Historical Events1861 - Confederate ironclad Manassas attack Union's Richmond on Mississippi1901 - Theodore Roosevelt renames the "Executive Mansion" as "The White House"1970 - Rock Memorabilia Auction at Filmore East1994 - Iranian Fokker F28 explodes between Isfahan and Tehran, killing 661999 - Pervez Musharraf takes power in Pakistan from Nawaz Sharif through a bloodless coupMore Historical Events Famous Birthdays1897 - Inez Courtney, American stage and screen actress (The 13th Man; Crime Ring; The Raven), born in Amsterdam, New York (d. 1975)1928 - Al Held, American painter and sculptor (hard edge-style), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2005)1950 - Dave Freudenthal, American economist and politician (31st Governor of Wyoming), born in Thermopolis, Wyoming1969 - Dave Chaytors, CFL defensive tackle (British Columbia Lions), born in Calgary, Alberta1975 - Lex Lang, American actor (Power Rangers), born in Hollywood, CaliforniaMore Famous Birthdays Famous Deaths1924 - Anatole France [Jacques Anatole Thibault], French writer (Thas, Wickerwork Woman, Nobel 1921), dies at 801996 - Trevor Illtyd williams, scientific writer, dies at 752001 - Quintin Hogg, British politician, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone, dies at 94 (b. 1907)2015 - Eugene Louw, South African minister of Internal affairs and Defense, dies at 842015 - Joan Leslie, American actress (High Sierra, Yankee Doodle Dandy), dies at 90More Famous Deaths

A large treasure of silver coins and jewelry from the 12th century has been discovered in Sweden. It is the first medieval treasure found in Stockholm, and one of the largest silver treasures from the early Middle Ages ever found in Sweden. Stockholm was founded in 1252, so the treasure predates the existence of the city.A total of six kilos (13.2 pounds) of coins, rings, pendants and beads were found in a copper cauldron. The cauldron is in poor condition most of it degraded over time but the contents are very well-preserved. The coins are still being documented, but there are an estimated 20,000 of them.The silver coins date mainly to the 12th century. Some of the coins are embossed with the text KANUTUS, the name Knut in Latin. They are from Knut Erikssons time as king of Sweden, at the end of the 12th century.Several of the coins are unusual. During the Middle Ages, so-called bishop coins were minted in Europe, meaning coins made for a bishop. The hoard contains several such coins where a bishop is seen holding a crozier in his right hand.King Knut was the first king to start issues royal coins again after more than a century without any new coinage being minted in Sweden. His reign saw a great deal of conflict, however, as he attacked adherents of pagan religions to spread Christianity. He had to build extensive fortifications to defend from incursions of Baltic tribes, including a guard tower on Stockholm island. The fact that the coins are mixed in with jewels and pearls suggests it was a rich familys or individuals wealth hidden for safekeeping during these troubled times.The finder is an angler and was digging for worms near his summer house in the Stockholm area when he uncovered the treasure. He immediately reported it to the County Administrative Board, as required by Swedish cultural heritage laws, and archaeologists were commissioned to document the discovery and excavate the find site. Typically these types of hoards are buried next to other remains, so archaeologists are hoping to find additional artifacts or the remains of structures.Once the investigation is complete, the find will be reported to the National Heritage Board which will then determine the valuation of the treasure and whether it should be redeemed from the finder. The rarity and high value of the find all but guarantees that compensation will be paid to the finder and that the treasure will be assigned to a museum, likely Stockholms Historical Museum

The Plague at Ashdod by Nicolas Poussin, 1631, in the Louvre Museum, ParisThe Plague of Justinian was a devastating pandemic that caused havoc across the world between the years 541 CE and 750 CE. The malady was the first recorded outbreak of the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Dubbed the First Pandemic, it inflicted immense human suffering on the Byzantine Empire and crippled it for generations.How Did the Plague Spread Initially?The Plague of Justinian. Source: General Research Division, The New York Public Library, (1843).The Plague of Justinian is believed to have originated in the port of Pelusium in Lower Egypt and then spread across the entire Mediterranean basin. In the spring of 542, its contagion peaked in Constantinople, the Byzantine capital, killing approximately 5,000 to 10,000 people per day. By 543 CE, the plague, which had begun to overwhelm resources in the capital, started to spread wildly across Europe and the Near East. It was the first deadly intercontinental wave of the two-century pandemic. By the end of the scourge, between 25 million and 60 million people had died from the disease.How Did the Plague Affect the Local Economy?Interior of the Hagia Sophia print by Louis Haghe, 1889. Source: British Museum, LondonAt the height of its devastation, the Justinian plague led to the collapse of the agricultural sector in the Byzantine Empire, leading to widespread food shortages due to the loss of farmers. The situation quickly snowballed to become one of the biggest economic crises of the empire. Unfortunately, the woes were compounded by Emperor Justinian Is fiscal policies which led to the abandonment of farms and the disruption of trade networks, which were at the time, the lifeblood of the empire. Justinian spent outlandish fortunes on military campaigns and ambitious building projects.Historically documented occurrences of the first plague pandemic. Source: The Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesHe, for example, built the grandiose Hagia Sophia, the main church of the Byzantine Empire, and funded wars. At the time, Justinians military sought to reconquer former Roman territories such as North Africa and Italy while at the same time defending its territories against the Sasanian Empire. Of course, some campaigns were successful, like the conquest of North Africa. But the prolonged war in Italy was very draining. Ultimately, the military costs associated with the campaigns, combined with the plagues impact on manpower, severely strained the empires resources.What Were the Immediate Effects on the Military Campaigns?Reconstruction of Constantinople in the year 1200. Source: Vivid MapsBefore the plague began, Emperor Justinian I, who had just ascended to power, aimed to restore the Roman Empire as part of his grand ambitions. At the beginning of his military campaigns, he won a series of early victories in North Africa and Italy. When the plague broke out, however, it quickly became the empires biggest problem, decimating ranks of soldiers within the first year. The Byzantine military was significantly affected by the plague throughout the mid-6th century. With many soldiers and generals lost, the weakened empire adapted a strategy to defend a shrinking border, albeit without sufficient manpower.The plan initially worked and enabled the empire to hold some key territories. The strategy involved supporting armies that fought Persian invaders to the East and Slavic tribesmen in the Balkans, as well as the Avars.In the late 6th century, the Byzantine hold on the West began to weaken due to conquests by some Germanic tribes such as the Lombards. The new invaders quickly resumed their attacks on the weakened nation. A few decades later, Lombard invaders had occupied most of Italy. However, major cities such as Ravenna and Rome remained under Byzantine control.What New Adversaries Took Advantage of the Weakened Byzantine Empire?Theodosian Walls of Constantinople, Byzantine 4th Century CE. Source: Wikimedia CommonsThe Byzantine Empires increasing vulnerability created a huge power vacuum, enabling new adversaries to appear. Although it defeated the Sasanian Empire in 628 CE, the empires military was greatly weakened by the conflict and the Justinian Plague. And soon afterwards, in the 630s CE, the Arab armies which were already growing in strength, began to strike.United by Islam, they launched attacks against the Byzantine Empire, leading to a long, protracted war that spanned centuries. The recurring plague, which had already taken a toll on the Byzantine Empire, caused it to lose huge swathes of its territories. By the end of the 7th century, Islamic armies had seized its richest provinces in Egypt and Syria.How Did the Plague Affect Religion in the Empire?St. Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-Stricken of Palermo by Anthony van Dyck, 1624. Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New YorkBy 750 CE, the plague had largely vanished from the Byzantine region. However, the horrifying nature of its lethality had already started to spawn religious doctrines, with many in the Byzantine Empire viewing it as an event that occurred due to divine punishment and as a consequence of sin. As such, it spurred acts of extreme religious devotion. The change caused Christianity in Byzantium to take on a more judgmental tone with greater emphasis being placed on divine judgment and salvation.

