A strange year in the garden. First nothing started growing till very late because the ice and snow and then continuing cold temperatures in the early months – not your normal Irish weather by any means. Then it all spurted up and was delayed again by very erratic rainfall.
The apple trees masses of fruit but not enough rain to make them swell. The runner beans starting off well but running out of energy and hardly making it halfway up their canes. The radishes going to seed before they had swelled enough to be eatable.
But there have been enough sunny days for us to sit out under the trees and have meals there, sometimes with guests, something that hardly happened at all last year, so no complaints.
Just pleased to have our long thin garden, bounded by trellis and mature shrubs, up a flight of steps from the back door so exposed to the sun at all times of the day, as a relaxing and visually enchanting resource.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
THE NOT SO PETTY CRIMINALS OF ANCIENT ATHENS
It seems that petty crime was no rare thing in Ancient Athens. There was even a section of the market area called ‘Thieves’ Market’. It may have been what we would call a flea market, where second-hand clothing and other goods are sold but one that also forms a channel for getting money for stolen goods. I bought a bicycle in one such in Dublin some years back, no questions asked. Of course, no bikes in ancient times, so what forms of theft were there?
You could be mugged, of course. If you weren’t carrying money or things you’d just bought in the market, they’d take your clothes and leave you to go home naked. They might even make you spit out any small change you had tucked away in your cheek (yes, that was normal in a time before the invention of pockets). On the longer routes to other towns and villages in Attica, these would be highway robbers.
If you went to the baths or the gym, as the wealthier men did frequently, you paid someone to keep an eye on your clothes, if you had sense, or a ‘cloakstripper’ would be rummaging them for any money or valuables you might have left with them. And, doubtless, if you carried your money in a purse or satchel on a strap over your shoulder, that could be grabbed and made off with by any number of street urchins.
No use reporting it to the police – there weren’t any. The Scythian guards patrolled the central areas to keep order and might nab any blatant wrongdoer they spotted but, in the narrow lanes between market stalls, they couldn’t be everywhere. Law rested really on victims grabbing (arresting) the thief before he got away and taking him to the authorities.
Not much hope of that if the mugger was threatening you in a deserted alley with a club or a knife and there were two of him. Mind you, if you came upon a burglar on your own property, you could take action even to killing him and be seen as justified – that’s if it’s at night: by day, you could only kill him if he resisted. Always, villains had to be caught in the act or such crimes were difficult to prove.
But, if wealthy houses had no ground floor windows and the street door was guarded by a porter with a dog, how did burglars gain access? Simple. They dug a hole through the wall. Either from a lane beside or from inside an adjoining house.
In the main, houses were built of sun-baked mud bricks, so not too difficult to chisel away at them when folks are all out, say, at a big religious festival or maybe all asleep. Over the relatively low rooftops and down into a courtyard may have been another way in but not such as easy way out.
However, it wasn’t only the professional criminal that indulged in illegalities. The number of laws and inspectors relating to weights and measure, false coinage, and quality of foodstuffs gives a pretty good idea that such offences were rife. But there are always ways round these things, like two sets of weights, one for when the inspectors are around, the other when they’re not.
You only have to look at the non-round shapes of coins that have been unearthed by archaeologists to realise how much clipping of the metal at the edges must have gone on even though value of a coin was determined by its weight. If a customer had doubts, there was a public slave stationed in the market place specifically to test coins and weights.
What punishments did culprits face? Well, stallholders faced a fine but, as today, probably not high enough to be a real deterrent. It’s possible there was an equivalent of the medieval stocks and also a wooden device round the ankles that hobbled a culprit in the hope that the public ridicule that went with these would be enough to put people off.
In the case of more serious theft, it was the death penalty. In Athens, that meant being shackled to a board somewhere outside the city gates and being left to starve to death. Pretty grim.
You could be mugged, of course. If you weren’t carrying money or things you’d just bought in the market, they’d take your clothes and leave you to go home naked. They might even make you spit out any small change you had tucked away in your cheek (yes, that was normal in a time before the invention of pockets). On the longer routes to other towns and villages in Attica, these would be highway robbers.
If you went to the baths or the gym, as the wealthier men did frequently, you paid someone to keep an eye on your clothes, if you had sense, or a ‘cloakstripper’ would be rummaging them for any money or valuables you might have left with them. And, doubtless, if you carried your money in a purse or satchel on a strap over your shoulder, that could be grabbed and made off with by any number of street urchins.
No use reporting it to the police – there weren’t any. The Scythian guards patrolled the central areas to keep order and might nab any blatant wrongdoer they spotted but, in the narrow lanes between market stalls, they couldn’t be everywhere. Law rested really on victims grabbing (arresting) the thief before he got away and taking him to the authorities.
