him, other soothsayers, and again others, are sent for, to try the case. Should the greater number decide in favour of the man's innocence, then they who first accused him forfeit their lives.
69. The mode of their execution is the following: a waggon is loaded with brushwood, and oxen are harnessed to it; the soothsayers, with their feet tied together, their hands bound behind their backs, and their mouths gagged, are thrust into the midst of the brushwood; finally the wood is set alight, and the oxen, being startled, are made to rush off with the waggon. It often happens that the oxen and the soothsayers are both consumed together, but sometimes the pole of the waggon is burnt through, and the oxen escape with a scorching. Diviners- lying diviners, they call them- are burnt in the way described, for other causes besides the one here spoken of. When the king puts one of them to death, he takes care not to let any of his sons survive: all the male offspring are slain with the father, only the females being allowed to live.
70. Oaths among the Scyths are accompanied with the following ceremonies: a large earthern bowl is filled with wine, and the parties to the oath, wounding themselves slightly with a knife or an awl, drop some of their blood into the wine; then they plunge into the mixture a scymitar, some arrows, a battle-axe, and a javelin, all the while repeating prayers; lastly the two contracting parties drink each a draught from the bowl, as do also the chief men among their followers.
71. The tombs of their kings are in the land of the Gerrhi, who dwell at the point where the Borysthenes is first navigable. Here, when the king dies, they dig a grave, which is square in shape, and of great size. When it is ready, they take the king's corpse, and, having opened the belly, and cleaned out the inside, fill the cavity with a preparation of chopped cypress, frankincense, parsley-seed, and anise-seed, after which they sew up the opening, enclose the body in wax, and, placing it on a waggon, carry it about through all the different tribes. On this procession each tribe, when it receives the corpse, imitates the example which is first set by the Royal Scythians; every man chops off a piece of his ear, crops his hair close, and makes a cut all round his arm, lacerates his forehead and his nose, and thrusts an arrow through his left hand. Then they who have the care of the corpse carry it with them to another of the tribes which are under the Scythian rule, followed by those whom they first visited. On completing the circuit of all the tribes under their sway, they find themselves in the country of the Gerrhi, who are the most remote of all, and so they come to the tombs of the kings. There the body of the dead king is laid in the grave prepared for it, stretched upon a mattress; spears are fixed in the ground on either side of the corpse, and beams stretched across above it to form a roof, which is covered with a thatching of osier twigs. In the open space around the body of the king they bury one of his concubines, first killing her by strangling, and also his cup-bearer, his cook, his groom, his lacquey, his messenger, some of his horses, firstlings of all his other possessions, and some golden cups; for they use neither silver nor brass. After this they set to work, and raise a vast mound above the grave, all of them vying with each other and seeking to make it as tall as possible.
72. When a year is gone by, further ceremonies take place. Fifty of the best of the late king's attendants are taken, all native Scythians- for, as bought slaves are unknown in the country, the Scythian kings choose any of their subjects that they like, to wait on them- fifty of these are taken and strangled, with fifty of the most beautiful horses. When they are dead, their bowels are taken out, and the cavity cleaned, filled full of chaff, and straightway sewn up again. This done, a number of posts are driven into the ground, in sets of two pairs each, and on every pair half the felly of a wheel is placed archwise; then strong stakes are run lengthways through the bodies of the horses from tail to neck, and they are mounted up upon the fellies, so that the felly in front supports the shoulders of the horse, while that behind sustains the belly and quarters, the legs dangling in mid-air; each horse is furnished with a bit and bridle, which latter is stretched out in front of the horse, and fastened to a peg. The fifty strangled youths are then mounted severally on the fifty horses. To effect this, a second stake is passed through their bodies along the course of the spine to the neck; the lower end of which projects from the body, and is fixed into a socket, made in the stake that runs lengthwise down the horse. The fifty riders are thus ranged in a circle round the tomb, and so left.
73. Such, then, is the mode in which the kings are buried: as for the people, when any one dies, his nearest of kin lay him upon a waggon and take him round to all his friends in succession: each receives them in turn and entertains them with a banquet, whereat the dead man is served with a portion of all that is set before the others; this is done for forty days, at the end of which time the burial takes place. After the burial, those engaged in it have to purify themselves, which they do in the following way. First they well soap and wash their heads; then, in order to cleanse their bodies, they act as follows: they make a booth by fixing in the ground three sticks inclined towards one another, and stretching around them woollen felts, which they arrange so as to fit as close as possible: inside the booth a dish is placed upon the ground, into which they put a number of red-hot stones, and then add some hemp-seed.
