Sketches of the East Africa Campaign
These sketches of General Smuts' campaign of 1916 in German East Africa, do not presume to give an accurate account of the tactical or strategical events of this war. The actual knowledge of the happenings of war and of the considerations that persuade an Army Commander to any course of military conduct must, of necessity, be a closed book to the individual soldier. To the fighting man himself and to the man on the lines of communication, who helps to feed and clothe and arm and doctor him, the history of his particular war is very meagre. War, to the soldier, is limited to the very narrow horizon of his front, the daily work of his regiment, or, at the most, of his brigade. Rarely does news from the rest of one brigade spread to the troops of another in the field. Only in the hospital that serves the division are the events of his bit of war correlated and reduced to a comprehensive whole. Even then the resulting knowledge is usually wrong. For the imagination of officers, and of men in particular, is wonderful, and rumour has its birthplace in the hospital ward. One may take it as an established fact that the ordinary regimental officer or soldier knows little or nothing about events other than his particular bit of country. Only the Staff know, and they will not tell. Sometimes we have thought that all the real news lives in the cloistered brain of the General and his Chief of Staff. Be this as it may, we always got fuller and better correlated and co-ordinated news of the German East African Campaign from "Reuter" or from The Times weekly edition.
A Narrative of Captivity in Abyssinia
The British 1868 Expedition to Abyssinia was a punitive expedition carried out by armed forces of the British Empire against the Ethiopian Empire. Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia, also known as "Theodore," imprisoned several missionaries and two representatives of the British government in an attempt to get the attention of the British government, which had been ignoring his requests for military assistance. The punitive expedition launched by the British in response required the transportation of a sizable military force hundreds of miles across mountainous terrain lacking any road system. Harold G. Marcus described the action as "one of the most expensive affairs of honour in history."
Rosenberg's racial interpretation of history concentrates on the supposedly negative influence of the Jewish race in contrast to the Aryan race. He equates the latter with the Nordic peoples of northern Europe and also includes the Berbers from North Africa and the upper classes of Ancient Egypt. According to Rosenberg, modern culture has been corrupted by Semitic influences, which have produced degenerate modern art, along with moral and social degeneration. In contrast, Aryan culture is defined by innate moral sensibility and an energetic will to power. Rosenberg believed that the higher races must rule over the lower and not interbreed with them, because cross-breeding destroys the divine combination of physical heredity and spirit. He uses an organic metaphor of the race and the State and argues that the Nazis must purify the race soul by eliminating non-Aryan elements in much the same ruthless and uncompromising way in which a surgeon would cut a cancer from a diseased body.
In Rosenberg's view of world history, migrating Aryans founded various ancient civilizations which later declined and fell due to inter-marriage with lesser races. This included the Indo-Aryan civilization, ancient Persia, Greece, and Rome. He saw the ancient Germanic invasions of the Roman empire as "saving" its civilization, which had been corrupted both by race mixing and by "Judaized-cosmopolitan" Christianity. Furthermore, he noted that the persecutions of Protestants in France and other areas represented the wiping out of the last remnants of the Aryan element in those areas, a process completed by the French revolution. In contemporary Europe, he saw the northern areas that embraced Protestantism as closest to the Aryan racial and spiritual ideal.
The Life of Apollonius of Tyana
Apollonius of Tyana; (ca. 3? –ca. 97? AD) was a Greek philosopher and teacher. He hailed from the town of Tyana in the Roman province of Cappadocia in Asia Minor. He was a contemporary of Jesus Christ and his life and wandering mission is often compared to that of Jesus.
'TO the student of the origins of Christianity there is naturally no period of Western history of greater interest and importance than the first century of our era; and yet how little comparatively is known about it of a really definite and reliable nature. If it be a subject of lasting regret that no non-Christian writer of the first century had sufficient intuition of the future to record even a line of information concerning the birth and growth of what was to be the religion of the Western world, equally disappointing is it to find so little definite information of the general social and religious conditions of the time.'
Mead examines all the available evidence about the life of Apollonius in this remarkable study. Pukka scholarship and meticulous research provide the reader with a fascinating look at the real Apollonius and his possible connections with Christianity.
