The New Justinian

I have been writing a history of the Middle Ages, meant for people who are interested, bright but not necessarily well-informed. It's going to have many pictures and maps, selected quotations by famous or interesting medieval people.

But not footnotes. I'm not going to use all the academic structure. I'm lazy, in poor health, and my intended readers wouldn't care.

Just today it occcured tp me that there are more than a few resemblances between the Roman (Byzantine) emperor and Justinian I (527-565 CE) and Donald Trump. Justinian is basically known for his conquest of important provinces that the empire had lost in the previous century and some spectacular official and religious art. Let's have a look at some of these accomplishments, and make some rough comparisons.

Gotta hand up by Dear Old Dad. Actually his predecessor was his UNCLE Justin who has to be accounted a self-made man. It would be ludicrous to attach the same adjective to the older man.

Persecution of heretics and Jews -- admittewly pretty standard activity of Christian and evew some pagan emperors; indulged in by the Persians, too. I'd rate "compiling an enemies list," reasonably comparable to persecution I'll state right at the beginning that I'm not inclined to give monarchs the benefit of the doubt, especially if they have reputations as great comquerors. especially when the ministers of the crown have no evidence and act on malice, to please the monarch.

Reconquest of Italy, Sicily, North Africa (Tunisia and part of Algeria). Justinian had very talented generals, Belisarius and Narses, but when war broke out with Persia resources ran short and Italy was wrecked. Comparison --too many wars?

The Art -- especially the basilica of Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) and the mosaics at Ravenna Justinian claimed credit for the basilica in grandiose terms by asserting his superiority to Solomon, who built the Temple of God at Jerusalem. That statement makes sense, since monuments of this sort are often credited to the people who finance them. Justinian however comes out on top in on taste. We can't be sure about Old Justinian's personal taste or influence on design (but do you really think he didn't have the final word on every aspect of the project?). The new emperor's taste seems to involve breaking old stuff he disapproves of and slapping more gold on things he thinks need it.

Showed contempt for the institutions and precedents of the Roman legal tradition. Sure, it's called the Code of Justinian, but he didn't write it. The lawyers who created it produced a lasting and influential compilation. Justinian's personal contribution to lawmaking included changing the laws of marriage to enable him, a respectable senator (appointed by Justin!), to marry a notorius actress/courtesan (Theodora). During his own reign he abolished the office of consul, the oldest and formerly the highest position in the state ever since the abolition of the kingship.

A contemporary speaks. Procopius, a courtier, wrote three works on the m Justinian regime, a massive book on the wars, a shorter the bbuildings and a third on the Secret History, which told the readers the TRUTH: the emperor was a demon.

Now Procopius in his public works comes across as very educated in the Greek classical tradition; his "secret" (real?) opinions make him look malicious or hysterical. I don't know if any writer or commentator who is part of the current regime, puts a good face on it, but will be revealed as hysterical when his true opinions are revealed in the post-Trump era. There will be a famous work on the current regime, but can it be written by a talented insider? Is there such a person? Hardly seems possible.

LOTS MORE COULD BE SAID.

Charlie Angus quotes Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.”

Has the next world war already begun?

Since I started seriously reading social media and blogs I have learned some important things from Umair Haque at The Issue. I haven't been reading him as much in recent months, but he still has the ability to make a realLy good point when he comes across one. I can't dismiss his conclusions just because they are uncomfortable or more colorful than I would have put them.

You have a look.

Canada is heaven (3) -- testimony from some of those who were there

My wife is a refugee from World War II. Specifically she and her grandmother fled the second Soviet invasion of Latvia lived briefly in British camps in Germany, some years in England, and finally in Canada. And she was one of the lucky ones! Canada has been good to her, but she has been good to Canada. When somebody implies that refugees or immigrants are a burden, I think of her.

I was poking around YouTube today and ran across a long post on German women's experience of being POWs in Kitchener, Ontario, which is an area of German settlement and culture since the mid-19th century. The story is called Are we in the wrong country and emphasizes the disbelief the German women felt when people in Kitchener spoke perfect German.

But that is the least of it. There is much more to it. Have a look.

