Infinite Wisdom

"I scoff at America."

La Triviata

• To set an example for his troops, while campaigning in Spain against Numantia in the mid-second century B.C., Scipio Aemilianus slept on straw, despite being among the wealthiest of Romans.
• Between 1816 and 1829, the U. S. Army spent $8,250,000 on coast defense installations (perhaps $162 billion today based on share of GDP), a figure which does not included state outlays for fortifications.
• Winston S. Churchill was the subject of about 9 books a year from his death in early 1965 through 2000, after the which the number has averages about 15.
• In 1290 Camerino, a papal fief in the Marches of eastern Italy, was obligated to turn out its full military contingent, several hundred foot soldiers and some score lances, should fighting occur on its territory, but only five lances – a combat team of 4-5 mounted troops – if required for service elsewhere in the province, and but two lances if needed for service anywhere else.
• An analysis of more than 135 sieges undertaken in France or by French forces between 1451 and 1714 suggests that the investing force rarely exceeded 32,000 men.
• In 1924 an Army anti-aircraft regiment stationed in Hawaii fired 25,000 machine gun rounds and 2,000 3-inch fragmentation shells at an aerial target being towed at relatively low speed on a predetermined course, and achieved 193 hits.
• The word “totalitarian” was coined by anti-fascists as a pejorative to describe Benito Mussolini’s concept of state authority, but was quickly adopted by Il Duce as a term to describe what he viewed as a fundamental principal of fascism.
• In 1873 the Bolivian Army consisted of 690 officers and 2,165 other ranks, for a ratio of one officer for approximately every three enlisted men.

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