Envocation to Priapus
The Priapea are a collection of epigrams written about the ancient god Priapus. A lot of them a blatantly sexual in nature and not suitable for anyone offended by sexual language.
This edition contains the Latin original as well as an English translation along with several glossaries.
The Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria
Hero (or Heron) of Alexandria (c. 10–70 AD) was an ancient Greek mathematician and engineer who lived in the Roman province of Egypt; He is considered the greatest experimenter of antiquity and his work is representative of the Greek scientific tradition.
Hero published a famous description of a simple steam engine called an aeolipile. Among his most famous inventions were a windwheel, a cuckoo clock and a vending machine.
Much of Hero's original writings and designs have been lost, having been burned by anti-pagan Christians sometime in the late 4th to 5th century but what remains of his work gives a fascinating insight into how advanced ancient Greco-Roman civilization was technically.
The Golden Towers of Khadamain
Donald Maxwell was sent to Mesopotamia - modern day Iraq - after WW1 by Britain's Imperial War Museum as an official artist. On the side he made numerous watercolours and sketches which he published in this book.
The story of his journey is entertaining to read and serves as a record what the country used to be like, in particular after years of dictatorship under Saddam Hussein and the ensuing civil strife after his removal from power.
Come then and enter a lost world of adventure in a biblical land just awakening from millennia of slumber. See the setting of Arabian Nights and how it entered modernity.
Chinese Sketches
Life in 19th Century China
Herbert A. Giles
It seems to be generally believed that the Chinese, as a nation, are an immoral, degraded race; that they are utterly dishonest, cruel, and in every way depraved; that opium, a more terrible scourge than gin, is now working frightful ravages in their midst; and that only the forcible diffusion of Christianity can save the Empire from speedy and overwhelming ruin. An experience of eight years has taught me that, with all their faults, the Chinese are a hardworking, sober, and happy people, occupying an intermediate place between the wealth and culture, the vice and misery of the West.
The Secret History of Procopius
In his secret history Procopius chronicles the crimes committed by Justinian as well as the sexual perversions of his wife Theodora.
Oxford Translation
Complete Edition with Introduction and Footnotes.
The "Germania" describes with vividness the fierce and independent spirit of the German nations, with many suggestions as to the dangers in which the empire stood of these people. The "Agricola" is a biographical sketch of the writer's father-in-law, who, as has been said, was a distinguished man and governor of Britain. It is one of the author's earliest works and was probably written shortly after the death of Domitian, in 96. This work, short as it is, has always been considered an admirable specimen of biography on account of its grace and dignity of expression. Whatever else it may be, it is a graceful and affectionate tribute to an upright and excellent man.
To the student of oriental religions the Dea Syria is brimful of interest. It describes the cult and worship of the goddess of Northern Syria, Atargatis, at her sacred city, Hierapolis, now Mumbij. The time when Lucian wrote would be the middle of the second century B.C. We do not see any reason to reject the traditional authorship of the treatise: on the contrary, the work seems to reveal the famous satirist at home, taking a natural interest in local memories and institutions, while making, doubtless, mental notes that were to prove of use in the works for which he is best known.
INTRODUCTORY
The Sacred City
Origins of Temples and Shrines
THE OLDEST SHRINES AND CULTS OF SYRIA.
Hercules of Tyre
The Phœnician Astarte at Sidon. Legend of Europa
Aphrodite of Byblos and the Legend of Adonis
Legend of Osiris at Byblos
The Adonis River; its red colour
Cult of Aphrodite in the Lebanon at Aphaca
Hierapolis: The greatest Sanctuary. Its Pilgrims
LEGENDS OF FOUNDATION.
Ascribed by some to Deukalion. Story of the Deluge
Story of the Chasm
Assigned by others to Semiramis. Derceto, the Fish-Goddess
By others again to the Lydian Attis
Lucian shares the View that it was founded by Dionysus
Re-built by Stratonice
Story of Stratonice and Combabus
DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPLE AND SHRINES.
The Inner Sanctuary. The Effigies
Comprehensive Character of the Goddess
Object between the God and Goddess
The Sun God
A Bearded Apollo
Image of the God borne by the Priests in Divination
Atlas and other Images
Sacred Animals
The Priests and Temple Attendants
RITES AND CEREMONIES.
