The Collapse CLXVII: Ready?

19 September 20XX +1

My Dear Lucilius:

The temperature had a sudden drop over the last two days.

This happens from time to time during the run up to Winter. It is a reminder that – while Winter is not quite here – it will soon be here with a vengeance. Nature’s gentle nudge, perhaps, that any business that needs to be taken care of should be attended to in rather short order.

In some ways, there is not much “business” left to attend to. All of the grain has been threshed that there is to thresh and this cold snap has put an end to any last lingering vegetables that were under the false illusion that they would make it to ripeness.

The beehives are girded up for Winter: feeders filled, access limiters in place, wrapped as they always are in hopes that anything is better than nothing (overheating here in Winter is not an issue). They, along with the quail, remain my biggest concerns, a non-replaceable asset if and when they finally die.

The inside of the Cabin has been reorganized for what feels like the 10th time since the start of Summer. Things were of course ferried over from Pompeia Paulina’s house, but even more things seem to have appeared in the last few days: jars of canned vegetables I have never seen before, a rather large collection of blankets, a stack of puzzles.

I started to ask but then got the raised eyebrow. I carefully found something else to concentrate on.

The stove is in almost constant use at this point – even more so during the last few days. I am re-evaluating whether in the depths of the incoming Winter we just plan to sleep on the futon that serves as our couch – yes, the bedroom is literally right around the door from the stove, but “right around” is not the same as “in the same room of”.

With the stove, of course, comes the wood. It does not use much, but even “not much wood” is going to be hard to come by this time. With deadfall and what was left from last year, we probably have enough to make it through to more temperate conditions. Probably. But there will likely still be expeditions every day as I am able to find more wood.

I think we are as prepared as we can be, Lucilius. Whether that will be enough remains to be seen.

Your Obedient Servant, Seneca

2024 Turkey: Ephesus (IV)

 "Now when they heard this, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying 'Great is Diana of the Ephesians!'  So the whole city was filled with confusion, and rushed into the theater with one accord, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians, Paul's traveling companions.  And when Paul wanted to go in to the people, the disciples would not allow it.

Then some of the officials of Asia, who were his friends, sent to him pleading that he would not venture into the theater.  Some therefore cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was confused, and most of them did not know why they had come together.

And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward.  And Alexander motioned with his hand, and wanted to make his defense to the people.

But when they found out he was a Jew, all with one voice cried out for about two hours, 'Great is Diana of the Ephesians!'

And when the city clerk had quieted the people, he said:  'Men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple guardian of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Zeus?

Therefore, since these things cannot be denied,  you ought to be quiet and do nothing rashly.  For you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of your goddess. 

Therefore, if Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a case against anyone, the courts are open and there are proconsuls.  Let them bring the charges against one another.  But if you have any other inquiry to make, it shall be determined in the lawful assembly.

For we are in danger of being called into question for today's uproar, there being no reason which we may give to account for this disorderly gathering.' And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly."  - Acts 19: 28-41

The Theater of Ephesus held up to 24,000 people.

The street to what would have been the harbor, where Paul likely would have arrived to and sailed from.

A museum nearby has a collection of artifacts found in the Ephesus excavations.

That any glass at all survived from these times never ceases to amaze me:

A model of the temple of Diana (Artemis):

"Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"  One of two statues found of Diana/Artemis.  Artemis was the Greek goddess, adapted to Diana by the Romans.  In Asia Minor, she was also conflated with the mother goddess Cybele (represented here by the multiple breasts).

Just some statues that caught my eye. How sad we no longer work in this medium.

2024 Turkey Ephesus (III)

The Library of Celsus, located in Ephesus, is one of the most recognizable archaeological structures I would bet most people could not put a name to.

It was commissioned in A.D. 110 by Tiberius Julius Aquila Polemaeanus, a consul of the Roman Empire, in memory of his father Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus and former proconsul of Asia (you will remember from last week that Ephesus had become the capital of the Roman province of Asia).  It was both a library and a tomb; Celsus was buried beneath it, a signal honor as it was almost never done in Rome.

It was considered the third largest library in the ancient world behind those of Alexandria and Pergamon, with an estimated 12,000 scrolls

At the front of the Library were four female statues, personifications of virtues: Sophia (Wisdom), Epistime (Knowledge), Ennoia (Intelligence), and Arete (Excellence). The current statues are not the originals.

