10. Benito Mussolini vs. Francisco Ciccotti: During Il Duce’s rise to power in 1921, an editor in Rome published criticism of the man who would pioneer Italian fascism. Benito challenged Francisco to a duel of swords that lasted an hour and fifteen minutes, ending with Francisco conceding after suffering several wounds from the physically formidable man who made the trains run on time.
9. King Naresuan vs. Prince Minshit Sra: In 1593 in what is now modern day Thailand, an invading force of Burmese soldiers, led by Minshit Sra, was repelled when the Siamese King Naresuan engaged and defeated Sra in one-on-one combat atop war elephants. Running Sra through with a lance, the invaders recovered the body of the fallen royal and promptly retreated. The event is still celebrated in Thailand as a national holiday.
8. Inigo Montoya vs. Count Rugen: My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die…
7. Aaron Burr vs. Alexander Hamilton: While Vice President of the US, Aaron Burr challenged former Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton to a duel. Hamilton had participated in 10 shotless duels up to this point, including one with future president James Monroe. Hamilton fired first, harmlessly into the air. Burr took aim and hit Hamilton in the abdomen, killing the man who is now depicted on the ten dollar bill. The political blowback resulted in Burr’s self-imposed exile and strong support for the outlawing of duels.
6. David vs. Goliath: Perhaps the most widely known duel, thanks to the Biblical depiction. Few are aware of the grisly details following the felling of the Philistine whose very name came to signify both enormous size and humiliating defeat. Upon bashing in his brains with a sling-launched stone, young David decapitates Goliath and carries the head to Jerusalem.
5. Marcus Claudius Marcellus vs. Viridomarus: At the Battle of Clastidium in 222 BCE, the Roman general Marcellus engaged King Viridomarus in single combat, killing him. As per custom, Marcellus took the spolia opima (the fallen leader’s armor and weapons) back to Rome. Marcellus is regarded by most historians as the only non-fictional Roman to achieve such a feat (an act purportedly first achieved by Romulus, the mythological founder of Rome).
4. Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader: This father and son rivalry resulted in two fabled duels, the first in Cloud City during The Empire Strikes Back, and then again on the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi. Both resulted in the loss of the loser’s hand.
3. Andrew Jackson vs. Charles Dickinson: Future president Jackson challenged Dickinson to a duel over insults made towards his wife and gambling debts. During the duel, Jackson waited for Dickinson to fire first, and he was struck soundly in the ribcage. The bullet was lodged close to his heart and would remain there the rest of his life. After this shot, Jackson carefully aimed his gun and pulled the trigger, only to have the gun fail to fire. Jackson reloaded, aimed again, and this time shot his opponent dead.
2. Achilles vs. Hector: One of the most dramatic fights in mythology is the battle between the Myrmidon Greek hero, Achilles, and the Trojan champion and son of King Priam, Hector. After several years of siege upon the walled city of Troy and numerous disputes with his commander, Agamemnon, Achilles refuses to fight. His shield bearer and homosexual lover, Patroclus, dons the armor of Achilles and engages Hector on the battlefield. Hector kills Patroclus, believing him to be Achilles, and strips the body of his armor and arms. Achilles becomes enraged, and the blacksmith god Hephaestus forges new equipment for Achilles, who then duels and defeats Hector. After his victory, Achilles drags Hector’s body behind his chariot and back to his camp, preventing a proper burial. The King himself, guided by Hermes, enters the enemy camp at night and successfully pleads for the return of his son’s body. The Iliad ends shortly after, picked up by the Odyssey shortly before the construction of the Trojan Horse.
1. Jean de Carrouges vs. Jacques Le Gris: In 14th century France, the last legal trial-by-combat played out like a Hollywood movie (and the story is reputedly being considered for a project by Martin Scorsese). The wife of Carrouges accused Le Gris of rape, but there were insufficient witnesses to testify on the matter. Carrouages’ last hope was to appeal to the king for a trial-by-combat, which was a right that had not been granted for some time and seen by many as antiquated. After lengthy proceedings, the trial-by-combat was granted.
Le Gris was knighted so as to be of equal social stature, and the two mounted horses to joust in front of a crowd of thousands. After three passes, both men’s lances shattered. Each drew his axe and continued mounted combat until the stronger Le Gris decapitated his opponent’s horse, forcing Carrouges to fight from the ground. Carrouges managed to disembowel his opponent’s steed, and the action continued with both men dismounted.
