The Galley

The image of the Byzantine dromon from the Naval Encyclopedia

https://www.naval-encyclopedia.com/medieval-ships/

The second chapter of my new project is titled The Galley. It tells a fascinating story of the medieval watercraft and focuses on the rowing fleet in terms of its function and service. 

You can read the entire extract at my page on Scriggler: scriggler.com/Profile/michael_baizerman

More chapters are about to appear but I will limit myself as my main workload is transferred to my second book, The Enchanting Encounter with the East. I have already written about 90 percent of the draft copy and is now doing additional research on medieval travelers to the East and their accounts of the weird and wonderful world that had been hidden from European intellectuals and was worth strenuous efforts to be unveiled. 

The Black Prince

Image: The Khitans at the eagle hunt 

Courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khitan_people

This chapter brings to light the life of Yelu Dashi, the first candidate on the role of Prester John.

This Khitan prince, whose dynasty was ousted from power by a rival nomadic confederation, fled to Central Asia where he carved an empire. His outstanding victory over the Seljuk emperor caused the legend of Prester John to take root among the Latin crusaders. In their view, the confrontation with the Muslim host would qualify the opponent to be a Christian. 

In reality, the Kara Khitai Empire combined the nomadic and sedentary segments who were loosely united by the imperial regime based on a standing army. The emperor declared the freedom of conscience and did not exaggerate in his demands of tribute and troops from the dependent populations. 

The man, who embraced both the Buddhist and the nomadic cultures, had never dreamed of conquering the Near East and protecting Jerusalem from Muslim imminent assault. 

Here is a short extract:

The Khitans, people of Mongolian origin known to the Muslim world as the "Turks from China", belonged to a loose tribal confederation of steppe nomads. Consolidated in Manchuria, they annexed northern China and launched an empire under the leadership of the Liao dynasty. The royal clan Yelu and the nobility adopted the Chinese language and culture and took up the trappings of the ‘Middle Kingdom’, such as the calendar, coins, and seals. However, many of them retained nomadic customs, like wearing traditional dress and haircut as well as clinging to shamanist traditions.

Ousted from power by their former vassals in the early twelfth century, the Sinicized nomads put up with the foreign rule except for a tiny band of fugitives that slipped away to the desert and found temporary shelter in a distant outpost.  This remnant of the past glory was led by Yelu Dashi, a scion of the royal clan, who put on his mettle in border conflicts as an apt military commander.  

The ringleader managed to convince the garrison to take his side, took hold of imperial herds of horses, and summoned warriors from any background to join his camp. His call proved attractive to many desperados who risked casting their lot with a charismatic leader. New followers joined in grooves, and soon the faction grew up into the private army which had no scruples to encroach on neighboring lands. When the leader's initial plans to win his homeland back cracked, he changed his strategy, casting glances to the west. Subduing nomadic tribes along with the sedentary population of Central Asia, the expatriate devoid of any territorial base embarked on a grand enterprise, carving out a successor empire.

The ruler expanded his political influence at the expense of weaker neighbors until most of the region unfolded before him like a red carpet. Called the Kara Khitai Khanate, the new empire included the core territory under the direct control of their overlord and a bunch of vassal states and dependent tribes.

To rule over this "melting pot", Yelu Dashi had to adopt a couple of titles which reflected the special role of the Kara (Turkish: ‘black’) Khitai in pacifying the sedentary and nomadic populations. The head of the state was recognized as the Chinese emperor by the former and as the Gurkhan (Mongolian: "supreme leader") by the latter. The dual image helped the founding father consolidate his power among the debris of the shattered past and the dreams of a new destiny. A glimpse of China, which he offered to his subjects, was a mysterious country that boasted of its social order, classical education, enormous wealth, and outstanding achievements.

A shrewd statesman, Yelu Dashi carried charisma which made his position of Gurkhan uncontested. According to Ibn Al-Athir, “He was a handsome and good-looking man who wore only Chinese silk. His men held him in great awe.” [The Chronicle of Ibn Al-Athir for the Crusading Period. (Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2010), 363] His powerbase constituted tens of thousands of Khitan households-a safety island in the ocean of his alien subjects. 

