Vlad the invader - lessons from history

Dear Diary,

I am a student of history, most especially ancient history. There was an Oliver Stone interview/documentary with Vladimir Putin (2017) in which I could not help but notice that the Russian Premiere was incredibly well read. He has read his Homer, and understands the Western Intellectual Tradition. This is not without its dangers. As Jack Weatherford pointed out in his book Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World (2004), once the Uyghurs had taught the Mongols how to read and write, and translators were brought in, Genghis Khan made a close study of Sun Tzu's Art of War and evolved upon its principles, ousting its apparent canonical status by providing workarounds and oblique tactics that both adopted its more effective elements, and also, more importantly, anticipated its rigid strategy, adapting to his enemy's known modus operandi.

As a scholar of history I feel that several important points should be understood by the West, when defending against the immense weight and power of the Russian invasion (which can hopefully be dialled down, but that seems unlikely, somehow). I translated this in April 2020, which is not without its ripples in the psitronic wavefront (prophecy):

...Asia’s height of power: demolished,
had fallen down, surpassing the work of the heavenly gods;
and whoever takes up his arms comes to the cool waters,
drinking from the seven mouthed river Don branching out,
and first following a newborn day joins the tepid
Tigris, in its ruddy tributary, and looking out for its neighbours,
the nomad Scythians strike a death blow to the shores
of the Black Sea with a destitute band that’s cut down
by the sword. Pergamum had thrown itself on to it. Behold!
Its towering ornaments, built up walls fall to the ground,
defences burnt down: flames surround the palace, and all
the homes of Assaracus smouldering far and wide.
A flame does not allow the greedy hands of victory,
burning Troy is ravaged. Heaven doesn’t suffer covered
with black smoke, as a thick cloud of it is rising upwards,
the ashes of the Trojan dead, filthy in daytime.
The greedy victor stands in rage and pliant Ilium
is gauged by the eyes as a desert unforgiven.

Seneca, Trojan Women ll.6-24 (second century C.E.)

Vladimir Putin too, as well as being incredibly well read, is also a keen historian. There is a precedent for invasion, historically, from a not unstudied premiere writing an academic essay on the historic links between Ukraine and Russie (Putin, 2021 [found here]). Seemingly it is standard reading for troops on the front line (Wasielewski and Jones, 2022 [found here]).

So what's my reaction? Well, the first thing I did was read Sun Tzu's The Art of War (孫子兵法), thanks to working for a Chinese company last year, I could even pick out the odd word in Chinese, but for the most part read Lionel Giles' translation (1910 [found here]).

The next thing I did was read Frontinus' Stratagems, in Latin, and indeed Polynaeus' Stratagies (albeit in translation, him writing in Ancient Greek [found here] trans. R. Shepherd, 1793).

Yet this is not enough. I got to thinking about General 'Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf's effacious invasion of Iraq, Operation Desert Storm, and his use of the tactics by the Carthaginians during Battle of Cannae (which can be found here) in 216 B.C.E.

Never mind classics, and Stormin' Norman's tactics are not so effective in an era of smartphones and greater satellite access to the common man. Alas, what is there? Well I got to thinking about how the Afghanis managed to overthrow one of the world's greatest superpowers (if not the greatest superpower, with all its allies and great machinations) through guerrilla warfare, and how the Ukranians (God bless them) might stand up to this Russian Bear in the face of adversity (more on this can be found here; there is also an important review of Russia's potential avenues of approach here).

Being a historian, I read a lot (and I mean a lot) and one book I read, which is an excellent book by the way, discusses a similar situation. I quote:

"IRA tactics shifted from attacks on individual [soldiers]... and raids on... barracks to ambushes against army... patrols conducted by 'flying columns' - groups of about twenty five armed men [nearly 'platoon' strength] on full-time active duty , supported by local IRA companies. This was the ideal form of offensive and defensive warfare. By trial and error, according to one historian, 'the IRA had stumbled on the type of warfare... extensively copied since... Latin America to Vietnam, in which the advantage of a committed and motivated force, local knowledge and support outweighs the numerical superiority and vast armed resources of the occupying force.' Its impact can be seen in the casualty figures." (McMahon, 2008, p.39 [British Spies and Irish Rebels: British Intelligence and Ireland 1916-1945].

There is a lot more to it than that: sensitive political policies, overt and covert intelligence, political and military intelligence, it's quite a deep subject. But one thing is for sure, if the Ukranians fight this war (which will probably happen, sadly, this year, or the next) as the Afghans or the IRA did, they will be assured of victory, despite all the advantages which the invading force has.

There is also another important point, that the ancients, particularly the Mongols, but also many ancient empires, didn't actually have the moral foundations and international laws against genocide or war crimes, so modern democracies have a more sensitive framework and operate in a more compassionate manner. Equally, one cannot expect dictatorships like China, Russia and North Korea (or even Afghanistan) to operate under similar principles or even respect the rule of law (China ignoring the UN ruling over the sea boundaries in the South China Sea is a good example of this system breaking down). It is not right, it is not correct, but it is the way it actually is.

Max.

Marcus Aurelius - a useful guide to life

Dear Diary,

I was in that... place again, and was not looking forward to slaving for those brutish beasts, scarcely human. I read, and I mean I read a lot. You might say that reading books, writing books and translating books is my 'thing'. Were you to come into my apartment, all you would see is books (and in the corner some musical instruments, and my little dog Ronulus Latrator 'Ronnie Barker'). That's it. I spend most all the money I earn on books. So, today I thought I would read Marcus Aurelius' To Myself (commonly translated as 'Meditations'). My Ancient Greek is not as good as my Latin, so I am reading it in translation (I have half a dozen or so different translations of it). I am reading his letters to himself in order and this is the passage I read immediately before going to work:

For such a man, who no longer postpones his endeavour to take his place among the best, is indeed a priest and servant of the gods, behaving rightly towards the deity stationed within him, so ensuring that the moral being remains unpolluted by pleasures, invulnerable to every pain, untouched by any wrong, unconscious of any evil, a wrestler in the great contest of all, never to be overthrown by any passion, deeply steeped in justice, welcoming with his whole heart all that comes about and is allotted to him, and never, save under some great necessity and for the good of his fellows, giving thought to what another is saying or doing or thinking. For he devotes himself solely to the realisation of his own duty, and is always mindful of what is assigned to him from the whole; and he fulfils his duty through fine deeds, and is convinced that whatever is allotted to him is good; for fate assigned to each person accompanies him through life and is only to his benefit.
From Marcus Aurelius' Meditations 3.4 translated by Robin Hard (2011, p.18 [Oxford World's Classics]).

Work went well, without a hitch.

There are many other passages from within this same book which are just as instrumental. Okay, sure, this is a nation of beggars, paupers and slaves (certainly since the widening division between rich and poor is readily apparent since the 2008 crash and its fallout [evidence for this can be found here], and even more so since the Neo-Plague has swept the world - the biggest transfer of wealth in history, with millions of smaller businesses being hit hard and the corporations creaming off more and more profits). Therefore, even if all you can do with your master's degree in Classical Latin in Dark Age Britain is unskilled labour for minimum wage (or volunteer 'work' - that's if you're lucky - which is slavery, however you dress it up), it doesn't matter. There is a big wide world out there, so one should be philosophical, not only about not having any life worth living at all, but also about death - which is as nothing to a true philosopher.

Max.

Reason - the foundation of humanity

Dear Diary,

If there's one thing I don't like, it's being put in impossible situations. One tries one's best, one works hard and does the best one can. Yet tonight at that... place, I was told, firmly, aggressively, that I am not to take two pizza off the conveyor belt at once. This is the only way, I am able to keep ahead of the curve, to stop pizza from going all over the floor. (No one else there does two at a time, and in truth, there is room enough for three pizza).

Alas, I tried to reason with this... person, and asked, "What about if there were two pizza of different sizes? Would you allow me to take two off the conveyor belt then? For surely there is no way that they could be confused." I was told a flat no: I am to do only one at a time. This... person, is beyond all reason. There is no compromise. He expects me to work twice as hard while simultaneously cutting my potential ability to work in half. He (the younger thug) said, as he laughed, "this is your 'course'" alluding to my academic studies.

In the second century of the Christian Era Seneca the Younger (Moral Letters 76.10) once wrote, "What is so special about man? Reason." (trans. Latham). Likewise, Seneca wrote (Moral Letters 76.9), "What is the best thing for man? Reason: this is what animals fall short of but it follows the gods." (trans. Latham). These people (if they can be called such) are less human, but more animal, lacking reason,.

I had this with the Chinese firm, expecting to edit work where there is nothing wrong with it, but being told that I must change it (when it is free from error). This is all because of an inflexible, unreasonable demand from a tyrant, again more animal than human. All because of a hard sell down a telephone from a receptionist demanding a "deep edit" (for more money) when none was required.

I am not a fan of being put in an impossible situation, and I foresee, that tomorrow night at that... place, I will be put in such a situation. Friday nights are crazy busy. I have taken appropriate measures, naturally. I don't actually care, at all, about some frivolous unskilled labour job I did as an undergraduate, for minimum wage. You can be certain that I will be taking a torch, appropriate layers of clothes and a good set of boots (for I have had to make this journey with no light, no moon, nothing but a T-shirt and no torch before) to work, for walking home two hours across difficult terrain. I have done this before, and will do it again. I refuse to be put in a situation where I am expected to work faster, yet am ordered by some hoodlum to half my potential work load.

I have a few irons in the fire (well, maybe more than a few...). I have several publications just about to come out, and more than that, I have worked hard enough over the past month to keep myself on an even keel, at least for a little while. There are also noises about making a new school, a new academy (appropriately named the Unseen University) I have the honour of being co-founder. Let's not worry too much about those... people, unreasonable, bullish, and without the ability to compromise. They ridicule my education, so let them. They will be laughing on the other side of their faces when they are stuck in a dead-end job for minimum wage when pouring scorn on scholars. "And Sir knight, hereafter speak well of scholars" Marlowe, Dr. Faustus, Scene 10, ll.81-82 [A text].

Frontinus, Stratagems - Prologue translated

Although but one man, I’d agreed to set the science of the military’s business in order, from a number of studies of it, and being determined, our care for it had been effective. I should be satisfied at having looked into it. I bear witness to having thus far been bound to have arranged the work, that the ingenuity of generals had made, which are understood by one name from the Greeks: στρατηγήματα (‘stratagems’). I should sum up their memoirs, having prepared them. So, of the plan, and also of providence, generals will be furnished with examples, whence a means of having thought similar situations through and produced solutions may be cultivated from those examples. After this, whoever would compare it to proven experiences would grasp its invention, lest he might hesitate regarding what had happened.