The life of Mary Wollstonecraft was more than just the writing of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, although this is what has made her an enduring figure in the history of feminism. Her biography is just as exciting and ahead of its time as that short but hugely influential 18th-century text. Mary Wollstonecraft was a woman who lived out her principles, especially her passionate devotion to liberty and her belief in the power of womens genius.Mary Wollstonecraft: The Enlightenment WomanAn Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, by Joseph Wright of Derby, 1768. Source: Wikimedia Commons/National Gallery, LondonMary Wollstonecraft, born in 1759, grew up during what we now call the Age of Enlightenment. In London, where she was born, Samuel Johnson published his dictionary and would soon issue a complete edition of Shakespeares works and Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets. Adam Smith was theorizing about moral sentiments, such as sympathy.Across the Channel, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire were publishing philosophical novels and treatises. Denis Diderots Encyclopdie began to appear from 1751, and the Encyclopedia Britannica followed in 1771: a world of knowledge was opening up rapidly.But not for women, as Wollstonecraft found. The idea of co-education was still some way off, and girlseven those lucky enough to be born into wealthy familiesreceived a far less stimulating education than boys. They were merely equipped with accomplishments, things like embroidery, a little music (but not too much), and housework.Wollstonecraft was born into a family which often had to move around the country due to financial instability, and neither of her parents was especially interested in her education because (by her own account) her father was prone to violent, often drunken outbursts, during which he was physically abusive towards her mother.First page of Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, by Mary Wollstonecraft, 1787. Source: Wikimedia Commons/Eighteenth Century Collections Online; with The Governess, by Rebecca Solomon, c. 1851. Source: Wikimedia Commons/Art Renewal CenterAs a young adult, Wollstonecraft gained some educational experience, first as a ladys companion in Bath and later as co-founder of a school in Newington Green, north London. Both experiences would inform how she wrote about womens education, not just in her most famous work, but in its precursor, her first book, Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787). This was primarily an advice manual, reciting conventional wisdom around contemporary educational norms. However, it also contained seeds of her later critiques of the practice of limiting womens education to so-called feminine matters.The Young RadicalThe Nightmare, by Henry Fuseli, 1781. Source: Wikimedia Commons/Detroit Institute of ArtsAlso at this stage, Wollstonecraft showed signs of the radical behavior for which she would later become notorious. When her younger sister, Eliza, married and had a child, Mary recognized the signs of what we would now call postpartum depression, and could see that the marriage between Eliza and her husband was over. Late-18th-century divorce laws in Britain severely limited womens ability to leave a marriage for any reason whatsoever. Only with the passing of the Matrimonial Causes Act 75 years later, in 1857, did women gain the right to petition for divorce on the grounds of adultery, cruelty, or desertionand even then with difficulty.Mary, therefore, helped her sister secretly escape her husband and live apart from him, a decisive act that brought Eliza freedom at the cost of social ostracization. This was just one instance, along with setting up the Newington Green school in a Dissenting community (a separatist group who rejected the authority of the state and church in England), that showed Wollstonecraft beginning to move in radical circles.Mary Wollstonecraft, by John Opie, c. 1797. Source: Wikimedia Commons/National Portrait Gallery, LondonThese centered around the publisher Joseph Johnson, who was from a Dissenting background and applied these principles to his work, supporting and promoting thinkers who were critical of the establishment. Johnson was devoted to achieving political change through his publications, working with authors who argued in favor of religious tolerance, the American Revolution, and (even before Wollstonecraft came along, but especially once he became her publisher) womens rights.Also a legendary dinner host, Johnson would gather these liberal firebrands around his table in London, fostering a community which encouraged Wollstonecraft in her gradually awakening wish to become what she called the first of a new genus, that rare thing, a female author (Wollstonecraft, 2003, 139).Henry Fuseli, by James Northcote, date unknown. Source: Wikimedia Commons/National Portrait Gallery, LondonAt one of Johnsons dinners, Wollstonecraft met William Godwin, three years her senior, who was beginning to dip his toe into political criticism and philosophy. The meeting was not a great success. Having come to hear the exciting revolutionary Thomas Paine, who had galvanized America into finding freedom, Godwin found himself arguing with Wollstonecraft all night instead.She fared betterinitiallywith the Swiss painter Henry Fuseli, whose 1781 painting The Nightmare hung in Johnsons dining-room. The two were captivated by each others genius, and she quickly fell in love with Fuseli, despite knowing he had a wife. In a characteristically radical move, unfazed by social judgment, Wollstonecraft proposed that she live with Fuseli and his wife. Her experiences with both her parents and her sister Eliza had clouded her view of conventional marriage, and she sought arrangements that might prove more liberating. Fuselis wife, however, did not consider it liberating to share her husband with another woman, and the painter broke off contact with Wollstonecraft.Mary Wollstonecraft: The PamphleteerThe National Assembly taking the Tennis Court Oath, by Jacques-Louis David, 1791. Source: Muse National du Chteau, VersaillesDetermined to make a living as a writer, Wollstonecraft spent her late twenties contributing reviews and criticism to Johnsons Analytical Review and translating works from French and German into English. She was keenly interested in the more radical discussions among Johnsons circle, and in 1790 she found the perfect outlet for her literary and political fervor.In November, the politician and philosopher Edmund Burke published Reflections on the Revolution in France, a response to the events of 1789the storming of the Bastille and the fall of the Ancien Rgime in France. Burkes pamphlet discusses the populace as a body, extending the metaphor by asserting that it is naturallike the laws of biologyfor some parts of that social body to defer to others, that is, for civilians to worship their monarch. Contrasting France, in all its upheaval, with its neighbor, Burke celebrates Britains conservative stability, reiterating the idea of the nation as a body by claiming that the laws of succession are a healthy habit agreed upon mutually by the monarchy, the government, and the people.As radicals such as Wollstonecraft argued, Burkes idea of society as a contract was compromised by the fact that vast swathes of the populace had no means of agreeing to this contract, since the power to vote was limited to land-owning men over 21. Wollstonecraft immediately set to work on a response that would, as its title suggested, vindicate the part that all people have to play in society.Edmund Burke, by James Northcote (based on the original by Joshua Reynolds), 1770s. Source: Art UK/Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter, DevonA Vindication of the Rights of Men, written in a matter of weeks, is a defense of liberty and equality, and a point-for-point refutation of Burkes pamphlet. (The use of men in the title, she explains, is a concession to the fact that other writers of the day referred to the rights of men even though what they really meant was, as she puts it, the rights of humanity.) Wollstonecraft undertakes a methodical deconstruction of Burkes slavish paradoxes and, engaging with some of the most crucial terms in 18th-century philosophy, claims that both our reason and our emotion ought to lead us to the conclusion that hereditary privileges are unjust.Another important dichotomy Wollstonecraft invokes is the sublime and the beautiful, concepts which Burke himself had theorized in a 1757 treatise. Like reason and emotion, these terms had gendered connotationsthe overawing sublime was aligned with masculinity, while beauty was delicate and feminine. Using Burkes own language against him, Wollstonecraft constructs an argument that she would soon expand on in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Confining women to the realm of the beautiful hindered their development in every way, but especially morally, making it impossible for them to partake in politics, and ultimately injuring a huge portion of the social body.The Slave Ship, by J.M.W. Turner, 1840. Source: The Museum of Fine Arts BostonAs Wollstonecraft proves with her own rational critique of Burkes text, this equation of women with passivity and weakness is not innate, only socially enforced. It is entirely possible for women to make rational arguments. Moreover, Wollstonecraft also challenges Burkes other claims about innatenessparticularly the idea that it is natural for people to defer to social hierarchy.The French Revolution had provided the backdrop for Wollstonecrafts first political work, which was an instant success. Although published anonymously at first, it soon catapulted her to fame when the second edition carried her name. More responses to Burke followed in 1791, including Thomas Paines Rights of Man, and Wollstonecraft kept a keen eye on events across the Channel, particularly the ongoing debates about how women might fit into libert, galit, fraternit. She would soon travel to Paris to see the revolution in action for herself, but not before she had written the text that would truly make her name.A Vindication of the Rights of WomanTitle page of the first edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, by Mary Wollstonecraft, 1792. Source: Wikimedia Commons/New York Public LibraryTaking Wollstonecrafts best-known work out of context, it might be easily overlooked that the Rights of Woman sprang directly from its authors response to the French Revolution. However, the text was dedicated to Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Prigord, a statesman who had presented his plan of reforms to Frances National Assembly in 1791, including the recommendation that women remain at home while men participate in the public sphere, and that their respective educations prepare them for these roles. Wollstonecraft met Talleyrand in 1792 after the publication of Rights of Woman, and reiterated its call for him to reconsider this recommendation.This second Vindication combined Wollstonecrafts ideas from the first about societys oppression with her earlier opinions on girls education. Expanding the discussion of education to cover matters such as marriage, parenting, and health (mental, emotional, and physical), Wollstonecraft proves the integral place of womens rights in establishing a just, functional society, as the revolutionaries across the Channel were supposedly trying to do.Portrait of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, by Maurice Quentin de la Tour, late 18th century. Source: Wikimedia Commons/Muse Antoine-Lcuyer, Saint-QuentinMary Wollstonecraft begins her book by reflecting on Rousseau and his concepts of nature and civilization. She then argues that the weakness commonly attributed to women is not natural but a result of their education and upbringing. Male authors, from philosophers to conduct-book writers, have perpetuated the misconception that women are innately weak, which only compounds the problem: society is predicated on this misconception, so women begin to believe it of themselves.Thus, as Wollstonecraft admits, the women she has observed are weak, frivolous, and artificial, but only because they have been told they are. They are taught that the natural way of things is for them to be beautiful, which will smooth the path towards their main aspiration: marriage. As long as they can simulate all the behaviors associated with beauty in refined societydelicacy, feigned or unfeigned weakness, a little learning but not too much (the accomplishments Wollstonecraft had described in Thoughts on the Education of Daughters)they will be able to marry. This was no small matter at a time when women could not own property and were therefore financially dependent on male relatives, either fathers or husbands.Mary Wollstonecraft, by John Opie, 1790-91. Source: Wikimedia Commons/Tate Britain, LondonHowever, basing womens capacity for marriage only on their fulfilment of beauty, as