Acești cocălari aroganți și căruțele lor zburătoare și homerice

Un istoric care scrie intr-o engleza superba despre manierele de cocalar si de Gigi Becali ale eroilor homerici. Fabulos. Nici nu-mi pare ca citesc istorie, ci relatari tabloide din presa recenta :)

"But if what Homer tells us about Mycenaean battle tactics is correct, the European warriors failed to use the chariot's combination of mobility and firepower to good effect.

Instead, Homer's heroes dismounted from their chariots to fight on foot with spears and other close-combat weapons, using their chariots for show and as mere conveniences in coming and going from the field of battle.

However absurd, Homer's report may be accurate. The tactics he described may have been a function of numbers and terrain.

To succeed, a chariot charge required a critical mass - enough arrows and charging chariots to break opposing infantry and persuade foot soldiers to flee.

But in a land like Greece, where hills abound and fodder for horses is short, chariots had to remain few - to few, perhaps, to achieve decisive effect in battle.

Yet, like Cadillacs of the recent past, the prestige of the chariot after its victories in the Middle East was such that every local European chieftain was eager to have one, whether or not he could use it effectively in war."

William H. McNeill - The Pursuit of Power. Technology, Armed Force and Society Since AD 1000 (1982; pp. 11 - 12 and footnotes)