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The Vast Vineyards Of Emperor Wu

By
thehistorianshut
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Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (r.  141-87 BCE) expanded his empire in all directions. He started attacking the nomadic Xiongnu coalition to his north around 134 BCE. In the south, the Chinese-Vietnamese borderlands of Southern Yue fell to Han forces between 112-111 BCE, and the emperor followed that up by conquering the North Korean kingdom of Chaoxian between 109-108 BCE. While these conquests were occurring, Emperor Wu had been sending explorers and diplomatic missions westward as far as the region now known as Uzbekistan. A primary task of these envoys was to find and obtain horses, for the horse population in China had suffered catastrophically as a result of Emperor Wu’s campaigns against the Xiongnu. As the envoys began cultivating relationships with the different states and rulers of Central Asia, other goods from the region besides horses began to catch their interest. When the envoys returned to China, they were accompanied by representatives of the foreign Central Asian rulers, and samples of goods from the west were brought before the emperor. Curiously, Emperor Wu was quite impressed by two crops in particular—grapes and alfalfa.

From 104 BCE to 101/100 BCE, Emperor Wu sent his military to campaign against the cities in Central Asia, leading to the conquest or subjugation of states up to the Ferghana Valley. As a result, the emperor gained access to new herds of horses. He was particularly intrigued with a type of horse afflicted with a parasite that made the animal appear to sweat blood. While Han forces rounded up Central Asian land and horses, the emperor had another project in the works on his estates in China—systematically planting crops from the west around his palaces. According to Grand Historian Sima Qian, “when the Han acquired large numbers of the ‘heavenly horses’ and the envoys from foreign states began to arrive with their retinues, the lands on all sides of the emperor’s summer palaces and pleasure towers were planted with grapes and alfalfa for as far as the eye could see” (Shi Ji 123). Emperor Wu apparently used his vineyards for wine experimentation, while the grassy fields were used to supply fodder for his stables. The aforementioned Sima Qian mused, “The people love their wine and the horses love their alfalfa” (Shi Ji 123).

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Chinese landscape labeled Walters 35101K, purchased by Henry Walters in 1915, [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.

Livy

By
thehistorianshut
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Livy (c. 59 BCE-17 CE)

“Men fighting for their own liberty and prestige are very different creatures from men who are called upon to use their judgement, unclouded by passion, when the fight is over.”

  • The History of Rome (Book 4, chapter 6) by Livy, translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt. New York: Penguin Classics, 2002.

The Bullish Battle Between Thorfinn Karlsefni and North American Natives

By
thehistorianshut
-

In the first decade of the 11th century, several Nordic adventurers were said to have led expeditions to North America. Leif Eiriksson was reportedly the first of these explorers to set foot in the New World, setting up his camp somewhere on the southeastern Canadian coast, presumably in the vicinity of Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia. Leif was lucky in picking the location of his camp, for he was apparently far enough away from native settlements to preclude any aggression from the locals. Instead, Leif Eiriksson gathered exotic North American merchandise in peace, and then set sail back to Greenland to sell his wares and tell tales about his adventure. Other adventurers who followed Leif Eiriksson’s stead in the early 11th century had less luck avoiding the natives of North America. Among these later adventurers was Thorfinn Karlsefni, leader of one of the more ambitious expeditions to the land that Leif called Vinland.

From the loose timeline that can be formed from Icelandic sagas and folkloric tradition, the expedition of Thorfinn Karlsefni can be dated to around 1003-1006 or 1007-1009. As the story goes, Thorfinn and his new wife, Gudrid, led a large group of people to the New World, hoping to start a settlement or trading hub. In the Saga of the Greenlanders, sixty-five people were said to have signed up for Thorfinn’s expedition. Eirik the Red’s Saga, however, claimed that Thorfinn Karlsefni’s crew was only the leading piece of a larger effort, with the total number of settlers being 140 people divided between three ships.

Stocked with supplies and some livestock, Thorfinn Karlsefni and the expedition members set sail for North America. Wind and waves did little to hamper the sailors as they made their way to the New World, and the crews soon found themselves sailing along the coast of the vast lands that Leif had enthusiastically described. Thorfinn Karlsefni decided to make his camp at a spot dominated by grassy fields, which eventually gave way to deer-filled forests, crisscrossed by streams full of fish. The site, with its access to resources from the plains, forests and water, was a perfect location for settlement—as such, the region was already settled by the North American natives, and these locals were curious and concerned about the new foreign presence sailing up to their shore.

After observing the Nordic settlers for a time, the natives eventually made contact. Arriving by boat or on foot, bands of natives peacefully approached Thorfinn Karlsefni’s settlement. Although there was a language barrier, the two peoples were able to create a limited level of communication through hand signals and other means. Using diligent pointing and gesturing, the natives and settlers began bartering. According to the sagas, the natives often brought animal pelts, which the Greenlanders took in exchange for dairy products and cloth.

