Reading A History of Wales and Davies skillfully manages to make the account fascinating! Chapter One deals with pre-pre history. Chapter two begins with Julius Caesar landing at Kent in August of 55 BC. Julius was on a rampage, ostensibly to punish the Belgae of Britain because they sided with their cousins, the Gauls. Direct quote from Davies regarding the Roman invasion … “although it is probable that it had more to do with his own ambitions.” “Their real motive was their desire to seize the fertile lowlands.” “Planting of the eagles across the sea… was a matter of pride.”(p. 25 ~ 26)
Does Davies’s conclusion resonate? Sound like a current events class? Interesting the national bird of conquest is the double eagle. Who else do we recognize without scruples who invades under the same symbol? Two thousand plus years since Caesar was miffed. I’ve stood on the old Roman road in Chester and gazed to the hills of Wales. Caesar is long since dust and archaeological remnants all that’s left of his quest for empire. When will we as a human race learn the boundaries of respect for each other?
There is one point to our history, personal, cultural or as a planet. One reason humans come wired with memory. Memory serves as a learning experience for the self and collective. Reading history, factual school curriculums, honoring accounts of survivors serve our collective memory. Compassionate conversations enhance our chance of mutually assured survival when we internalize the lessons.
