The Wild Tale Of Asiaticus

The Vitellii were a family of vague origins that had risen to a position of prominence by the 1st century. Whether the Vitellii were founded by an ancient Latin king or a poor freedman cobbler (both origins were recorded by Suetonius), the family eventually joined the senatorial class and received distinguished government and military appointments. One such high-status member of the Vitellii family, named Lucius, married a noblewoman by the name of Sestilia, and from their union was born Aulus Vitellius, a future emperor of Rome. By the time of Vitellius’ birth in year 12, his family had become considerably wealthy. The family fortune allowed Aulus Vitellius to enjoy chariot races and dicing with wild abandon—these pastimes would get him into the good graces of Caligula (r. 37-41), Claudius (r. 41-54) and Nero (r. 54-68). The wealth of the Vitellii also meant that the family could own slaves. The name of one of these slaves was Asiaticus, and his life would become an extraordinarily wild ride.

Tacitus and Suetonius, two major ancient historians who covered the events of the 1st century in their works, made mention of the slave known as Asiaticus. Unfortunately, of the two scholars, only Suetonius decided to write about Asiaticus’ backstory.  Tacitus’ account confirmed the general arc of Asiaticus’ life—recording how his life began and ended. Yet, it was Suetonius who added more depth to the story by listing several bizarre events from the slave’s life. Regrettably, Suetonius also often used gossip and satire as his sources, and he sometimes did not tell the reader when he was citing dubious evidence. Therefore, it is difficult to determine what is truth, what is exaggeration, and what is an outright falsehood in the tale of Asiaticus. So, as always, enjoy the story, but view Suetonius’ historical accuracy with caution.

According to Suetonius, Asiaticus was a slave that saw to the needs of Vitellius. Although the two were supposedly as close as a master and a slave could be, Asiaticus was not content with captivity. He ran away and started a new life in the city of Puteoli, where he set up shop as a drink vendor. Yet, this taste of freedom was very brief. Asiaticus was somehow discovered and consequently brought back in chains to Vitellius. The relationship between master and slave had obviously deteriorated, and Asiaticus refused to be made docile. His obstinacy became so great that Vitellius eventually sold the slave to a gladiator school. Asiaticus was trained to fight and was scheduled for his first bout when Vitellius began to have a change of heart—before Asiaticus could face combat in the arena, Vitellius bought him back from the gladiator school. After this action, the two seemed to build a working relationship or, possibly, even a friendship.

Rome fell into chaos in the year 68 and Asiaticus profited from the hard times. Multiple governors rebelled against Emperor Nero. The pressure was too much for Nero and he eventually committed suicide. Galba became the new emperor by June (68 CE) and he appointed Vitellius to be his governor of Lower Germany in December of that same year. According to Suetonius, Vitellius freed Asiaticus before departing to take up his governorship in Germany.

The year 69 came to be known as The Year of the Four Emperors, and Asiaticus’ former owner would be one of those four contenders. Vitellius rebelled against Galba on January 2, but before he could claim Rome, another man named Otho launched a military coup. Otho became emperor on January 15, but Vitellius still was on the march and did not intend to turn back. The army of Vitellius defeated the new emperor’s forces at Betriacum (on April 14), prompting Otho to commit suicide on April 16. The Roman senate recognized Vitellius as emperor three days later. According to Suetonius, one of the earliest actions taken by Vitellius on his first official day as emperor (April 19) was to raise his former slave, Asiaticus, to the social rank of equestrian, and he gave him a gold ring as a sign of the freedman’s new status. In addition, Asiaticus became one of Vitellius’ chief advisors on government policies. On that cheerful note, Suetonius ended his commentary on the life of Asiaticus.

Although Asiaticus had made a remarkable climb to power (from runaway slave, to gladiator, to an equestrian and chief advisor of an emperor), he unfortunately joined the camp of the third ruler to claim the throne in the Year of Four Emperors.  As the title of the year suggests, one more person would launch a bid for the throne in the year 69. The last challenger was Vespasian, commander of Roman forces in Judea since the year 66 or 67. With support of most of Rome’s eastern provinces on his side, Vespasian sent his forces against Vitellius. The troops forced their way into Rome by December 19, and Vitellius was executed on December 20 or 21, in 69 CE.

