Benjamin Franklin (c. 1706-1790)
“Historians relate, not so much what is done, as what they would have believed.”
- From Poor Richard’s Almanac by Benjamin Franklin (Seven Treasures Publications, 2008).
Benjamin Franklin
Alexander the Great And The Siege of Gaza
The cities on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea put up some of the staunchest defenses that Alexander the Great would face during his conquests. After Alexander defeated the Persian forces in the 334 BCE battle at the Granicus River and the 333 BCE battle at Issus, the king set his sight on subduing the Middle Eastern coastline and Egypt before marching deeper into the Persian Empire. Amazingly, only two major cities offered resistance to Alexander during his march to Egypt. First, was the island city of Tyre, which Alexander besieged from January to August in 332 BCE. After a grueling standoff, Tyre fell to an assault by land (via an earthen causeway) and by sea. With the Tyrians slaughtered or enslaved by the thousands, Alexander continued his march in peace, not experiencing any resistance, until he reached the fortified city of Gaza. There, a bold eunuch named Batis was inspirited by his personal supply of provisions and mercenaries to resist the invaders.
Alexander arrived at Gaza around September 332 BCE, and laid siege to the fortress. For this battle, Alexander and his engineers did not pull any punches. The besiegers encircled the city with a tall earthwork platform that extended as high as Gaza’s walls. With the platform complete, Alexander deployed his siege engines (likely towers and catapults), facing Gaza’s southern walls, where the defenses looked the weakest.
Batis and his mercenaries rightly saw the looming threat of the siege weapons and decided to launch a sudden attack against the earthwork. Their goal was to burn Alexander’s siege engines and they nearly achieved their mission—Batis had his own artillery and he deployed them to the south, utilizing them alongside archers and slingers to drive the besiegers off the earthwork. The Greek forces were about to falter from the onslaught of projectiles when Alexander arrived in the nick of time to rally his troops. Although the besiegers were victorious against the sortie from Gaza, it came at a cost. Alexander was struck in the shoulder by a projectile fired from the city’s artillery. Unfortunately for the people of Gaza, Alexander’s shield and armor absorbed most of the blow’s impact, and he recovered with remarkable speed. Instead of being crippled or dead, Alexander was still on the frontlines and more inspired than ever to capture the city.
Not long after Alexander was wounded, his navy arrived with a cargo of even more siege weapons, which were left over from the capture of Tyre. With such a stockpile of artillery at his disposal, Alexander expanded his earthwork around Gaza to accommodate the new machines. With his earthwork upgraded, the new siege engines were set up to encircle the town. As if this were not enough, Alexander also deployed sappers to tunnel under the fortifications of Gaza and undermine its walls.
By October of 332 BCE, the defenses of Gaza were in a very poor state due to Alexander’s artillery and sapping. Large swaths of the wall had crumbled or completely collapsed. With breaches appearing all over the fortress, Alexander launched three assaults on Gaza, with debatable commitment to the attack—theses assaults were mainly mounted by archers and the heavy infantry was held in reserve. Yet, on the fourth assault, Alexander threw the full might of his infantry into the fray and overwhelmed the defenders. A predicted 10,000 men of fighting age were slaughtered by Alexander’s forces in the capture of Gaza. The lives of the women and children were spared, but they were ultimately sold into slavery.
Written by C. Keith Hansley.
Picture Attribution: (Alexander Instructing his soliders, from The Deeds of Alexander the Great (Antonio Tempesta 1555–1630 Rome), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)
Sources:
- The Campaigns of Alexander by Arrian, translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt. New York: Penguin Classics, 1971.
- Alexander the Great by Philip Freeman. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2011.
- Alexander the Great: The Story of an Ancient Life by Thomas R. Martin and Christopher W. Blackwell. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Emperor Domitian (recorded by Suetonius)
Emperor Domitian (r. 81-96)
“How pleasant it is to be elegant, yet how quickly that stage passes!”
- Quote attributed to Domition in his book, Care of the Hair, later recorded in The Twelve Caesars (Domitian) by Suetonius, translated by Robert Graves and edited by James B. Rives. New York: Penguin Classics, 2007.