Wollstonecraft argues, creates unequal marriages in which women are akin to slaves. She is conscious that the comparison to slavery is highly charged, given the abolitionist debates taking place in Britain at this time. Still, she insists that a system which doles out a limited education to women, so that they may enter into an extremely dependent legal arrangement with their husbands, is enforcing a kind of bondage.Rights of Woman was a rallying call. Several times, Wollstonecraft proclaims the need for a revolution in female manners. From this and the emphasis throughout the text on how languishing and ineffectual many women of the time had become, it might seem like Wollstonecraft was placing the onus on women to effect change. However, she recognized that meaningful change (which, remembering the pamphlets context in revolutionary politics, meant a total reorganization of society) could only come about through the collaboration of the sexes.Since men controlled the public sphere, dictated the laws, and swayed opinion on how boys and girls ought to be educated, it was for them to generously snap our chains, and be content with rational fellowship, instead of slavish obedience. This arrangement would benefit both men and women too: marriages would be more successful, children would be better brought up, and society as a whole would be more equitable.The Eyewitness to RevolutionUne Excution capitale, place de la Rvolution by Pierre-Antoine Demachy, 1793. Source: Muse Carnavalet, ParisWhen Wollstonecraft traveled to France at the end of 1792, she had the chance to put her ideas to the test. Was it possible for a rational woman, who had fought against the limitations placed on women in her time, to meet men on their level, to nurture relationships founded on mutual recognition of intellect and morality?Wollstonecraft was among several British people (along with Paine and the then relatively unknown poet William Wordsworth) who flocked to Paris in a wave of revolutionary fervor. By the time she arrived, however, this initial promise had given way to violence, and Wollstonecraft found herself unexpectedly moved by Louis XVIs trial and execution.Now stuck in limbo as increasing hostilities between Britain and France prevented her leaving, Wollstonecraft sought security by registering at the American Embassy as the wife of an adventurer turned diplomat (and, unbeknownst to Wollstonecraft, investor in slave ships), Gilbert Imlay. She was not Imlays wife, but she had fallen deeply in love with him and they had slept together. Wollstonecrafts personal life became a testing ground for the arguments she was making publiclythat women ought to be granted the same freedoms as men, and judged by the same standards of morality.Le Dernier banquet des Girondins, by Henri Flix Emmanuel Philippoteaux, c. 1850. Source: Wikimedia Commons/Museum of the French Revolution, VizilleBy 1794, Wollstonecraft was becoming disillusioned with post-Revolution France, not least because the triumphant Jacobins were no more inclined to treat women as equal citizens than the Ancien Rgime had been. Still unable to leave, she gave birth to Imlays child in May, a daughter named Fanny. Beyond this, however, her experiment in seeking a more equitable relationship between men and women was not bearing fruit. Imlay was unwilling to set up a home with Wollstonecraft permanently, and spent long periods away from her on business. Against the backdrop of these personal difficulties, Wollstonecraft nevertheless managed to write a historical account of what she had seen during her residence in France, An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution (1794).Mary Wollstonecraft: The TravelerLandscape with Waterfall, by Allart van Everdingen, c. 1660-75. Source: The Wallace Collection, LondonA mixture of expediency and drive led to Wollstonecrafts next publication, the remarkable Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (1796). Finally able to leave France after the fall of the Jacobins, she sought Imlay in London, but he was unwilling to rekindle their relationship and she was left suicidal.Though increasingly aware that he would not be faithful to her, she made a final attempt to prove her loyalty by traveling to Scandinavia to aid his business interests there. To make this journey alone, without Imlay, and with just their infant daughter and a maid, was highly unusualbut Wollstonecraft was by now well used to taking the radical path. Imlay ultimately responded to her loyalty by taking up with another woman during her absence.While traveling through Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Wollstonecraft wrote 25 letters to Imlay, eventually published together in book form. The letters are remarkable not only for the personal circumstances behind them but also for the reflections on the self, society, and nature prompted by what Wollstonecraft sees on her journey.Wollstonecrafts observations do not aim at objectivity. Everything is colored by her feelings as an observer, informed by what is happening in her life then. As such, Letters is as much of a memoir as it is a travelogue. It even resembles the epistolary novel, comprised entirely of letters, and presents a narrative of increasing despair at Imlays faithlessness.A Lake in Norway, by Francis Danby, c. 1825. Source: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon CollectionInfluenced by Rousseaus confessional writing, Wollstonecraft does not flinch from revealing how she feels at each turn to the reader. Also, returning to her reading of Burke, Wollstonecraft employs the concept of the sublime to discuss the landscapes she passes through. Her letters continually move between observations of, for instance, a roaring waterfall, with its incessant, oppressive current, and her own experience of oppression.Like her previous works, Letters contains philosophical reflections on the relationship between reason and emotion, the natural, and the imagination. In using nature as a stimulus for these thoughts, Wollstonecraft participates in the emerging Romantic movement. It was not until poets like Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge published their own work on man and nature that Romanticism was fully recognized. However, Wollstonecrafts Letters was a key influence for these poets (Holmes, 1987, p. 41), guiding a whole generation of soul-seeking wanderers.The Wife and MotherWilliam Godwin, by James Northcote, 1802. Source: Wikimedia Commons/National Portrait Gallery, LondonA turbulent test of her beliefs that women and men could form equal partnerships had left Wollstonecraft suicidal more than once. However, she was undeterred by her disappointments with Imlay. She maintained her principles and put them into practice again in 1796, when she came back into the orbit of a certain philosopher: William Godwin.Godwin later wrote that reading Letters, with its blend of keen observation and deep reflection, had made him fall in love with its author. He also fell in love with her through continued meetings in their shared literary circles. Like Wollstonecraft, Godwin had been immensely interested in the developments in France. However, the book he published as a resulthis seminal Enquiry Concerning Political Justicedid not directly refer to the events.Nevertheless, Political Justice was a critique of the same institutions that had come under fire both during the Revolution and in Wollstonecrafts writing: hereditary monarchy, property ownership, and marriage. Like Wollstonecraft, Godwin believed in the innate reason of the individual, and, therefore, the capacity of a collective to agree on the best form of government.Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, by Richard Rothwell. Source: Wikimedia Commons/National Portrait Gallery, LondonIt is debatable whether Wollstonecraft was against marriage altogether, or primarily in its contemporary form, and therefore would have been in favor had she been sure she was founding a new, equal version of it with someone who shared her views. Yet Godwin was this long-sought equal partner, and ultimately the two only married out of necessity. She became pregnant in late 1796, and to ensure the child would be legitimate, they married in March 1797. Although their more radical friends saw this as unnecessary deference to social norms, Wollstonecraft and Godwin maintained their commitment to reforming the institution of marriage by living in separate, adjoining houses in London.Tragically, however, the couples experiment did not last long. At the end of August, Wollstonecraft gave birth, and less than two weeks later, she died following a childbed infection. Godwin was inconsolable, and wrote to a friend: I firmly believe that there does not exist her equal in the world. I know from experience we were formed to make each other happy. I have not the least expectation that I can now ever know happiness again (Kegan Paul, 1876, chapter 10). Her child survived: not the son Godwin had hoped to call William, but a daughter named Mary after her mother.Mary Wollstonecraft: The Founding FeministSt Pancras Old Church, seen in 1815, engraved by Charles Pye from a drawing by John Preston Neale. Source: Wikimedia CommonsA year after Wollstonecrafts death, Godwin inadvertently damaged her reputation by publishing Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. To his mind, it was a tribute to his brilliant equal. However, to many readers, it revealed what only their friends had known before, that Wollstonecraft had pursued a married man, had had a child out of wedlock, and (as likely to cause shock as sympathy in this period) had attempted suicide more than once. It was many years before Wollstonecraft was recognized and appreciated for her writings, rather than judged for her private life.Her radical spirit lived on in her daughter, who was only 16 when she eloped with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (a hard to substantiate story claims that Mary and Percy first slept together at Wollstonecrafts grave at St. Pancras churchit is at least true that Mary visited there often and took Percy for walks in the churchyard). Two years later, during an infamous ghost story contest at the shores of Lake Geneva, Mary Shelley began writing the novel that would make her as much of a founder as her mother, but this time, the founder of the science fiction genre: Frankenstein.First pages of French translation of Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman, by Mary Wollstonecraft, 1798. Source: Rare Book Collections at Princeton University LibraryWollstonecrafts most substantial posthumous work is a good counterpart to her daughters novel. Maria: or the Wrongs of Woman was published in 1798, perhaps overlooked partly because Godwins memoirs had turned many reviewers against her, but partly also because it was so radical. Maria is an astounding tale of cross-class solidarity and dissent among women in an asylum: the servant Jemima, whose illegitimacy and precarious social position have left her open to abuse, and the upper-class woman Maria, who has fared little better despite a seemingly happy, respectable existence as wife of a prominent gentleman.The novel is remarkable not just for its horrifying portrayal of suffering, but for the way it acts as a continuation of Wollstonecrafts arguments in the non-fictional Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Neither of the female protagonists is protected from patriarchal abuse. Despite their wildly different circumstances, both fall victim to all the forms of mistreatment experienced by 18th-century wives: physical, emotional, and financial. Although unfinished, the fragments of Maria offer the greatest testament to the range of Mary Wollstonecrafts talents, as an author, a political thinker, and a galvanizing feminist philosopher.BibliographyBurke, E. (2005). The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 03. Project Gutenberg edition, https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/15679/pg15679-images.htmlKegan, P. C. (1876). William Godwin: His Friends and Contemporaries, Vol. 1 by C. Kegan Paul. Henry S. King and Co.Holmes, R. (1987). Introduction. A Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark and Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Penguin Books.Raymond, E. (2021). The Early Life of Mary Wollstonecraft. East End Womens Museum blog, https://eastendwomensmuseum.org/blog/2021/4/30/the-early-life-of-mary-wollstonecraftWollstonecraft, M. (1790). A Vindication of the Rights of Men. Printed for J. Johnson. WikiSource version, https://web.archive.org/web/20150906163640/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Vindication_of_the_Rights_of_MenWollstonecraft, M. (2002). A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Project Gutenberg edition, https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3420/pg3420-images.htmlWollstonecraft, M. (2003). The Collected Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft. Ed. Janet Todd. Columbia University Press.

