Japanese concept of chivalry Bushido, which means “Way of the Warrior”, is a Japanese code of conduct and a way of life. It originates from the samurai moral code and stresses frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery and honor unto death. Bushido expanded and formalized the earlier code of the samurai. According, to the Bushido ideal, if a samurai failed to uphold his honor he could regain it by performing seppuku. It was a detailed ritual of suicide, that was committed voluntarily by the samurai.

But not many Westerners, know that there was another form of seppuku. Unlike the the seppuku that we saw in Kurosawa movies, in practice the most common form of seppuku was obligatory. It was a form of capital punishment for disgraced samurai, who committed a serious offense such as unprovoked murder, robbery, corruption, or treason.

In obligatory seppuku the samurai in question were generally told of their offense in full and given a set time, usually before sunset on a given day, to end the life. If the sentenced refused to “cooperate”, it was not unheard of for them to be restrained. Then the actual execution to be carried out by decapitation while retaining only the trappings of seppuku - even the short sword laid out in front of the victim could be replaced with a fan. Unlike voluntary seppuku, the obligatory one did not necessarily absolve the victim’s family of the crime. Depending on the severity of the crime, half or all of the deceased property could be confiscated, and the family stripped of rank.

Freud’s theory expressed in XX century is not dead even now and still have its supporters and adversaries. It even prompted serious researches that were trying to prove or disprove his theory. At least the timing of it seems to be right because Akhenaten appears in history two centuries before the first archaeological and written evidence for Judaism and Israelite culture is found in the Levant.

Pottery found throughout Judea dated to the end of the 8th century BC have seals resembling a winged sun disk of the god Athen burned on their handles. Some historians even claimed that Akhenaten’s maternal grandfather Yuya was the same person as the Biblical Joseph. Another striking coincidence is that there are strong similarities between Akhenaten’s Great Hymn to the Aten and the Biblical Psalm 104.

Amenhotep IV was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt was an extraordinary man for the times that lived in. He attempted to compel the Egyptian population in the monotheistic worship of sun god Aten, instead of the whole pantheon of Egyptian gods, that existed at his times. He even changed his name for that purpose to Akhenaten. Some historians even go as far as calling Amenhotep the first individual, as well as the first monotheist, first scientist, and first romantic on the planet Earth.

There are huge volumes written about his reign, his life and his Great Royal wife Nefertiti. So there is no use to go deep into these topics in this humble blog entry. But I wanted to tell you about interesting theories in regards of Akhenaten. The first one is that created by Akhenaten monotheistic religion transitioned later in Judaism. The first scientist that expressed this theory was famous Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. Freud argued that Moses had been an Atenist priest forced to leave Egypt with his followers after Akhenaten’s death. Akhenaten was striving to promote monotheism, something that the biblical Moses was able to achieve. Freud thought that there was connection between Adonai, the Egyptian Aten and the Syrian divine name of Adonis as a primeval unity of language between the factions.

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After being acclaimed imperator, the victorious general had a right to use the title after his name until the time of his triumph, where he would relinquish the title. The definition of great victory meant that not less than five thousand foreign troops were killed during the battle.

Yet this was not all. Only Roman Senate would evaluate all the events in order to give its approval. There were cases, when a Roman general was denied his triumph. For example, Crassus who defeated Spartacus and his army did not receive his triumph, although the threat to Rome was extremely serious. This happened because internal conflicts did not count. Only defeat of the foreign enemy would merit for triumph, all other victories would be evaluated for ovation which was of a lesser form of triumph.

Naturally, when the days of Roman republic were over, the real meaning and importance of triumph ceremony faded. Any Roman Emperor could grant himself triumph at a whim. The tradition of Roman triumphs survived for a while in Byzantine empire. Last recorded triumph was organized in 534 by Emperor Justinian for his greatest general Flavius Belisarius.

Up until today nobody knows the origin of the Roman triumph ceremony. Some say that it came from ancient Etruscan civilization and then passed to Rome as a civil ceremony and religious rite. No historian could establish with certainty when the last Roman triumph ceremony was conducted.

In the times of Roman republic, triumph was held to publicly honour the triumphator - military commander of a notably successful foreign war or campaign and to display the glories of Roman victory. If the Roman general wanted to have a triumph in his honor, he had to meet certain requirements.

For example he had to be proclaimed an imperator by his troops after a great victory. This acclamation necessary for a general to apply to the Senate for a triumph. Then an imperator would bring the army home, signifying that the war was over and that the army was no longer needed.

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For his achievements Sulla was awarded the highest Roman military honor - a famous Grass Crown. This award was given for personal bravery to a commanding general that saves a Roman legion or army in the field. Unlike all other Roman military honors, it was awarded only by acclamation of the soldiers of the rescued army. By tradition, the Grass Crown was woven from grasses and other plants taken from the actual battlefield.

