Side

Photograph of the Side
Apollo Temple, by M. C. Dutt

Side |
Monday – August 10, 2026

I am not heading out to the Seaside... I am not heading out to the Seaside... But folks, I am heading out to the countryside, and with that I am hopefully able to take some more pictures. Of course, my stay here in Türkiye is nearing its end, and I am wondering about the future, but that is something that I will cover at another time. I must say that it has been a wonder to look at all of the ancient buildings here and as I stated the other day: I can feel where the romans would have walked and where they would have paved the roads, and you can still follow the old roman paths. Yes, even though the Roman Empire fell many centuries ago, the Roman Empire is still here, if you are in the right mood that is, and of course the later days of the Roman Empire and the decadence of the ruling class, of the revolutionary elite. To some extent these are not new developments in human history and what is true for most of our contemporary rulers were true for men like Nero and Caligula, and then it was also true as it is today that stronger men build great civilizations, and their prodigy leads civilization down to disaster, or at least this is often the case.

    Anyhow, I did find the name of Side interesting, but again here I am referring to the name of the port city that I have been staying in for some time; I am not referring to the word "side". Now, the origins of the name Side do appear to be Greek in nature, and the old Roman name for Side would have been something like Side too but likely pronounced in a different way. Apparently Side means pomegranate in Anatolian Greece, which should be a fitting name because you very much can grow pomegranates here, and I suppose that pomegranates would have been imported from the far Western Roman Empire, modern day Spain; of course both Türkiye and Spain would have been parts of the old Roman Empire. Of course, during the division of the Roman Empire into the East and the West, Türkiye and Spain ended up on different sides; in the case of Türkiye this was the core of the Byzantine Empire, and of course before the Moslems (Mohammedans) conquered this part of the world there would have been plenty of Christians and Pagans, and you can still sense pre Christian Rome. Now of course, it was not until the formation of modern Türkiye and Greece, read "Kemalism", that the Christian population was greatly reduced here in Türkiye. Now, to some extent the politically correct crowd has decided to forget this history, consider for instance the name switch from Constantinople to Istanbul, but then again modern nation-states tend to do these things without hesitation; really it is as if it is an automatic feature of modern states to commit great violence, and of course this is the case, and especially compared to ancient civilizations. Btw, this is why I am not heading out to the Seaside: partly because I do not like to swim, but also partly because I realize that so much blood has been shed on these steps, and the waters ought to remind us of this, at any rate if we are opponents of violence and of force, that is to say undue violence and undue force. It is also true that all roads lead to Rome, but here in the Near East, it is also the case that all roads lead to Jerusalem. Of course, when I am strolling down the streets of Side, I should note the local mosque overlooking the infidel activity in the market, or of the fishermen. Yes, these are the descendants of the corsairs of this region, almost at least, and I would suggest that a lot of the foundations of what became North Africa during the Ottoman Empire must have had its origin here in Anatolia before it spread to the rest of the Empire. Indeed, this part of the world carries a lot of history, this is undeniable, and that is why I am moved by walking these ancient streets.

    Now, for the local population I do sense a certain distance to the ancient world, as I typically do in these regions, and that is mostly due to the fact that there have been so many population movements in this region, and over the past two millennia, it should be expected that a lot of people have been on the move, and the local population of modern day Side is likely distinct from the local population of Roman Side, but also only to an extend; I would still expect most of the locals to be descendants of some of the Romans; this is virtually a given for mathematical reasons. Another thing to note about Side, and still generally about this part of the world, is again the fact that the weather often permits these explorations; I am sure that a similar exploration must be possible in the Great North, but the problem is that the weather seldom permits this, which is also a reason why corrosion happens much more frequently. At any rate, I see no evidence that most modern Historians have any understanding of these matters, and they often display this ignorance by their perversion of these ancient symbols, but this is a story for another day. I suppose as well, that we must ask ourselves how it is that a civilization such as Rome came to a point of complete disintegration, but when we actually consider how Rome developed, is this so strange? I do not believe so, and I believe that it would be fair to draw parallels between ancient Rome and the Western world of today, be we should not only be satisfied with this comparison, because the truth is of course much more complicated, but it seems almost fateful that weak men should be all of the place now. See, I have noticed that there are so many fat people all over the place, and I think this so-called "beer belly" syndrome should be allowed to signify this. Yes, there are so many fat tourists everywhere and it is really offensive, and really because men develop a lot of fat around their belly, it just seems to me that men tend to look the same after a certain age, which means that if we consider age an important form of segregation, then the beer belly should also be a signal to take into account, for very few young men have managed to develop a beer belly, even if they are fat. My point being, in this connection, that when most people have such low standards, is it not a given that everything should be going down the tubes? Well, only the future may tell...

Reginald Drax (AKA, M. C. Dutt) – August 10, 2026.