Zipser december 2015v2

Submarine Warfare in the Classical World Tom Edwards will report in the next isAttic Nights - based on the potpouri of Aulus Gellius

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Boris Johnson Column news and comment from Boris and Friends of Classics Legacy - famous uses of Classics Lionel Zipser’s Guest Author storytelling at its best

Lionel Zipser’s Guest Author THE BRUCE-PARTINGTON MANUSCRIPT

o tempora o mores - classcal, clever and creative

Dr Benedict Cumberbatch

Philosophy of Place - great Classical locations, from Aristophanes' sun terrace to Horace's wine cellar and all places philosophically in between Wisdom of the Ancients Homer, Cicero, Virgil and the crew share their takes on life Special supplement inside this issue.

THE BRUCE-PARTINGTON MANUSCRIPT In the third week of November, in the year 1895, a dense yellow fog settled down upon London. From the Monday to the Thursday I doubt whether it was ever possible from our windows in Baker Street to see the loom of the opposite houses.

The first day Holmes had spent in cross-indexing his huge book of references. The second and third had been patiently occupied upon a subject which he had recently made his hobby--the music of the Middle Ages. But when, for the fourth time, after pushing back our chairs from breakfast we saw the greasy, heavy brown swirl still drifting past us and condensing in oily drops upon the window-panes, my comrade's impatient and active nature could endure this drab existence no longer.

He paced restlessly about our sitting-room in a fever of suppressed energy, biting his nails, tapping the furniture, and chafing against inaction.

"Nothing of interest in the paper, Watson?" he said.

I was aware that by anything of interest, Holmes meant anything of criminal interest.

There was the news of a revolution, of a possible war, and of an impending change of government, but these did not come within the horizon of my companion. I could see nothing recorded in the shape of crime which was not commonplace and futile. Holmes groaned and resumed his restless meanderings.

"The London criminal is certainly a dull fellow," said he in the querulous voice of the sportsman whose game has failed him. "Look out this window, Watson. See how the figures loom up, are dimly seen, and then blend once more into the cloud-bank. The thief or the murderer could roam London on such a day as the tiger does the jungle, unseen until he pounces, and then evident only to his victim."

"There have," said I, "been numerous petty thefts."

Holmes snorted his contempt.

"This great and sombre stage is set for something more worthy than that," said he. "It is fortunate for this community that I am not a criminal."

"It is, indeed!" said I heartily.

“Suppose that I were Brooks or Woodhouse, or any of the fifty men who have good reason for taking my life, how long could I survive against my own pursuit? A summons, a bogus appointment, and all would be over. It is well they don't have days of fog in the Latin countries--the countries of assassination. By Jove! here comes something at last to break our dead monotony."

It was the maid with a telegram. Holmes tore it open and burst out laughing.

"Well, well! What next?" said he. "Brother Mycroft is coming round."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Why not? It is as if you met a tram-car coming down a country lane. Mycroft has his rails and he runs on them. His Pall Mall lodgings, the Diogenes Club, Whitehall-that is his cycle. Once, and only once, he has been here. What upheaval can possibly have derailed him?"

"Does he not explain?"

Holmes handed me his brother's telegram.

"Must see you over Cadogan West. Coming at once."

MYCROFT. "Cadogan West? I have heard the name."

"It recalls nothing to my mind. But that Mycroft should break out in this erratic fashion! A planet might as well leave its orbit. By the way, do you know what Mycroft is?"

I had some vague recollection of an explanation at the time of the Adventure of the Greek Interpreter.

"You told me that he had some small office under the British government."

Holmes chuckled.

"I did not know you quite so well in those days. One has to be discreet when one talks of high matters of state. You are right in thinking that he is under the British government. You would also be right in a sense if you said that occasionally he IS the British government."

"My dear Holmes!"

"I thought I might surprise you. Mycroft draws four hundred and fifty pounds a year, remains a subordinate, has no ambitions of any kind, will receive neither honour nor title, but remains the most indispensable man in the country."

"But how?"

"Well, his position is unique. He has made it for himself. There has never been anything like it before, nor will be again. He has the tidiest and most orderly brain, with the greatest capacity for storing facts, of any man living. The same great powers which I have turned to the detection of crime he has used for this particular business. The conclusions of every department are passed to him, and he is the central exchange, the clearinghouse, which makes out the balance. All other men are specialists, but his specialism is omniscience.