Not much hope of that if the mugger was threatening you in a deserted alley with a club or a knife and there were two of him. Mind you, if you came upon a burglar on your own property, you could take action even to killing him and be seen as justified – that’s if it’s at night: by day, you could only kill him if he resisted. Always, villains had to be caught in the act or such crimes were difficult to prove.
But, if wealthy houses had no ground floor windows and the street door was guarded by a porter with a dog, how did burglars gain access? Simple. They dug a hole through the wall. Either from a lane beside or from inside an adjoining house.
In the main, houses were built of sun-baked mud bricks, so not too difficult to chisel away at them when folks are all out, say, at a big religious festival or maybe all asleep. Over the relatively low rooftops and down into a courtyard may have been another way in but not such as easy way out.
However, it wasn’t only the professional criminal that indulged in illegalities. The number of laws and inspectors relating to weights and measure, false coinage, and quality of foodstuffs gives a pretty good idea that such offences were rife. But there are always ways round these things, like two sets of weights, one for when the inspectors are around, the other when they’re not.
You only have to look at the non-round shapes of coins that have been unearthed by archaeologists to realise how much clipping of the metal at the edges must have gone on even though value of a coin was determined by its weight. If a customer had doubts, there was a public slave stationed in the market place specifically to test coins and weights.
What punishments did culprits face? Well, stallholders faced a fine but, as today, probably not high enough to be a real deterrent. It’s possible there was an equivalent of the medieval stocks and also a wooden device round the ankles that hobbled a culprit in the hope that the public ridicule that went with these would be enough to put people off.
In the case of more serious theft, it was the death penalty. In Athens, that meant being shackled to a board somewhere outside the city gates and being left to starve to death. Pretty grim.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
WE WUZ ROBBED
Everybody's fuming in Drogheda and in County Louth generally. The smallest county in Ireland and 50 years since it won the Leinster region final of the gaelic football championship and this year it reached that final and was winning until the final minutes of injury time. Then, in a melee in front of the Louth goal, the ball trickled across the line. However, no-one had 'played' it to that end which, under the rules, makes it invalid. But the referee awarded a goal to Meath, the other side, and hence victory in the match. He later admitted he had made the wrong decision and it was an invalid goal but too late. Fans invaded the pitch and punched him to great outcry. The governing body said there was nothing they could do. The Meath management committee debated requesting a replay but decided against. The decision stands. Hence the inevitable feeling of "We wuz robbed!"
On a quite different tack. I recently read Robert Harris' "Imperium". I had previously disliked his "Pompeii" immensely with its boring cardboard characters, unexciting style and regurgitated chunks of Pliny the Younger sometimes as straight quotes not to mention major implausibilities.
This account of the early career of Cicero was completely different. Naked power politics with menace, so exciting I could hardly put it down to go to bed. The battle for power between dynamic and ambitious individuals and factions with real historical characters who came to life as totally real.
Whether all the incidents actually happened is another matter - if they did Cicero must have been an incredibly brave man to have said some of those things in the those places - but it reads as completely plausible. I can hardly wait to read the next instalment "Lustrum".
I have been very erratic in maintaining this blog so far, so lets hope I can make a fresh start now.
On a quite different tack. I recently read Robert Harris' "Imperium". I had previously disliked his "Pompeii" immensely with its boring cardboard characters, unexciting style and regurgitated chunks of Pliny the Younger sometimes as straight quotes not to mention major implausibilities.
This account of the early career of Cicero was completely different. Naked power politics with menace, so exciting I could hardly put it down to go to bed. The battle for power between dynamic and ambitious individuals and factions with real historical characters who came to life as totally real.
Whether all the incidents actually happened is another matter - if they did Cicero must have been an incredibly brave man to have said some of those things in the those places - but it reads as completely plausible. I can hardly wait to read the next instalment "Lustrum".
I have been very erratic in maintaining this blog so far, so lets hope I can make a fresh start now.
Friday, June 11, 2010
JUNE UPDATE
The bad news? Dublin lost its one dedicated crime fiction bookshop with the demise of Murder Ink on Dawson Street. Enthusiast Michael forced to close down last month due to ill-health and decline of business in the recession.
A great loss to readers and writers (he was very supportive of Irish crime writers and had racks solely for Historical Crime books including American titles not available elsewhere in Dublin). Following the loss of Murder One in London last year, this leaves only Alibis in Belfast struggling on.
The other bad news is that the Irish gangster/film Noir movie “Trafficked” which my son Simon and I released in Ireland last month came out on the hottest and sunniest weekend in May that anyone remembers when only an eejit (as we call them here) would dream of going to the cinema – and it turned out there weren’t many eejits around.
So a very short cinema life for the film. A great shame as it’s a very powerful little film, brilliantly acted by Ruth Negga, Karl Shiels and the rest of the cast, a strong story exploring an important issue. Lets hope it develops a big following on DVD.