In the decades preceding the outbreak of war, El Salvador was plagued by stark and deepening socioeconomic inequality. When an opposition movement began to form in the midst of the Cold War, tensions quickly escalated, and a guerrilla army formed to respond to the indiscriminate violence of the countrys military and paramilitary forces. Twelve years of civil war ensued, costing tens of thousands of civilian lives.Background: Building to WarDrying coffee on a plantation in El Salvador, 1905. Source: History Trust of South AustraliaSince legal decrees in the late 19th century had outlawed the collective ownership of land by Indigenous communities, El Salvadors wealth had been concentrated in the hands of the land-owning minority producing coffee for export. The Great Depression further exacerbated inequality, prompting peasant uprisings against the elites, swiftly put down in a violent wave of repression called La Matanza. Since then, order had been maintained by either military dictatorships or civilian governments with the trappings of democracy upheld by the military. Land ownership became further concentrated still.It wasnt until the 1970s that any viable opposition to the status quo began to reappearin the midst of a Cold War, the United States was determined to win by eliminating any hint of communism in the Western hemisphere. As an opposition movement began to take shape, pushing a leftist agenda that included land reform and peasants rights, organizers and supporters were quickly branded communist and met with violence. In return, a guerrilla movement began to emerge to retaliate. Despite growing human rights violations and ample evidence of electoral fraud that kept reformists out of government, military and financial aid from the US poured in.Undated photo of scar Romero greeting worshippers in San Salvador, El Salvador, Octavio Duran/CNS. Source: The Catholic SunWhen a coalition government took over in 1979, there was a brief moment of hope that reformist positions and popular organizations could be incorporated into the political system. Land reform and other measures to address poverty were promised. But as aspiring politicians, organizing campesinos, and members of activist groups continued to be targeted and slaughtered, the left-leaning elements of the coalition defected. Government forces killed a number of prominent left-wing politicians who were trying to obtain reforms through legitimate avenues. Archbishop scar Romero, a popular voice for the poor who had condemned state-sponsored violence, was murdered, followed by a group of nuns providing humanitarian aid. As it became increasingly clear that no dissent would be tolerated and no one was safe, leftist organizations turned further toward guerilla warfare, meeting the states violence with violence. The country was at war.Stakeholders and CombatantsMembers of El Salvadors Atlacatl battalion cross a river during an operation in the San Miguel department in the summer of 1983, Robert Nickelsberg. Source: WLRNOften oversimplified as El Salvador vs. guerillas, there were, in fact, many factions involved in the countrys civil war; the chaos of the previous decades had sown broad distrust throughout the country, which remained even among groups fighting for the same end goals. Targeted violence was used to purposefully disrupt and fragment cooperation among the opposition, while non-combatant civilian activists were treated much the same as guerrilla fighters by the military and other right-wing operatives.The leadership of El Salvadors government changed numerous times throughout the war but remained right-leaning and heavily influenced, if not ruled outright, by the military. A relatively free hand was given to the military and national police to root out the insurgency, and despite documented human rights violations, US aidwhich included weapons, training, intelligence, and moneypoured into the country throughout the conflict.The countrys wealthiest men continued to have an outsized influence as well. Though the military targeted both individuals and organizations on the left, including politicians, organizers, human rights groups, and trade organizations, when their actions werent sufficient to appease the countrys extreme right-wing, death squads stepped in, often financed by the countrys wealthy. These paramilitary organizations were quite often made up of soldiers and police officers acting outside their official capacityand largely known to the government, which looked the other way. They were responsible for the murders of numerous politicians, journalists, clergy, union leaders, and campesinos.Salvadorans fleeing government bombing, San Salvador, El Salvador, 1989, Donna De Cesare. Source: dwherstories.comGovernment opposition included various political and labor organizations, human rights groups, and even prominent clergy of the Catholic Church, once a reliable ally of the countrys elites. With the birth of Liberation Theology after Vatican II, some Latin American clergy adopted a more active approach to social justice issues, advocating reforms that would reduce poverty and working directly to alleviate suffering. In El Salvador, this often included denouncing the indiscriminate violence of the government and its agents and seeking justice for victims.A number of underground opposition groups from the 1970s ultimately united under the banner of the Frente Farabundo Mart para la Liberacin Nacional (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front), named after a prominent leader of the 1930s peasant uprisings. First engaged primarily in protests and acts of civil disobedience, the FMLN ultimately became a well-regulated and trained guerrilla army, with support coming from both Cuba and the Soviet Union.1980-1992: Twelve Years of Civil WarTraining in a guerrilla camp in Guazapa, San Salvador, Giovanni Palazzo/Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen. Source: El FaroWhile the earliest years of the war were its most violent, death and destruction besieged the country for twelve years as the US-armed and trained military battled a guerrilla army numbering fewer than 10,000 combatants. The prolonged conflict was marked by attempts at political resolutions repeatedly derailed by one or the other side immediately ratcheting up violence in response. Various center-right politicians and parties controlled the government throughout the conflict, while targeted attacks on left-leaning political groups and politicians made it nearly impossible for any progressive political movement to gain traction. The FMLN boycotted and attempted to disrupt elections, which it perceived as illegitimate.After the rape and murder of four American churchwomen by the countrys National Guard, US President Jimmy Carter suspended aid to El Salvadors government in late 1979, but just six weeks later, it was restored and increased. Over the course of the war, the US sent over $6 billion in military and financial aid to the country. Growing concern regarding the activities of the death squads prompted a visit from then-US Vice President George Bush in 1983, during which he delivered a list of suspected military death squad members to the government, insisting they be reined in. Though they were not completely dismantled, their activities did decrease for a time, suggesting not only the influence the US had over the conflict but also the deep connection between El Salvadors government and these rogue death squads.Memorial to the victims of the El Mozote massacre. Source: TripadvisorThe true horror of the conflict was the impact on the countrys civilian population, particularly the poor. The military and paramilitary groups waged war against not only guerrilla fighters and sympathizers but, on numerous occasions, large groups of peasants who had the misfortune of living in or near places where the FMLN was operating or had wrested control. The worst of these campaigns against civilians was the El Mozote massacre, in which over 800 civilians were killed over two days in December 1981, but various other offensives throughout the conflict claimed hundreds of peasants lives at a time.In the wars early days, the FMLN largely focused its attacks on military, political, and economic targets, with the result that victims of guerrilla violence were primarily soldiers and politicians. As the war progressed, the groups indiscriminate use of landmines began to inflict civilian casualties. The group pursued a campaign of abductions and executions that at first targeted mayors and other pro-government leaders but ultimately grew to include civilians deemed to be government or military sympathizers. The death squads, similarly, continued to carry out targeted executions of journalists, clergy, and educators they accused of being anti-government.The 1992 Peace AccordsFr. Ignacio Ellacuria, killed by the Salvadoran army in November 1989. Source: The Jesuit PostThough half-hearted negotiations had been attempted on and off throughout the conflict, by the late 1980s, it had become clear that a decisive military victory was not to be had by either side, and support for a negotiated settlement grew. As the Cold War waned, so too did the US urgency to root out the communist threat in Latin America; it threw its support behind peace negotiations, and with the looming threat of decreased US military aid, the Salvadoran government had little choice but to agree.Earnest negotiations began in 1989 with the support of the United Nations but were marred by ongoing attacks against clergy, labor unions, social workers, and other civilian targets, and retaliation by the FMLN, which would continue throughout the negotiating process. Most notable among these were the bombing of the Federacin Nacional Sindical de Trabajadores Salvadoreos, a trade union federation, which led the FMLN to suspend negotiations and launch their largest and most violent offensive of the war, and the murders of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter by paramilitaries.Yet by 1990, real progress had been made. An agenda and timetable for negotiations were agreed on early in the year. In July, both parties signed the San Jose Agreement on Human Rights, which included a mechanism for UN verification, which resulted in a decrease in civilian deaths. The following year, parties reached agreements on some constitutional reforms and, significantly, decided to create a Commission on the Truth, which would investigate serious acts of violence occurring since 1980. Finally, on January 16, 1992, both parties signed the El Salvador Peace Agreement, formally ending the armed conflict.Aftermath: Death Toll, Displacement, & MS-13A refugee camp in Honduras, 1988. Source: Mdecins sans FrontiresThe UN Truth Commission that was agreed on in the peace accords began its work in July 1992; it reached its conclusions eight months later. The commission found that 85% of the instances of violence during the war were attributable to the government or its agents; just 5% were the result of FMLN activity. The commission made a series of recommendations for moving forward with peace and reconciliation, including judicial reform and reparations. The commissions report was rejected by the government, which shortly thereafter passed an amnesty law covering all crimes related to the war.An estimated 75,000 civilians were killed or disappeared during El Salvadors civil war, and because of the blanket amnesty law, ultimately overturned in 2016, almost no one has been held accountable for these deaths. Civilians who werent killed outright were often forced to flee. Over 1 million people, an estimated 25% of the countrys population, were displaced during the war. Some fled to other countries, others remained in El Salvador but were forced to abandon their homes, becoming internally displaced persons. Over the course of the war, nearly half a million Salvadorans fled to the United States.The peace agreements did little to address the root causes of the war, namely the countrys stark socioeconomic inequality, which was only deepened by the conflict. In addition, in order to secure desperately needed loans for its financial recovery, the country implemented a series of economic policies pushed by international lenders that reduced social spending and privatized public services at a time when the majority of the population was living below the poverty line. For many, the primary source of income became remittances from friends and family in the United States.Members of the Western Locos clique of the Mara Salvatrucha in the mid-80s in Los Angeles. Source: El FaroFollowing the war, however, space for an opposition political movement opened. The FMLN morphed into a legitimate political party comprised primarily of communists, socialists, and social democrats. The new party quickly began winning local and municipal elections, gaining political capital, until it won the presidency in 2009 under Mauricio Funes.Perhaps the best-known legacy of the war was the rise of MS-13 and other street gangs; its also one of the most complex. MS-13 was not actually born in El Salvador but in the United States among refugees. Navigating the streets of Los Angeles in the 1980s, young Salvadoran men formed their own gangs in a bid to protect themselves from the citys native gangs. Salvadoran refugees were rarely granted asylumas few as 2%and so were mostly undocumented. Once the conflict ended, President Bill Clinton deported thousands of refugees, including gang members, back to a country just months removed from the chaos of war, with a barely functioning economy, a largely useless police force, and replete with discarded firearms. It was a recipe for disaster. MS-13 and other street gangs began to flourish, providing the countrys poor and disaffected youth with the financial opportunities and social resources that the government continued to systematically deny them. Quickly, gangs grew into one of El Salvadors most pressing post-war issues.