The First Reported Contact Between Britain and Vikings
The anonymous author of the early sections of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was the first known source to write about a Viking raid in Britain. In the entry for the Anglo-Saxon year 787 (often equated by modern historians to year 789), it was reported that three ships of “Northmen” arrived near the Kingdom of Wessex from the so-called “Hæretha Lands,” or the land of robbers. Some believe the description of the Northmen’s homeland refers to Hordaland, Norway, but others think it refers to Denmark. While it is certain that Britain had encountered Nordic people in the past, and it is plausible that these or other Vikings crews from the year 787/789 had attacked different regions during the time it took for the three northern longships to make their way toward Wessex, the chronicler of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle believed that the vessels off the coast of Wessex were “the first ships of Danish men that sought the land of the English race” (ASC 787 [789]).
At the time, King Beorhtric ruled Wessex and one of his reeves (basically a sheriff) discovered the northern strangers on the coast. As the Kingdom of Wessex had reportedly had no contact with Viking raiders before, the reeve did not know what to expect from the foreigners. Therefore, the dutiful official rode down to the beach to meet with the sailors, likely thinking them to be merchants or diplomats. He reportedly planned to guide the Vikings to meet with King Beorhtric, but the poor reeve quickly discovered that the Northmen had not come to Wessex for diplomacy. Instead of friendly discourse, the Vikings killed the reeve and presumably raided some nearby villages before disappearing back into the sea.
After the death of the reeve, no more Viking attacks were reported for several years. During that span of time, perhaps the Anglo-Saxons believed the reeve’s death was an accident or a product of failed diplomacy. Yet, word finally began to spread around Christendom about the nature of the Vikings after 793—in that year, Vikings raided the monastery of Lindisfarne in Northumbria, looting the sanctuary and killing some of the monks. While the death of the reeve only caused some grumbling in Wessex, the raid on Lindisfarne horrified many throughout Europe. It was about time they worried, for the raids would only get worse in the years to come.
Written by C. Keith Hansley.
Picture Attribution: (Painting of a Viking Raid by Ferdinand Leeke (1859–1937), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).
Sources:
- Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in The Viking Age: A Reader, edited by Angus A. Somerville and R. Andrew McDonald. Ontario: University of Toronto Press, 2010.
- The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle translated by Benjamin Thorpe in 1861 and republished by Cambridge University Press, 2012.
- http://avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/ang08.asp#b30
Hildr Hrólfsdóttir
Attributed to Hildr Hrólfsdóttir (c. 9th century), recorded by Snorri Sturluson (c. 1179-1241)
“Tis ill ‘gainst wolf to be wolfish,
warrior, such wolf opposing.
Hard that wolf will harry
your herds, once he runs to the forest.”
- This poem is attributed to Hildr Hrólfsdóttir in The Saga of Harald Fairhair, included in Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla. The translation used here is by Lee Hollander (University of Texas Press, 1964, 2018). Hildr Hrólfsdóttir reportedly stated this poem after King Harald Fairhair (or Finehair) of Norway outlawed her son, Hrolf (Rollo), who would go on to rule Normandy.
Medieval Archery-Enhancing Witchcraft
Most of the spells and witchcraft rituals mentioned in the 15th-century witch-hunting manual, The Malleus Maleficarum, consisted of damaging curses and ceremonies to augment weather. Yet, the book also claimed there were types of witchcraft that could be utilized by warriors in battle. In particular, magic-wielding archers apparently had access to a demonic ritual that could make every arrow meet its mark.
The ritual supposedly used by these diabolical archers can be found in part 2, question 2, chapter 16 of The Malleus Maleficarum. It was quite a simple procedure—the archer only needed to do some simple target practice. Yet, instead of shooting at normal archery targets, the ritual called for a crucifix to be set up at the end of the range. With the cross in place, the skilled wizard-archer needed only to successfully hit the crucifix with an arrow to produce a supernatural projectile.
After hitting the crucifix with a number of arrows, and possibly reciting some sacrilegious statement, the archer could finish the ritual by simply pulling the arrows out of the crucifix and sticking them back into his quiver. If the arrows still happened to not be magical at this point, there were apparently other criteria that less powerful wizards needed to meet, such as doing the ritual on Good Friday or giving not only their soul, but also their body, to the Devil before attempting the spell. According to the theory proposed by The Malleus Maleficarum, the odd ritual performed by the archer caused every arrow that had struck the crucifix to be connected with a guardian demon. This basically turned the arrows into medieval heat-seeking missiles. If the witch-archer launched a diabolical arrow from his bow, a guardian demon would ensure that the projectile dealt a killing blow to the intended target.
