Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2024 i History Extra

23 OCTOBER 42 BC Julius Caesar's assassins make their last stand Rival Roman forces clash at Philippi After two days of fighting near Philippi in what's now north-east Greece, the fate of the so-called Liberators was sealed. Having absconded to the Roman Republic's eastern provinces following Caesar's murder on the Ides of March (15 March) 44 BC, the leading assassins Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus commanded much of the eastern Mediterranean. Meanwhile, a triumvirate was forged in the west: Caesar's right-hand man, Mark Antony; his named heir and great-nephew, Octavian; and General Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. They secured control of Rome and its western provinces, then – leaving Lepidus in Italy – Antony and Octavian set out to confront their foes. On 3 October, Octavian's army was forced onto…

“Though Moors no longer rule these parts, their presence is felt every day” AS I WRITE THIS COLUMN, I AM SITTING NOT far from the fortified town of Moclín in southern Spain, with a view of an old Moorish watchtower on top of a hill swathed in olive groves. It's a vista that's remained essentially unchanged for many centuries. I live part of my life here, and spend a lot of time writing with this view as my companion. The Torre atalaya de Mingoandrés is one of a handful of similar medieval watchtowers dotted around the area north-west of Granada. This is a hugely historic place in the story of modern Spain – yet, for some reason, it is little known outside the region. The name Moclín derives from the…

“Matthews’ claim to have devised a ray that could make aircraft fall from the sky provoked a sensation” The 11am flight to Paris from Croydon Aerodrome on Tuesday 27 May 1924 made national headlines. True, it was an ordinary scheduled service – but one of the passengers was far from ordinary. The following morning, readers up and down the country learned of a desperate chase to prevent inventor Harry Grindell Matthews from leaving Britain – taking with him the secrets of his purported ‘Death Ray’. According to these newspaper accounts, this thrilling episode involved a high-speed chase in a hired car by shareholders armed with an injunction, who sped to the airfield – arriving just in time to watch the plane lift off and soar away. In truth, it was…

This encyclopaedic tour of baked goods and their origins begins back in c12,000 BC, when hunter-gatherers cooked flat breads made from wheat, barley and mashed roots on hot stones. Moving through the history of griddle cakes and pancakes, the book then tackles an incredible array of breads, biscuits and cakes, pies and puddings, finishing (as a literary dessert) with more-luxurious patisserie bakes. Along the way, Buttery highlights a huge wealth of forgotten – and delicious – recipes, techniques and ingredients, his book functioning, at least in part, as a call to bring them back. We should be dipping our Madeira cake in sweet Madeira wines, for example. And how sad that we have lost the early modern art of adding a caudle (a kind of custard of cream, sugar and…

This excellent and important book helps us understand both the complexities of wartime ciphers and how decoding them gave the Allies significant information about the Holocaust. Central to this story is the “kaleidoscopic mix of coded sources” from across many countries, dubbed the “Holocaust Codes” by the author. Christian Jennings’ book begins with the dramatic description of a reconnaissance sortie on 4 April 1944 by a De Havilland Mosquito of the South African Air Force. The crew was tasked with photographing the IG Farben plant at Monowitz in Poland. Crucially, however, it also returned with images of Auschwitz-Birkenau. These were the first Allied aerial shots of the Nazi death camp. They did not, however, come as a complete surprise to the British and Americans. As Jennings explains: “A select handful…

At 9.30pm on 23 September 1984, one of the eeriest dramas ever shown on television received its first British transmission. “In an urban society, everything connects,” noted the narrator of Threads, a prelude to an account of the effects of nuclear war and a subsequent nuclear winter on Sheffield. It was the bleakest of visions of a future that, during the Cold War, seemed all too plausible. Threads (pictured) had a huge cultural impact, both on those who saw it at the time and those who sought it out afterwards. The latter include Jude Rogers, who presents Archive on 4: Reweaving Threads, 40 Years On (BBC Radio 4, Saturday 21 September), an atmospheric documentary that mixes voices from the past with new interviews. Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) is a…