I am not ignorant of, nor do I deny that which had been handed down, and the writers of brave deeds in the encompassing of the work itself. And this part is to be understood both from whichever examples there are by authors, and only by proof. But, as I believe, one is bound to have considered the speed at which the authors were taken. For throughout a huge body of histories to be followed up, it is long, and each one scattered. And these noteworthy men who had been picked out had been jumbled together, as though collecting them for a heap of materials. Our application expands the work, as whatever the matter would demand, what is demanded is as though it should submit to being cross-examined. I prepared suitable considerations of the examples, just like by having examined their kinds closely. However, for a variety of things, the more they are closely discerned, the more they could have been put in order. We divided them into three books. In the first book there will be examples which would be suitable for a battle which has not yet been fought. In the second book are examples which would pertain to battle and peace making being brought about. The third will contain στρατηγήματα (‘stratagems’) for making and breaking a siege. I assigned the forms for their kinds in order.

I agree that I should arrive at this labour not unjustly, nor should I be blamed due to carelessness: a man who would have rediscovered any previously overlooked example from us. For who might be employed to enumerate all the monumental records which were handed down in one language or another? But I allowed much to pass me by and what they might know. I did this not without good reason. Likewise, of expectations, whoever would read the books of others, the truth will be easy to bring beneath each form. Since this work, the reason I would have undertaken it, thus the rest, is that it can be of more use to others than my own recommendation, and to have helped me from these anecdotes. Whoever would build upon something, I should not believe is to be blamed for that.

Whoever might memorise these volumes of στρατηγικοί (‘strategic treaties’) and στρατηγήματα (‘stratagems’) by heart will discern a very similar nature from them. All the στρατηγήματα (‘stratagems’) which are to be had by the foresighted general, usefully, magnificently, firmly, will come into being, if the στρατηγήματα (‘stratagems’) are in the form of them. A particular power in posited craft and skill of these matters succeeds, so when one is forewarned, the enemy could be overthrown. Where, in the matter of words, since being worked out, brought to light and also made manifest, as we had placed examples of things done, so it is of what was said.

Sextus Julius Frontinus, Stratagems written perhaps between 84-96 C.E.
Translated by Maxwell Lewis Latham, 25th-26th of January, 2022.

Notes:

‘may be cultivated’ nutriatur can also be a different verb nutrire (not the deponent verb nutriri) meaning ‘could have been nourished’.

‘lest he might hesitate regarding what had happened’ ne de eventu trepidet could just as likely mean ‘regarding the event, he should not hesitate’ or even ‘he should not be afraid of misfortune’.

‘But I allowed much to pass me by’ at multa et transire mihi ipse permisi could instead mean ‘But himself and I allowed much to be omitted’ perhaps even ‘But he passed me and many others by and I allowed it’.

‘the truth will be easy’ verum facile erit could alternatively mean ‘But how easily it will be [done]’.

Roman history - my latest project(s)

Dear Diary,

Besides that... place, I have recently revisited an old friend, as it were: Frontinus' στρατηγήματα ('Stratagems'), which is in Latin, despite its Greek title. I remember studying Roman imperial history and archaeology as an undergraduate (A340 - which is a fantastic module by the way, despite my quibbles and rants about terming 'civilisation': 'complex society' and so forth). I remember translating a section of it back then (some six years ago now) and it coming out completely different to Bennett's translation, which was done just over 100 years ago (in 1921), and is still quite readable.

Although readable, it is not, I feel, entirely faithful to the Latin text (though it is for the most part). Frontinus' Latin can be a little elusive at times (for there are many many different interpretations of each sentence, and indeed numerous definitions of every word). Thus, I find myself also having to interpolate the odd word (though this is strictly speaking a 'no no') simply to make sense of a particular sentence. Even so, Frontinus' στρατηγήματα has rekindled my love for Roman military history. Frontinus reached the rank of praetor, though his term was short lived. He was an immensely practical man, but also industrious, virtuous, and where many others were idle or corrupt, he maintained his integrity. He was almost like the epitome of a good Roman: a soldier, a farmer (he wrote an extant treatise on agriculture), and a statesman that gave more to his country than it conferred upon him. However, his treatise On Aqueducts (where we garner most of the biographical facts about his life) is extremely boring, like you would not believe. That is, unless you happen to be a civil engineer. It is said that people choose this vocation because accounting is too exciting for them. Like I said, it is so dull, unless civil engineering is your 'thing'. This is not to diminish civil engineering, which is an immensely useful and practical subject. Whereas we here in Britain have almost all bankers and economists in top positions, every single person who is senior in the Chinese administration each holds a degree in civil engineering. It's plain, but rather useful.

There is a mention of Frontinus in Tacitus' Histories which discusses his term as praetor (4.39) and I have been reading Kenneth Wellesly's translation, which is, I must say, one of the very best translations I have ever read. Robert Graves' translation of Tacitus' Histories is also worthy. I accidentally bought a copy of Tacitus' Histories in Latin while studying my master's degree (the premium Oxford critical edition) thinking I was buying the Annals. It was a costly mistake, but boy am I glad I have both in my collection. I really like Tacitus, but he is very tricky to translate (certainly as prose authors go, not having to work out scansion in odd metres such as with Catullus or Seneca).

Therefore, I intend to translate Frontinus' στρατηγήματα, which is a fascinating read. I am almost done finished translating the prologue (which has taken me two days already). It is a crying shame that Frontinus' Art of War didn't survive. It would have been a nice Western equivalent to Sun Tzu's magnum opus. As Benedict Cumberbatch's character (playing Dominic Cummings) in the Brexit movie highlighted, such books on tactics can be applied to other spheres: in this case, politics.

Max.

Academic essay (ancient serpent symbolism)

This is the first draft of an academic essay, which will probably be 'sanitised' and purged of many of the more important references before publication, and indeed 'massaged' to cater to its intended audience: hermetic practitioners. I have yet to add many sources from Norse mythology, Hinduism, Buddhism and even the Holy Bible, as well as Judaism. I am aware that this is a small audience, but I thought, perhaps, you might find it interesting.

This essay glances at the symbolic meanings of the snake or serpent coiled around the staff of Asclepius, as attested by ancient literary sources. It is, mostly concerned only with the single serpent coiled around Asclepius’ staff, not the twin serpent of Hermes’ caduceus. In the ancient world, the serpent was a complex symbol (James, 2011, p.53). On the surface of it there might seem to be an ὄφις (‘serpent, snake’) at Corpus Hermeticum 1.4 but this noun does not actually appear in any manuscript but is an assumed interpolation (Nock/Festugière, 2020, p.7). Brian Copenhaver includes it in his translation (2000, p.1), yet it does not feature in either Marsilio Ficino’s Latin translation (cf. Latham, 2020, p.3) or the translation by Salaman et al. (2004, p.20), which follows the Ancient Greek’s word order and definitions much more closely than Copenhaver’s translation does (who very often follows Nock’s French rendition). Serpents are mentioned again at Corpus Hermeticum 1.11 in the context of a Creation myth, but that aside, snakes, serpents or dragons are all absent from the other philosophical hermetica (cf. Litwa, 2018), though there is an allusion to followers of the serpent Typhon (Set) in Stobaeus’ hermetic ‘fragments’ (23.53 see also Bull, 2018, pp.114-115).

Writing in the mid first century C.E. Pliny the Elder (29.22.72) explained that the cures obtained from snakes were the reason why they were sacred to Asclepius. Pliny went on to relate that Democritus believed that Asclepius’ snake made it possible for people to communicate with birds. Furthermore, he explained that people kept snakes as pets at Rome, which related to the miraculous legend about Asclepius voyaging to Epidaurus, allegedly in the form of a snake. This was elucidated by the early first century C.E. writer Valerius Maximus (1.8.2) and also the doctor and adherent of Asclepius (Levi, 1979, p.2), Pausanias (3.23.6-7), who wrote during the mid to late second century. In any case, the reason Asclepius’ serpent is symbolic of medicine, healing or even reviving the dead seems to be because the snake sheds its skin, that is, according to an anonymous, undated ancient commentator on a manuscript of Aristophanes’ comedy Wealth (733 in Edelstein, 1998, p.366). This is also supported by evidence from Saint Cosmas, perhaps writing during the early-mid fourth century C.E. in a poem to Gregory of Nazianzenus the Elder (102). ‘The serpent is a symbol of perennial youth. For the serpent is said to shed old age and grow young again. Therefore, since Asclepius renews the human body by his medical skill, they associate him with the serpent.’ (trans. Edelstein, 1998, p.367). The late third century or early fourth century Christian author, Eusebius (Preparation for the Gospel 3.11.26) noted that Asclepius’ snake was a sign of preservation of both the body and soul, again relating it to medicine.

There is a curious parallel between the late second century or early third century C.E. author Artemidorus (The Interpretation of Dreams 2.13) and the second century writer Apuleius (Defence Against Magic 64.5-8), and indeed others. While Artemidorus associated the serpent with a king (βασιλεύς), Apuleius, on trial for practising magic, was accused of having a statuette of Hermes which he also called by the same name (βασιλεύς). In a spirited defence, Apuleius explained (64.5-7) that this king was the eternal Craftsman of the Universe, a tireless worker, the eternal saviour of living beings, the sublime progenitor of the soul, citing and quoting surviving Platonic texts (Letters 2.312e; for this Hermes being identified with Hermes Trismegistus see Plato, Phaedrus 247b-247c also Jones, 2017, p.156 n.120).

Saint Cosmas (Poem to Gregory of Nazianzenus the Elder 102) also associated the serpent with the constellation Ophiuchus, the serpent bearer, with Asclepius embodying this group of stars, equating it with the myth as recounted by Eratosthenes (Epitome 6 cf. Hyginus, Astronomy 2.14, 3.15. For a translation of all three and commentary see Hard, 2015, pp.59-64). The first century C.E. author Cornutus (in Edelstein, 1998, p.368) combined the fact that the symbol was a medical attribute yet also a sign of προσοχῆς (‘attention’). Festus, preserved in the writings of Paul the Deacon during the eighth century (On the Meaning of Words 67M) wrote that Asclepius’ serpent was ever vigilant, explaining that dogs were also used in Asclepius’ healing temples (110M), which is also evidenced by Pausanias (2.27.2). Artemidorus (2.13) explained that the serpent stood for wealth and possessions, because it keeps guard over treasure. Alan Watts argued that Asclepius’ serpent (albeit in the form of the caduceus: the twin serpent) was two fold, one of poison, the other of healing (1959, p.79), and that according to Gnostic belief there are three kinds of people: the pneumatic, psychic and the hylic (pp.160-161), this last kind being essentially materialistic (cf. Lazzarelli’s commentary on Asclepius 7 in Latham, 2020, p.144). Artemidorus (2.13) also equated the serpent with numerous other deities, including Asclepius, but also Zeus, Demeter, Kore, Hecate and others.

