o most excellent day
Nov. 14th, 2008 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbA most excellent day, of the kind that comes along once in a very great while and leaves you scratching your head and saying to yourself, I didn't expect to enjoy that half as much as I did.
(This perhaps tells you entirely too much about my approach to life, that I was vaguely shocked to have a day that was not only painless and guiltless, but also reasonably fun.)
So. I had a late and pleasant breakfast out, and headed in to the afternoon sessions of the "War and Society in the Ancient World" colloquium at the Royal Irish Academy. I have never before been in the RIA's building on Dawson St., and it is fairly impressive: very old world, and a lovely reading room, and the lecture room actually in the library space itself, a marvellous high-ceilinged room, three storeys high, with books all around and manuscripts such as the Annals of the Four Masters on display in glass cases around the sides.
Damned uncomfortable seats, though.
So, anyway, I listened to a very interesting paper by Prof. Brian Campbell, Queen's University Belfast, on society and the army in the Roman empire. Some very cogent discussion of the army's relationship to civilian society in peace, war, and its frequent de facto role as an army of occupation in the provinces; mention of the economic and social implications of military presence, and some talk of military ideology. He made the point quite clearly that the emperor's ability to discipline and direct the armies was constrained by the emperor's reliance on the armies to maintain his rule.
The other paper was given by Dr. Kieran McGroarty, of NUI Maynooth, on the behaviour of Alexander the Great during his conquest of Persia, and how it perhaps did not exactly fit the model of a conquering army: Alexander made a number of gestures - many gestures - towards accommodation with his defeated enemies, and even went so far as to portray himself as a legitimate successor to Darius. Definitely some interesting stuff to think about there.
And climbing. Climbing. I conquered the red 5+, at last, performed satisfactorily on two other 5+ routes, and did a wee bit of traversing. Despite not doing a whole hell of a lot, I'm pretty happy with what I did do. (Triumph! Seven routes, now, that I can do or have done.)
(This perhaps tells you entirely too much about my approach to life, that I was vaguely shocked to have a day that was not only painless and guiltless, but also reasonably fun.)
So. I had a late and pleasant breakfast out, and headed in to the afternoon sessions of the "War and Society in the Ancient World" colloquium at the Royal Irish Academy. I have never before been in the RIA's building on Dawson St., and it is fairly impressive: very old world, and a lovely reading room, and the lecture room actually in the library space itself, a marvellous high-ceilinged room, three storeys high, with books all around and manuscripts such as the Annals of the Four Masters on display in glass cases around the sides.
Damned uncomfortable seats, though.
So, anyway, I listened to a very interesting paper by Prof. Brian Campbell, Queen's University Belfast, on society and the army in the Roman empire. Some very cogent discussion of the army's relationship to civilian society in peace, war, and its frequent de facto role as an army of occupation in the provinces; mention of the economic and social implications of military presence, and some talk of military ideology. He made the point quite clearly that the emperor's ability to discipline and direct the armies was constrained by the emperor's reliance on the armies to maintain his rule.
The other paper was given by Dr. Kieran McGroarty, of NUI Maynooth, on the behaviour of Alexander the Great during his conquest of Persia, and how it perhaps did not exactly fit the model of a conquering army: Alexander made a number of gestures - many gestures - towards accommodation with his defeated enemies, and even went so far as to portray himself as a legitimate successor to Darius. Definitely some interesting stuff to think about there.
And climbing. Climbing. I conquered the red 5+, at last, performed satisfactorily on two other 5+ routes, and did a wee bit of traversing. Despite not doing a whole hell of a lot, I'm pretty happy with what I did do. (Triumph! Seven routes, now, that I can do or have done.)