There were, however, a few limits that restrained the power of the witch-archers. For one, the demon-arrows were supposedly only effective against targets that were within eye-range of the archer. Additionally, there may have been a cap to the amount of evil arrows that the archers could produce in their ritual. The Malleus Maleficarum hinted that possibly only three or four cursed arrows could be made on any given day. Similarly, the demonic arrows could not be stockpiled to any effect, because after a wizard-archer shot three or four magical arrows, the spell would abruptly end and no other demonic arrows would work for the remainder of the day.
Read about an accused witch-archer named Puncker, HERE.
Written by C. Keith Hansley.
Picture Attribution: (Archer’s arm guard (Bracer); Archery Equipment, c. 1752, in the MET museum, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).
Sources:
- The Malleus Maleficarum (part II, question 2, chapter 16) by Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, translated by Montague Summers (Dover Publications, 1971).
According To Legend, Fortune Literally Came Knocking At Emperor Galba’s Door
Servius Sulpicius Galba was born in 3 BCE, and lived through the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero. He came from an ancient aristocratic house and proved himself to be competent in governing several provinces of the empire, albeit in a ruthless manner. Over the decades of Julian-Claudian rule, Galba had good fortune. He became a governor of Aquitania during the reign of Tiberius. Caligula gave him another high office as governor of Germania Superior. Claudius followed suit, giving Galba a military and administrative position in Africa. Nero ignored him for a while, but eventually appointed Galba as governor of Tarraconensian Spain in 60 CE, a position that he would use to usurp power in Rome eight years later. By 68 CE, Emperor Nero had lost the support of several powerful governors in his empire. A rebellion broke out in Gaul, and Galba, with his Spanish legions, joined the rebels and became the leader. The Roman Senate was sympathetic to the rebels and declared Nero to be an enemy of the state. In June of 68 CE, Nero committed suicide and Galba was proclaimed emperor.
Up to this point, Emperor Galba had a fortunate life, especially by the ruthless standards of ancient Roman politics. His luck was so palpable that it apparently inspired a series of folkloric tales. The Roman biographer Suetonius (c. 70-130+), a man who loved such rumors and yarns, recorded two stories that gave a divine explanation for Galba’s fate. According to the tales presented by Suetonius, one of the reasons that Galba had a successful life was because he was a life-long favorite of the goddess Fortuna, the divine personification of fortune.
As the story goes, when Galba was a young man, the goddess Fortuna visited him in a dream. It was not a very elaborate dream—the setting was in his house and Galba never even saw the goddess. Instead, he only heard a knocking sound coming from his door. When Galba approached the locked door in his dream, he was greeted by the impatient voice of Fortuna, demanding that he let her in, lest she leave and grace someone else’s doorstep with her presence. Galba woke up before he could open the dream world’s door, so he did the next best thing and rushed to his front door in reality. When he opened it up, Galba realized that the goddess had actually left him a present—a bronze statue of Fortuna was apparently waiting just outside the threshold of his home.
According to Suetonius, Galba enshrined the statue in his summer home at Tusculum and offered it a sacrifice every month. With Fortuna on his side, Galba survived the tumultuous reigns of the Julio-Claudian emperors and even gained control of the empire, himself, when he was in his early seventies. Yet, something went wrong—his luck had an abrupt end. Suetonius wrote down another piece of folklore that offered a mythological explanation for Galba’s fall from grace. According to the tale, Galba began to slack in his sacrifices to Fortuna once he achieved the title of emperor. In particular, he allegedly halted a shipment of jewelry that was heading for the shrine of Fortuna at Tusculum, and instead donated the treasures to a temple of the goddess, Venus. Unfortunately, Fortuna, like many deities, was a jealous goddess, and she immediately invaded one of the emperor’s dreams to express her anger and sense of betrayal. When Galba awoke from the dream, he apparently tried to make things right, but he never regained Fortuna’s favor. In 69 CE, Galba was assassinated during a military coup spearheaded by his former ally, Otho.
Written by C. Keith Hansley.
Picture Attribution: (Sketch of Emperor Galba by Rembrandt (1606–1669), with a depiction of Fortuna from “The literary digest” 1890, in front of a modified cityscape by Thomas Cole (1801–1848), all [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).
Sources:
- The Twelve Caesars (Galba) by Suetonius, translated by Robert Graves and edited by James B. Rives. New York: Penguin Classics, 2007.
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Galba
- https://www.ancient.eu/Galba/
- http://www.livius.org/articles/person/galba/
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nero-Roman-emperor
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (1342-1400)
“Love is a thing as any spirit free;
Women by nature long for liberty
And not to be constrained or made a thrall,
And so do men, if I may speak for all.”