Other symbolic meanings of the serpent Artemidorus (2.13) related included time, because the serpent sheds its old age and becomes young again. Artemidorus equated this with the turning of the seasons of the year. Later authors such as the sixth century writer John Lydus (On the Months 3.39.4 see also trans. Hooker, 2017, p.35 n.17 for alternative interpretations) and the late fourth century or early fifth century author Servius (On the Aeneid 5.85) both associated the serpent with ancient Egypt, the οὐρηβόρος serpent eating its own tail was symbolic of the year. (For different hermetic parallels see Bull, 2018, pp.302-303). This is corroborated and explained further still by the fifth century author Macrobius (Saturnalia 1.19.15- 1.20.5) who discussed the symbolism of Asclepius’ serpent in terms of the Zodiac and other meanings, such as embodying well-being, at considerable length. J.S.M. Ward (1926, p.63) wrote that when the serpent is depicted as holding its tail in its mouth (οὐρηβόρος), ‘it becomes an emblem of the Ancient of Days, the Almighty. In this aspect it is God the Father, the Creator, but as the circle it further represents Brahm[a] the Incomprehensible, the All-embracing. Thus in itself it is the ‘Trimurti’ the Three in One, and it is also the One Incomprehensible, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End… Thus it is shown in Hindu temples shading Vishnu from the rays of the sun while he sleeps, and the same idea was carried forward into Buddhism, for Buddha is similarly depicted shaded by the five-headed cobra [cf. p.256]. As the emblem of the Preserver, it is the link and the balance between birth and death…’ Christian H. Bull (2018, p.346) points out that the two serpentine legs of Abraxas are often shaped like a Greek omega.

Perhaps the most blatant example of οὐρηβόρος in popular culture as being a Luciferian symbol is in Roman Polanski’s controversial movie The Ninth Gate (1999) when Lena Olin’s character seduces Johnny Depp’s character only to reveal her tattoo, a mark of belonging to the Order of the Silver Serpent. Alan Watts, in his discussion of mythology and ritual practices in Christianity (1959) explained that the serpent in Christianity is Lucifer (p.52), but that the symbolism is involved and complicated, containing of layers of interpretation. For example, one interpretation of the serpent in Hebrew, in the Holy Bible could be translated as ‘The Shining One’ (Ward, 1926, p.63). Equally, an interpretation of the symbol of the serpent, rooted in Hindu mythology, is that it is symbolic of wisdom and perseverance (p.30). This symbolic viewpoint also ‘corresponds fairly closely with the Brahmin teaching of the descent and ascent of the Divine spark in man. If these being so, we can perceive that once the key to the allegory was lost, the serpent would cease to be divine and become the Tempter, the Evil One. In a similar way… Set, who at first was at least coequal with Osiris and quite as good, became in time to be regarded as evil, because he represented darkness. There, too, we find the serpent as the symbol of evil…’ (p.64).

Regarding this point Alan Watts wrote, ‘In the myth of Osiris, [whose name means] ‘he who springs from the returning waters’, the body of God - slain by Set the Evil One - is found within a giant tamarisk or pine tree which had been cut down and used for the central pillar of the Palace of Byblos. Attis, son of the virgin Nana, died by self-sacrifice under a pine tree. Gautama the Buddha, son of Māyā, attained his supreme Awakening as he sat in meditation beneath the Bo Tree. Odin learned the wisdom of the runes upon the World-Tree, with a spear cut from the same Tree.’ (Watts, 1959, pp.158-159). Furthermore, Watts pointed out that ‘the problem of Lucifer, who should have remained the symbol not of ‘deliberate malice’ but of the necessary ‘dark side’ of life, of shadow, revealing light by contrast, of darkness as the Light-Bearer [Latin: lux + fero]... would correspond to what the Chinese call yin and yang, the dark, negative, and feminine aspect of life, in complementary opposition to the light, positive, and masculine - the two represented together as the interlocked commas or fish, one black and one white, one ascending and one descending. In the West, this same symbol is found as the zodiacal sign of Pisces, and the two opposed fishes are a common motif of early Christian gems - Christ himself being the ascending fish.’ (pp.82-83).

Alan Watts emphasised that the tree of knowledge of good and evil under which the serpent sleeps calls to mind Yggdrasil of Norse mythology with the worm Nidhug beneath its roots (Watts, 1959, p.79 cf. Ward, 1926, p.64). Watts also discussed a curious symbolic parallel with Kundalini yoga, the ‘tree’ being the spinal cord, the flowering plant, at the top within the head is the thousand petalled lotus sahasrāra, with the emblem of the sun beneath the dome of the firmament: man being a microcosm of the universe, an archetype. At the root of the tree are the sexual organs, ‘there sleeps the serpent Kundalini entwined about the phallus. So long as the serpent remains at the root of the tree, asleep, man is ‘fallen’… his divine consciousness is asleep.’ (Watts, 1959, p.80). In Hindu mythology, the serpent has a dual role, corresponding to two movements in the eternal spectacle, one where God (Vishnu) sleeps, and dreams that he is the multiplicity of human beings, the other where God awakens and realises his divinity. ‘Downward in its roots, the serpent is the divine One asleep, enchanted by his own spell; upward the sun lotus, the serpent, is the same divine One disenchanted, free from the illusion [māyā: darkness] that he is divided…’ (p.80). Watts did, however, add an important caveat: ‘a sexually self-conscious culture such as our own must be aware of its natural tendency to see religion as a symbolising of sex, for to sexually uncomplicated people it has always been obvious that sex is a symbol of religion. That is to say, the ecstatic self-abandonment of nuptial love is the average man’s nearest approach to the selfless state of mystical or metaphysical experience. For this reason the act of love is the easiest and most readily intelligible illustration of what it is like to be in ‘union with God’, to live the eternal life, free from self and time.’ (pp.104-105).

In conclusion, the serpent, indeed Asclepius’ serpent is a complex symbol. It may symbolise the renewal and preservation of life through the science of medicine, or even practising a holistic well being lifestyle. This interpretation of Asclepius’ symbol survives today in the World Health Organisation’s logo.

Another interpretation could be that Asclepius’ serpent is to do with stellar mythology, astrological interpretations (especially in Macrobius’ Saturnalia), or even the sign of Pisces through comparative religion. Again, though mostly secular, this interpretation of Asclepius’ serpent survives today as the logo for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab.

Perhaps the most challenging aspect of this polysemous symbol is its paradoxical treatment in Judeo-Christian texts and the classical world, as the serpent that tempted Eve. Ward (1926, pp.63-64) noted that, ‘Students of the Bible will do well… to bear in mind that the opening chapters of Genesis are undoubtedly not an historical statement, but a mystical and allegorical story… The Garden of Eden… was never on the physical plane, but in the stages of life before matter is reached, and the whole of these chapters is an allegorical account of the descent of the spirit so that it might acquire experience… […] …There is a deeper and more complex meaning in this dual character of the serpent which can only be mentioned in passing. Evil is… the opposite of good, and is as necessary for the training of man as good. Hence the Tempter likewise serves God and enables us by bitter experience to learn the needful lessons, and so, when our long journey is ended, we shall find that evil is an illusion and ‘The Enemy of Mankind’ was really its greatest friend, and is in truth the Wisdom of God manifesting itself forth in a strange but necessary disguise.’ The serpent, in this context, symbolises Divine Wisdom.

Word count: 2,197.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Apuleius (2017) Apuleius - Apologia Florida De deo Socratis trans. Jones, C.P., Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts and London.

Artemidorus (2020) Artemidorus - The Interpretation of Dreams trans. Hammond, M., Oxford World’s Classics, Oxford.

Eratosthenes, Hyginus and Aratus (2015) Eratosthenes and Hyginus - Constellation Myths with Aratus’s Phaenomena trans. Hard, R., Oxford World’s Classics, Oxford.

Lydus, J. (2017) John Lydus - On the Months trans. Hooker, M., courtesy of Roger Pearce. Available at Archive.org: https://archive.org/details/JohnLydusOnTheMonthsTr.Hooker2ndEd.2017/mode/2up (accessed January 24th, 2021).

Macrobius (2011) Macrobius: Saturnalia [vol.1] Books 1-2 trans. Kaster, R.A., Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts and London.

Maximus, V. (2000) Valerius Maximus: Memorable Doings and Sayings [vol.1] trans. Shackleton-Bailey, D.R., Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts and London.

Pausanias (1971) Pausanias - Guide to Greece [vol.2] Southern Greece trans. Levi, P., Penguin, Harmondsworth.

Pausanias (1979) Pausanias - Guide to Greece [vol.1] Central Greece trans. Levi, P., Penguin, London.

Plato (1931) Plato [vol.9] Timaeus Critias Cleitophon Menexenus Epistles trans. Bury, R.G., Harvard University Press and William Heinemann, Cambridge Massachusetts and London.

Plato (1973) Plato - Phaedrus & Letters VII and VIII trans. Hamilton, W., Penguin, Harmondsworth.

Pliny, C.S. [maior] (2000) Pliny: Natural History [vol.8] Books 28-32 trans. Jones, W.H.S., Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts and London.

Servius (1881) Servii Grammatici qui feruntur In Vergilii Carmina [vol.1] Aeneidos Librorum I-V Comentarii eds. Thilo, G. and Hagen, H., B.G. Teubner, Leipzig. Available from Archive.org: https://archive.org/details/serviigrammatici01bons/page/602/mode/2up (accessed January 24th, 2020).

Trismegistus, H. (2000) Hermetica trans. Copenhaver, B., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Trismegistus, H. (2002) Corpus Hermeticum: Tome IV: Fragments Extraits de Stobee (XXIII-XXIX) - Fragments Divers: 4, ed. Festugière, A.J. trans. Nock, A.D., Belles Lettres, Paris.

Trismegistus, H. (2004) The Way of Hermes: The Corpus Hermeticum trans. Salaman, C., van Oyen, D. and Wharton, W.D. The Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius trans. Mahé, J.P., Duckworth, London.

Trismegistus, H. (2018) Hermetica II trans. Litwa, M.D., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Trismegistus, H. (2020) Corpus Hermeticum: The Power and Wisdom of God trans. Ficino, M. (includes the Asclepius Dialogue) trans. Latham, M.L., Falcon Books Publishing, London.

Trismegistus, H. (2020) Corpus Hermeticum: Tome I: Poimandres: Traites I-XII ed. Festugière, A.J. trans. Nock, A.D., Belles Lettres, Paris.

[Various primary sources] (1998) Asclepius: Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies trans. Edelstein L. and Edelstein E.J. [vol.1], Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.

Secondary Sources

Bull, C.H. (2018) The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus: The Egyptian Priestly Figure as a Teacher of Hellenized Wisdom, Brill, Leiden and Boston.

James, P. et al. (2011) A330 Myth in the Greek and Roman Worlds - Blocks 3 and 4, The Open University, Milton Keynes.

Lewis, C.T. and Short, C. (1975) A Latin Dictionary, Clarendon Press, Oxford.

Liddell, H.G. and Scott, R. (1961) A Greek-English Lexicon, Clarendon Press, Oxford.

Ward, J.S.M. (1926) Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods, Simpkin Marshall Hamilton Kent and Co., London.

Watts, A.W. (1959) Myth and Ritual in Christianity, Thames and Hudson, London and New York.

