Spartan Gold: Phratra

pg 431

A phratra of Spartan soldiers, 27 in all, gave chase.

The Spartan army stood at the centre of the Spartan state, whose citizens' primary obligation was to be good soldiers. Subject to military drill from infancy, the Spartans were one of the most feared military forces in world history. At Sparta's heyday in the 6th to 4th centuries BC, it was commonly accepted that "one Spartan was worth several men of any other state."

Tactical structure

Spartan armour helmet.

The principal source for the organization of the Spartan Army is Xenophon, who admired the Spartans and whose Constitution of Sparta offers a detailed overview of the Spartan state and society at the beginning of the 4th century BC. Other authors, notably Thucydides, also provide information, but it is not always as reliable as Xenophon's first-hand accounts.

Little is known of the earlier organization, and much is left open to speculation. The earliest form of social and military organization (during the 7th century BC) seems to have been the three tribes (phylai: the Pamphyloi, Hylleis and Dymanes) who appear in the Second Messenian War (685-668 BC). A further subdivision was the "fraternity" (phratra), of which 27, or nine per tribe, are recorded. Eventually this system was replaced by five territorial divisions, the obai ("villages"), which supplied a lochos of ca. 1,000 men each. This system was still used during the Persian Wars, as implied by references to the lochoi made by Herodotus in his history.

The changes that occurred between the Persian and the Peloponnesian Wars are not documented, but according to Thucydides, at Mantinea in 418 BC there were 7 lochoi present, each subdivided into four pentekostyes of 128 and 16 enōmotiai of 32 men, giving a total of 3584 men for the main Spartan army. By the end of the Peloponnesian War, the structure had evolved further, both to address the shortages in manpower and to create a more flexible system that allowed the Spartans to send smaller detachments on campaign or to garrisons outside their homeland.

According to Xenophon, the basic Spartan unit remained the enōmotia, with 36 men in three files of twelve under an enōmotarches. Two enōmotiai formed a pentēkostys of 72 men under a pentēkontēr, and two pentēkostyai were grouped into a lochos of 144 men under a lochagos. Four lochoi formed a mora of 576 men under a polemarchos, the largest single tactical unit of the Spartan army. Six morai composed the Spartan army on campaign, to which were added the Skiritai and the contingents of allied states.

Hall of a Hundred Columns

Persepolis was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (ca. 550–330 BCE). Persepolis is situated 70 km northeast of the modern city of Shiraz in the Fars Province of modern Iran. The earliest remains of Persepolis date from around 515 BCE.
UNESCO declared the citadel of Persepolis a World Heritage Site in 1979

The Throne Hall

Next to the Apadana, second largest building of the Terrace and the final edifices, is the Throne Hall or the Imperial Army's hall of honour (also called the "Hundred-Columns Palace). This 70x70 square metre hall was started by Xerxes and completed by his son Artaxerxes I by the end of the fifth century BC. Its eight stone doorways are decorated on the south and north with reliefs of throne scenes and on the east and west with scenes depicting the king in combat with monsters. Two colossal stone bulls flank the northern portico. The head of one of the bulls now resides in the Oriental Institute in Chicago.


In the beginning of Xerxes's reign, the Throne Hall was used mainly for receptions for military commanders and representatives of all the subject nations of the empire. Later the Throne Hall served as an imperial museum.

 William Turner, born in Morpeth in 1508. Considered by manty to be thefather of english botany.

William Turner MA (?1508 – 13 July 1568) was an English divine and reformer, a physician and a natural historian. He studied medicine in Italy, and was a friend of the great Swiss naturalist, Conrad Gessner. He was an early herbalist and ornithologist, and it is in these fields that the most interest lies today

Early years

William Turner was born in Morpeth, Northumberland in or around 1508. His father was probably a tanner of the same name. He studied at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge University from 1526 to 1533, where he received his B.A. in 1530 and his M.A. in 1533.^[3] He was a Fellow and Senior Treasurer of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. While at Cambridge he published several works, including Libellus de re herbaria, in 1538. He spent much of his leisure in the careful study of plants which he sought for in their native habitat, and described with an accuracy hitherto unknown in England.
In 1540, he began traveling about preaching until he was arrested. After his release, he went on to study medicine in Italy, at Ferrara and Bologna, from 1540 to 1542 and was incorporated M.D. at one of these universities.