The two threw down their axes and drew swords. After several minutes of armored combat, Carrouges slipped and Le Gris stabbed his accuser in the right thigh. As he stepped back to survey the damage, Le Gris was caught off-guard by his oppnent's desperate scramble and was tackled to the ground. Weighed down by his heavy armor, Le Gris remained floored and was stabbed repeatedly by Carrouges, whose sword was only able to dent the metal plates of his opponent.
Using the handle of his dagger, Carrouges knocked open his opponent’s faceplate and demanded he admit his guilt. Le Gris refused, and Carrouges promptly stabbed him in the throat, thus “proving” his opponent’s guilt by demonstration of the will of God. His wife ran onto the field and embraced her husband to the cheers of thousands in attendance, including the King. The stakes were high for the wife, for if her husband lost, she would be executed for making false accusations.
Award for Best Duel That Almost Was goes to…
Abraham Lincoln vs. James Shields: Lincoln was at the time an Illinois state legislator and publisher of the Sangamon Journal, which printed a mocking letter that infuriated Shields, the state auditor. Shields “demanded satisfaction,” and the two left Illinois (where dueling was illegal at the time) for Missouri. Just prior to counting paces, the two principals’ seconds (or witness representatives) convinced the two to call it off, supposedly on the grounds that Lincoln had not even written the letter himself; he merely published it.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Pithy News 8/29/10
Glenn Beck estimated 3-400,000 attendees at his rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Compared to the 87,000 calculated by experts, this is Beck’s most accurate observation ever.
Paris Hilton was arrested for cocaine possession. In related news, bears shit in the woods.
The last combat troops left Iraq this last week, leaving just 50,000 for “administrative duties.” The Iraq War is officially over, like racism…
The “Ground Zero Mosque” shares funding with Fox News. After hearing this, I’m thinking… maybe they shouldn’t build it.
Paris Hilton was arrested for cocaine possession. In related news, bears shit in the woods.
The last combat troops left Iraq this last week, leaving just 50,000 for “administrative duties.” The Iraq War is officially over, like racism…
The “Ground Zero Mosque” shares funding with Fox News. After hearing this, I’m thinking… maybe they shouldn’t build it.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Saturday Reflection #2
The weirder I am, the more I meet people just like me. I feel most alone when I pretend to be normal.
Friday, August 27, 2010
The Two Extremes
There are two extremes when it comes to defending one’s ideology. There are people who would kill for their ideals, and there are people who would die for their ideals.
If you look back through history, it’s not difficult to see which is the better option. We hail as heroes those who die for their principles, while we revile as evil those who kill the opposition (on a long enough timeline, anyway).
Major Western religions have all milked this fact quite successfully. Jews have pretty legitimate concerns when it comes to being victimized, and their suffering has galvanized their religion to the point of being what is arguably the most successful faith in the world. No other religion wields so much power with so few members (except perhaps Buddhists, who share a similar situation), and their longevity is matched only by Hinduism.
Christians based their entire religion on a man who died for his beliefs. It’s tragically ironic that once Christians held any sort of power, they abandoned this in favor of violence against the opposition (both from non-Christians and defiant followers). However, despite the countless abuses over the centuries, Christians have maintained a very strong victimhood mentality.
Muslims are little different, and a casual reading of the Quran will yield hundreds of passages that follow this formula: Allah sent messengers, the prophets were ignored (sometimes killed), and the people were punished. While Allah is not presented as being non-violent, His Earthly messengers certainly are. Sure, Mohammed was a marauding warlord, but try telling that to Muslims today, who are victimized both in Muslim nations by their ridiculous laws and Imperialist occupiers, and abroad, where they are despised.
This can even be seen in modern day politics. Martin Luther King advocated non-violence, and was murdered by a racist white man. Malcolm X advocated violent opposition, and was ignored… until he started to change his stance towards peaceful methods. Then he was killed by members of the Nation of Islam, which he had previously helped pioneer.
It seems like history is full of these examples, and the ones we respect most are not the people who take up arms and fight, but are the ones who oppose violence on principle and instead advocate peaceful disobedience.
So why is violence so popular?
Some people feel that if you peacefully oppose something, you are doing nothing, or not enough. There are also people who fear the consequences of civil disobedience. But how selfish is it that you would not give up your own life for your ideas, but you would sacrifice others?