With the fall of Vitellius, the rest of Asiaticus’ story comes from Tacitus. After the conquest of Rome by Vespasian’s forces, there was a purge of the old regime.  The new emperor was conveniently away from Rome so as to escape any blame for the bloodshed. Asiaticus seems to have survived the initial massacre. Yet, his luck did not continue when Mucianus, the governor of Syria, arrived to take command of the pro-Vespasian forces in Rome.  When the new leader renewed the purge, Asiaticus was arrested and executed.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (a resting gladiator painted by José Moreno Carbonero (1860–1942), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius, translated by Robert Graves and edited by James B. Rives. New York: Penguin Classics, 2007.
• http://classics.mit.edu/Tacitus/histories.4.iv.html 
• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0080%3Abook%3D4%3Achapter%3D11 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aulus-Vitellius 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vespasian#ref35013  

Imhotep—The Man Who Engineered His Own Divinity

In the 27th century BCE, there lived an incredible man named Imhotep. He was a commoner who arose to great prominence by impressing King Djoser, the second ruler of Egypt’s Third Dynasty, with his sheer genius in multiple fields of study. Imhotep was evidently a polymath who made groundbreaking discoveries and advancements in areas such as medicine, math, engineering, theology, and even art. The massive impact of his ideas on ancient Egypt was comparable in scope and importance to that of Aristotle in Greece and Confucius in China.

The Dramatic Life Of The Mercian Queen, Osthryth

Osthryth had such a complicated family life that she could put Shakespeare’s story of Romeo and Juliet to shame. Her father was King Oswiu (or Oswy), ruler of Northumbria between the years 642 and 670. At that time, the Northumbrians had a bitter feud with the Mercians—Oswiu only became king of Northumbria after his brother, King Oswald (r. 634-642), was slain and dismembered by King Penda of Mercia. Oswiu avenged his brother by killing King Penda during the Battle of Winwaed, which occurred in 655. After Penda’s death, Oswiu occupied a portion of Mercia and let the rest remain ruled by a puppet ruler. The puppet, interestingly enough, was a man named Peada, who happened to be a son of Penda.

Despite the wars between Northumbria and Mercia, King Oswiu actively tried to strengthen the bond between the rival countries through marriage. He arranged for at least two of his known daughters to marry sons of King Penda. The puppet ruler of Mercia, Peada, was married to Oswiu’s daughter, Alhflæd. The late king Penda’s youngest son, Æthelred, was married to Osthryth, who was mentioned earlier. Penda had another son, named Wulfhere, who did not marry a Northumbrian princess, but instead wed a woman from Kent.

As Osthryth was married to Æthelred, the youngest son of Penda, both wife and husband likely presumed that they would never sit upon the throne during their lives. As such, the couple followed the path taken by most royal family members that had little to inherit—they devoted their time to the church. Nevertheless, the course of events would take some unexpected turns.

The Remarkable Tale Of The Kidnapped Noble, Dou Guangguo

Dou Guangguo was from an impoverished noble family based out of Qinghe in Zhao. Even though the rebellion against the Qin regime and the consequential rise of the Han Dynasty under Emperor Gaozu (king r. 206-202, emperor 202-195 BCE) was a time of tremendous social mobility, the Dou family remained of little significance, holding virtually no worth except the noble blood that ran in their veins.

The downtrodden Dou family, however, was given a door to future opportunities during the reign of Empress Dowager Lü, the wife of Emperor Gaozu and the mother of Emperor Hui (r. 195-188 BCE). Either during Empress Dowager Lü’s domineering years over her son’s reign, or in her own sole rule by means of young puppet emperors between 188 and 180 BCE, the empress dowager took an interest in Dou Guangguo’s family. Empress Dowager Lü had many relatives in need of consorts and concubines, so she was always on the lookout for young women from good families who could be integrated into the imperial court. As it happened, Dou Guangguo had an older sister who fit the empress dowager’s requirements. Guangguo was very, very young at the time, but he would later claim to have vivid memories of spending time with his sister, Lady Dou, before she left to become a palace attendant of Empress Dowager Lü.

Whereas the fortunes of Lady Dou were on the rise, young Guangguo would have a drastically different path in life. When Dou Guangguo was four or five years old, he somehow fell into the hands of a group of kidnappers. The criminals presumably gave Guangguo his nickname, Shaojun, as a new identity and then sold him to a family that was in need of a servant.