Trump's imperial foreign policy and its moral and historical background

Sara Katib of TMJ News Network interviewed Matthew Hoh of Matt’s Thoughts on War and Peace TMJ was interested in the Trumpian attacks on Venezuela but Hoh put it into a larger context. Here's a sample of this wide-ranging interview:

Sara: One other point that is actually growing among the public as well: many analysts, and now if you were to ask the American public, they would tell you that we know this is really not about drugs. It’s about power. It’s about oil. It’s about politics. And it’s interesting because now if you were to talk to most people because of what they have seen previously with U.S. interference in other countries, most people know that when the U.S. fixates on something like this, there’s definitely more than what meets the eye. The public narrative in this case differs significantly from the real motives behind U.S. policy here. The storyline that the United States is doing this to protect its citizens from nefarious and evil drug traffickers—you hear this from the president, from Donald Trump, who every time the United States destroys a boat, without any evidence, without any type of information or details as to who was on that boat, let alone what that boat was actually doing, let alone the whole counter to the narrative that these boats if they actually were coming to the United States, would have to be refueled 10 or 12 times because they’re so small, right? I mean, all these different things that belie the narrative. Well, the storyline, though, the explanation is that we’re protecting American citizens. Each of these boats has enough fentanyl on it to kill 25,000 Americans. That’s what you’ll hear the White House say repeatedly. And these types of stories, these types of narratives are used by governments, you know, around the world and throughout history to justify their actions. And all they want is just for their base, their core supporters to have a rationale, to have an explanation, right? It’s something that people who are outside of that core dismiss. No one believes it. I think anyone watching, most Americans don’t believe it and certainly those around the world, you know, don’t believe it. But that’s not what the government cares about. The government cares about ensuring that its people have some type of moral construct on which to base their actions. Because, if they don’t have that moral construct, right, they don’t have their rationale, their explanation. If you don’t tell U.S. Marines and soldiers that you’re invading Iraq to protect the United States from another 9-11, your invasion is not going to succeed. Your occupation is going to fall apart very quickly. And the same thing has to occur here in Venezuela. So while most of the United States don’t believe this is the case, and almost no one around the world believes this story of Venezuela trafficking drugs, killing tens and tens of thousands of Americans because of it, it doesn’t matter to the White House. It doesn’t matter to the Pentagon or the State Department. What matters is that the people who are carrying out these policies have some type of moral construct, have some type of narrative on which to fall back on so they won’t doubt what they’re doing. That’s essentially what’s occurring here.

Canada is heaven (2)

I believe I wrote a post a year or so ago with the title "Canada is Heaven" My point was not that Canada is perfect -- far from it -- but relatively speaking most of us Canadians have it awfully good compared to the other 8 billion human beings on this earth.

Here's a story that struck me much the same way. a bus hijacking (?) in Hamilton, Ontario, that went right (?).

The incident raises a number of questions and reflections.

Is hijack the right word ?

Is the cop's use of term "mental illness" at the press conference approriate?

Finally, it seems awfully clear that it is preferable to be at a bus stop in Hamilton than to be a school girl in the state of Niger, Nigeria, where you and your teachers might be kidnapped by gunmen with unclear motivations.

But if you use the Hamilton transit system at the wrong time, you might find yourself hard to make clear judgments.

An excellent review by Ken Mondschein of Pas d’armes and Late Medieval Chivalry: A Casebook.

If you have a general interest in the Middle Ages, you might want to subscribe to the Medieval Review. It is free and includes reviews on all sorts of scholarly subjcts. There are limitations. It is likely that most of the reviews you get will be of limited interest to you (I am not very interested in monographs on theologians and philosophers). The most important reviews of high profile books seem to appear in long-established journals -- but they are not free. The Medieval Review, however, will often provide you with information you didn't know you were interested in.

I am including an excellent review by Ken Mondschein of a book that I and some of my regular readers wll be interested in. I point out that it is reasonably priced! Hooray for the Liverpool University Press

In fact if you look around you'll find an open access version of the book!