Daderot/Wikimedia CommonsA statue of Girolamo Savonarola in Ferrara, Italy.Just the word Florence evokes a world of art, and power, and beauty. The Italian city was the cradle of the Renaissance, and hosted such masters as da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Botticelli. But one man saw all this wonder and wanted to watch it burn Girolamo Savonarola. Hailed by some as a prophet and others as a fanatic the Dominican friar embraced extreme asceticism and encouraged the luxury-loving Florentines to burn their treasures in his infamous Bonfire of the Vanities. For a brief moment, Savonarola succeeded, temporarily turning the hedonistic city of Florence into a theocracy of his own making. But he drew the ire of the Catholic Church, and ultimately met a fiery end. Girolamo Savonarolas Righteous Path To FlorenceMuseo nazionale di San Marco A depiction of Girolamo Savonarola. Born on September 21, 1452, in Ferrara, Italy, Girolamo Savonarola came into a world seized by the rich, humanist ideas of the Renaissance. But Savonarola had little taste for them. By 1472, he had written an unfinished treatise entitled On Contempt for the World. By 1475, he had left his family home to enter the Dominican order at Bologna, and went on to teach Scripture. At one point, Savonarola wrote to his father condemning the blind wickedness of the peoples of Italy.Then, in 1482, Savonarola was sent to the Convent of San Marco in Florence, where he steadily drew attention for his fire-and-brimstone sermons. Girolamo Savonarola drew heavily from Revelations, spoke of a new, imminent Biblical flood, predicted the deaths of Lorenzo de Medici, the de facto leader of Florence, and Pope Innocent VIII, and warned that an invader would soon cross over the Alps and attack Italy. Public DomainFlorence in the 15th century.Some of his prophecies seemed to come true. Both Lorenzo de Medici and Pope Innocent VIII died in 1492. And in 1494, King Charles VIII of France invaded Italy, prompting the remaining de Medicis to flee. Into this power vacuum stepped Girolamo Savonarola, who sought to transform Florence into a new Christian republic. The Attempt To Turn Florence Into A Christian RepublicThough Savonarola never held political office, he held incredible sway over the people of Florence in the absence of the de Medici family. Some even welcomed the friar as he set out to turn Florence into a New Jerusalem. Indeed, some of Savonarolas initiatives were positive for the city, as he set out to feed the hungry, curb unemployment, and lower taxes. Museum of San MarcoSome of Girolamo Savonarolas initiatives were popular and some were not. But many others watched with alarm as Savonarola used the Gospel to craft laws in Florence. Savonarola disliked jokes, poetry, and sex, denounced nude paintings and humanist ideas, and canceled the citys popular carnivals and festivals. According to Smithsonian Magazine, his powerful sermons may have even driven Sandro Botticelli to burn some of his work (though fortunately not his famous Birth of Venus).In a dark foreshadowing of the Hitler Youth, Savonarola also organized poor young boys into a sort of informal army. The youths were tasked with marching around Florence, keeping an eye out for any rule-breaking. But Savonarolas most infamous moment came on Feb. 7, 1497, when he threw his infamous Bonfire of the Vanities. In the Piazza del Signoria, Savonarola had a great pyre erected as his loyal youths went door to door, demanding that Florentines give up objects of vice. One remembered that the boys took lascivious pictures womens hats, mirrors, wigs, dolls, perfumes, pictures in intarsia, sculptures, cupids, playing cards, dice boards, chess pieces, lutes and other musical instruments, books of diverse poetsThese items were thrown onto the pyre and set on fire. With the greatest of happiness, one witness remembered, they burned everything.Houghton Library, Harvard University/Wikimedia CommonsA depiction of a Savonarola sermon.Flames crackled over games and mirrors, books and statutes, leaving smoke climbing high above the Duomo.But a powerful group had grown increasingly unhappy with Girolamo Savonarola: Pope Alexander VI and the Catholic Church. And Savonarolas influence would soon fade like the smoke over Florence.The Gruesome Execution Of Girolamo SavonarolaAs Girolamo Savonarola consolidated power, Church leaders attempted to bring him to heel. They disliked his denunciations of luxury in the Church, and sought to silence him. At first, they attempted to do so by buying Savonarolas loyalty. But when Pope Alexander VI tried to bribe him by making him a cardinal, Savonarola refused outright. A red hat? he purportedly replied. I want a hat of blood. Public DomainPope Alexander VI, who ordered the excommunication and arrest of Girolamo Savonarola. When Savonarola declared that he was a messenger from God, he sealed his fate. Alexander VI could no longer stand aside. He had the friar excommunicated and, in April 1498, Savonarola was arrested. Brutally tortured on the rack, Savonarola confessed then recanted. But he was nevertheless sentenced to death alongside two of his most loyal followers. The three men were condemned to be hanged over a raging fire. We shall have a fine bonfire, a papal commissioner, whod come for the execution, remarked, for I have the sentence of condemnation with me.On May 23, 1498, a large crowd gathered in Piazza della Signoria, where Savonarola had held his Bonfire of the Vanities. As a bishop stripped Savonarola and his companions of their religious frocks, he told Savonarola I separate thee from the church militant and from the church triumphant, to which the friar replied, That is beyond your power.A priest standing nearby purportedly asked Savonarola how he felt as he stood on the edge of death. Savonarola allegedly responded with his last words: The Lord has suffered as much for me.Museo di San Marco/Wikimedia CommonsA painting of Savonarolas death and burning.He was forced to watch the deaths of his two companions. Then, Savonarola was hanged as the fire burned beneath his feet. As he burned, someone in the crowd shouted If you can work miracles, work one now! and, to the horror of the crowd, Savonarolas hand jerked up, as if in blessing. It was just an involuntary reaction triggered by the flames. But it caused mass panic, and the crowd stampeded out of the square in terror. In the aftermath of the friars gruesome death, some continued to admire Girolamo Savonarola. Niccolo Machiavelli, wrote warmly of Savonarola (though he critiqued him as well). But ultimately, Savonarola was not remembered as a savior or a saint. Rather, hes best known as the man whod have burned the best of Florence in the pursuit of his better angels.After learning about Girolamo Savonarola, the friar who tried to make Florence into a Christian republic, go inside the life and death of Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI who tried to remake Europe. Or, discover the grisly stories behind some of the worst torture devices of the Middle Ages.The post The Life And Death Of Girolamo Savonarola, The Friar Who Tried To Change Florence Into A Christian Republic appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Historical Events1873 - Toronto Argonaut Football Club 1st game losing to U of Toronto1943 - Baseball World Series: NY Yankees become first team to win 10 Championships; beat St. Louis Cardinals, 2-0 at Sportsman's Park for 4 games to 1 series triumph1958 - "Goldilocks" opens at Lunt Fontanne Theater NYC for 161 performances1969 - American blues musician Muddy Waters involved in a car crash that kills 31972 - MLB National League Championship: Cincinnati Reds beat Pittsburgh Pirates, 3 games to 2More Historical Events Famous Birthdays1902 - Jayaprakash Narayan, Indian freedom fighter and political leader, born in Sitab Diyara, British India (d. 1979)1926 - Jean Alexander, British actress (Hilda Ogden in "Coronation Street"), born in Liverpool, England (d. 2016)1940 - Bruce McTavish, New Zealand boxing referee (World Boxing Council Referee of the Year 2013, 15, 17), born in Auckland, New Zealand (d. 2025)1950 - Patty Murray, American politician (U.S. Senator from Washington), born in Bothell, Washington1968 - Claude Lapointe, Canadian NHL center (Calgary Flames), born in Lachine, Quebec, CanadaMore Famous Birthdays Famous Deaths1960 - Richard Cromwell [LeRoy Melvin Radabaugh], American actor (Jezebel, Riot Squad), dies of cancer at 501994 - Maja Bulgakova, Ukrainian actress (Krylja), dies in auto-accident at 622013 - Erich Priebke, German Nazi SS commander and war criminal responsible for the Ardeatine massacre of 335 Italians in Rome, dies in prison of natural causes at 1002015 - Dean Chance, American baseball pitcher (MLB All-Star 1964, 67; Cy Young Award 1964; no-hitter 1967; LA / California Angels, Minnesota Twins), dies at 742024 - Kevin Bowring, Welsh rugby union coach (Wales 1995-98), dies from a heart attack at 70More Famous Deaths

The question of how the 2nd century grave marker of the Roman sailor made its way into the backyard of a New Orleans shotgun house has been answered. All it took was for the news story to reach the previous homeowner, Erin Scott OBrien, who had sold the house to the current owners in 2018. Shes the one who placed the tablet in the yard, but she had no idea that it was a 1900-year-old Roman gravestone, or even that it was an antique.She got the tablet from her mother. It had belonged to her maternal grandfather, Charles Paddock Jr., Master Sergeant Charles E. Paddock was stationed in Italy during World War II. A musician by trade, he was in the special service section of the USO when he met his future wife, Adele Vincenza Paoli, herself an accomplished violinist and artist. They married in Italy 79 years ago almost today the day (October 14th, 1946). Paddock took his bride back to the United States and they lived in New Orleans where Charles taught voice in the music department at Loyola University, and worked with local artists, including legendary entertainer Chris Owens, known as the Queen of the Latin Quarter.The tablet was one curio among several in the Paddocks display case at their home in the Gentilly neighborhood. He died in 1986, and neither OBrien nor any of her older relatives knew anything about the grave marker. They didnt know it was a grave marker, for that matter. They just thought it was a piece of art.When OBrien bought the shotgun house in 2003, her mother gave her the inscribed stone she had inherited from her father. OBrien and her husband planted a tree in the backyard and placed the slab there as marker to solemnize the start of the new chapter in their lives.No one in her family had any idea of its history. By the time she sold the house in 2018, she forgot shed put it there.I just thought it was a piece of art, she said, recalling that the object she and other relatives inherited from her grandparents didnt seem unusual. I had no idea it was a 2,000-year-old relic.As for how Master Sergeant Charles E. Paddock acquired the artifact, that remains unknown. It seems likely that he (or his wife) bought it in Italy during or right after the war as a souvenir, but they never spoke of it that anybody recalls, so the full saga will probably never be told.

