October Surprise 1968 : The Pueblo Incident

The Puebelo Incident from Spike EP on Vimeo.

Note : 

USS Liberty and USS Pueblo were not US Navy Vessels under the command of the President and the Secretary of the Navy;

They were NSA Vessels operated by a US Navy crew, under the chain of command reporting ultimately to the Director of Central Intelligence, Richard Helms - it's entirely likely in both cases, President Johnson, Secretary McNamarra and most of the Navy and Pentagon  Brass (other than CIA Moles and Bad Insiders) had no inkling where they were or what they were doing prior to their coming under attack in either instance.

"The first operational mission for USS PUEBLO was conceived and tasked by the US Naval Security Group Command. The ship's first mission was to be a period primarily for testing. With no current information available on hostile activities by North Korean forces, the officer in charge at US CINCPACFLT assigned the mission a risk assessment (*see note 1 at bottom of page)
All attempts by Capt. Bucher to upgrade the assessment to hazardous were - denied.

Like USS LIBERTY AGTR-5, USS PUEBLO operated under the assumption that help would be provided if needed. US 7th Fleet, US Forces Korea and US 5th Air Force headquaters, Fuchu, Japan, among others were informed of PUEBLO’s mission. Because of that minimal risk assessment, the US Navy made no specific requests for support. The tasking for similar USS BANNER missions had also been rated minimal, but fighter aircraft were made available on a strip alert status and two US Navy destroyers maintained station within 50 miles of BANNER on some missions. When 5th Air Force Japan personnel questioned the lack of a request for strip alert status for PUEBLO’s mission, they were verbally informed by Commander Naval Forces Japan headquarters that it would not be needed. In addition to the lack of ready protection, the US Navy maintained the same communications procedures and methods for the PUEBLO mission as LIBERTY had operated under during her fateful mission of June 1967. The ships's inability to establish reliable communications with a higher command authority would be a repeat of the problems that contributed to the lack of help for LIBERTY. Unfortunately, it appears nothing was learned from the LIBERTY incident.


18 December 1967 0752Z
Sailing Orders
(Declassified 12 September 1968)

SECRET
PRIORITY
P 050512Z JAN 68

FM CTF NINE SIX

TO USS PUEBLO

INFO AIG SEVEN SIX TWO TWO

COMSERVGRU THREE
DIRNSA
DIRNAVSECGRUPAC
COMUSKOREA
COMNAVFORKOREA LIMDIS NOFORN
PACOMELINT CENTER

SECRET LIMDIS NOFORN

A. CTF 96 OPORD 301-68 NOTAL

B. PACOM ELINT CENTEER 210734Z DEC 67 PASEP NOTAL

C. CINCPACFLTINST 003120.24A

D. CINCPACFLTINST 03100.3D

1. ICHTYIC ONE FORMERLY PINKROOT ONE

2. DEPART SASEBO JAPAN WHEN RFS ABOUT 8 JAN 68. CHECK OUT OF MOVREP SYSTEM AND PROCEED VIA TSUSHIMA STRAITS TO ARRIVE OPAREA MARS ABOUT 10 JAN.

3. ATTEMPT TO AVOID DETECTION BY SOVIET NAVAL UNITS WHILE PROCEEDING TO OPAREA MARS.

4. UPON ARRIVAL MARS, CONDUCT ICHTHYIC OPS IAW PROVISIONS REF A.

A. OPERATE OPAREAS MARS, VENUS AND PLUTO, CONCENTRATING EFFORTS IN AREA(S) WHICH APPEAR MOST LUCRATIVE.

B. DEPART OPAREAS 27 JAN AND IF NOT UNDER SURVEILLANCE MAINTAIN STRICT EMCON CONDITION. PROCEED SOUTH ALONG KOREAN COAST TO VICINITY TSUSHIMA STRAITS.

C. INTERCEPT AND CONDUCT SURVEILLANCE OF SOVIET NASHIMA STRAITS.

D. TERMINATE SURVEILLANCE TO ARRIVE SASEBO 4 FEB 68. EARLIER DEPARTURE AUTHORIZED TO ENSURE TEN PERCENT ON-BOARD FUEL UPON ARRIVAL SASEBO.
5. OPAREAS DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

A. EAST/WEST BOUNDARIES ALL AREAS ARE CONTIGUOUS TO KORCOM AST EXTENDING FROM THIRTEEN NM CPA TO LAND MASS/OFF-SHORE ISLANDE EAWRDO SIXTY NM.

B. NORTHSOUTH BOUNDARIES ARE:

MARS. 40-00N4 TO 39-00N2;
VENUS. 41-00N5 TO 40-00N4;
PLUTO. 42-00N6 TO 41-00N5.

6. SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS:

A. COLLECT ELINT IAW PROVISIONS REF B, ON NOT TO INTERFERE BASIS WITH BASIC MISSION.

B. CPA TO KORCOM/SOVIET LAND MASS/OFF-SHORE ISLANDS WILL BE THIRTEEN NM.

C. UPON ESTABLISHING FIRM CONTACT WITH SOVIET NAVAL UNITS, BREAK EMCON AND TRANSMIT DAILY SITREP.

D. OPERATE AT LEAST FIVE HUNDRED YDS FROM SOVIET UNITS EXCEPT TO CLOSE BRIEFLY TO TWO HUNDRED YDS AS NECESSARY FOR VISUAL/PHOTO COVERAGE.

E. DO NOT INTERFERE WITH SOVIET EXERCISES BUT MAINTAIN A POSITION ON THE PERIPHERY FOR OBSERVATION PURPOSES.

F. IF UNABLE TO ESTABLISH OR GAIN CONTACT WITH SOVIET UNITS WITHIN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS ARRIVAL TSUSHIMA STRAITS AREA, ADVISE ORIG. IMMEDIATE PRECEDENCE.

G. PROVISIONS REF
APPLYING RELIDING RULES OF ENGAGEMENT.

IF D APPLIES REGARDING CONDUCT IN EVENT OF HARASSMENT OR INTIMIDATION BY FOREIGH UNITS.

H. INJOLLED DEFENSIVE ARMAMENT SHOULD BE STOWED OR COVERED IN SUCH A MANNER AS TO NOT ELICIT UNUSUAL INTEREST FROM SURVEYING/SURVEYED UNIT(S). EMPLOY ONLY IN CASES WHERE THREAT TO SURVIVAL IS OBVIOUS.

GP-3
LIMDIS

Provided by Ralph McClintock

Chronology of the North Korean capture and detention of the U. S. intelligence ship Pueblo and her crew:  (Philadelphia Enquirer, December 23, 1968)

Jan. 23--Four North Korean patrol boats capture the Pueblo in the Sea of Japan off North Korea's eastern coast. U. S. officials describe incident as "a matter of the utmost gravity" and insist ship was 25 miles off coast.

Jan. 24--Secretary of State Rusk describes seizure as "in the category of . . . an act of war" and warns the North Koreans to cool it." North Korean radio broadcasts an alleged confession by Pueblo Capt. Bucher that he deliberately violated North Korean waters.

Jan. 25--President Johnson orders 14,787 Air Force and Navy. reservists to active duty and announces American military forces in and around South Korea will be strengthened.

Jan. 26-UN Security Council meets on Pueblo crisis but finds no solution.

Feb. 6--The United States withdraws the carrier Enterprise from the position it had taken near the North Korean port of Wonson.

Feb. 12--North Korean radio reports Bucher makes second "confession" of  violating North Korean waters.

March 4--President Johnson receives an open letter purported to be from Pueblo crewmen asking United States to frankly admit the vessel had violated North Korean territory.

March 22--April 2-North Korea circulates series of letters allegedly written by captive men and warns United States failure to apologize could cost lives of crew.

June19--State Department discloses talks on crew release make no progress.

Sept. 13--Japanese newspapers report news conference at Pyongyang at which crewmen allegedly said they had been ordered to intrude in the three-mile limit.

Dec. 19--Congressional sources in Washington say agreement reached for crew release.

Dec. 22-State Department announces crew to be released Sunday night.

gov.archives.arc.12053.mpega

Lyndon Baines Johnson Library Oral History Collection

Dean Rusk, Secretary of State -- Interview III, Tape 1 -- 19

Indonesian policy.