If what we believe is right, dying (or accepting lesser or greater consequences) for our belief is the most powerful statement that can be made. Dying for your beliefs would only be wrong if what you believe is frivolous and stupid. For those who kill for their beliefs, this often turns out to be the case.
If you look back through history, it’s not difficult to see which is the better option. We hail as heroes those who die for their principles, while we revile as evil those who kill the opposition (on a long enough timeline, anyway).
Major Western religions have all milked this fact quite successfully. Jews have pretty legitimate concerns when it comes to being victimized, and their suffering has galvanized their religion to the point of being what is arguably the most successful faith in the world. No other religion wields so much power with so few members (except perhaps Buddhists, who share a similar situation), and their longevity is matched only by Hinduism.
Christians based their entire religion on a man who died for his beliefs. It’s tragically ironic that once Christians held any sort of power, they abandoned this in favor of violence against the opposition (both from non-Christians and defiant followers). However, despite the countless abuses over the centuries, Christians have maintained a very strong victimhood mentality.
Muslims are little different, and a casual reading of the Quran will yield hundreds of passages that follow this formula: Allah sent messengers, the prophets were ignored (sometimes killed), and the people were punished. While Allah is not presented as being non-violent, His Earthly messengers certainly are. Sure, Mohammed was a marauding warlord, but try telling that to Muslims today, who are victimized both in Muslim nations by their ridiculous laws and Imperialist occupiers, and abroad, where they are despised.
This can even be seen in modern day politics. Martin Luther King advocated non-violence, and was murdered by a racist white man. Malcolm X advocated violent opposition, and was ignored… until he started to change his stance towards peaceful methods. Then he was killed by members of the Nation of Islam, which he had previously helped pioneer.
It seems like history is full of these examples, and the ones we respect most are not the people who take up arms and fight, but are the ones who oppose violence on principle and instead advocate peaceful disobedience.
So why is violence so popular?
Some people feel that if you peacefully oppose something, you are doing nothing, or not enough. There are also people who fear the consequences of civil disobedience. But how selfish is it that you would not give up your own life for your ideas, but you would sacrifice others?
If what we believe is right, dying (or accepting lesser or greater consequences) for our belief is the most powerful statement that can be made. Dying for your beliefs would only be wrong if what you believe is frivolous and stupid. For those who kill for their beliefs, this often turns out to be the case.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Top Ten: Juniors
10. James Brown, Jr. – the Godfather of Soul… I’ll remember him for this interview, one of the first viral videos (it was big on the internet years after it actually happened). It is questionable whether he should be eligible for this list, because he legally removed the “Jr.” from his name when he became an adult.
9. Cuba Gooding, Jr. – Even more compelling than his “Show me the money!” role in Jerry Maguire was his role as a gay art promoter for his boyfriend, played by Greg Kinnear, in As Good as it Gets. He puts the prissy homosexual stereotypes to bed when he physically confronts the immortal Jack Nicholson and pulls him out of his apartment into the hall for a verbal smack down on the stupefied legend. I don’t know if Jack’s just a great actor or if he actually shit himself (the scene starts at about 1:30).
8. Phillip II of Macedon – A conquering king in his own right, Phillip II may be best remembered as the father of Alexander the Great, but he also took a chance on a young pupil of Plato to educate his son in the ways of the world. Many people attribute Alexander’s greatness to his hand-picked tutor, Aristotle.
7. Robert Downey, Jr. – I still haven’t seen either Iron Man, but I liked him in Tropic Thunder, and I can’t wait to see him as the Wizard in an upcoming Oz prequel produced by Disney.
6. World War II – WWI resulted in 38.8 million dead or missing, but only 19 years later, this mark would be smashed by its predecessor, claiming 49 million civilians alone, not to mention 24 million soldiers.
5. Al Gore, Jr. – Not only an enviro-alarmist, massage enthusiast, and former Vice President, Al Gore, Jr. helped create Current TV, my wife’s favorite channel (for a taste, see link below).
4. Carl’s Jr. – best known for sexist commercials, chili cheese fries, and burgers with way too much stuff on them.
3. Sammy Davis, Jr. – The Candy Man is either best remembered for being a Rat Packer, or for losing his left eye in a car accident and subsequently converting to Judaism. Asked if he was handicapped: “Handicap? Talk about handicap — I'm a one-eyed Negro Jew.” With wit like that, I’m sure he fit right in at temple.
2. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. – Survivor of the fire bombing of Dresden, celebrated novelist, Indiana native, and avowed atheist, Kurt would have made #1 if I thought I could get away with it.
1. Martin Luther King, Jr. – This is what fathers hope for when they name their sons after themselves (my condolences to John Hinckley, Sr.).
Worst Junior award goes to:
Junior, the film – starring Arnold Schwarzegger as a man who gets pregnant, co-starring Danny DeVito and Emma Thompson.
9. Cuba Gooding, Jr. – Even more compelling than his “Show me the money!” role in Jerry Maguire was his role as a gay art promoter for his boyfriend, played by Greg Kinnear, in As Good as it Gets. He puts the prissy homosexual stereotypes to bed when he physically confronts the immortal Jack Nicholson and pulls him out of his apartment into the hall for a verbal smack down on the stupefied legend. I don’t know if Jack’s just a great actor or if he actually shit himself (the scene starts at about 1:30).
8. Phillip II of Macedon – A conquering king in his own right, Phillip II may be best remembered as the father of Alexander the Great, but he also took a chance on a young pupil of Plato to educate his son in the ways of the world. Many people attribute Alexander’s greatness to his hand-picked tutor, Aristotle.
7. Robert Downey, Jr. – I still haven’t seen either Iron Man, but I liked him in Tropic Thunder, and I can’t wait to see him as the Wizard in an upcoming Oz prequel produced by Disney.
6. World War II – WWI resulted in 38.8 million dead or missing, but only 19 years later, this mark would be smashed by its predecessor, claiming 49 million civilians alone, not to mention 24 million soldiers.
5. Al Gore, Jr. – Not only an enviro-alarmist, massage enthusiast, and former Vice President, Al Gore, Jr. helped create Current TV, my wife’s favorite channel (for a taste, see link below).
4. Carl’s Jr. – best known for sexist commercials, chili cheese fries, and burgers with way too much stuff on them.
3. Sammy Davis, Jr. – The Candy Man is either best remembered for being a Rat Packer, or for losing his left eye in a car accident and subsequently converting to Judaism. Asked if he was handicapped: “Handicap? Talk about handicap — I'm a one-eyed Negro Jew.” With wit like that, I’m sure he fit right in at temple.
2. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. – Survivor of the fire bombing of Dresden, celebrated novelist, Indiana native, and avowed atheist, Kurt would have made #1 if I thought I could get away with it.
1. Martin Luther King, Jr. – This is what fathers hope for when they name their sons after themselves (my condolences to John Hinckley, Sr.).
Worst Junior award goes to:
Junior, the film – starring Arnold Schwarzegger as a man who gets pregnant, co-starring Danny DeVito and Emma Thompson.
Wrong Again
The great thing about being an atheist is that I can admit I’m wrong. It’s very therapeutic, actually. It reminds me I’m not perfect (who needs reminding that other people aren’t?).
This morning, before I even wiped the sleep out of my eyes, I saw something I wanted to believe, so I posted about it. It turns out, the “Burn the Quran” guy is probably not a child pornographer, and he almost certainly wasn’t arrested in Florida as one (believe me, I checked all their local papers, police blotters, etc.).
Add this one to the pile, along with my post about Prime Minister of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, being Jewish.
It just goes to show you: no matter how much you hope something is real, you should always look into the veracity of every claim. Innocent until proven guilty, a lie until proven true. Even atheists need to be reminded of this, from time to time.
This morning, before I even wiped the sleep out of my eyes, I saw something I wanted to believe, so I posted about it. It turns out, the “Burn the Quran” guy is probably not a child pornographer, and he almost certainly wasn’t arrested in Florida as one (believe me, I checked all their local papers, police blotters, etc.).
Add this one to the pile, along with my post about Prime Minister of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, being Jewish.
It just goes to show you: no matter how much you hope something is real, you should always look into the veracity of every claim. Innocent until proven guilty, a lie until proven true. Even atheists need to be reminded of this, from time to time.
Update on an Idiot
How this slipped by me, I will never know. I blame myself and my laziness.
It appears that the Pastor of the Gainesvile, Florida Dove World Outreach Center, Terry Jones (pictured above blowing up an invisible balloon), was arrested in early August on charges of child pornography. You might remember that this is the group hosting the Quran book burning on this upcoming September 11th.
I urge police to be present at the burning to ensure he’s not throwing any evidence under the Qurans.