The Mondchein review:

Brown-Grant, Rosalind, and Mario Damen, eds. Pas d’armes and Late Medieval Chivalry: A Casebook

Reviewed by Ken Mondschein Massachusetts Historical Swordsmanship ken@kenmondschein.com

Recent writings by Steven Muhlberger and others, as well as public history such as the Met’s 2019 exhibit about Maximillian I, have shown the late medieval tournament is a fertile field for studying elite alliances, politicking, and self-fashioning. Within the tournament, we can find worlds, much as one day historians will no doubt pick apart our own day’s professional sports. The difference is that in the late Middle Ages and early modern period, the ruling class was also the athletic class, making their sports and games of key interest. As the title makes clear, this is a casebook, but it is also the first work, save for a chapter in Barber and Barker’s oft-cited 1989 Tournaments, Jousts, Chivalry, and Pageants in the Late Middle Ages, specifically on this form of tournament. As such, it is a valuable addition to the literature.

The present volume is a study of pas d’armes, a form of late-medieval tournament that originated in Spain in the early fifteenth century. The pas featured a “home team” defending a locale, such as a pillar or stone (a perron), against all comers. Despite its theatrical trappings and rich symbolism, this was still a dangerous affair, and fatalities were not unknown, particularly in the earlier and less-regulated pas. From its birthplace in Iberia, this tournament form spread to France and, especially, Burgundy, where it both took on elements of state theatre and was made safer by being brought firmly under the control of rulers.

The first part of the book presents primary sources detailing fifteen pas spanning approximately 80 years, from 1428 to 1507, as well as one literary antecedent, the Romance of Ponthus and Sidoine. Interestingly for one interested in the study of medievalism, the literary exemplar shows more parallels with modern medieval combat-sport aesthetics--mighty men bashing each other with weighty swords to the point of exhaustion, yet forbidding the thrust--whereas the real-world accounts are both more vaguely described and also more contained--for instance, the pollaxe fight between Jacques de Lalaing and Pierre de Chandio in 1449 is limited to seventeen blows--and do use thrusts.

The primary sources regarding the fifteen pas d’armes, ranging from poetry to financial accounts, similarly have much to offer the reenactor, as well as the historian. Clothing, armor, and horse trappings are meticulously described. The particular forms, rules, and conditions to govern the emprise--in other words, the social structures meant to regulate and contain violence--are also specified, as are the richly symbolic and meaningful theatric trappings and heraldry.

The second part of the book contains some very interesting interpretive essays. Thalia Brero, Mario Damen, and Klaus Oschema detail how the pas d’armes changed over time from its fifteenth-century origins into the nascent state system of the sixteenth century. Anne D. Hedeman and Justin Strugeon look at heraldry and symbolism in the Pas de Samur. Mario Damen and Michelle Szkilnik examine the political and Arthurian literary environment of the 1463 Pas du Perron Fée in held in Bruges. Mariana Viallon discusses the later legacy of the roleplaying from the 1493 Pas des armes de Sandricourt. Alan V. Murray considers the spread of the pas d’armes to early sixteenth century Scotland with the Wild Knight of the Black Lady (as well as the possible racial overtones of the “Black Lady’s” identity). In the sixth and last essay, Rosalind Brown-Grant continues Ruth Mazo Karras’s work in From Boys to Men to extend the notion of the performance of elite masculinity from mere domination to display and conspicuous consumption. Finally, arms and armor expert Ralph Moffat contributes an excellent glossary.

Overall, this is an excellent book, and a much-needed and much-welcomed study of a previously neglected subject.

Kirth Gersen goes shopping

From Jack Vance's sf novel The Book of Dreams.

...Gersen sauntered along Corrib Place, looking into shops, which here affected a special eclat and offered only goods of eclat and distinction and elegance...Gersen paused ten minutes to watch a pair of puppets at a game of chess. Thhe puppets were Maholibus and Cascadine, characters from the Comic Masque. Each had captured several pieces; each in turn, after deliberation, made his move. When one captured a piece the other made gestures of rage and agitation. Maholibus made a move and spoke in a creaking voice:"Checkmate!" Cascadine cried out in anguish.He struck himself on the forehead and toppled backward off his chair. A moment later he picked himself up; the two arranged the pieces and started a new game....

Mexico: The advantages of having a woman as president

Politico covers https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/mexico-president-sheinbaum-presses-charges-after-street-groping-incident/ar-AA1PTFmC?ocid=BingNewsSerphe reaction to the groping of Mexican president Claudia Scheinbaum in the street.