"I think the most concern we had over Indonesia had to do with the confrontation with Malaya. They got into a situation where they were sending guerrillas not only into the offshore parts of Malaysia over in Borneo, but also in Malay proper, and we were concerned because Australia and New Zealand had security commitments to Malaysia and had forces there. Under the Anzus Treaty, if New Zealand or Australian forces were attacked in the treaty area, and Malaysia was in the treaty area, that could very likely bring up the obligation of Anzus and involve the United States and our commitment to Australia and New Zealand. We tried to point that out to Sukarno in an effort to cause him to pause. Fortunately with the change in government in Indonesia, the confrontation came to a close; and that was a major step forward in the general political security situation in Southeast Asia.

I’m not one of those who claims that what we were doing in South Viet Nam made it possible for Indonesia to turn its policy around. There are some Indonesians who have commented that the very fact that the United States was present in Viet Nam and that the Seventh Fleet was there between Indonesia and mainland China gave them courage to move strongly against the Chinese Communists who were heavily involved in Indonesia and were participants in that attempted coup d’etat which led to the turnover in government, but I think it would be unfortunate for the United States to claim that what we were doing in Viet Nam was the thing which produced the change in attitude in Indonesia. I think those changes came about for Indonesian reasons and not directly because of what we were doing in Viet Nam.

M:  I was smiling a minute ago not at your answer, but at the fact that you seemed to read my mind on these questions. I was just about to open my mouth to ask the question that you began to answer. Maybe we’ve been at this long enough that I can just turn the machine on and let you go on.  What about Korea? I gather that this is one of the instances where there was a real personal rapport between President Johnson and President Park that contributed a great deal to the success of our relations in Korea. Is that accurate?

R: Yes. President Johnson had a great respect for President

Park and for good reason. President Park, under great difficulties, had brought Korea along in remarkable progress, economically and socially and politically. He was tough in defense of the interests of South Korea but was reasonable and balanced and was not provocative or militant in his general attitude toward North Korea. He took a responsible attitude toward such questions as Southeast Asia. He seemed to be willing to play a role that reflected Korea’s gratitude for the assistance it had had from the United States back in 1950. His willingness to put two divisions of South Korean troops into Southeast Asia was welcomed by President Johnson. South Korea had no treaty obligation to do so. It was not a member of SEATO, and when he made it clear that he was prepared to take part in that struggle down there, this of course touched President Johnson very deeply. And the Koreans turned out to be very good fighters in South Viet Nam, as they turned out to be by the end of the Korean War in their own country. But there was a personal rapport between President Johnson and President Park.

M: When did the renewed tensions along the armistice line in Korea become serious again?

R: I think that we began to be freshly concerned in 1967 when the rate of infiltration seemed to increase significantly.  And when the North Korean leaders began making militant speeches about unifying the country by 1970 and making very bellicose statements about their own policy and attitude, we became very much concerned because we had fifty thousand American troops in Korea.

We had a very flat and direct security treaty with Korea. A renewal of the Korean War would be something that we would look upon with the greatest dismay because we had enough of a struggle going on in Southeast Asia, We didn’t want a second struggle up in Korea. It was rather courageous on the part of President Park to put two divisions of his own troops into South Viet Nam at a time when he was having infiltration problems with the North Koreans, and when the North Koreans were talking in a very belligerent mood, but he went ahead and did it. But throughout ‘67 and ‘68 we were very much concerned about North Korea.

M: Was the Pueblo incident a calculated part of this, do you think, or was that just an aberration that was unrelated to their troubles with South Korea?

R: I will never fully understand just why the North Koreans seized the Pueblo. It’s one of those situations where a small belligerent country can act with a lack of responsibility simply because other countries don’t want war. The Pueblo was in international waters. It was there to do some listening on communications in North Korea. We had an interest in picking up as much intelligence as could out of North Korea because of the belligerency of North Korea towards South Korea and the increase of infiltration into South Korea, but we were relying upon the high seas, the freedom of the seas—

M: There was never a doubt about its location?  R: Oh, no, never a doubt about its location. As a matter of fact, in the communications which the North Koreans themselves flashed back from the scene, they even put the position further out on the high seas than we did so they knew they were on the high seas. And when I say high seas, I mean beyond their own twelve-mile limit.  M: Yes, their definition of high seas.

R: And not just beyond our three-mile limit. But that was a very unhappy episode from beginning to end.  M: That’s Presidential from the beginning, I expect. What was Mr. Johnson’s reaction to that?

R: He was, of course, furious with the North Koreans, and like me [he] failed to understand just why they went out of their way to be so disagreeable about it. Nevertheless President Johnson did not want a war with North Korea. He made a prompt decision to try to get the ship and its men back by diplomatic means rather than by military means. We were faced with the fact that if you tried to use military force to rescue the men you might pick up dead bodies, but you wouldn’t pick up live men and that you might well start a war at a time when we didn’t want a war between North and South Korea involving American forces.  So we decided to swallow hard and try to get these men back by diplomatic means, and that took a great deal of doing. We had meeting after meeting that made no progress; and we finally released the men by a device which I described at the time as being without precedent in international affairs. We signed a statement which the North Koreans insisted we sign, but at the very time we signed it we made a statement saying that we denounced the signature and the statement itself was false.

M: They knew you were going to make this statement?  R: They knew in advance that we were going to make that statement. This had been worked out in advance. It’s as though a kidnapper kidnaps your child and asks for fifty thousand dollars ransom. You give him a check for fifty thousand dollars and you tell him at the time that you’ve stopped payment on the check, and then he delivers your child to you. I think probably what happened was that the North Koreans came to the conclusion that they had milked the Pueblo affair for all that was in it, and that there was no particular point in holding on to these men any further.  M: The Russians didn’t play any constructive role--?  R: I think it’s possible that the Russians played a mediating role in that situation. We have no way of knowing. We asked the Russians on several occasions to use their influence with North Korea to free these men and the ship, but we never knew just what they did by way of follow-up on it.

M: Did we have to act to restrain the South Koreans in that atmosphere [when] under renewed infiltration, the attack on the Blue House, and the seizure of the Pueblo all sort of came together?

R: The South Koreans were interested in what might be called close-in retaliation, but I never got the impression that the South Koreans wanted to go into full-scale war. So to the extent that it was necessary to restrain them, it wasn’t a very difficult job because they were not itching for war, either. They did get very incensed about the Blue House raid and about other types of infiltration that were coming across. There were times when they would carry out retaliation against North Korea by counterraids without our permission, and so we had a little job at times of cooling them down a bit and restraining them from these retaliations which they were inclined to pull off.

M: Mr. Johnson talked about the concept of regionalism in Asia.  Was there any basis in Asia for the development of that regionalism, or was that something that we pretty well had to impose ourselves upon them?

R: No, one of the very encouraging developments in Asia during

this period of the South Vietnamese conflict was that the

nations in Asia during this period of the South Vietnamese

conflict was that the nations in Asia themselves began to

Ants

Ants

"Eastward of India lies a desert of sand…. There is found in this desert a kind of ant of great size—bigger than a fox, though not so big as a dog…. These creatures as they burrow underground throw up the sand in heaps, just as our own ants throw up the earth…. The sand has a rich content of gold, and this is what the Indians are after when they make their expeditions into the desert…. When the Indians reach the place where the gold is, they fill the bags they have brought with them with sand and start for home again as fast as they can go; for if the ants—if we can believe the Persians’ story—smell them, they at once give chase."

 

Ants

95. Now if we compare Babylonian with Euboïc talents, the silver is found to amount to nine thousand eight hundred and eighty[82] talents; and if we reckon the gold at thirteen times the value of silver, weight for weight, the gold-dust is found to amount to four thousand six hundred and eighty Euboïc talents. These being all added together, the total which was collected as yearly tribute for Dareios amounts to fourteen thousand five hundred and sixty Euboïc talents: the sums which are less than these[83] I pass over and do not mention.