As my wife said, “Maybe there really are people in this world who are just evil.”
Special thanks to the internet, for being the greatest information tool the world has ever known. In another era, this guy’s crimes would have flown under the radar, but thankfully privacy is now a myth, and there’s nowhere for society’s scum to hide anymore (not even behind religiously righteous indignation).
[UPDATE: This story is probably a slanderous falsehood that is too good to be true. Perhaps the real story is: insult Muslims, be accused of child pornography...]
It appears that the Pastor of the Gainesvile, Florida Dove World Outreach Center, Terry Jones (pictured above blowing up an invisible balloon), was arrested in early August on charges of child pornography. You might remember that this is the group hosting the Quran book burning on this upcoming September 11th.
I urge police to be present at the burning to ensure he’s not throwing any evidence under the Qurans.
As my wife said, “Maybe there really are people in this world who are just evil.”
Special thanks to the internet, for being the greatest information tool the world has ever known. In another era, this guy’s crimes would have flown under the radar, but thankfully privacy is now a myth, and there’s nowhere for society’s scum to hide anymore (not even behind religiously righteous indignation).
[UPDATE: This story is probably a slanderous falsehood that is too good to be true. Perhaps the real story is: insult Muslims, be accused of child pornography...]
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Freedom to Be a Dick
No one loves a good insult like me, but I don’t particularly agree with the Dove World Outreach Center’s decision to hold a Quran book burning on September 11th.
Don’t misunderstand me, they can do it. No one should stop them, and anyone who tries to hurt the people involved should jump off a cliff instead, though I doubt there will be much trouble, what with “between 500 and 2000” armed members of the militia Right Wing Extreme handling security (because that is what Jesus would do). What could go wrong, right?
I even like insulting Muslims and Islam. I am still an ardent supporter of Draw Mohammed Day (already gearing up for May 20th of next year).
But there is something fundamentally different going on here. The first strike is the lack of originality. “Oh, I don’t like something… I’ll burn a symbol of them.” Total lack of creativity.
The second strike is the fact that rather than pointing out a problem, it is blatantly iconoclastic. Iconoclasm is the destruction of symbols… which is something Muslims do… and I hate when they do it.
The third strike is that Christians ought to be reading the Quran. I have noticed how woefully ignorant of Islam Americans are throughout this whole debacle over the Ground Zero (er, two blocks away) Muslim community center (or if you’re watching Faux News: “mosque”).
On one side, you have these people saying they hate Islam but know nothing about it. On the other side, you have people who also never read the Quran who are trying to argue that Islam is a peaceful religion no different than any other.
Both are wrong, and both groups of people should shut up when it comes to things they know nothing about.
I, on the other hand, have read the Quran. I know that it condemns me to death and an eternity in the lake of fire on every other page (no exaggeration). I know it’s basically a rehashing of the Old Testament and an even looser interpretation of the New Testament (but in their version, Judas is crucified in place of Jesus, and Jesus is explicitly and repeatedly defined as not a God or God’s son, which would be so below Allah… I dunno, sounds more plausible to me…).
And yet, I have no urge to burn my Quran.
At the core of my ideology is to add more to the world. Even if I could erase all religious texts on Earth, I wouldn’t. It would make the world less rich. We should be adding more to our base of knowledge, not trying to redact it. Book burnings are censorship, an attempt to physically destroy knowledge (though it is merely metaphorical in this instance, because they are only burning a few of the billions of copies of the Quran that are in existence).
But you know what? To stop a book burning from happening is also censorship. The only time I would physically want someone to step in is if an angry mob descended upon a library with torches, and this is clearly a bring-your-own-book burning. You can do what you want with a Quran you own.
[Mine is in my bathroom, which is way more offensive and original than burning it.]
Finally, I’m not even surprised. Christians have a long history of burning books, going back to the burning of heretical scrolls by Christians at Ephesus (Acts 19:19). It wouldn’t be Christianity without the blatant intolerance and destructive tendencies. Then it would be Buddhism.
But if you’re going to make a statement, have some balls and don’t hide behind a small army. What kind of frightened wimps are you that you claim to believe in heaven, but you’re afraid to die? The whole thing makes a very weak case for Christianity, but it does make atheism look better and better by the minute.