Young Shaojun, however, must have been a difficult child, for he was ultimately traded or sold to more than ten families before he found a more stable position with a family from Yiyang. The Yiyang family may have owned a charcoal burning business, or just wanted more spare charcoal for their home, because they eventually sent Shaojun (presumably now a young adult) into the forested mountainside to make charcoal alongside around a hundred other workers. While working with the charcoal burners, Shaojun apparently survived a catastrophic embankment collapse that killed most of his comrades. That accident evidently inspired him to seek a practitioner of divination to tell him of his future—the diviner unbelievably told Shaojun that he would one day become a landed noble with the rank of marquis.

Despite the enticing prophecy, Shaojun needed to work until his unlikely fortune came true. He either returned to the family in Yiyang or found employment as a servant with someone else. Whatever the case, he was ultimately sent by his employer to the capital city of Chang’an, arriving sometime after Emperor Wen (r. 180-157 BCE) succeeded to the throne. While there, Shaojun began to hear intriguing stories about Wen’s empress.

From gossip on the street, Shaojun learned that the new empress was of a poor, but noble, family from the Zhao region. She had been lifted out of obscurity to become a palace attendant of Empress Dowager Lü, and was eventually sent with four other women to the kingdom of Dai, where she became a favorite concubine of the imperial prince, King Liu Heng (ruler of Dai, r. 196-180). When Empress Dowager Lü died in 180 BCE, the government ministers supported Liu Heng over the puppet emperor that was left behind by the late empress dowager. After massacring the Lü clan, the Han ministers invited Liu Heng to come to Chang’an and become the new emperor. Liu Heng accepted the offer and was henceforth known as Emperor Wen.

At the time of his ascendance to the throne, Emperor Wen did not have an empress. During his days as the king of Dai, he had chosen a queen, but she unfortunately died and none of her sons lived past their father’s first year of rule as emperor. As such, the ministers quickly urged that Wen should choose an heir from among the sons birthed by his concubines. In 179 BCE, Emperor Wen agreed with his advisors’ suggestions and named his eldest living son, Liu Qi, as his heir and elevated Liu Qi’s mother to the position of empress. The woman in question was Wen’s favorite consort from Zhao and happened to be none other than Shaojun’s older sister, Lady Dou.

After learning of his sister’s fate, Shaojun wrote to Emperor Wen and Empress Dou, telling them of his bizarre background. The letter caught the attention of the imperial couple and they invited him to personally meet with them. In an audience before the emperor and empress, Shaojun told of how his birth name was Dou Guangguo and that he had been kidnapped at around five years of age; that he had been sold by his captors as a servant or laborer and had remained in that line of work ever since. Finally, he reminisced about his memories of spending time with Lady Dou before she became a palace attendant. He recalled how they picked mulberry leaves together and how she had washed his hair with rice-water shortly before departing on her fateful journey to Chang’an. After hearing these memories, Empress Dou confirmed that Shaojun was indeed her long-lost brother.

Upon being accepted by Empress Dou, Shaojun was showered with wealth and given prime real estate in the city of Chang’an. They even sent him several advisors and teachers to show him how to act properly in the imperial court. Finally, during the reign of Empress Dou’s son, Emperor Jing (r. 157-141 BCE), Shaojun was appointed as the marquis of Zhangwu.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Cooking mural from a tomb in Aohan, c. Liao Dynasty, [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. 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wendi-emperor-of-Han-dynasty 
• http://www.womenofchina.cn/womenofchina/html1/people/history/8/7240-1.htm 
• http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Han/personshanwendi.html 
• http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Han/personsdouhou.html  

Árni Magnússon And His Many Chests Of Original Icelandic Manuscripts

In the year 1663, Árni Magnússon was born in the region of Kvennabrekka, Iceland. The occupations and status of his family would serve him well in later life—Árni’s father was a local sheriff with some political clout and his grandfather and uncle were familiar with the processes of printing and scribing. As these latter two men oversaw Árni Magnússon’s early education, their love of books evidently affected the young boy’s future interests.

