King Harald Hardrada (c. 1015-1066)
“Now I go creeping from forest
To forest with little honour;
Who knows, my name may yet become
Renowned far and wide in the end.”
During the reign of Augustus (r. 31 BCE – 14 CE) a certain type of dance became popular that would remain a theatrical favorite in Rome for centuries. In the dance, a performer, known as a pantomimus, entertained the crowd with a cross between the antics of a mime and the artistry of a ballet. These pantomimi, as they are known in plural, were said to have worn masks and elaborate costumes, dancing along to accompanying sounds from musicians and singers.
The pantomimi dancers found an interesting fan in the youthful Roman emperor, Nero (r. 54-68). As an aspiring musician and theatre performer, himself, Nero was naturally drawn to the dancers. Around the year 56, when Nero’s infamous bad habits were starting to become prevalent, he allegedly decided to liven up the bustling theatres where the performances were held. According to the historian and statesman, Tacitus (c. 56-117+), the audience of the pantomimi were already a rowdy crowd, often getting into fights over differing opinions concerning who would be named the best dancer. Tacitus claimed that Nero enjoyed these skirmishes so much that he abolished any penalties for fighting and gave prizes to the winners. He was also alleged to have sometimes taken part in the brawls.
Nero, however, eventually came to regret his enabling of the fights in the theatre. The enthusiastic crowds showing up for the dances became so rowdy that Nero ultimately imposed a temporary ban, forbidding all pantomimi from performing in Italy. Even so, the dancers would come back and continue to be popular after the downfall of Nero.
Written by C. Keith Hansley.
Picture Attribution: (Dancers and musicians, c. 475 BCE, tomb of the leopards, Monterozzi necropolis, Tarquinia, Italy. UNESCO World Heritage Site. Fresco a secco. [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).
Sources:
As the year 57 turned into 58, the decades-long struggle between Rome and Parthia over the control of Armenia heightened in intensity. At that time, Parthia had the advantage in the struggle, as the reigning king of Armenia was Tiridates, brother of the Parthian king, Vologeses I. Nevertheless, according to the historian, Tacitus (c. 56-117+), the Armenian people were still divided over which empire they wanted as their overlord, and individual settlements had their own independent preferences.
With Parthian support, Tiridates began raiding the regions of his country that he thought favored Rome. The Roman governor of Syria, a man named Cnaeus Domitius Corbulo, mobilized his own forces to halt the Parthian raids, but he could not move quick enough to trap Tiridates in a battle. As his original scheme was unsuccessful, Corbulo called in his allies to increase pressure on the Parthian-Armenian forces. In particular, King Antiochus Epiphanes IV of Commagene and King Pharasmanes of Iberia answered the governor’s summons and supported the campaign.
This increased pressure brought Tiridates into negotiation with the Roman governor. A meeting was scheduled to discuss peace. Yet, even though the two allegedly camped close enough to see each other, no conversation ever occurred. When diplomacy failed, Governor Corbulo then turned his attention to launching a major offensive against the Parthian-Armenian homeland.
Governor Corbulo came up with a plan to simultaneously besiege three Parthian-controlled border forts in Armenia. Corbulo personally led the attack on Volandum, the strongest of the three. Tacitus claimed to know the governor’s battle plan for the siege. The historian wrote that the governor split his troops into four sections. One group was sent to seize the fortress’ ramparts and clear obstructions. Two other groups harassed the defenders with siege engines, javelins and slings. The final group charged the fortress and scaled the enemy walls with ladders. Using this approach, Governor Corbulo was said to have seized the fortification of Volandum in about eight hours. The other two fortresses, besieged by Roman forces, also fell that same day.
After the fall of the fortresses, Corbulo began marching toward Artaxata, the capital of Armenia. Tiridates attempted to ambush the Roman forces, but his attack failed. When the governor’s forces reached Artaxata, the city surrendered. Unfortunately, fearing that he could not adequately garrison the city, Governor Corbulo decided to burn Artaxata to the ground.
Written by C. Keith Hansley.
Picture Attribution: (Roman siege of Jerusalem, image produced c. 1921, published in a book by William Ambrose Spicer, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).
Sources:
In 202 BCE, after around seven years of war following the fall of the Qin Dynasty, two major warlords were left in the competition to seize the imperial throne of China. These two leaders were Xiang Yu, the ruler of Chu, and Liu Bang (also known as Liu Ji), the King of Han. Even though Xiang Yu was the very man who had crowned Liu Bang as the king of Han (in 206 BCE), the protégé slowly began to gain advantage against his master. By 203 BCE, Xiang Yu recognized Liu Bang as ruler of eastern China after they had negotiated a truce. Although an agreement was met, the Han forces were in much better shape than the Chu. Therefore, in 202 BCE, Liu Bang broke the peace and invaded Chu to deliver the deathblow to his rival.
Liu Bang successfully encircled the last remaining troops of Xiang Yu in a walled camp at Gaixia. Sensing that victory was near, the Han troops allegedly spent the night singing triumphant songs. Xiang Yu, likewise, recognized that he could not win a pitched battle against the Han forces, so he prepared his favorite horse, Dapple, and along with 800 horsemen, he prepared to puncture a hole through the besiegers. In the Records of the Grand Historian, the father of Chinese history, Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE), recorded a dramatic account of Xiang Yu’s final ride.
According to the historian, Xiang Yu and his band of cavalry successfully broke through Han lines, but they did so at great cost—only 100 of the Chu horsemen were said to have survived the escape. With Han cavalry hot on his trail, Xiang Yu fled first to Yinling, then to Dongcheng. Somewhere between Dongcheng and Wujiang, the Han forces intercepted the fleeing Chu warlord. No longer able to run, Xiang Yu decided to fight in one last battle.