Comparative religion (Alan Watts) and modern trends in classical scholarship

Dear Diary,

Besides ranting about that... place (which should not bear thinking about), I have been reading a remarkable work by Alan Watts. I happened to find it in a second hand shop a couple of years ago, and read it for the first, and haven't returned to it in some time. Yet while writing an article on ancient hermetic symbolism, I thought I'd take it off the shelf, to see if has anything useful, and it is quite a treasure trove.

First published in 1954, Myth and Ritual in Christianity is a very astute work. Don't let the title fool you, although its main thread is Christianity (I am a devout Christian), it discusses quite a bit about comparative religion, which is not at all dogmatic. On the contrary, this book discusses certain interpretations of myths, allegories and symbolism in the Christian tradition which have not really been discussed by any other medieval or ancient Church author. It is easy, I suppose, nowadays (or even back in 1954) to read many ancient texts from different spiritual traditions: Hindu, Norse paganism, Taoism etc., but one must bear in mind the religious tension, historical context and also the availability of particular texts, which our ancient forebears probably didn't have copies of. There is also a kind of fundamentalist aspect, which is overtly hostile to anything not puritanical. Just reading some Augustine or even Propcopius or Ammianus Marcellinus, one can trace the religious tension apparent spanning the fourth century to the sixth centuries of the Christian Era. There are (obviously) evident traces of such hostility before then, particularly during the second century in Pliny's Letter to Trajan (Pliny the Younger, Letters 10.96) and Trajan's response (10.97).

Anyway, despite heathens, heresies and religious tension, Watt's coverage of comparative religion is especially good. In his lectures, I quite liked Alan Watts, but in truth, I much prefer listening to (and indeed reading) Manly P. Hall. In any case, both are excellent writers and speakers, and both should come in useful in me writing this article.

The module A330 Myth in the Greek and Roman Worlds does not have much to say on the subject (of ancient serpent symbolism), except that it is a 'complex' symbol. It goes a lot deeper than that. This trend of labelling things 'complex' is actually counter productive. It's not "civilisation" (that is, apparently too politically incorrect and loaded a term) but instead "complex society". I'm a bit old fashioned. I prefer Roman civilisation (for despite their harshness and apparent barbarity, there is a clearly evident refinement and sophistication in reading Latin texts in their original language - certainly Charlemagne recognised this fact). Even Rome's own lampoon-master and equivalent to a modern day Private Eye, Juvenal, is a magnificent read. In truth, Juvenal is a very poor example of Roman civilisation, but even the poorest example of Latin literature is incredibly sophisticated, refined, profound: bearing all the hallmarks of civilisation. (Which is not complex, to a Latin scholar, except for sociologists). All societies, even family units, are complex, by simply lablelling them 'complex' does not help anybody understand anything. All 'complex society' means (for they are Latin words) are from these two words: complex is a passive participle form of the Latin deponent verb complectī, which has numerous meanings (over a dozen), but principally means 'to embrace, to surround' etc. Society comes from the Latin common noun societās which means (among other things) 'a company, an association'. Therefore all "complex society" means is "an inclusive association [of people]". Many societies in the ancient world were not at all inclusive, and did not 'embrace' very many people at all. They were highly stratified. There was not much social mobility, much like today in Britain, 2022. Education was often left up to slaves (again, much like today).

Anyway, that's enough disgressing. I have a day off, and an article to write.

Max.

Conferred with the honours of being a Master of Arts

Dear Diary,

So today I was busy editing (a hermetic book) and had not noticed that the postman had come and delivered my master's degree certificate. There is no party, nor any solemn ceremony in Latin, but instead I had to work at that... place. I suppose it's better than the last place I "graduated" (Jimmy's Homeless Shelter in Cambridge).

Receiving this degree is important, because I have had no right to call myself a 'master' until now, (whatever that means, here in Britain: 'master of the kitchen sink') until I had been formally conferred with the honours of the degree. It is only now, from this point, that I have the right to call myself 'master' (of the kitchen sink).

Surely, holding a Magister Artium in litteris humanioribus cum honoribus means I'm worth more than doing unskilled labour for minimum wage? Evidently not, in Dark Age Britain, 2022. This is not the ninth century during the Abbasid Caliphate, evidently. So, there is no option. Either I remain enslaved on this... prison island, or I take my chances elsewhere, and move on to something more than just slavery for the bare minimum wage. Surely there is more to life than unskilled labour for minimum wage? There is, and that means living abroad. What opportunities are there here?...

Max.

Fate, Tyche and Moira

Dear Diary,

Needless to say I had to go in to that... place, again with those... people. It's like Nevill Coghill and Richard Burton's production of Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus. "Come hither landlord, another butt of sack [wine] for myself and these... 'learned' colleagues of mine." Because all drinks have to be labelled, I label mine (in my not unattractive handwriting) as 'Maximus'. As a result, the Eastern European hoodlum boss began whipping me like a slave, in reminiscence of Ridley Scott's movie Gladiator.

Mundane concerns aside, I have been reading much about Fate, destiny and Fortune. There is one book which is particularly excellent on my shelf, it is the Aris and Phillips' critical edition of Cicero's On Fate (which contains a superb commentary), and also has quite a few testimonia. Along with R.W. Sharple's astute translation, there is also his accurate (yet prosaic) translation and commentary of Boethius' Philosophiae Consolationis (sections 4.5-7 to 5). Besides that, I have been reading another, really quite excellent book (though a secondary source), Esther Eidinow's Luck, Fate and Fortune: Antiquity and its Legacy. This is also a superb work. She described it as her 'hobby horse' in the recent In Our Time episode on Herodotus. Although it covers some of the most crucial and important authors from the classical world, namely Herodotus, Thucydides and Demosthenes, it also covers certain pieces of archaeology. It does however, I feel, treat the role of Fortuna in Machiavelli's The Prince (one of my favourite books) rather unfairly. Fate (Fortuna) figures quite strongly in The Prince. In any case, it's still a good book, and worth reading.

Being something of a Hellenic specialist (and indeed editor of the Oxford Classical Dictionary, a very illustrious position), Esther Eidinow does actually neglect to mention the role of Fate in the Latin classical tradition. She does not mention a word of Cicero, Boethius, or indeed any of the hermetic texts (which I have translated) and where the idea of Fate features quite strongly.

While reading Aulus Gellius, citing Cicero's On Fate (which has come down to us in a fragmentary state), I discovered a quite important concordance regarding the hermetic perception of fate (which is closer to Chrysippus' view of Fate, or the ancient Egyptians, rather than Cicero's perspective). In the hermetic tradition, there is no such thing as coincidence: all things happen for a reason. Here, in Sharples' book (1991, pp.96-97 [Cicero: On Fate and Boethius: Consolation of Philosophy]) there is a curious section which relates to εἱμαρμένη as mentioned in the hermetic text the Asclepius (sections 39-40 of the Budé critical edition). It is from Aulus Gellius' Attic Nights 7.2.1. Sharple's translation reads as follows:

Fate, which the Greeks call heimarmené (εἱμαρμένη), Chrysippus the chief Stoic philosopher defines in approximately the following way: "Fate," he says, "is a certain everlasting and unalterable sequence and chaining of things, involving and entwining itself with itself through the eternal laws of sequence from which it is fitted and bound together." (Aulus Gellius 7.2.1 [trans. Sharples, 1991, p.97]).

None of this kind of thing is mentioned in Esther Eidinow's great work, unsurprisingly, as it discusses Greek not Latin ideas of Fate. There is a follow up to this, in the most excellent work by Christian H. Bull The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus: The Egyptian Priestly Figure as a Teacher of Hellenised Wisdom (2018, pp.393-394). My translation of the Asclepius which was traditionally ascribed to Apuleius, reads as follows:

...This (εἱμαρμένη) is either a female maker of things or the Highest God, either from God Himself, which a second god had brought about, or having a solid education of all celestial and earthly things from divine laws. And so this εἱμαρμένη and necessity, both in turn are connected to an atom with glue, of which all things the former εἱμαρμένη creates a beginning. In truth, necessity drives them together to bring it about, which out of that, both depend on the origins. Order followed these things, that is, being connected and a regular order of time of things accomplished. For nothing exists without order’s composition. That perfect world is in everything. That order, or the whole world stands together out of order. Therefore these are three: εἱμαρμένη, that is, Fate, necessity, order, or most of all which had been brought about by God’s assent, who governs the world by his law and divine reason. Therefore to want and not want, from these things are divinely in opposition to what the whole is. For indeed neither are they moved violently by anger, nor are thanks crooked, but have to serve eternal reason: an eternity which is unalterable, immoveable and indestructable. Therefore the first is εἱμαρμένη just as I cast a seed of all future eventualities which raises offspring. [Apuleius], Asclepius 39-40 (trans. Latham, 2020, p.125).

The wording is curious, 'law', 'order', 'reason', it might even be oracular.

Max.

The three tier class system of the ancient Britons

Dear Diary,

Yet again, I had to attend that... place... with those... people. In early today. Getting told what to do by teenagers. Scrubbing pots. Standard. (This is Britain 2022, not Renaissance Italy, evidently).

The old ball and chain got back in touch. It is an undeserved title, for she is a nice lady, but still, much work for very little pay. Standard. (This is not the Umayyad Emirte during the tenth century, evidently).

I have been giving some thought to the history of Britain as a nation of enslaved people. It is certainly true, from the testimony of none other than Julius Caesar that there are similarities between Britain and Gallic peoples:

"The maritime part, away from them, they had crossed over from Belgium (which almost all of their urban centres had been called by their [Belgian] names, having arisen from which, they arrived from urban centres there). The reason was waging wars and the spoils of war, and in waging war they captured fields to till and had stayed there. A multitude of men is crammed together in buildings, almost exactly the same as Gallic peoples." Gallic War 5.12 (my translation).

So there are evidently some similarities and evidence of cultural interchange between the Gauls and the Britons. Tacitus (Agricola 11) has some supporting evidence of this, claiming that those Britons nearest the Gauls were similar to them (though he does add that others were not, and that there were more in common with Scots and Germans than anything else). In any case, Tacitus does say that the rest of the Britons were much like Gauls, but also adds an important detail (Agricola 21) that Britons were better authors than the Gauls were. There is no other evidence to back this up (with Ausonius being the first 'Gallic' author, much later in history, 4th-5th century C.E.). Anyway, Tacitus does say in a couple of places (Agricola 21) that Britons adopted Roman customs, only to form a part of their enslavement, but also (15) that Britons began to get very annoyed at being treated as slaves (one thinks of the modern day equivalent to the toga - the suit, I always wear a suit, yet I am a slave). Elsewhere, Julius Caesar (Gallic War 6.13) says that the vast majority of Celts are virtually slaves, all of them, with the exception of two classes. (One is reminded of that classic photograph of the Two Ronnies and John Cleese: lower, middle and upper class). One, is the equites (Gallic War 6.15), that is cavalrymen, knights. There is one other class, which pays no taxes, and makes the laws: the Druids. In the book Moneyland by Oliver Bullough, it is absolutely certain that there is very strong evidence for a certain section of society, in Britain, which pays no tax, and is at the top tier. Oddly enough, among the holders of these offshore trust funds and dodgy tax schemes, are several of the front bench politicians in the Conservative Party. You can read more about it here. So, these people, the top tier, pay no tax, and make the laws. What has changed since the days of Julius Caesar? Not much, it would seem. Britons were slaves wearing togae, now Britons are slaves in suits.