After graduating from the Skálholt School in Iceland, Árni Magnússon accompanied his father on a trip to Denmark in 1683. While there, he enrolled at the University of Copenhagen and found a job as an assistant to Thomas Bartholin Jr., the Keeper of the Royal Antiquities in Denmark. This trip to Denmark was a momentous event in Árni Magnússon’s life, as the Keeper of Antiquities would set the young scholar on a task that would become his lifelong passion.

The Tragic Tale Of Puncker—A Masterful Archer From 15th-Century Germany

In the 15th century, there supposedly lived a man named Puncker (or Punker), who was renowned as a showman and a warrior in the Holy Roman Empire, an empire that consisted of Germany, Austria and other surrounding Central and Eastern European lands. The life of this legendary or semi-legendary person, interestingly enough, was recorded in the pages of the Malleus Maleficarum, a text on witchcraft and demonology that was published around 1486 or 1487.

According to the Malleus Maleficarum, Puncker lived in Rohrbach and served under a certain noble named Eberhard Longbeard. The text did not specify anything further on this lord, but the authors could be referring to Duke Eberhard I of Württemberg (c. 1445-1496), who was also known as Bearded Eberhard. Other tales and bits of folklore claim that Puncker also interacted with the Rhineland Palatinate ruler, Louis III (r. 1410-1436). In both versions, the story has the same basic core elements, despite some differences in chronology and reasoning as to why parts of the story came about.

In any case, Puncker was likely one of the greatest bowmen to have ever lived. In his most famous archery exhibition, spectators watched with nervously beating hearts as Puncker aimed his arrow at a small coin precariously placed on a hat worn by the archer’s own son. According to the Malleus Maleficarum, Puncker flawlessly hit the coin with his arrow, and did so without harming the boy or even scratching the hat.

Puncker, however, was not just a showman who liked to show off his archery skill on inanimate objects. He was also a warrior whose talents were greatly utilized by the aforementioned Eberhard. According to the Malleus Maleficarum, Puncker played a major role in Eberhard’s siege of a certain Lendenbrunnen Castle. Putting to good use his uncanny accuracy, Puncker quickly became the scourge of the castle’s defenders by sniping at least three enemies every day. The bow seemed to be an extension of Puncker’s eyes—if he could see a defender, he could hit the defender. At the end of the siege, when Eberhard finally seized the fortress, Puncker was rewarded with a ring from the castle’s gate as a trophy of war. The famed archer proudly hung the ring from the door of his home in Rohrbach.

By this point in the story, many readers may be wondering why the feats of Puncker were recorded in the Malleus Maleficarum, which is a text on witchcraft, and not in a military history. Well, the Malleus Maleficarum was interested in the marksman’s story because 15th-century gossips believed that Puncker’s archery prowess was not natural. In fact, the authors of the Malleus Maleficarum believed that Puncker was a bizarre kind of wizard that specialized in archery magic. According to them, Puncker’s miraculous accuracy was nothing more than a diabolical spell. They wrote that Puncker had prepared before every performance and battle by disrespectfully shooting arrows into a crucifix to infuse them with demonic power. According to the inquisitors’ theory, whenever these same diabolical arrows were shot for a second time from Puncker’s bow, demons would swoop in and ensure that the projectiles hit their targets. That is why, they explained, he would only hit three targets per day during the siege—he could supposedly only prepare three bewitched arrows on a daily basis.

Eventually, as Puncker’s renown grew, such accusations of magic began to gain momentum. In non-Malleus Maleficarum accounts of the story, the previously mentioned archery exhibition where Puncker shot a coin off the top of his son’s head was actually an attempt for the archer to clear his name of witchcraft allegations. In that version of the tale, Puncker claimed that if he was a wizard, God would punish him for his use of magic by making the arrow fall off course and hit the boy.

For whatever reasons, witchcraft or otherwise, Puncker eventually fell afoul of his neighbors and eventually suffered a painful end. According to the Malleus Maleficarum, Puncker was hunted down by a mob of peasants and beaten to death with shovels.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Image of archery practice by Geoffrey Luttrell, c. 1325, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• From The Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, translated by Montague Summers (Dover Publications, 1971). 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eberhard-I 
• https://www.britannica.com/place/Palatinate 
• https://www.revolvy.com/page/Punker-of-Rohrbach?  