We will suppose that a minister needs information as to a point which involves the Navy, India, Canada and the bimetallic question. He could get his separate advices from various departments upon each, but only Mycroft can focus them all, and say offhand how each factor would affect the other. They began by using him as a short-cut, a convenience.

Now he has made himself an essential.

In that great brain of his everything is pigeon-holed and can be handed out in an instant.

Again and again his word has decided the national policy. He lives in it. He thinks of nothing else save when, as an intellectual exercise, he unbends if I call upon him and ask him to advise me on one of my little problems. But Jupiter is descending to-day. What on earth can it mean? Who is Cadogan West, and what is he to Mycroft?"

"I have it," I cried, and plunged among the litter of papers upon the sofa. "Yes, yes, here he is, sure enough! Cadogan West was the young man who was found dead on the Underground on Tuesday morning."

Holmes sat up at attention, his pipe halfway to his lips.

"This must be serious, Watson. A death which has caused my brother to alter his habits can be no ordinary one. What in the world can he have to do with it? The case was featureless as I remember it. The young man had apparently fallen out of the train and killed himself. He had not been robbed, and there was no particular reason to suspect violence.

Is that not so?"

"Judging by its effect upon my brother, I should think it must be a most extraordinary one." He snuggled down in his armchair. "Now, Watson, let us have the facts."

"The man's name was Arthur Cadogan West. He was twenty-seven years of age, unmarried, and a clerk at Woolwich Arsenal."

"Government employ. Behold the link with Brother Mycroft!"

"He left Woolwich suddenly on Monday night. Was last seen by his fiancee, Miss Violet Westbury, whom he left abruptly in the fog about 7:30 that evening. There was no quarrel between them and she can give no motive for his action. The next thing heard of him was when his dead body was discovered by a plate-layer named Mason, just outside Aldgate Station on the Underground system in London."

"When?"

"The body was found at six on Tuesday morning. It was lying wide of the metals upon the left hand of the track as one goes eastward, at a point close to the station, where the line emerges from the tunnel in which it runs. The head was badly crushed--an injury which might well have been caused by a fall from the train. The body could only have come on the line in that way. Had it been carried down from any neighbouring street, it must have passed the station barriers, where a collector is always standing. This point seems absolutely certain."

"Very good. The case is definite enough. The man, dead or alive, either fell or was precipitated from a train. So much is clear to me. Continue."

"The trains which traverse the lines of rail beside which the body was found are those which run from west to east, some being purely Metropolitan, and some from Willesden and outlying junctions. It can be stated for certain that this young man, when he met his death, was travelling in this direction at some late hour of the night, but at what point he entered the train it is impossible to state."

"His ticket, of course, would show that."

"There was no ticket in his pockets."

"No ticket! Dear me, Watson, this is really very singular. According to my experience it is not possible to reach the platform of a Metropolitan train

without exhibiting one's ticket. Presumably, then, the young man had one. Was it taken from him in order to conceal the station from which he came? It is possible.

Or did he drop it in the carriage? That is also possible. But the point is of curious interest. I understand that there was no sign of robbery?"

"Apparently not. There is a list here of his possessions. His purse contained two pounds fifteen. He had also a check-book on the Woolwich branch of the Capital and Counties Bank. Through this his identity was established. There were also two dress-circle tickets for the Woolwich Theatre, dated for that very evening. Also a small packet of technical papers."

Holmes gave an exclamation of satisfaction.

"There we have it at last, Watson! British government--Woolwich. Arsenal-technical papers--Brother Mycroft, the chain is complete. But here he comes, if I am not mistaken, to speak for himself."

A moment later the tall and portly form of Mycroft Holmes was ushered into the room. Heavily built and massive, there was a suggestion of uncouth physical inertia in the figure, but above this unwieldy frame there was perched a head so masterful in its brow, so alert in its steel-grey, deep-set eyes, so firm in its lips, and so subtle in its play of expression, that after the first glance one forgot the gross body and remembered only the dominant mind.

At his heels came our old friend Lestrade, of Scotland Yard--thin and austere. The gravity of both their faces foretold some weighty quest. The detective shook hands without a word. Mycroft Holmes struggled out of his overcoat and subsided into an armchair.

Specially adapted for Zipser by Dr Benedict Cumberbatch to be continued...

Issued with the Classical Magazine ZIPSER Christmas 2015

Attic Nights - based on the potpouri of Aulus Gellius

Linear B. The script was written on clay tablets and first discovered by Sir Arthur Evans while excavating the great palace of Knossos, Crete in l900. It was Arthur Evans who named them Linear B. Other tablets were discovered at Knossos known as Linear A but these have not as yet been deciphered. Several scholars had attempted to decipher the tablets but it was Michael Ventris along with John Chadwick and Alice Kober who eventually cracked the code in 1952.

