"Since You Are So Powerful"

Following the defeat of Caesar's assassins at Philippi in 42 B.C., Marc Antony took up the task of settling the affairs in the East for the victorious Triumvirate, while his partners, Octavian and Marcus Lepidus settled those of Italy and the West.

Antony made his headquarters in Pergamum, capital of Asia, a pleasant place where he found himself able to indulge his taste for food and wine and revelry while reorganizing Rome's eastern territories.  He summoned the political leaders and local rulers from all the statelets in the East.  When they had assembled, Antony announced that to help defray the costs of the recent civil war and finance reconstruction of the state (not to mention lining his and his partners' pockets), they would have to pay ten years' worth of taxes in the following year. 

This naturally stunned the assembled notables.  Various among them politely pointed out the difficulties associated with Antony's request.  The defeated "Liberators," Cassius and Brutus, had only recently squeezed the region for substantial amounts, and the coffers of the many free cities and petty kingdoms were, if not bare, certainly greatly reduced. 

Antony was unmoved.

Finally, one of those present suggested that since Antony was powerful enough to demand a second levy such as had just been imposed by his enemies, he might also arrange for "a second summer and a second harvest." 

Well, Antony may have had a hot temper, even when sober, but he also had a taste for a quick wit.  He promptly proposed that the levy be changed to nine years' taxes, payable over the next two years, which the assembled notables found acceptable, particularly since the "normal" taxes about which they complained so loudly were actually relatively light.

Webb Hayes, Like Father, Like Son

Anyone with more than a passing knowledge of the Civil War, is aware that President Rutherford B. Hayes had a very distinguished career in the Volunteer Army, rising to major genera, while acquiring five wounds, more than anyone who would ever serve in the White House.  Arguably, one of the president’s three sons had an even more distinguished military record, his eldest, James Webb Cook Hayes (1856-1934), the only one to serve.  As a very young boy, Webb, as he was known, often spent time around his father’s headquarters during the Civil War, and came to know many senior officers.  Among them was George Crook, the famous Indian fighter, who became his godfather, and taught him field craft on the plains during the Indian Wars, so that Webb became an excellent hunter and tracker.  Webb entered Cornell in 1873, but left at the end of 1875, to serve as his father’s secretary after the elder Hayes had been elected Governor of Ohio, a task that he continued to perform during his father’s presidency (1877-1881).  After his father’s presidency, Webb became active in business, and was one of the founders of what became Union Carbide, while joining the Ohio National Guard.  Webb was a guest at the White House at the time President William McKinley signed the joint resolution of Congress declaring Cuba ought to be free of Spain, April 20, 1898, and promptly offered his services in the event of war, becoming effectively the first man to sign-up for the Spanish-American War (April-August 1898)

Although officially an officer in the 1^st Ohio Cavalry, which did no go overseas, Webb managed to see action as a staff officer, and was slightly wounded at San Juan Hill in Cuba, before taking part in the brief campaign in Puerto Rico.  With the outbreak of the Philippine Insurrection (1899-1902), he became a lieutenant colonel in the 31st Infantry, U.S. Volunteers, and personally conducted a dangerous overnight reconnaissance on December 4, 1899, that led to the relief of an American force besieged by the insurgents at Vigan, winning a Medal of Honor.  He later served in the Boxer Rebellion in China (1900), and, after being commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the Regular Army, was an official U.S. Army observer during the Russo-Japanese War, before going on to some routine garrison duty and service on the Mexican Border in 1911-1913.  During World War I, Webb was assigned to State Department duties in France, and later to an administrative post in support of American forces in Italy, rising to brigadier general.