Parco Archeologico del Colosseo/FacebookThe section of the Commodus Passage located within the Colosseum is set to open to visitors after an extensive restoration project.Its now possible to walk in the footsteps of the Roman emperors who once watched matches at the Colosseum. For the first time in its 2,000-year history, a hidden imperial passage that allowed rulers to enter the arena unseen will be open to the public. Dubbed the Commodus Passage after the Roman emperor who played at being a gladiator and whose story appears in the film Gladiator the tunnel led directly to a private box to protect the leaders. Part of this restored passage will open to visitors on Oct. 27, marking an important milestone in the preservation of the ancient wonder that is the Colosseum.The History Of The Commodus PassageThe Colosseum was built in Rome between 72 and 80 C.E. under the reigns of Emperor Vespasian and his successor, Titus. The passage was constructed not long after, in the late first century or early second century. Its still unclear where exactly the tunnel began, but it led to a private box inside the Colosseum used by emperors to watch gladiatorial games and other events at the ancient arena. The passage was shaped like an S and decorated with frescoes and marble accents. Previous excavations at the entrance inside the Colosseum revealed depictions of boar hunts, animal fights, and other spectacles held at the amphitheater. The tunnel, which was rediscovered in the early 19th century, shielded emperors as they entered the Colosseum both from the prying eyes of the general public and would-be assassins. Colin/Wikimedia CommonsThe Colosseum was completed in 80 C.E., and the secret tunnel was added shortly after.On Oct. 27, the Commodus Passage will open to tourists for the first time in its history, giving a glimpse into the secret lives of Romes ancient elite. Visitors can now have a taste of what it was like to be an emperor entering the arena, Barbara Nazzaro, the architect who oversaw the restoration of the tunnel, told the Associated Press. With a little effort of imagination and the help of a virtual reconstruction, they can appreciate the decorations, stuccoes, frescoes and marbles that covered the walls.Indeed, with the help of the digital reconstruction, visitors will be able to experience exactly what the tunnels namesake, Emperor Commodus, saw as he marched through the passageway during his reign.Who Was Emperor Commodus?The hidden corridor was dubbed the Commodus Passage after Emperor Commodus, who ruled from 180 C.E. to 192 C.E. He was famous for his passion for gladiatorial games, in which he competed himself although the real gladiators let him win.Commodus also battled animals in the arena and once purportedly dispatched five hippopotami together with two elephants on two successive days; and he also killed rhinoceroses and a camelopard [giraffe], according to the Roman historian Cassius Dio.Public DomainA painting of Emperor Commodus at the Colosseum after a gladiatorial event.While the passage was meant to protect Commodus and other Roman emperors from attempts on their life, it wasnt foolproof. Commodus was allegedly the target of an assassination attempt inside the passage, though he survived only to be killed by a wrestler named Narcissus in 192 C.E.The failed assassination attempt one of several against him is sometimes cited as a tipping point in Commodus rule. The emperor grew increasingly paranoid, executing anyone he believed to be against him. Commodus legacy was further cemented in the 2000 film Gladiator, in which the emperor is portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix. Restoration work on the passage thats been named for this infamous ruler began in October 2024 and was just completed last month. A new walkway and lighting have been installed, but the rest of the ancient tunnel remains essentially as it was nearly 2,000 years ago.After reading about the Commodus Passage, discover the stories of 11 Roman gladiators who rose to fame inside and outside of the Colosseum. Then, take a look at these 33 facts that will change the way you see ancient Rome.The post The Secret Tunnel That Once Led Roman Emperors Into The Colosseum Is Opening To The Public For The First Time Ever appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Death is a universal human experience. And ancient cultures around the world came up with different ways to interpret death, loss, and grief, often through myths about death gods. Some of these gods were terrifying. The Maya believed that caves were portals to the underworld, which led to the creation of Camazotz, a bat-like deity. Likely modeled after the huge vampire bats that once lived in Central America, Camazotz was said to carry a knife in one hand and a human heart in the other. He was able to snatch his victims from the ground. However, other death gods were more like judges than devils. Even Hades, often seen in popular culture as particularly satanic, was merely tasked with overseeing the underworld and making sure the dead got what they deserved. The Egyptian deity Anubis played a similar role, leading spirits to a scale where their heart would be weighed against a feather. If their heart was the same weight, they could advance to the afterlife. Death gods like these helped ancient cultures interpret the pain of losing a loved one. And they often acted as a warning to the living to behave well in life, lest they face punishment in death.Mictlntcutli, The Aztec God Of DeathPublic DomainMictlntcutli in the Codex Borgia.The Aztecs believed that people went to different places after death depending on who they were and how theyd died. Children and innocents went to Cincalco, a paradise in a sacred cave. People who died in battle or were killed as sacrifices alongside women who died in childbirth went to a paradise known as Tonatiuhichan. Those killed by lightning strikes, drowning, or certain diseases went to a paradise called Tlalocan.All others went to Mictln, the deepest level of the Aztec underworld, which was ruled by the god of death, Mictlntcutli, and his wife, Mictcacihutl.According to Aztec legend, Mictlntcutli and his wife lived in a windowless house replete with bats, owls, and spiders in the deepest pits of the underworld. There, Mictlntcutli acted as an arbiter of the dead who were sent to Mictln. These people had to spend four years undergoing torturous tests involving obsidian knives, a void without gravity, and rivers that they could only cross if they had lived their lives in a certain way. Those who reached the deepest parts of Mictln would meditate on the states of consciousness until Mictlntcutli decided to allow them to atone for their wrongdoings in life. At that point, the Aztec god of death would reward them with eternal rest and transform their souls into nothingness. Templo Mayor MuseumA statue of Mictlntcutli, the Aztec god of death.Death played an important role in Aztec culture, and Mictlantecuhtli did as well. Sacrifices were made to him every year, and, during the Spanish Conquest, the Aztec emperor Moctezuma II called for more sacrifices to Mictlntcutli in hopes of avoiding suffering in the underworld. Indeed, Mictlntcutli was far from the only god of death to haunt the realms of early Mesoamerica. The post 7 Fearsome Death Gods, From Hades Of Ancient Greek Myth To The Maya Death Bat Camazotz appeared first on All That's Interesting.

The medieval village was more than a scattering of homes; it was a tightly knit ecosystem of people, animals, land, and customs. To understand it is to glimpse the rhythms of medieval life not from the perspective of kings or nobles, but from those whose hands worked the soil and whose survival depended on cooperation. It is not as simple as wooden tiny houses with packed dirt tracks where everything was dirty, as often seen in films such as Monty Python, historical fiction, or modern recreations.Cosmeston Medieval Village, photo by Missy. Source: FlickrThese villages contained numerous fields and small farms that were worked for food. These houses would be small with multi-generational families, and centered around a religious location. The layouts of these villages and the activities that took place there can be seen through architectural evidence. Fields would be carefully plotted, plowed and cultivated. Without an easy resource of supermarkets or mass-produced goods one year of poor or rancid crops could devastate an entire village. For example, ergotism, a disease contracted through a fungus that could contaminate rye bread and was common in that time period. It caused stomach issues and neurological problems including hallucinations and convulsions, and even gangrene.Other important factors in the setup of a village included nearby resources such as woods for firewood, fields or meadows for their animals to graze, and water.How Villagers Governed ThemselvesIlluminated manuscript. Source: Wikimedia CommonsLords were often the higher up powers of medieval villages, unlike in larger cities where there were more inherent freedoms. Some towns, usually the ones who were financially well off or able to grow through commerce, were able to purchase a royal charter meaning they were not under a lord and could make their own laws, have their own town governing, and taxes. They often had city councils that advised on decisions, and were elected by the upper class and always male.The towns that gained independence could also blossom into bigger (still small by todays standards) cities that would produce and sell goods. The sales of these items were often overseen and under the power of guilds.These merchant and craft guilds controlled work hours, pricing, and complaints. Members owed dues and it kept other people from being able to break into businesses, such as furniture making. To be a part of the guild a child became an apprentice and learned the trade over years of working for free, although sometimes their families were given money.Labor Divisions by Class and GenderManuscript image of a Treadmill Crane, c. 13th century. Source: Wikimedia CommonsLife in a medieval village was defined by work. Men were often the ones who labored outside, planting, plowing, and harvesting crops that fed everyone. However, women were not regulated to the side within Medieval villages. While certainly there were expectations of women minding the home versus being out in the world, that wasnt always feasible. Even women who were queens or of a noble rank were able to take power for themselves.House and stocks in the Medieval Village Cosmeston, Wales. Source: Wikimedia CommonsIn the larger towns women were, often left out of these narratives of guild and trade history, or mentioned as an afterthought. As is often the case, extant written records of women are few and far between, according to contemporary medieval scholar Eulalia Piebakere. In villages everyone was required to work to survive. If the fields needed to be harvested before the season ended and the crops went bad women worked alongside men and children outside of tending to the home.Peasants in villages or on land could be free or serfs. Serfs were not free in a traditional way, they were tied by laws and customs to the lords land. They owed labor on the lords fields and still had to work their own small piece. Anything they worked for the lord had to stay with the lord, borrowing, taking, or stealing could result in fines among worse punishments.Village Economies and Agricultural PracticesMonk Gardening by Carl Gustaf Hellqvist. Source: Gothenburg Museum of ArtPeople were important, but agriculture was the heart and soul of village life. These fields would be completed in waves of spring and winter crops, with some time off to allow the ground to recover the nutrients and minerals that get depleted growing the crops. They used other means to enrich the fields including adding chalk, lime, and manure as a way to boost the soil, similar to how manure is used as fertilizer today.Grains were a prominent part of the European diet in the medieval ages. This included wheat, which was essential for baking bread, barley, rye, and oats. While most of the crops were needed to feed families and store food for the winter or other hard times, excess was sold for goods they could not produce themselves. Some villagers werent just tilling farms, but worked specialized skills needed to keep villages running including carpentry, blacksmiths, and brewing ale.How Medieval Villages EvolvedPope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, from Livre des Passeges dOutre-mer, c. 1474. Source: Galicia Digital LibraryDespite potential isolation, medieval villages were always in a state of change. While uncontrollable events such as a bad harvest could affect their life, nothing changed the comfort of many quite like the dramatic upheaval in the 14th century.The Black Plague swept westward through Europe. While smaller-scale plagues and diseases had ravaged areas and towns before nothing prepared them for this. Villages lost entire family lines, and populations that were densely packed could lose half of the people.These deaths weakened the previous structural classes. With so many deaths, the original serf structure was no longer sustainable. This led to the upward mobility of many former peasants.Medieval Market scene, 15th century. Source: Wikimedia CommonsStill, many debated whether these village communities became cohesive or fragmented. Contemporary historian Miriam Muller proposed that economic stress, shifting inheritance practices, and class tensions fractured solidarity. Yet the need for community buildings and practices, including religion and harvesting, kept them bound together.These people were the backbone of the medieval era. Though the great lords and monarchs of the Middle Ages often dominate our histories, it was in these small communities that the true story of survival was written. Fields plowed, bread baked, ale brewed, and disputes settled, were the reality of everyday life.

