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Patroclus' body is retrieved in the Trojan War

China fires Dongfeng ballistic missiles towards Taiwan

 

Madness induced by the Siren Calls on the Shores of the Hellespont and Taiwan Straits

Part I   

The year was 1968. I was an anti-war Vietnam protestor who wore an army surplus jacket from the time of the Korean War. The mixed message wasn't lost on me as one can accommodate seemingly contradictory, opposite thoughts at the same time. It also didn't stop me in participating in a squirt gun war in our ancient history class. The whole class was sent down to the vice-principal's office. He didn't quite know what to do with us. The blame fell on the new teacher who hadn't been able to control us. We all felt a bit sheepish for our misbehaviour. However, I remember one thing that our teacher had said in his lesson. The West-East clash was the dominant theme in history. At that time, I didn't know if the clash was a harbinger of things to come or not. I decided to wait half a century to prove or disprove the hypothesis.

Multiple definitions are now provided in an extensive list  along with brief history in chronological order from the ancient to the modern period with illustrations in some cases. The Mycenaean (Greek) civilization was centered on the Peloponnese. The exact political relation between the center and other centers is unclear. Therefore, one cannot be confident calling it the Mycenaean Empire.  The Hittite Empire was of the Late Bronze Age of several periods on the Anatolian Peninsula known as Asia Minor which was east of the Hellespont. Troy (Wilusa) was a vassal state of the Hittite Empire. The Hittites also had an advanced civilization. 

The Greek world during the Persian Wars (500-479 BCE)

Macedonia was a full-fledged subject kingdom of the Achaemenid Empire until 479 BCE. The Achaemenid Empire and civilization under Darius III fell at the hands of Alexander the Great in the Battle of Guagamela. The Macedonian Empire was the largest one up until that time as it was forged through conquest beginning in 334 BCE by the Macedonian named Alexander the Great. It broke into four kingdoms at his death. Basically, Alexander was great at conquering, but poor at administering.

City-state is defined as a political system consisting of an independent city. The Delian League was formed in 478-477 BCE and disbanded in 404 BCE. It was an alliance of Athens and other city-states (which included Ionian maritime cities on the Anatolian coast which were seeking independent status) to undertake the war against Persia--at its height it was comprised of 200 cities.

In more modern times,  the Soviet Union (known as Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or USSR) was the largest country in the world from 1922 to 1991. It consisted of 15 Republics. The USSR is not generally regarded as an empire, but rather as a State. It is said that "no official Soviet source would ever come close to using the word "empire" in self-description." It evolved though from the empire of Imperial Russia founded by Peter the Great in 1721. The fall of the USSR has meant that Russia or the Russian Federation has became a regional power.

There is great debate as to whether the United States is an empire or not. Howe defines an empire "as a political unit made up of several territories and peoples usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". This definition might apply to the United States depending on whether it is an imperial or non-imperial power. One thing is certain. The United States remains the world's only superpower; although, its power is waning. If the poet's definition of empire is superpower then both the USSR and the United States are to be considered empires.

For example, while 168 parties have ratified UNCLOS, the United States has neither signed nor ratified it; nevertheless, the US enforces it. This is a prime example of American exceptionalism. There may be some hypocrisy here; although, it may want to avoid the appellation of American Empire--even if it really is.

Unveiling Ceremony with Lily Sui-fong Sun 孫穗芳 (granddaughter of Sun Yat-sen) and Sun Dawu 孙大午

 
Presentation of Dawu Group 大午集团​ magazine by Sun Dawu 孙大午 to Lily Sui-fong Sun 孫穗芳  in October 2014

Sun Dawu visits Fushan

The Yellow Emperor Huangdi united the tribes at Fushan (outside of Dawu City) within Yellow River Civilization.  At the time, the river was located near Fushan. Sun Dawu is the official protector of Fushan Mountain. In 2070 BCE, the Xia was established under Emperor Yao (尧) as China's first dynasty (夏朝) c. 2070 BCE to c.1600 BCE. Much later, in 261 BCE, Qin Shi Huangdi (始皇帝) united China through an empire. However, the Qin Dynasty (221-210 BCE) was one of the shortest-lived dynasties on record. Many dynasties followed up until the Yuan Dynasty.