74. Hemp grows in Scythia: it is very like flax; only that it is a much coarser and taller plant: some grows wild about the country, some is produced by cultivation: the Thracians make garments of it which closely resemble linen; so much so, indeed, that if a person has never seen hemp he is sure to think they are linen, and if he has, unless he is very experienced in such matters, he will not know of which material they are.
75. The Scythians, as I said, take some of this hemp-seed, and, creeping under the felt coverings, throw it upon the red-hot stones; immediately it smokes, and gives out such a vapour as no Grecian vapour-bath can exceed; the Scyths, delighted, shout for joy, and this vapour serves them instead of a water-bath; for they never by any chance wash their bodies with water. Their women make a mixture of cypress, cedar, and frankincense wood, which they pound into a paste upon a rough piece of stone, adding a little water to it. With this substance, which is of a thick consistency, they plaster their faces all over, and indeed their whole bodies. A sweet odour is thereby imparted to them, and when they take off the plaster on the day following, their skin is clean and glossy.
76. The Scythians have an extreme hatred of all foreign customs, particularly of those in use among the Greeks, as the instances of Anacharsis, and, more lately, of Scylas, have fully shown. The former, after he had travelled over a great portion of the world, and displayed wherever he went many proofs of wisdom, as he sailed through the Hellespont on his return to Scythia touched at Cyzicus. There he found the inhabitants celebrating with much pomp and magnificence a festival to the Mother of the Gods, and was himself induced to make a vow to the goddess, whereby he engaged, if he got back safe and sound to his home, that he would give her a festival and a night-procession in all respects like those which he had seen in Cyzicus. When, therefore, he arrived in Scythia, he betook himself to the district called the Woodland, which lies opposite the course of Achilles, and is covered with trees of all manner of different kinds, and there went through all the sacred rites with the tabour in his hand, and the images tied to him. While thus employed, he was noticed by one of the Scythians, who went and told king Saulius what he had seen. Then king Saulius came in person, and when he perceived what Anacharsis was about, he shot at him with an arrow and killed him. To this day, if you ask the Scyths about Anacharsis, they pretend ignorance of him, because of his Grecian travels and adoption of the customs of foreigners. I learnt, however, from Timnes, the steward of Ariapithes, that Anacharsis was paternal uncle to the Scythian king Idanthyrsus, being the son of Gnurus, who was the son of Lycus and the grandson of Spargapithes. If Anacharsis were really of this house, it must have been by his own brother that he was slain, for Idanthyrsus was a son of the Saulius who put Anacharsis to death.
77. I have heard, however, another tale, very different from this, which is told by the Peloponnesians: they say, that Anacharsis was sent by the king of the Scyths to make acquaintance with Greece- that he went, and on his return home reported that the Greeks were all occupied in the pursuit of every kind of knowledge, except the Lacedaemonians; who, however, alone knew how to converse sensibly. A silly tale this, which the Greeks have invented for their amusement! There is no doubt that Anacharsis suffered death in the mode already related, on account of his attachment to foreign customs, and the intercourse which he held with the Greeks.
78. Scylas, likewise, the son of Ariapithes, many years later, met with almost the very same fate. Ariapithes, the Scythian king, had several sons, among them this Scylas, who was the child, not of a native Scyth, but of a woman of Istria. Bred up by her, Scylas gained an acquaintance with the Greek language and letters. Some time afterwards, Ariapithes was treacherously slain by Spargapithes, king of the Agathyrsi; whereupon Scylas succeeded to the throne, and married one of his father's wives, a woman named Opoea. This Opoea was a Scythian by birth, and had brought Ariapithes a son called Oricus. Now when Scylas found himself king of Scythia, as he disliked the Scythic mode of life, and was attached, by his bringing up, to the manners of the Greeks, he made it his usual practice, whenever he came with his army to the town of the Borysthenites, who, according to their own account, are colonists of the Milesians- he made it his practice, I say, to leave the army before the city, and, having entered within the walls by himself, and carefully closed the gates, to exchange his Scythian dress for Grecian garments, and in this attire to walk about the forum, without guards or retinue. The Borysthenites kept watch at the gates, that no Scythian might see the king thus apparelled. Scylas, meanwhile, lived exactly as the Greeks, and even offered sacrifices to the gods according to the Grecian rites. In this way he would pass a month, or more, with the Borysthenites, after which he would clothe himself again in his Scythian dress, and so take his departure. This he did repeatedly, and even built himself a house in Borysthenes, and married a wife there who was a native of the place.