There were, however, a few differences. Strabo (4.4.4) suggested that there were three subdivisions of Druids, the Bards, Vates (‘prophetic bards’) and Druids. Ammianus Marcellinus (15.9.8) wrote that there is a similar subdivision adding that the Druids were smarter than your average bear. Ammianus, and indeed other writers, such as Hippolytus (Refutation of All Heresies 1.2 and 1.22) mention that Druids were Pythagorean style philosophers. This may extend to their belief in the afterlife, but there were certain... practices, which were most certainly not Pythagorean, which the Druids got up to. These were famously mentioned by Pliny the Elder, Tacitus, Caesar, and others.

In summary, there is a very long tradition of Britons screwing themselves over, being ruled over by people that did not obey their own rules, and that virtually the rest of the entire nation is pretending to be something they're not, by dressing up smartly, but are, in fact, slaves, much like myself. But it's okay. I found a new job today, the only catch is I will need to know something about the law in order to do that job, thus rendering 12 years of study and £15,000 worth of student loans down the pan, and instead, I get to pay £20,000 up front (oh! the honour, the privilege!) for being put through my paces again by studying the most difficult degree there is, with the exception of medicine. So, let's hear it for "Great" Britain. I had applied to be a university lecturer, but seemingly, in order to be able to be eligible to study the qualification enabling one to become a university lecturer, one already has to be a university lecturer. "Great" Britain. Land of beggars, paupers and slaves: always has been, always will be.

Max.

An ancient goddess of law - Adrastia (or Nemesis)

Dear Diary,

I was in that... place, again, with those... people. Certainly a most worthy occupation, for a chap with my skill-set (the world's worst cook, and an excellent entertainer, not a bad piano player, guitarist and great singer, that holds a master's degree in Classical Latin, as well as being an epic national poet). Surely this is the occupation for me, optimised as a placement, or rather, surely this is not the Italian Renaissance, but Dark Age Britain. That's what you do with a master's in Latin Dark Age Britain: you scrub pots, like the village idiot. This is not France, or Germany, or another civilised nation. It is a nation of beggars, paupers and slaves. That, is a fact. Evidently.

Anyway, enough of me ranting about how I do the same job, now, at 43, as I did when I was 14 (as though nothing had changed in that time). As Richard Harris said in Man In the Wilderness, complaining never helped anybody. It is up to me to do something about it.

There is a curious line I translated in Apuleius' De deo Socratis (4.8-4.9 [Jones' Loeb ed. or 128-129 other eds.]) not so long ago, for my master's degree final dissertation (12,000 words) that reads:

He who had been raised on high by a gift of fortune’s wealth and is carried up all the way to the kingdom’s tottering platform and the pendent tribunal seat would be in a rare entrance way, passing time with judges in certain very remote inner sanctums of dignity: for association gives birth to being disdained, but rarity wins admiration.

Today, I translated a most curious section in Ammianus Marcellinus (14.11.25 - 14.11.26):

...There are innumerable certain examples of this kind, the avenging goddess of impious deeds Adrastia works, and she is sometimes a rewarder of good ones (and would that she always did!). We call her by a two-fold name, which is also Nemesis. The law is imposed from a certain height of divine power of human minds, by estimating the lunar cycle or as other men determine. She is a substantial guardian power presiding over individual fates that the ancient men who wrote of the gods formed: the daughter of Justitia (Justice), they handed down out of a certain secret place, in eternity, that looks down upon everything on Earth. This goddess as the queen of lawsuits, both a female witness and arbitrator of cases, governs the urn of drawing lots, the alternating changes of happenstances and our will, sometimes starting with another when they the two parties were disputing. Bringing the case to a close, she draws together the manifold depositions to be exchanged. And the same goddess, binding the day of the trial with an irremovable rope of necessity, of mortality, turns those puffed up with pride to nothing. And the changing weights of both compensation and damages being hung in the balance (as she knew), she now weakens and weighs down upon the necks of those which have been elevated, those of prominence, now she lifts good men up from the depths, she elevates those that live suitably well. Yet for that reason, fabled antiquity adapts its wings to the present circumstances so that one could been judged with the swiftness of a bird of prey. And she had given guidance that extends outwards, and had applied a wheel to it, so as to keep the universe on the straight and narrow through the elements, running to and fro. She would not have been ignorant of anything.

There are some curious bits which are basically untranslatable. For starters, the passage (not shown here) starts with the pronoun haec ('this' or 'these') which may be in the plural (as in Rolfe's translation - which I did not make reference to) and translated as 'these [events]', but it could just as likely refer to the ultrix ('avenging [goddess]') in the same line, which is also in the singular, Nominative case, feminine gender.

There are other problems with this passage too: 'individual fates' is not exactly a correct translation, but is as accurate as accurate can be, for the vernacular. It means more like 'by divisible dooms' (partilibus... fatis).

Then there is the 'urn of drawing lots', this is only the principle definition of sortes which means more like 'oracles, prophecies, divinations'.

Again, there are other problems when translating this, much lost in translation, hidden beneath the surface. The 'manifold depositions' is stretching it a bit, actus means more like 'recital(s), delivery(s)' and principally means 'acts' (as in players on a stage). This is just scratching the surface of many of the other various meanings in this passage.

Skipping over these nuances, the last line is particularly tricky. The ‘a bird of prey’ literally means ‘with a bloody quick bird’ (and even that is stretching it, for one word does not actually exist in even the most profound and rare Latin lexicons, I had to use its prefix to gauge its meaning, and identify the suffix according to Latin inflexion standards).

‘guidance that extends outwards’ literally means ‘a rudder which extends outwards’ so the 'wheel' (rota) in the next line is more like the wheel of a ship.

Then there is the ‘through the elements, running to and fro. She would not have been ignorant of anything.’ This sentence is problematic, as omnia is very likely an adjective which agrees in case, number and gender with elementa thus this probably means ‘through all the elements, running to and fro, she would not have been ignorant’.

Not bad, for an unskilled labourer in a kitchen, eh?

Max.

A relatively productive day - my next (third) degree: law

Dear Diary,

Apart from the fact that I woke up late and have been on the wagon, the whole day, on my one day off this week, it has been a relatively productive day. I have not added much to my play Boadicea: Queen of the Iceni (which stands at 933 lines so far) but I did integrate all of the copious footnotes (which number 150: all citing primary sources) into the main body of the text, which meant checking them all and occasionally making corrections. I also refined the text in places, making it conform to the metre, and refining its elegance in terms of sibillance, assonance and alliteration. It is nearly ready for print, and will need a second draft doing (of course), but all in all it's coming along nicely. (And when I say nicely, I mean "the best goddamn piece I have ever written, by a long way" which is saying something, believe me).

Yet this evening I read a little John Aubrey (who, apparently, lived in the exact same place which I live currently), but that didn't help much. It is not Wiltshire's folklore I need to get read up on, but Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, even London. Fortunately, I lived in that neck of the woods for few years, and have a 'a few' books on British folklore.

I spent the last hour or so trawling through Ammianus Marcellinus, trying to find a section which may have come in useful for my next degree (yes, my third degree, spanning twelve years so far, yet I am still doing precisely the same job, now, at 43, as I was when I was 14: unskilled labour for bare minimum wage - so much for university in Dark Age Britain!). I am certainly not going to wait for the British academic community to offer me any work! (One may as well wait for the firey Phelgethon to freeze over! I can't even give my services away as an expert classicist and antiquarian in this country [as a volunteer at the local museum], much less scrape a living from them!). The British, are not to be trusted. The French? When they say they'll offer you a good job, actually put their money where their mouth is! (And you don't need some meaningless piece of paper from some university - or even two, as a Magister Artium in litteris humanioribus cum honoribus, which I am).

Anyway, I've decided to do a third degree, and this one is in law. I have a stack of books which almost dwarf all of the others on my shelf (the 'Great Scott' as its known - the Liddell and Scott Ancient Greek Lexicon notwithstanding, nor indeed the Lewis and Short, nor even the whopping two volume Bailey's advanced Latin dictionaries). They're big, but they're not that big (compared to the kinds of books a hardcore classicist is accustomed to reading). Most of their content is so f-ing boring compared to classical studies (like you would not believe). 3/4 of them are just statutes and statutes and torts and amendments to statutes. It is a wonder anyone even obeys the law in Britain, it is so excessively bureaucratic. So, anyway, I picked up some former law student's books on a second hand stall a couple of months ago, so I'm researching the history of law, for my TMA 0 (mock essay) for my first module. I was toying with Cicero, but now I am erring on translating some sections of Ammianus Marcellinus instead (because he often discusses law). There is a particularly fine section I stumbled upon (Ammianus 22.10.1-7) which discusses religious tolerance and equality in the eyes of the law (and also a blemish of that particular fourth century Roman emperor - Julian). Elsewhere (22.9.9) he is described as being overly severe as a judge.

There are also some excellent works on law in Latin (Justinian, of course), such as Cicero's Academy, but especially his trials, and indeed an extremely beautiful passage in Plautus. Check it out:

Who set in motion all kinds of men, and the seas and lands,
I’m his citizen in the city of the gods.
So I am, when you see the bright shining constellation,
a sign which had always appeared at just the right time,
this god in heaven, and the name for me is Arcturus.
I am clear in the heavens at night and among the gods,
but I walk among mortals during the daytime.
Yet other signs fall to earth from heaven. It’s Jupiter who’s
the emperor of the gods and men. Him, he separates
one from another, through our ancestries. He who made men.
We should know the old ways, piety and faith, as he assists
any man by opulence. Those who sue for false law-suits,
with false testimonies, whoever commits
perjury in a court of law for monetary reward,
we refer their names to Jupiter in a register.
Jupiter knows which man might seek to do wrong every day,
which man that got a law-suit: they’re indicted for perjury,
men of mischief who bring about false law-suits beside a judge,
again Jupiter adjudicates the matter being decided.
He punishes many more than get away with it.
He has good men noted on other writing tablets.
Here scoundrels bring themselves to mind and that Jupiter himself
is able to be placated by offerings, by gifts.
They waste both their toil and expense; it happens because from he,
nothing is accepted for one who’s pleading from perjury.
A man who’s pious, praying, will find grace from the gods,
for him, more easily than a man who’s a miscreant.
For this reason I warn you about this, you who are good men,
any men who lead their lives with piety and with faith,
act with restraint beforehand, so that after the event,
you may be glad.

