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Posté le: Sam Déc 08, 2018 11:35 am Sujet du message: The Siege of Aornos – Chapter IV |
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Citation: | The Siege of Aornos – Chapter IV
Having been thrown out of Aornos, Aristotle and I rejoined Alexander, who was waiting with his army a few hundred cubits from the city ramparts. The king did not fail to ask us about the defenses of the enemy. It was something to which, I must admit, I had not paid any attention. This was clearly not the case with Aristotle, who had a detailed description of the military fortifications of the city. He added that Aornos was a corrupt city that ignored the basic principles found in any community, and that it was unworthy of the name Republic. He concluded that it was necessary to destroy it and build a virtuous city in its place. In his own words, “to extirpate the error of weak minds and substitute for it belief in the Virtue.”
I suddenly had one of those flashes that makes you expect a little intellectual glory, and I hoped to best the philosopher. I raised the point that he had told the Manitou that violence and anger were vicious things, and yet he encouraged Alexander in his expansionistic enterprise. Aristotle answered me rather curtly, “Our community is glorious because it is virtuous. This is nothing subjective, it is a perfectly tangible reality, and it underpins our right to establish, on the entire surface of the known world, our Republic, for the happiness of the people. Our principles are truth because they are derived from the natural order of things. We are the Republic of the universal spirit.” I decided that in the future I would measure my words to avoid being made an ass of by the philosopher.
Alexander did not want to start a war because of the state of our provisions; the attackers would have given up before the besieging. Our position was also very bad as we were exposed to the archers of the enemy, since our meeting with the Manitou, they were resolved to fight. In order to gain cover, it was necessary to return to the mud of the mangrove swamps from which we had come. The men would not have held three days in these circumstances, under clouds of insects and snakes, in the unhealthy atmosphere of the swamp. The officers therefore opted for an attack that evening against the first defensive wall of the city. It was a disaster. Hundreds of soldiers died in a vain assault. The pike men and archers were formidable enemies, and our men had not time to prepare the ladders: they fell like flies. The ram likewise met an unwanted fate: nearly half of its crew was killed before it hit the doors. The survivors were so few that they were unable to maneuver the ram, which was soon stranded as a whale on a bridge, the soldiers having abandoned it in their retreat.
Alexander praised himself on his leniency toward his men and promptly called the massacre to a stop and sounded the retreat. Losses were limited but significant. The officers were reconvened, and the King of Macedonia spoke out. The king seemed very grieved by the turn of events; he confessed that he had not expected so much resistance. Then a general intervened, and reminded them how Alexander had won the Trojan War, and that Ulysses had been able to introduce Greek warriors into the city by subterfuge. Aristotle shut the general up immediately saying, “These are the idiotic legends of polytheists, and the Trojans could not have existed because no people can be so thick as to fall for such a crude trap. There would have been an intelligent Trojan to tell his fellow countrymen of their stupidity; that a horse of wood of suspicious workmanship, and that it was, besides, was an object of very pour taste, could in addition to all the rest, be a childish trick.” The General rebeled against the contempt of age old beliefs, and Aristotle replied that just because a belief is ancient it is not necessarily true. Aristotle then put an end to the conversation which had gone sour, shouting that controversies did not help.
Aristotle then made a shocking proposal, “I will challenge the Great Manitou to one on one combat, and this battle shall decide the fate of the city.” |
_________________ His Excellency the Most Reverend Monsignor Prof. Dr. theol. Policarpo von Wittelsbach
Bishop Emeritus of Regensburg
Archabbot Emeritus of the Abbey of Heiligenbronn
German archivist for the Roman registers of Sacraments
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