Comments on: The Stages of Grief at the Frontier https://www.isegoria.net/2017/02/the-stages-of-grief-at-the-frontier/ From the ancient Greek for equality in freedom of speech; an eclectic mix of thoughts, large and small Thu, 30 Apr 2026 20:25:16 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 By: Candide III https://www.isegoria.net/2017/02/the-stages-of-grief-at-the-frontier/comment-page-1/#comment-2540186 Candide III Fri, 10 Feb 2017 12:59:03 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=41432#comment-2540186 Lol. I suppose some field rations could count as fasting. But really, your analogy doesn’t make any more sense than saying that shooting the enemy is a modified version of turning the other cheek. I’m sorry I don’t know how to explain the difference.

]]> By: Some Random Guy https://www.isegoria.net/2017/02/the-stages-of-grief-at-the-frontier/comment-page-1/#comment-2540108 Some Random Guy Fri, 10 Feb 2017 00:59:38 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=41432#comment-2540108 I guess it’s my bad for going off topic, you’ll have to get used to that.

Actually I’ve been a private (and a bit more), sounds like you have too. No, we didn’t pray. Instead we focused intently on the tasks anticipated. We didn’t fast. Our diet sure was modified by field rations. We sure as hell mortified the flesh in training. All that to prepare for battle.

See? It’s a modified version of prayer, fasting and mortification of the flesh. Things don’t have to be identical to be alike. I was Infantry for seven years so maybe it was different for you.

]]> By: Candide III https://www.isegoria.net/2017/02/the-stages-of-grief-at-the-frontier/comment-page-1/#comment-2540049 Candide III Thu, 09 Feb 2017 18:24:05 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=41432#comment-2540049 Come on, we were discussing St. Severinus. Whatever he did, it wasn’t raising armies to fight. Besides, armies don’t use prayer, fasting and mortification of the flesh, they use comradeship and patriotism and the band-of-brothers stuff, because it works much better. Religion may be present for patriotic and personal purposes, but armies of actual zealots or stylites are very rare. (Even so — when Oda Nobunaga destroyed the warrior-monks of Mount Hiei, he remarked that the monks there meddle in politics and do not keep their vows, drinking, eating meat and wenching.) Try telling a private he can’t drink, gamble or go to hookers when off duty — it’s actually a punishment.

]]> By: Some Random Guy https://www.isegoria.net/2017/02/the-stages-of-grief-at-the-frontier/comment-page-1/#comment-2539882 Some Random Guy Wed, 08 Feb 2017 19:01:21 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=41432#comment-2539882 Candide, you’ll notice I made no claims about the Romans at all. I merely stated that this was a good system to prepare for battle. One that even modern armies use (modified of course).

]]> By: Candide III https://www.isegoria.net/2017/02/the-stages-of-grief-at-the-frontier/comment-page-1/#comment-2539865 Candide III Wed, 08 Feb 2017 17:14:49 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=41432#comment-2539865 Random Guy: I could buy that if repentance, prayer and fasting had been followed by battles and fighting back, but that wasn’t the case. The former Roman provinces were overrun, plundered and pillaged again, again and again, until barbarians settled down and established their kingdoms and dukedoms there.

]]> By: Graham https://www.isegoria.net/2017/02/the-stages-of-grief-at-the-frontier/comment-page-1/#comment-2539622 Graham Tue, 07 Feb 2017 16:44:48 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=41432#comment-2539622 I’m always reminded in such discussions of this scene between Alec Guinness [as Marcus Aurelius] and James Mason at the beginning of “The Fall of the Roman Empire”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsG8HdMfLJ4

Of course, in this filmic version Marcus Aurelius is also the emperor in charge of early globalization, foreshadowing the reorg of the empire started by his son Commodus and finished by Diocletian a century later:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hsnih8_uK7E his speech starts around 3:50

And of course it will all end in tears;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cole_Thomas_The_Course_of_Empire_Destruction_1836.jpg

]]> By: Wan Wei Lin https://www.isegoria.net/2017/02/the-stages-of-grief-at-the-frontier/comment-page-1/#comment-2539536 Wan Wei Lin Tue, 07 Feb 2017 05:36:27 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=41432#comment-2539536 Random….Excellently stated. At some point the ‘bread and circuses’ must be set aside to deal with reality.

]]> By: Some Random Guy https://www.isegoria.net/2017/02/the-stages-of-grief-at-the-frontier/comment-page-1/#comment-2539502 Some Random Guy Tue, 07 Feb 2017 01:19:16 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=41432#comment-2539502 Repentance, prayer, and fasting would seem to be a good way of leaving material concerns behind, thus preparing for the battles ahead. This is fairly common for armies as well. Get down to basics to prepare for the fight.

]]> By: Gaikokumaniakku https://www.isegoria.net/2017/02/the-stages-of-grief-at-the-frontier/comment-page-1/#comment-2539471 Gaikokumaniakku Mon, 06 Feb 2017 20:39:25 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=41432#comment-2539471 ‘For a while no one was aware of this massacre, but “one day, as Saint Severinus was reading in his cell, he suddenly closed the book and began to sigh greatly and to weep. He ordered the bystanders to run out with haste to the river, which he declared was in that hour besprinkled with human blood; and straightway word was brought that the bodies of the soldiers mentioned above had been brought to land by the current of the river.”’

The saint was apparently experiencing clairvoyance.

“Severinus never advises anything practical…”

What is practical from the perspective of a clairvoyant may be highly impractical from the perspective of a materialist.

]]> By: Candide III https://www.isegoria.net/2017/02/the-stages-of-grief-at-the-frontier/comment-page-1/#comment-2539424 Candide III Mon, 06 Feb 2017 15:11:30 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=41432#comment-2539424

They should repent, he told them. They should pray and fast, and they should unite by abandoning the search for the selfish fulfillment of material desires.

Repentance, prayer, fasting and mortification of the flesh are, of course, most efficacious remedies, in case of barbarians. Please read the life of Severinus (there is an English translation) before forming an opinion on Grygiel’s article. Severinus never advises anything practical, but denounces sinners and sacrileges and calls down the punishment of God on those who defy him. Latynina related these episodes on her Echo Moskvy program a couple of years ago.

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