Gaius Julius Caesar would have been slandered to suicide if he lived today. First, he received large loans from local Roman Jewish bankers, and much assistance from the Judean high priests Hyrcanus. Caesar was always in pressing need of money to finance the political machine he maintained in Rome while he was campaigning in Germany. His decrees are amazingly pro-Jewish, to a point that would be unimaginable today:
"The Jews shall possess Jerusalem and may encompass that city with walls; Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, the high priest and ethnarch of the Jews, rule it in the manner he himself pleases; and the Jews be allowed to deduct out of their tribute a corus."The next decree, dated before Dec., 47 B.C., establishes that
"the Jews of the Empire pay a tribute to the city of Jerusalem except during the Sabbatical year. This decree provides for an annual tribute to Hyrcanus and his sons. It ordains that the original ordinances in regard to the high priests of the Jews shall remain in force, and that Hyrcanus and the Jews retain those places and countries which belonged to the kings of Syria and Phoenicia."It is known that Caesar was a friend of the Jews, but the details are amazing. Caesar, the ruler of the World largest Empire, did care a lot about the Jews, and granted not only the City of Jerusalem to the Jews but also the countries of Syria and Phoenicia (Lebanon). Jewish subjects paid less taxes than others and part of it was paid to the Jerusalem government. It is obvious to me that Greg Cochran is wrong when he says that the Jews of the Antiquity were not above-average intelligent. To achieve such unique privileges, that not even the smart Greeks could dream of, our ancestors had to be real special. More than we are now.
15 comments:
Salut!
Hmmm interesting I did know than about 2000 years back they called ancient Israeli's -Jews'!??
"....were not above-average intelligent..."
Why then Asian,African Juds have not achieved the same status as European Juds!?? in our era.......
Jew = Judean.
I dont know. But the fact is that for generations Oriental Jews were wealthier than Ashkenazi Jews. The Sassoons and the Kadooris of India and China for example.
I saw an antisemitic site mention Caesar as part of their crimes of the Jews series. So this isn't humorous, you are actually reading their minds.
To achieve such unique privileges, that not even the smart Greeks could dream of, our ancestors had to be real special. More than we are now.
Are you saying that Cochran and Harpending(?) have it backward, that the Jews are getting dumber?
Or maybe the Jews of antiquity living in Rome were the Jewish elite of the era. The Temple hadn't been destroyed yet, so the lower ranks of ancient Jewry were all probably still in the Levant.
My comment refers only to Greg Cochran's opinion that the Judeans (Jews) of the Antiquity were of average intelligence, not to the theory on Ashkenazi intelligence. It is sure that intelligence fluctuates along time, as recently has been demonstrated about the English population.
Perhaps it is just that us Goyim were dumber. Anon.
No Sir. Julius Caesar was a genius. His Report on the War in France and Germany was my Latin textbook and keep reading it once and again. Roman law is a monument to intelligence. The patrician class was very intelligent. But they had no children.
Perhaps it is just that us Goyim were dumber. Anon.
I've wondered if we are getting dumber now. Were our ancestors smarter than we are now?
It is a fact that our skull sizes have been decreasing, even as the cultural explosion occurred about 40 000 years ago. And it is also a fact that our brains continue to evolve, even more rapidly than in the past. So it is difficult to put this together, except to hypothesise that the brain is evolving to a more efficient package and can maybe do more in a slightly smaller volume. Neanderthals, eg, definitely had bigger brains than we do, but the areas that were enlarged did not necessarily subserve logic and self control (ie the frontal lobes). Also, nutrition and education will certainly have added a few extra IQ points in modern people.
It might never be an answerable question whether we are inherently smarter or dumber than before but the immense stagnation between the emergence of Homo sapiens 200 000 years ago, and the emergence of culture 40 000 years ago implies to me that additional genetic mutations had to occur to result in fully modern people.
Anon.
Without any scientific research, I have the impression that Ancient Greeks (I mean Plato, Socrates, Aristoteles, etc.) between 600 - 200 BC were a much more intelligent people than we are. In Roman times they were already quite dumb, and modern Greeks are a completely different people. It seems to me that it tends to fluctuate, just as height and so on. Lots of mental function that were vital for a hunter are useless for a settled population, such as throwing projectiles, learning animal behaviour, following foot tracks, good eyesight, smell and so on. Good eyesight (such as eagles and other predators have developed) must require much brain space, and we modern people dont need it.
I remember reading that much of the modern population of Greece is actually descended from slaves and immigrants, and is only partially related to the Greeks of antiquity. This explains the large gap in achievement between the ancient and modern Greeks. Ancient greece ruled the world, modern Greece produced Taki.
I was previously worried about a personal decline in intelligence, and that got me thinking about whether we are declining as a race, if not a species.
I think that much of modern society is dysgenic, in the sense that it is easier for less intelligent people to survive and breed because of welfare, and immigration. By contrast, more intelligent people have a tough time in producing lots of children because the opportunity costs are much greater for them. Also, they seem more selfish and absorbed in their work and career. And there is nobody to tell them they are being short-sighted and narcissistic, and lots of Chicken Littles whining about over-population, which only the intelligent take seriously.
As I said before, voluntary infertility is a form of free riding and should be taxed very heavily, the proceeds being used to incentivise childbirth at the highest rate of tax relief. Singapore will lead the way.
Anon.
Anon.
Singapore will lead the way.
God help the West.
Actually Singapore, in many ways, is a staunch repository of traditional Western values.
Anon.
Actually Singapore, in many ways, is a staunch repository of traditional Western values.
I agree that is the case across the Orient, but I don't live there. I want the West to be a repository of Western values, and Western people too.
Although I have nothing against the Chinese advancing to our standards, but even without Western culture they were a civilized people.
The Chinese do not believe in political correctness and as a result they are fast catching up on us. In fact I do not know of anybody who actually believes in the values of political correctness except the huddled, frightened white people of Europe and North America.
Anon.
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