The Sacrifices
Sacred Lake and Fishes
Ceremony at the Lake
Ceremony at the Euphrates ("The Sea")
Festival of the Pyre
CUSTOMS AND INSTITUTIONS.
The Galli
Their Initiation Ceremonies
Their Burial
Animals used in Sacrifice. Sanctity of the Dove
Tonsure and other Customs of Pilgrims
Method of Sacrifice. The Libation
Human Sacrifice
Tattoo
Sacrifice of Hair
Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture
Complete and Illustrated Edition
Vitruvius (Marcus V. Pollio), Roman architect and engineer, studied Greek philosophy and science and gained experience in the course of professional work. He was one of those appointed to be overseers of imperial artillery or military engines, and was architect of at least one unit of buildings for Augustus in the reconstruction of Rome. Late in life and in ill health he completed, sometime before 27 BCE, De Architectura which, after its rediscovery in the fifteenth century, was influential enough to be studied by architects from the early Renaissance to recent times.
His ten books on architecture give great insight into Greco-Roman culture and life. The topics relating to architecture comprise many things that would surprise a modern reader but were considered an integral part of life 2000 years ago. Consideration of these things might help make modern cities more pleasant to live in and deserve the attention of architects.
THE present work, in which we purpose to treat of the origin and history of the Mithraic religion, does not pretend to offer a picture of the downfall of paganism. We shall not attempt, even in a general way, to seek for the causes which explain the establishment of the Oriental religions in Italy; nor shall we endeavor to show how their doctrines, which were far more active as fermenting agents than the theories of the philosophers, decomposed the national beliefs on which the Roman state and the entire life of antiquity rested, and how the destruct on of the edifice which they had disintegrated was ultimately accomplished by Christianity. We shall not undertake to trace here the various phases of the battle waged between idolatry and the growing Church; this vast subject, which we hope some day to approach, lies beyond the scope of the present work. We are concerned here with one epoch only of this decisive revolution, it being our purpose to show with all the distinctness in our power how and why a certain Mazdean sect failed under the Cæsars to become the dominant religion of the empire.
THE ORIGINS OF MITHRAISM
THE DISSEMINATION OF MITHRAISM IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE
MITHRA AND THE IMPERIAL POWER OF ROME
THE DOCTRINE OF THE MITHRAIC MYSTERIES
THE MITHRAIC LITURGY, CLERGY AND DEVOTEES
MITHRAISM AND THE RELIGIONS OF THE EMPIRE
MITHRAIC ART
THIS little book tries to tell the story of the religious life of the Romans from the time when their history begins for us until the close of the reign of Augustus. Each of its five essays deals with a distinct period and is in a sense complete in itself; but the dramatic development inherent in the whole forbids their separation save as acts or chapters. In spite of modern interest in the study of religion, Roman religion has been in general relegated to specialists in ancient history and classics. This is not surprising for Roman religion is not prepossessing in appearance, but though it is at first sight incomparably less attractive than Greek religion, it is, if properly understood, fully as interesting, nay, even more so. In Mr. W. Warde Fowler's Roman Festivals however the subject was presented in all its attractiveness, and if the present book shall serve as a simple introduction to his larger work, its purpose will have been fulfilled.
The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries
This is Thomas Taylor's brilliant inquiry into the mysteries that were central to religious life and society of ancient Greece and even Rome. The inner teachings of these Mediterranean mystery religions were lost with the ascent of Christianity, but Taylor found the skeleton key to unlock their secrets and give us insight into what people believed and what moved their lives.
The Eleusinian Mysteries were the ones of greatest importance. They go back to an old agrarian cult and were possibly influenced by Egyptian and even Indian religion. These observances once represented the spiritual life of Greece, and were considered for two thousand years and more the appointed means for regeneration through an interior union with the Divine Essence. However absurd, or even offensive they may seem to us, we should therefore hesitate long before we venture to lay desecrating hands on what others have esteemed holy. We can learn a valuable lesson in this regard from the Grecian and Roman writers, who had learned to treat the popular religious rites with mirth, but always considered the Eleusinian Mysteries with the deepest reverence.