The Shadow Crusader

Dieric Bouts the Elder, 

Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek

Courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melchizedek#/media/File:Meeting_of_abraham_and_melchizadek.jpg

This short chapter ushers in the era of Prester John, a priest-king of a gargantuan oriental realm and a potential crusader. 

The fact that Otto of Freising included this tale into his account of the world history shows its immediate impact. Whether the writer took it as a fact or fiction, this yarn helped materialize the Crusaders' anxiety and expectations on the eve of the Second Crusade. 

Here is a brief extract:

Otto von Freising, a bishop and a prolific writer, didn't intend to amuse his readers with frivolous tales. His twelfth-century chronicle of world history features a battleground where the forces of good are pitted against the swarms of evil.  Nevertheless, he is the author who baptized our character and breathed life into his somber shadow.

                Otto heard a story when he was at the attendance at the papal court which moved to Viterbo, Italy due to security issues. The curia was hosting a delegation of oriental clerics. One of the guests, Bishop Hugh of Gabala (modern-day Jableh, Syria), reported about the faltering morale of crusaders after the loss of Edessa and an imminent threat overhanging Jerusalem. The disaster highlighted the emergency: the Latin principalities in the Outremer were in dire straits, anticipating even worse calamities. They issued a desperate call for the Pope to supply reinforcements.

                The prelate was a well-versed storyteller. To change the tune, he entertained his listeners with an anecdote about a proverbial Oriental sovereign, a cut above any other ruler, who gave a resounding slap in the face of Islam. 

    

                Prester John, a monarch and a Christian priest, though of the Nestorian creed, resides in the extreme east, next to the earthly paradise. The emerald scepter that he wields epitomizes his overwhelming wealth and power. The worthy offshoot of his noble ancestors, the Biblical Magi, he has always dreamed of making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. 

Initial Sightings: John the Priest

Thanks to the summer vacations, I've got plenty of free time on my hands. 

I have started writing Unit V, The Boots on the Ground: the Dogged Courtship after Elusive Prester John.

I recount the well-known legend, trying to find out its historic core. 

In the Prologue, I emphasize the distinct features of this character. 

1. He is elusive; nobody knows his whereabouts. Besides, he is always in transit, attempting to carry out his ambitious plans.

2. He is a mix of reality and fiction. The value of this character for historians lies in the fact that the narrative taps into historical events, offering their garbled version. 

3. He is long-lasting. Officially baptized in the twelfth century, he continued to gain supporters through the seventeenth century at least and because we pick up this topic again and again, he is still relevant to our time.

 I also explain that Prester John's title, king-priest, has a Biblical origin. I allude to Melchizedek, citing the Old and the New Testaments to show the link. 

Besides, I comment on the meaning of "India" for the medieval European audience. It was considered a remote realm on the eastern rim of the inhabited world. It was adjacent to the Paradise and tapped into its wealth. It was the home of countless marvels and monsters. Finally, it was rife with the Christians, though of other persuasions. 

The title of this entry, Initial Sightings, concerns two episodes that precede the official 'birth' of the legend but explain the psychological atmosphere that facilitated the spread of the yarn and its acceptance both in clerical circles and among laymen. 

1. The attendance of John, an oriental bishop, at the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE. He was a member of the Church whose jurisdiction lay outside the Roman Empire and was sent as an observer. My witness is Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea and a participant of the council.  

2. The arrival of an oriental cleric to Rome, where he enchanted his listeners with the account of India and the marvels of St. Thomas the Apostle who, according to the Church record, have baptized India. He also lectured the Roman Curia whose reaction was a little different from the common comprehension. I rely on two sources which refer to the tenure of Pope Calixtus II, specifically to the year 1122. 

 

Image: The tomb of Thomas the Apostle in San Thome Basilica.

Courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mylapore#/media/File:Tomb_of_St._Thomas_in_India.JPG

The Turks in Jacob's Tents (2)

I am happy to announce that I have completed chapter 8 about the Khazars. It appeared to be one of the longest extracts in the whole book. I think that I have managed to relate the history in a non-traditional way.

To start with, we still are unaware of the flow of the Khazar history; what we have got are bits and pieces and each of us is trying to glean from them a plausible plot. 