Expansion of Mongol_Empire_between_1206-1294 superimposed on a modern political map of Eurasia

The nomadic Mongols under Genghis Khan conquered China and the rest of Asia and Europe to form the Mongolian Empire. They became civilized under the successor state called the Great Yuan (大 元) under Kublai Khan (忽必烈). At  Khan's death the empire fractured into four separate empires.

Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙)

The last dynasty was that of the Qing which ended with the Xinhai Revolution in 1912 CE. Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) became the Provisional President of the Republic of China from January 1, 1912 to March 10, 1912 and later served as the Premier of the Kuomintang from October 10, 1919 to March 12, 1925. He formulated The Three Principles of the People ( 三民主義).  It may be that he has the most honorific names of any Chinese leader.

Lily Sun Sui-fang 孫穗芳 Sun Dawu 孙大午 copyright D. Carlton Rossi

大午城里，浓浓的中华文化和思想在这里散播。在中国历史人物中，孙大午最喜欢两个人，孔子和孙中山。他认为，孔子是仁政，孙中山是天下为公、有德者居之。

In Dawu City, strong Chinese culture and ideas are spread here. Among Chinese historical figures, Sun Dawu likes two people the most, Confucius and Sun Yat-sen. He believed that Confucius was a benevolent government, and Sun Yat-sen was the ruler of the world, and the virtuous lived in it.

http://sundawu1.blog.sohu.com/307539355.html  (censored)

Deng Xiaoping (邓小平)

Today, The People's Republic of China is a regional power that aspires to be an empire and superpower under Xi Jinping. There  had been significant economic reform and opening up (改革开放) under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping (邓小平).  Reform came from bottom up rather than from top down. In addition, he proposed the concept of ‘setting aside dispute and pursuing joint development’ in territorial disputes involving the Daiyu and Nansha Islands. Otherwise, the government remains uncivilized under the CCP which prefers fear, terror and arbitrary rule by law.

Beacons of civilization---representing rule of law and constitutionalism--- shone in the city-states of Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region and Dawu City which had its own Private Entrepreneurial Constitutional System. Hong Kong had an independent court system. Dawu Group emphasized Confucian morality as the foundation for law.

Hong Kong and Dawu City were also examples of the engine of growth for the People's Republic of China under Reform and Opening Up. Hong Kong is an international financial hub which is quickly losing its lustre and under its National Security Law and Group Dynamic ZER0 Covid.  Dawu Group of Dawu City achieved "common prosperity" through efficiency and self-sufficiency as well as through establishing subsidiaries as far away as Hainan Island.

Alexander the Great of Macedon

We had been studying in our class about Alexander the Great's expedition in 334 BCE against the Achaemenid Empire of Persia. It was all pretty exciting stuff for me ---despite my anti-war proclivities.  Of course, I wanted the Macedonians to win against the Persian king of the authoritarian regime in what was billed as retribution for the invasion of Greece.

Perplexingly, the Macedonians and Greeks regarded the Persians as barbarians even though they were extremely refined and civilized.  In turn, the Persians regarded the Macedonians as barbarians despite the fact that they had improved on the Theban phalanx and whose leader Alexander was educated by Aristotle.  Maybe their views stemmed from ignorance, hubris and racism.

It didn't quite seem like ancient history to me when in the real world the United States had entered a proxy war in Vietnam against China based on the domino theory. In that year of 1968, I visited the White House, Capitol and the South Vietnamese Embassy. I helped wrestle down a soldier in the hall of the hotel who was tripping out on drugs and then waited for the military police. It was the year in Washington of flower power and resistance to the war by young people. It was the year of the draft and Tricky Dicky's  administration which was purportedly conducting the right war in the right place and at the right time.

The West-East clash hadn't begun with Alexander. He used the invasions of the Greek city-states by Xerxes and Darius of Persia in 490 BCE and 480 BCE respectively as a pretext. It seemed that he overlooked the fact that Macedonia had been a vassal state which then became a full-fledged  subordinate kingdom of the Achaemenid Empire until 479 BCE.  Nevertheless, he had understood the weakness of the Persian Empire in 401 BCE (as recorded by Xenophon in his Anabasis) when Cyrus the Younger rebelled against his brother who was king.  Cyrus started his march on Babylon with 20,000 troops of whom were 10,000 hoplite mercenaries and some peltasts. Cyrus lost the war and his life, but the mercenaries Greeks had won their part of the battle and they returned.  