Career

After completing his medical degree, he became physician to the Earl of Emden. Back in England he became Chaplain and physician to the Duke of Somerset, and through Somerset's influence he obtained ecclesiastical preferment. The position as Somerset's physician also led to practice among upper society. He was prebendary of Botevant in York Cathedral in 1550, and Dean of Wells Cathedral from 1551 to 1553, where he established a Herbal garden.^[4] When Mary I of England acceded to the throne, Turner went into exile once again. From 1553 to 1558, he lived in Weißenburg in Bayern and supported himself as a physician. He became a Calvinist at this time, if not before.
After the succession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, Turner returned to England, and was once again Dean of Wells Cathedral from 1560 to 1564. His attempts to bring the English church into agreement with the reformed churches of Germany and Switzerland led to his suspension for nonconformity in 1564. Turner died in London on 7 July 1568 at his home in Crutched Friars, in the City of London, and is buried in the church of St Olave Hart Street. An engraved stone on the south-east wall of this church commemorates Turner. Thomas Lever, one of the great puritan preachers of the period, delivered the sermon at his funeral.
Quite early in his career, Turner became interested in natural history and set out to produce reliable lists of English plants and animals, which he published as Libellus de re herbaria in 1538. In 1544, Turner published Avium praecipuarum, quarum apud Plinium et Aristotelem mentio est, brevis et succincta historia, which not only discussed the principal birds and bird names mentioned by Aristotle and Pliny the Elder but also added accurate descriptions and life histories of birds from his own extensive ornithological knowledge. This is the first printed book devoted entirely to birds.
In 1545, Turner published The Rescuynge of the Romishe Fox, and in 1548, The Names of Herbes. In 1551, he published the first of three parts of his famous Herbal, on which his botanical fame rests.
A new herball, wherin are conteyned the names of herbes… (London: imprinted by Steven Myerdman and soolde by John Gybken, 1551) is the first part of Turner's great work; the second was published in 1562 and the third in 1568, both by Arnold Birckman of Cologne. These volumes gave the first clear, systematic survey of English plants, and with their admirable woodcuts (mainly copied from Leonhart Fuchs's 1542 De historia Stirpium) and detailed observations based on Turner's own field studies put the herbal on an altogether higher footing than in earlier works. At the same time, however, Turner included an account of their "uses and vertues", and in his preface admits that some will accuse him of divulging to the general public what should have been reserved for a professional audience. For the first time, a herbal was available in England in the vernacular, from which people could identify the main English plants without difficulty.
A New Book of Spiritual Physick was published in 1555. In 1562, Turner published the second part of his Herbal, dedicated to Sir Thomas Wentworth, son of the patron who had enabled him to go to Cambridge. This book was published by Arnold Birckman of Cologne, and included in the same binding Turner's treatise on baths. The third and last part of Turner's Herbal was published in 1568, in a volume that also contained revised editions of the first and second parts. This was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. A New Boke on the Natures and Properties of all Wines, also published in 1568, had pharmacological intent behind it, as also the included Treatise of Triacle.

Natural history publications

• 1538: Libellus de re herbaria novus. Bydell, London. Index 1878; facsimiles 1877, 1966.
• 1544: Avium praecipuarum, quarum Plinium et Aristotelum mentio est, brevis et succincta historia. Gymnicus, Cologne. ed Cambridge 1823; ed with transl. Cambridge 1903.
• [1548]: The names of herbes. Day & Seres, London. ed 1881; facsimile 1966.
• 1551: A new herball. pt 1 Mierdman, London; pt 2 Barckman, Cologne. 1568, Cologne: part 2 in parts.

Spartan Gold: Karyatids and more

pg 427

"The Karyatids. They stood at the entrance to the Siphnian Treasury at Delphi."

A caryatid (/kæriˈætɪd/; Greek: Καρυάτις, plural: Καρυάτιδες) is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term karyatides literally means "maidens of Karyai", an ancient town of Peloponnese. Karyai had a famous temple dedicated to the goddess Artemis in her aspect of Artemis Karyatis: "As Karyatis she rejoiced in the dances of the nut-tree village of Karyai, those Karyatides, who in their ecstatic round-dance carried on their heads baskets of live reeds, as if they were dancing plants" (Kerenyi 1980 p 149).

The Caryatid Porch of the Erechtheion, Athens, 421–407 BC

 

...nitric acid used to test for gold...

Nitric acid (HNO₃), also known as aqua fortis and spirit of niter, is a highly corrosive strong mineral acid. The pure compound is colorless, but older samples tend to acquire a yellow cast due to the accumulation of oxides of nitrogen. Most commercially available nitric acid has a concentration of 68%. When the solution contains more than 86% HNO₃, it is referred to as fuming nitric acid. Depending on the amount of nitrogen dioxide present, fuming nitric acid is further characterized as white fuming nitric acid or red fuming nitric acid, at concentrations above 95%. Nitric acid is also commonly used as a strong oxidizing agent.

Reactions with metals

Nitric acid reacts with most metals but the details depend on the concentration of the acid and the nature of the metal. Dilute nitric acid behaves as a typical acid in its reaction with most metals. Magnesium, manganese and zinc liberate H₂. Others give the nitrogen oxides.^[6]

Nitric acid can oxidize non-active metals such as copper and silver. With these non-active or less electropositive metals the products depend on temperature and the acid concentration. For example, copper reacts with dilute nitric acid at ambient temperatures with a 3:8 stoichiometry.

3 Cu + 8 HNO₃ → 3 Cu²⁺ + 2 NO + 4 H₂O + 6 NO₃^-

The nitric oxide produced may react with atmospheric oxygen to give nitrogen dioxide. With more concentrated nitric acid, nitrogen dioxide is produced directly in a reaction with 1:4 stoichiometry.

Cu + 4 H⁺ + 2 NO₃⁻ → Cu²⁺ + 2 NO₂ + 2 H₂O

Upon reaction with nitric acid, most metals give the corresponding nitrates. Some metalloids and metals give the oxides, for instance, Sn, As, Sb, Ti are oxidized into SnO₂, As₂O₅, Sb₂O₅ and TiO₂ respectively.^[6]
Some precious metals, such as pure gold and platinum group metals do not react with nitric acid, though pure gold does react with aqua regia, a mixture of concentrated nitric acid and hydrochloric acid. However, some less noble metals (Ag, Cu, ...) present in some gold alloys relatively poor in gold such as colored gold can be easily oxidized and dissolved by nitric acid, leading to colour changes of the gold-alloy surface. Nitric acid is used as a cheap means in jewelry shops to quickly spot low-gold alloys (< 14 carats) and to rapidly assess the gold purity.