Across 1 Mameluke 5 Actium 10 Renan 11 Neolithic 12 Ferdinand 13 Acre 15 Talbot 17 Glasnost 19 Oughtred 21 Gauden 24/9 Jane Goodall 25 Anastasia 28 Endeavour 29 Calvi 30 Beaker 31 Persians Down: 1 Mary Fitton 2 Manor 3 Lin Biao 4 Kendal 6 Cuirass 7 Isherwood 8 Mace 14 Stannaries 16 La Guardia 18 Lebanon 20 The Pale 22 Atticus 23 Barrie 26 Sulla 27 Webb Five winners of Tracks on the Ocean by Sara Caputo: Beryl Maddison, Bath; Alex Alcoe, St Albans; Trevor Crowe, Bexhill-on-Sea; John Olin, Congleton; Chris Skinner, Ipswich CROSSWORD COMPETITION TERMS & CONDITIONS ● The crossword competition is open to all residents of the UK (& Channel Islands), aged 18 or over, except Immediate Media Company London Limited employees or contractors, and anyone…

1. Non-survival of the tastiest Charles Darwin spent decades researching the animals of the world, but I hadn't previously realised the breadth of his culinary interest in them – and was surprised to learn he'd chowed down on puma, armadillo and even an owl (page 43). 2. Demonic medieval pigs Sticking with the animal theme, I learned from Dolly Jørgensen's article on urban pigs in the Middle Ages that the animals were thought by some to be Satan's representatives on Earth (page 66). 3. Eastern promise In Jerry Brotton's fascinating article on the cardinal directions, he explains how medieval Christian maps, such as the Hereford mappa mundi, put east not north at the summit, as it was seen as a “sacred direction” (page 52).…

Matt Elton Assassinations, and attempted assassinations, have occurred around the world throughout history. But is there a particularly American aspect to this story of political violence? Adam IP Smith I think there is. Political violence is hardly unique to the US, sadly, so we must be careful about ascribing American exceptionalism to what we saw at Donald Trump's rally [in Pennsylvania on 13 July]. There is nevertheless an American political tradition into which this specific kind of gun violence – the attempted assassination of leading political figures, especially presidents and presidential candidates – fits. As a historian, do you think it's a stretch to suggest that the violence that shaped the founding of the modern nation may have paved the way for later political violence in the US? Certainly the…

I enjoyed Daisy Dunn's feature on women of the Greco-Persian wars (July) and would like to bring attention to another instance of women's contribution to the wars against Persia. One hundred and fifty years after the events Dunn details, Alexander the Great continued the Greco-Persian wars by invading the Persian empire. Multiple ancient writers agree that his burning of the palace at Persepolis was revenge for the Persian destruction of Athens in 480 BC. Significantly, Plutarch writes that this rancorous act was incited by Thais, mistress of one of Alexander's generals. While Dunn's article features many influential women already in positions of titular authority, the inclusion of Thais in Plutarch's narrative is a reminder of other ways in which women throughout history have reached the room where it happens –…

Writing in his philosophical work the New Organon in 1620, the English scientist and philosopher Sir Francis Bacon famously identified China's three great inventions, “which were unknown to the ancients, and of which the origin, though recent, is obscure and inglorious; namely printing, gunpowder and the magnet. For these three have changed the whole face and state of things throughout the world.” Much has been written about the historical impact of printing and gunpowder. But there's been far less emphasis on the magnet, and how (using lodestones to magnetise iron needles) it enabled the ‘obscure’ invention of the magnetic compass during the Han dynasty in the third century BC. This technology enabled China and, subsequently, other societies to navigate and orientate themselves according to the four points of the compass:…

The abbot of St Mary's in York could not stand the stench any longer. He complained to King Edward I in 1298 that the air was corrupted and infected in the streets of the Bootham district north of York Minster. He pinned the blame on pigsties along the lanes, swine wandering about the streets, and dung heaps. The court concurred that this was completely unacceptable and ordered the bailiffs to destroy the pigsties by the roads and to ban pigs feeding, or wandering unattended. At nearly the same time, in London, city authorities ordered the removal of pigsties in the streets and elected four ‘swine killers’, who were ordered to find and eliminate any pigs found on the main roads. They got half of the proceeds of the sale of…