Milk and its derivative products were allegedly a great hit with the locals near Thorfinn’s settlement. Yet, despite enjoying the byproducts of the settlers’ livestock, the natives reportedly found the actual animals brought by the Greenlanders to be incredibly bizarre and frightening. In particular, an ornery bull belonging to Thorfinn Karlsefni was said to have been the thing of nightmares for native traders who saw it. Thorfinn and the settlers made note of that fear, and their perceptiveness would be helpful when the good relations between natives and foreigners inevitably broke down.

Why the settlers and the natives began fighting varies from tale to tale. In the Saga of the Greenlanders, hostilities erupted after one of the native traders was killed in a bartering dispute. Eirik the Red’s Saga, in contrast, curiously placed blame on the ill-tempered bull, saying that the beast so frightened and outraged the natives that they rallied an army and attacked the settlement to rid the world of the horned devil and its owners.

According to the Saga of the Greenlanders, the bull would play a pivotal role in the battle. Knowing that the natives feared the creature, Thorfinn Karlsefni reportedly had the bull dragged into battle. As the story goes, he lured the native forces into a natural bottleneck, with water on one side and dense forest on the other. When the native force advanced through this carefully chosen narrow corridor, Thorfinn prodded the bull forward and sent it charging against the army of locals. As much of the cloth traded to the natives by the settlers had been red, the previous bartering perhaps made the bull’s rampage all the more effective. Seizing the momentum, the Greenlanders readied their weapons and followed the bull’s wake of carnage into battle. Thorfinn Karlsefni, with his Viking Age weaponry and rampaging bull, won the skirmish and forced the natives to retreat. Yet, the Greenlanders now found the atmosphere in Vinland to be too hostile for a long-term settlement and, after filling their ships with North American goods, they decided to set sail back to Greenland.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Sources:

  • The Vinland Sagas (Saga of the Greenlanders and Eirik the Red’s Saga) translated by Keneva Kunz. New York: Penguin Classics, 2008.

The Buddha

By
thehistorianshut
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The Buddha (c. 6th-5th century BCE)

“With energy, diligence,
restraint, and control,
the wise person should make an island
which no flood can overflow.”

  • The Dhammapada (Verses on the Way, Chapter 2), recorded in the 3rd century BCE. Translation by Glenn Wallis, 2004.

The Delphic Knife—An Ancient Greek Multitool

By
thehistorianshut
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During or prior to the 4th century BCE, a blade was produced in Greece that was designed to aid its wielder in a wide variety of tasks. The knife’s exact schematics are unknown, but it was apparently the multitool or Swiss Army Knife of its day. Aristotle (c. 384-322 BCE) made use of the Delphic knife in his Politics, contrasting the all-purpose nature of the blade against the individual roles and abilities that each human contributes to his or her society. Aristotle wrote, “[Nature] recognizes different functions and lavishly provides different tools, not an all-purpose tool like the Delphic knife; for every instrument will be made best if it serves not many purposes but one” (The Politics, Bekker page 1252b). As Aristotle noted, the blade must have aligned with the saying that a jack of all trades is a master of none. Although the Delphic knife could serve many purposes, other blades designed to excel at singular tasks were often more efficient than the ambitious ancient multitool.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Alexander cuts the Gordian Knot, by Jean-Simon Berthélemy (1743–1811), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

  • The Politics by Aristotle, translated by T. A. Sinclair and revised by T. J. Saunders. London: Penguin Classics, 1962, 1992.

Giovanni Boccaccio

By
thehistorianshut
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Giovanni Boccaccio (c. 1313-1375)

“Just as the end of mirth is heaviness, so sorrows are dispersed by the advent of joy.”

  • The Decameron (First Day, Introduction) by Giovanni Boccaccio, translated by G. H. McWilliam. New York: Penguin Classics, 2003. This line was seemingly inspired by Proverbs 14:13.

William The Conqueror’s Rebel Roundup Of 1071

By
thehistorianshut
-

Although William the Conqueror defeated the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson and seized the throne of England in 1066, the surviving Anglo-Saxon royals and their loyalists continued resisting Norman rule for years to come. The late King Harold’s sons launched several ineffective attacks against Norman-controlled England from a base in Ireland, while another Anglo-Saxon claimant to the throne, Edgar the Ætheling, inspired more threatening (but ultimately unsuccessful) rebellions in the Northumbrian region, even going so far as to enlist the help of the Scots and the Danes in his doomed uprisings. For many a ruler, such attacks, uprisings and foreign interventions might have been fatal. William the Conqueror, however, was one of the most competent rulers of the Middle Ages, and with his Norman war machine and castle-building prowess, William’s occupation of England was too firm for the Anglo-Saxon resistance to overcome.