"Looks like JSTOR has them all."

JSTOR (short for Journal Storage) is an online system for archiving academic journals, founded in 1995. It provides its member institutions full-text searches of digitized back issues of several hundred well-known journals, dating back to 1665 in the case of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Membership in JSTOR is held by 7,000 academic institutions in 159 countries.
JSTOR was originally funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, but is now an independent, self-sustaining not-for-profit organization with offices in New York City and Ann Arbor, Michigan. In January 2009, JSTOR merged with ITHAKA, becoming part of that organization. ITHAKA is a non-profit organization founded in 2003 "dedicated to helping the academic community take full advantage of rapidly advancing information and networking technologies."

Spartan Gold: McGyver and more

pg 400

"A little McGyver inspired goose chase."

MacGyver is an American action-adventure television series created by Lee David Zlotoff. Henry Winkler and John Rich were the executive producers. The show ran for seven seasons on ABC in the United States and various other networks abroad from 1985 to 1992. The series was filmed in Los Angeles during seasons 1, 2 and 7, and in Vancouver during seasons 3–6. The show's final episode aired on April 25, 1992 on ABC (the network aired a previously unseen episode for the first time on May 21, 1992, but it was originally intended to air before the series finale).
The show follows secret agent MacGyver, played by Richard Dean Anderson. MacGyver prefers non-violent resolutions where possible, and refuses to handle a gun. He works as a troubleshooter for the fictional Phoenix Foundation in Los Angeles. Educated as a scientist with a background as a Bomb Team Technician/EOD in Vietnam ("Countdown"), and from a fictional United States government agency, the Department of External Services (DXS), he is a resourceful agent with an encyclopedic knowledge of science, able to solve complex problems with everyday materials he finds at hand, along with his ever-present duct tape and Swiss Army knife.

In each slip was an orange and white fifteen-foot Hans Barro workboat

 Hans Barro is a workboat made in Germany. http://www.barroboats.de/

Until 1803 the hunting law adjacent to the chapel was the private retreat of the Prince-Provosts of Berchtesgaden, the last of whom, Joseph Conrad of Schroffenerg-Mos, had also served as Lord Bishop of Friesling.

 Prince-Provost (German: Fürstpropst) is a rare title for a monastic superior with the ecclesiastical style of provost who is a Prince of the Church in the sense that he also ranks as a secular 'prince' (lato sensu: ruler), notably a Reichsfürst of the Holy Roman Empire, holding a direct vote in the Reichstag assembly coequal to an actual Prince-abbot, as in each case treated below.

Prince-Provosts of Berchtesgaden

• 1559 - 1567 Wolfgang Griesstätter zu Haslach; 1541 - 1559 Provost and Imperial prelate (German: ‘Reichsprälat’) in Berchtesgaden
• 1567 - 1594 Jakob Pütrich
• 1594 - 1650 Ferdinand of Bavaria, also Elector and Prince-Archbishop of Cologne, Prince-Bishop of Hildesheim, Liège and Münster from 1612, as well as Prince-Bishop of Paderborn from 1618.
• 1650 - 1688 Maximilian Henry of Bavaria, also Elector of Cologne and Prince-Bishop of Hildesheim and Liège as well as Prince-Bishop of Münster from 1683
• 1688 - 1723 Joseph Clemens of Bavaria, Prince-Bishop of Freising and Regensburg from 1685 to 1694, Elector of Cologne from 1688, Prince-Bishop of Liège (from 1694) and Hildesheim (from 1702)
• 1723 - 1732 Julius Henry von Rehlingen-Radau
• 1732 - 1752 Cajetan Anton von Notthaft
• 1752 - 1768 Michael Balthasar von Christallnigg
• 1768 - 1780 Francis Anton Joseph von Hausen-Gleichenstorff
• 1780 - 1803 Joseph Conrad von Schroffenberg-Mös (d. 1803), also Prince-Bishop of Freising and Regensburg from 1789

His hand came up holding a snub nosed revolver

A snubnosed revolver has a barrel length of fewer than three (3) inches. It was a popular type of firearm with undercover police officers due to its compact size and ease of handling. Its popularity was temporarily overshadowed with the wide-scale availability of compact semi-automatic pistols in the 1980s and their gradual adoption by police in the 1990s

Colt Cobra .38 Special

Smith & Wesson Bodyguard .38 Special

Maybe there's one of those space blankets

A space blanket (also known as a Mylar blanket, first aid blanket, emergency blanket, thermal blanket or weather blanket) is a blanket used in emergencies to reduce heat loss in a person's body caused by thermal radiation, water evaporation and convection.

Manufacturing

First developed by NASA in 1964 for the US space program, the material consists of a thin sheet of plastic (often PET film) that is coated with a metallic reflecting agent, making it metallized polyethylene terephthalate (MPET), usually gold or silver in color, which reflects up to 97% of radiated heat.
For use in space, polyimide (e.g. kapton, UPILEX) substrate is usually employed due to its resistance to the hostile space environment, large temperature range (cryogenic to -260 °C and for short excursions up to over 480 °C), low outgassing (making it suitable for vacuum use) and resistance to ultraviolet radiation. Aluminized kapton, with foil thickness of 50 and 125 µm, was used e.g. on the Apollo Lunar Module. The polyimide gives the foils their distinctive amber-gold color.
Space blankets are made by vacuum depositing a very precise amount of pure aluminum vapor onto a very thin, durable film substrate.

