Month: December 2012

Exodus Lost by S.S.Compton is easier to describe by saying what it isn’t than what it is.  Despite having a lot about the Bible in it, it isn’t a book with any particular angle on religion.  It isn’t a conventional history book.  And it isn’t a crazy ‘Chariots of the Gods’ style fairy story.  So what is it?  It is a very good read, and because it has a sort of detective story feel to it, I don’t really want to talk about the contents.  You don’t often have to worry about spoilers reviewing history books.  But in this case the fun is seeing the case being built up. Let’s just say it covers the question of whether or not there was communication between Ancient Egypt and the civilisations of South America.

The early years of the reign of Gratian, who came to the throne at the age of 19 were very promising. He defeated the Lentienses at the battle of Colmar freeing Gaul from the threat of German invasion. He also solved the problem of who should rule the Eastern empire by the canny appointment of the very able Theodosius. If that was the measure of the youthful Gratian,things seemed set for a glorious reign as he matured. But it soon turned out that the early successes were down to good advice from the people placed around him by his father. They didn’t reflect the character of Gratian himself.

With the emperor dead and two thirds of his army destroyed Adrianople was one of the major setbacks in Roman history.  In fact it has often been regarded as one of the decisive battles in the decline and fall of the Roman empire. It was certainly regarded as extremely serious by the people at the time.  Accounts of the battle and its aftermath take on apocalyptic tones, almost literally so in the case of Saint Jerome.  Jerome is recognised as one of the founding fathers of both the Catholic and Orthodox churches.  His writing on the issue comes with a rather biblical tone.  He describes the entire area of the Balkans being depopulated, not just human beings but animals as well and even the fish in the rivers leaving nothing between the Earth and the sky but barren wasteland.  Serious and harrowing stuff indeed.