Top 10 strange moments in Roman History.

Transcript

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Hi, and welcome to the top ten strangest events in Roman history. I really enjoyed the research of this one, and they could have been so easily a top twenty. Also, I just want to thank you all for your support of the podcast. Keep tuning in and if you are new I hope you enjoy. Okay, for today I thought we'd start at ten and work our way down. Number ten the Lupicalia whipping ritual. Lupicalia was an ancient, highly raucous Roman fertility and purification festival celebrated on the fifteenth of February. Its most famous ritual involved naked or nearly naked priests running through the streets of Rome, playfully whipping women with strips of sacrificed goat hide in the belief that it granted fertility and safe childbirth. To origins, it takes its name from the Lupical, a sacred cave at the base of the Palantine Hill, where Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome, were said to be nursed by a she wolf. Animal sacrifices. The day kicked off at the cave where priests the Lupicai sacrificed dogs and male goats, the blood and milk ritual. Following the sacrifice the priests would touch their foreheads to the knife and then wipe off the blood using wool soaked in milk. The ritual also required two young men to laugh loudly. Of course then the whipping run. After a feast the priests cut the lengths of goat hide into tongues called Fibrika. Running around the city they would playfully strike anyone within reach. Women would intentionally step into their path, believing destruction would cure infertility and the pain of labour. The festival remained deeply popular and even survived the fall of the Western Roman Empire until the late fifth century, when Pope Galasius I outlawed the nudity and drunken revelry. Boo antifun pope. Who would have thought it? Number nine A conspiracy theory. Lead poisoning led to a health decline amongst Rome's upper classes and contributed to the downfall of the Roman Empire. Well guess what? Tonedat is some evidence to support this. Part of the reason was wine sweetness. Romans frequently boiled unfermented grapes in lead or lead lined pots to create diffractum or supper. The sweet syrup which contained high levels of lead actate was used to flavor both food and wine. The other another contributing factor was water infrastructure. The much vaunted Roman aqueducts delivered water through lead pipes. While mineral buildup and continuous water flow likely reduced direct contamination for drinking water, lead was still ubiquitous in household plumbing. Also, cosmetics and tableware, lead was commonly used in face powders, glazes for pottery and makeup. Industrial pollution. Smelting lead for manufacturing created massive amounts of atmospheric pollution which settled into the soil, water and air. Bioarchaeological evidence supports this. The examination of teeth and bones from ancient Roman skeletons has consistently revealed high levels of accumulated lead. Modern scientific studies including deep core deep ice core studies have shown significant spikes in environmental lead levels during the height of the Empire. eight the first example of chemical warfare two hundred fifty six AD. During the siege of Jura Europes in modern day Syria, Roman and Cassan Persian forces tunneled underneath the city walls to intercept each other. When the two sides met underground, the Sassanids burnt a combination of pitch and sulphur, creating a highly toxic dioxide gas cloud that suffocated the Roman soldiers. seven. Julius Caesar was captured by pirates in seventy five BC. According to Plutarch, before he was a dictator, a young Julius Caesar was kidnapped by Sicilian pirates who demanded twenty talents ransom. Caesar was deeply offended by the low price and demanded that they raise it to fifty cal. He spent his captivity ordering the pirates about, reading to them from his poems and speeches and threatening them with crucifixion. Caesar, as it turned out, was determined to make good on his threats, because after his release he travelled to the Port of Malaitus, where he organized a private fleet. He then sailed to Delare, took them prisoner, returned to Malatus, and they were duly crucified. Number six The Rule of Alagabalus from two hundred eighteen to two hundred twenty two AD. Not quite sure how Alagabalus got missed in the top ten emperors. However, his reign certainly deserves its place in this top ten. The year is eighteen AD two hundred eighteen AD. The ruler of the known world is a fourteen year old boy from Syria, but he is not just any boy. He is a hereditary high priest of a sun god called Alagabal, worshipped in the form of a sacred black meteoric stone. His real name was Varius Avatus Passanius, but history knows him by his god's name Alagaba Alagabalus. He came to power because of his incredibly wealthy and ambitious grandmother, Julia Mesa. After she successfully bribed a local legion into declaring him emperor, she spun a brilliant piece of propaganda claiming the boy was the illegitimate son of the Emperor Caracalla. When the new teenage emperor arrived in Rome, he brought his god with him and he expected the Romans to worship it above all others. There was a large problem with this. Normally Romans were perfectly fine in collecting new gods, but Alagabalus went a step further. He essentially tried to make the Syrian sun god the head of the entire Roman pantheon, demoting Jupiter himself. Alagabalus built a lavish temple on the Palantine Hill and even forced conservative Roman citizens to participate in wild Essence style rituals. He would lead summer processions where he ran backwards facing the sacred black stone as it was pulled along by a chariot of white horses. It was not just viewed as strange, it was seen as a direct threat to Roman's existence, as many believed it would offend the gods. His personal life and gender fluidity. Also