Sima Qian painted Xiang Yu as being an almost super-human figure. Well over six feet in height, and a man of immense strength, Xiang Yu was allegedly a one-man wrecking crew. In a series of charges and strategic withdrawals, Xiang Yu supposedly slaughtered hundreds of the pursuing Han soldiers, including an unnamed Han general and colonel. Nevertheless, Xiang Yu was eventually cornered and could fight no longer. Not willing to allow the enemy a complete victory, the defeated warlord took his own life.
After Xiang Yu was dead, Sima Qian alleged that various Han generals dismembered the deceased warlord and took his head and limbs as prizes. When news of Xiang Yu’s death spread, the region of Chu largely submitted to the king of Han. Sima Qian wrote that only the area of Lu resisted, but when Liu Bang arrived with the head of Xiang Yu, they, too, surrendered. The king of Han allegedly showed respect to his dead rival—he collected the pieces of Xiang Yu for an honorable burial at Gucheng and was said to have taken no reprisals against the Xiang family.
Written by C. Keith Hansley.
Picture Attribution: (Pinyin- Dahuting Han mu; Wade-Giles- Tahut’ing Han mu) of the late Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD), located in Zhengzhou, Henan province, China, was excavated in 1960-1961).
Sources:
Egil Skallagrimsson (10th Century)
“I awoke early
to heap my words;
as a servant of speech
I did my morning’s work.
I have piled a mound
of praise that long
will stand without crumbling
in poetry’s field.”
According to the historians Tacitus (c. 56-117) and Suetonius (c. 69-122), Emperor Claudius completed a series of canals and tunnels in the year 52 that connected Fucine Lake, in central Italy, to the Liris River. Before the construction was complete, workers frustratingly had to drill through a mountainside on one stretch of the journey. When the project was deemed ready to be officially opened, Emperor Claudius decided to celebrate the event with one of ancient Rome’s favorite spectacles—gladiatorial games. Yet, he did not want a mere skirmish in an arena. No, he wanted the kind of extravaganza worthy of a Roman emperor. With this in mind, Claudius followed the example of some of his famed predecessors and devised a plan to showcase a magnificent sea battle, in which he would pit thousands of ship-bound gladiators against each other.
The historian, Tacitus, claimed that 19,000 gladiators and criminals were gathered on Fucine Lake to fulfill Emperor Claudius’ dream. These fighters, some dressed as Sicilians and others as Rhodesians, were crowded onto warships to reenact a naval battle from Greek history. To ensure that no one fled, Claudius posted his own soldiers on rafts, making a ring around the fluid battle scene. In addition to this, the emperor also allegedly set up numerous siege engines, such as catapults, which were used to fling heavy projectiles at the sailing gladiators. Roman citizens poured in from all over Italy, eager to see the show. Tacitus wrote that countless spectators jostled over the best spots on the hills and beaches by the lake.
Under the eyes of the emperor and the masses, the ring of soldiers pressured the fighters into action. Although it was a staged battle, the violence was not an act—Claudius let the blood flow. The mock-Sicilian and mock-Rhodesian fleets engaged in battle on Fucine Lake, all the time having to worry about random shots from the emperor’s catapults. After the battle had stained the lake red with spilled blood, Claudius concluded the event, sparing the fighters who had managed to stay alive. With the gruesome performance over, the emperor officially opened up the waterway.
Interestingly, according to Tacitus’ account, the story did not end there. Apparently, the waterway was not dug adequately deep. Therefore, the outlet built into the lake was dammed and the laborers went back to work on the canals. When the project was finally complete, Emperor Claudius allegedly decided to showcase a second gladiatorial battle on Fucine Lake. This time, the emperor had gladiators fight an infantry battle on a huge stage of sturdy pontoons. As had previously occurred, another massive crowd supposedly came out to see the show, this time setting up banquets for themselves on the lake’s shoreline. Unfortunately, Tacitus claimed that when the outlet was reopened, water from the lake began to surge toward the recently deepened canal with unexpected strength. Waves crashed against the shoreline, startling the spectators, as the forceful currents were pulled toward the waterway. Tacitus did not mention any deaths from this event, but he did note a prevalent atmosphere of shock and terror.
Written by C. Keith Hansley.
Picture Attribution: (The naumachia (Naval battle between Romans). Oil on canvas, 125.6 x 200.5 cm. This work was presented at the National Society of Fine Arts in Paris, 1894. [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).
Sources:
Thucydides (c. 460-400 BCE, speaking in the character of Pericles)
“We regard wealth as something to be properly used, rather than as something to boast about. As for poverty, no one need be ashamed to admit it: the real shame is in not taking practical measures to escape from it.”
Liu Bang, the commoner who would eventually become Emperor Gaozu, was an independent-thinking individual—he liked doing things his own way. Instead of joining the family business, he took and passed the examinations required to become an official in the Qin Dynasty, and found employment as the head of a village along the Si River.
While acting as the village leader, the future emperor was said to have envisioned a new kind of hat made from sheathes of bamboo. According to the Grand Historian, Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE), Liu bang personally made one of these hats with his own hands. After that, when he was satisfied with the manufacture and design of his product, Liu Bang sent one of his aides off to the district of Xie to have more copies of the bamboo hat produced. Proud of his invention, the future emperor was said to have frequently worn the hat. Liu Bang must have handed down the secret of the headpiece to his descendants, because Sima Qian labeled that specific line of bamboo caps as “the Liu family hats.”
Written by C. Keith Hansley.
Picture Attribution: (Illustration of Han Emperor Gaozu, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).
Sources:
