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Sunday, May 21, 2006

Getting ready to be gone a week.

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The Fury of the Legions

�We had been told, on leaving our native soil, that we were going to defend the sacred rights conferred on us by so many of our citizens settled overseas, so many years of our presence, so many benefits brought by us to populations in need of our assistance and our civilization.

�We were able to verify that all this was true, and because it was true, we did not hesitate to shed our quota of blood, to sacrifice our youth and our hopes. We regretted nothing, but whereas we over here are inspired by this frame of mind, I am told that in Rome factions and conspiracies are rife, that treachery flourishes, and that many people in their uncertainty and confusion lend a ready ear to the dire temptations of relinquishment and even to vilify our actions.

�I cannot believe that all this is true, and yet recent wars have shown how pernicious such a state of mind could be and to where it could lead.

�Make haste to reassure us, I beg you, and tell us that our fellow citizens understand us, support us, and protect us as we ourselves are protecting the glory of the Empire.

�If it should be otherwise, if we should have to leave our bleached bones on these desert sands in vain, then beware the fury of the Legions.�

Centurion Marcus Flavinius, Second Cohort, Augusta Legion to his cousin Tertullus in Rome. No date given.

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The first edition of Lartegy�s The Centurions, a novel about the French Army including the Foreign Legion in Viet Nam and Algiers, carried this quotation as a frontispiece. I once had that edition of the book, but it has vanished, and the copy I have has no trace of this quote. I thought I recalled that Lartegy included a date, but I don�t recall what that date was. From the context I would guess it to be at the close of the Second Century Anno Domini.

I am not certain to whom Lartegy attributed this letter. Lartegy gave no source data.

The July, 2006 edition of Soldier of Fortune Magazine used it as the monthly editorial, which renewed my interest in the quote. SOF gives no source. I have used snippets from this quotation in some of my work including essays here on this web site.

I also find it used at http://flecha.co.uk/ which is a memorial to a battalion of the Republic of South Africa troops known as �The Terrible Ones.�

Tertullus is a Roman name. It has a number of variants. There is extant a letter from a Tertullus concerning Libya, but it is a plea for tolerance. It is in the time of Septimius Severus. Severus was born in Libya, and was the first non-Italian Emperor. There was never again a Roman Emperor from Rome; Commodus was the last Roman-born Emperor.

Severus seized the throne after Commodus, son of Marcus Aurelius, provoked revolt (see the movie The Gladiator, which isn�t the way things were but is an attempt to show how they ought to have been). The Praetorians assassinated Pertinax, successor to Commodus, because they were underpaid or believed they were. Septimius Severus marched on Rome on that news; he later deified Pertinax. He also abolished the Praetorian Guard as it had been known. He would have been less than thrilled at the discovery of a letter like this from his old provinces; another reason why it is unlikely to have been in his reign, since the African Legions had installed their own commander as Emperor.

There was also a Tertullus in the time of St. Paul:

Tertullus

a modification of "Tertius;" a Roman advocate, whom the Jews employed to state their case against Paul in the presence of Felix (Acts 24:1-9). The charges he adduced against the apostle were, "First, that he created disturbances among the Romans throughout the empire, an offense against the Roman government (crimen majestatis). Secondly, that he was a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes; disturbed the Jews in the exercise of their religion, guaranteed by the state; introduced new gods, a thing prohibited by the Romans. And thirdly, that he attempted to profane the temple, a crime which the Jews were permitted to punish."

It would make little sense for this letter to have been written in the time of St. Paul. It would be far more likely in the time of Commodus, or in the upheavals after the death of Septimius Severus. Recall that prior to Commodus there had been the reign of the �good Emperors.� This was brought to an end by Aurelius� failure to appoint a suitable successor, so that his less than able son was raised to the purple. This was the beginning of the long slide into civil war.

The Army at this time (Septimius Severus) was still composed of heavy infantry, Legions, armed much as they had been for a century. It would be another 175 years before the Legions succumbed to heavy cavalry (at Adrianople) and the army was transformed into something entirely different. However, by the time of Severus the Army was entirely composed of long-term professionals, and Centurions � think warrant officers or senior non-coms � were promoted from the ranks. The officer corps was drawn from the Equestrian and Senatorial orders in Rome. Severus was a Senator, but had been born in Libya and was considered a provincial.

Of course. every century is likely to have had one or more men named "Tertullus" who left no trace of his existence other than a letter from a cousin. However, there are few periods in which a Roman warrant officer might have written such a letter. It would be far more likely to have been written by a Tribune, an Equestrian or Senatorial class youth sent to learn the military trade as part of a normal career.

There is a discussion of the authenticity of this quote (concluding that it is not authentic) on this web site: http://omega.cohums.ohio-state.edu/mailing_lists/CLA-L/2001/01/0094.php

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Subject: Windows Word vulnerability

http://isc.sans.org/diary.php?storyid=1348

-- Roland Dobbins

This is worth your attention. Note that you must open a WORD DOCUMENT attachment to an email. I trust you don't open unexpected attachments of any kind to begin with. I also trust that all of you have your systems up to date complete with updated virus detections.

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I am off to Seattle at Oh-dark-thirty so nothing will be here until evening at earliest.

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