Leucothea—A Mortal Greek Woman Of Myth Said To Have Become A Goddess

Among the exclusive club of Greek deities that could claim to have originally been mortal humans was an interesting immortal named Leucothea the White Goddess. She began her days as a proud Greek princess in an important Boeotian city, but, after a life of tragedy and madness, she became a protective goddess of the sea.

The Downfall of Callisthenes, The Official Royal Historian Of Alexander The Great

Alexander the Great had such confidence in himself and his army’s ability that he must have believed wondrous deeds would be an inevitable part of his future. So, before invading the Persian Empire in 334 BCE, Alexander the Great hired an official historian to document his military campaigns. The man tasked with this job was Callisthenes of Olynthus. Like Alexander, Callisthenes was a student of Aristotle. In fact, he and Aristotle had co-written a piece on the Pythian Games. Yet, Callisthenes was best known for his ten-volume history of Greece, covering events that occurred around the years 386-355 BCE. As a result, it is not surprising that Callisthenes came highly recommended when Alexander the Great put out a request for a royal historian to attend him on his journeys. The fact that Callisthenes was Aristotle’s nephew also undoubtedly helped in the selection process.

While accompanying the conquering king, Callisthenes was not just any historian—he was also Alexander’s propagandist. His job was not simply to document Alexander’s campaigns, but to write it in the way that best promoted the king’s public image. Callisthenes understood this second role of his and did indeed fill his history of Alexander with propaganda. From fragments of the history that survive, as well as references and critiques aimed at it from other ancient authors, we know that Callisthenes’ account was filled with stories of divine interventions on the Macedonian king’s behalf, and he was also one of the first to write down rumors alleging that Alexander may have been fathered by a god.

Lu Wan—A Childhood Friend Of Emperor Gaozu Who Abandoned The Han Dynasty And Became A Nomadic Ruler

Lu Wan hailed from the village of Feng, in the region of Peixian (modern Jiangsu province), near the eastern end of central China. Lu Wan’s father was a close friend of the so-called Venerable Sire—the name given to the father of Emperor Gaozu, the founder of the Han Dynasty. The friendship between the two fathers passed on to their sons, with Gaozu and Lu Wan becoming inseparable friends. Legend even claimed that the two boys were born on the same day, something that the villagers thought was significant.

Although Gaozu (known then as Liu Bang) was destined to become an emperor and Lu Wan a nobleman, the two began their lives as peasants. The friends began their upward mobility during the reign of the Qin Dynasty (222-206 BCE). The pair studied together and Gaozu succeeded in qualifying for a position as a village official. Lu Wan presumably did not fair as well as his friend in the examination, for he did not seem to receive a local government post and he instead followed Gaozu wherever the future emperor went. Gaozu eventually moved to Pei, where he married the daughter of Master Lü, a friend of the region’s magistrate. It was there that Gaozu and Lu Wan would begin their great rise to power.

The Other Side Of The Roman Scholar, Suetonius

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, better known simply as Suetonius, was born around the year 70 to a family of the equestrian order—a Roman equivalent of knighthood. The exact location of Suetonius’ birth is uncertain, but many point to the ancient city of Hippo Regius, in Algeria, where a memorial inscription in his honor was excavated in what had been once the city square. Although his family was not among the highest elite of Rome, they still had considerable influence. Suetonius claimed that his grandfather had contacts in the inner circle of Caligula (r. 37-41). His father, too, was a prominent figure, serving as a military tribune during the short reign of Emperor Otho (r. 69). Suetonius’ popularity and fame, however, would rise far higher than that of his forefathers, and he would accomplish that feat not with military victories or political maneuverings, but with education and writing.

Peng Yue—The Ancient Chinese Swamp Bandit Who Became A King And Ended Up In A Pickle Jar

Humble Beginnings

Few people have had or will have as many dramatic twists and turns in their life as Peng Yue, a man who lived in China around the turn of the 3rd and 2nd century BCE. Sima Qian (r. 145-90 BCE), the author of the Records of the Grand Historian, traced the place of Peng Yue’s birth to a region called Changyi. Not much is known about his early years, but by the time Peng Yue reached adulthood, he somehow relocated to the swamps of Juye, where a small troop of bandits pressured him to be their leader. Peng Yue, however, seemed to dislike leadership at that point in his life, and he spent most of his time fishing.