96. This was the tribute which came in to Dareios from Asia and from a small part of Libya: but as time went on, other tribute came in also from the islands and from those who dwell in Europe as far as Thessaly. This tribute the king stores up in his treasury in thefollowing manner:--he melts it down and pours it into jars of earthenware, and when he has filled the jars he takes off the earthenware jar from the metal; and when he wants money he cuts off so much as he needs on each occasion.

97. These were the provinces and the assessments of tribute: and the Persian land alone has not been mentioned by me as paying a contribution, for the Persians have their land to dwell in free from payment. The following moreover had no tribute fixed for them to pay, but brought gifts, namely the Ethiopians who border upon Egypt, whom Cambyses subdued as he marched against the Long-lived Ethiopians, those[84] who dwell about Nysa, which is called "sacred," and who celebrate the festivals in honour of Dionysos: these Ethiopians and those who dwell near them have the same kind of seed as the Callantian Indians, and they have underground dwellings.[85] These both together brought every other year, and continue to bring even to my own time, two quart measures[86] of unmelted gold and two hundred blocks of ebony and five Ethiopian boys and twenty large elephant tusks. The Colchians also had set themselves among those who brought gifts, and with them those who border upon them extending as far as the range of the Caucasus (for the Persian rule extends as far as these mountains, but those who dwell in the parts beyond Caucasus toward the North Wind regard the Persians no longer),--these, I say, continued to bring the gifts which they had fixed for themselves every four years[87] even down to my own time, that is to say, a hundred boys and a hundred maidens. Finally, the Arabians brought a thousand talents of frankincense every year. Such were the gifts which these brought to the king apart from the tribute.

98. Now this great quantity of gold, out of which the Indians bring in to the king the gold-dust which has been mentioned, is obtained by them in a manner which I shall tell:--That part of the Indian land which is towards the rising sun is sand; for of all the peoples in Asia of which we know or about which any certain report is given, the Indians dwell furthest away towards the East and the sunrising; seeing that the country to the East of the Indians is desert on account of the sand. Now there are many tribes of Indians, and they do not agree with one another in language; and some of them are pastoral and others not so, and some dwell in the swamps of the river [88] and feed upon raw fish, which they catch by fishing from boats made of cane; and each boat is made of one joint of cane. These Indians of which I speak wear clothing made of rushes: they gather and cut the rushes from the river and then weave them together into a kind of mat and put it on like a corslet.

99. Others of the Indians, dwelling to the East of these, are pastoral and eat raw flesh: these are called Padaians, and they practise the following customs:--whenever any of their tribe falls ill, whether it be a woman or a man, if a man then the men who are his nearest associates put him to death, saying that he is wasting away with the disease and his flesh is being spoilt for them:

[89] and meanwhile he denies stoutly and says that he is not ill, but they do not agree with him; and after they have killed him they feast upon his flesh: but if it be a woman who falls ill, the women who are her greatest intimates do to her in the same manner as the men do in the other case. For

[90] in fact even if a man has come to old age they slay him and feast upon him; but very few of them come to be reckoned as old, for they kill every one who falls into sickness, before he reaches old age.

100. Other Indians have on the contrary a manner of life as follows:--they neither kill any living thing nor do they sowany crops nor is it their custom to possess houses; but they feed on herbs, and they have a grain of the size of millet, in a sheath, which grows of itself from the ground; this they gather and boil with the sheath, and make it their food: and whenever any of them falls into sickness, he goes to the desert country and lies there, and none of them pay any attention either to one who is dead or to one who is sick.

101. The sexual intercourse of all these Indians of whom I have spoken is open like that of cattle, and they have all one colour of skin, resembling that of the Ethiopians: moreover the seed which they emit is not white like that of other races, but black like their skin; and the Ethiopians also are similar in this respect. These tribes of Indians dwell further off than the Persian power extends, and towards the South Wind, and they never became subjects of Dareios.

102. Others however of the Indians are on the borders of the city of Caspatyros and the country of Pactyïke, dwelling towards the North[91] of the other Indians; and they have a manner of living nearly the same as that of the Bactrians: these are the most warlike of the Indians, and these are they who make expeditions for the gold. For in the parts where they live it is desert on account of the sand; and in this desert and sandy tract are produced ants, which are in size smaller than dogs but larger than foxes, for[92] there are some of them kept at the residence of the king of Persia, which are caught here. These ants then make their dwelling under ground and carry up the sand just in the same manner as the ants found in the land of the Hellenes, which they themselves[93] also very much resemble in form; and the sand which is brought up contains gold. To obtain this sand the Indians make expeditions into the desert, each one having yoked together three camels, placing a female in the middle and a male like a trace-horse to draw by each side. On this female he mounts himself, having arranged carefully that she shall be taken to be yoked from young ones, the more lately born the better. For their female camels are not inferior to horses in speed, and moreover they are much more capable of bearing weights.

103. As to the form of the camel, I do not here describe it, since the Hellenes for whom I write are already acquainted with it, but I shall tell that which is not commonly known about it, which is this:--the camel has in the hind legs four thighs and four knees,[94] and its organs of generation are between the hind legs, turned towards the tail.

104. The Indians, I say, ride out to get the gold in the manner and with the kind of yoking which I have described, making calculations so that they may be engaged in carrying it off at the time when the greatest heat prevails; for the heat causes the ants to disappear underground. Now among these nations the sun is hottest in the morning hours, not at midday as with others, but from sunrise to the time of closing the market: and during this time it produces much greater heat than at midday in Hellas, so that it is said that then they drench themselves with water. Midday however has about equal degree of heat with the Indians as with other men, while after midday their sun becomes like the morning sun with other men, and after this, as it goes further away, it produces still greater coolness, until at last at sunset it makes the air very cool indeed.

105. When the Indians have come to the place with bags, they fill them with the sand and ride away back as quickly as they can, for forthwith the ants, perceiving, as the Persians allege, by the smell, begin to pursue them: and this animal, they say, is superior to every other creature in swiftness, so that unless the Indians got a start in their course, while the ants were gathering together, not one of them would escape. So then the male camels, for they are inferior in speed of running to the females, if they drag behind are even let loose

[95] from the side of the female, one after the other;

[96] the females however, remembering the young which they left behind, do not show any slackness in their course.

[97] Thus it is that the Indians get most part of the gold, as the Persians say; there is however other gold also in their land obtained by digging, but in smaller quantities.

106. It seems indeed that the extremities of the inhabited world had allotted to them by nature the fairest things, just as it was the lot of Hellas to have its seasons far more fairly tempered than other lands: for first, India is the most distant of inhabited lands towards the East, as I have said a little above, and in this land not only the animals, birds as well as four-footed beasts, are much larger than in other places (except the horses, which are surpassed by those of Media called Nessaian), but also there is gold in abundance there, some got by digging, some brought down by rivers, and some carried off as I explained just now: and there also the trees which grow wild produce wool which surpasses in beauty and excellence that from sheep, and the Indians wear clothing obtained from these trees.

107. Then again Arabia is the furthest of inhabited lands in the direction of the midday, and in it alone of all lands grow frankincense and myrrh and cassia and cinnamon and gum-mastich. All these except myrrh are got with difficulty by the Arabians. Frankincense they collect by burning the storax, which is brought thence to the Hellenes by the Phenicians, by burning this, I say, so as to produce smoke they take it; for these trees which produce frankincense are guarded by winged serpents, small in size and of various colours, which watch in great numbers about each tree, of the same kind as those which attempt to invade Egypt:[97a] and they cannot be driven away from the trees by any other thing but only the smoke of storax. 

108. The Arabians say also that all the world would have been by this time filled with these serpents, if that did not happen with regard to them which I knew happened with regard to vipers: 

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History 
John Bostock

CHAP. 21. (4.)—HOW GOLD IS FOUND.

Gold is found in our own part of the world; not to mention the gold extracted from the earth in India by the ants,²²⁶ and in Scythia by the Griffins.²²⁷ Among us it is procured in three different ways; the first of which is, in the shape of dust, found in running streams, the Tagus²²⁸ in Spain, for instance, the Padus in Italy, the Hebrus in Thracia, the Pactolus in Asia, and the Ganges in India; indeed, there is no gold found in a more perfect state than this, thoroughly polished as it is by the continual attrition of the current.

A second mode of obtaining gold is by sinking shafts or seeking it among the debris of mountains; both of which methods it will be as well to describe. The persons in search of gold in the first place remove the "segutilum,"²²⁹ such being the name of the earth which gives indication of the presence of gold. This done, a bed is made, the sand of which is washed, and, according to the residue found after washing, a conjecture is formed as to the richness of the vein. Sometimes, indeed, gold is found at once in the surface earth, a success, however, but rarely experienced. Recently, for instance, in the reign of Nero, a vein was discovered in Dalmatia, which yielded daily as much as fifty pounds' weight of gold. The gold that is thus found in the surface crust is known as "talutium,"²³⁰ in cases where there is auriferous earth beneath. The mountains of Spain,²³¹ in other respects arid and sterile, and productive of nothing whatever, are thus constrained by man to be fertile, in supplying him with this precious commodity.

The gold that is extracted from shafts is known by some persons as "canalicium," and by others as "canaliense;"²³² it is found adhering to the gritty crust of marble,²³³and, altogether different from the form in which it sparkles in the sapphirus²³⁴ of the East, and in the stone of Thebais²³⁵ and other gems, it is seen interlaced with the molecules of the marble. The channels of these veins are found running in various directions along the sides of the shafts, and hence the name of the gold they yield—"canalicium."²³⁶ In these shafts, too, the superincumbent earth is kept from falling in by means of wooden pillars. The substance that is extracted is first broken up, and then washed; after which it is subjected to the action of fire, and ground to a fine powder. This powder is known as "apitascudes," while the silver which becomes disengaged in the²³⁷ furnace has the name of "sudor"²³⁸ given to it. The im- purities that escape by the chimney, as in the case of all other metals, are known by the name of "scoria." In the case of gold, this scoria is broken up a second time, and melted over again. The crucibles used for this purpose are made of "tasconium,"²³⁹a white earth similar to potter's clay in appearance; there being no other substance capable of with-standing the strong current of air, the action of the fire, and the intense heat of the melted metal.

The third method of obtaining gold surpasses the labours of the Giants²⁴⁰ even: by the aid of galleries driven to a long distance, mountains are excavated by the light of torches, the duration of which forms the set times for work, the workmen never seeing the light of day for many months together. These mines are known as "arrugiæ;"²⁴¹ and not unfrequently clefts are formed on a sudden, the earth sinks in, and the workmen are crushed beneath; so that it would really appear less rash to go in search of pearls and purples at the bottom of the sea, so much more dangerous to ourselves have we made the earth than the water! Hence it is, that in this kind of mining, arches are left at frequent intervals for the purpose of supporting the weight of the mountain above. In mining either by shaft or by gallery, barriers of silex are met with, which have to be driven asunder by the aid of fire and vinegar;²⁴² or more frequently, as this method fills the galleries with suffocating vapours and smoke, to be broken to pieces with bruising- machines shod with pieces of iron weighing one hundred and fifty pounds: which done, the fragments are carried out on the workmen's shoulders, night and day, each man passing them on to his neighbour in the dark, it being only those at the pit's mouth that ever see the light. In cases where the bed of silex appears too thick to admit of being penetrated, the miner traces along the sides of it, and so turns it. And yet, after all, the labour entailed by this silex is looked upon as comparatively easy, there being an earth—a kind of potter's clay mixed with gravel, "gangadia" by name, which it is almost impossible to overcome. This earth has to be attacked with iron wedges and hammers like those previously mentioned,²⁴³ and it is generally considered that there is nothing more stubborn in existence—except indeed the greed for gold, which is the most stubborn of all things.

When these operations are all completed, beginning at the last, they cut away²⁴⁴ the wooden pillars at the point where they support the roof: the coming downfall gives warning, which is instantly perceived by the sentinel, and by him only, who is set to watch upon a peak of the same mountain. By voice as well as by signals, he orders the workmen to be immediately summoned from their labours, and at the same moment takes to flight himself. The mountain, rent to pieces, is cleft asunder, hurling its debris to a distance with a crash which it is impossible for the human imagination to conceive; and from the midst of a cloud of dust, of a density quite incredible, the victorious miners gaze upon this downfall of Nature. Nor yet even then are they sure of gold, nor indeed were they by any means certain that there was any to be found when they first began to excavate, it being quite sufficient, as an inducement to undergo such perils and to incur such vast expense, to entertain the hope that they shall obtain what they so eagerly desire.

Another labour, too, quite equal to this, and one which entails even greater expense, is that of bringing rivers²⁴⁵ from the more elevated mountain heights, a distance in many instances of one hundred miles perhaps, for the purpose of washing these debris. The channels thus formed are called "corrugi," from our word "corrivatio,"²⁴⁶I suppose; and even when these are once made, they entail a thousand fresh labours. The fall, for instance, must be steep, that the water may be precipitated, so to say, rather than flow; and it is in this manner that it is brought from the most elevated points. Then, too, vallies and crevasses have to be united by the aid of aqueducts, and in another place impassable rocks have to be hewn away, and forced to make room for hollowed troughs of wood; the person hewing them hanging suspended all the time with ropes, so that to a spectator who views the operations from a distance, the workmen have all the appearance, not so much of wild beasts, as of birds upon the wing.²⁴⁷ Hanging thus suspended in most instances, they take the levels, and trace with lines the course the water is to take; and thus, where there is no room even for man to plant a footstep, are rivers traced out by the hand of man. The water, too, is considered in an unfit state for washing, if the current of the river carries any mud along with it. The kind of earth that yields this mud is known as "urium;"²⁴⁸ and hence it is that in tracing out these channels, they carry the water over beds of silex or pebbles, and carefully avoid this urium. When they have reached the head of the fall, at the very brow of the mountain, reservoirs are hollowed out, a couple of hundred feet in length and breadth, and some ten feet in depth. In these reservoirs there are generally five sluices left, about three feet square; so that, the moment the reservoir is filled, the floodgates are struck away, and the torrent bursts forth with such a degree of violence as to roll onwards any fragments of rock which may obstruct its passage.

When they have reached the level ground, too, there is still another labour that awaits them. Trenches—known as "agogæ"²⁴⁹—have to be dug for the passage of the water; and these, at regular intervals, have a layer of ulex placed at the bottom. This ulex²⁵⁰ is a plant like rosemary in appearance, rough and prickly, and well-adapted for arresting any pieces of gold that may be carried along. The sides, too, are closed in with planks, and are supported by arches when carried over steep and precipitous spots. The earth, carried onwards in the stream, arrives at the sea at last, and thus is the shattered mountain washed away; causes which have greatly tended to extend the shores of Spain by these encroachments upon the deep. It is also by the agency of canals of this description that the material, excavated at the cost of such immense labour by the process previously described,²⁵¹ is washed and car- ried away; for otherwise the shafts would soon be choked up by it.

The gold found by excavating with galleries does not require to be melted, but is pure gold at once. In these excavations, too, it is found in lumps, as also in the shafts which are sunk, sometimes exceeding ten pounds even. The names given to these lumps are "palagæ," and "palacurnæ,"²⁵² while the gold found in small grains is known as "baluce." The ulex that is used for the above purpose is dried and burnt, after which the ashes of it are washed upon a bed of grassy turf, in order that the gold may be deposited thereupon.

Asturia, Gallæcia, and Lusitania furnish in this manner, yearly, according to some authorities, twenty thousand pounds' weight of gold, the produce of Asturia forming the major part. Indeed, there is no part of the world that for centuries has maintained such a continuous fertility in gold. I have already²⁵³ mentioned that by an ancient decree of the senate, the soil of Italy has been protected from these researches; otherwise, there would be no land more fertile in metals. There is extant also a censorial law relative to the gold mines of Victumulæ, in the territory of Vercellæ,²⁵⁴by which the farmers of the revenue were forbidden to employ more than five thousand men at the works.

Crabs

Like the giant gold-digging ants Herodotus described in the fifth century BC or this 16th-century depiction of shipwrecked Portuguese sailors battling giant crabs in the Indian Ocean, the fantastic, the strange and the astonishing have always been ascribed to whatever lands were little-known and distant. For Europeans, this was the East.