In vogue Throughout history, people have gone to great lengths to ensure they're in step with the latest styles. In a 2022 interview, health and beauty historian Lucy Jane Santos tackled popular web search queries and listener questions about centuries of looking good, from ancient cosmetics to the risky use of scientific innovations such as X-rays. historyextra.com/beauty-everything Tudor trends We're all familiar with the bejewelled bodices and frilled collars sported by well-to-do Tudors in portraits of the era. But how many garments did the average person actually own? Would expectant mothers have worn special clothes? And were codpieces really as ubiquitous as we now think? Find out in an entertaining conversation with expert Jane Malcolm-Davies. historyextra.com/tudor-clothes Renaissance beauty The pursuit of physical beauty has always had a dark side –…

A history of the modern world told through the routes marked on maps of the sea is a brilliant idea – and one executed here as well as it was conceived. From ancient itineraries to the disruption of supply chains during the Covid-19 pandemic, we are shown our world through new eyes. In the chapter ‘Countertracks’, author Sara Caputo points out the ways in which tracks on charts and maps can be unhelpfully persuasive, marked confidently – whereas, in fact, there are always hidden discrepancies and tensions. Who had the authority to ‘claim’ a route? Who didn't – and why? Alternative views of the world – and paths across and around it – continued to exist in spite of any new, clearly marked map. In addition, powerful societal forces dictated…

What drew you to the story of Anna Maria della Pietà, a student of Vivaldi? When I found the story of the students taught by Vivaldi at the Venetian orphanage, I was hooked. These women and girls, missing eyes and toes and scarred from the pox, were fundamental to the development of his music. Anna Maria was his favourite: he wrote music and bought a violin for her. She was one of the great violinists of the 18th century – a woman we should never have forgotten. How did you convey a sense of the atmosphere of this time and place? Venice at the turn of the 18th century was such a vivid and exciting place. Because I make films, I wrote in scenes and tried to give everything a…

RECIPE Pumpion pie ELEANOR BARNETT recreates a recipe that first appeared in 17th-century England, before taking America by storm In the culinary world, autumn has become synonymous with pumpkins. All squashes are native to the Americas, and along with corns and beans, they formed the nutritious trio of staple foods known as the ‘three sisters’, because they flourish when planted together. The pumpkin is the best-known of all the squashes, and archaeologists have found its seeds in tombs in central Mexico that date as far back as 7,000 BC. Native American peoples ate the seeds and used the flesh in a whole host of dishes, saving the dried shells as containers. Europeans first encountered pumpkins as they colonised the Americas at the end of the 15th century. In Tudor England…

Dan Jones “Shakespeare's ‘Prince Hal’ is one of his most famous historical creations – but one of his biggest flights of fancy. In researching the real Henry V's youth, I found that he was no roistering drunk but a hard-nosed warrior.” Dan tells the story of Henry V's violent upbringing on page 20 Dolly Jørgensen “As an environmental historian, I'm fascinated by the relations between humans and animals. The pig is a fantastic example of our intertwined histories.” Dolly explains why our medieval ancestors were so reliant on urban pigs on page 63 Robert Bartlett “In my book, I explore instances in which thousands – sometimes tens of thousands – of medieval books and documents went up in flames in just a couple of hours, leaving huge holes in the…

“The current destruction in Gaza is more thorough than any ancient siege” BACK IN THE MID-NINETIES, I WENT ON A journey following in the footsteps of Alexander the Great, travelling down through Lebanon to Egypt, and I stayed in Gaza. Alexander had waged a brutal siege of the city, which ended with the vindictive killing of the heroic governor, Batis, who was dragged around the walls behind Alexander's chariot, as Achilles had done with Hector. War is a horrible business. And Gaza has known more than most. My photos show the old Great Mosque, with its huge circular window; originally a temple to Marnas, the chief Gazan deity, then a Byzantine church, it's now destroyed. The Greek church of St Porphyrius, perhaps the thirdoldest in the world, has been wrecked.…

The surgery that saved Henry after the battle of Shrewsbury was a sliding doors moment Summer 1403 saw surgeon John Bradmore rush to Kenilworth Castle to attend to a famous patient. Henry, the 16-year-old Prince of Wales and heir to the English throne, was in a critical condition. On 21 July, he had fought alongside his father, King Henry IV, at the battle of Shrewsbury against rebels led by Henry ‘Hotspur’ Percy. The royal army had won – but the cost of victory had been high. During the battle, an arrow had pierced Prince Henry's cheek and lodged deep in his head. He'd been lucky to survive; without urgent medical attention, he would surely soon die. The procedure Bradmore performed on Prince Henry at Kenilworth was a marvel of surgical…

