Table of contents for Issue 149 in All About History

Context really matters. It’s good to be reminded of that from time to time and any study of history is bound to bring it up eventually. Knowing the conditions in which a group of people existed can elevate our understanding of their actions and world view in really profound ways. It can also help to explain behaviours or choices that by modern sensibilities might seem inexplicable. Sometimes it can even raise people in our esteem, seeing how much they had to overcome or how far ahead of their time they really were. It’s with these thoughts in mind that we wanted to take another look at the life of William Shakespeare, or rather we wanted to take a look at the world in which the Bard lived. What was London…

In 2007 UNESCO announced the results of its search to crown the ‘New Seven Wonders of the World’. Among the likes of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio and the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, was the Colosseum – the amphitheatre that hosted the fiercest gladiator battles of ancient Rome. The Colosseum was constructed by Emperor Vespasian on the site of Nero’s extravagant Domus Aurea, the golden palace. The vast arena was a gift to the people of Rome, a sign of gratitude after the corrupt decadence of Nero’s hated rule. Although he didn’t live to see it finished, having died in 79 CE, Vespasian’s son Titus ensured the completion of the amphitheatre. It was opened in 82 CE and a lavish 100-day festival of games was held in…

What were the origins of gladiatorial contests in ancient Rome? Gladiatorial combat first emerged in Rome from the custom of staging combats as a form of sacrifice to honour a recently deceased individual through the spilling of blood and the demonstration of fighting skills. The first such recorded contest in Rome, for example, involved three pairs of gladiators at the funeral of Decimus Junius Brutus Pera in 264 BCE. Gladiatorial combat was not a solely Roman invention, but appears to have been influenced in particular by the Campanian custom of staged combats in a funerary context, as attested by tomb paintings dating back to the 4th century BCE. Over time, of course, as the popularity of gladiatorial contests as a spectator event grew in Rome, their original funerary associations were…

The history of space pioneers from the United States and the old USSR is full of personalities and groundbreakers. From the smiling face of Yuri Gagarin to the stoic resolve of Neil Armstrong, the early years of space exploration had plenty of icons. By the early 1990s, however, interest had waned. Events on Earth seemed just as chaotic and unpredictable as the frontiers of space. Caught up in the middle of this turmoil was cosmonaut and flight engineer Sergei Krikalev, who watched from orbit as his country disappeared off the map in late 1991. The collapse of the USSR was both fast and slow. The Berlin Wall came down in November 1989, signalling the beginning of the end, and the satellite states of the Soviet Union gradually began to see…

INTERVIEW WITH DR NOÉ VAGNER-CLÉVENOT Noé completed his doctoral thesis at the University of Oxford, and is a research assistant for the ERC-funded project The European Fiscal-Military System 1530 – 1870. He is also a reviewer for the Royal Studies Journal. His article A Zealous Defender of German Freedom, on Charles Albert of Bavaria, 1740-42, will be published next year in German History. Despite being the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions for 40 years, between 1740 and 1780, Maria Theresa’s skills and experience as a ruler did not extend to that of the Holy Roman Empire. She was also Holy Roman Empress, but not in her own right, merely as the wife of Emperor Francis I, as the rules of male succession dictated. Had things been different, with…

16 November 1988 BHUTTO ELECTED AS PAKISTAN’S PM Benazir Bhutto was elected prime minister of Pakistan in 1988, becoming the first woman to lead a Muslim country in modern history. She is pictured here speaking to a crowd of her supporters just days before the election. Bhutto served two terms as prime minister, from 1988-90 and 1993-96. On 27 December 2007 she was assassinated after speaking at a political rally. 18 November 1978 JONESTOWN MASSACRE Over 900 people died at the settlement of Jonestown in Guyana, South America, in a mass murder-suicide. Jonestown was inhabited by the Peoples Temple, a cult founded by Jim Jones in Indiana. When US Congressman Leo Ryan travelled to Guyana to inspect claims that some Temple members were being held against their will, he and…

1 AMPHITHEATRE OF EL JEM EL JEM, TUNISIA Built in 238 CE, this amphitheatre located in east Tunisia in what was the city of Thysdrus would have held 35,000-40,000 people in its heyday. For comparison, conservative estimates put the capacity of the Colosseum in Rome at 50,000. Experts believe that Thysdrus itself didn’t have a population large enough to fill it. The El Jem amphitheatre is the largest such building in North Africa and a unique example of Roman architecture in the region. It’s built from stone blocks with no foundational structure, similar to the Colosseum, although not an exact replica. African consul Gordian is credited with its commissioning and it would have hosted gladiatorial matches and spectacles involving animals. Despite being nearly 1,800 years old the arena is well…

Preceded by the Sui dynasty, the Tang dynasty was truly a golden era in China’s rich and turbulent history, for it was not only one of the greatest empires of China but also of the entire mediaeval period. Previously, China had been fragmented for nearly 400 years, with the Sui dynasty responsible for its reunification in 589. Coming to power in 618, the Tang went on to benefit greatly from the foundations laid by the Sui, expanding the nation’s boundaries both culturally and geographically. At the height of Tang rule China’s territory encompassed vast swathes of Asia, a sphere of influence that spanned from the Korean Peninsula in the east to present-day Afghanistan in the west and stretched north into the windswept steppes of Mongolia and south to the jungles…