MICHAEL VENTRIS FACTFILE 12 July 1922 - 6 September 1956 Educated in Switzerland ( modern languages ) and England ( classical languages )

Met Arthur Evans 1936 Architectural School of Architecture from 1940 Married Lois "Betty" Knox-Niven Two children, Nikki 1942 and Tessa 1946

Philosophy of Place - great Classical locations, from Aristophanes' sun terrace to Horace's wine cellar and all places philosophically in between Cicero’s Villa: Legacy on the Verge of Collapse adapted from “The Telegraph” The holiday villa where the Roman politician Cicero spent his final days is on the verge of collapse and needs urgent public intervention to save it, Benedict Cumberbatch has warned.

Cicero’s Villa was once a large and ostentatiously decorated seaside retreat for the famous consul and orator; situated on a five-acre site in Formiae, halfway between Rome and Naples, it boasted frescoes, mosaics, enormous fish ponds and two marble monuments consecrated to nymphs.

But since the villa fell into private hands in the mid-nineteenth century, it has slowly been falling into disrepair. The villa, which is officially known as Villa Rubino, after the family that purchased it between 1867 and 1868, features in the work of many ancient writers.

Seneca, also a Roman philosopher born in the first century BC, said Cicero was in Formiae when his assassins were sent by Marcus Antonius in December 43BC. Marcus Antonius and Cicero became enemies in a battle for power following the death of Julius Caesar. After Cicero’s death, his severed head and hands were displayed in the Roman Forum as a final act of revenge!

The dedicated head of the Classical Landmark Restoration Society, Lord ( erstwhile Dr ) Benedict Cumberbatch, said he was working "with great synergy" with other institutions to find a solution to save Cicero's Villa.

News from the Editor’s Room Tom Edwards speaks out on a topical issue Pytheas ( flourished 300 bc, Massalia, Gaul ), navigator, geographer, astronomer, and the first Greek to visit and describe the British Isles and the Atlantic coast of Europe. Though his principal work, On the Ocean, is lost, something is known of his ventures through the Greek historian Polybius.

Sailing from the Mediterranean Sea into the Atlantic, Pytheas stopped at the Phoenician city of Gades ( present-day Cádiz, Spain ), probably followed the European shoreline to the tip of Brittany, and eventually reached Belerium ( Land’s End, Cornwall ), where he visited the tin mines, famous in the ancient world. He claimed to have explored a large part of Britain on foot. He accurately estimated its circumference at 4,000 miles ( 6,400 km ).

He also estimated the distance from north Britain to Massalia ( Marseille ) at 1,050 miles ( 1,690 km ). The actual distance is 1,120 miles ( 1,800 km ).

He visited some northern European countries and may have reached the mouth of the Vistula River on the Baltic Sea. He also told of Thule, the northernmost inhabited island, six days’ sail from northern Britain and extending at least to the Arctic Circle. The region he visited may have been Iceland or Norway.

His comments on small points — on the native drinks made of cereals and honey and the use of threshing barns ( contrasted with open-air threshing in Mediterranean regions ) — show acute observation. His scientific interests appear from his calculations made with a sundial at the summer solstice and from notes on the lengthening days as he traveled northward. He also observed that the pole star is not at the true pole and that the Moon affects tides.

Sir Barry Cunliffe wrote a book about this fascinating explorer. Zipser recommends acquiring it, putting an extra log on the fire, plumping up the cushions and settling down on a winter’s evening to read this heartwarming tale of adventure.

Mary Renault—the metic classicist Susannah Hill reports for Zipser Mary Renault, perhaps the best classical novelist of the 20th century, in fact never studied Classics. Instead she read English Literature at university.

In later life, she moved her field of expertise to the ancient world (and hence could be figuratively described as a metic of the field of Classics).

After years of dedicated research, she published a diverse collection of eight Greek-themed bestselling novels; based on a range of events, from the campaigns of Alexander the Great to the epic battles of the Peloponnesian war.

Her novels soon enchanted the world, to the extent that President Kennedy is claimed to have considered her his favourite author.

Renault’s novel, ‘The Last of the Wine’ set in the 5th century BC Athens, weaves together the lives of the most well-known individuals of the classical world: Socrates, Plato, Xenophon and Lysias to name but a few. Her skill lies in her perspicacity when reading between the lines of classical texts to gain a sense of the personalities of these famous figures, which she then explores and portrays to her readers in an accessible way.

