“Seven hundred and seventy-seven years ago a man almost conquered the Earth. He made himself master of half the known world, and inspired humankind with a fear that lasted for generations. In the course of his life he was given many names–the Mighty Manslayer, the Scourge of God, the Perfect Warrior, and the Master of Thrones and Crowns. Unlike most rulers of men, he deserved all these titles.”
“We Americans, raised in European tradition, have been taught the roster of the great that begins with Alexander of Macedon, continues through the Caesars, and ends with Napoleon…but he was a conqueror of more gigantic stature than any of the well known actors of the European stage.”
“Indeed it is difficult to measure him by human standards. When he marched, it was over degrees of latitude and longitude instead of miles; cities in his path were often obliterated, and rivers diverted in their courses; deserts were peopled with the fleeing and the dying, and when he had passed, wolves and ravens were the sole living things in once populous lands.”
“This destruction of human life bewilders the modern imagination–enriched though it might be by the concepts of the Second World War. This man, a nomad chieftain who emerged from the desert, waged war upon the civilized peoples of the Earth…and was victorious.”
“If this devastation, this arresting of human progress, had been the whole story, he would have been no more than a second Attila, or Alaric–a formidable wanderer without a purpose. But the Scourge was also the Perfect Warrior and Master of Thrones and Crowns.”
“And here we are face to face with the mystery that surrounds him. A nomad, a hunter and herder of beasts, outgeneraled the powers of three empires and a score of lesser nations; a barbarian who had never seen a city and did not know the use of writing drew up a code of laws for fifty peoples.”
“In the matter of military genius Napoleon would appear to be the most brilliant of Europeans. But we cannot forget that he abandoned one army to its fate in Egypt, and left the remnent of another in the snows of Russia, and finally strutted into the de’ba’cle of Waterloo. His empire fell about his ears, his Code was torn up and his son disinherited before his death. The whole celebrated affair smacks of the theater and Napoleon himself of the play-actor.”
“Of necessity we must turn to Alexander of Macedon, the reckless and victorious youth, to find a conquering genius the equal of The Mighty Manslayer–but after death the measure of their achievements differs beyond comparison. Alexander’s generals were soon fighting amongst themselves for the kingdoms from which his son was forced to flee…whereas so utterly had this Perfect Warrior made himself master from Armenia to Korea, from Tibet to the Volga that his son entered upon his heritage without protest, and his grandson still ruled half the world.”
“This empire, conjured up out of nothing by a barbarian, has mystified historians. A general history of his era compiled by learned persons in England admits that it is an inexplicable fact. A worthy savant pauses to wonder at ‘The fateful personality of Genghis Khan, which at bottom we can no more account for than the genius of Shakespeare.’”
Felt like posting this up, to inform KBV that I hadn’t been talking about V.I. Lenin.