Plautus, The Rope lines 1-30 (perhaps first staged between roughly 200-190 B.C.E.) translated by Maxwell Lewis Latham M.A. (Hons.) Classical Studies (2020).

Yet I have read enough about the law, litigation and crimonology in context now to understand that there is a complete separation between the concordat (church and state). (That is, on the surface, at least, some more... esoteric books contain some hints to the contrary...). Seemingly, on the face of it, all trials are determined due to the facts of a particular case, scientifically, often citing forensic or sometimes digital evidence (a data trail). Yet at heart, I am with Plautus, 100%. In the hermetic tradition, we are watched over by guardian angels and genii. I suppose that what with the Big Brother state in Britain (there are more cameras in London alone than any other country in the entire world), that is not much different to what Plautus wrote, if nothing more than a mirror of the gods.

Max.

Another day off - penning poetry and translating Latin

Dear Diary,

Tomorrow I am afforded some respite from that... place.

It was nice to hear a colleague say on the way home, "You shouldn't be working here" (holding a master's degree in Classical Latin). I shouldn't be. This is not the first time I have heard this, certainly at my last job (also doing unskilled labour), another colleague, upon seeing me read some Plautus (a Latin playwright) in Latin, said, "You shouldn't be here." I refrained, both times, from saying what I feel, "This is not Renaissance Italy. It's Dark Age Britain." It would be unpatriotic to do so (even if this is the reality). Let's not sugar coat it like the bumbling buffoon and host of partygate might: "higher skilled, higher paid jobs" (my backside).

In any case, I have been inspired by reading much Christopher Marlowe, and have finally confessed to where I have creatively borrowed from a couple of plays (Milton, too), by putting in those citations - credit where credit's due. Boadicea: Queen of the Iceni is proud to belong to that same literary tradition of English poetic excellence. In an - albeit antiquated - academic article I recently read, Robert Fletcher (1893, p.121 [A Poet - Is he born, not made?]), the author quotes the playwright Ben Johnson:

"...imitation, to be able to convert the substance or riches of another poet to his own use. Not as a creature that swallows what it takes in crude, raw, or indigested, but that feeds with an appetite, and hath a stomach to concoct, divide, and turn all into nourishment. Not to imitate servilely . . . but to draw forth out of the best and choicest flowers, with the bee, and turn all into honey, work it into one relish and savor."

He then goes on to cite Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"Thought is the property of him who can entertain it, and of him who can adequately place it. A certain awkwardness marks the use of borrowed thoughts, but as soon as we have learned what to do with them, they become our own."

I should not allow my passion for classical verse and prose to overshadow my English poetic heritage. I am honoured to cite Shakespeare, Marlowe or Milton, for they are every bit as worthy as Homer, Hesiod, Virgil or Ovid (perhaps even more so, because they wrote in a language everybody can understand - although Milton did write some fine Latin works). Latin used to be the language of the intelligentsia, but now it is the language of unskilled labourers (that is, except for people that don't understand it, and listen to Johnathan Pie have a rant - believing Latin to somehow be the exclusive reserve of toffy nosed arrogant men of privilege). I was even at a party one night, and happened to have my complete works of Virgil with me, and began reciting arma virumque Troiae qui primus ab oris (I was a little tipsy), and someone there believed me to be casting a magical spell! (Such ignorance! All from the likes of watching Harry Plopper movies!).

Seriously, though, there are quite a few grimoires written in Latin, and not a little in Hebrew, either, Classical Arabic even, and of course: Ancient Greek. So in retrospect, perhaps the fellow's reaction was to be expected (though again, completely ignorant and wholly superstitious). "I sing of arms and the man, who first came from Troy" is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a magical spell. Equally, the incipe Maenalios mecum, mea tibia, versus in the same book (Virgil, Eclogue 8) does certainly qualify, as does the Idyl of Theocritus it was modelled on...

In any case, I have nearly finished my play now, Boadicea: Queen of the Iceni so it will not long be published. I must have about 950 or so lines done now, so there's not long to go. I may even leave it under a thousand lines, just for the sake of brevity.

Max.

The old ball and chain

Dear Diary,

Well, it looks like the old ball and chain is back. I'm not referring to Chairlady Mao, at the Chinese editing firm (editing academic and commercial documents), nor even my ex-wife, but T., the woman that first hired me in Cambridge. It's a lot of work for very little money and even less recognition, but it's work. If I'm honest, I actually really enjoy editing academic essays (especially classical studies dissertations), but hermetics is even more interesting. Besides, T. is more reasonable than Chairlady Mao. She's English. She pays up front, and isn't that bothered about deadlines (unlike Mao, who won't pay you at all if you're even just a few minutes late). Unlike academic work, the work isn't cautious in its conclusions, polluted by an almost conspiracy theorist kind of scepticism (which permeats academia). These people are believers, as well as scholars (many of them). They are the ones out there (literally, out beyond the veil that separates us from the spirit world), actually doing the proper work of research, not simply content to pore over documentary and archaeological evidence (which they do as well, many of them). It's very much like Marlowe's Doctor Faustus:

"Settle thy studies Faustus, and begin,
to sound the depth of that thou wilt profess...
bene disserere est finis logices
Is to dispute well logic's chiefest end
Affords this art no greater miracle?...
si peccasse negamus, fallimur, et nulla est in nobis veritas...
These metaphysics of magicians,
And necromantic books are heavenly.
Lines, circles, schemes, letters and characters!
Ay, these are those that Faustus most desires.
O what a world of profit and delight,
Of power, of honour, of omnipotence
Is promised to the stuidious artisan!
All things that move between the quiet poles
Shall be at my command..." (Marlowe, Faust', Act 1, Scene 1, ll.1-2, 6-8, 41, 49-57 [A Text]).

I am no longer reading about fantastic tales, in prosaic novels, but actually living in this Otherworld. The very fabric between fantasy and reality, has been ripped and torn. That is not a psychological analysis, but instead, I have now become so entrenched in this world, that there is no turning back. I have cast my very soul to the hazard, for my sins. For example, there are two books I said I would never translate, because they are dangerous books, ancient grimoires, both of them lost for hundreds of years because they are so secret, and both very nearly lost to the sands of time on account of their heresy. I have begun to translate both of them, for my sins. One of them has already been translated (Giordano Bruno's On Magic) but this other, earlier work, has not been. A Ph.D. student studying this latter work recently approached me, asking for help translating it (he is a scholar of Ancient Greek, not a Latin scholar like myself). I have said I will help him (and at the same time help myself, by publishing a translation of this... esoteric work).

I am a devout Christian, so I should not really have anything to do with this... side of religion: magic. Therefore, I have decided to take a form of penance, and translate the prophetess Hildegard von Bingen, at the same time, to hopefully offset the sin of translating this magical grimoire, and thus perhaps save my very soul.

For the moment, however, my current workload (besides that... place, and of course working for the old ball and chain) concerns:

Boadicea: Queen of the Iceni my epic play (900 out of 1,100 lines written so far).
Nennius History of the Britons (trans. Latham) [9th century] complete - just needs checking
Apuleius, De deo Socratis (trans. Latham) [probably written around 140 or so C.E.] complete

So I have shed loads to be getting on with, and it's going to be bloody busy at that... place this evening. (Last night was haywire - and Saturdays are always more hectic). I suppose I had better stop blogging and get back to bloody work. I will probably, instead, do some reading and write some poetry, until I have to be at that... place.

(Time passes)

In actual fact, after speaking at length with T., it is an honour and a privilege to be working for/with her. I'm really looking forward to editing these new publications.

Max.

Janus (the duplicitous Roman deity of the doorway)

Dear Diary,

I always assumed that Janus was always a relatively recent deity, and that Ovid's treatment of him, was replete with hyperbole. While reading today (on my brief break at that... place) I discovered while reading Dionysius of Halicarnassus (I'm on to Loeb vol.2 now) that Janus is actually quite an ancient deity. Ovid does lay it on thick in his treatment of Janus (Fasti 1.103) claiming that Janus was more ancient than Chaos (me Chaos antiqui (nam sum res prisca) vocabant)

'the ancients call me Chaos (for I am something more ancient)' (my translation, done 12th of December, 2020).

This is complete nonsense, except perhaps that the two faces of Janus may stir up chaos, Chaos is very ancient indeed, from the earliest known records, namely Hesiod (Theogony 116) 'First of all came Chaos' (trans. Richmond Lattimore, 1991 [1959], p.130). So, I simply assumed that Janus was a relatively recent deity. Professor John North of Cambridge University in his magnificient little work Roman Religion does not even mention Janus in his otherwise extensive list of temples of Roman deities, and their founding dates, as attested by primary sources, literary and archaeological (North, 2000, p.41). After all, Janus is not as illustrious in Latin literature as Jupiter, Juno, Minerva (all 509 B.C.E.), Mercury (495 B.C.E.), Ceres (493 B.C.E.), Diana (493 B.C.E.), Apollo (431 B.C.E.) etc. Yet today, while researching δαίμονες ('spirits'), expanding on my master's degree dissertation, in order to complile a critical edition and translation of Apuleius' De deo Socratis I happened to stumble across a curious passage. In Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Roman Antiquities 3.11.7) Janus is described as a either a certain god or δαίμων ('spirit'), to which a temple was built circa 670 B.C.E., according to the legend. The fact that Janus is given an additional appelation ('Curiatius') implies that Janus, as a local deity, was more ancient still. So it would seem that Janus is actually quite an ancient deity. Even if you were to trim off a few hundred years, for the sake of hyperbole and mythological fabrication (for the earliest Latin inscription is dated to no earlier than the fifth century (Sandys, 1925, p.731 [A Companion to Latin Studies - Cambridge University Press]) and the earliest Latin literature from around the middle of the third century B.C.E.), even so, Janus is still every bit as ancient as any other Roman deity (except Jupiter, Juno or Minerva). Janus is probably among the most ancient native Roman deities (not being a Greek import).

This is my translation of Ovid's discussion of Janus (Ovid, Fasti 1.89-127)

Yet which god might I be called by you? Janus of the twin-form?
For Greece has no equivalent deity to you.
Let one from the heavenly gods be made. Do you see the
reason why? What’s behind and in front at the same time.
Writing tablets in hand, as I’d put these visions in the mind,
the home is brighter than it had been before. Then sacred
Janus, marvelled at, suddenly showed an image in my two eyes
of two heads and two mouths. It was so terrifying
to the senses, and my hair stood on end in fear and my heart
was suddenly frozen with cold. Janus, holding a wand
in his right hand and a key in his left, produced these sounds
at us from his more ancient mouth. “Learn from the fear
put in place, laborious prophet of the days. What you ask for,
you must take in the mind: my voices, and the ancients
call me Chaos (for I am something more ancient). Behold!
I could sing of deeds done a long time ago. This lucid
air and the three bodies that remained: fire, water and earth,
were one shapeless mass. Once, when this had departed,
arguing about the things themselves, the mass went away,
and was released into new homes. The flame sought to get
higher up, taking its place in the lower air. The earth and
straits seated themselves in amidst the lowest part.
Then I, who had been a globe returned the formless mass, without an image,
into shape and worthy members with God. Already
where once was a confused figure and a small mark, what was in
me, before and afterwards, seemed to be the same.
Accept the special form, which could be from another reason,
that you might know this and my duty at the same time.
And where you see anything: the sky, sea, clouds, land,
everything of ours is open and shut by my hand.
The guardian of a vast world is one with me,
and the law, its hinge to be turned, everything is mine.
When one pleased, Peace is to be sent, having covered peace-time,
that freedom walks perpetual pathways. Yet the whole world
will have been mingled with deadly blood, established wars should not
be grasped at a rigid late time. I watch over the doors
of heaven and the gentle Seasons. Jupiter himself goes,
to do my duty and returns. Whence I am called Janus.”