Her novels are far from fact-bound chronicles. This allows her to use her imagination and vivid descriptions to entertain and inspire whilst still informing the reader, who finds themselves transported to a world which in reality ceased to exist over two millennia ago.

Renault demonstrates to us that you don't need classical training to appreciate and admire the depths of the ancient world.

o tempora o mores - classical, clever and creative THE HUNGER GAMES You might have already spotted that the Hunger Games are rather like Roman gladiatorial contests, but did you know that the dystopian state of Panem is named after a Latin quotation?

The Roman poet Juvenal complained that the Roman people only cared about “panem et circenses” - “bread and circuses”. Bread was the free corn dole given out to all Rome’s poor by the emperor, while circuses referred to all the chariot races and gladiatorial games paid for by the emperors to keep their people happy and prevent rebellion - the similarities with Collins’ dystopian state are clear to see.

What is more, President Snow is named after the harsh Roman general Coriolanus, who showed utter contempt for the Roman poor, while the mythical founder of Rome, Romulus, gives his name to Romulus Thread, the violent Head Peacekeeper of District 12.

The Head Gamemakers, Plutarch Heavensbee and Seneca Crane, are named after two Roman writers - Plutarch, who wrote biographies of famous heroes, generals and politicians, and Seneca, playwright, politician and tutor to the infamous emperor Nero. Nero later forced Seneca to commit suicide, just as Seneca Crane is locked in a room with nothing but a bowl of poisonous nightlock berries.

While many who support Panem are named after members of the Roman establishment – emperors, generals, politicians – some of those who challenge the regime are also given appropriate Roman names. Cinna’s name, for example, recalls Lucius Cornelius Cinna, who rebelled against two successive Roman dictators.

Lionel Zipser WIKI potted biography Lionel Zipser. Viennese by descent, Australian by birth, classicist by conviction. Promising research student at Derby College, Cambridge, whose fledgling career was cruelly cut short by a lethal combination of gas and fire one stormy night at his lodgings.

His dissertation on “The Fundamental Interconnectedness of Idea and Reason in the Poems of Propertius” is regarded widely as just that. The Zipser Hotel in Vienna remains a family concern—Bernhard Austerer being the current maître d’ - and the enterprising classical magazine was founded in his honour. Favourite book: Bruce Chatwin’s Utz, because, as he puts it, “I liked the stuffed Zen Navigation by Aristotle "... A few turnings later and I was thoroughly lost. There is a school of thought which says that you should consult an astrolabe on these occasions, but to such people I merely say, 'Ha! What if you have no map to consult? What if you have a map but it's of the Dordogne?' My own strategy is to find a cart, or the nearest equivalent, which looks as if it knows where it is going and follow it. I rarely end up where I was intending to go, but often I end up somewhere that I needed to be."

ZIPSER HOTEL VIENNA—Bernhard Austerer 53 rooms, 95 beds Lange Gasse 49 1080 Wien office@zipser.at http://hotel-vienna.travel

Wisdom of the Ancients - Homer, Cicero, Virgil and the crew

“

For a friend with an understanding heart is worth no less than a brother�

Homer

Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

They can conquer who believe they can.

Virgil

Boris Johnson Column - news and comment from Boris and Friends of Classics Can you imagine any other country where a national museum could take such a politically charged decision, without government knowledge and acquiescence? Greece? France? Russia? Don’t make me laugh. That is why good old George Clooney is so wrong in his plan to restore the marbles to the “Pantheon”, as he puts it ( I think even M Vipsanius Agrippa would have had some trouble with that project, since the Pantheon is the wrong temple, in the wrong city, with the wrong architectural order ).

That is why it is entirely fitting that the owl of Pallas should still haunt the squares of Bloomsbury. It is the British Museum’s freedom to loan Ilissus to Russia – even in this wretched period – that shows exactly why the Elgin Marbles belong and shall remain in London.

Legacy - famous uses of Classics The Classical Greek Guide to Successful Decisioning I make decisions often. This I know: you can guarantee that you prepare for decision-taking in the manner which maximises your chances of success.

The Greeks thought long and hard about this too, especially after the Athenian democracy put important decisions in the hands of the people. By the time Aristotle explained in his Ethics the best way to work out how to act, to deliberate, take decisions, the Classical Greek poets, dramatists, historians and orators had developed key rules for the complete deliberator.

