The Tenth Legion

A text only post, and about history, afield from fauna and flora, sort of...and grim, so dear readers, a caution to read on...

In the dishevelment in the garage, where the dishevelment is thriving, I have stored five gallon buckets of tip coins from Last Chance, which I dip into for Laundry Mat change.  And scattered about, are my books awaiting shelving, and I spotted one while sitting, sifting for quarters, to take with to read at the laundry.  Book's title:  Archaeology, Israel Pocket Library...it's a selection of entries from the Encyclopaedia Judaica...isbn 0 7065 1334 7

Just awhile back, I found the news stories of the shooting in the church in Charleston so unsettling, that I revisited google groups alt assassination jfk, after leaving off for 12 years, and started a thread...I haven't done this in a long while, but there was a time when I frequented John McAdam's group, reading the posts, and posting...I came to interest in jfk ('jfk' being just about everything about his presidency, not just the assassination) from my study of the sinking of the USS Panay, December 12, 1937.  How all that happened is a long story to relate, too long to relate again!  But the church assassination has self similarities to jfk's, and while reading the book at the laundry, thoughts of my jfk posts and readings (the threads go on and on unchangeable like the seasons,,lns (lone nut camp) and cts (conspiracy theory camp) in constant conflict!) were in my head, and I came on the entry about Hebron.

In Hebron is the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the site a few years back of an assassination of Muslim worshippers, yet another self similar one to jfk, and very much like the Charleston assassination.   I thought to add a post about it to my jfk post, but it's too far afield, even for me!  And I thought to post about it to my blog, which is what I'm about right now as an introduction to this Tenth Legion post, which I'll get to...

In my blog Tree in the Door, I have some posts about the Tombs of Adam and Eve, and their story.  So when I came upon the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the book,  my attention perked up.  And I thought to find another story of made up legendary tombs, but no, the Tomb of the Patriarchs looks to be real!  The book was made in 1968 or so, and no modern references, so I web searched to read more about Hebron, and saddened to find that that is where the assassination happened.  I thought it happened on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  I was misled by the news stories of the time that the assassination occurred in a Mosque, which it did, but the Mosque isn't the Temple Mount Dome one, but the Mosque inside the walls built by King Herod around the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, and thereby hangs a long long story!

Tell mounds, small hills of dust and dirt covered debris, are scattered all over Israel, the remains of ancient walled cities.  They're not very far apart, and often belonged to different peoples, and warfare was like  constant.  What I picture is walled cities surrounded by farms, and the farmers took refuge behind the city walls much as farmers did in castles in feudal Europe.  Don't know but feudalism may be our most natural state. 

So, one by one, I was reading about the Tells.  They're not very big...a city might be like just ten acres in size.  And moving on from Hebron, I come to the Golan and mention of Gerasa, where Jesus drove the devils out of a madman into a herd of swine.  This tale has always been a curio to me, as it seems a kind of folklore, but I thought to search it out, and found the Bible passage:

"And He (Jesus) asked him (the man), "What is thy name?" And he answered, saying, "My name is Legion: for we are many."^[ 

I thought the passage was in Revelations, as that term, "Legion" seemed ominous and suited to that horrific book!

But moving on from Tell to Tell, I kept finding reference to the Roman Tenth Legion.  This was Julius Caesar's Legion, and it survived through changes, and became the Legion guarding Israel, the one that sacked Jerusalem.  "My name is Legion" has a ring to it, and I wondered if it referenced somehow the Roman Legions, and indeed, I find, Biblical interpreters have it that Jesus in cryptic fashion was showing his disciples another truth.  The demons were  cast out, into the swine, and then the swine ran down a hill into a sea and drowned.  Swine were  a forbidden food source, but not for the Romans, and they're even being about was because of  Rome, so the drowning of the swine associates with the 'Legion' and Rome: a prophecy that Rome would be defeated.  I think I have that right.  Extrapolations of cryptic Bible passages aren't my thing!