By 1071, the hopes and morale of the resistance in Northumbria had plummeted. Even Earls Edwin and Morcar, two of the most prominent leaders of the resistance, decided to abandon England and flee to Scotland, where Edgar the Ætheling had already found asylum. The earls decided to split up for their journey, Edwin leading some followers on a route by land, while Morcar took to the sea with other high-profile resistance leaders. Unfortunately, neither party would have any luck on their journey in 1071.

Earl Edwin’s attempt to escape came to a quick end. As it happened, there were traitors in the party of rebels that fled by land. Consequently, Earl Edwin’s life ended in a grisly ambush on the road.  Earl Morcar and the resistance members who decided to flee by sea made better progress. They successfully boarded a ship and started working their way up the network of English rivers, eventually reaching the Isle of Ely, a haven for dissidents. Yet, Morcar’s party, too, did not escape the attention of King William’s spies and informants. When the rebels landed in Ely, King William was quickly informed of their location. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle concisely described the king’s swift and overwhelming siege of the rebels’ position: “when king William was informed of that, he ordered out a naval force and a land-force, and beset the land all about, and wrought a bridge and went in, and [simultaneously attacked with] the naval force on the water-side. And then the outlaws went and surrendered to the king” (A.n. M.LXXI).

Of all the resistance leaders at Ely, only the semi-legendary figure, Hereward the Wake, was able to escape. The less-fortunate warriors who were captured during the siege faced more gruesome fates, including mutilation, imprisonment or execution. Earl Morcar was reportedly imprisoned for the rest of William the Conqueror’s reign and died, still in jail, sometime during the reign of William II Rufus (r. 1087-1100).

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Scene from the life of William the Conqueror by James William Edmund Doyle (1822–1892), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

Hesiod

By
thehistorianshut
-

Hesiod (flourished c. 8th century BCE)

“Right gets the upper hand over violence in the end.”

  • From Hesiod’s Works and Days (approximately line 215), translated by M. L. West (Oxford World Classics, 1988, 1999, 2008).

The Tale Of Mad King Aristobulus I

By
thehistorianshut
-

When High Priest John Hyrcanus of Jerusalem died in 104 BCE, he was survived by his wife and five sons. The office of high priest, at the time, was controlled by the Maccabee/Hasmonean Dynasty, and therefore the sons of John Hyrcanus vied over the succession. Aristobulus, the eldest of the sons, succeeded in a contested play for power. He proclaimed himself to be the new high priest, but, to get what he wanted, he reportedly had to imprison his mother and three of his four brothers. Once in power, Aristobulus became the first member of the Hasmonean Dynasty to not only call himself high priest, but also to adopt the title of king.

King Aristobulus showed little mercy to his mother and siblings while they were imprisoned and what they experienced was in no way a cozy house-arrest. Instead, conditions were so harsh that Aristobulus’ mother reportedly died in prison from malnourishment and mistreatment. As for the one brother who was allowed to walk free, his fate was worse than his brothers. This last sibling, named Antigonus, was said to have eventually been assassinated by Aristobulus.

Tyrannical King Aristobulus, fortunately for his family, did not rule for long. Perhaps his conscience was plagued by guilt over the deaths of his mother and brother, or maybe the authoritarian treatment of his family was inspired by a madness brought on by illness. Whatever the case, King Aristobulus I reportedly fell deathly ill by 103 BCE. Josephus, a Jewish priest and historian from the 1st century, presented a colorful account of the king’s death in his text, The Jewish War:

“As for Aristobulus, remorse for the abomination he had committed precipitated an immediate sickness. Thoughts of the murder kept troubling his mind, and he fell into a decline: eventually pure concentrated anguish corroded his guts, and he vomited a copious quantity of blood….in a moment he was dead. He had been king for no more than a year” (The Jewish War, I.81-84).

After the death of Aristobulus, the king’s surviving siblings were released from prison. Unfortunately, these finally-freed brothers started a new cycle of bloodshed. The eldest of the brothers, Alexander, claimed the vacated titles of high priest and king in yet another disputed succession. To enforce his claim, Alexander ordered the death of a rival brother.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Aristobulus I from Guillaume Rouillé’s Promptuarium Iconum Insigniorum, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

Lao Tzu

By
thehistorianshut
-

Lao Tzu (c. 6th-5th century BCE)

“The way begets one; one begets two; two begets three;
three begets the myriad creatures.”

  • From Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching (Book Two, XLII), translated by D. C. Lau (Penguin Classics, 1963)
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