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY (BRY, INDIA ORIENTALIS, IV, 1601)

 

 

The first thing Herodotus mentions about India is gold. In a discussion of Darius’s revenues from 19 tributary nations, Herodotus says that the largest amount was paid by India: "The Indians, the most populous nation in the known world, paid the largest sum: 360 talents of gold." The fact that it is improbable that the Indians paid Darius any tribute at all does not detract from the significance of the account: It shows that, by the time of Herodotus, India was already regarded as the richest and most populous place in the world—and that it produced gold. The idea of the fabled "riches of the east," so to obsess Europeans, had already reached its classical formulation some 2500 years ago.

 

 

 

Natzweiler

From Shirer :

In the murders in this field the Jews were not the only victims. The Nazi doctors also used Russian prisoners of war, Polish concentration camp inmates, women as well as men, and even Germans. 

The ”experiments” were quite varied. Prisoners were placed in pressure chambers and subjected to high-altitude tests until they ceased breathing. They were injected with lethal doses of typhus and jaundice. 

They were subjected to ”freezing” experiments in icy water or exposed naked in the snow outdoors until they froze to death. Poison bullets were tried out on them as was mustard gas. At the Ravensbrueck concentration camp for women hundreds of Polish inmates – the ”rabbit girls” they were called – were given gas gangrene wounds while others were subjected to ”experiments” in bone grafting. At Dachau and Buchenwald gypsies were selected to see how long, and in what manner, they could live on salt water. Sterilization experiments were carried out on a large scale at several camps by a variety of means on both men and women; for, as an S.S. physician, Dr. Adolf Pokorny, wrote Himmler on one occasion, ”the enemy must be not only conquered but exterminated.” If he could not be slaughtered – and the need for slave labor toward the end of the war made that practice questionable, as we have seen – then he could be prevented from propagating. In fact Dr. Pokorny told Himmler he thought he had found just the right means, the plant Caladium seguinum, which, he said, induced lasting sterility.

"The thought alone [the good doctor wrote the S.S. Fuehrer] that the three million Bolsheviks now in German captivity could be sterilized, so that they would be available for work but precluded from propagation, opens up the most far-reaching perspectives."

Another German doctor who had ”far-reaching perspectives” was Professor August Hirt, head of the Anatomical Institute of the University of Strasbourg. His special field was somewhat different from those of the others and he ex- plained it in a letter at Christmas time of 1941 to S.S. Lieutenant General Rudolf Brandt, Himmler’s adjutant.

"We have large collections of skulls of almost all races and peoples at our disposal. Of the Jewish race, however, only very few specimens of skulls are available . . . The war in the East now presents us with the opportunity to overcome this deficiency. By procuring the skulls of the Jewish-Bolshevik commissars, who represent the prototype of the repulsive, but characteristic, subhuman, we have the chance now to obtain scientific material."

Professor Hirt did not want the skulls of ”Jewish-Bolshevik commissars” already dead. He proposed that the heads of these persons first be measured while they were alive. Then-

"Following the subsequently induced death of the Jew, whose head should not be damaged, the physician will sever the head from the body and will forward it . . . in a hermetically sealed tin can."

Whereupon Dr. Hirt would go to work, he promised, on further scientific measurements. Himmler was delighted. He directed that Professor Hirt ”be supplied with everything needed for his research work.”

He was well supplied. The actual supplier was an interesting Nazi individual by the name of Wolfram Sievers, who spent considerable time on the witness stand at the main Nuremberg trial and at the subsequent ”Doctors’ Trial,” in the latter of which he was a defendant.∗  Sievers, a former bookseller, had risen to be a colonel of the S.S. and executive secretary of the Ahnenerbe, the Insti- tute for Research into Heredity, one of the ridiculous ”cultural” organizations established by Himmler to pursue one of his many lunacies. It had, according to Sievers, fifty ”research branches,” of which one was called the ”Institute for Military Scientific Research,” which Sievers also headed. He was a shifty-eyed, Mephistophelean-looking fellow with a thick, ink-black beard and at Nuremberg he was dubbed the ”Nazi Bluebeard,” after the famous French killer. Like so many other characters in this history, he kept a meticulous diary, and this and his correspondence, both of which survived, contributed to his gallows end.

By June 1943 Sievers had collected at Auschwitz the men and women who were to furnish the skeletons for the ”scientific measurements” of Professor Dr. Hirt at the University of Strasbourg. ”A total of 115 persons, including 79 Jews, 30 Jewesses, 4 ’Asiatics’ and 2 Poles were processed,” Sievers reported, requesting the S.S. main office in Berlin for transportation for them from Auschwitz to the Natzweiler concentration camp near Strasbourg. The British cross-examiner at Nuremberg inquired as to the meaning of ”processing.”

”Anthropological measurements,” Sievers replied.

”Before they were murdered they were anthropologically measured? That was all there was to it, was it?”

”And casts were taken,” Sievers added.

What followed was narrated by S.S. Captain Josef Kramer, himself a veteran exterminator from Auschwitz, Mauthausen, Dachau and other camps and who achieved fleeting fame as the ”Beast of Belsen” and was condemned to death by a British court at Lueneburg.

Professor Hirt of the Strasbourg Anatomical Institute told me of the prisoner convoy en route from Auschwitz. He said these persons were to be killed by poison gas in the gas chamber of the Natzweiler camp, their bodies then to be taken to the Anatomical Institute for his disposal. He gave me a bottle containing about half a pint of salts – I think they were cyanide salts – and told me the approximate dosage I would have to use to poison the arriving inmates from Auschwitz.

Early in August 1943, I received eighty inmates who were to be killed with the gas Hirt had given me. One night I went to the gas chamber in a small car with about fifteen women this first time. I told the women they had to go into the chamber to be disinfected. I did not tell them, however, that they were to be gassed."

By this time the Nazis had perfected the technique.

"With the help of a few S.S. men [Kramer continued] I stripped the women completely and shoved them into the gas chamber when they were stark naked.

When the door closed they began to scream. I introduced a certain amount of salt through a tube . . . and observed through a peephole what happened inside the room. The women breathed for about half a minute before they fell to the floor. After I had turned on the ventilation I opened the door. I found the women lying lifeless on the floor and they were covered with excrements."

Captain Kramer testified that he repeated the performance until all eighty inmates had been killed and turned the bodies over to Professor Hirt, ”as requested.” He was asked by his interrogator what his feelings were at the time, and he gave a memorable answer that gives insight into a phenomenon in the Third Reich that has seemed so elusive of human understanding.

"I had no feelings in carrying out these things because I had received an order to kill the eighty inmates in the way I already told you. That, by the way, was the way I was trained."

Another witness testified as to what happened next. He was Henry Herypierre, a Frenchman who worked in the Anatomical Institute at Strasbourg as Professor Hirt’s laboratory assistant until the Allies arrived.

"The first shipment we received was of the bodies of thirty women . . . These thirty female bodies arrived still warm. The eyes were wide open and shining. They were red and bloodshot and were popping from their sockets- There were also traces of blood about the nose and mouth. No rigor mortis was evident."

Herypierre suspected that they had been done to death and secretly copied down their prison numbers which were tattooed on their left arms. Two more shipments of fifty-six men arrived, he said, in exactly the same condition. They were pickled in alcohol under the expert direction of Dr. Hirt. But the professor was a little nervous about the whole thing. ”Peter,” he said to Herypierre, ”if you can’t keep your trap shut, you’ll be one of them.”

Professor Dr. Hirt went about his work nonetheless. According to the corre- spondence of Sievers, the professor severed the heads and, as he wrote, ”assem- bled the skeleton collection which was previously nonexistent.” But there were difficulties and after hearing them described by Dr. Hirt-Sievers himself had no expert medical or anatomical knowledge – the chief of the Ahnenerbe reported them to Himmler on September 5, 1944.

"In view of the vast amount of scientific research involved, the job of reducing the corpses has not yet been completed. This requires some time for 80 corpses.

And time was running out. Advancing American and French troops were nearing Strasbourg. Hirt requested ”directives as to what should be done with the collection.”