JFK Director: Oliver Stone Starring: Kevin Costner, Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones Country: USA Year: 1991 A film pickled by conspiracy theories and fantasy VERDICT: Possibly one of the least accurate films ever made. 01 David Ferrie (Joe Pesci) confesses to being involved in a plot to kill JFK and is murdered by his co-conspirators. In reality Ferrie maintained his innocence. He died of natural causes, according to the coroner’s report, which the real Garrison (Costner) didn’t contest. 02 Willie O’Keefe (Bacon) is a convict involved in the conspiracy and confesses to Garrison. This is a composite character, partially based on salesman Perry Russo. He confessed to some things, but under hypnosis, making his testimony questionable. 03 Garrison is given confirmation of a deeper plot through an insider ‘X’, who…

264 BCE FIRST GLADIATORIAL FIGHT The first recorded gladiatorial contest takes place at the funeral of Junius Brutus Pera. The fight to the death is organised by his sons and takes place at their father’s munus (a public wake). It is likely that the gladiators involved were slaves. 73 BCE SPARTACUS SLAVE REVOLT History’s most famous gladiator, Spartacus, leads a rebellion of Capuan slaves against the Romans. He is initially successful and amasses an army of around 90,000 men. He is later defeated and killed by the Romans in 71 BCE. c.100 CE FEMALE GLADIATORS Women become a regular fixture in gladiatorial arenas by the 1st century CE. They are called gladiatrices and engage in performative combat and animal hunts. A marble relief from Halicarnassus in Turkey provides evidence of these female fighters.…

Between 1576, when the first theatre opened in London, and 1642, when Oliver Cromwell shut down the playhouses, drama became England’s premier art form. The last decades of Elizabeth I’s reign saw an extraordinary flowering of creativity, during which drama became the premier form of entertainment. This rich cultural life developed despite a stormy political scenario in which the queen was challenged by France and Spain, and Roman Catholic factions plotted to restore England’s religious alliance with Rome. William Shakespeare’s plays reflected these turbulent times, in locations familiar to every playgoer, from the palaces of Westminster, Whitehall and Hampton Court to the Tower of London, both palace and prison a terrifying reminder to anyone who challenged the Crown. TUDOR LONDON Shakespeare’s London was smaller than the city of today, a…

THE OTTOMANS A CULTURAL LEGACY BY DIANA DARK IS AVAILABLE NOW FROM THAMES & HUDSON EXPERT BIO DIANA DARKE Diana Darke is a Middle East cultural expert with degrees in Arabic from Oxford University and in Islamic Art & Architecture from SOAS, London. Her writings on Islamic history and culture include Stealing from the Saracens (2020), The Merchant of Syria (2018) and The Ottomans: A Cultural Legacy (2022). We frequently silo our study of history in order to make it manageable and to stop our interests from sprawling. Why contain yourself to the history of the Romans when it crosses over so much with the Gauls and Carthaginians? Why only study the Soviet Union when its actions were so heavily influenced by activities in Western Europe and the United States?…

By August 1863, the Confederacy seemed in dire straits. President Jefferson Davis and his key advisers and military commanders debated long and hard about what their next step should be. Robert E Lee’s second attempt to take the war to the north and inflict a decisive defeat that would bring the Union to the negotiating table had failed. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, fresh from its spectacular triumph that spring at Chancellorsville, had been heavily repulsed a few months later at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, suffering irreplaceable losses of men and commanders. As this news arrived at Davis’ government in Richmond, General Ulysses S Grant’s capture of the vital Confederate port of Vicksburg quickly followed. Now the Union navy dominated the Mississippi River, splitting the Confederacy in half. It seemed only…

Book Film TV Podcast Games Other THOSE ABOUT TO DIE A tumultuous period of Roman history gets the epic TV treatment Certificate: 15 Creator: Robert Rodat Distributor: Peacock/Prime Video Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Iwan Rheon, Sara Martins Released: Out now Based on the book of the same name by Daniel P Mannix and developed for TV by Robert Rodat, screenwriter of Saving Private Ryan, Those About To Die is a big-budget Roman spectacle in the vein of the gladiatorial bouts it depicts. The show picks up after the events of the year of four emperors, when Rome was torn apart by civil war following the death of Nero and the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty that had established Imperial Rome. It’s now 79 CE and Vespasian (Hopkins) has commissioned the building…

Mentioned in one of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays, Romeo & Juliet, marchpane’s origins date back to 12th century Spain. It later became a popular treat in the banqueting halls of Tudor and Elizabethan England. In Romeo & Juliet this desert delicacy is mentioned during a banquet by the First Servant, who declares: “Away with the joint-stools, remove the court-cupboard, look to the plate. Good thou, save me a piece of marchpane.” During opulent dinners, marchpane would often form a desert centrepiece and would be intricately decorated and shaped. It’s a direct precursor to modern-day festive favourite marzipan. Ingredients • 2 cups almonds• 1 cup sugar• Rosewater• 1 cup icing sugar METHOD 01 Preheat the oven to 200°C. 02 Either grind the almonds in a pestle and mortar, or place…