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The Warlord Wars No More -3

So we cross this threshold of war as awful friends in freefall, and with these trumpets and drums shaking the graves of ancient days we bring forth instruments of death's call through our very own homeland where the music of valor plays, songs, poems and parades are already being written in the pulse of the people, only the names of the victors and vanquished remain unknown, yet both will be Roman, both will bleed, and both will reveal their soul's steel, pallisades, seige towers and ballistas of big stones thrown from town to town, from Arminium, Corfinium and to the Bay of Brundisium the Italians of Rome have said to the Legions of Caesar save our home seek no throne, carry not a crown, show the world that cruelty can be outdone scourge the vile with the virtue of Clementia, make the Senate atone, make not widows of Rome's daughters nor orphans of the innocent bring a heartbeat of holiness back to these halls and hills where peace has been absent, Bring a heartbeat of holiness back to these halls and hills where peace has been absent, you've heard these honest entreaties and endearments from mothers and elders, citizens, priests and from the militant, we are not men who march on dreams, we have not marched into Greece to starve and grovel under the ritual yoke of this pseudo Republican army headed by an overhyped hothead acting under an upper class spell, I believe we were born to be on this battlefield's history, we are inspired by unequalled Evocati leadership veterans venomous in brute brilliance, they have a myriad of mercenaries whose cause is only for coin on the hip they outnumber us 6 to 1 on horse and 2 to 1 in the lines most of Pompey's Legates have learned warfare from talk and books, we've been taught the terror of triumph from where the heart looks... J.A.B.

Copyright © | Year Posted 2018




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Date: 3/3/2018 2:50:00 AM
The contrast of "brute brilliance" and and the entreaties for the "virtue of Clementia"..."we've been taught the terror of triumph from where the heart looks" No doubt there is plenty of heart, plenty of intrigue and genius in war-trodden minds and brutality. The majority of persons perhaps grow weary of such things and long for peace over triumphant violence. Always, Laura
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Justin Bordner
Date: 3/10/2018 11:12:00 PM
Continued...interestingly Laura, as the Roman war ethos evolved over centuries, eventually becoming a professional war machine, a war industry, men volunteered to join the great Legions for a career where as in earlier times the Legions were primarily constituted of impromptu free men, citizen soldiers, conscripted short term to meet an imminent threat...if they prevailed, survived, they would return to their hometowns as farmers or tradesmen, very much like America's Colonial Militia...J.A.B.
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Justin Bordner
Date: 3/10/2018 11:01:00 PM
There is an ebb and flow for the passion of war, you are keenly correct Poetess. Soldiers do not wish to wage war in perpetuity of their lives, they desire only for their lives to mean something extraordinary for their ancestry and for posterity. Primordial passion for possession is what ignites wars, nothing will ever change this primal fact. Within these wonderful verses above, one sees, feels, and understands the dichotomy of motives for warring, a sense of heritage, altruism, and monetary gain...J.A.B.

Book: Reflection on the Important Things