This also slowed down my blog booktour but there is a recent addition which appeared 31st. May. It’s about Ancient Greek Cookery and titled Titillating Ancient Tastebuds (with just a flavour of poison).
You can find it at http://damesofdialogue.wordpress.com/2010/05/
Thanks for having me Maggie. More are promised, some written, but no dates fixed yet. I’ll let you know.
A great loss to readers and writers (he was very supportive of Irish crime writers and had racks solely for Historical Crime books including American titles not available elsewhere in Dublin). Following the loss of Murder One in London last year, this leaves only Alibis in Belfast struggling on.
The other bad news is that the Irish gangster/film Noir movie “Trafficked” which my son Simon and I released in Ireland last month came out on the hottest and sunniest weekend in May that anyone remembers when only an eejit (as we call them here) would dream of going to the cinema – and it turned out there weren’t many eejits around.
So a very short cinema life for the film. A great shame as it’s a very powerful little film, brilliantly acted by Ruth Negga, Karl Shiels and the rest of the cast, a strong story exploring an important issue. Lets hope it develops a big following on DVD.
This also slowed down my blog booktour but there is a recent addition which appeared 31st. May. It’s about Ancient Greek Cookery and titled Titillating Ancient Tastebuds (with just a flavour of poison).
You can find it at http://damesofdialogue.wordpress.com/2010/05/
Thanks for having me Maggie. More are promised, some written, but no dates fixed yet. I’ll let you know.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS
Growing withdrawal symptoms at missing Crimefest in Bristol this year and so will not meet again the author friends I have made there in previous years. Apologies guys!
The reason, of course, is the release in selected cinemas in Ireland of Irish film Noir gangster movie "Trafficked" on Friday with Gala Premiere on Wednesday. Hectic time. Lots of media attention at the Press Screening and interview days, so looks as though it could do OK despite the general reluctance of Irish audiences to go to Irish movies. Fingers crossed.
Garden looking good. Bluebells, Aquilegia and Apple Blossom out and managing to get some vegetables sown - late, but then nature herself is running late this year due to the ultra-cold and over-long winter. No sign yet of may blossom in the hedgerows that are normally a mass of white by now.
Once the movie release is out of the way hopefully posts on this blog will get more regular. Lysanias considering whether he wants to adopt the fancy new gents hairstyle or not.
The reason, of course, is the release in selected cinemas in Ireland of Irish film Noir gangster movie "Trafficked" on Friday with Gala Premiere on Wednesday. Hectic time. Lots of media attention at the Press Screening and interview days, so looks as though it could do OK despite the general reluctance of Irish audiences to go to Irish movies. Fingers crossed.
Garden looking good. Bluebells, Aquilegia and Apple Blossom out and managing to get some vegetables sown - late, but then nature herself is running late this year due to the ultra-cold and over-long winter. No sign yet of may blossom in the hedgerows that are normally a mass of white by now.
Once the movie release is out of the way hopefully posts on this blog will get more regular. Lysanias considering whether he wants to adopt the fancy new gents hairstyle or not.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
POETRY SLAMS AND MOVIES
The Great Drogheda Poetry Slam which I hosted on Friday went great - by delaying start time in traditional Irish fashion number grew to 45 with 20 competitors in two categories. An enjoyable evening was had by all with an amazing variety of poems.
Part of the Drogheda Fringe which, together with the official Arts Festival, has brought quite a buzz to the town this bank holiday weekend. I also had a few of my photomontages exhibited in Urb Exchange an interaction experiment in an empty shop space which has been arousing interest.
Next up is release of Irish gangster movie Trafficked with Ruth Negga and Karl Shiels directed by Ciaran O'Connor. It hits screens in Dublin, Cork and Galway on May 21st - not long to go - look out for it. It's a stunning little movie.
More at www.traffickedthemovie.com
It's distributed by Simon and my company Stoney Road Films.
Otherwise haven't managed to get the garden sorted, though it is finally looking really green with leaves out and blossom emerging on the apple trees. And these things seem to have blotted out significant writing which is not a good thing.
Part of the Drogheda Fringe which, together with the official Arts Festival, has brought quite a buzz to the town this bank holiday weekend. I also had a few of my photomontages exhibited in Urb Exchange an interaction experiment in an empty shop space which has been arousing interest.
Next up is release of Irish gangster movie Trafficked with Ruth Negga and Karl Shiels directed by Ciaran O'Connor. It hits screens in Dublin, Cork and Galway on May 21st - not long to go - look out for it. It's a stunning little movie.
More at www.traffickedthemovie.com
It's distributed by Simon and my company Stoney Road Films.
