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Re: Are 1000 Scribes too Many?

On 18 Nov 96 11:06:13 EST, 73467.1352@CompuServe.COM writes:
>
>> 
>> Moshe, Read Stegemann. He will explain why people were not very old.
>> It is not that old people would stay away but that people  did not
>> grew old at all, exept the lucky few. His average estimation of the
>> age is something like 39 for men and less than 30 for women (you will
>> have to check for yourself). So he has some intricate calculations
>> about the turnover at the settlement of residents.

   Marsha, I have wondered about these figures when we see the record of
   Alexander the Great's Silver Shields, serving one or t'other or both of the
   Diadochi, the Successors, heaving against each other in battle when most
   were clearly in their late sixties or in their seventies.  These men had
   lived off the fat of the land, served up to them by the young fry following
   them... need I say more?  The lives of ancient armies were somewhat dif-
   ferent from today's crop of young wet-behind-the ears soldiers.  Mind you,
   to those Veterans, ATG was "the Boy".

   There is a second factor: up until 25, men's strength grows.  After that,
   his endurance grows.  Do not mix in teenagers with a crew of piano movers! 
   And last night, I saw myself at 66 worked right into the ground carrying
   boxes of books by an 88 year old, whose son, working for me, complained the
   while how he found his father the day before on a ladder repairing an
   eave's trough!!!

>
>In view of this, I find the ages for the men who were to engage in battle in
the
>War Scroll to be rather puzzling--30-50--with the men under 25 restricted to
>pillage and organization of supplies.  30-50 would be rather old
>(oops--"chronologically enhanced" ; - )  )for combat troops today.  It's not
>quite as problematic for the ages of the mivaqer, the maskil and the paqid,
>according to the Community Rule, since only one of each was needed, but
>nevertheless the impression one gets is that these men were considered to be in
>their prime, not in danger of imminent demise at that age.  
>
>                                                          Marsha
>
>Marsha B. Cohen
>Graduate Student, Religious Studies
>Florida International University
>Miami, FL
>

Tom Simms