79. But when the time came that was ordained to bring him woe, the occasion of his ruin was the following. He wanted to be initiated in the Bacchic mysteries, and was on the point of obtaining admission to the rites, when a most strange prodigy occurred to him. The house which he possessed, as I mentioned a short time back, in the city of the Borysthenites, a building of great extent and erected at a vast cost, round which there stood a number of sphinxes and griffins carved in white marble, was struck by lightning from on high, and burnt to the ground. Scylas, nevertheless, went on and received the initiation. Now the Scythians are wont to reproach the Greeks with their Bacchanal rage, and to say that it is not reasonable to imagine there is a god who impels men to madness. No sooner, therefore, was Scylas initiated in the Bacchic mysteries than one of the Borysthenites went and carried the news to the Scythians "You Scyths laugh at us" he said, "because we rave when the god seizes us. But now our god has seized upon your king, who raves like us, and is maddened by the influence. If you think I do not tell you true, come with me, and I will show him to you." The chiefs of the Scythians went with the man accordingly, and the Borysthenite, conducting them into the city, placed them secretly on one of the towers. Presently Scylas passed by with the band of revellers, raving like the rest, and was seen by the watchers. Regarding the matter as a very great misfortune they instantly departed, and came and told the army what they had witnessed.
80. When, therefore, Scylas, after leaving Borysthenes, was about returning home, the Scythians broke out into revolt. They put at their head Octamasadas, grandson (on the mother's side) of Teres. Then Scylas, when he learned the danger with which he was threatened, and the reason of the disturbance, made his escape to Thrace. Octamasadas, discovering whither he had fled, marched after him, and had reached the Ister, when he was met by the forces of the Thracians. The two armies were about to engage, but before they joined battle, Sitalces sent a message to Octamasadas to this effect- "Why should there be trial of arms betwixt thee and me? Thou art my own sister's son, and thou hast in thy keeping my brother. Surrender him into my hands, and I will give thy Scylas back to thee. So neither thou nor I will risk our armies." Sitalces sent this message to Octamasadas, by a herald, and Octamasadas, with whom a brother of Sitalces had formerly taken refuge, accepted the terms. He surrendered his own uncle to Sitalces, and obtained in exchange his brother Scylas. Sitalces took his brother with him and withdrew; but Octamasadas beheaded Scylas upon the spot. Thus rigidly do the Scythians maintain their own customs, and thus severely do they punish such as adopt foreign usages.
81. What the population of Scythia is I was not able to learn with certainty; the accounts which I received varied from one another. I heard from some that they were very numerous indeed; others made their numbers but scanty for such a nation as the Scyths. Thus much, however, I witnessed with my own eyes. There is a tract called Exampaeus between the Borysthenes and the Hypanis. I made some mention of it in a former place, where I spoke of the bitter stream which rising there flows into the Hypanis, and renders the water of that river undrinkable. Here then stands a brazen bowl, six times as big as that at the entrance of the Euxine, which Pausanias, the son of Cleombrotus, set up. Such as have never seen that vessel may understand me better if I say that the Scythian bowl holds with ease six hundred amphorae, and is of the thickness of six fingers' breadth. The natives gave me the following account of the manner in which it was made. One of their kings, by name Ariantas, wishing to know the number of his subjects, ordered them all to bring him, on pain of death, the point off one of their arrows. They obeyed; and he collected thereby a vast heap of arrow-heads, which he resolved to form into a memorial that might go down to posterity. Accordingly, he made of them this bowl, and dedicated it at Exampaeus. This was all that I could learn concerning the number of the Scythians.
sStrabo - Geography:
"Now the greater part of the Scythians, beginning at the Caspian Sea, are called Däae, but those who are situated more to the east than these are named Massagetae and Sacae, whereas all the rest are given the general name of Scythians, though each people is given a separate name of its own. They are all for the most part nomads. But the best known of the nomads are those who took away Bactriana from the Greeks, I mean the Asii, Pasiani, Tochari, and Sacarauli, who originally came from the country on the other side of the Iaxartes River that adjoins that of the Sacae and the Sogdiani and was occupied by the Sacae. And as for the Däae, some of them are called Aparni, some Xanthii, and some Pissuri. Now of these the Aparni are situated closest to Hyrcania and the part of the sea that borders on it, but the remainder extend even as far as the country that stretches parallel to Aria. Between them and Hyrcania and Parthia and extending as far as the Arians is a great waterless desert, which they traversed by long marches and then overran Hyrcania, Nesaea, and the plains of the Parthians. And these people agreed to pay tribute, and the tribute was to allow the invaders at certain appointed times to overrun the country and carry off booty. But when the invaders overran their country more than the agreement allowed, war ensued, and in turn their quarrels were composed and new wars were begun. Such is the life of the other nomads also, who are always attacking their neighbors and then in turn settling their differences."
