You Did What__ Mad Plans and Great Historical Disasters - Bill Fawcett [2]
Meanwhile, back at the war…
The battle rages for nine years as the Trojans had more than a few heroes of their own (such as Hector and his sons). Moreover, the city itself was well fortified with an enclosing wall that proved to be impenetrable from forces on the outside. As a result, after much hooting and hollering and laying to waste of the surrounding area, when all was said and done the Trojans and Helen were still safe and snug behind their city wall.
Moreover, they had gotten cocky.
Bad Idea #3: Watch whose advice you choose to ignore.
According to the myths the prophetess Cassandra was blessed with clairvoyant foresight and cursed with an aura that made those around her disbelieve anything she had to say.
Cassandra warned Hector and the Trojans that a plot to defeat Troy was afoot, and if it went forward, Troy would indeed fall.
They ignored her…and the expected disastrous results occurred.
The Greeks realized that they were getting nowhere so wily Odysseus decided that it was time to change tactics.
So one day the Trojans looked out on the enemy Greek camp, and lo and behold it was abandoned.
The Greeks had seemingly sailed away…but they had left something behind.
Bad Idea #4: Didn’t the Trojans know to “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts”?
The Greeks had left behind a large wooden horse as a token of their esteem for so many years of good fighting; or, as said by sniveling Sinon, their left-behind spokesperson, “You won. We lost. Take this horse as the prize.”
The Trojans dragged the horse into the city of Troy, inside her protective walls, which had so successfully withstood the Greeks.
Sure enough, night fell, a commando force dropped out of the horse and opened the gates from inside to allow in the now-returned Greek armies.
The Greeks won.
Troy fell.
But the story wasn’t over yet.
Bad Idea #5: The gods hate a braggart so try not to piss them off.
Odysseus was quite pleased with himself that his plan had worked, and like the Trojans before him became too cocky — which is why it took him so long to get home (the delays of which are detailed in The Odyssey).
The gods had taken sides during the war and in some cases fought side by side with the mortal warriors.
Most of them did not appreciate having been bested by a mere mortal, even if he was Athena’s favorite.
As to other victorious Greeks coming home from their victory…
Bad Idea #6: Never assume everything at home is hunky-dory after you have been away for close to ten years.
Agamemnon came home to the arms of his loving wife, who had been terribly lonely when he first had left so many years ago.
She got over it and took a lover.
Together they killed the returning war hero.
To recap
Don’t steal the wife of anyone with a big army.
Dying a hero isn’t all it’s cracked up to be (at least according to a dead man).
Don’t ignore good advice or a well-advised warning.
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.
Don’t get cocky; the gods don’t like it.
And most important — never neglect your wife.
Even if the so-called Trojan War as we know it is mostly fanciful storytelling by a blind bard, it nonetheless illustrates many of the same lessons that are the real reasons we study history…
…namely, that there are those who learn from the mistakes of the past and those who don’t and are destined to repeat them. These words, of course, being written in what is often called the New Rome, A.D. 2003.
You Insulted Whom?
Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned, and Rome managed to pick the wrong one to scorn more than once. But perhaps the most special case of this is that of Boudicca.
BOUDICCA AND THE ROMANS
BRITAIN, A.D. 43
Jody Lynn Nye
For a small and not very prosperous tribe like the Iceni, the Roman invasion of Britain in A.D. 43 must have appeared to be a good thing. The wealthy and powerful Belgic peoples, the Trinovantes and the Catuvellauni, who had invaded the island in 75 B.C. and conquered the lands to the south of their Norfolk territory,