Cross-cultural communication （147）　

147) Shiono Nanami, Alexander the Great, Shohei Ohtani
I had been reading Shiono Nanami's occasional historical essays since the early 1990s, when I was working at the National Osaka Hospital before moving to Paris, and I had a favorable impression of her. In 1997, when I returned to Japan after two and a half years of work in Paris, I learned that Shiono had begun writing “The Story of the Romans” and that it was receiving favorable reviews. Actually, I read Japanese books only on the train during my commute, so as for Japanese books I only buy paperbacks for their portability. I decided, “I'll read it once it's published in paperback!”

My wish came true, and “The Story of the Romans” was published in paperback in 2002. However, it is a massive work covering the birth and fall of ancient Rome. Each paperback volume, over 200 pages long, was released every four to five months, so it took nearly ten years from 2002 for all 43 volumes to be completed. During those 10 years, I became so engrossed in ancient Rome that I couldn't wait for the next volume to be released. After completing this masterpiece, Shiono immediately began working on “The Story of the Greeks,” which depicts ancient Greece, the foundation of ancient Rome. The paperback edition of this work was released in the second half of 2023, with four volumes of about 500 pages each completed by the end of the year. Of course, I read it with great interest.

Thus, over the past 20 years, I have had the good fortune to learn the details of the history and civilization of ancient Greece and Rome, which form the foundation of modern Western civilization, for the first time in my life, even at the age of 70. Some historians criticize Shiono's two major works, calling them “not history books.” That's understandable. Shiono herself refers to her works as “historical essays.” After all, we are dealing with over 2,000 years of history. Primary sources are limited, and the reasons behind events are often left to the author's imagination based on the events that came before and after. This imaginative aspect is the true strength of her work.

Anyway, when I finished reading “The Story of the Greeks” in January 2024, I had an interesting thought. As Ms. Shiono herself mentions several times in her works on Rome and Greece, she has quite a superficial taste when it comes to men. She prefers men who are decisive, quick to act, have a good personality, are liked by both subordinates and women, and are also handsome. (This may seem quite ordinary...) Using this criteria, she mentions two heroes from ancient Greece and Rome whom she prefers: Alexander the Great from the Greek era and Caesar from the Roman era. These two are hard to compare, but based on the nuances in Shiono's writings, it seems that Alexander is more to her taste. Perhaps it's because Alexander was in his 20s during his most active period, while Caesar was in his middle years, and the former was young, tall, and handsome, while the latter had a mature charm but was average-looking.

This is the Alexander she highly recommends. He was the king of Macedonia (a kingdom within the ancient Greek cultural sphere), but after his father was assassinated, he ascended the throne at the age of 20 and embarked on a campaign to conquer Persia, a vast empire dozens of times larger than his own. He achieved one victory after another, and to this day, he is revered worldwide as the “Great King”. During this decade-long Persian campaign, he always led his cavalry unit, known as the “Diamond Point”, into battle, ate the same food as his soldiers, and slept in the same tents as them. Additionally, he reportedly distributed nearly all the spoils of war as rewards for his soldiers. Does this remind you of anyone?　It's Shohei Ohtani, the two-way player who signed a 10-year contract worth over 100 billion yen with the LA Dodgers at the end of 2023. Despite his youth, tall stature, and good looks, he reportedly received only 10 % of his salary during his playing career, gifted a Porsche to the wife of the Dodgers player who gave him his jersey number, and donated over 100 million yen to earthquake victims in the Noto Peninsula, Japan on New Year's Day 2024. He is truly the Alexander the Great of modern times, isn't he?

P.S. At the end of the fourth volume of “The Story of the Greeks,” Shiono writes, “With this work, I will conclude my writing of historical essays.” I feel a sense of sadness and loss. Thank you, Shiono Nanami-san! By the way, a six-episode miniseries depicting the life of Alexander the Great began streaming on Netflix in January 2024, but I do not recommend it. It is far too short to adequately portray Alexander and amounts to little more than a summary.

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