I tried to use historical accounts of travelers who had visited Khazaria or whose opinion is supported by the archaeological record rather than be supported by legends. The problem is that few Khazar sources available are written in Hebrew and are rife in myths. It does not mean that the entire content is false; however, it is biased and cannot be related at face value. 

With the completion of this chapter, I have nearly finished Unit IV. I tend to write the conclusion called Bottom Line. This makes about seventy percent of the book. As usual, the whole unit will be sent to the publisher.

It is too early to assume when the book is finished. I still have a month of my school leave and will do my utmost. 

Here is a short extract from Unit 8:

The rumors about an overwhelming Jewish polity, which carried a latent threat to the Western Christendom, were not made out of whole cloth.   

    

Though the steppe and the sown were at frequent loggerheads, nobody could deny that Alexander Barrier marked the limit beyond which the religious oppression seemed to expire. The smiling extents of the grassy plains foreshadowed the freedom of conscience.

     The Khazar rulers tended to be lenient in their approach to religious tenets and intricacies of their subjects’ birthrights. They greeted people of any ethnos, speakers of any vernacular, adherents of any lifestyle, and adherents of any faith.

     In the following chapter, we will take a gander at an often overlooked kingdom which has recently abandoned its fixed place at the junk pile of history and embarked on unearthing its secrets and diffusing its charms. We will strive to glean facts from the thin historical record. 

The Turks in Jacob's Tents (1)

Some chapters take longer than expected. 

The last but one chapter of Unit IV, Mapping Marvels and Monsters: In the Shadow of the Iron Gate, is devoted to the Khazars. I would like to link the existence of their khaganate to European persistent rumors about the Jewish empire that would eventually liberate their coreligionists from the yoke of the Christian nations. 

There are too few facts and too much fiction surrounding the world of the Khazars. Instead of recounting the more or less known myths, I decided to collect data about this mysterious ethnic group and their polity. Much of this info is controversial and one has to approach it with loads of skepticism in case his/her conception would burst in his/her hands. 

I am checking the collected data and writing extracts based on it. I still have some work to do. Now and then, I inspect new sources and the scope of written pages is getting larger and larger. 

At the next stage, I will compare the new pieces with the old ones and I will choose the best text. I also have to rearrange the material: some info might belong to other chapters.

It is clear that even after editing every chapter I will have to reread the whole book. There are so many corrections and repetitions and even last minute's exploring. 

I will also speak about the Rus, a bunch of adventurous Vikings who preyed on tribes of Eastern Europe and managed to launch a state. The collision between this polity and the Khazars led to the disintegration of the Khaganate. 

  

Site of the Khazar fortress at Sarkel (aerial photo from excavations conducted by Mikhail Artamonov in the 1950s).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazars#/media/File:Sarkel.jpg 

The Ten Tribes and Other Monsters

Chapter 7 of Unit IV entangles the plot even more by intertwining the blend of the Alexander Legend and the Saga of Gog-Magog with a tale of the Lost Tribes. The medieval continuation of the Jewish story connects the tribes with the host of the Antichrist on the eve of the Final Battle between good and evil. 

The European literati feel free to replace the location of the exile of the Israelites further and further East, while their numbers skyrocket, posing the threat to the expansion of the Christendom. Some authors even hint at a secret plot between the local Jews and their distant brethren to overthrow the civilized order. 

My next chapter will tell about the Khazars which many obscure observers envisioned as the Jewish kingdom.  

"Back in the Early Middle Ages, the Christian literati would make exquisite efforts to conflate the entangled Alexander legend to the no less complicated saga of the Lost Tribes.

          Well-educated Europeans would visualize Gog-Magog, an inseparable pair of the Biblical mavericks, who were enclosed by an impregnable mountain range and locked by a man-made gate or a crenelated wall, residing in a secluded location, on a remote island or on a far-flung peninsula.