[Strabo, Geography, 11.8.1; trans. by H. C. Hamilton & W. Falconer (1903).]
Video Above: Kings and Generals' video on the rise and fall of the Scythians - the first nomadic conquerors in history, original horselords, who managed to take over most of the Ponto-Caspian Steppe in the Ancient era, fighting wars with Persians, Greeks and others.
Indo-European Studies is an interdisciplinary field of studies dealing with Indo-European cultures, languages—both ongoing and extinct—and it encompasses disciplines of anthropology, archaeology, history, genetics, and linguistics.
The Yamnaya culture is identified with the late Proto-Indo-Europeans, and the Pontic-Caspian steppe region is the most probable candidate for the Urheimat [i.e., original homeland] of the Proto-Indo-European language. Yamnaya culture is associated with pit graves whereby the Yamnaya peoples engaged in ceremonial burial in large pitted vaults, which typically included at least a single person, grave vessels, jewelry, coins, weapons, and horses.
The so-called Afanasevo culture of the southern Ural Mountains was the eastern offshoot of the Yamnaya people, The populations of both the Afanasevo and Yamnaya cultures are genetically indistinguishable. They were nomadic patriarchal peoples with a chiefdom system, and they made use of domesticated horses, wheeled carts, and wagons by which they managed their livestock herds.
Map to the Left: A topographical map of the Yamnaya Horizon, based on a map printed at page 651 in The Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, edited by J. P. Mallory and Douglas Q. Adams, and published by Taylor & Francis in 1997.
Photo Above: The Trundholm sun chariot. The chariot pulling the sun is a common Indo-European mythological motif.
In 1987, with the direction of a Russian university, an archaeological expedition was led at the sight of a newly discovered fortified settlement at the southern base of the Ural Mountains in Russia, which dated back to over two or three thousand years before Christ. This fortress, was named Arkaim (Ar-ka: sky and Im: earth), earned the nickname, the Russian Stonehenge, and is held to be older than the British Stonehenge monolith. The fortress town appears closely aligned to several celestial reference points, and doubled as an astronomical observatory based on the Mandala Principle as well as a fortress. Arkaim consisted of two circular walls encompassed by yet another defensive barrier that's 160 meters in diameter and a moat of water that's two meters wide. Between the walls were dwellings, and outside of the outer wall were domiciles as well. This fortress town had four gated points of entry. An aqueduct and sewage system was found. The complexity and intricacy of its structure demonstrate that it was not done sporadically, but with much contemplation and planning. It manifests the organizational complexity of the ancient society that originally built it.
Genetics has proven the assumptions of Victorian Age British and German historians and philologists, namely that the original writers of the Avestan and Sanskrit languages trace their ethnolinguistic origins to the Afanasevo and Sintashta–Petrovka cultures of the southern Urals, which is home of the monolithic citadel, Arkaim, discovered in 1987. The descendants of these peoples became Arya, Parthians, Saka, and Yuezhi. The select progeny of these peoples literally founded the holy writs of Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, and wrote the Avesta, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Upanishads. They subdued the Asiatic peoples to the south of them and built kingdoms to subjugate them.
Ancient Sanskrit texts pointed to their progenitors as coming from northern lands and stated that their ancestral peoples buried their horses with their masters. Being a nomadic people, Indo-Europeans, in general, had a strong connection to their horses, and their mythology gave significance to their connection to their horses in the afterlife. Not coincidentally the burial grounds of nearby Arkaim valleys feature burial mounts with horses.
The ancient Greek historians and philosophers had many myths traced to the primordial depths of the Ice Ages, and they spoke of the Hyperboreans, a race from the polar regions that built pillar works and monoliths seeking to mirror the celestial skies above. And it increasingly appears as though these Ural-Altaic regions commonly associated with Scythians and Indo-Iranians may have inspired these ancient myths popularized by the Greek writers.
Video documentaries:
The First Warriors of Europe - (Bronze Age)
The Koryos: the Indo-European Warband
Minoans, Origins of the Ancient
Horse Warriors: Mounted Warfare on the Steppe
Indo-Europeans?, Who Are The
Sintashta Culture: Bronze Age Chariot Warriors
Yamnaya: Faces of the Indo-Europeans
Above Illustration: Arkaim, situated in the steppe of the Southern Ural, 8.2 km (5.10 mi) north-to-northwest of the village of Amursky and 2.3 km (1.43 mi) south-to-southeast of the village of Alexandrovsky in the Chelyabinsk Oblast, in the present-day Russian Federation.