Napoleon Bonaparte dominated the landscape of Europe as his French Empire expanded across the continent. Napoleon is one of the most studied personalities in modern history. Indeed, historian David Bell did not exaggerate when he mentioned that biographies of Napoleon written between 1995 and 2015 alone could collapse many a bookshelf (2019, xix).It is no surprise, then, that virtually every aspect of the life of Napoleon has been analyzed and often romanticized or mythologized. This article explores the facts and legends associated with Napoleon through 13 places that shaped his life.1. Life of Napoleon: Maison Bonaparte (Ajaccio, France)Photograph of a Map of Corsica, 1740 in the Maison Bonaparte Museum, Ajaccio, photograph by Sailko, 2019. Source: Wikimedia CommonsNapoleon Bonaparte, the second son of Carlo and Letizia Buonaparte, was born in this house in Ajaccio, Corsica, on August 15, 1769. He and his seven siblings grew up in this family home. His parents supported Corsican rebel Pasquale Paolis uprisings against Genoese and French rule.However, by the time Napoleon was born, they had made peace with the islands new French rulers. According to historian Andrew Roberts, Napoleon would benefit from the recognition of his fathers noble lineage in 1771. In 1770, the islands French governor, the Comte de Marbeuf, declared that any Corsican who could prove two centuries worth of aristocratic lineage would receive the same recognition as French nobles (2014, 9).His familys recognized noble lineage and close ties to Marbeuf paved the way for Napoleons education in France. Although initially determined to become a major player in Corsican politics in the early 1790s, Napoleon and his family were forced to flee the island in June 1793 because they were on the wrong side of the islands political current.Today, the house is a museum and the highlight of any Napoleonic-themed itinerary in Ajaccio.2. Brienne-le-Chteau (France) and Its Role in the Life of NapoleonPhotograph of Napoleon as a Young Student Statue outside the City Hall of Brienne-le-Chteau, France, photograph by Lantus, 2020. Source: Wikimedia CommonsThe north-central French town of Brienne-le-Chteau played a key role in Napoleons life. In fact, his legendary military career began and nearly ended in Brienne.Napoleon enrolled at the public school of Brienne in 1779 and embarked on a career path in the French military. According to David Bell, Napoleon spent five years at Brienne, which was the defining moment of his childhood (2019, 16-17).Napoleon returned to Brienne in 1814. At this point, his enemies were closing in on the retreating French forces during the war of the Sixth Coalition.On January 29, 1814, however, Napoleons troops defeated Prussian and Russian forces in the Battle of Brienne. The French captured the chteau and nearly caught the Prussian commander, Blcher, but could not force the Russians out of Brienne.According to historian Jonathan Sutherland, Russian Cossacks nearly captured Napoleon, but French general Gaspard Gourgaud saved the emperor (2003, 93).Today, the former military academy where Napoleon studied houses the Muse Napolon, which has exhibits on both Napoleons school days and the 1814 battle. Brienne is also home to an unusual monument to Napoleon.Most monuments and busts of Napoleon depict him as a conquering general or even in the style of a Roman emperor. However, Brienne has a statue of Napoleon as a young student, commemorating his school years in the town.3. Toulon (France) as a Key Location in the Life of NapoleonPhotograph of the Tour Royale, Toulon, photograph by SiefkinDR, 2010. Source: Wikimedia CommonsRemarkably, Napoleon experienced his first taste of battle and became a general in the same year, 1793, when he was only 24 years old. That year, French Royalists, supported by British, Spanish, Neapolitan, and Piedmontese forces, captured the strategic port city of Toulon.By the summer of 1793, the French Republic, born out of the French Revolution, appeared on the verge of collapse, and Toulons fall was just one example of this crisis. As historian Robert Forczyk points out, strategic threats plagued Frances revolutionary regime from virtually every sector. French armies were reeling from defeats in Germany and Belgium. Moreover, the country faced invasion threats from Austrian, British, and Spanish forces from Dunkirk to Perpignan. On top of this foreign onslaught, Royalists revolted in the Vende region (2005, 7).In short, French revolutionaries desperately needed a decisive victory over the invading forces and a new military hero. The young, virtually unknown artillery officer that history remembers simply as Napoleon would fulfill that role. Napoleon helped dramatically reverse the French Republics military situation at Toulon and ultimately secured the citys recapture.Many of Toulons fortifications can still be seen today. However, Robert Forczyk notes that few of these sites are open to the public. This is partly because Toulon remains the home of Frances Mediterranean Fleet (2005, 91).David Bell notes that Napoleons rise was extraordinary even amid the French Revolution, when many young, talented officers became generals based on merit. Bell points out that the average age of newly promoted French generals in the 1790s was just 33 (2019, 22).4. The Life of Napoleon & Church of Saint-Roche (Paris, France)Attack on the National Convention. Royalist insurrection of 13 Vendmiaire Year IV (October 5, 1795), shooting in front of the Saint-Roch church, engraving Abraham Girardet. Etching by Pierre Gabriel Berthault. Source: Wikimedia Commons / Museum of the French Revolution, VizilleNapoleons role in the significant victory at Toulon in 1793 did not result in a prominent command. For instance, David Bell notes that as late as 1795, Napoleon sought foreign employment, including in the Ottoman army (2019, 21). However, by late 1795, turmoil in Revolutionary France would once again present the young Napoleon with an opportunity to build upon his fame secured at Toulon.Conservatives demanding a return to constitutional monarchy rose in revolt against the revolutionary government in October 1795. Defense of the government and streets of Paris from this royalist uprising fell to Paul Barras.Barras had been instrumental in securing Napoleons position with the army at Toulon in 1793. As David Bell notes, he again called on Napoleon to defend Frances revolutionary republic. On October 5, 1795, Napoleon organized the successful defense of Paris from the royalist uprising, which left hundreds dead and wounded (2019, 23).One of the most famous scenes in the legend of Napoleons career involves his actions on that bloody day in October 1795. According to this story, Napoleon placed cannons near the Church of Saint-Roch on the Rue Saint-Honor in central Paris and fired on a mob of royalist insurgents. This was the so-called Whiff of Grapeshot, which decisively crushed the revolt.Many historians, including David Bell, argue that this story is likely a myth (2019, 23). However, Napoleons role in crushing the rebellion is beyond dispute. As a result, Napoleon received an important promotion and secured jobs for some of his brothers.5. Lodi (Italy)General Bonaparte giving orders at the Battle of Lodi, by Louis-Franois, Baron Lejeune, 1804. Source: Wikimedia Commons / Palace of VersaillesAccording to David Bell, Napoleon, while in exile, said it was only after his victory at Lodi did I believe myself to be a superior man, and did the ambition come to me of executing the great things which so far had been occupying my thoughts only as a fantastic dream (2019, 27).Indeed, Napoleons dreams did not match the grim reality he faced upon taking command of Frances Army of Italy in 1796. Designed as a sideshow to the main theater of operations against the Austrians in Germany, Frances government, the Directory, did not expect much from the campaign in northern Italy directed against Austria and Piedmont.However, Napoleons boundless energy and signs of his brilliance as a commander rapidly altered Frances position in northern Italy. In a matter of weeks, Napoleons troops knocked Piedmont out of the war and forced the Austrian army to retreat.By early May 1796, Napoleons objective of seizing Milan from the Austrians was within reach. French and Austrian forces met once again on the battlefield at Lodi on May 10, 1796.Napoleon and his fellow officers displayed great courage, leading their troops from the front and seizing a bridge that the Austrians heavily defended. Andrew Roberts notes that while he won larger and more significant victories in his career, Lodi was, according to Napoleon, where he realized he was a man called upon to decide the fate of peoples (2014, 91).6. The Life of Napoleon & Spinetta Marengo (Italy)The Battle of Marengo 1800, by Louis-Franois, Baron Lejeune, 1802. Source: Wikimedia Commons / Palace of VersaillesNapoleon built upon the momentum of his victories in Italy in 1796 and 1797 by leading a French invasion of Ottoman Egypt in 1798. Although it was a largely unsuccessful campaign, Napoleon soon took advantage of turbulent affairs in France to topple the unpopular government known as the Directory in November 1799.France and Austria resumed fighting in 1799/1800 as part of the War of the Second Coalition. Northern Italy, Switzerland, and much of Germany became a battleground for French and Austrian armies.Although he now governed France as First Consul, Napoleon was determined to lead the main French forces in battle against the Austrians in northern Italy. He led a daring march across treacherous Alpine passes to surprise Austrian troops.Austrian forces quickly regained the initiative and attacked Napoleon sooner than he anticipated. Jonathan Sutherland notes that the Austrians nearly defeated Napoleon at Marengo in June 1800. However, the timely arrival of reinforcements under General Louis Desaix saved the day for the French (2003, 24).The town of Spinetta Marengo houses a museum dedicated to the battle.Napoleon Crossing the Alps, by Jacques-Louis David, 1801. Source: Wikimedia Commons / Charlottenburg Palace, BerlinThe campaign also highlighted Napoleons skillful use of art and media for propaganda. For example, Napoleons crossing of the Alps was immortalized in the legendary portrait by Jacques-Louis David. While David depicts Napoleon heroically mounted on horseback in the painting, David Bell notes that he actually crossed the Alps wrapped in a blanket and rode a donkey (2019, 52).7. Slavkov u Brna (Austerlitz), CzechiaThe Battle of Austerlitz, 2nd December 1805, by Franois Grard, 