"The corpses can be stripped of the flesh and thereby rendered unidentifiable [Sievers reported to headquarters on behalf of Dr. Hirt]. This would mean, however, that at least part of the whole The skeleton collection as such is inconspicuous. The flesh parts could be declared as having been left by the French at the time we took over the Anatomical Institute ∗ and would be turned over for cremating. Please advise me which of the following three proposals is to be carried out: 

1. The collection as a whole to be preserved; 

2. The collection to be dissolved in part; 

3. The collection to be completely dissolved."

”Why were you wanting to deflesh the bodies, witness?” the British pros- ecutor asked in the stillness of the Nuremberg courtroom. ”Why were you suggesting that the blame should be passed on to the French?”

”As a layman I could have no opinion in this matter,” the ”Nazi Bluebeard” replied. ”I merely transmitted an inquiry from Professor Hirt. I had nothing to do with the murdering of these people. I simply carried through the function of a mailman.”

”You were the post office,” the prosecutor rejoined, ”another of these distinguished Nazi post offices, were you?”

It was a leaky defense offered by many a Nazi at the trials and on this occasion, as on others, the prosecution nailed it.

The captured S.S. files reveal that on October 26, 1944, Sievers reported that ”the collection in Strasbourg has been completely dissolved in accordance with the directive. This arrangement is for the best in view of the whole situation.”

Herypierre later described the attempt – not altogether successful – to hide the traces.

In September, 1944, the Allies made an advance on Belfort, and Professor Hirt ordered Bong and Heir Maier to cut up these bodies and have them burned in the crematory ... I asked Herr Maier the next day whether he had cut up all the bodies, but Herr Bong replied; ”We couldn’t cut up all the bodies, it was too much work. We left a few bodies in the storeroom.”

They were discovered there by an Allied team when units of the U.S. Seventh Army, with the French 2nd Armored Division in the lead, entered Strasbourg a month later. †

∗ Germany had annexed Alsace after the fall of France in 1940 and the Germans had taken over the University of Strasbourg.

† Professor Dr. Hirt disappeared. As he left Strasbourg he was heard boasting that no one would ever take him alive. Apparently no one has – alive or dead.

General George De Gaulle inaugurated the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp as a French National Monument in 1968.

Things Aristotle Was Completely Wrong About : The Human Soul

"I'm a blood-sucking fiend! Look at my outfit!"

"First of all, we must also put an end to that other and more disastrous "atomism" that one Christianity has taught best and longest, "the atomism of soul". 

Let this expression signify the belief that the soul is something indestructible, eternal indivisible  that it is a monad, an atamon: this belief must be thrown out of science!"

Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future

Friedrich Nietzsche

http://spikethenews.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/the-frankfurt-school-why-modern-art-is.html

A Jarful of Sense-Impressions

"When you become a vampire the demon takes your body, but it doesn't get your soul. 

That's gone...

No conscience, no remorse... It's an easy way to live.

You have no idea what it's like to have done the things I've done... and to care."

"I've had a demon inside me for a couple hundred years -  just waiting for a good fight."

"In order to understand how Whedon, an atheist and an existentialist, might have arrived at an ontological mythology of the soul in the first place, it will be helpful to consider very briefly the philosophical and theological underpinnings of the traditional (and still popular) understanding of the soul in the West as well as the manner in which such doctrines affected the subsequent development of vampire folklore in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Europe. The way in which Whedon adopted and adapted that folklore initially, and how he evolved that mythology over the life-span of the series, will also be considered by making a careful comparison of the way Whedon variously permitted both ontological and existential emphases in the first season of BtVS, where the mythology is initially established, and the final season of Angel, where it reaches its final expression among a cast that includes two ensouled vampires as well as a third soulless demon who gives many evidences of having integrated herself into a social and moral environment conditioned largely by human values. 

Throughout it will be observed that Whedon and his writers allow the viewer’s understanding to swing like a pendulum between the ontological and existential views of the soul without ever wholly discounting either.

The concept of the soul finds its most primitive written roots in religious and mythopoeic texts such as the Sanskrit Rig Veda, the Sumerian Descent of Inanna into Hell and Homer’s Iliad. The earliest Greek philosophers understood the soul to be a cosmological agent by which all things, including the sun and moon, moved (see Green and Groff 17ff; see also Aristotle 403b). It wasn’t until Aristotle, however, that a clear and systematic elaboration of this doctrine emerged in a single work with respect to human beings. In his much-studied treatise On the Soul, Aristotle extends the notions of his philosophical predecessors by arguing that the individual human soul lends the body its capacity for life by serving as its animating force. Among a number of metaphors to illustrate this point Aristotle suggests that the body is to the physical eye as the soul is to the eye’s ability to see. In this way Aristotle understood the human soul to be inseparable from the body: a body without a soul isn’t an active body (Greek soma) at all but merely a lifeless corpse (Greek nekros).[4] Similarly, the soul without the body is as unthinkable a proposition as vision is without an eye. Though not understood as the seat of individual personality, the soul for Aristotle is the body’s indispensable animating force without which the it cannot live or move.

For the doctrine common among today’s major monotheistic faiths that the soul is an immortal spirit inhabiting the body and lending it intelligence, will, and personality, one must turn to the discursive but influential writings of Plato. In addition to functioning as the body’s animating life force, the soul is, as Plato described it, in command of the body (Georgias 493a), the seat of all knowledge (Meno 86a), and an immortal spirit separate from the body (Meno 86b). By locating within the soul both the life-force of the body and human knowledge, Plato is the first to set forth a doctrine that allows for personal immortality in a separable soul with memories intact. This marks an enormous and important distinction from both Aristotle’s assertion that a soul without a body is unthinkable and Homer’s depiction of souls as imbecilic shadows divorced from their previous lives and memories (see Green and Groff 50ff; Iliad XXIII). Plato’s thought was adopted and adapted by some of the earliest Christian apologists and had enormous influence on the subsequent development of the Christian doctrine of the human soul, primarily through the writings of St. Augustine (MacDonald 143ff.). From there the concept of the soul as an immortal spirit animating the body as the seat of human will, intelligence, and conscience, has pervaded every corner of Western philosophy and culture."

http://slayageonline.com/essays/slayage18/McLaren.htm

Herodotus

Book One

---

Mythical Origins of East-West Conflict

Opening alludes to Homer, suggests epic scale and purpose (memorialization). Rape of Io by Phoenician traders as Persian version of origin of East-West conflict (1). Reciprocal rapes of Europa and Medea by Greeks (2). Rape of Helen; negotiations fail (3). Women are guilty in rape cases, as Helen was; Helen was not worth fighting for (4). A Phoenician version of Io story makes her responsible. Hdt. reserves judgement; he will tell the history of states large and small, with an awareness of human instability (5). Croesus of Lydia (ruled c. 560-546 BC) was the first eastern king to encroach on Greek freedom (6). 

Lydian History

Digression from Croesus: how Lydian sovereignty passed from the Heraclidae to Croesus' ancestors. Candaules (c. 700 BC) was the last of the Heraclidae (7). Candaules offers his servant Gyges a chance to peep at his wife; Gyges is reluctant (8). Candaules insists, and Gyges is forced to agree (9). Gyges spies on the queen, who notices him; she does not let on (10). The queen summons Gyges, and offers him a choice: die himself, or kill the king and marry her. Gyges chooses to be king (11). Gyges murders the king; Gyges is mentioned by Archilochus (12). Gyges' rule is endorsed by an oracle. The revenge of the Heraclidae is predicted; Hdt. notes that the prophecy was accurate (13). Offerings of Gyges are still to be seen at Delphi in Hdt.'s own time (14). Gyges and his son Ardys both invaded Miletus, a major Greek city on the coast of Asia Minor. Cimmerians in Asia (15). Military exploits of Sadyattes and Alyattes (ruled c. 610-560 BC), successors of Ardys (16). Repeated invasions of Milesian territory by Sadyattes and Alyattes (17). Men of Chios (an island off the coast of Asia Minor) assist the Milesians (18). Alyattes' soldiers burn the temple of Athene; Alyattes falls ill. An oracle advises rebuilding the temple (19). Note on sources: this is the Milesian version. Periander of Corinth (ruled c. 625-585 BC) advises Thrasybulus of Miletus about an oracle (20). Thrasybulus gives a public party when the ambassador from Alyattes arrives (21). Alyattes is tricked into thinking the Milesians have plenty of food, so he makes peace and builds new temples (22). The strange but true tale of Arion, a pioneering musician and poet. Made to walk the plank at sea, he jumped overboard and rode to safety on a dolphin; a statue of him & the dolphin at Taenarum in southern Italy (23-24). The death of Alyattes; his silver bowl at Delphi (25).