Usage

In their principal usage, space blankets are included in many emergencies, first aid, and survival kits because they are usually waterproof and windproof. That, along with their low weight and ability to pack into a small space, has made them popular among outdoor enthusiasts and emergency workers. Space blankets are often given to marathoners at the end of races. The material may be used in conjunction with conductive insulation material and may be formed into a bag for use as a bivouac sack (survival bag).
In first aid the blankets are used to prevent/counter hypothermia. A threefold action facilitates this:

• The airtight foil reduces convection
• Heat loss caused by evaporation of perspiration, moisture or blood is minimized by the same mechanism
• To a limited extent the reflective surface inhibits losses caused by thermal radiation.

In a hot environment they can be used to provide shade, but using them to wrap a person would be counterproductive, because body heat would get trapped by the airtight foil. This effect would exceed any benefit gained from heat reflection to the outside.
Space blankets are used to reduce heat loss from a person's body, but as they are constructed of PET film, they can be used for other applications for which this material is useful, such as insulating containers—e.g. for DIY solar projects—and other applications.
In addition to the space blanket, the United States military also uses a similar blanket called the "casualty blanket". It uses a thermal reflective layer similar to the space blanket, backed by an olive drab colored reinforcing outer layer. It provides greater durability and warmth than a basic space blanket at the cost of greater bulk and weight. It is also used as a partial liner inside the layers of bivouac sacks in very cold weather climates.

Spartan Gold: Pythagoras and more

pg 387
The birthplace of the genius of Samos, Pythagoras

Samos  is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of Asia Minor, from which it is separated by the 1.6 kilometres (0.99 mi)-wide Mycale Strait. It is also a separate regional unit of the North Aegean region, and the only municipality of the regional unit.
In ancient times Samos was a particularly rich and powerful city-state. It is home to Pythagoreion and the Heraion of Samos, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes the Eupalinian aqueduct, a marvel of ancient engineering. Samos is the birthplace of the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras, after whom the Pythagorean theorem is named, the philosopher Epicurus, and the astronomer Aristarchus of Samos, the first known individual to propose that the Earth revolves around the sun. Samian wine was well known in antiquity, and is still produced on the island.
The island was an autonomous principality from 1835 until it joined Greece in 1912.

 Pythagoras of Samos  b. about 570 – d. about 495 BC)^[ was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, so very little reliable information is known about him. He was born on the island of Samos, and might have travelled widely in his youth, visiting Egypt and other places seeking knowledge. Around 530 BC, he moved to Croton, a Greek colony in southern Italy, and there set up a religious sect. His followers pursued the religious rites and practices developed by Pythagoras, and studied his philosophical theories. The society took an active role in the politics of Croton, but this eventually led to their downfall. The Pythagorean meeting-places were burned, and Pythagoras was forced to flee the city. He is said to have ended his days in Metapontum.
Pythagoras made influential contributions to philosophy and religious teaching in the late 6th century BC. He is often revered as a great mathematician, mystic and scientist, but he is best known for the Pythagorean theorem which bears his name. However, because legend and obfuscation cloud his work even more than that of the other pre-Socratic philosophers, one can give only a tentative account of his teachings, and some have questioned whether he contributed much to mathematics and natural philosophy. Many of the accomplishments credited to Pythagoras may actually have been accomplishments of his colleagues and successors. Whether or not his disciples believed that everything was related to mathematics and that numbers were the ultimate reality is unknown. It was said that he was the first man to call himself a philosopher, or lover of wisdom, and Pythagorean ideas exercised a marked influence on Plato, and through him, all of Western philosophy.

 mounted atop it was an ornamental bronze sextant

Man using a sextant

 A sextant is an instrument used to measure the angle between any two visible objects. Its primary use is to determine the angle between a celestial object and the horizon which is known as the object's altitude. Making this measurement is known as sighting the object, shooting the object, or taking a sight and it is an essential part of celestial navigation. The angle, and the time when it was measured, can be used to calculate a position line on a nautical or aeronautical chart. Common uses of the sextant include sighting the sun at solar noon and sighting Polaris at night, to find one's latitude (in northern latitudes). A sextant can also be held horizontally to measure the angle between any two landmarks which allows for calculation of a position on a chart. A sextant can also be used to measure the Lunar distance between the moon and another celestial object (e.g., star, planet) in order to determine Greenwich time which is important because it can then be used to determine the longitude.

The scale of a sextant has a length of ⅙ of a turn (60°); hence the sextant's name (sextāns, -antis is the Latin word for "one sixth"). An octant is a similar device with a shorter scale (⅛ turn, or 45°), whereas a quintant (⅕ turn, or 72°) and a quadrant (¼ turn, or 90°) have longer scales.
Sir Isaac Newton (1643–1727) invented the principle of the doubly reflecting navigation instrument (a reflecting quadrant—see Octant (instrument)), but never published it. Two men independently developed the octant around 1730: John Hadley (1682–1744), an English mathematician, and Thomas Godfrey (1704–1749), a glazier in Philadelphia. John Bird made the first sextant in 1757. The octant and later the sextant, replaced the Davis quadrant as the main instrument for navigation.