Inside the library were a total of three levels of bookcases, to be accessed by stairways.  On each level were armaria, niches where the scrolls were placed.

The library burned in A.D. 262 due to unknown reasons.  The faced itself collapsed in an earthquake in the 10th or 11th century, where it remained until the 1970's, when the site was restored.

The Gate of Augustus, to the left of the Library of Celsus as you exit. Built to honor Augustus Caesar and his family.

Through the Gate of Augustus lies the Agora, the marketplace of Ephesus.  Its placement is not accidental; it lies close to the old harbor.

A typical market stall within the Agora.  These are similar to what we saw in the Agora of Athens.

Looking back in the Agora towards The Gate of Augustus.

From the Agora, looking up to the Theater of Ephesus.

Looking back.  To the right of the large building in the background is the location of the Library of Celsus.

If I recall correctly, this was considered part of the "red light district", conveniently placed near the Agora, the Theater, and the harbor.  Or as we used to say in real estate, "location, location, location".

Arma virumque cano - I sing of arms and the man (the opening line of The Aenid).  A stone from the Agora carved with the arms of a gladiator.

Of Mistra And Myopia

 This weekend I finished Steven Runciman's book on Mistra, the capital of the Despotate of the Morea.

Mistra (or Mystras, modern Greek), as you might remember from our visit there in 2023  (here, here, and here) was originally a castle built on a spur of Mt. Taygetus (overlooking the ancient site of the Greek polis Sparta) during the Frankish conquest of Greece following the invasion of the Fourth Crusade and the capture and looting of Constantinople and the establishment of the Latin Empire of Byantium (A.D. 1204 - 1261).  The castle was taken back by the Byzantines in  A.D. 1262.

The book is a history of from the building of the castle (eventually a walled town) to its final destruction in A.D. 1823 by Ottoman forces as part of the Greek War of Independence.

Runciman paints as much of a history as he can based on a series of not plentiful sources:  for many years the history of Mistra was part of the larger history of Frankish Principality of the Morea, which was conquered by the Byzantine (Greek) Despotate of the Morea. 

During the life of the Despotate of the Morea (technically A.D. 1349 - 1460), it remained the domain of the sons of the Emperors of Byzantium, whether the House of Kantakouzenos (A.D. 1349 - 1383) or the House of Palaiologos (A.D. 1383 - 1460). But it also existed in the greater realm of Byzantine politics and the political situation of the 14th and 15th Century Balkans and Anatolia.

And therein, as is evidenced through Runciman's book, lies the problem (as a note, the book is excellent, as all of Runciman's are, and highly recommended).

This is the situation following the Fourth Crusade in A.D. 1204:

(Source)

The Empire of Nicea, The Empire of Trebizond, and The Despotate of Epirus were all Byzantine successor states from which the Empire of Nicea was the most successful in that it reconquered Constantinople.

This, in turn, is the situation in A.D. 1450:

(Source)

You will note that the area controlled by the Byzantine Empire has shrunk dramatically.  What is not shown by this graphic - but is discussed in Runciman's book - is the fact that even as the Byzantine Empire (and indeed, the Latin Empire) lost territory to the increasing power of the Ottoman State.

Part of this, of course, was simply bad luck:  an earthquake in A.D. 1380 allowed the Ottomans to cross into Europe (interestingly not too far from Gelibolu (Gallipoli) near where we stayed), the Black Death of A.D. 1347 which caused depopulation, and invasion by successor states seeking to increase their territory at the expense of the Empire.  But the other parts - an attempt to re-establish Imperial boundaries and the glory of an Empire which could not financially support itself and a rather constant series of civil wars and lesser, more regional conflicts family members trying to become emperor, did not help matters at all.

The Byzantine Empire had become a vassal - in principle and in practice - by A.D. 1371 - and in a very real sense continued to exist only at the pleasure and convenience of the Ottoman state (until it became powerful enough to finally conquer them).  Yet even in this, Byzantine Emperors and would-be emperors sought out Ottoman assistance to topple their opponents.  Rather than spend their time trying to make the empire they had stronger, they spent time fighting over the scraps of a geography that was shrinking and a power that was diminishing.