Croesus of Lydia

Attacks by Alyattes' son Croesus on Ephesus and other Greek cities of Asia Minor (26). Croesus conquers all Greeks on the coast, but decides not to use his navy against Greeks of the islands (27). Extent of the Lydian empire under Croesus (28). Solon the Athenian lawgiver visits Croesus; the Athenians were bound to keep his laws for ten years (29). Solon is shown the wealth of Croesus; asked to name the luckiest man he knows, Solon tells Croesus the story of Tellus of Athens, to illustrate true nature of happiness/wealth (Gk olbos; 30). Solon names Cleobis and Biton, who won a lasting reputation for piety by pulling their mother to the temple of Hera in an ox-cart, the second most fortunate (31). Solon cites the unpredictability of human affairs in explaining why he refuses to call Croesus fortunate (32). Solon is dismissed by the heedless Croesus (33). How divine anger (Nemesis) got Croesus. After dreaming that his son Atys would be killed by an iron spear, Croesus tries to change Atys' life from military to domestic (34). Croesus gives purification and refuge to a Phrygian fratricide named Adrastus (35). Croesus agrees to send help to the Mysians, who are unable to defeat a monstrous boar (36). Croesus' son Atys asks to be allowed to go and fight the boar (37). Croesus refuses and explains to Atys about the dream (38). Atys argues that a boar cannot kill him with a spear; Croesus agrees and lets him go (39-40). Croesus sends Adrastus to look after Atys (41-2). Adrastus accidentally kills Atys with a spear, fulfilling the oracle (43). Croesus invokes Zeus in three aspects (god of hearth, purification, and friendship) to punish Adrastus; but then Croesus forgives the penitent Adrastus, who commits suicide (44-5). Croesus consults various oracles about challenging the growing power of Persia (46). How Croesus tested the veracity of the different oracles, and Delphi won (47-9). Sumptuous offerings to Delphian Apollo by Croesus; some seen by Hdt himself (50-1). Offerings to oracle of Amphiaraus in Thebes by Croesus (52). Greek oracles consulted by Croesus re attacking Persia reply that he (Croesus) will destroy a great empire, and should ally with most powerful Greek state (53). Croesus is pleased by the response; friendship of Lydians and Delphians (54). Croesus asks the oracle about the length of his rule; the oracle suggests he flee when a mule is king of Persia (55). Croesus deliberates whether to ally with Athens or Sparta; prehistory of the 'Ionians' (ancestors of the Athenians) and 'Dorians' (Spartans) (56). 

Athens and Sparta: Early History

Researches of Hdt on the non-Greek nature of Pelasgian speech (57-8). Strange portent of the self-boiling kettle does not convince Hippocrates of Athens to disown his son Pisistratus. How Pisistratus, when Attica was split by factions, tricked the Athenians into giving him a bodyguard and became tyrant; benevolent nature of the rule of Peisistratus (59). Pisistratus expelled by coalition of two rivals, Megacles and Lycurgus. Reconciliation of Megacles and Pisistratus; Athenians tricked into believing that Athene (in fact a costumed woman of Attica) was bringing Pisistratus back in a chariot (60). Pisistratus marries Megacles' daughter, but fears to have children because of the curse on the Alcmaeonids (Megacles' ancestors) and so practices birth control by continually sodomizing Megacles' daughter. The angry Megacles forces Pisitratus into exile in Macedonia, where he spends ten years amassing an army with his sons Hippias and Hipparchus (61). Return of Pisistratus to Attica; Pisistratus and his allies take Marathon, face Athenians at Pallene; prophecy of the tuna fish (62). Successful advance of Pisistratus into Athens. Hostages to Naxos (one of the Cyclades islands, previously taken by Peisistratus); Delos is purified by exhumation (63-4). What Croesus learned about Sparta: that she had recently beaten Tegea (in the northern Peloponnesus) in war, and that long before their lawgiver Lycurgus had given the Spartan state its form (65). How the Spartans asked the Delphic oracle about conquering Arcadia, misinterpreted the oracle, and were beaten by the Tegeans (66). How the Spartans were told by the oracle to recover the bones of Orestes (son of Agamemnon) from Tegea, and did so, and so were successful against the Tegeans (67-8).

Further Adventures of Croesus

An alliance made between Croesus and the Spartans (69). A valuable gift from the Spartans to Croesus, a huge bronze bowl, disappears at Samos (an island off the Ionian coast); conflicting accounts of what happened to the bowl (70). Advice of Sandanis the Lydian to Croesus, preparing to attack Cappadocia (a territory of the Persians); Croesus advised not to attack; rough nature of Persian civilisation makes them an unworthy target (71). Ethnographic and geographic info on the Cappadocians (Syrians) (72). Origin of Croesus' hatred for Cyrus the Persian King. Cyaxares, father of Croesus' brother-in-law, hosts some Scythian exiles, who quarrel with him, feed him human flesh, and escape to Croesus' father Alyattes; the resulting war of Lydians and Cappadocians ends when the armies are terrified by an eclipse (585 BC?); Croesus' sister is given to Cyaxares' son Astyages as part of the treaty. Cyrus attacks and defeats Astyages, thus angering Croesus (73-4). Story of how Thales of Miletus diverted the river Halys so Croesus' army could cross is doubted by Hdt, who thinks bridges were used (75). Croesus battles Cyrus at Pteria in Cappadocia (76). Croesus retreats back to Lydia, and summons reinforcements from his allies Egypt, Babylon, and Sparta (77). Croesus dismisses the mercenaries. The portent of the horses and snakes is interpreted too late for Croesus to benefit (78). Cyrus decides to advance into Lydia and surprises Croesus; excellence of Lydian soldiers (79). Battle of Sardis; Cyrus uses camels to defeat the Lydian cavalry. Sardis under seige (80). Urgent requests of Croesus for aid from allies (81). The Spartans are battling the Argives (their neighbors to the northeast) over Thyreae. A Homeric battle of champions fails to resolve the issue. The Spartans are victorious; why the Spartans have long hair and the Argives short (82). The Spartans are too late to help Croesus (83). How Sardis was taken by Cyrus. Tale of Meles and the lion (84). How Croesus' mute son fulfilled a prophecy by speaking his first words on an unlucky day (85). The fall of Sardis fulfills the Pythian oracle (cf. 1.53). Croesus, about to be burned alive, names Solon. Croesus explains Solon's wisdom to Cyrus. Cyrus is moved and orders Croesus removed from pyre (86). The Lydians say Apollo sent a rainstorm to put it out. Croesus blames the gods for his decision to attack (87). Croesus warns Cyrus that his soldiers will be corrupted if allowed to plunder Sardis; he convinces him to dedicate the treasure to Zeus instead (88-9). Cyrus gives Croesus permission to send symbolic chains to Apollo at Delphi and reproach the god for ingratitude (90). How the oracle defended itself and Apollo against the accusations of Cyrus. Cyrus fulfilled the prophecy dooming the descendants of Gyges, and himself misinterpreted the oracle (91). Dedicatory offerings of Croesus are seen by Hdt.; some stolen from Croesus' half-brother Pantaleon, whom Croesus tortured to death (92). Strange but true facts about Lydia and the Lydians (93). Lydian coinage, games, and colonisation of Umbria in Italy (Tyrrhenians) (94).