 It's comically large telescope resembled the barrel of a blunderbuss.

An English flintlock blunderbuss.

 The blunderbuss is a muzzle-loading firearm with a short, large caliber barrel, which is flared at the muzzle and frequently throughout the entire bore, and used with shot and other projectiles of relevant quantity and/or caliber. The blunderbuss could be considered to be an early form of shotgun or muzzleloader, which was often adapted to military and defensive use.It was effective at short ranges, but lacked accuracy for targets at long range. The term dragon was used to describe a blunderbuss in handgun form, and it is from this that the term dragoon evolved

Spartan Gold: flugelhorn and more

pg 379

The captain lifted a polished flugelhorn from beneath the helm console...

The flugelhorn, from German, wing horn, is a brass instrument that resembles a trumpet but has a wider, conical bore. Some consider it a member of the saxhorn family developed by Adolphe Sax (who also developed the saxophone). Other historians assert that it derives from the valve bugle designed by Michael Saurle (father) in Munich in 1832 (Royal Bavarian privilege for a "chromatic Flügelhorn" 1832), which predates Adolphe Sax's work

"Knock wood"

Knocking on wood, or to touch wood, refers to the apotropaic tradition in western folklore of literally touching/knocking on wood, or merely stating that you are doing or intend same, in order to avoid "tempting fate" after making a favourable observation, a boast, or declaration concerning one's own death.

Cultural origins
In some countries, such as Spain, it is traditional literally to touch wood after an event occurs that is considered to bring bad luck, such as crossing paths with a black cat or walking under a ladder or noticing it's Friday the 13th. This is usually done when there's no salt at hand to spill over your shoulder, which is considered the "traditional" way of avoiding the bad luck caused by those situations.[citation needed] In Italy, "tocca ferro" (touch iron) is used, especially after seeing an undertaker or something related to death.[unreliable source?]

In old English folklore, "knocking on wood" also referred to when people spoke of secrets – they went into the isolated woods to talk privately and "knocked" on the trees when they were talking to hide their communication from evil spirits who would be unable to hear when they knocked.[citation needed] Another version holds that the act of knocking was to perk up the spirits to make them work in the requester's favor. Yet another version holds that a sect of Monks who wore large wooden crosses around their necks would tap or "knock" on them to ward away evil.

In Romania, there is also a superstition that one can avoid bad things aforementioned by literally knocking on wood ("a bate în lemn"). One of the possible reasons could be that there is a monastery practice to call people to pray by playing / knocking the simantron (Simantra (or simantron) is a Greek percussion instrument used in Greek liturgical service and consisting of a block of wood, essentially a specific length of cut dried lumber like a two-by-four, mounted (resembling a sawhorse) and struck with a mallet. It has been used by classical composers include Iannis Xenakis (Persephassa) and in Michael Gordon's piece Timber (2011).

Less intense in sound than tom-toms and snare drums, they are comparatively rich in overtones compared to the bars of percussion such as a marimba or xylophone, where the fundamental is primary. The tone appears to vary based how near or far from the center the mallets strike the board.)

famed Salzburg artist Josef Schmidt

Unable to find any information about this artist. (There's a Jewish actor of that name who died in an internment camp during WWII, but no artist.)

Spartan Gold: the Omphalos and more

pg 376

"There are plenty of accounts of the Omphalos surviving the war."

An omphalos (ὀμφαλός) is an ancient religious stone artifact, or baetylus. In Greek, the word omphalos means "navel". According to the ancient Greeks, Zeus sent out two eagles to fly across the world to meet at its center, the "navel" of the world. Omphalos stones used to denote this point were erected in several areas surrounding the Mediterranean Sea; the most famous of those was at the oracle in Delphi. It is also the name of the stone given to Cronus in Zeus' place in Greek mythology.

Delphi
The omphalos in museum of Delphi.

Most accounts locate the Omphalos in the temple adyton near the Pythia. The stone itself (which may have been a copy) has a carving of a knotted net covering its surface, and has a hollow centre, which widens towards its base (illustrated, to the right).

The Omphalos at Delphi came to be identified as the stone which Rhea wrapped in swaddling clothes, pretending it was Zeus. This was to deceive Cronus, his father, who swallowed his children so they could not grow up and depose him as he had deposed his own father, Uranus.

Omphalos stones were said to allow direct communication with the gods. Leicester Holland (1933) has suggested that the stone was hollow to channel intoxicating vapours breathed by the Oracle. Erwin Rohde wrote that the Python at Delphi was an earth spirit, who was conquered by Apollo, and buried under the Omphalos, and that it is a case of one god setting up his temple on the grave of another.

Christian destruction of the site in the fourth century at the order of Emperors Theodosius I and Arcadius makes all suggestions about its use tentative.

Jerusalem
In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem there is also an omphalos. The existence of this stone is based upon the medieval cosmology which saw Jerusalem as the spiritual if not geographical center of the world (see T and O map). This tradition is likely based on an ancient Jewish tradition that saw Jerusalem as the navel of the world. In the Jewish tradition, the Ark in the Temple in Jerusalem, through which God revealed himself to His people, rested on the Foundation stone marking the "navel of world". (This Jewish tradition is known to have begun in Hellenistic times, when Jews were already quite familiar with Greek culture—and thus might be a deliberate emulation of and competition with the above tradition regarding Delphi.)