Alexander's most prized possession was an annotated version of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey written in verse. The Iliad was probably written in the mid-8th century BCE.  It describes four days of battle between the Achaeans and Trojans.  One might say that its theme is the wrath of Achilles who pursued glory and an everlasting name.

Mycenaean Civilization

Hittite Empire and Civilization

On the other hand, the Achaeans wished to break Trojan control of the Hellespont Strait (modern day Dardanelles) whose southern entrance at the Bosporus Strait is only 2826 meters in width. The Trojans taxed ships which travelled through the Hellespont Strait as they went to and fro between the Black and Mediterranean Seas.  It is tragic that the opposing sides didn't negotiate a treaty to share access to the strait.

In a sense, nature had provided a kind of blueprint for co-operation and co-existence. There are two currents through the strait. One is a freshwater, surface current which flows from the Black Sea towards the Mediterranean Sea. The heavier and more saline undercurrent flows in the opposite direction. Between them is a "no flow zone" which at times is distorted under various circumstances.  

It is true that opposite current flows in the Hellespont hadn't been formally recognized until the time of Pliny the Elder.  It is also true that the reason for these particular flows in the Dardanelles hadn't been understood until the theory of fluid dynamics had been applied in the 20th century. The presence of a "no flow zone" accelerates the currents.  It was the modern poet though who had been inspired by Pre-Socratic philosophy and one might say dialectic to seek a natural basis for his poetry through analytics which (in part) is based on current flow in the Hellespont-Dardanelles and a similar phenomenon at the mouth of the Yellow River Delta.

It seemed to the poet that Parmenides of Elea was urging us to resolve the apparent differences between The Way of Conviction and The Way of Mortals. The modern poet fused Pre-Socratic and Hegelian dialectics to achieve this goal through his poetry and analysis expressed in "Poetic Analytics of Imagery through Streams of Consciousness and Unconsciousness". He was enlightened by the Parmenidean fragments and Hegel's lectures in his History of Philosophy as they pertained to the Eleatic School.

Hegel comments on Sextus Empiricus' preservation of the poems of Parmenides. "The goddess develops everything from the double knowledge (α) of thought, of the truth, and (β) of opinion; these make up the two parts of the poem." To simplistically paraphrase Hegel,  it can be said that the one is only Being and the other is not Being. Hegel believes "The dialectic that the transient has no truth, is implied in it."

The historical facts of the Trojan War are few and far between. The archeology confirms that Troy was rebuilt many times at the same location. Troy VIIa was destroyed by fire around 1180 BCE at the time of the Trojan War.

The poet argues though that the poetic-mythic interpretation presented in the Iliad represents a valid virtual reality in the imaginative unconscious. He regards Troy's fall as a mythological archetype of universal significance. It is curious to note that the actual fall of Troy does not take place in either the Iliad or Odyssey.  It is found between verses of those poems almost as if it were in a "no flow zone" separating the Cyclopean structures of Troy VIIa which is above from the crumbled stones below of previous iterations. The poet reminds the reader that the historical site would perhaps have remained undiscovered without an understanding and appreciation of the epic poem.

Scylla

Charybdis

Neither the Achaeans nor the Trojans regarded the Trojan War as a victory. Odysseus lost his way on his return home as he wandered about for ten years---at least according to the mytho-poetic version of the Odyssey. His home was overrun by suitors who sought the hand of his wife.

The historical truth may be that the ten year period actually coincided with that of the Trojan War rather than afterwards. It is highly improbable that the Achaean ships beached on the Trojan shores for ten years. This occurrence would have made them vulnerable to both a simultaneous land and sea attack. One might therefore suspect that they landed for a few days at a time and then left to wander and plunder elsewhere before they repeatedly returned over a ten year period.  

