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Re: orion 1QM i,1

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Dr. Vandenberg writes:

>  I know yet a while that Cato (not a good but the best candidate!) possibly
>  had written a lost work about ^Ñde re militaria^Ò, but this assumption isn^Òt
>  verifiable. 

    Vegetius 1.8:  "This requirement made me consult what Cato the Censor
wrote on the system of war..."
    Vegetius 1.15:  "How much utility good archers have in battle was clearly
shown by Cato in his books On Military Science..."
    Vegetius 2.3:  "Cato the Elder, since he was unbeaten in war and as consul
had often led armiers, thought he would be of further service to the State if
he wrote down the military science..."

    The collected fragments, such as they are, may be found in M. Jordan, _M.
Catonis praeter librum de re rustica Quae Extant_ (Leipzig, 1867).

>  But indeed the Roman must had something like that and in so far
>  the thesis is ok. But to postulate that this still hypothetical  source-
work
>  would have found its way to the Orient (where numerous Greek works about
the
>  theme are to be found) short after the Macedonian Wars doubtlessly is
>  wishful thinking and indeed obscure. Interestingly enough, that you need
>  three hypotheses (Cato, shipped and studied) when I need only one (open
>  eyes!).

    We know that Judas Maccabaeus greatly admired the Roman system of warfare.
(See 1 Macc. 8:1.  The entire eulogy to the Romans at 8:1-16 is thought with
good cause to derive from Eupolemus, a prominent associate of Judas Maccabaeus
who wrote a history "On the Kings of Judea in 158/57, and who is mentioned at
8:17.  1 Macc. 8:1 is thus close to contemporary evidence.)  There was
diplomatic contact between the Jews and Romans at Antioch in 164 BCE (2 Macc.
11:34-38).  The Jewish side of this contact was almost certainly John and
Absalom, representatives of Judas (2 Macc. 11:15-17).  It could have been on
this occasion that the Jews obtained a Roman Tactica such as that of Cato.
Note that Absalom was the father of two Jewish generals (1 Macc. 11:70; 13:1)
and probably a commander himself.  
  
>  The Deiotarus-reference (Cic. Ep. ad Att. VI 1,14) abou the use of Roman
>  armor and strategemata clearly relates (as I wrote before) only to Roman
>  clientele states and their claims on military help and not to a force at
the
>  periphery or outside the Roman interests.

    On Deiotarus, see also The Alexandrine War 34, 39-40, 68; and the
"legions" of King Bogus of Mauritania see The Alexandrine War 62; and those of
King Juba of Numidia see The African War 48.  However, Antiochus IV also
retrained half of his Royal Guard in Roman arms and warfare by 165 BCE
(Polybius 30.25.4).  The Seleucid Empire clearly was not a Roman client state!
Seleucid adoption of Roman military practices by their best units shows that
knowledge of Roman warfare had indeed penetrated the Orient at a relatively
early date.
  
>  The absolute correct citation of: " ... the Horn of [Israel]" in col.
i,8...
>  I have still 1En 89,13 ff. as the source of the horned ram...

    The passages in question are of course 1QM 1.4 and 1 En. 90.13ff.

    Russ Gmirkin