"If the British had managed to steal the Declaration of Independence during the War of 1812"

The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States and those of the British Empire. The United States declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions brought about by Britain's ongoing war with France, the impressment of American merchant sailors into the Royal Navy, British support of American Indian tribes against American expansion, outrage over insults to national honour after humiliations on the high seas, and possible American desire to annex Canada.

Tied down in Europe until 1814, the British at first used defensive strategy, repelling multiple American invasions of the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. However, the Americans gained control over Lake Erie in 1813, seized parts of western Ontario, and ended the prospect of an Indian confederacy and an independent Indian state in the Midwest under British sponsorship. In the Southwest, General Andrew Jackson destroyed the military strength of the Creek nation at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814. With the defeat of Napoleon in 1814 on April 6, the British adopted a more aggressive strategy, sending in three large invasion armies. The British victory at the Battle of Bladensburg in August 1814 allowed them to capture and burn Washington, D.C. American victories in September 1814 and January 1815 repulsed all three British invasions in New York, Baltimore and New Orleans.

The war was fought in three principal theatres. Firstly, at sea, warships and privateers of both sides attacked each other's merchant ships, while the British blockaded the Atlantic coast of the U.S. and mounted large-scale raids in the later stages of the war. Secondly, both land and naval battles were fought on the American–Canadian frontier, which ran along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River. Thirdly, the American South and Gulf Coast also saw major land battles in which the American forces defeated Britain's Indian allies and repulsed a British invasion force at New Orleans.

Both sides invaded each other's territory, but these invasions were unsuccessful or temporary. At the end of the war, both sides occupied parts of the other's land, but these areas were restored by the Treaty of Ghent.

In the United States, victories at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815 and in the Battle of Baltimore of 1814 (which inspired the lyrics of the United States national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner") produced a sense of euphoria over a "second war of independence" against Britain. Peace brought an "Era of Good Feelings" in which partisan animosity nearly vanished. Canada also emerged from the war with a heightened sense of national feeling and solidarity, having repelled multiple American invasions. Battles such as the Battle of Queenston Heights and the Battle of Crysler's Farm became iconic for English-speaking Canadians. In Canada, especially Ontario, memory of the war retains national significance, as the invasions were largely perceived by Canadians as an annexation attempt by America seeking to expand US territory. In Canada, numerous ceremonies are scheduled in 2012 to commemorate a Canadian victory. The war is scarcely remembered in Britain today; as it regarded the conflict as sideshow to the much larger Napoleonic Wars raging in Europe. As such it welcomed an era of peaceful relations and trade with the United States.

The treasury of Argos

Argos is a city and a former municipality in Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Argos-Mykines, of which it is a municipal unit. It is 11 kilometres from Nafplion, which was its historic harbour. A settlement of great antiquity, Argos has been continuously inhabited for the past 7,000 years, making it one of the oldest cities in Greece and Europe. The city is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network.

At a strategic location on the fertile plain of Argolis, Argos was a major stronghold during the Mycenaean era. In classical times Argos was a powerful rival of Sparta for dominance over the Peloponnese, but was eventually shunned by other Greek city-states after remaining neutral during the Greco-Persian Wars. Numerous ancient monuments can be found in the city today, the most famous of which is the renowned Heraion of Argos, though agriculture (particularly citrus production) is the mainstay of the local economy.

The Siphnian treasury

The Siphnian Treasury was a dedicated building to the Greek polis, or city-state, of Delphi, by the Greek city-state of Siphnos. Such dedications were common among city-states in order to win the favor of the gods.

The people of Siphnos had gained enormous wealth from their silver and gold mines (Herodotus III.57) and used this wealth to erect the treasury, the first religious structure made entirely out of marble. The building was used to house many lavish gifts given to the priests to be offered to Apollo, among other gods and goddesses. These gifts consisted of gold and silver votive offerings.

The Treasury fell to ruin over the centuries. Currently, the sculpture and a reconstruction of the Treasury reside in the Delphi Archaeological Museum.

Spartan Gold: Bel-Marduk and more

pg 371

Xerxes I took the throne...spirited away the golden idol of Bel-Marduk

Marduk  was the Babylonian name of a late-generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon, who, when Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi (18th century BCE), started to slowly rise to the position of the head of the Babylonian pantheon, a position he fully acquired by the second half of the second millennium BCE.
According to The Encyclopedia of Religion, the name Marduk was probably pronounced Marutuk. The etymology of the name Marduk is conjectured as derived from amar-Utu ("bull calf of the sun god Utu"). The origin of Marduk's name may reflect an earlier genealogy, or have had cultural ties to the ancient city of Sippar (whose god was Utu, the sun god), dating back to the third millennium BCE.
In the perfected system of astrology, the planet Jupiter was associated with Marduk by the Hammurabi period

"Oh, what a tangled web," Remi said as he finished

Marmion is an epic poem by Walter Scott about the Battle of Flodden Field (1513). It was published in 1808.
Scott started writing Marmion, his second major work, in November 1806. When Archibald Constable, the publisher, learnt of this, he offered a thousand guineas for the copyright unseen. William Miller and John Murray each agreed to take a 25% share in the project. Murray observed: "We both view it as honourable, profitable, and glorious to be concerned in the publication of a new poem by Walter Scott." Scott later said that he thoroughly enjoyed writing the work. He told his son-in-law, Lockhart, "Oh, man, I had many a grand gallop among these braes when I was thinking of Marmion."
In 1807 Scott practised manoeuvres with the Light Horse Volunteers (formed to defend an invasion from France) in order to polish his description of Flodden. Marmion was finished on January 22 and published on 22 February 1808 in a quarto first edition of two thousand copies. This edition, priced one and a half guineas, sold out in a month. It was followed by twelve octavo editions between 1808 and 1825.

