Table of contents for No. 112 in All About History

There are so many facets of life in Ancient Rome that can capture the imagination. Whether it’s the stories of its famous rulers or details about how life in the powerful empire was lived, we have so much information about this civilisation that you can approach it from a myriad of perspectives. Among these is, of course, how the Romans entertained themselves and through this we get into one of the darker areas of Roman life, at least by modern standards. The world of the gladiators is another of those deeply engrossing aspects of ancient life, but interestingly it’s one that is not always well understood. This issue we wanted to address that gap in our knowledge and give you the inside story of what it was like to be…

During WWI, munitions factories were critical to the war effort, producing the weapons needed on the frontline. The Munitions of War Act was passed in July 1915 in response to the Shell Crisis of 1915, which saw a shortage of ammunition shells on the frontline. The Act was designed to increase munitions production to meet the demands of the British armed forces and led to the creation of the Ministry of Munitions. One of the new initiatives that was introduced to boost production was to hire women to work in the munitions factories across the country, especially as men were needed to join the army. It is estimated that around one million women joined the munitions workforce, becoming known as ‘munitionettes.’ The munitions factories were a hazardous place to work.…

Peter Lorge is associate professor of history and Asian studies at Vanderbilt University with a particular focus on 10th and 11th century Chinese military, political and social history. His books include The Reunification of China (Cambridge, 2015) and Chinese Martial Arts (Cambridge University Press, 2012). When was gunpowder first invented? Our first document that we think mentions what will later become understood as gunpowder is from 808 CE and this appears in the Tang Dynasty. It’s actually a warning to not combine certain ingredients together and heat them up, because they might burst into flames, burn off your beard and set your house on fire. We believe that is the first instance we have of somebody recording this set of things; we’re talking about saltpetre, sulphur, and some source of…

WILD BEASTS Roman crowds would start their day out at the arena watching huntsmen showing off their skills. Exotic wild beasts from the far-flung corners of the Roman Empire, such as elephants and lions, would also be thrown together in combat. Arenas would be decorated with trees and shrubs to enhance the bloodthirsty spectacle. Audiences also liked watching men being pitted against these animals, and huge crowds flocked to see convicted criminals getting mauled to death. CHARIOT RACING Chariot racing was one of the few sports women were permitted to watch. Up to 150,000 people would pack the long, narrow Circus Maximus on Palatine Hill as teams of charioteers risked life and limb completing seven anti-clockwise laps. Chariots would typically be pulled by four horses but in some races more…

Soul is a broad tree, with roots stretching deep into the heart of the Black American experience. It can be traced all the way back to the earliest of roots Afro-American music, gospel and blues; two spiritual accompaniments to the lives of hardship that Black people experienced from the earliest days of slavery, through the Jim Crow era. While gospel emerged as a source of hope for a brighter tomorrow, even if one had to wait for the afterlife, blues was a direct product of slavery and prejudice; a cathartic outpouring of the misery and pain so intertwined with the lives of America’s oppressed underclass. Blues had once been played exclusively in the smoky, sweaty Black drinking establishments dotted along the Mississippi Delta. There, virtuosos like Robert Johnson stunned audiences…

The choice of name was very significant because it might indicate your descent or claims. A lot of work has been done on naming in the early Middle Ages, but you can do the same analysis for the later Middle Ages. For early medieval France and Germany, scholars have been willing to say that when a name crops up, it’s almost certain that the person belonged to a particular dynasty. From the name, you can identify the family if you don’t know otherwise. Looking at the names of the rulers, Charlemagne is an interesting case. His grandfather is the first person we know of to be called Charles and it’s not an aristocratic name. When Charlemagne’s father becomes king of the Franks, this name is boosted up into a royal…

In late September 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met German dictator Adolf Hitler in Munich. This conference occurred as the Nazi ruler threatened a large-scale conflict in Europe with his aggressive policy known as Lebensraum (Living Space), where the German regime sought to colonise territories in the east. The conference resulted in the Munich Agreement and a promise of future consultations to resolve their differences. It was hailed by Chamberlain as “peace for our time” – words criticised almost as soon as he’d uttered them. The Munich Agreement proved to be worthless because it took less than a year for the Nazi regime to break its word, invading Poland on 1 September 1939. But did Chamberlain’s infamous policy of appeasement towards Hitler actually buy valuable time for Britain and…

BELLE Director: Amma Asante Starring: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tom Wilkinson, Emily Watson Country: UK Released: 2013 Class, politics and race clash in this 18th century drama VERDICT: A largely fictional account, but with a lot of accurate detail 01 We first meet Dido Elizabeth Belle as a young girl as her father, Sir John Lindsay, retrieves her after her mother dies. It’s not mentioned, but he had at least three illegitimate children. He did leave her with his uncle, Lord Chief Justice William Murray, Earl of Mansfield. 02 Dido is raised as a gentlewoman alongside her cousin Elizabeth Murray, although the film depicts certain restrictions, such as Dido not being able to dine with guests on formal occasions. In reality her position was even lower, having menial jobs to do. 03…

