THE ENDLESS JIG-SAW PUZZLE
The social breakdown of Hellenic society was first manifest in what historian Arnold Toynbee called a ‘Time of Troubles.’ That time began with the Peloponnesian War(431-404 BC). It was a Time of Troubles that lasted for 400 years. Toynbee sites several examples of a new spirit of atrocity that took place during this war. These atrocities were “mortal blows,” “suicidal manias” that Hellenic society inflicted on itself.1 They were the first signs of the breakdown of that civilization, argues Toynbee. Toynbee, like all historians, offers us a particular interpretation of history.
We inflicted suicidal manias, mortal blows on our society, it could be argued, in the years 1914 to 1945: two world wars, the holocaust, the Gulag and it may be the ‘Time of Troubles’ will go on. It certainly shows no signs of abating nearly a century after the theoretical start in 1914. Tonight I watched a two hour TV special on Hannibal2 and wondered what the equivalent of this war was in our modern age using the Toynbean paradigm. -Ron Price with thanks to 1Arnold Toynbee, A Study of History, Vol.4, OUP, 1962(1939), p.63; and 2 “Hannibal: Rome’s Worst Nightmare,” Southern Cross TV, 8:30-10:30 p.m., April 13th 2006.
Rome was conquering all,
conquering a moribund world--
or so Toynbee would have put it.
A city state, the centre of emerging
empire, a Greek institution grafted
onto a traditional rural culture and
the world getting more complex.
And so, in our westernizing world,
spiritually moribund, nation state
centre of an emerging global society.
The world getting more complex.
Just as Hannibal shook Rome to its
boots, so our world as been shaken
by a catalogue of horrors and a ruin
whose magnitude is immeasurable.
And so an empire, a one world, came
into being and a Republic gave way
to Empire as our world will give way
to world Order, but the great, endless,
jig-saw puzzle still has most of the pieces
missing in both the Roman world and ours.1
1Keith Richardson, Daggers in the Forum: The Revolutionary Lives and Violent Times of the Gracchi Brothers, Cassell, London, 1976, p.xi.
Ron Price
April 14th 2006.
The social breakdown of Hellenic society was first manifest in what historian Arnold Toynbee called a ‘Time of Troubles.’ That time began with the Peloponnesian War(431-404 BC). It was a Time of Troubles that lasted for 400 years. Toynbee sites several examples of a new spirit of atrocity that took place during this war. These atrocities were “mortal blows,” “suicidal manias” that Hellenic society inflicted on itself.1 They were the first signs of the breakdown of that civilization, argues Toynbee. Toynbee, like all historians, offers us a particular interpretation of history.
We inflicted suicidal manias, mortal blows on our society, it could be argued, in the years 1914 to 1945: two world wars, the holocaust, the Gulag and it may be the ‘Time of Troubles’ will go on. It certainly shows no signs of abating nearly a century after the theoretical start in 1914. Tonight I watched a two hour TV special on Hannibal2 and wondered what the equivalent of this war was in our modern age using the Toynbean paradigm. -Ron Price with thanks to 1Arnold Toynbee, A Study of History, Vol.4, OUP, 1962(1939), p.63; and 2 “Hannibal: Rome’s Worst Nightmare,” Southern Cross TV, 8:30-10:30 p.m., April 13th 2006.
Rome was conquering all,
conquering a moribund world--
or so Toynbee would have put it.
A city state, the centre of emerging
empire, a Greek institution grafted
onto a traditional rural culture and
the world getting more complex.
And so, in our westernizing world,
spiritually moribund, nation state
centre of an emerging global society.
The world getting more complex.
Just as Hannibal shook Rome to its
boots, so our world as been shaken
by a catalogue of horrors and a ruin
whose magnitude is immeasurable.
And so an empire, a one world, came
into being and a Republic gave way
to Empire as our world will give way
to world Order, but the great, endless,
jig-saw puzzle still has most of the pieces
missing in both the Roman world and ours.1
1Keith Richardson, Daggers in the Forum: The Revolutionary Lives and Violent Times of the Gracchi Brothers, Cassell, London, 1976, p.xi.
Ron Price
April 14th 2006.