IMAGE: President Sheinbaum at a press conference. She doesn't look like someone you'd want to cross.https://th.bing.com/th?q=Mexico.+Claudia+Sheinbaum&w=120&h=120&c=1&rs=1&qlt=70&o=7&cb=1&pid=InlineBlock&rm=3&mkt=en-CA&cc=CA&setlang=en&adlt=moderate&t=1&mw=247

Some wise words from Umair Haque

Months, nay years ago now, I used to post material from Umair Haque pretty regularly on this blog. He struck me as one of the few commentators who understood how bad the political situation was in the US and had a coherent analysis of the way fascicm worked and was working in America. His insistance on using the word "fascism" probably made him seem a nut. But I found him convincing, as prediction after prediction came true.

I stopped posting his material because I figured that those of my readers who cared what I thought about the issues he covered had got the messaage: read Umair Haque, he'll give you a dose of reality.

The November elections in the US seem to have changed the political landscape. Or have they? Maybe it's time for another dose of reality from Umair. Especially if you haven't read him before.

The organization of Early Medieval (Carolingian and Ottonian) armies

Medievalists.net has published an article by a distinguished historian, David Bachrach. He has written extensively on how Charlemagne and his German successors won their many campaigns by organizing logistics and mastering siege warfare. Nicely illustrated by images from the famous Utrecht Psalter.

AI generates a podcast reviewing my article " Heroic Kings and Unruly Generals: The "Copenhagen" Continuation of Prosper Reconsidered. Florilegium, 6 (1984) , 50–70.

Yesterday an unexpected item showed up in my mailbox: a podcast, based on my 1984 article analyzing an Italian chronicle which preserves unique material from the 5th, 6th, and 7th centuries. (The chromicle's connection to Denmark is only the fact that the Danes own it.)

I don't quite know what to think of this. The first notification I got told me that "Our AI generated a professional podcast of your paper."I'm not sure what that means. Certainly a human being working for Academia.edu was involved -- his discussion was quite good. Today I got a comic interpretation of the material and a slide show. These seem to me less useful.

On one hand it's a compliment that a rather old paper of mine should be picked for this treatment, though it is a very useful paper in my not so humble opinion. But Academia.edu seems to expect me to pay and sign up. For what exactly?

Comments welcome.

The 20th Century is a long time ago

This morning I was reading a lecture by Alan Lupack The 2016 Loomis Lecture: Moral Chivalry and the Arthurian Revival. It started out rather slow, describing material I was quite familiar with, but became increasingly fascunating to me as it got into later times, especially late 19th century and early 20th century Arthurian revivals. (The title of the lecture is deceptive; Lupack himself shows that there is always an Arthurian revival, often more than one at the same time.

It struck me reading the section on 20th century material, seeing the 20th century as referring to a time when my grandmothers were young, that the 20th century was a long time ago!

Jack (the real) Vance -- as I see him

Jack Vance -- the sf and fantasy writer, not the guy who is US VP-- was a wonderful writer. He hhad a unique talent. His vast vocabulary, the place names, some of his proper placenanes which were wonderful,made his prose unmistakeable. Most of his characters, too.

One of his more obvious traits was the use of detail: One is seldom in any doubt what a character is wearing, especially what the colors of their costume. Consider this brief passage from The Star King. The action takes place at Smade's Tavern on Smade's Planet, which is entirely inhabited by Smade and his family.

"Will you drink?"

Without waiting for assent he signaled one of Smade's daughters, a girl of nine or ten, wearing a modest white bouse and a long black skirt. "I'll use whiskey, lass, and serve this gentleman whatever he decides for himself".

[two pages later]

Gersen signaled, and young Araminta Smade brought whiskey on a white jade tray, upon which she herself had painted a red and blue floral border.

And that's all we hear about young Araminta Smade! Nothing happens to her, good or bad. She's just part of the background --though I don't think of her as just... She is part of Vance's effort to make his universe real

You should see what he does with landscapes! More on Vance. Yes, Araminta is a real if rare name.

Tambora and the Year without Summer

Link to Substack pictures to come. Here's some striking paintings of the Year Without Summer . Thanks to xtracurriculars for this link.<