Paulus Orosius, an early fifth-century Roman priest and historian, discloses a new venue, reporting that the Israelite prisoners were deported to the area adjoining the Caspian Sea and experienced a baby boom. The Persians, he fancies, "drove great numbers of Jews into exile… and ordered them to settle in Hyrcania [a historical region in modern Iran] by the Caspian Sea. There they remain to the present day and have greatly increased in numbers." The Hispanic historian hints that in the distant future the outcasts will find the way out: "It is believed that at some time they will burst forth from this place." (1) 

However, their presumed escape neither involves the revenge on the Christendom, nor is linked to the blowing up of any barrier set up by Alexander. Moreover, the king of Macedon receives a cold show of bad press, being epitomized as “a whirlpool of sufferings and ill-wind for the entire East.” (2)

The contemporary of Orosius, a priest and a chronicler Sulpicious Severus, confirms that the expatriates are still subjected to the pagans, among whom he enlists Indians and Ethiopians: “the ten… never returned to their native country, and are to this day held under the sway of barbarous nations.” (3)

The era of the Crusades put on apocalyptic candles, upgrading the notorious Ten Tribes to the status of the Satan’s henchmen. On the other hand, many late medieval writers realized that the enclosure context would make the imprisoned people too frail and timid to carry a potential threat. So they looked for another explanation for the seclusion: the deportees are bound by exercising their vassal duties.

          Hugo Ripelin, a thirteenth-century Dominican monk, places his bet for the overlord of the revengeful tribes on the Queen of Amazonia. The Amazons, who have galloped from the classical texts, are another nation lured by Satan: "the Ten Tribes enclosed within the Caspian Mountains, however in such a way that they might leave if they were permitted… by the Queen of the Amazon, under whose rule and jurisdiction they live." (4) 

The Lost and Found Tribes

A Typical Notice 

https://www.juliemeek.com.au/lost-and-found/ 

A new chapter, The Lost and Found Tribes, seems to bypass my narrative about the Alexander Gates. However, it introduces the issue of the Ten Lost Tribes as it emerges both in history and in Biblical and post-Biblical Jewish thought. 

The Lost Tribes occupy an integral part of the Alexander legend and I thought it was important to explain how this topic had emerged before interweaving it with the medieval story. 

Chapter 6 of Unit IV entitled "In the Shadow of the Iron Gates" develops the following threads:

the collapse of Samaria and the rise of Jerusalem, the vision of the Biblical prophets about the return of the deportees, Mount Gerizim vs. Mount Zion, and the Emergence of the Ten Tribes. 

Besides helping the understanding of the peculiar twist of the medieval legend, this extract contributes to my understanding of the history of ancient Israel. You can view my previous approaches to this field: 

"The Generation of Exodus"

https://scriggler.com/DetailPost/Opinion/26251  

"Mesha the Dibonite Recovers His Voice"

https://scriggler.com/DetailPost/Opinion/27980 

I intend to use these materials in preparation for Book Four if I live that long. 

I think that the turbulent times of the Assyrian and Babylonian periods led to the emergence of the legend of the Ten Tribes. In actual history, most of the Israelites continued to reside in their land and eventually evolved into the Samaritans whose male lineages have been retained until this day. Their daughters, if they married the foreigners, would cease belonging to the "holy seed". 

Meanwhile, my narrative will turn to the medieval development of the Alexander legend where the Ten Tribes enclosed by the Iron Gates will oppose the civilized world, being enlisted in the host of the Antichrist. 

Alexander Versus Gog-Magog

My new chapter covers the conflation of the Hebrew myth of Gog-Magog with the Hellenistic legend of the Iron Gate. This is another step in writing a large unit, In the Shade of the Iron Gate. In this particular episode, I explain the motives of those who transformed the unpleasant experience of "barbarian" strikes into the sinister outbreak of monstrous forces on the eve of the Last Battle between the sons of light and the bastards of darkness.
Here is an excerpt:

"When medieval intellectuals discovered the enormous literary and ideological potential of conflating the Biblical myth of Gog-Magog with the Hellenistic legend of the Iron Gates, the romantic tale turned into a theological saga. The setting matched the everlasting conflict between the Christian realm of goodwill and learning versus the apocalyptic anti-world of evil and ignorance.