Plot

The poem tells how Lord Marmion, a favourite of Henry VIII of England, lusts for Clara de Clare, a rich woman. He and his mistress, Constance De Beverley, forge a letter implicating Clara's fiancé, Sir Ralph De Wilton, in treason. Constance, a dishonest nun, hopes that her aid will restore her to favour with Marmion. When De Wilton loses the duel he claims in order to defend his honour against Marmion, he is obliged to go into exile. Clara retires to a convent rather than risk Marmion's attentions. Constance's hopes of a reconciliation with Marmion are dashed when he abandons her; she ends up being walled up alive in the Lindisfarne convent for breaking her vows. She takes her revenge by giving the Abbess who is one of her three judges documents that prove De Wilton's innocence. De Wilton, having returned disguised as a pilgrim, follows Marmion to Edinburgh where he meets the Abbess, who gives him the exonerating documents. When Marmion's host, the Earl of Angus is shown the documents, he arms De Wilton and accepts him as a knight again. De Wilton's plans for revenge are overturned by the battle of Flodden Field. Marmion dies on the battlefield, while De Wilton displays heroism, regains his honour, retrieves his lands, and marries Clara.

Reception

Although the book was a huge and lasting commercial success in both Britain and the United States, it did not find favour with contemporary critics. The introductory letters to Scott's friends, which open each canto, were dismissed as unwarranted intrusions. A hero as flawed as Marmion was also unwelcome at this time and the story was criticised for its obscurity. Francis Jeffrey published a particularly harsh review in the Edinburgh Review. Jeffrey observed that much of the verse was 'flat and tedious'; he accused Scott of simply showing off his historical erudition. He also objected to the anachronism of the chivalric code and opposed the warlike sentiments of the introductory epistles. Ultimately, however, the public enthusiasm for Scott's work was undimmed and the poem remained popular for over a century.
The stanzas telling the story of "young Lochinvar", excerpted from Canto V, particularly caught the public imagination and were widely published in anthologies, and learned as a recitation piece.
One of the most famous quotations in English poetry is derived from Canto VI, XVII:

Oh, what a tangled web we weave

When first we practise to deceive!

 "Thrace and Macedonia were just warm-up acts."
Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east. The areas it comprises are southeastern Bulgaria (Northern Thrace), northeastern Greece (Western Thrace), and the European part of Turkey (Eastern Thrace). The biggest part of Thrace is part of present-day Bulgaria. In Turkey, it is also called Rumelia. The name comes from the Thracians, an ancient Indo-European people inhabiting Southeastern Europe.

Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient Greek kingdom. The kingdom, centered in the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, was bordered by Epirus to the west, Paeonia to the north, the region of Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south. The rise of Macedon, from a small kingdom at the periphery of Classical Greek affairs, to one which came to dominate the entire Hellenic world, occurred under the reign of Philip II. For a brief period, after the conquests of Alexander the Great, it became the most powerful state in the world, controlling a territory that included the former Persian empire, stretching as far as the Indus River; at that time it inaugurated the Hellenistic period of Ancient Greek civilization.

"As in the Oracle at Delphi?"

The Pythia , commonly known as the Oracle of Delphi, was the priestess at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. The Pythia was widely credited for her prophecies inspired by Apollo. The Delphic oracle was established in the 8th century BCE.The last recorded response was given during AD 393, when the emperor Theodosius I ordered pagan temples to cease operation.
During this period the Delphic Oracle was the most prestigious and authoritative oracle among the Greeks. The oracle is one of the best-documented religious institutions of the classical Greeks. Authors who mention the oracle include Aeschylus, Aristotle, Clement of Alexandria, Diodorus, Diogenes, Euripides, Herodotus, Julian, Justin, Livy, Lucan, Ovid, Pausanias, Pindar, Plato, Plutarch, Sophocles, Strabo, Thucydides, and Xenophon.
The name 'Pythia' derived from Pytho, which in myth was the original name of Delphi. The Greeks derived this place name from the verb, pythein (πύθειν, "to rot"), which refers to the decomposition of the body of the monstrous Python after she was slain by Apollo. The usual theory has been that the Pythia delivered oracles in a frenzied state induced by vapors rising from a chasm in the rock, and that she spoke gibberish which priests interpreted as the enigmatic prophecies preserved in Greek literature.
Recent geological investigations have shown that gas emissions from a geologic chasm in the earth could have inspired the Delphic Oracle to "connect with the divine." Some researchers suggest the possibility that ethylene gas caused the Pythia's state of inspiration. However, Lehoux argues that ethylene is "impossible" and benzene is "crucially underdetermined." Others argue instead that methane might have been the gas emitted from the chasm, or CO₂ and H₂S, arguing that the chasm itself might have been a seismic ground rupture, although this idea has been challenged by scholars such as Joseph Fontenrose and Lisa Maurizio, who argue that the ancient sources uniformly represent the Pythia speaking intelligibly, and giving prophecies in her own voice.