In the inaugural year of the Second Emperor of the Qin Dynasty (209 BCE), a commoner named Chen She began a rebellion in Chu, prompting numerous other disgruntled men throughout China to muster their own rebel armies. Chen She managed to place himself as a hegemon, or commander-in-chief, in charge of the loosely allied rebel forces, and his coalition proved to be more than a match for the Qin army. Peng Yue was still living in a swamp with his merry band of bandits at this momentous time, and the news sent thrills of excitement through the men living in his outlaw community. Still considering Peng Yue to be their leader, the bandits (maybe 100 in number) begged their reluctant commander to join the rebel cause. Peng Yue, however, refused their offer, claiming he would rather watch and wait as the powerful dragons fought among themselves.

It took over a year before Peng Yue was convinced to turn his band of robbers into a rebel army. When his mind was made up, Peng Yue called together his followers and told them that if they wanted to be an army they needed to start acting like soldiers. First of all, he needed to know if his troops could show discipline and follow commands. So, according to Sima Qian, he told the bandits that they would have a meeting at dawn in order to discuss the rebellion. Almost as an afterthought, Peng Yue added that anyone late to the meeting would be executed.

King Agis IV—The Post-Alexander King Of Sparta Who Wanted To Bring Sparta Back To Its Glory Days

When a civilization begins to decline, those witnessing the fall start to question what went wrong. Was it abandoning traditional government, apostatizing from the ancestral religion, or was it a general degradation of morality that brought about the end? And when once-great powers find themselves without strength, they look to the past in search of the specialness that they had lost by the time of their present.

King Agis IV felt these emotions strongly. He took power in 244 or 243 BCE, allegedly at the young age of nineteen. Agis was a member of the Eurypontid line of Spartan kings, one of two co-ruling monarchies in Sparta. His co-king from the Agiad line was Leonidas II, who had been in power since 251 BCE. The two kings had vastly different visions for Sparta and their personalities were bound to clash. It was a classic sociopolitical conflict—the ongoing struggle between the revolutionary and the defender of the status quo.

The Life Of Saint Patrick And Nennius’ Extravagant Statistics About His Career

Saint Patrick is credited with spreading the Christian religion into ancient Ireland in the 5th century. The traditionally-accepted account of his life follows the Confessio, a brief autobiography supposedly written by St. Patrick, himself.

According to the Confessio, St. Patrick was the son of a Roman citizen named Calpurnius. His family had some wealth, as they lived in a home that could be described as a small villa, located in a settlement called Bannavem Taburniae, somewhere on mainland Britain. Patrick’s father, Calpunius, was a clergyman, as was Patrick’s grandfather before him. Yet, Patrick, like many preachers’ sons, confessed to having little to no interest in religion during his early years of life.

Everything changed when Patrick reached the age of sixteen. In a twist of fate that would change the world, the secular-minded Patrick was taken captive by a band of Irish raiders. The young teen was taken back to Ireland, where he was forced to work in the pastures. In the Confessio, Patrick claimed to have been forced to watch over his captors’ animals for six long years.

Lucius Fulcinius Trio Lived And Died By The Law In Ancient Rome

During the reign of Emperor Tiberius (r. 14-37), lawyers could amass huge fortunes as prosecutors. Similar to a witch-hunt atmosphere, the rich and powerful in Tiberius’ empire threw countless accusations of criminality and treason at each other. The prosecutor that won these high-profile treason cases could expect to gain a portion of the defendant’s assets. In addition to the ill-gotten wealth, the act of prosecuting supposed traitors could also lead to honorary awards and government promotions.

The Greatly Endowed Plot Of Lü Buwei To End His Affair With The Mother Of A Chinese King

Lü Buwei was a prominent minister of Qin during the decades before the kings of Qin formally became emperors. He began his career as a simple merchant, and, because of his keen mind for strategy and administration, his business was extremely profitable. Nevertheless, his career trajectory would dramatically change after a trip to the city of Handan, the capital of the state of Zhao.

While in Handan, Lü Buwei encountered a Qin nobleman being held there as a diplomatic hostage—the man’s name was Zichu. He was one of more than twenty sons fathered by Lord Anguo, who had become the crown prince of Qin around 267 BCE. As such, Zichu was a member of the Qin royal family, but he was still considered low enough in the succession to be given away by his king as a hostage to assure peace between Qin and Zhao. Nevertheless, with a potential heir to the kingdom of Qin at his fingertips, Lü Buwei decided to give up the life of a merchant for that of a politician.