Emily Briffett: Your new book explores episodes in which large volumes of written material were destroyed in a single day – not by accident, fire or flood but by human forces. Why are these cases so interesting, and what makes them worth studying? Robert Bartlett: As a medieval historian, I'm very aware of how we know what we know about the Middle Ages, when all written material was produced by hand, as manuscripts. There was no printing, so very often there's only one copy of something – even famous documents such as the Old English poem Beowulf. This material is precarious – particularly in situations like the ones I describe in the book. I take five case studies in which thousands – sometimes tens of thousands – of medieval books…

“We are facing a watershed moment,” writes the German historian Annette Kehnel at the start of this engaging book. The world is faced with increasingly limited resources, growing injustice and proliferating horrors at a time when “we find ourselves gradually running out of ideas”. The best thing to do, says Kehnel, is to think about how to find a “new vision for the future”. And, she writes, the best way to do that is to look to the past. The Green Ages was originally published in Germany in 2021 with the title Wie konnten auch anders – ‘How can it be otherwise’. Although the book sounds, and often reads, like a manifesto for the world of today, it is in fact a more interesting exploration of how societies in the…

When we think of early English encounters with India, we might conjure up images of the haughty aristocrat Sir Thomas Roe, the ambassador sent by James VI & I in 1615 to the court of the Mughals, where he spent his time sneering down his nose at the “overgrowne eliphant”, as he termed their empire. Or the gruff and frequently inebriated William Hawkins almost a decade earlier, drinking the Emperor Jahangir under the table in his quest to win the East India Company coveted trading privileges on the subcontinent. Before these national and corporate efforts to trade and establish settlements in India, English people had arrived in the Mughal empire in unexpected ways. The very first to reach India by sea, in fact, was Father Thomas Stephens, a Catholic Englishman…

A stone's throw from Lough Neagh, the ruins of Antrim Castle loom starkly over the banks of the Six Mile Water River. It was built on the site of a 12thcentury motte and bailey – affectionately nicknamed the ‘Cake’, because of the effect created by the candle-like Scots pine trees – which still provides unparalleled views of one of the largest loughs in the British Isles. The grounds passed to Sir Hugh Clotworthy in 1606, when he became captain of Lough Neagh. Sir Hugh's son, John, was made Viscount Massereene in 1660, with Antrim Castle his seat. An imposing new edifice was constructed, with a Georgian Gothic exterior added in 1813. That castle was gutted by fire in 1922, and only an impressive Italianate tower survives. Today the site, encompassing…

Across 1 In ancient Rome, a formal procession in honour of a victorious general (7) 5 Lise ____, Austrian-born physicist who played a key role in the discovery of nuclear fission but did not share the subsequent 1944 Nobel Prize (7) 10 ____ of Elea, fifth-century BC Greek philosopher known for his ingenious paradoxes (4) 11 Ancient Roman festival of mid-February, possibly associated with the she-wolf said to have nursed Romulus and Remus (10) 12 Columbus's flagship for his first voyage to America, which ran aground on Christmas day 1492 (5,5) 13 Dame Sibyl Hathaway was the feudal overlord of this Channel Island between 1927 and 1974 (4) 14 Old British coin worth one-tenth of £1 (6) 16 Unesco World Heritage Site in Jordan, ancient Nabataean capital (5) 18 An antique (Latinised) name for the city of Troy…

IN PROFILE Born Elizabeth Cochran in Pennsylvania, Nellie Bly is most famous for her record-breaking 72-day trip around the world, emulating the journey taken by Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg. She was also known for her investigative journalism and was once mistaken for a British spy. She has been inducted into America's National Women's Hall of Fame and was one of four female journalists honoured on a set of US stamps. “She was unafraid to take risks as a journalist, and was dissatisfied covering the sort of topics usually assigned to female reporters” When did you first hear about Bly? A year or two ago, when a BBC editor half-jokingly said: “You're a right Nellie Bly!” “Who?”, I replied, having never heard of her. So I looked her up, and ended…