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Three days to sack a city
#16
Quote:While reading about the Sack of Rome in 410, I started wondering about the "three days" of looting.
Come to think of it, the sack of Rome is dated from August 24 to August 27. Isn't that more like 3 nights and 4 days?
Robert Vermaat
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FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
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#17
Quote:
Ron Andrea:p1msa4xj Wrote:Kind of like Scipio Africanus sacking Carthage, then salting the ground (also a claim without ancient authority, so I understand. :roll: )

I think the story behind that myth is really interesting. I was fascinated to learn how that came about: Scipio sowing Carthage with salt.

Interesting. I've done a quick Internet search and have turned up many references to Rome salting Carthage, but no authority to verify it--either ancient or modern. It seems to have passed whole into "received wisdom" AKA urban legend, in an amazing short time, if the 1985 date is correct.
"Fugit irreparabile tempus" (Irrecoverable time glides away) Virgil

Ron Andrea
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#18
Quote:It seems to have passed whole into "received wisdom" AKA urban legend, in an amazing short time, if the 1985 date is correct.
A lot of facts from the Cambridge Ancient History (1st edn.) "passed whole into received wisdom", some of it more deserving than others! (Hmmm ... I wonder if our 3-day sack is in there.)

btw The date is 1930, quite feasible as the source of wisdom inherited by anyone currently active on RAT. (Do we have any octogenarians?!)
posted by Duncan B Campbell
https://ninth-legion.blogspot.com/
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#19
Quote:btw The date is 1930, quite feasible as the source of wisdom inherited by anyone currently active on RAT. (Do we have any octogenarians?!)

1930 is certainly old enough both for it to have passed into received wisdom and for its source to have faded (as its veracity became a "given").
"Fugit irreparabile tempus" (Irrecoverable time glides away) Virgil

Ron Andrea
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