                The barrier sustains the line of demarcation between the opposite camps and facilitates the authoritarian control over the enclosed territory. “Historia Augusta” is a Late Latin collection of biographies describing the lives and deeds of the Roman rulers. In one of its profiles, an anonymous author praises Emperor Hadrian for putting up a rampart on the westernmost state border as an example of a sovereign who grasped the urgency of segregation between the law-abiding subjects and the illegal immigrants:  "the first to build a wall from sea to sea... to separate the barbarians from the Romans." (1)

                The wall features not only a brick-and-mortar boundary between the people of the sown and the nomads but also a wedge between the adepts of a certain faith and unbelievers. Ibn-Arabi, the philosopher of the Islamic Golden Age, commends the Possessor of Two Horns-the Koranic version of Alexander-for making “a barrier between those of God’s servants who obey him and those who disobey.” (2)

The master of the mountain pass, who functioned as Alexander’s governor, played a leading role in geopolitical games. The sad truth was that the defile recently shifted from the Christian to the Muslim sway. Confirming this, Michael Syrian makes a transit from hearsay tales to actual history: “In earlier times the kings of the peoples of the Orient were said to have guarded these gates, but at present, they are in the hands of the Arabs.” (3)

                The Syriac Early Christian literature, especially the late-seventh century Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius, linked a barrier episode to the exploits of Alexander. The bulwark cried out for shielding the civilized nations from impure, polluted rabble. However, this time the European military genius confronted the sinister hordes of Gog-Magog rather than plundering barbarian tribes.        

Image: The henchmen of Antichrist are besieging the city of saints

Courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gog_and_Magog#/media/File:Toulouse_ms_815-049v-Gog%26Magog.jpg

A Kernel of Truth (2)

Image: While in transit…

Courtesy: http://www.journeymongolia.com/index.php/item?id=13

My new chapter takes a sincere look at the nomads, trying to access their contribution to the human culture as well as to understand why the pastoralist lifestyle was so hard to digest for the settled people. This extract poses an antithesis to the previous one where I picked up a choir of opinions of outsiders about the migrants. 

Unit IV is going to be the largest part of my book in terms of the number of chapters. The next extract will focus on the second fusion of the legend where Alexander as the guardian of civilization is opposed the ultimate enemy of Gog-Magog. 

Here is the extract from Chapter 4:

How come that the settled population still puts the pastoralists to shame for adhering to the “barbarian” lifestyle?  

These very people grazed their flocks on natural pasturelands of grassy plains and mountain slopes. Stock-herders turned their yurts into true homes that could be put up in the middle of nowhere and give shelter from the fury of the elements. The steppe nomads invented the wheel and perched their dwellings on carts to carry their possessions in wagon trains along beaten tracks. When in need of a reliable individual transport, these unbridled barbarians tamed the horse and adapted it for riding to engage in herding and hunting, trading and raiding. Their high-profile warriors learned how to use horse-drawn chariots as mobile archery platforms and shoot arrows from sigma-shaped compound bows while atop a steed. The migrants donned trousers and subsisted on curd cheese, the flesh of their livestock, and mare’s milk.

The nomadic diet struck the settled populace as bizarre as the steppe folk shunned consuming bread but had no scruples in devouring uncooked meat. Rabbi Petachia of Ratisbon who traveled from Prague to the Middle East in the latter half of the twelfth-century comments on the pastoral menu: “They eat no bread… but rice and millet, boiled in milk, as well as milk and cheese. They also put the pieces of flesh under the saddle of a horse… and, urging on the animal, cause it to sweat. The flesh getting warm, they eat it.” (1)

The European decision-makers and the literati would grasp the Caucasus as the frontier zone erected between the sown and the steppe. Beyond their lofty crags lay a vast belt of rolling plains hemmed by baking deserts and dense forests, pierced by steep mountains, and sliced by meandering rivers. This realm controlled by harsh continental climate, swept by incursions of piercing winds and blinding dust storms, and hammered with irregular blizzards and torrential rains, was covered by a carpet of lush grass in the warm season and a blanket of deep snow in winter. Its stubborn soil was too hard to produce grain but supplied sufficient pastures for nomadic livestock accustomed to tread down grasslands bereft of human settlements and fields.