Max.

Trinummus (A three coin day)

Dear Diary,

Naturally, I was ushered in to that... place, with these... people. I am in early tomorrow. It does not bear thinking about. It is slavery, however you dress it up.

In other news, I have now reached 852 lines of my play, Boadicea: Queen of the Iceni. I have written it in the same structure and style that Elizabethan playwrights and poets modelled their plays upon, in the classical style. That is, to say, “…five acts each divided by a chorus, …lengthy deliberative speeches, and …quick verbal exchanges…” (Winston, 2006, p.31 [Seneca in Early Elizabethan England]). I have excised several lines because they are unpatriotic (it is a lost section on the trustees of offshore trust funds, which echoes the misery that the very poorest members of our society bear the burden in terms of tax and red-tape, only to further profit the already filthy rich). These same lines will still be used, but in another play I have written, The Brothers Gracchi, a Roman play about the brothers, Tiberius and Sempronius Gracchus. This play has many parallels to today, but it is also a historical play. Yet such a 'rant' does not really fit in Boadicea: Queen of the Iceni which is a great British play, a patriotic play, commemorating the Platinum Jubilee. I thought to myself, "If I were reading this play, what might irk me, or seem to not fit?" I read it as its dedicatee may read it. I cannot have any part of this play which is not thoroughly British in character, even if it mainly draws upon historical and mythological aspects. Words cannot express just how useful studying both Latin and a master's degree in classical studies (even some Ancient Greek!) has been in writing this play. I expect, that like Christopher Marlowe's greatest magnum opus, I shall never see it performed in my lifetime, but that's okay. Marlowe and I have much in common (and as much at variance). Marlowe came 199th out of 233 students in the order of seniority of his first degree (Venn, 1910, pp.372–373 [Grace Book Δ, Containing the Records of the University of Cambridge, 1542–89]). Yet this does not mean, by any yardstick that Marlowe's contribution to the very best of English poetry and plays, and indeed as a magnificent Latin translator, has gone unnoticed, just as it was in his lifetime - to a certain extent. Marlowe (my personal hero) has achieved creative immortality, there is no reason to think that I cannot achieve the same, as well deserved.

This is the opening to Act 2, Scene 3 (of Boadicea: Queen of the Iceni):

Sable Ceberus, his serpentine maws,
guarded Hades’ bronze made faded jade doors.
Callizena threw honey cakes his way,
which, laced with languored venom made drowsy
the three headed hound during his vigil,
no sooner wolfed down, made the huge beast still.
Savage river Phlegethon meanders
and echoes its flaming waters splutter
fire, spitting molten comets in waves,
ripple where once Hippolytus had bathed,
Asclepius too, given life again.
A second stream, almost lifeless, laments,
its grave waters are filled with souls wailing.
Crossing the point of no return, Hermes
arrived to guide the live soul of the queen
to cross again the threshold in safety.
Upon the Styx’s waves cleaved a chariot
drawn by two hippocampi, Cloud and Storm,
the rider’s face, its usual lustre lacked,
his demeanour, as hers: downcast, forlorn.

The references used to pen such exalted verse are as follows:

Tibullus 1.3.71
Virgil, Aeneid 6.420-425, Georgics 3.37-38 and 4.478-479
Silius Italicus 13.564-565
Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.532-534
Seneca, Trojan Women 448-450.

Max.

Some stories from being on the road as a musician

Dear Diary,

The Grattior shut down today, after over 700 great gigs hosting musicians from all over the world. They had some of the best musicians play there, outstanding. I am reminded of some of the great players I've met at that bar, which are really out of this world. The Grattior means kind of 'The Shredder [on a fretboard]' from grat a young word in French. I am also reminded, as I listen to absolutely mind-blowing Bonnie Raitt (namely I Ain't Blue, Under the Falling Sky and Blender Blues) of some of the other places I've played. I remember this one gig in Belgium, when I demo'd it, I used 'Old High Mountain' toonin'. (That is, slide gee-tar but with the middle G taken out, tuned up to D-A-D-[no string]-A-D). I cinched the gig (of course, it's me, even on my own I'm a one man musical army, and have been described as a 'walking radio' - though I'm good enough to know I'm not that good - there are much better players than me out there, people like Rosie Stone, who is outstanding - long story). Anyway, so I thought I had best get a fresh set of quality strings on mah gee-tar (this one was Gurtrude, a 1970's Epiphone acoustic jumbo). There was this guy there, a big guy, very charismatic, who really helped out. He was a successful businessman, very amicable, and seemed to love my music. I played a few notes on the night in question, and he approached me and asked, "What have you done?" I replied that I changed my strings. He complained that I had lost that same sound. He was right, because I wasn't using the 'Old High Mountain' toonin'. This guy said to me, that once he'd made his investments, and lived quite comfortably, all he did, all day, was appreciate great music. It taught me a lesson. If you have a winning formula, it's best to stick with it.

Even Pascal, the owner of the recently closed Grattior once said to me, once he had heard me play Gurtrude in 'Old High Mountain' toonin', "You know, Maxwell, that you can play any bar in France now, and do well." I knew then that I'd hit on something. Don't get me wrong, I'm no Ry Cooder, Kelly Joe Phelps or Sea-Sick Steve, but I play in that same style. It's pretty cool. Even today, without an audience, I seriously rocked out. There were a few fans in, namely tiny little birds that chirp and watch from the wires outside my bedroom. When I lived back in Bridport I had some swallows that used to nest in the eves of the house, and used to line up on the trees outside whenever I used to play my piano. Whenever I stopped, they would chirp like crazy. I remember coming back from the mountains one year and a whole flight of them swooped right past my head, not even an inch away, as if to say, "Where the hell have you been?"

Even better than that was when I used to team up with Olly Dean, the Old Time fiddle player. We used to play this ghastly little café every Saturday. On my way in a kingfisher used to swoop past me, then sit and listen to us across the river there, regularly. I've only ever experienced that once before in my life. I was in a place not far from here, in rural Wiltshire, and this lone kingfisher came right up to me (normally they are extremely timid) as I was singing and playing Paul McCartney's Mother Nature's Son. I felt extremely privileged, honoured. That is the greatest audience, Mother Nature herself. There have also been some other remarkable creatures that have come to me as I have sung and played. I remember one beach party a pod of dolphins came to listen. When I was with Didier, elsewhere, an eagle came by, and several butterflies. Perhaps the greatest was when I was playing music with the violinist Fiona Pace, and a herd of deer came close, then scattered at the precise moment that the last note sang out on her violin. It was something else.

All this is in the past, of course. Now, I am just an unskilled labourer. A poor scholar. A nobody, and that's okay too. If nothing else, there is always hope. It's a big wide world out there, and there are many places I have yet to see. I actually long for the old days, just a backpack and a guitar, and the road.

Max.

The day off (what one gets up to)

Dear Diary,

I got absolutely sozzled on my day off, naturally, but now I've run out of booze I'm having to hit the coffee instead, which is probably a blessing in disguise. (Although I may actually venture out to get some more, but I have to travel far and wide to source excellent wine, for this little village I live in has a most mediocre selection which simply will not do, for one only buys the very finest wine available, nothing else will suffice).

I have returned to my love of playing guitar today, in the classical style, and also the slide guitar. I have also done a little reading (only in translation). I really should get out of my dressing gown, it being nearly 4 P.M. already, but it's my day off. All in all it has not been the most productive day, so far, but we'll see how it goes after my little jaunt into town. The night is still so young. We may yet write more poetry.

Max.

A well deserved day off

Dear Diary,

After having to deal with these... people, yet again, I am afforded my one day off this week. Naturally, I am sat relaxing at home with the very finest wine available (in this country, at least - for having lived in Italy and France, one understands that these countries keep the best for themselves). Today I have been reading the most excellent translation of Dionysius of Halicarnassus' Roman Antiquities by Earnest Cary (Loeb vol.1). I know enough Ancient Greek to understand well that much is hidden beneath the surface, and my Greek is not as good as my Latin is (yet...).

It is such a joy to read such a magnificent work. I remember reading an assignment that simply cited 'Dionysius of Halicarnassus' as though his Roman Antiquities were the only thing he wrote. Yet Dionysius wrote another, excellent work, a commentary on Thucydides' Peloponnesian War and an analysis of ancient orators, which is also superb (it is a rare work). Yet, along with the likes of Livy and Plutarch, Dionysius of Halicarnassus' Roman Antiquities is an excellent source for early Roman historical mythology. It does contain something of a Greek bias, Dionysius writing in Greek, but it is still an excellent work. I confess, it has influenced my play, Boadicea: Queen of the Iceni, but not as much as some other writers (notably Cassius Dio and Tacitus - our two sources for the rebellion). I have been inspired by dozens of ancient authors, everyone from Seneca (the Younger) to Silius Italicus, Virgil, Ovid, Plutarch, Lucan and many others.

After reading a small section to some friends at New Year, there was the issue that not many people would understand what is written (much like many English Literature graduates end up switching to Classical Studies because they wish to understand the likes of Shakespeare, Marlowe and Milton). Therefore I may have to put in several superfluous footnotes, to elucidate what things mean. Not everyone is well read, and very few have really read Classical Studies (i.e. in Latin and Ancient Greek). I would not normally put in such trifling and frivolous details, but if people wish to understand what is written, then it is necessary to inform the reader. (I have not yet written these notes, but only put in serious scholarship, primary sources, where cited - and I certainly haven't quoted Shakespeare, Marlowe, or Milton where I have been inspired by them, nor even Lord Michael Dobbs' House of Cards - the readership should be familiar enough with these household words in the Queen's English).