Don’t misunderstand me, they can do it. No one should stop them, and anyone who tries to hurt the people involved should jump off a cliff instead, though I doubt there will be much trouble, what with “between 500 and 2000” armed members of the militia Right Wing Extreme handling security (because that is what Jesus would do). What could go wrong, right?
I even like insulting Muslims and Islam. I am still an ardent supporter of Draw Mohammed Day (already gearing up for May 20th of next year).
But there is something fundamentally different going on here. The first strike is the lack of originality. “Oh, I don’t like something… I’ll burn a symbol of them.” Total lack of creativity.
The second strike is the fact that rather than pointing out a problem, it is blatantly iconoclastic. Iconoclasm is the destruction of symbols… which is something Muslims do… and I hate when they do it.
The third strike is that Christians ought to be reading the Quran. I have noticed how woefully ignorant of Islam Americans are throughout this whole debacle over the Ground Zero (er, two blocks away) Muslim community center (or if you’re watching Faux News: “mosque”).
On one side, you have these people saying they hate Islam but know nothing about it. On the other side, you have people who also never read the Quran who are trying to argue that Islam is a peaceful religion no different than any other.
Both are wrong, and both groups of people should shut up when it comes to things they know nothing about.
I, on the other hand, have read the Quran. I know that it condemns me to death and an eternity in the lake of fire on every other page (no exaggeration). I know it’s basically a rehashing of the Old Testament and an even looser interpretation of the New Testament (but in their version, Judas is crucified in place of Jesus, and Jesus is explicitly and repeatedly defined as not a God or God’s son, which would be so below Allah… I dunno, sounds more plausible to me…).
And yet, I have no urge to burn my Quran.
At the core of my ideology is to add more to the world. Even if I could erase all religious texts on Earth, I wouldn’t. It would make the world less rich. We should be adding more to our base of knowledge, not trying to redact it. Book burnings are censorship, an attempt to physically destroy knowledge (though it is merely metaphorical in this instance, because they are only burning a few of the billions of copies of the Quran that are in existence).
But you know what? To stop a book burning from happening is also censorship. The only time I would physically want someone to step in is if an angry mob descended upon a library with torches, and this is clearly a bring-your-own-book burning. You can do what you want with a Quran you own.
[Mine is in my bathroom, which is way more offensive and original than burning it.]
Finally, I’m not even surprised. Christians have a long history of burning books, going back to the burning of heretical scrolls by Christians at Ephesus (Acts 19:19). It wouldn’t be Christianity without the blatant intolerance and destructive tendencies. Then it would be Buddhism.
But if you’re going to make a statement, have some balls and don’t hide behind a small army. What kind of frightened wimps are you that you claim to believe in heaven, but you’re afraid to die? The whole thing makes a very weak case for Christianity, but it does make atheism look better and better by the minute.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Myth-story
Christian ideology does not only rely upon the Bible. Christian understanding of Western Civilization is a mythical history, a sort of myth-story of how things happened that coincides with the Christian ideals.
When we learn of the fall of Rome, if we learn about it at all (who has time when it’s so important to learn what Manifest Destiny is...), we are told of roving bands of pagan barbarians destroying and defiling the most advanced empire of its day.
Today is the 1600th anniversary of the sack of Rome. On August 24th, 410 CE, the Visigoth king Alaric led his troops through a gate used for salt trading. Alaric and his men pillaged Rome for 3 days, burning buildings and carrying off the best the empire had to offer. They boarded ships for Africa which sank in a storm. Untold treatures sank to the bottom of the sea, and Alaric died of a fever not long after.
Though Rome was not the true capital at this time, this raid essentially crippled the Western Roman Empire, all because of a pagan barbarian…
Except… Alaric and the Visigoths were Christian.
When we learn of the fall of Rome, if we learn about it at all (who has time when it’s so important to learn what Manifest Destiny is...), we are told of roving bands of pagan barbarians destroying and defiling the most advanced empire of its day.
Today is the 1600th anniversary of the sack of Rome. On August 24th, 410 CE, the Visigoth king Alaric led his troops through a gate used for salt trading. Alaric and his men pillaged Rome for 3 days, burning buildings and carrying off the best the empire had to offer. They boarded ships for Africa which sank in a storm. Untold treatures sank to the bottom of the sea, and Alaric died of a fever not long after.
Though Rome was not the true capital at this time, this raid essentially crippled the Western Roman Empire, all because of a pagan barbarian…
Except… Alaric and the Visigoths were Christian.
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