But Josephus' account of the Legions' (several took part) destruction of Jerusalem and The Temple, I found searching just what the Roman Legions were.  It's horrific.  And his lament how the farmlands around Jerusalem were devastated, the Romans needed wood for siege machines, very sad. 

And there's this bookend scene (I gather up 'bookends'), of Jesus on the Mount of Olives telling his disciples that not a stone of the Temple will remain atop one another; and the Tenth Legion camped on the Mount of Olives preparing for their attack.  The Mount overlooks the Temple.   And after they took Jerusalem, and torched the Temple, it's said the Legion tore the Temple apart trying to get the stored gold melted into the stones.

And Josephus relates that the High Priest of the Temple, keeper of the Keys of the City, tossed the keys into the fire, least the Romans have them.  And in our time, (1947?) British soldiers formed up, knocked on Jerusalem's rabbi's door, and turned over the City's Keys to him, as the British were picking up.  The rabbi noted the 'bookend'.

  The Tenth Legion

While fighting in Gaul, Caesar raised his own Legion, and with it returned to Rome and became emperor.  In Republican Rome, Legions were raised by the Senate, and were made of citizens with property, to counter some threat, or pursue some adventure.  To be a soldier in those times, one needed wealth for armor and such.   Caesar set a new precedent by raising his own, and indeed, becoming emperor was a new precedent!  Legions, following him, were raised by other emperors, and so it went, and the Legions themselves became standing, permanent.  Before, the Senate would disband them when the threat, or adventure, was finished.  The new Legions were made of paid soldiers who signed up for years of service, and their major task was to fortify the outlaying parts of the Empire.  The Tenth Legion looks to have been around for like four or five hundred years.  And many of the others were long lived too. 

While in Israel, they built, and stamped bricks with their emblem, so archaeologists come across them.

So, from my reading I came to this:  Legions were made by the Senate, and disbanded when not needed.  Then Legions were raised by Generals, and noted for their loyalty to their General, and Generals would disband them too when no longer needed.  Legions were given things, like land when they disbanded, which made them very popular when they became permanent, made of conscripts and volunteers seeking land in retirement after 6-25 years of service.  These Legions are the predecessors of modern armies.

I don't know how modern things will work out in the turmoil in the Middle East, but I'm thinking we are on the cusp of a time like when the Roman Senate raised Legions gave way to Roman General raised Legions with personality cult devotion of the soldiers to the Generals.  Again, I'm not good at extrapolations, but I've seen this notion.

And, last night, I went so far in my thinking, and reading, as to look up how George Washington got an army.  Congress raised the Continental Army and appointed him General.  And reading along, I was thinking, the Continental Army became our Army, but no, it was disbanded.  Congress didn't want a standing army about.  Common thought is, that they didn't want a repeat of the tyranny of the British standing army.  I kind of suspect too, each State was suspicious another would take over a standing Army and so dominate, and so they all decided to rely on State Militias, and in a crisis, Congress could raise another citizen Continental Army (which is what the right to bear arms is about--citizens with arms can be sent into battle quickly).

And much to my delight, as I had been looking to see if our Army, the Continental Army, at first was raised like a Roman Legion, and it was, but disbanded, so leaving no line of descent to today's Army, but to my delight, I found that after it was disbanded, an Army was needed, the Indians in Ohio were making trouble, and this new army, raised by Congress, was called The Legion of the United States.  The Founding Fathers knew their Roman History, and no doubt called it a Legion after the Roman Senate Legions.  Fort Wayne Ohio is named after the General appointed to it, and the Battle of the Fallen Trees the culmination of it's being, as it was disbanded, but reconstituted shortly afterwards, and became our standing Army. 

And the Battle of the Fallen Trees is a must tell...next time..:)

Oh...much has been made of Jesus and the madman story in Stephan King like horror stories-- legions of demons, not the least of which is the Burning Legion of World of Warcraft, which I do battle with routinely!

DavidDavid