Bret Devereaux vs. the Hax of Sol III—in this case, James Hankins & Adrian Vermeulle: a pushback from two-and-a-half years ago about one of the weirdest emanations of neofascism I have seen in this...
The obvious modern equivalent to Alexander is Napoleon, who still gets remarkably favorable treatment despite launching repeated wars that cost millions of lives - proportionally more than any of the great C20 dictators, I think. A more detailed indictment here from Doug Bandow
RE: Alexander's unprovoked invasions. In some sense, wasn't Alexander's invasion of the Persian Empire payback for Persia's attempted invasion of Greece? If not, weren't most invasions in the ancient world unprovoked because invading other people's territory was just what empires did back then?
Well, yes. Especially where you have the High Patriarchy and polygyny of the Yamnaya Storm with their horses, wheels, and bows. One high-status man with five wives means four young men told to go conquer someplace else. Societies-of-domination will dominate:
> JH: RE: Alexander's unprovoked invasions. In some sense, wasn't Alexander's invasion of the Persian Empire payback for Persia's attempted invasion of Greece? If not, weren't most invasions in the ancient world unprovoked because invading other people's territory was just what empires did back then?
And "payback" in what sense? Darayavush and Xsayarsa and all their advisors and spear-carriers were long dead. And since the "King's Peace" of -386 the Haxamanishya Empire had been more of a stabilizing status-quo than an aggressor power in the Aegean
The obvious modern equivalent to Alexander is Napoleon, who still gets remarkably favorable treatment despite launching repeated wars that cost millions of lives - proportionally more than any of the great C20 dictators, I think. A more detailed indictment here from Doug Bandow
https://www.cato.org/commentary/napoleons-death-200-how-should-murderous-dictators-be-remembered
Bret Deveraux’s blog is terrific. I found it via a reference somewhere to his series of posts “The Queen’s Latin” (back when ER still was current; I suppose it would be “The King’s Latin” today. https://acoup.blog/2021/06/11/collections-the-queens-latin-or-who-were-the-romans-part-i-beginnings-and-legends/ Great series of articles; then I was hooked.
RE: Alexander's unprovoked invasions. In some sense, wasn't Alexander's invasion of the Persian Empire payback for Persia's attempted invasion of Greece? If not, weren't most invasions in the ancient world unprovoked because invading other people's territory was just what empires did back then?
Well, yes. Especially where you have the High Patriarchy and polygyny of the Yamnaya Storm with their horses, wheels, and bows. One high-status man with five wives means four young men told to go conquer someplace else. Societies-of-domination will dominate:
> JH: RE: Alexander's unprovoked invasions. In some sense, wasn't Alexander's invasion of the Persian Empire payback for Persia's attempted invasion of Greece? If not, weren't most invasions in the ancient world unprovoked because invading other people's territory was just what empires did back then?
And "payback" in what sense? Darayavush and Xsayarsa and all their advisors and spear-carriers were long dead. And since the "King's Peace" of -386 the Haxamanishya Empire had been more of a stabilizing status-quo than an aggressor power in the Aegean
Thank you for your continuous effort to inform and to educate. You may find this book interesting, I have not paid sufficient attention to this. https://icjs.org/events/the-violent-take-it-by-force-book-launch-with-matt-taylor/
Worse than the "Protestant Ethic" of Calvin where it was wealth not slaughter that signaled divine favor.