1810. Source: Wikimedia CommonsNapoleons greatest victory occurred at the Battle of Austerlitz on December 2, 1805. That December day marked the first anniversary of Napoleons coronation as Emperor of the French.Austria and Russia, two members of the Third Coalition against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, organized armies in hopes of defeating Napoleon and retaking territory in Germany from the French.The Austrian and Russian allies failed to coordinate their campaign strategy and did not anticipate Napoleons quick movements. For example, David Bell points out that Napoleon surprised and forced one Austrian army to surrender at Ulm in southern Germany in October 1805 (2019, 72).After capturing Vienna in November, Napoleon set out to destroy the remaining Austrian and Russian forces. The battle would come to be known as the Battle of the Three Emperors as Napoleon faced the combined forces of Emperor Francis I of Austria and Tsar Alexander I of Russia.Napoleons decisive defeat of Austrian and Russian forces at Austerlitz brought Austria back to the negotiating table. David Bell explains that the Peace of Pressburg forced Austria out of the war and dissolved the Holy Roman Empire (2019, 73).Battlefield sites are scattered around the vicinity of the city of Brno, including Slavkov u Brna.8. Jena (Germany) and Its Role in the Life of NapoleonThe Evening at Jena, by douard Detaille, 1894. Source: Wikimedia CommonsNapoleon followed up his victory at Austerlitz by dealing a decisive blow against Prussia in October 1806. Prussia hesitated to enter the coalition against Napoleon in 1805 but now joined Russia in the war against France. Napoleons expanding influence in Germany and a patriotic fervor at the Prussian court and among many officers led King Frederick William III to war against France.As David Bell points out, Frederick Williams decision proved disastrous for Prussia. Of the roughly 171,000 troops arrayed against Napoleon, the French killed, wounded, or captured all but 6,000 in the twin battles of Jena and Auerstadt (2019, 77).While Napoleon crushed one Prussian army at Jena in October 1806, French Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout routed a far superior force at Auerstadt on the same day.Although Napoleon praised Davouts impressive victory over the main Prussian force, Andrew Roberts says he was careful not to celebrate Auerstadt publicly (2014, 421). Like Davids painting of the daring Alpine crossing in 1800, Napoleon was again careful to control his image and the narrative surrounding the successful campaign of 1806.Thus, Jena remains one of Napoleons legendary victories despite the significance of Davouts victory at Auerstadt on the same day.Napoleon surveyed Jenas battlefield from Landgrafenberg Hill. Andrew Roberts believes it is still a good place to see the battlefields main features (2014, 418). A museum dedicated to the 1806 battles of Jena and Auerstadt is located in Cospeda.9. Leipzig (Germany)Photograph of the Battle of the Nations Monument, Leipzig, Germany, photograph by BonAlex, 2016. Source: Wikimedia CommonsAlong with French disasters in Spain and Russia, Napoleons road to ultimate defeat passed through Germany in 1813.While Waterloo is undoubtedly one of historys most famous battles, it was not even the largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars. That distinction goes to the October 1813 Battle of Leipzig, also known as the Battle of the Nations. At that point, Leipzig was the largest battle in European history until World War I.Napoleon fought a debilitating campaign in Germany in 1813 against a coalition army of Austrians, Russians, Prussians, and Swedes. Heavy losses weakened both camps, although neither could inflict a decisive defeat.According to Jonathan Sutherland, by October, some of Napoleons German allies, like Bavaria, joined the coalition against the French (2003, 88). Over three days in October 1813, David Bell notes that 500,000 soldiers clashed at Leipzig. The opposing sides would suffer over 100,000 casualties (2019, 99).As Sutherland points out, already in retreat, French engineers early bridge demolition led to further French losses, including Marshal Poniatowskis death (2003, 89).The fighting now shifted to French soil, which resulted in Napoleons first abdication the following year, in 1814.Leipzig became a powerful symbol of German nationalism and unity on the road to German Unification and the rise of Imperial Germany in the 1860s/1870s. Today, the battlefield includes a massive monument dedicated during the battles centennial in 1913.10. Route Napolon (France)Photograph of the equestrian statue of Napoleon by Emmanuel Frmiet, 1868, by DeuxDeTension, 2006. Source: Wikimedia CommonsIn late February 1815, Napoleon escaped from exile on the island of Elba and sailed for France in hopes of reclaiming his throne. Three days later, they landed safely in France near Cannes and began an inland march on Paris, uncertain of how they would be received by the French people and forces loyal to the restored Bourbon monarchy of King Louis XVIII.Napoleon and his followers from Elba faced a tense encounter with Bourbon troops at Laffrey on March 7, 1815. As David Bell notes, troops loyal to Napoleon and those of King Louis XVIII were largely veterans of Napoleons campaigns. As a standoff threatened bloodshed, Napoleon called out that he recognized the unit called on to defeat him. His charisma won over these potential enemies and soon paved the way for a return to power (2019, 2-3).Today, the Route Napolon traces sites connected to Napoleons dramatic return to power during the Hundred Days. This 200-mile (325-km) stretch of road links Napoleons landing site at Golfe-Juan on the Cte dAzur to Grenoble.11. Waterloo Battlefield, Braine-lAlleud (Belgium)Photograph of the Battle of Waterloo Reenactment, 195th anniversary, 2010. Source: Wikimedia CommonsEuropean powers formed the Seventh Coalition to contest Napoleons return to power in early 1815. Andrew Uffindell and Michael Corum point out that two armies formed in present-day Belgium to defeat the French. The Duke of Wellington commanded a force of British troops joined by contingents from the United Netherlands and the German states of Hanover, Brunswick, and Nassau. A second army of Prussians was led by Field Marshal Gebhard von Blcher (2003, 7-8).Time was critical for Napoleons slim chances of victory. Each month brought the potential for massive reinforcements in the form of Russian and Austrian troops to join Wellington and Blchers armies.Napoleon struck quickly, hoping to keep the two armies apart and defeat them piecemeal. This strategy had worked in the past, dating back to Napoleons first victorious campaign against the Austrians and Piedmontese in 1796.Despite minor successes over the British and Prussians, the French could not inflict a decisive defeat on either army. Napoleon aimed to crush Wellingtons army before it could link up with the Prussians at Waterloo on June 18, 1815.As Uffindell and Corum note, Wellingtons army suffered staggering casualties but repelled repeated French attacks (2003, 9). However, Blchers timely arrival late in the day sealed Napoleons fate.As Uffindell and Corum explain, the Lion Mound monument dominates the battlefield. It is situated where one of Wellingtons commanders, the Dutch royal heir Prince William of Orange, was wounded (2003, 17).12. Napoleon in Exile: Elba (Italy) and Saint HelenaPhotograph of Napoleons residence on Saint Helena, Longwood House, by Michel Dancoisne-Martineau, 2008. Source: Wikimedia CommonsNapoleons enemies agreed to a plan to exile the former French emperor to the tiny Mediterranean island of Elba in August 1814.If his enemies, meeting to redraw the map of Europe at the Congress of Vienna, believed the 45-year-old Napoleon would retire peacefully, they were in for an unpleasant surprise.As historian Alexander Mikaberidze explains, Napoleon was well-informed of developments in France during his exile on Elba (2020, 603). He recognized that the restored Bourbon monarchy was unpopular and vulnerable. In late February 1815, Napoleon and his loyal followers evaded detection and sailed for France.Napoleons dramatic escape from Elba, return to power, and renewal of hostilities during the Hundred Days in 1815 prompted a stronger response from the victorious Seventh Coalition. While Napoleon hoped to be exiled to rural England, he was ordered to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic.Andrew Roberts notes that Saint Helena was a British possession managed by the British East India Company. The volcanic island is over 700 miles from the nearest land (2014, 781).As Andrew Roberts points out, Napoleon died on May 5, 1821, and was initially buried on the island about a mile from his residence (2014, 801).It is possible to visit the residences where Napoleon lived in exile on Elba and Saint Helena.13. Napoleons Tomb, Htel des Invalides, Paris, FrancePhotograph of Napoleons Tomb, Dome of Invalides, Paris, France by Diego Delso. Source: Wikimedia CommonsNapoleons memory and legacy remained a potent political force in France for decades after he died in exile. Known as Bonapartists, Napoleons admirers supported his descendants and former senior officials from the First Empire in a bitter political battle in 19th-century France.An embattled King Louis-Philippe attempted to gain popularity by permitting the return of Napoleons remains to Paris in 1840. Andrew Roberts notes that on the day of the funeral, an estimated one million people lined the streets of Paris to catch a glimpse of the procession. The date was rich with symbolism: December 2, the anniversary of Napoleons coronation and his greatest victory at Austerlitz (2014, 801).Napoleons remains were entombed in a massive sarcophagus at the Htel des Invalides. David Bell points out that the tomb is cut in the shape of a great wave (2019, 114).Louis-Philippes reign did not survive Europes next wave of revolutionary turmoil in 1848. His successor, Napoleons nephew Louis-Napoleon, would soon style himself Emperor Napoleon III.References and Further ReadingBell, D.A. (2019). Napoleon: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.Forczyk, R. (2005). Toulon 1793: Napoleons First Great Victory. Osprey.Mikaberidze, A. (2020). The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History. Oxford University Press.Roberts, A. (2014). Napoleon the Great. Penguin.Sutherland, J. (2003). Vital Guide: Napoleonic Battles. Airlife.Uffindell, A, & Corum, M. (2003). Battleground Europe Waterloo: The Battlefield Guide. Leo Cooper.