14-15 January 1972 QUEEN MARGRETHE II ASCENDS THE THRONE Queen Margrethe II succeeded her father, King Frederick IX, as the ruler of Denmark after he passed away on 14 January. Prime Minister Jens Otto Krag proclaimed Margrethe as queen the next day from the balcony of Christiansborg Palace. Margrethe is the first queen of Denmark since 1412 and the first Danish monarch since 1513 not to be named Frederick or Christian. 10 January 1927 FRITZ LANG’S METROPOLIS PREMIERES The futuristic silent film Metropolis premiered in Berlin, Germany. The film, directed by Fritz Lang, went way over budget – costing around five million Reichsmarks – and took 15 months to shoot. Although it was criticised upon its release it’s now widely regarded as the first great science-fiction film and one of…

Samuel Colt made many firearms in his time – the Connecticut-born inventor was an innovator in his field, with his firm producing 16 different models before Colt’s death in 1862. But there were a select few of these weapons that stood out among the rest. With exquisite engraving and gold inlay, it’s no wonder that only about 20 of these revolvers were ever made, 16 of which were during Colt’s lifetime. The gold-inlaid Colt Model 1849 pocket revolver’s design was first displayed at London’s Great Exhibition in 1851, and then at the New York Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1853. It’s easy to see why no one would want to actually fire it – a bear, dog, leopard, pheasant and fox adorn the frame and barrel lugs, each surrounded by gold-inlaid…

ROYAL ARMOURIES • LONDON, WHITE TOWER • FORT NELSON, PORTSMOUTH, HAMPSHIRE • LEEDS, WEST YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND Collectively, the three locations of the Royal Armouries serve as the national museums for the United Kingdom collection of arms, armour and other related artefacts. The Tower of London, constructed by order of William the Conqueror in the 11th century, was the original armoury location and served the kings of England with the manufacture and storage of armour and weaponry. By the 17th century, portions of the Tower were also opened to the public as a museum, as patrons were allowed to visit displays of armour belonging to English monarchs and relics of the Spanish Armada that had been defeated near England’s shores in 1588. Today, the White Tower continues as a museum, while…

Body-snatching wasn’t just a British phenomenon and during the 18th and 19th centuries was just as common in the United States, where strict laws likewise caused a boom in demand from eager medical students for ‘specimens’. One day in New York in April of 1788, a group of young boys playing in the street happened to glance through a window and were aghast to see a medical student eagerly dissecting a corpse. Annoyed at being interrupted, the student waved a disembodied arm and remarked that it belonged to one of the boy’s mothers. The problem was, the boy’s mother had recently died and when his furious father discovered her grave to be empty, an angry mob descended on the hospital. Seeing the outraged mob, most of the doctors and students…

Polish hussars holding their lances upright emerged at dawn on 4 July 1610 from deep woods on the west bank of the Gzhat River 160km east of Moscow. In front of them lay their objective, a mass of tents for 36,000 Swedish and Muscovite troops and their camp followers that stretched towards the distant horizon. Polish Grand Crown Hetman Stanislaw Zolkiewski, the elderly commander of the Polish field army, directed his staff to form work parties. They were tasked with smashing holes in the fence for the horsemen to pass through in order to assault the enemy camps. As he did so, the hussars that formed the core of his army arrayed themselves for battle. The men in the camps began to stir, and a regiment of Swedish mercenary arquebusiers…

November 4th 2022 will mark 100 years to the day since archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter discovered the entrance to Tutankhamun’s tomb. The find captured the world’s imagination, as did lurid stories of the ‘Mummy’s Curse’ following the death of Lord Carnarvon, the expedition’s financial backer. The unusual circumstances surrounding his demise just a few months after the tomb’s discovery, and the unfortunate deaths of other members of the expedition (or those related to them) led to a revival of ‘Egyptomania’, with the general public obsessed with stories of long-lost tombs and ancient mummies. The tomb’s young occupant, 19-year-old Tutankhamun, ruled Egypt as pharaoh between c.1333 BCE and 1323 BCE. Largely forgotten by his successors, he is perhaps most noted for returning the worship of the god Amun to Egypt…

