Posted on 12/14/2005 1:37:30 PM PST by Pontiac
Exactly.
Buchanan is the moderate of that magazine.
I think a much better parallel between today's Iraq War and ancient Greek warfare would have been Alexander the Great. Given the fact the guy FOUGHT in freaken Baghdad.
Still have to agree with most everyone here, this Gary guy is a douche-bag.
[quote]Mithridates himself was a sort of Osama of his time. ;^)[/quote]
Dude, that's an insult to every Pontic descent to this day. My dad's side of the family is of Greek Pontic descent, chased out of the Black Sea/Asia Minor region in the early 1920's by fanatic muslims like BinLadin. Mithradates Eupator is still viewed to this day as an "ethnic hero" for people of Pontus descent.
Mithridates VI of Pontus was viewed as a greater opponent to Rome, who caused the Romans so much grief that when he died they gave him an honorable state funeral, something they seldom did for enemies. I quite doubt anyone views ASSama as a great opponent to the West nor is he likely to have an honorable state funeral...unless its to parade his ugly mutt on top of a spike.
There are several legends that are credited to Mithradates. One is the word'mithridatism'- which is the tolerance or immunity to a poison acquired by taking gradually larger doses of it. Mithridates VI is said to have taking increasing sub-lethal doses of poison to make his immune system tolerate to any poisons known back then. Having killed off most of his rivals to the throne, including all his syblings except for his sister Laodice which he married, he found it wise, I guess, to build immunity against any poisons just incase somone tried to offed him. Because of this an antidote against poison is also called 'mithridate'.
The other is his supposed prodigious memory and his ability to speak twenty-five languages. Several books which published samples of different languages came to be known as Mithridates.
One of Mozart's earliest known operas Mitridate, re di Ponto was dedicated to Mithridates VI and Michael Curtis Ford's The Last King-2004 is about the exploits of Mithridates; I've enjoyed TLK by Curtis much more then his "The Ten Thousand" & "Gods and Legions" releases. I believe Curtis also released another book this year The Sword of Attila-2005 which looks like an interesting read.
"The review sounds like its coming from a guy who lives in his Mom's basement..."
Yeah - he's the comic book store owner from The Simpsons!
"Worst history book EVER!"
More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Brecher
It shows the origins of the photo.
This article is not a criticism of Hanson's new book but rather a childish rant.
Your man Mithridates did some ethnic cleansing of his own - he slaughtered tens of thousands of Greeks and Romans in a single murderous spasm.
"The American Conservative endorsed John Kerry. That should tell you all you need to know about this magazine."
If you consider a refusal to endorse George Bush an endorsement of Kerry, then I suppose you'd be right. But I read the whole article and it essentially said: "They both suck and don't deserve to be there." Figuring that if Bush was defeated it would be a sign that the GOP needs to weed out the neocon and RINO elements that are currently in control. Once he got re-elected he went full force in ignoring the solid-conservative to ultra-conservative section of the GOP until ultra-patriots like the Minutemen put him on the spot.
"Your man Mithridates did some ethnic cleansing of his own - he slaughtered tens of thousands of Greeks and Romans in a single murderous spasm."
Name me one ancient leader that did not commit atrocities against others. We can't judge or apply our modern views of "ethnic cleansing" by today's standards to that of the ancients. Different thinking mentality different times. On the other hand judging modern peoples with modern day standards of what human treatment means, applies.
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