Spartan Gold: SAint Bartholomae's pilgrim church

pg 367

Two thirds of the way down the Konigsee...Saint Barthomae's Pilgrim Church sat in a clearing of trees on the Hirschau Penisula.

St. Bartholomä is a Catholic pilgrimage church in the Berchtesgadener Land district of Bavaria in Germany. It named for Saint Bartholomew the Apostle (Bartholomäus in German), patron of alpine farmers and dairymen. The church is located at the western shore of the Königssee lake, on the Hirschau peninsula. It can only be reached by ship or after a long hike across the surrounding mountains.

Interior

A first chapel at the lake was built in 1134 by the Provosts of Berchtesgaden. From 1697 onwards it has been rebuilt in a Baroque style with a floor plan modelled on Salzburg Cathedral, two onion domes and a red domed roof. The church features stucco work by the Salzburg artist Joseph Schmidt and a three-apse quire. The altars in the apses are consecrated to Saint Bartholomew, Saint Catherine, and Saint James respectively.
An annual pilgrimage to St. Bartholomä is held on Saturday after August 24, starting from the Austrian municipality of Maria Alm and crossing the Berchtesgaden Alps.
Near the chapel lies the old hunting lodge of the same name. The lodge, which was first erected in the 12th century with the church, has been rebuilt multiple times. Until 1803, it was a private residence of the Berchtesgaden Prince-provosts; after their territory had been incorporated into the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1810, the building became a favorite hunting lodge of the ruling House of Wittelsbach; today it is an inn.

Berchtesgaden, the municipality in which the Konigsee sat, was also home to Adolf Hitler's mountaintop retreat known as the Eagle's Nest.

Adlerhorst (Eagle's eyrie) was a World War II bunker complex in Germany, located within Kransberg Castle (incorporated into Usingen in 1971), Wetterau in the Taunus mountains in the province of Hesse.
Designed by Albert Speer as Adolf Hitler's main military command complex, it was reassigned by Hitler in February 1940 to Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring as his headquarters for the Battle of Britain, later serving as the Führer's only during the 1944/5 Ardennes Offensive.

 A few minutes later they pulled into the parking lot of the Hotel Schiffmeister.
An actual hotel, and very, very large. Check out its official website at:
http://www.hotel-schiffmeister.de/

Spartan Gold: St. Bartholomew Day Massacre

pg 364

"Then how about this: a painting by Francois Dubois called The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre."

François Dubois (1529–1584) was a French Huguenot painter who was born in Amiens. His only surviving work is the best known depiction of the Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572, when French Catholics killed French Protestants (Huguenots) in Paris. It is not known whether Dubois himself was present at the event but a close relative, the surgeon Antoine Dubois, died in the slaughter. Dubois fled to Lausanne to escape the persecution of the Huguenots and a fellow refugee, a banker from Lyon, commissioned the painting to commemorate the massacre.
The painting shows two incidents from the massacre frequently seen in other depictions in prints and book illustrations: the Huguenot leader Gaspard de Coligny's body hangs out of a window at the rear to the right. To the left rear, Catherine de' Medici, emerges from the Louvre and inspects a heap of bodies.
Dubois is also known to have painted a picture of the Roman Triumvirate

The Saint Bartolomew's Day Massacre by François Dubois. Oil on panel, 94 x 154 cm; Cantonal Museum of Lausanne.

"I have no idea," he whispered back, then lifted his Canon EOS digital camera.

The Canon EOS (Electro-Optical System) autofocus 35 mm film and digital SLR camera system was introduced in 1987 with the Canon EOS 650 and is still in production as Canon's current DSLR and recently released Canon EOS M mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera (MILC) systems. The acronym EOS was chosen for Eos, the Titan Goddess of dawn in Greek mythology, and is often pronounced as a word (UK /ˈiː.ɒs/ or US /ˈiː.ɑːs/), although some spell out the letters, reading it as an initialism.
It competes primarily with the Nikon F series and its successors, as well as autofocus SLR systems from Olympus Corporation, Pentax, Sony/Minolta, and Panasonic/Leica. In 2010, Canon held 44.5% market share in DSLRs.
At the heart of the system is the EF lens mount, which replaced the previous FD lens mount.

 "I can almost hear 'The Sound of Music.'

The Sound of Music (1959) is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the memoir of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers. Many songs from the musical have become standards, such as "Edelweiss", "My Favorite Things", "Climb Ev'ry Mountain", "Do-Re-Mi", and the title song "The Sound of Music".
The original Broadway production,^[1] starring Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel, opened on November 16, 1959; the show has enjoyed numerous productions and revivals since then. It was adapted as a 1965 film musical starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, which won five Academy Awards. The Sound of Music was the final musical written by Rodgers and Hammerstein; Hammerstein died of cancer nine months after the Broadway premiere.

Below them lay the emerald waters of the Konigsee (King's Lake) Fjord
View from Malerwinkel overlook

The Königssee is a lake in the extreme southeast Berchtesgadener Land district of the German state of Bavaria, near the border with Austria. Most of the lake is within the Berchtesgaden National Park.