Ingredients ● 3 eggs, beaten ● 500g strong white bread flour ● 175g softened butter ● 100g golden caster sugar ● 75g raisins ● 75g sultanas ● 75g candied peel ● 150ml warm milk ● 3 tbsp dark rum or brandy ● 2 tsp fast-action dried yeast ● 1 tsp vanilla extract ● ½ tsp salt To serve: ● 1 egg, beaten ● 2 tbsp flaked almonds ● Icing sugar for dusting Panettone is a sweet bread that originated in Milan. The exact date when it became associated with the holiday season is unknown, but evidence points to the 15th century. It may even date back to the Roman Empire, when a honey cake made from leavened dough was popular. Panettone is also the subject of numerous legends,…

424 BCE THE BATTLE OF DELIUM The historian Thucydides records a flamethrower device consisting of a pipe, iron snout and cauldron ‘in which were coals of fire, brimstone, and pitch, raised to an exceeding great flame’ used by the Boeotians against the Athenians on the walls of Delium. 424 BCE GREEK FIRE c. 360 BCE Aeneas Tacticus records a recipe for ‘inextinguishable fire’ containing ‘pitch, sulphur, tow, granulated frankincense, and pine sawdust’ to be used during sieges. 672 CE BYZANTINE FIRE The Byzantine Empire uses Greek Fire in naval battles to shoot streams of fire at enemy ships. The recipe was a military secret but probably contained naphtha, quicklime, and other ingredients such as pine resin, calcium phosphide, sulphur, and nitre. 672 CE INVENTION OF GUNPOWDER 808-858 CE The earliest formula…

One of the most well-known legacies of Ancient Rome is the spectator events of the arena, in particular gladiatorial contests. Some may be familiar with Roman institutions such as the Plebeian Council or the Centuriate Assembly, but almost everyone has heard of the gladiators and the Colosseum. This is due in no small part to Hollywood blockbusters like Spartacus and Gladiator. The historical accuracy of most of these cinematic depictions, however, often eaves something to be desired and there are many aspects of the gladiatorial phenomenon that are commonly overlooked in popular culture. One topic of debate among historians has been the origin of gladiatorial contests. Such combat existed in Italy prior to its emergence in Rome, but a consensus beyond this has been difficult to achieve. Some researchers argue…

This 1st or 2nd century CE relief sculpture (above), from the city of Halicarnassus in the Greek-speaking eastern Empire, is clear evidence that the popularity of female gladiators was not limited to Rome alone. ‘Amazon’, on the left, is depicted in combat with ‘Achillia’ on the right. The Greek word above them, ‘apeluthesan’ (‘they were released’), suggests that the two combatants fought to a draw. As was common in gladiatorial munera, the prowess of the fighters in this instance was likened to that of famous figures of myth. The name ‘Amazon’, of course, recalls the famed female warriors of Greek legend, while the name ‘Achillia’ is the female form of the name Achilles, the latter being the mightiest of the Greek heroes who fought in the Trojan War. One of…

Monarchies were an essential part of medieval Europe. Royal bloodlines were central to political stability and the births, marriages and deaths of ruling families had the power to shape nations and change history. We spoke to historian Robert Bartlett, author of Blood Royal: Dynastic Politics in Medieval Europe, about the practices of royal dynasties, how they expressed their identities and the legacy of medieval dynastic politics today. Why is the topic of monarchy so important? I think it’s important historically because, for a very long period of time, most of Europe was ruled by hereditary monarchies. The nature of power in those states was dictated by something that is much less important nowadays – the internal family politics of the ruling dynasties. If you want to look at human history,…

The history of computers goes back over 200 years. At first theorised by mathematicians and entrepreneurs, during the 19th century mechanical calculating machines were designed and built to solve increasingly complex number-crunching challenges. The advancement of technology enabled ever more-complex computers by the early 20th century, and computers became larger and more powerful. Today, computers are almost unrecognisable from the designs of the 19th century such as Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine – or even from the huge computers of the 20th century that occupied whole rooms, such as the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator. Here’s a brief history of computers, from their primitive number-crunching origins to the powerful modern-day machines that surf the Internet, run games and stream multimedia. 1821 THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE English mathematician Charles Babbage conceives of a…

SPENCER Princess Diana endures the Christmas from hell with the Windsors Certificate: 12A Director: Pablo Larrain Cast: Kristen Stewart, Timothy Spall, Sally Hawkins Released: Out now Pablo Larrain’s Spencer sets out its unusual modus operandi with a bit of introductory text stating what we’re about to see is “fable from a true tragedy”. A suitably fairy tale-style beginning, or is it a caution? For those going in expecting a melodramatic revision on recent British history, this won’t be your cup of Earl Grey. Likewise, flag-waving patriots will be outraged by its portrayal of Queen Elizabeth and her immediate brood as remote, cold, ghost-like figures, Steven Knight’s script being an argument for republicanism if ever there was one. It’s Christmas, 1991. Princess Diana (Kristen Stewart) drives to Sandringham in Norfolk for…