The Dramatic Life of Fan Ju, The Marquis Of Ying, And His Quirky, Bizarre Ascension To Power

Countless advisors, philosophers, generals and statesmen of all kinds found fortune and destruction while serving the plentiful warring kings of ancient China. One particular statesman named Fan Ju definitely can be ranked as having one of the quirkiest and bizarre ascensions to power. As an added bonus, unlike many of his contemporaries, Fan Ju’s story actually had a pleasant ending.

Most of the information on this interesting figure was left to us by Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE), a Grand Historian from the Han Dynasty who is often labeled as the father of Chinese history. According to the Grand Historian’s sources, Fan Ju was born in the kingdom of Wei. Even though his family had little wealth and influence, Fan Ju aspired to be an itinerate advisor to the kings of the age. Yet, despite his ambition, the young intellectual found that his low social status and his limited resources were obstacles barring him from entering the courts of the ancient Chinese kings. Facing reality, Fan Ju decided to start climbing the social ladder from the bottom, hoping to eventually reach the top.

The Obsessively Pure Life Of Saint-Queen Etheldreda And Her Miraculous Remains

Etheldreda (also known by the names Æthelthryth and Audrey) was one of the most popular saints to come out of early Anglo-Saxon England. In particular, she found an admirer in Bede (c. 673-735), the author of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which recorded events in England from the days of the Roman Empire up to Bede’s own time; in it the monk included a chapter on Etheldreda, drawing largely from clergymen who had known the saint, specifically her friend and mentor, Bishop Wilfrid.

King Anna of East Anglia (d. 654) fathered several saintly daughters, one of which was Etheldreda. The young princess was said to have begun dreaming about life as a nun relatively early on in her childhood. Even though she was not allowed to join a religious order, she reportedly still tried to live with extreme virtue. Most importantly, she vowed to live in chastity and remain a virgin. Despite her vow, noblemen still sought her hand in marriage, for the union (even if only symbolic) would still bring the prospective husband into an alliance with the East Anglian king. Therefore, Etheldreda was married to a certain Tondbert, a prince or king from South Gyrwas. Apparently, the couple struck up an accord—she received her own estates, he became the king’s son-in-law, and neither husband nor wife bothered about consummating the marriage. As such, when Tondbert died shortly after the marriage had occurred, Etheldreda was still widely considered to be a pure virgin princess.

The Crazy Life Of The Roman Princess Galla Placidia

Galla Placidia and her eventful life perfectly showcased the hectic state of affairs that the Western Roman Empire found itself enduring (and eventually collapsing from) during the 5th century. She was a daughter of Emperor Theodosius I (r. 379-395) and Empress Galla. Upon Theodosius’ death, two of Galla Placidia’s brothers were crowned as emperors, one to rule the East and another to control the West. Galla Placidia, herself, was left to the care of the powerful general Stilicho (or more specifically, his wife, Serena), under whose direction she learned Latin and Greek, as well as other subjects that women of the time were expected to be know, such as sewing and weaving.

The young princess stayed in the Western Empire during the reign of her brother, Emperor Honorius (r. 393-423), mostly residing in the city of Rome. Yet times were not easy—for various reasons (but mostly because of pressure from the Huns) a large coalition of peoples, including the Vandals, Suevi and Alans, crossed the Rhine into Roman Gaul in 406, throwing the empire into chaos. A former Roman mercenary named Alaric brought the havoc straight to the heart of the Western Empire. After becoming king of the Visigoths, Alaric eventually led his people to besiege Rome. He arrived at the city walls first in 408, but was paid off by the Roman Senate. He attacked again in 409, but was once more convinced to withdraw from the city. Finally, in 410, King Alaric and the Visigoths besieged Rome for one last time, with no intention of withdrawing from the city. Instead, they looted the city for three days, stealing wealth and harassing the locals, but keeping most of the city remarkably intact. Around this time, or perhaps during the earlier sieges, the Visigoths captured Galla Placidia. King Alaric hoped he could use the princess as leverage in his negotiations with Emperor Honorius. Alaric, however, had miscalculated—Honorius and Galla Placidia were not friendly siblings.