Barbaria was a vast area with imprecise borders which sprawled across the Pontic and Caspian steppes. According to rumors, it stretched in width as far as the northern ocean and in length up to the mysterious dungeon from where the sun rises for its daily watch. Michael the Syrian, the twelfth-century patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church and the chronicler, defines the homeland of the Turks with unbounded generosity: "Their habitat extends from sunrise to the extreme north of the inhabited world." (2)

Responding to different names, this tough terrain hosted diverse tribes of mounted nomads who engaged non-stop in internecine feuds or preyed on the sedentary population. Sima Qian, the Chinese literati, denounces northern barbarians making devastating inroads on the Middle Kingdom across its frontier zone. He claims that “warfare is their business”. (3) What would the renowned historian have said about other favorite pastimes of steppe dwellers, like hunting trips and night drinking sessions, gambling and smoking weed?

A Kernel of Truth

Image: A nomad is getting his herd in shape
Courtesy: http://www.nationalgeographicexpeditions.com/expeditions/mongolia-tour/detail 

In this chapter, I would like to share my thoughts about steppe nomads.

This topic is very important for the development of my book which shows how the geographic imagination of Latin Europeans about the Far East altered. If up to the 13th century the furthest destination was India, it would later embrace China. What was in the middle? The fascinating world of the pastoralist nomads which was the antipode of Western Europe.

The nomads are currently receiving a better treatment in historical research. They are no longer considered the dead end of social and economic development but rather a specific mode of production conditioned by survival strategies of existence under the harsh climate and the tough competition.

Their mobility would give the steppe dwellers a fair chance to stay independent from the state authorities of the sedentary societies that would require taxes and conscription. The same lifestyle enabled the pastoralists to play a role in long-distance trade as the middle-men who can act as the guides or the guards or the travel companions of the merchant caravans.

Such environment demanded from the nomads to be arranged in kinship groups and seek the alliance of the warlords. Their endurance to severe conditions made them adroit raiders and troopers. The steppe aristocrats would exploit these qualities in time of crisis, amplifying the power that could allow them to form tribal confederations and even empires.

I have collected the new material and am trying to mix it with what I wrote before. This chapter will contrast with the previous one where I picked up the ancient and medieval perception of the nomads.

Beware of Barbarians

      Image: A Kazakh nomad “almost glued” to his mount

      Courtesy: https://metaphorimages.photoshelter.com/image/I0000lAn3o2uAWVA

My new chapter of Unit IV focuses on the treatment of nomadic pastoralists by the European literatti. I show that the pastoralist style was alien to well-educated authors and was shown as barbarian. Alexander the Great was applied as the guarding spirit of the oecumene- the civilization of the settled peoples. To match this role, he was commissioned to build the gate or the wall which was to shield the people of the sown from ugly and sinful steppe dwellers.

Here's the extract:

      

The sober report of Arrian Flavius, a Hellenistic historian and Roman general, about Alexander’s failed attempt to overhaul King Darius at the breach in the mountain wall could not suit the sophisticated taste of adventure lovers. As a response to the challenge, an entangled legend would spring up. In this tale, the Greek superstar obtained the mystical power and romantic nature. Acting as a Pan-Hellenic hegemon, he unleashed his troops in an attempt to conquer the habitable world. However, on reaching the ultimate borders of the humankind, he stumbled on weird and uncouth folks who were a far cry from anyone he had encountered before.

     The "wild nations" that Alexander of the legend dreaded so much were the pastoralists of the Eurasian steppes. Their lifestyle and manner of war diverged from those of the Greeks and seemed to undergo little changes throughout the ages. At the same time, the nomadic and sedentary worlds could not do without each other. The grassland "paradise" was speckled with barely seen paths leading to desert oases and seaside ports where the steppe products were exchanged for urban goods, ideas, and services.

When an ancient Greek would think about the nomads, the first thing that would come across his mind was Hippemolgi (Greek: “mare-milk drinkers”]. Homer immortalized this nickname in an unforgettable line where he contrasts their aristocratic manners with the koumiss consumption: “the lordly Hippemolgi who drink the milk of mares.” (2)

In the eyes of the settled onlookers, the restlessness of the pastoralists stems from the vagaries of the nomadic economy in which the well-being of the cattle drivers relies on the prosperity of their flocks. Strabo links the miserable life of the German “barbarians” with their aversion to agricultural labor: “they migrate with ease, because of the meagerness of their livelihood and because they do not till the soil or even store up food, but live in small huts that are merely temporary structures; … they live for the most part off their flocks… they load their household belongings on their wagons and … turn whithersoever they think best.” (3)