Perhaps the greatest spectacle of this was post the conquest of Constantinople in A.D. 1453, the brothers Demetrius and Thomas Palaiologos - brothers who shared the rule of the Despotate of the Morea, continued to argue and fight among themselves, ultimately invoking the wrath of Mehmed the Conqueror, who simply invaded and snuffed out the last embers of the Byzantine Empire in Greece (of note, the Empire of Trebizond survived until A.D. 1461 and the Principality of Theodoro in what is now the Crimea until A.D. 1475).

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"Ah T.B." (I can hear you saying) "this is interesting and all and I am sure glad that you enjoyed the book.  But what does this have to do with anything?"

History, it has been said, does not repeat itself but it does rhyme - which I take to mean that there are principles provided in the study of history that remain applicable across the whole of human experience.  While situations remain different, we as humans remain largely the same, and beneath cultures remain common human emotions and experiences which translate themselves into patterns which, if discerned, can be instructive.

Without delving into a great deal of history, suffice it to say that the Byzantine Empire went into effective decline around the 11th century A.D. through a series of lost battles, lost territory, leadership that got worse over time, and neighbors near and far who saw it as territory to be taken and riches to be plundered without realizing the larger role it played both in preventing invasions from Anatolia and preserving Classical learning for the future.  This decline was not completely the fault of the Empire, but the Empire did not help itself by clinging to a vision of what it had been versus the reality of what it now was and tearing itself apart through a series of civil wars (I am not touching here on the financial policies of the Empire, but they were not good either following the reign of Manuel Komnenos [ruled A.D. 1143-1180]).   

Ultimately the failure of the Byzantines to understand both their place in a changing world and that expeditions to recreate lost boundaries (it never really worked even under Justinian in the 6th Century A.D. when they had they money and the manpower), combined with their myopic focus on gaining power for this personage or that instead of focusing on the survival of the state as a whole, meant that their downfall was inevitable.  And even in the microcosm of Mistras and the Despotate of the Morea, leaders continued to fight over power and land long after either truly had any meaning in the larger picture.

One can either choose to see one's position in the world and work to stabilize and improve the situation, or one can choose to seek past glories that are beyond current capabilities and fight to become the top fish in an ever shrinking pool. One road may lead to some element of stability and survival, the other simply to ruin.

Nothing Is Easier

 

One of the greatest potential places of impact the modern Christian can have is in the modeling of their own behavior.

In an era of cultural disarray and "Christianity" being a great deal of what seems to suit the practitioner, the practice of the biblically based Christian can truly stand out as unique and novel.  A note here: when I say "biblically based" I mean "the teachings of God and Christ as in the Bible"; worth noting because too often we fall one side of the full teaching or the other.

The real difficulty is in practicing what we preach - or in this case, teach.  In this, I often miss the mark.

For me, at least at this point in my life, the mark is not so much external behavior (although that is still a problem from time to time); it is mostly internal.  Those sections in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 where Christ points to the internal practices instead of the external - hate of our brother in our heart, lust in our mind - speak out to me more and more.  And since the internal influences the external, it in fact does make a great deal of difference in my practices. 

Or Galatians 5, where Paul talks about the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self control - you can find those in any modern non-religious text today about how to be a better person.  How good am I at practicing those (Looking at you, self control).

People have said it far more eloquently than I, but we are in an era where just by being a Christian by practicing Christ-likeness, we can be a witness without words.  Would that I was better at this.

October 2024 Odds And Ends

Among this weekend's relatively tame plans, I have new books to read:  two by Sir Steven Runciman, Mistra:  Byzantine Capital of the Peloponnese and Byzantine Civilization.

Readers from 2023 may remember that we visited Mistra (Mystras) during our trip to Greece (here, here, and here).  I had never heard of it before then; it is a wonderful slice of previously unknown history to me, the sort that fills a historian with joy.  The Byzantine Civilization book was originally printed in 1933 (this is the third printing, 1948).  Both a history book and an old book.  

My cup runneth over.

I also, for the first time in my life, purchased a book on the day of its release:  Rod Dreher's newest book Living In Wonder.  

Dreher has become a favorite of mine; he publishes a Substack here and occasionally has viewable posts (they are well worth the look when they are unlocked; to make it easy you can join the mailing list and only get notified when those posts appear).  I have reviewed his previous books The Benedict Option and Live Not by Lies  (and a reconsideration of both from earlier this year here).  Dreher has become one of my favorite modern writers, and he considers this to be the final volume in what he has come to understand is a trilogy:  The Benedict Option, Live Not by Lies, and now Living in Wonder.