- From The Canterbury Tales (The Franklin’s Tale) by Geoffrey Chaucer, translated to modern English by Nevill Coghill (Penguin Classics, 2003).
The Flamboyant Tale Of King Liu Duan Of Jiaoxi
Emperor Jing (r. 157-141 BCE) and the concubine Lady Cheng had three sons named Liu Yu, Liu Fei and Liu Duan. All three brothers were quickly appointed as kings after their father’s ascendance to the throne. Liu Yu and Liu Fei were given kingdoms in 155 BCE and Liu Duan followed close behind with his appointment as the King of Jiaoxi in 154 BCE. Lady Cheng’s sons were generally well behaved when it came to respecting the authority of the emperors—they never rebelled and they had largely tranquil reigns. Liu Yu and Liu Fei both died after twenty-five or twenty-six years of rule, which had been tame and peacefully absent of drama. Liu Duan, however, who lived to rule twice as long as his brothers, quickly became the oddball of the family.
Liu Duan set up his regime in Jiaoxi like any other king. He hired an entourage of ministers and attendants to help govern his kingdom, and he also took in several concubines who would hopefully provide him with an heir to the kingdom. Yet, Liu Duan and his ministers quickly began to feud. The main point of dissent, according to Han historian Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE), was the relationship between the king and his concubines—or lack thereof. Apparently, Liu Duan was strictly homosexual and used every trick in the book to avoid time with his palace women. His favorite ploy was to plead illness, a tactic that allowed him to escape his concubines for months at a time.
Although the king and his harem of women had a cold relationship, Liu Duan was quite affectionate toward a certain young man who worked in the palace. The attendant, left unnamed by Sima Qian, was either accepting of or nonresistant to the king’s interest and the two were alleged to have begun a passionate relationship. Yet, unlike Liu Duan, the palace attendant fancied women as much as he did men, and, when he became smitten with one of the king’s scorned concubines, a classic love triangle was formed.
While not attending the king, the handsome courtier found ways to spend time with the palace lady who had caught his eye. His advances were apparently reciprocated and the two began an affair behind the back of the king. Yet, the couple became horrified when the concubine entered that state which couples receive with both excitement and anxiety—she was pregnant. To the relief of the illicit lovers, Liu Duan liked to keep his palace women out of sight and out of mind. The king reportedly had so little interest in the women of his harem that he was totally oblivious to the pregnancy of the concubine. It was only after the child was born that gossip reached the ears of Liu Duan. When the truth was discovered, the heartbroken king reportedly had the palace attendant, the concubine and even their newborn child all executed.
During the time that King Liu Duan was not hiding from his palace women, he usually was immersed in legal intrigue against his ministers and other imperial officials. It was apparently a life-long battle, but the king proved himself to be a worthy and dangerous opponent. Sima Qian wrote, “The chancellors and the 2,000 picul officials would no sooner attempt to bring charges against him than they would find that they themselves had become entangled in the Han Laws” (Shi Ji 59). It was a testament to Liu Duan’s political skill that he won most of his legal battles during his lengthy forty-seven-year reign as king of Jiaoxi. Yet, with the king and the officials distracted by a never-ending feud, the kingdom suffered from neglect. Sima Qian wrote, “His storehouses began to leak and fall into ruin, and the goods in them, valued at millions of cash, rotted away until they could not even be moved from the spot” (Shi Ji 59). Along with the storehouses, the kingdom’s tax collection system and the flow of payment to guards and the military also suffered from poor management. The officials used the tattered state of the kingdom to their advantage. Sima Qian stated, “The officials then requested that his kingdom be reduced in size, and he was deprived of over half of his domain” (Shi Ji 59).
As the king grew older, he apparently took his security much more seriously. Likely in consequence of the unstable pay of his guards and military, the king became more reclusive, reportedly spending most of his time holed up in his palace with those he trusted most. He may have also feared assassination, as he was said to have used disguises and false names whenever he traveled on roads that left him vulnerable to attack. Nevertheless, Liu Duan was a survivor and lived until his peaceful death in 107 BCE, after nearly a half-century of rule in Jiaoxi. At the time of his death, the king still had no children, and the kingdom was consequently brought under the direct jurisdiction of Emperor Wu’s central government.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Picture Attribution: (figures from a tomb mural of Prince Zhanguai (c. 706) and a woman from a Sung Dynasty tomb mural (c. 960-1279), both [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).
Sources:
- The Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji) by Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