I have restricted the commentary to the classical world. Here is a small section of the play (the opening of Act 1, Scene 2):

Across Oceanus who encircles the globe,
beyond his boundless swirling sea is home.
Home, in golden valleys dappled with trees,
home, to folk hewn of old Albion’s oak,
to the good people of the Iceni.
In spring the near still waters of the Nene
meander as elegant blue damsels
flit from leaf to flower, red admirals
flutter in couples, spiralling like torques,
Dryads’ leafed-limbs arch up to heaven’s vault,
and wild Naiads play in the river,
as two young lovers, embracing for sport,
such was their love, in awe of each other.
For he, that Jove himself was not brighter,
nor are Apollo’s rays more resplendent.
She, fairer than Venus, truly even
than Aurora, whose shafts illuminate
young men, who rose as daughter of the sun
and moon, her that gave birth to the five winds,
who weeps so much for king Memnon that dawn
bedecks morning grasses with tears of dew.
Once loved by stars that shine like glistening gems,
that are so many, yet in truth, so few.
She that is joined between Earth and heaven,
her warmth gives hope to weary wanderers,
and has golden flowers facing her way,
she, that delicate light brings renewal,
all men welcome her morning darts each day.
Darkness flees, as though she were a lone tree,
and he, her rising sap, inside her core.
There is no place that man would rather be,
than in her bright light. What man could want more?
Here the gods crafted a second Eden,
a place as though the sun shines on both sides.
Here lies the blessēd heart of Albion.
Here is where queen Boadicea resides.

Max.

The priests of ancient Egypt

Dear Diary,

Never mind this evening's unskilled labour with... those people, I have been preoccupied with translating a little Ammianus Marcellinus (22.15.30) regarding the sacred tablets of Hermes Trismegistos.

"There are certain subterranean hidden places and σύριγγες (‘tubes’), full of twists and turns, one comes to (as is conveyed) those that have experiences of ancient rituals, that knew beforehand a flood was coming, and were afraid, lest the memory of the ceremonies may have been forgotten. They had arranged setting apart (the tablets of Hermes Trismegistus), deep inside, with much toil making a mine-shaft across various places and by having knocked down walls, they carved many kinds of wild creatures and birds, and innumerable species of animals. They call these characters hieroglyphs (ἱερογλῠφῐκαί ‘sacred signs’)." (trans. Latham, 10th of January, 2022).

This is a curious passage, and from the nuances of the Latin and Ancient Greek, it seems to imply that these sacred tablets were engraved upon cylinders, or perhaps something similar, maybe columns. The noun Ammianus uses is syringes which in Ancient Greek is σύριγγες, and can mean the tomb of an Egyptian king or maybe a mine-shaft of some kind, among its other definitions. It may even mean 'pan pipes' or hollow reeds for making music. Yet ultimately, based on its context, it is more likely a sacred space dedicated beneath pyramid in a maze complex (for its context is in discussing the Egyptian pyramids).

There is also more to this, perhaps the most telling is from Iamblichus' Egyptian Mysteries (8.4.265). Quite clearly, "the books which are circulated under the name of Hermes contain Hermetic opinions, though they frequently employ the language of philosophers for they were translated from the Egyptian tongue by men who were not unskilled in philosophy" (trans. Taylor). It is curious, but modern philologists and students of Egyptology accept only one meaning of each word, from Champollion, and the Rosetta Stone (upon which, Hermes Trismegistos is actually mentioned, as a matter of fact). Yet, before the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, there were Herculean attempts at deciphering the symbolic and allegorical meanings of Egyptian hieroglyphs by the likes of Athenasius Kircher. As such, Kircher is dismissed by many Egyptologists today, but is actually still used by practising hermeticists, because there is actually more than one meaning to each of these hieroglyphs. What philologists claim to be the 'true' meaning of a glyph, is actually only the common, base meaning, not the sacerdotal meaning of the same glyph, as evidenced by Diodorus Siculus (1.81.1-7). It is bit like graphology or astrology - seen as a so-called 'psuedo' science, but actually knows more than any scientist. The difference is between someone that is an open minded intellectual, that will perhaps at least be open to the possibility that there is more to life than can be seen down a microscope, and those that shut themselves off, and will admit of no other possibility. It is a kind of inverted snobbery, borne of ignorance, impatience, and dismissal. It is not science, and certainly not a sacred science, which is precisely what hermeticism is.

This is just, even still, scratching the very surface of a very deep iceberg. There are books, which if I told you about, you would probably not believe, because they do not meet the criteria of modern science. They are subjective, introspective, meditative experiences of forward thinking practitioners that commune with spirits. There is much wisdom to be found there, far beyond anything some grounded in reality, blinkered don may believe, because they cannot see the text, the artefact or the bare bones epigraphic evidence to analyse, objectively. Perhaps the greatest example of this is to be found in Gilbert and Sullivan.

“Strephon: Sir, you are England’s Lord High Chancellor, but are you Chancellor of birds and trees, King of the winds and Prince of thunderclouds?

Lord Chancellor: No… But my difficulty is that at present there’s no evidence…

Strephon: No evidence!…

Lord Chancellor: …It’s not evidence. Now an affidavit from a thunderstorm, or a few words on oath from a heavy shower, would meet with all the attention they deserve.”

Iolanthe, Act 1 (Gilbert, [2021] 1882, p.12).

Max.

Another day at the office

Dear Diary,

It's like talking to a brick wall with these... people. Had I more sense, I would have said nothing about what passed at... that place. Yet I was... reasonable, and they were not. These... people. I feel like Daniel Day Lewis' character (Daniel Plainview) in There Will Be Blood, "I can't keep doing this any more on my own, with these... people."

In any case, what's to be done about it? Well, I have taken certain steps to ensure that things work out, eventually. As the late great savant Didier Deman once said, "It is not the learning which is important Maxwell, but the application of that learning to something practical and useful." Didier also told me that I would be inevitably heavily marginalised by many if I chose to become a scholar and an intellectual. How right he was. In any case, I quite often read when I am on my five minute break at... that place (with those... people). It could be anything. Today for instance it was the Loeb (vol.2) of Ammianus Marcellinus, the fourth century historian and antiquarian writer. Not so long ago it was Plutarch's Comparative Lives only in translation - Ian Scott-Kilvert, who, along with Rex Warner, are the very best translation of Plutarch. These... people, none of them, read.

Imagine, while exploring the lengthy and curious digressions of ancient peoples in some far off mystical landscape, learning about adventures of the great men of yore, the men of legend, the ancient heroes and gods (and goddesses) that populate the ancient wisdom: today, in Latin. You look up, and being cast out of the ancient world, in one's mind, for that moment, you must deal with these... people (the common noun reason, ratio in Latin does not feature in their vocabularies, or at least very few of them).

So what have I done which is so spectacular that will help me dig and claw my way out of this goddamn hell-hole of a subsistance? How can I give more money to charity, for one cannot help others without first helping oneself (the first law of business: give all your profits away immediately, without investing that money into a venture which will - probably - garner more returns). Seriously, though, what have I done which is so brilliant that merits clawing ones way out of a poverty pit-trap? Well, I have translated all of Apuleius' De deo Socratis, and written a master's degree dissertation on it: two case studies (6.1-8.4 and 16.3-17.2 [Jones' Loeb ed.]) discussing δαίμονες ('guiding spirits') chiefly in relation to the philosophical hermetica (which I have also translated, or at least Ficino's De Potestate et Sapientia Dei and several sections from Nock and Festugiere (French) hermetic 'fragments' of Stobaeus. Here is a section of my dissertation.

The earlier dating of the philosophical hermetica is controversial (Latham, 2020, p.xvi n.15) but has not changed a bit in 400 years. The general consensus among hermetic scholars is that the Corpus Hermeticum was written at some time around roughly the 1st-3rd centuries C.E. (Pereira/Guilherme, 2010, pp.90-91, 99). This is assumed from stylistic evidence, the type of Greek it was written in, primarily on the evidence of Isaac Casaubon’s Exercises On Sacred and Ecclesiastical Matters (Copenhaver, 2000, p.lix; Fowden, 1996, p.xxii) which was written in 1612. However, there is some evidence, largely dismissed by scholars, which suggests that the philosophical hermetica were not originally written on papyri in Greek, but inscribed on columns in Egyptian hieroglyphs ([Apuleius], Asclepius 24; Stobaeus, hermetic frag. 23.5-8; Iamblichus, Egyptian Mysteries 1.2.5-6 and 8.5.267-268; Naghammadi Papyri, Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth 61-62; Ammianus Marcellinus 22.15.30; Syncellus in Waddell, 1940, pp.208-209). Therefore, by merely inspecting the style of Greek they were written in does not help to date them in any way except by proving that they have a terminus ante quem of around Apuleius’ time: the 1st-3rd centuries C.E. Moreover, there is evidence to suggest that the interlocutors that feature in them existed from around 1,818–1,770 B.C.E. (Jackson, 1999, pp.102-106), perhaps even earlier, around 2,686-2,611 (Manetho in Waddell, 1940, pp.5-7, 41-47). Therefore, it is not impossible that Apuleius, Plato and Pythagoras were influenced by the philosophical hermetica, not the other way around. According to Iamblichus (Egyptian Mysteries 1.2.5-6) there were ‘the ancient pillars of Hermes, which Plato and Pythagoras knew before, and from thence constituted their philosophy.’ (trans. Taylor). Moreover, the Corpus Hermeticum (16.1-2) reads:

‘My teacher, Hermes, often used to say to me [Asclepius] privately… that the composition of my books would appear very… clear to those who read them. He added, however, that they are obscure and keep the meaning of the words hidden. He said they would become even more obscure later when the Greeks decide to translate our language into theirs… When expressed in its original language, the text preserves the pure spirit of the words… The very quality of the sound… of the Egyptian language carries… power… Therefore, O King… please ensure that this text is not translated, in order that these mysteries do not reach the Greeks…’ (trans. Salaman et al.).

Therefore, with my translation of Apuleius' De deo Socratis complete, with an extensive scholastic commentary, and the same goes for my (complete) translation of Nennius' History of the Britons, again with a full on deep commentary, I can bang those up on eBook and Audiobook. That should alleviate some of the burden, at least for now. Then, I also have a few more exciting and thrilling projects going on, such mostly done translations of Arnold van Gennep's Rites of Passage from the French, and Lucius Annaeus Seneca (the Younger's) Trojan Women. These are both half way home. Naturally, ruled by the Dioscuri (and in other aspects ruled by Saturn, as well as Mercury, among others), anyway, as a Gemini, I am naturally juggling several different projects at once. There is, my latest play for example Boadicea: Queen of the Iceni which is pretty much finished, just filling in the gaps and refining it, is all that needs doing. That's in the bag. I also have a translation of a book on runelore, which is absolutely fascinating, and also a book on ancient hermetic astrology (both translated from the Latin, of course). So, I have a few irons in the fire. Never mind my Chinese boss, who is fretful and dictatorial (to use Gilbert and Sullivan's phrase from HMS Pinafore). I also have some interest from the Americans (again, editing work - cheap enough for a mere graduate in English Lit'! Hardly taxing a Latin scholar's potential.) These... people. It's not picking up, work wise, so I've decided to go alone. Like the end of There Will Be Blood, "I'm going to Mexico. I'm starting my own company." "That makes you my competitor."

So anyway, what with my own company starting, publishing, online: Libelli Classics (which means 'little classical books' in Latin) I've a few irons in the fire

Max