When I travel about God's country, I carry a South Dakota Gazetteer and a compass, in case I get lost. I also carry a Rand McNally Road Atlas, in case I get really lost. Now I am wondering if I shouldn't take a World Atlas, or maybe even a star guide.
In 53 B.C., or B.C.E. if you're sensitive, seven Roman legions with 45,000 men were routed near Carrhae on the eastern border of what is now Turkey. It is quite a story all on its own. Twenty thousand Roman soldiers were slain by the much smaller Parthian army. Ten thousand were said to have been taken prisoner. The rest apparently made it back to Rome.
But seventeen years later Han Dynasty forces in China captured a city defended by a very unfamiliar army. The soldiers wore metal plate armor and fought in "fish-scale formation." They had very unusual physical characteristics: blue eyes and the occasional blond head. The Chinese were so impressed by the soldiers that they moved them to a new location and gave them the task of defending against Tibetan raiders. The new city was called Li-Jien, which is pronounced "legion."
Now all this may be mere goofiness, and that would be my guess. But if it's true, can you imagine how this went down? A Roman commander trying to find his way back to Cisalpine Gaul gets a little confused. "Let's have another look at that map. The sun sets in the east, right?" Ten, fifteen years later, a bunch of Italians are munching down on Chinese food and probably thinking that their new wives look vaguely Jewish. These guys got really lost.
Well, my prediction is this. Seventeen years after this Tuesday's election, a band of Republicans will turn up in, I don't know, Kuala Lumpur. Two thousand years from now, somebody will be trying to connect the dots.
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