This is a "read uninterruptedly on the plane" book.  I am eagerly anticipating it.

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The next week begins a rather tumultuous two month period which (more or less) sees me essentially skidding to a halt just before the end of the year.  I travel next Thursday through Sunday to The Master Sergeant's funeral and some general family time, then return the following weekend to The Ranch with The Ravishing Mrs. TB for a re-culling of items and what is likely to be the final acts in the settlement of the estate.  I am back in New Home 2.0 for a weekend (including my first volunteer event for a local rabbit shelter), then back again to The Ranch.  The week after is Thanksgiving:  The Ravishing Mrs. TB, Nighean Bhan, and Nighean Dhonn are flying in to spend the holiday with me.

December is mostly spent here, with a volunteer project from the men's group I am a part of and my first company Christmas Party since 2015 (with The Ravishing Mrs. TB).  This is also the time when the head of my sword school with be in town for training - no idea what the schedule will be, but at least three days a week through Christmas.  I fly to New Home on Christmas Eve and return the following Saturday; I am trying to figure out if there is one more trip to be made to The Ranch before the end of the year (likely it would be a single day trip; I think I can make that happen). With that, we would stumble into the New Year.

I am spending New Year's here, alone with Joy.  Likely I will be in bed by 2200.

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The relocation of The Ravishing Mrs. TB remains somewhat still up in the air.

Her position has been posted, but there have been a minimum of candidates apply, and none of them qualified.  On the one hand, her still having a full time job there is a financial boon and if it could continue through February or so, that would be amazing.  On the other hand, she has mentioned that she is sort of at a point that she is simply ready to be done.  I understand that.

One thing that is likely to happen whenever she relocates is that she likely going to do what I did for four years: take up to 1 week long visits to her mother. One reason is to help her with the settling of things post Master Sergeant; the other is that her mother has some health issues that she can finally address as up to this point she has been The Master Sergeant's primary caregiver.  We are much closer, so it is an easy enough nonstop flight (I assume; we will see what the airline industry looks like next year).

It will be nice to have her here. I am sure Joy the Rabbit is tired of being my only conversational partner.

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I feel I should apologize a bit for my writing over the past month or so.  I do not really feel like it has been my best effort.  To be openly honest, I have been dragging the last month or so for reasons I do not fully understand.  I can tick off any number of things that it might be the case, but in point of fact I continue to almost feel some kind of block in writing.  It is not that I have nothing to write of; based on the list above I have a great deal. It seems to be more of a matter of reminding myself that writing is as important as any other activity I do (more so, in some cases).  Writing in the morning is pretty much defunct at this point due to needing to be at work, so writing now occurs in the evenings and in some cases is "bunched up" for several days (for example, likely I have 1.5 weeks worth of material to write between now and next Wednesday night).

I am sure I will find my "rhythm" again.  I really need to, both for my own sanity and the fact that there is a lot coming up to write on: 2025 is promising to be a year of adventure.

As always, thanks for your continued and kind support.

Signal And Noise

 This week I removed Duolingo from my phone.

I have had Duolingo for something like four years (for those that do not know, Duolingo is a language "app", as the kids call them).  The purpose of the app is to teach you a foreign language.  You get credit for consecutive days of streaks.  You earn "hearts", which you can exchange for things like extra tries and the ability to miss a day.

Was it useful?  Earlier I would have said "yes, somewhat"; now I would say "no".  The reason for this is that I came to figure out the app does not really "teach" you a language the way one would learn it in a class or even from a program or book.  

Traditional language study involves a combination of grammar, words, and structure (the idea of "learning a language the way a child does" has come to hold increasingly little belief for me; once a native language is learned, all grammar and structure is processed through that model).  There is no other way ultimately to actually learn to speak versus parroting a dozen phrases for tourists.

Duolingo has words.  It has minimal grammar and minimal structure; I learn "words" but learning how they are managed by grammar and structure is intuited, not spelled out.  