The poet's understanding of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey is that there are two currents running simultaneously through those poems.  In other words, the Iliad is to be overlaid the Odyssey.  In the Iliad is found the surface current of the light of consciousness that flows in one direction. The images portrayed are vividly realistic. Beneath it is a heavier and darker  submerged current in the Odyssey that flows in the opposite direction representing unconsciousness. The images are phantasmagoric. Between them is a "no flow zone" that accelerates the current, but which occasionally is interrupted by rocks and whirlpools in the real world as there are in the Bosporus Strait or hideous dream-like images of a hidden hell like those of Scylla and Charybdis which threaten destruction and annihilation.

In lulls of the battle, Odysseus may think of his wife and home. He is consciously aware of his separation from them. If the battle is particularly stressful  then unprocessed, chaotic thought breaks through to the unconscious. For example, Odysseus might  dream of the queenly Circe in her palace. Circe becomes a wish fulfillment of his wife who is the equivalent of Scylla or the lesser of two evils. Ironically, as the suitors of his wife are invading his home, Odysseus himself along with the Achaeans resemble the suitors or multi-headed Scylla who pursue the destruction of Troy and the slavery of its women.

Persian Wars

The West-East clash appears to be the dominant theme throughout recorded history. It is often forgotten that the city-states of Athens and Eretria had supported the Ionian Revolt against the Persian Empire between (499-494 BCE). This revolt failed. The events may be interpreted as the first phase of the Greco-Persian Wars. In response, the invasion of Greece took place between (492-490 BCE). It was led by the Persian king Darius I. The second Persian invasion of Greece (480-479 BCE) was undertaken by his son who was Xerxes I.
                      
In both invasions, the Persian army crossed the Hellespont Strait while the navy shadowed it along the coast. Any schoolboy can tell you the story of how Xerxes in the Second Persian Invasion crossed the Hellespont Strait. His first attempt to build bridges failed perhaps due to the strong current. As a result, he ordered the Hellespont to be lashed in order to bring it to heel or to hell. He then ordered his ships to be lashed together so his army could cross the Hellespont. Two separate bridges consisting of a total of 674 ships were lashed together.

Athenian Empire c. 431 BCE

Many historians on both sides have concentrated on the fall of Athens along with its rather restricted democracy. The fall might be expressed in a grander context as the decline of the Athenian Empire which began perhaps at the time of or earlier than the Second Peloponnesean War (431-404 BCE). It appears these phenomena of fall and decline are not central to the West-East clash.

Delian League (in yellow)

The Delian League (478-404 BCE) had been formed to counter the Persian threat. It was composed of ancient Greek city-states. As time went by, though, the association became more under the control of Athens to serve its own interests.

The Athenians debated in 480 BCE whether to strengthen the city's walls or build a wall of wooden ships. They settled on the latter course. But later they fortified their own Long Walls during the First Peloponnesian War which made many think they were serving their own interests rather than the Delian League's. Of course, without Athens' leadership and ships there would be no Delian League. Note that "Athenian control of the sea allowed the city to be supplied with grain from the Hellespont and Black Sea regions."

Prior to the Second Persian Invasion the oracle made the following prophecy.

"Far-seeing Zeus gives you...a wall of wood.
Only this will stand intact and help you and your children"

Herodotus, The Histories, 7.141


Thucydides interpreted this to mean a fleet of wooden ships in 480 BCE,  but decades later at the time of the First Peloponnesian War he interpreted it to mean the building of the Long Walls from Athens to its two ports. 

Greek v Greek

Peloponnesian League at time in 457 BCE before First Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesian League (c.550-c.366 BCE) represented city-states on the Peloponnese. It ceded leadership to Athens so the maritime power could meet the existential Persian threat and so Sparta could deal with its own internal problems. However, as time passed, it regarded Athens and the Delian League itself as a threat. Both the First and Second Peloponnesian Wars were fought to gain hegemony over the Greek world--not the Persian Empire.

Definitely, the Persians were instrumental in undermining Athenian democracy and used their gold to achieve political ends. They also benefited by the collapse of Athenian democracy and the Athenian Empire with its Delian League.  It is true that there was some overlap of cultures with underlying unrest on the Ionian coast where Greek city-states paid tribute to the Persian Empire. It was also on the Ionian coast where Cyrus the Younger hired Greek mercenaries in 401 BCE to challenge his brother Artaxerxes II to the Persian throne. Sparta actually signed what appears to be a non-aggression treaty with Persia in 411 BCE, but both sides ignored it.   
 
