March forth

Posted: March 4, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: defeatintovictory, war | Leave a comment

Pretty good start to a book:

Here’s how the Penguin translation warms us up:

I’ve found both editions of The Persian Expedition to be a bit of a slog. I do enjoy a work based on Xenophon, 1979 film The Warriors, which begins with a summons from Cyrus.

Here’s what Benet has to say in his Reader’s Encylopedia:

(Two Benet brothers won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry!)

Xenophon was pals with Socrates, and wrote a book about horsemanship and one about hunting with dogs.

historians disagree on whether his nose was actually like that

The Greek verb exelauno, meaning “to march forth,” occurs frequently in Xenophon.

DEFEAT INTO VICTORY

Posted: November 11, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: defeatintovictory | Leave a comment

defeat-into-victory

Struck once on a visit to London by the power of the monument to Viscount Slim, at St. Paul’s:

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Slim’s book gets a good place on my shelf:

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Because I want a daily reminder of his attitude:

George MacDonald Fraser, later author of The Flashman Papers series of novels, then a nineteen-year-old lance corporal, recalled:

But the biggest boost to morale was the burly man who came to talk to the assembled battalion … it was unforgettable. Slim was like that: the only man I’ve ever seen who had a force that came out of him… British soldiers don’t love their commanders much less worship them; Fourteenth Army trusted Slim and thought of him as one of themselves, and perhaps his real secret was that the feeling was mutual.

Let us remember things have been dark before.  When it comes to the pinch human beings are heroic, said Orwell (worth checking out the context).