What I found over time is that as I focused on a language I do know something about - Japanese - I was reaching the point that I was "failing" the lesson for the day and could not go forward.  Then it hit me:  I was able to progress farther in the languages that I knew and less so in the languages that I did not know - I was using my learning to make progress to the point I already knew, not progressing into new areas.

But the thing that forced me off was the ads.

Duolingo is free, of course - and by free, we mean "You are the product".  After every lesson are two advertisements:  the first was for whatever was paying the company, the second was for Duolingo.  It was regular:  after every lesson.  Suddenly as I began failing, I realized I was spending at least 20-30% of my time subjected to ads to get my "credit".

Monday night, I was done.  Off the phone it came.  My 74-odd day streak canceled.  My time was worth more than that (and it was obviously not the way to learn a language.

After the visceral satisfaction of wiping it off my phone, the thought suddenly hit me:  how many other items are eating into my time?

A big one was e-mail.

I am the sort of person that tends to forget to unsubscribe to e-mail lists.  And then I am surprised when I open my e-mail box and am subjected to multiple e-mails for things that are no longer relevant or I no longer do.  I will push them to the electronic trash; why do I not just unsubscribe?

I suspect is much like my recent discovery with Duolingo:  I have become so accustomed to the noise that I do not think about it at all.

Does this mean I can solve this problem overnight?  I suspect not:  e-mails will take a while to unsubscribe to as they come in and apps will exist until I realize I am not using them.  But underlying all of this is the same realization that I have had that has ultimately driven me to abandon most all forms of entertainment and media:  the amount of noise that I intake is not worth the signal that appears to be coming through.

The Collapse CLXVI: Silence And Autumn

 15 September 20XX +1

My Dear Lucilius:

One of the things about writing is that if one is committed, one needs to write no matter what. Sometimes there are events that need to be covered and written about; sometimes time just flows and there is very little to discuss.

It seems I find myself in one of those times.

If there is anything of note, it is simply how little I have seen of anyone in the last three days. Certainly Young Xerxes and Statiera, whether here or at their house, but almost no-one else. The level of the sounds of living seem to have become more drowned out now by the ambient sounds of nature.

Certainly we are contributing to that “non-sounds of living” sense: shovel and hoe, bucket and hands – all make almost no sound at all beyond the individual. And I am finding that even activities that I might generate noise for – threshing grain for example – tend to have most of the “noise” producing activities performed in the enclosed space of the greenhouse. Even I find myself not wanting to make any sound outside.

I asked Pompeia Paulina about it and her response was the same. When I asked her if she could define it for me, she could not other than to say “It feels like the world is shutting down”.

On the one hand of course, that is true: Autumn is upon us now. If the leaves turning colour were not enough, the noisy passage of visitors overhead confirm it. Nature is in the process of shutting down as it does here every year and has done so for thousands of years prior to us being here.

On the other hand, there is a sense that we are shutting down as well.

Call it a realization that whatever recovery people might have imagined has not arrived. Call it the fact that – with one lone exception this Summer and an ugly one at that – we have not heard from the Wide World in over a year. Call it the fact that along with that loss of contact has come the fact that there has been nothing “new” come in during the last year as well: no supplies, no new trends, no new fads.

Like Nature, we appear to be shutting down as well.

Nature of course has the Spring that follows every Autumn and Winter. Will we experience that same sort of renewal, that burst of energy and growth? Or will we sink down to a Winter we never recover from.

People have lived here at least hundreds of years and done that without our fancy technologies and way of life. We shall see if we, too, are up to the task.

Your Obedient Servant, Seneca

2024 Turkey: Ephesus (II)

 In our visit to Ephesus, we started at the top of the city and worked our way down towards what would have been the old harbor.  

Part of the original road.  In theory, the Apostles Paul and John could have walked on this same pavement.

Shops and houses would have built into the hills.

Entry to the Roman baths:

The Temple of the deified Hadrian:

The letters read "Latris", or latrines.  Those Romans and their engineering.

The water channel where the sewage would have flowed out:

A local guide demonstrating its usage:

Cold and hard stone seats:

Proclamation by the Emperors Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian (ruled A.D. 364 - 378 jointly), granting the magistrate Eutroplus land to generate revenue for repair of the city.  The original is above, the translation below.

The bottom of the hill. To our right is the road we were looking down yesterday, ahead of us is the road to the agora, harbor and theater, and to the left is the Library of Celsus.