slave-holding: * see Endnote 61

between the 1st century BC and 1st century AD, an economic system based on large plantations using slave labor emerged in Italy & other areas of the Roman Empire.  This efficient system produced food exports for the large urban population of the urban centers.  Known as latfundia, it was closest approximation to industrialized agriculture in Antiquity, and their economics depended upon slavery.

​

industry:

Spengler’s term ("big industry") for the Industrial Revolution (from 1750 thru the 1840s); originated in England, subsequently developed in Germany & the USA; it involved the transition to new manufacturing processes (especially the new steam engine).  It promoted growing urbanization and the emergence of a dominant middle class supplanting an older aristocracy based on landholdings.

 

Stoicism and Roman Empire:

Spengler argues that Stoicism is linked to the latfundia of the Roman Empire.  From the early days of the Empire, Stoic doctrine was popular.  A distinctive feature of Stoicism was its cosmopolitanism which fits well into Empire.  Stoics eschewed rank & wealth, advocating the brotherhood of humanity & the natural equality of all people.  In particular, they were noted for their urging of clemency toward slaves.  It became the most influential school of the Greco-Roman world, and in its ranks were Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Cato the Younger, Epictetus, and Seneca the Younger among others.

 

Socialism:

Spengler argues that Socialism is linked to the Industrial revolution.  It originated in the revolutionary movements of the middle 1700s, concerned with social problems associated with capitalism, especially inequality, urban poverty & deprivation; it opposed the prevailing laissez-faire capitalism,  advocated central planning, state ownership & direction of the economy, and the economic empowerment of the working class.

​

C. Flaminius:

(265-217 BC) leading Roman politician, consul (223 & 217); notable for his Lex Flaminia land reform of 232, the Circus Flaminius built 221; killed by Hannibal in 2nd Punic War, 217 BC;  skilled orator, a man possessed of great piety, strength & determination.  Critics claimed he ignored tradition in 217 BC in his second consulship; that he pandered to the people ( the land reform laws); he is portrayed as a democratic leader against the greedy patricians.

 

Zama, battle of:

202 BC, near Zama (Tunisia), final battle of Second Punic War; Roman army led by Scipio Africanus, met the Carthaginian army led by Hannibal.  Scipio’s troops, when faced with 80 elephants, arrayed against them in split ranks (instead of massing), blowing horns & firing missiles; Roman cavalry & soldiers routed the Carthaginians.  Defeated, Carthage accepted a harsh treaty which forbade them having a navy, they lost Spain & suffered a massive indemnity.

 

Imperium Romanum:

Latin for Roman Empire, lasting form 27 BC – 395 AD in the West and to 1453 AD in the East.

 

Lucullus:

(118-57 BC) an optimate (the conservatives, party of the patricians) politician & general of the late Roman Republic, connected with Sulla.  In over 20 years service he became the main conqueror of the eastern kingdoms (Third Mithridatic War); his military skill & command was widely praised; he returned to Rome with enormous sums of war booty which he spent on private buildings, husbandry and aquaculture projects, amazing for their magnitude; a great patron of the arts & science, he transformed his estate (Tusculum) into a hotel-& library complex for scholars & built the famous Gardens of Lucullus in Rome.

 

Pompey:

(106 - 48 BC) military & political leader of the late Roman Republic, of a provincial & new aristocratic family, as a young man he achieved military success with Sulla in the 2nd civil war, allowing him to advance directly to the consulship; elected consul 3 times & celebrated 3 triumphs; in 60 BC joined Crassus & Caesar (whose daughter Julie he married) in First Triumvirate.  Following death of Julia and Crassus he allied with the optimates & opposed Caesar but at Pharsalus (48 BC) he was defeated & fled to Egypt, where he was assassinated.

 

Ipsus, battle of:

301 BC, fought between the successors of Alexander the Great in Phrygia.  It was between 2 coalitions of successor states; it was the high point of the struggle among Alexander the Great’s successors to create an international Hellenistic empire.  This battle led to the partition of Alexander’s Empire: Ptolemy retaining Egypt, Seleucus expanding his power to eastern Asia Minor (Seleucid Empire) and Lysimachus receiving the remainder of Asia Minor.

 

Mithradic danger: *see Endnote 62

reference to the Roman–Parthian Wars (66 BC – 217 AD), a series of conflicts between the Parthian Empire & Rome.

 

Pyrrhus: *see Endnote 63

(319-272 BC)  Greek general & statesman of the Hellenistic age; king of the Greek tribe of Molossians and king of Epirus.  He was one of the strongest opponents of early Rome during the Pyrrhic Wars.  Some of his battles, though successful, caused him heavy losses, from which the term Pyrrhic victory was coined.

 

Cannae, battle of:

216 BC, at Apulia, SE Italy; major battel of 2nd Punic War; the army of Carthage surrounded and decisively defeated a larger Roman army;  Hannibal utilized the double-envelopment tactic; the battle is regarded both as one of the greatest tactical feats in military history and as one of the worst defeats in Roman history.

​

Prussian-German peoples:

reference to the German nation, which began to emerge with the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806.  Economic ties in the Prussian Zollverein (customs union) of 1818 was the first step.  The creation of the German Confederation (1815) was a setback but it was weakened in the 1848-49 Revolutions & decisively ended in the triumph of Prussia over Austria in 1866.  Under Prussian guidance the North German Confederation formed in 1867.  Prussia’s victory over France in 1870 led to the formation of the German Empire (1871), a unified German state.

 

1813: *see Endnote 64

reference to as the War of Liberation (aka War of the Sixth Coalition 1813- 1814), during the Napoleonic Wars.  A coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain & a number of German states finally defeated France and drove Napoleon into exile on Elba.

​

1914:

reference to Germany’s war against Russia and France, in WW I.

 

amorphous:

lacking definite form; having no specific shape; formless; of no particular kind or character; indeterminate; having no pattern or structure; unorganized