Video Above: Kings and Generals' animated documentary series on the Yuezhi, the nomadic Indo-European people who were neighbors of the Qin and Han Chinese dynasties and the Xiongnu and Wusun nomads, but were driven to Central Asia. From here the Yuezhi created their Kusha Empire in Central Asia and North India. This migration played a crucial role in the history of India, Iran, Central Asia and Buddhism.
MEDIEVALIST
"The Life of King Alfred" by Asser
From A.D. 849 to A.D. 887
In the year of our Lord's incarnation 849, was born Alfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, at the royal village of Wanating, (1) in Berkshire, which country has its name from the wood of Berroc, where the box-tree grows most abundantly. His genealogy is traced in the following order. King Alfred was the son of king Ethelwulf, who was the son of Egbert, who was the son of Elmund, was the son of Eafa, who was the son of Eoppa, who the son of Ingild. Ingild, and Ina, the famous king of the West-Saxons, were two brothers. Ina went to Rome, and there ending this life honourably, entered the heavenly kingdom, to reign there for ever with Christ. Ingild and Ina were the sons of Coenred, who was the son of Ceolwald, who was the son of Cudam, who was the son of Cuthwin, who was the son of Ceawlin, who was the son of Cynric, who was the son of Creoda, who was the son of Cerdic, who was the son of Elesa, who was the son of Gewis, from whom the Britonsname all that nation Gegwis, (2) who was the son of Brond, who was the son of Beldeg, who was the son of Woden, who was the son of Frithowald, who was the son of Frealaf, who was the son of Frithuwulf, who was the son of Finn of Godwulf, who was the son of Gear, which Geat the pagans long worshipped as a god. Sedulius makes mention of him in his metrical Paschal poem, as follows: --
When gentile poets with their fictions vain, In tragic language and bombastic strain, To their god Geat, comic deity, Loud praises sing, &c.
Geat was the son of Taetwa, who was the son of Beaw, who was the son of Sceldi, who was the son of Heremod, who was the son of Itermon, who was the son of Hathra, who was the son of Guala, who was the son of Bedwig, who was the son of Shem, who was the son of Noah, who was the son of Lamech, who was the son of Methusalem, who was the son of Enoch, who was the son of Malaleci, who was the son of Cainian, who was the son of Enos, who was the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam.
The mother of Alfred was named Osburga, a religious woman, noble both by birth and by nature; she was daughter of Oslac, the famous butler of king Ethtelwulf, which Oslac was a Goth by nation, descended from the Goths and Jutes, of the seed, namely, of Stuf and Whitgar, two brothers and counts; who, having received possession of the Isle of Wight from their uncle, King Cerdic, and his son Cynric their cousin, slew the few British inhabitants whom they could find in that island, at a place called Gwihtgaraburgh; (3) for the other inhabitants of the island had either been slain, or escaped into exile.
In the year of our Lord's incarnation 851, which was the third after the birth of king Alfred, Ceorl, earl of Devon, fought with the men of Devon against the pagans at a place called Wiegambeorg; (4) and the Christians gained the victory; and that same year the pagans first wintered in the island called Sheppey, which means the Sheep-isle, and is situated in the river Thames between Essex and Kent, but is nearer to Kent than to Essex; it has in it a fine monastery. (5)
The same year also a great army of the pagans came with three hundred and fifty ships to the mouth of the river Thames, and sacked Dorobernia, (6)which is the city of the Cantuarians, and also the city of London, which lies on the north bank of the river Thames, on the confines of Essex and Middlesex; but yet that city belongs in truth to Essex; and they put to flight Berthwulf, king of Mercia, with all the army, which he had led out to oppose them.
After these things, the aforesaid pagan host went into Surrey, which is a district situated on the south bank of the river Thames, and to the west of Kent. And Ethelwulf, king of the West-Saxons, and his son Ethelbald, with all their army, fought a long time against them at a place called Ac-lea, (7) i.e. the Oak-plain, and there, after a lengthened battle, which was fought with much bravery on both sides, the greater part of the pagan multitude was destroyed and cut to pieces, so that we never heard of their being so defeated, either before or since, in any country, in one day; and the Christians gained an honourable victory, and were triumphant over their graves.
In the same year king Athelstan, son of king Ethelwulf, and earl Ealhere slew a large army of pagans in Kent, at a place called Sandwich, and took nine ships of their fleet; the others escaped by flight.
In the year of our Lord's incarnation 853, which was the fifth of king Alfred, Burhred king of the Mercians, sent messengers, and prayed Ethelwulf, king of the West Saxons, to come and help him in reducing the midland Britons, who dwell between Mercia and the western sea, and who struggled against him most immoderately. So without delay, king Ethelwulf, having received the embassy, moved his army, and advanced with king Burhred against Britain, (8