The decisive West-East clash though took place much later in 331  BCE. Alexander the Great led his troops across the Hellespont to invade Persia. He met Darius III at Gaugamela. Darius III was defeated in battle by Alexander the Great. The winner was not a Greek, but rather a Macedonian. As you will recall, the Macedonians had been a tribute state of Persia during the Persian Wars up to 479 BCE.

Alexander (obverse) Zeus (converse)

Alexander III became the leader of Macedon--after his father's assassination--not due to a system of hereditary monarchy, but because his soldiers recognized him as the strongest. He defeated Darius III because he was the stronger of the two. On his death, he left his empire to the strongest.

It may be necessary as an amateur historian to oversimplify this complicated set of events. As a "foreign expert" employed at the graduate schools of CAS and CASS in Beijing, he told his students (who are by now retired scientists and professors) he would make things as clear as mud; so, here's mud in your eye.

The Persian Empire was characterized by the Greeks as despotic or tyrannical. The Greeks loved their freedom. For example, the Athenian leader whose name was Peisistratus seized the Acropolis of Athens with a series of tricks and armed men. He instituted a tyranny. It was not a tyranny as we may know it as he kept offices, laws and ruled by the constitution. He ruled Athens as a tyrant until his assassination.

Ionian Revolt Campaign

This attitude toward freedom explains to some extent why the Athenians supported the revolt of Greek city-states on the Ionian coast against the tyrannical rule of Persia. Persia appointed tyrants to rule the Ionian city-states. The tyranny of Persia was more cruel and capricious than that of Peisistratus who had championed the common people. It should be noted that when the Mycenaean civilization collapsed the Ionian tribal group settled its citizens on the coasts of Lydia and Caria thus founding the twelve Ionian cities.

For a more complete picture one must go back earlier in time to the Late Bronze Age. The Achaeans of the Mycenaean civilization on the Peloponnese besieged Troy which was east of the Hellespont Strait. Troy was a tribute state of the Hittite Empire. The Achaeans wanted free passage through the strait. Their immediate goal was control of the strait rather than subjugation of the Hittite Empire. They succeeded at great cost in defeating Troy. However, both the Mycenaean and Hittite civilizations  collapsed soon afterwards. Greeks did though gain free access to the strait for at least half a millennium.  

There appears to be no single answer as to why major civilizations disappeared during the Late Bronze Age. It is rather a mystery. Scientists are looking at the possibility of climate change. There is evidence to suggest that "surface temperatures in the eastern Mediterranean Sea cooled rapidly around 1250 BCE, which resulted in reduced rainfall and marked the beginning of drought". It is uncertain if it may have led to famine and disease.

D. Carlton Rossi
August 31, 2022

Did Climate Change Bring Down Late Bronze Age Civilizations?
https://hakaimagazine.com/did-climate-change-bring-down-late-bronze-age-civilizations/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achaemenid_Macedonia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHowe200230-1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycenaean_Greece

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yat-sen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Principles_of_the_People

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuan_dynasty

https://www.quora.com/Did-Kierkegaard-present-Socrates-and-Hegel-as-utilising-the-same-method

https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/15946

Hegel comments on Sextus Empiricus' preservation of the poems of Parmenides.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/51635/51635-h/51635-h.htm#c239

Hegel’s Lectures on THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY, Translated from the German by E. S. HALDANE, ROUTLEDGE & KEGAN PAUL LTD: London 1895. Originally published by Hegel in 1805-1806. Volume One, The Eleatic School, 2. Parmenides 249-262.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/51635/51635-h/51635-h.htm#c239

Long Walls
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Walls

The Oracle of Delphi, November 16, 2021, Laura Hayward
https://thecollector.com/oracle-of-delphi-oracular-statements

https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780190221911/obo-9780190221911-0035.xml

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/American_Empire

Parmenides began Philosophy proper." G. W. F. Hegel, Lectures on the History of Philosophy, Vol. I Greek Philosophy to Plato, (1825), Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press 1995, p. 254
https://www.ontology.co/parmenides.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/20180903160235/https://sundawu.ca/Poetic_Analytic_Imagery.html

https://www.worldhistory.org/hittite/

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