Otherwise haven't managed to get the garden sorted, though it is finally looking really green with leaves out and blossom emerging on the apple trees. And these things seem to have blotted out significant writing which is not a good thing.
Friday, April 23, 2010
THE GREAT PERFUMERY CON TRICK
He must have been a sitter for any conman (or conwoman) – our lovesick hero – let’s call him Eubolides. He has fallen in love with a slave boy who works in the scent shop where he buys his perfumes (Athenian gents liked to smell nice).
“Can I pay you to give him his freedom,” he asks Athenogenes the owner. “Sorry, not on, replies Athenogenes, “he won’t go without his brother and his father Midas, who runs this highly profitable business for me.”
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| Depiction of Agora in Athens |
“I think, if you offer to buy or free all three slaves, you’d have a deal,” she says and names a sum, not cheap but do-able. Eubolides hustles round, raises the money by borrowing from friends and a meeting is arranged.
Now what Eubolides doesn’t know is that Athenogenes has given Midas full responsibility for operating the shop and the slave has run up massive debts by borrowing for which his owner is responsible. So, surprise, surprise, looking worried, Athenogenes agrees to the deal but then says, as though trying to be helpful, “Look, have you thought, if you buy the freedom of the three slaves, it’ll just be money down the Great Drain. Why don’t you just buy the business?
Now what Eubolides doesn’t know is that Athenogenes has given Midas full responsibility for operating the shop and the slave has run up massive debts by borrowing for which his owner is responsible. So, surprise, surprise, looking worried, Athenogenes agrees to the deal but then says, as though trying to be helpful, “Look, have you thought, if you buy the freedom of the three slaves, it’ll just be money down the Great Drain. Why don’t you just buy the business?
“That way, you own the slaves and can do what you want with the boy and they could continue to work and earn a profit for you. If they go, I’ve either got to close it down or buy new slaves to run it.
Of course, you’d have to take over the liabilities as well as assets. There are debts to Pankalos and Prokles but they’re not much - the stock in the shop more than covers that - and maybe a few more. I’ll let you have it for the same amount.”
Now, the fact that the price was the same should have been enough to warn Eubolides but, as I say, he’s lovesick and doesn’t spot any trickery. Antigona chips in encouragingly, “Sounds a good deal to me. It’ll give you a regular income.”
Of course, you’d have to take over the liabilities as well as assets. There are debts to Pankalos and Prokles but they’re not much - the stock in the shop more than covers that - and maybe a few more. I’ll let you have it for the same amount.”
Now, the fact that the price was the same should have been enough to warn Eubolides but, as I say, he’s lovesick and doesn’t spot any trickery. Antigona chips in encouragingly, “Sounds a good deal to me. It’ll give you a regular income.”
So he falls for it and signs, or rather applies his seal on the spot for – another surprise – Athenogenes just happens to have the contract, already drawn up, tucked in his cloak.
Athenogenes hasn’t actually lied, just implied the debts were a lot lower than they really are. More important for him, debts are formally mentioned in the contract and that Eubolides takes responsibility for them.
Now proud possessor of his love object and a perfumery business, Eubolides suddenly finds creditors banging on his door, chasing him for their money, and himself saddled with a massive debt on top of his own borrowings.
Athenogenes hasn’t actually lied, just implied the debts were a lot lower than they really are. More important for him, debts are formally mentioned in the contract and that Eubolides takes responsibility for them.
Now proud possessor of his love object and a perfumery business, Eubolides suddenly finds creditors banging on his door, chasing him for their money, and himself saddled with a massive debt on top of his own borrowings.
He approaches Athenogenes, now freed of a heavy burden and looking flush. “You didn’t tell me about all these other debts,” he whines. “Sorry, old chap, business is business. You should have read the contract more carefully.”
Eubolides takes Athenogenes to court for damages and it is from his speech to the jury (written for him by expensive speechwriter Hypereides) that we know this. However, as Athenogenes and Antigona doubtless calculated, he hasn’t a leg to stand on. The law clearly states that contracts freely entered into between two citizens are binding.
Eubolides takes Athenogenes to court for damages and it is from his speech to the jury (written for him by expensive speechwriter Hypereides) that we know this. However, as Athenogenes and Antigona doubtless calculated, he hasn’t a leg to stand on. The law clearly states that contracts freely entered into between two citizens are binding.
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| Hypereides |
“But that’s only ‘fair’ contracts,” he argues. “This contract isn’t fair.” And he cites instances in other areas of law where fair and unfair are differentiated.
Did the jury listen to him? We don’t know. But doubtless Athenogenes’ speechwriter will have found convincing counter arguments. Looks as though Eubolides is bankrupt.
Deduced from a speech written by Hypereides on a papyrus rescued from the sands of Egypt – collections of legal speeches certainly had a wide circulation.
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