Sulla’s military skills were required again during the war against powerful Mithridates VI, king of Pontus. Roman general successfully and masterfully defeated king and his allies, despite all odds. For example, in 86BC, in the Battle of Chaeronea Sulla had defeated a vastly superior force in terms of numbers. It was also the first recorded time that battlefield entrenchments were used.

An interesting even occurred in 82 BC that influenced in many ways the future of Rome. At that time Sulla was appointed the dictator of Rome. He had many powerful enemies in the Senate and patrician families. The young Julius Caesar became one of Sulla’s targets. His father-in-law Cinna was number one enemy of Sulla. Miraculously, young Julius Caesar managed to flee the city in time and survive. Yet Sulla never let his adversaries off the hook, so sooner or later young Caesar was bound to die. Young Julius got lucky again. He was saved through the efforts of his relatives, many of whom were Sulla’s supporters. Yet, Sulla noted in his memoirs that he regretted sparing Caesar’s life, because of the young man’s notorious ambition.

Last time I was telling you that Roman dictator Sulla was famous for his bravery and cunning. Here is his glorious deeds in brief.

In 106 BC Sulla participated in the Roman war against king Jugurtha of Numidian in northern Africa. Thanks to him, Romans defeated Jugurtha. Sulla persuaded Jugurtha’s ally and father-in-law king Bocchus of Mauretania to betray Jugurtha, who had fled there for refuge. It was a dangerous operation from the start, for king Bocchus was weighing up the advantages of handing Jugurtha over to Sulla or Sulla over to Jugurtha. Grateful Romans erected a statue of Sulla donated by King Bocchus in the Forum to commemorate his accomplishment.

In 104 BC Rome was in danger again. The migrating Germanic tribes of the Cimbri and the Teutones were heading for Italy. Sulla, as a commander of a Roman army defeated the tribes and was credited as being the prime mover in the victory.

Citizens of Rome needed Sulla’s skills again during the so called Social War that started in 91 BC. This war was fought against the Rome’s Italian allies. During his military campaign Sulla defeated the rebels and outshone all other Roman generals. As a result of his success in bringing the Social War to a successful conclusion, he was elected consul for the first time in 88 BC.

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Admiring his noble deed, Roman citizen chose him as a consul for the year of 80 BC. After his time as a consul was over, Sulla simply retired to his country villa. He chose not to get involved  with political activities in Rome anymore.  Instead, he started writing his memoirs that were completed just before his death. He died in his bed surrounded by his favorite actors and dancers.

Later greedy for power Julius Caesar ridiculed Sulla for resigning voluntarily. Yet, Sulla died peacefully, while Caesar was brutally murdered by senators’ daggers. So one can see, who was right in the end.  Unfortunately, example of Sulla inspired other Roman generals who were dreaming of dictatorship. Though he resigned his complete command of the Republic, Sulla was the one who provided the inspiration for Caesar’s future dictatorship. His example proved that it could be done, and therefore inspired other Roman generals to attempt it.

Before Julius Caesar and Octavian Augustus, there was a man who, actually, hastened the end of the Roman Republic by his example. His name was Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix, but usually he was known simply as Sulla.

Sulla had the best chance to become the first Roman Emperor but for some unknown to historians reasons he simply did not want to. Contemporaries compared him to half fox and half lion, due to his perceived cunning and bravery. He enjoyed the absolute power of a dictator. Yet one day he stunned Rome by publicly resigning his dictatorship. It happened near the end of 81 BC. Sulla not only resigned, he also disbanded loyal to him legions and reestablished normal consular government, He dismissed his personal guard and walked unguarded in the forum, offering to give account of his actions to any citizen.

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For many years Conan Doyle was friends with the famous American escape artist and magician Harry Houdini. Unlike the famous writer, Houdini was an opponent of the Spiritualist movement. His contempt for Spiritualism even doubled in the 1920s when his mother died. He was touring America and Europe making public speeches against mediums.

Houdini made his goal to publicly expose Spiritualist mediums as frauds and presented many examples as proof that they employed trickery fooling gullible people. But for some reason Houdini’s efforts had an opposite effect on his friend Conan Doyle. The famous author became utterly convinced that Houdini himself possessed supernatural powers. Conan Doyle even wrote a book about it. No matter how hard Houdini tried, he could not dissuade Conan Doyle. Harry unsuccessfully tried his best convincing Conan Doyle that his feats were simply magic tricks. In the end two friends had a bitter quarrel in public. This even ended their friendship and they never spoke to each other again.