Julius Caesar subscribes to this view, elaborating on the Germans’ dairy and meat diet: “For agriculture, they have no zeal, and the greater part of their food consists of milk, cheese, and flesh.” (4)

The same bias against the pastoralists was adopted by medieval European authors. Gerald of Wales, the twelfth-century English cleric and historian, finds the contemporary Irish people unsophisticated because of their commitment to the animal husbandry. They are “a rude people, subsisting on the produce of their cattle only, and living themselves like beasts-a people that have not departed from the primitive habits of pastoral life.” Such folks, he refines, are prone to strict conservatism and will oppose any innovations, leading “the same life their fathers did in the woods and open pastures, neither willing to abandon their old habits or learn anything new. “(5) 

Alexander at the Caspian Gates

My new chapter points out to the Greek twist of the legend which relates to Alexander putting up a wall or a gate at a mountain pass.
I cite Arrian, one of our primary historical sources on Alexander, who mentions no such thing. I show that this yarn had already come into existence at the time of  Josephus Flavius, who makes it part of his narrative. I quote Pliny the Elder who testifies of a great confusion among his contemporaries concerning the location of the Caspian Gates.
I'd like to give you a taste of my writing:

"It was a long and breaking down chase. The bleeding but still alive Persian emperor took to flight into his eastern satrapies in the last-ditch effort to muster a new army against his victorious contender. The royal escape route passed through the Caspian Gates, a winding ground-level breach in a mountain wall. The pursuer, who would spare neither horses nor riders, was breathing down his neck in a desperate attempt to intercept the fleeting antagonist.

                At the close approach to the intended defile, Alexander learned to his bitter distress that his foe had managed to slip away through the jaws of a mousetrap. Recognizing a failure of his impulsive plan, the chaser had to suspend the hot pursuit, granting his weary troops a long-deserved repose. (1) The conqueror had neither time nor intention to erect neither a wall nor a gate as he had to catch up with his glory.

Pliny the Elder emphasizes the strategic significance of this venue, which served as the benchmark for the distance estimations in the course of the Greek military campaign across Asia: “In the itineraries of Alexander the Great, these gates were made the central or turning point in his expeditions.” (2)

The Roman scholar refers to the Iranian Caspian Gates, a narrow gorge cut in a chain of the Elburz Mountains, connecting Media with Parthia. He places this defile in the vicinity of Rhagae, an ancient city, which is currently absorbed by Tehran metropolis.

However, the writer defies the common error to attribute the same place-name to the mountain passage in the Caucasus. He cites a local defense network consisting of the gates with iron-covered beams and a rock fort “erected for the purpose of preventing the passage of the innumerable tribes.” (3) This barrier designed to repel barbarian raids has nothing to do with the historic Alexander who had never waged wars in this region.

By the time of Josephus Flavius, who flourished at the latter part of the first century CE, the legend of the Caucasian Caspian Gates had gained such a wide circulation that the Jewish historian did not hesitate to include it in his chronicle. The narrator relates that a nomadic tribe from the north bent on conducting a plundering raid in north-western Iran asked permission of a local king “who controlled the pass which Alexander the Great had blocked with iron gates.” (4)

                Classical men-of-letters believed that Alexander the Macedon had reached the rim of the civilized land; he had not dismounted until found himself at the gateway to India. He turned tail only after his exhausted servicemen had questioned his strategy in achieving the ultimate goal. In his farewell speech to the troops, he urges them (to no avail) to spread themselves thin and continue the conquest, confiding his dream of a world-wide polity: "… to this empire there will be no boundaries but what God Himself had made for the whole world." (5)

Plutarch gave the brave commander credit for spreading the Greek ideal of human society over entire Asia, overcoming "its uncivilized and brutish mode of life." (6) 

I'm currently studying other sources that describe the nomadic tribes of the Pontic steppes who became Alexander's antagonists in the legend. I will also include authentic information about these peculiar people who would astonish our classical commentators. 

I have recently begun to check the archaeological news on a regular basis. I read reports about extraordinary finds all over the world. These extracts may not add much to my story but they give me a sense of global history which justifies the concept of my book and inspires me to continue my work.