Early History of Persia

Sources for Cyrus and Persia are discussed. Assyrians and Medes (95). How Deioces the Mede won a reputation for justice and was made king. Description of his capital at Agbatana (96-8). Why Deioces lived in isolation from his people (99). His administration of justice and iron-fisted policies. The Median tribes (100-1). His son Phraortes becomes king (656 B.C. ?) and expands the empire greatly (102). Phraortes' son Cyaxares is defeated by the Scythians while trying to conquer the Assyrians; how the Scythians crossed into Asia Minor. Scythians are the masters of Asia (103-4). The Scythians attack Egypt without success. How some Scythians destroyed a temple of Aphrodite and were forever cursed with an hereditary venereal disease (105). Harsh rule of the Scythians in Asia Minor is ended after 28 years by Cyaxares (106). His son Astyages is in power. Astyages' daughter, married to Cambyses, bears a son, Cyrus. Astyages is warned by dreams about Cyrus, so he gives the baby to a servant, Harpagus, to kill it (107-8). Harpagus decides not to kill the baby (109). Harpagus instructs a herdsman to expose the baby (110). The herdsman and his wife, knowing the child's royal blood, decide to raise it; she has just given birth to a stillborn baby, whose body they substitute for Cyrus'. Harpagus is fooled (111-13). How Cyrus' identity was revealed at the age of ten. Playing King of the Hill, he beats the son of a nobleman; upon questioning by Astyages (his grandfather) his regal manner gives the secret away (114-15). Astyages confirms his suspicions by questioning the herdsman (116). Harpagus confesses and reveals how he was fooled (117). Astyages pretends to forgive Harpagus, and invites him and his own son (a boy of 13) to dinner (118). Astyages has Harpagus' son roasted and fed to Harpagus, then reveals the deed. Harpagus accepts the punishment (119). Astyages is advised by his wise men that the prophecy (that Cyrus would be king) has already been fulfilled by the game. Cyrus is allowed to live (120). Cyrus is sent to Persia to live with his real parents. The origin of the story that he was suckled by a wild dog is explained (121-22). An angry Harpagos sends a secret letter to Cyrus, urging him to lead the Persians in rebellion against Astyages and promising the support of Median nobles (123-24). Cyrus is convinced. He assembles all the tribes of the Persians and wins their loyalty by showing them the good life of ease and feasting (125-26). Astyages puts Harpagus in command of the Medes; Cyrus' first victory is assured by defections among the Medes (127). Astyages executes his wise men, leads his reserves against Cyrus, and is defeated and captured (128). The final bitter words between Harpagus and Astyages (129). Persians are supreme in Asia thereafter; Cyrus' clemency for Astyages; overview of Persian affairs (130). Strange but true religious practices of the Persians (131). Persian birthdays, and their eating/drinking habits (132-33). Social practices and hierarchy of the Persians. How the Medes ran their empire (134). Further customs of the Persians: sexual practices; education; legal system; superstitions; nomenclature (135-39). Burial customs of the Persians and Magi; sacrifices (140).

The Greeks of Asia Minor

History of East-West conflict momentarily resumed. Cyrus rejects a peace offer from the Ionian Greeks; the parable of the flutist-fisherman. Assembly of Ionians at Mycale (Samos) (141). Climate and dialects of the Ionian Greeks (142). The Milesians and islanders are temporarily safe from the Persians, who have no navy yet. Remarks on the tribal characteristics of the Ionians (143). A Dorian parallel for intertribal rivalry. Why Hdt's own city of Halicarnassus is barred from the Dorian temple of Triopian Apollo (144). Ionians and Achaeans (145). Why the claim of the Ionians of Asia to be the purest Ionians is false (146). Yet some Asian Ionians are pure Ionians (147). The Panionium or Ionian Center at Mycale; an Ionian festival there (148). Aeolic cities of Asia Minor (149). How Smyrna changed from an Aeolic to an Ionian city. Aeolians of the islands, Lesbos and Tenedos (150). 

The Growth of Persian Power

History of East-West conflict resumed. The half-hearted support of Sparta for the Greeks of Asia Minor; the Spartan warning to Cyrus, and his scornful reply. Cyrus goes to fight his enemies to the east, and leaves his deputies in charge of the coast (151-53). The Lydians rebel under Pactyes, and besiege the Persian governor at Sardis (154). Cyrus complains to Croesus about the ingratitude of the Lydians and asks his advice. Croesus suggests he punish Pactyes, but spare the Lydians. Croesus' advice: emasculate the Lydians by making them singers, dancers, and salesmen (155). Why Croesus said this: to save his countrymen. Cyrus agrees and sends orders to Lydia on those lines (156). Pactyes flees to Cyme. Sardis is again in Persian hands. The Cymaeans consult an oracle on whether to surrender Pactyes to the Persians. The oracle is doubted by Aristodicus of Cyme, but it insists that Pactyes be handed over (157-59). The Cymaeans, reluctant to deny the suppliant, send Pactyes to Mytilene (Lesbos), then to Chios, whence he is handed over to the Persians (160). The Persians begin attacks on the Greeks of Asia Minor. Harpagus is Cyrus' general. Phocaea is attacked (161-62). Naval history of Phocaea; how they got their wall (163). Harpagus besieges Phocaea; the Phocaeans evacuate the city by sea (164). Some Phocaeans defy a curse to resettle at Phocaea; others move to their colony on Corsica (165-66). Naval battle of Phocaeans from Corsica vs. Carthaginians (Tunisians) and Tyrrhenians. Murder of Phocaean prisoners, and origin of funeral games at Agylla. Foundation of Elea by Phocaeans (167). Teos falls to Harpagus; the Teans evacuate (168). Harpagus completes the conquest of the Ionian Greeks; the islanders surrender (169). Proposals of Bias and Thales for Ionian migration and resettlement are rejected by the Ionians at the Panionium (170). Harpagus attacks Caria. History of the Carian people; their innovations in shield-making; their involvement with the Cretans (171). Customs of the Caunians (172). History and customs of the Lycians (173). Further conquests of Harpagus. The Cnidian canal is forbidden by an oracle; surrender of the Cnidians (174). The heroic resistance to Harpagus by Carians of Pedasus and Lycians of Xanthus eventually fails (175-76). The conquests of Cyrus. His attack on the Assyrians; their capital of Babylon and its wall are described (177-78). Further remarks on the fortifications of Babylon (179-81). The Chaldaean shrine at Babylon and its virgin priestess (182). The fabulous golden treasures in the shrines at Babylon (183). The Babylonian queen Semiramis built the dikes (184). A later Babylonian queen, Nitocris, and her achievements in fortification and the diversion of rivers (185-86). The tomb of Nitocris, and how it was eventually opened by Darius (king of Persia, 521-486 B.C.) in search of treasure, but found to be empty (187). How the Persian king drinks only special water on campaign (188). How Cyrus, en route to Babylon, grew angry at the river Gyndes for drowning his horse, and defeated the river by dividing it into 360 channels (189). Cyrus besieges Babylon, then takes the city by draining off the Euphrates and leading his men through the shallow river bed to within the walls (190-91). Examples illustrating the wealth and productivity of Babylon and environs (192). Climate and agriculture of Assyria (Iraq) (193). Construction and usage of the Armenian circle-boats (194). Clothing, appearance, and customs of the Assyrians. The public auction of young women for marriage (195-96). Medical and burial practices of the Babylonians (197-98). The strange custom of the Assyrian women, whereby once in her life each woman must be a prostitute in honor of Mylitta (their Aphrodite) (199). Three Assyrian tribes eat only fish-cakes (200). Cyrus advances east to attack the Massagetae; geography and customs of the Massagetae. The Caspian and the Caucasus (201-4). Tomyris, queen of the Massagetae, suggests that Cyrus cease trying to bridge the Araxes under duress, and that the two sides meet in a fair fight on either side of the river (205-6). Only Croesus opposes this idea. Croesus proposes to cross the Araxes, then to set a trap for the Massagetae by setting out a great feast and attacking them as they eat (207). Cyrus accepts this plan; Croesus is sent back to Persia with Cyrus' son Cambyses in his care (208). Cyrus dreams of Darius with wings looming over Europe and Asia, but misinterprets the dream. Darius' father is sent back to Persia to keep an eye on his son, who Cyrus fears is plotting against him (209-10). The plan of Croesus succeeds; the Massagetae are defeated, and Tomyris' son is captured (211). Tomyris warns Cyrus to return her son and retreat, but he refuses (212). The suicide of Tomyris' son (213). A huge battle of the Persians and the Massagetae; Cyrus is defeated and killed. His corpse is abused by Tomyris (214). Manners and customs of the Massagetae (215-16).

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