there was more for the conservative establishment to deal with. Again, one of the main sources is Cassius Dio and he wrote that Alagabalus has lived a life that defied traditional gender norms. He dressed in women's clothing, wore makeup and wore elaborate wigs. He married and divorced several women, including a vestal virgin, but his most famous marriage was to a male chariot driver called Heracles, who Alagabalus referred to as his husband. During this relationship, Alagabalus took on the role as wife and demanded it to be addressed as a lady. He also offered massive financial rewards to any physician who could perform surgery to give him female genitalia. He was also known for his spectacular feasts. Some of the dishes included peacock tongues, ostrich ostrich brains, camel's heels and congeriles. Gold and pearls were mixed in with food, and he also liked to have colour themes for his feast. The or at one feast he had a massive cascade of flower petals fall on his guests. It was so deep it led to the suffocation of several of his guests. He also liked to play tricks, sometimes dangerous tricks on his guests. These included an ancient version of the whoopee cushion, and he liked to let loose lions, leopards, and venomous snakes amongst his guests. After he drained the treasury, the Praetorian guard murdered him. His body was dragged through the streets and thrown into the Tiber. His rule was subjected to damnatio memor, which was effectively erasing his reign from history Picasoto the Stalinist ebushing of certain individuals out of history. Number five. The Romans had in some ways a paradoxical views on sex and sexuality. There was definitely a traditional and conservative view, though in many ways you can argue this was applied was quite hypocritical and seemed funnily enough to give males a larger degree of freedom than females. And yet the Romans seemed to have a remarkably open and sex positive religious culture where fertility gods like Priapus were displayed everywhere. Voyeism was not uncommon with explicit explicit erotic frescoes and artwork proudly displayed in private homes and public baths. There is a considerable collection in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. Google it if you're curious. Number four Chrysippus laughs to death. According to Diogenes Laertis, the famous Stoic philosopher Chrysippus Chrysippus died of hysterics. After watching a donkey eat his figs, he found the site so funny that he laughed till he collapsed and died. Just on Stoicism, a couple of things I'd like to add. Ryan Holiday, who's a best selling author of ten not ten books on Stoicism is touring Australia in October of this year and is appearing in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane just in case you're interested in finding out more about modern stoicism. And number two, I recently read How to Be a Stoic Ancient Wisdom for Modern Living by Massimo Pigliucci. Um definitely well worth a read if you're interested in this kind of thing. And as I've said before, stoicism is more complicated and certainly has a lot more going for it as a philosophy than just keeping a stiff up all it. Anyway, just an event and a book to consider three The Fu Chin Lake Disaster The Lake Disaster which led the Emperor Claudius ordered thirty thousand workers to dig a massive tunnel to drain the Fu Chin Lake to create farmland. During the Grand Opening he staged a mock battle on the lake. However, when the gates opened, the sudden rush of water flooded the area, drowning many of the participants and destroying the viewing stands. Just a few extra points about this. The tunnel itself was an impressive five point six kilometers long. The reason it was being built was it was prone to flooding and it tended to create malaria ridden swamps. And the battle itself involved a hundred ships and nineteen thousand combatants, most of which were condemned prisons. So he certainly put on a show that day. At number two, we have the year of the six emperors in two hundred thirty eight AD. Political chaos reached fever pitch when the Empire was ruled by six different men in a single calendar year Maximus Thrace Thrax, which kinda sounds like a rather unfortunate disease when you think about it. Gordian I, Gordian II, Pupianius, Balbinus and Gordian III. Maximus Thrax, the reigning emperor at the start of the year, whose harsh taxation and oppressive rule led to the Senate turning against him. Gordian he was the first Gordian I, proclaimed as emperor by rebellious landowners and the population of Africa Proconciola Brugis in modern day Tunisia. His reign lasted twenty two days. Then there was Gordian II, the son of Gordian I. Both died within a month of taking power. He died in a battle fighting Maximus Thrax. Papianus appointed as a co emperor by the Senate to fight and resist against Maximus Maximus Thrax and Balbinus and at the co emperor appointed alongside Papianus. Both were murdered by the Praetorian Guard. Then finally Gordian III, the grandson of Gordian I, he was proclaimed Caesar during the conflict with Thrax and became sole emperor by the end of the year, at the age of thirteen years old. And finally, at number one we have Coligia declares war on the god Neptune. And obviously what comes to mind is why? Well, first and foremost, it was clearly a sign of his ongoing and worsening instability. Also, again, as he was prone to do, signalling his power over the Senate and his ability to change his mind as he saw fit. Also, it occurred during his proposed invasion of Britain and essentially his troops refused to board the barger so they prepared to invade Britain. So to save face and humiliate his troops, he ordered them to charge the sea and then collect seashells as trophies of their battle over the sea and Neptune. So that brings us to the end of the topic of these top ten strange episodes of Roman history. I hope you enjoyed it and look forward to your company in the next one.