1 Don’t deliberate in a hurry. Speed and impulsiveness have no place in deliberation.

2 Verify ALL information. A correct decision can’t result from incorrect knowledge.

4 Consult a disinterested expert advisor. This means someone with experience of the type of situation you are in but who stands to gain or lose nothing whatsoever regardless of your decision. Your best friend is NEVER disinterested.

5 Examine all known precedents. What happens to humans when the boat is rocked?

6 Calibrate the likelihood of different outcomes and prepare for them all.

What will you do if any of the consequences you calculate to be probable actually happens?

7 Build in all random possibilities you can envisage. What unanticipated events might drastically affect how events proceed? Would such events affect the success or failure of the action you are deciding upon?

8 Don’t drink and deliberate. Drunken decisions are likely to be impulsive.

9 Trust no-one. Although, do take points four, six and seven into consideration.

Remember – we trusted Philby once.

10 If still in doubt, do what Daniel Craig would do.

So there it is. You will note that I have also left out the deliberative procedure which Herodotus attributes to the Persians, even though I often practise it myself. When they had an important decision to make, such as whether to go to war, the Persians took the same vote twice, first after drinking together, and again after sobering up the next morning. Only when the two votes coincided—heart and head in harmony—did they act.

But even the Persian method is more effective if you have first followed the programme. It really works.

Lionel Zipser was in conversation with Edith Hall.

Timothy Nigel Peake ( born 7 April 1972 in Chichester, West Sussex ) is a former British Army Air Corps officer and a current European Space Agency astronaut.

Launched into space on Tuesday 15 December for a six-month tour of duty aboard the earth orbiter station to coincide with the publication of the first issue of Zipser.

A book which influenced Tim especially is one by Lucian of Samosata who flourished in the second century AD. Lucian’s True History is a parody of celebrated classical epics such as The Odyssey and The Iliad.

Homer may occasionally dabble in mythology, but Lucian indulges to the point of absurdity. His stories include, among other things, space travel, men riding on the backs of vultures, space centaurs, vegetable themed warriors, and an all- out war between the inhabitants of the moon and the sun.

Special Report by Lucy Giles

THEMISTOCLES – the thought fox I imagine this midnight moment’s forest: something else is alive beside the clock’s loneliness and this blank page where my fingers move. through the window I see no star: something more near though deeper within darkness is entering the loneliness: Cold, delicately as the dark snow, a fox’s nose touches twig, leaf; two eyes serve a movement, that now and again now, and now, and now sets neat prints into the snow between trees, and warily a lame shadow lags by stump and in hollow of a body that is bold to come across clearings, an eye, a widening deepening greenness, brilliantly, concentratedly, coming about its own business till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox it enters the dark hole of the head. the window is starless still; the clock ticks, the page is printed.

Edward James Hughes S10

SACELLUM: the origin of the great game The game of Mornington Crescent was invented in the late nineteenth century by the drivers of Hackney carriages as a serious attempt to design a one-way system around the increasingly busy area of Euston in London. It is variously credited to Arthur Mowe, a Cockney, and Horstmann Ure, a second generation Silesian immigrant.

The earliest known version of the game was played by Roman legionaries under the name “Sacellum�. The aim was to move around a Roman fort, the winner being the one to reach the sacellum first. The current KES champion is Samuel Alkin.

A simple, but profitable, variation on the game is still played by London taxi drivers, because their motto is "He was a stranger, and I took him in". Cabbies try to include Mornington Crescent in every journey. This helps to maximise fares for journeys which would not naturally contain a diversion via the Euston district.

An Edinburgh, Scotland, taxi driver holds the current unofficial record. Fraser McFurtive ( 37 ) managed to include Mornington Crescent in a journey between Drumsheugh Gardens and Milton Road West ( both in Edinburgh ), on the excuse that he was avoiding congestion in Princes Street ( without mentioning that there is also a Princes Street in London ).

Sven ( 48, 26, 27 ), a muscular Swedish taxi driver, is currently a contender for the distance title. He is en route between Kongsgatan and Tegelbacken ( both in Stockholm ), but, like most of us, has so far failed to reach Mornington Crescent, though he has been in London for several years now. It has been contended that, since his passenger returned to Stockholm by air in 1993, his attempt ought to be declared null and void.

Investigation by John Hamish Watson

Helle Thorning-Schmidt Prime Minister of Denmark 2011-2015

HAPPY NOEL! I would make everyone learn Danish - and then I would let the clever ones learn Latin as

an honour, and Greek as a treat.

ZIPSER Christmas 2015

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