Siddhartha Gautama was a prince who lived in the kingdom of Sakyas, near the present day border of India and Nepal, more than 2500 years ago. The young prince was raised in great luxury, but he was not happy. He wanted to understand what caused human suffering. He did not understand why some people were rich and others were poor. Why some people were healthy and others sickly.
Siddhartha left his palace and lived as an ascetic. An ascetic is a person who has few material possessions and has given up all pleasures and comforts. He prayed and fasted. To fast is to eat little or no food. Siddhartha fasted so strictly that he nearly died, but he was still not satisfied. Finally, Siddhartha sat down under a bo tree and determined to understand why he had failed to find a satisfying way of life. Late that night Siddhartha Gautama became enlightened.
Siddhartha told other people of his enlightenment. He became well known for his teaching. Siddhartha's students called him "the Buddha," which means "the Enlightened One," and the followers of Siddhartha's teachings are called Buddhists.
The Buddha taught his followers to seek balance in their lives. The path to happiness is neither through indulgence nor denial, but a "middle way." Siddhartha taught that by putting aside your ego, you can escape the cycle of death and rebirth to reach Nirvana.
Gautama Buddha laid emphasis on non-violence and compassion in his teachings. The realisation that life is full of sorrow leads to a boundless love for living things. This love is compassion or Karuna. Panchasheel: The rules of conduct that are in keeping with the eight-fold path are known as the Panchasheel. Ahimsa, asteya, control over the bodily desires, truthfulness and not taking.. intoxicants are the five rules or the Panchsheel. Gautama Buddha used Pali, the language of the people, to preach. Bauddha Sangha: Gautama Buddha wanted his doctrine to reach the masses. He, therefore, organised his followers into Bauddha Sanghas. Those followers who left their homes and entered the Bauddha Sangha were called Bhikkus (monks). Strict rules of conduct were prescribed for the Bhikkus. People of all castes were allowed into the Sangha. People from all castes of society entered the Sangha in large numbers, as caste was no barrier. Buddha established women's sanghas,too.
At the foot of the Songshan Mountains, the Shaolin Temple was built in the year 495 AD under orders of Emperor Hsiaowen.
The temple was intended as a religious center, as well as a site for the safekeeping and transmission of knowledge. Thus, at the beginning, the temple was made up of one shrine of relicts, and one facility for translating the religious and philosophical scriptures from Sanskrit into Chinese.
Through the efforts of the Indian monk, Bodhidharma (Chinese Ta-Mo), Zen Buddhism was ‘developed’ in the Shaolin Monastery. From here it spread to the entire eastern world, in particular to Japan.
Accompanied by Zen, the development of the marital arts progressed quickly. The two realms are thus inseparably connected to one another.
In the Shaolin temple, the martial arts were practiced both for self-defense and for physical fitness. Of equal importance was the practice of martial arts for mental development. Bodhidharma taught breathing techniques and exercises, which were presumably the foundation of the later Shaolin Temple boxing.
Emperor T’ai-Tsung granted the temple the authority to train a small group of monks as warriors for purposes of self-defense.
When Emperor T’ai-Tsung found himself in peril, he asked the temple for help, and thirteen monks were sent from Shaolin. This event is historically documented. These men performed such a good service to the Emperor, that he allowed the temple to train five hundred warrior monks. Approximately thirteen hundred years ago, during the first period of prosperity, fifteen hundred monks lived on the temple grounds. Five hundred of these monks were trained in martial arts. In 1674, the emperor K’ang-Hsi asked for help, which he received in the form of a troop of over one hundred warrior monks.
The fighting strength of the monks made such a strong impression on the emperor, that he became afraid of them. The emperor thanked the Shaolin for their heroic mission by sending an army, which attacking the temple, burned it to the ground. Most of the Shaolin were murdered after a bitter fight.
Whereas the majority of the survivors fled to other temple monasteries, or joined the Peking Opera; some stayed nearby, meeting and practicing martial arts in secret. After the death of emperor K’ang-Hsi, the Shaolin Temple was rebuilt. In 1928, the history of the Shaolin Temple experienced a sudden but temporary end, when the monastery became the point of contention of warlords. The Shaolin had to flee from General Hsi-Xousan and his troops in order to save their lives.
Today, the Shaolin Temple continues to flourish as a monastic as well as a martial arts center. Even the communist Chinese government has realized the significance of the monastery. In fact, there have been (and still exist) groups which have separated from the temple, as well as monasteries in other regions of China that call themselves Shaolin. But only the legendary temple at the foot of the Songshan mountains is here of relevance. Such a collection of talent, and a concentration of energy in one place over such an exceedingly long period of fifteen hundred years is no doubt for martial arts unique in world history.
While Christmas is traditionally viewed as a time for family gatherings, gift giving and church services, the holiday has also coincided with some of history's most crucial events. The “most wonderful time of the year” has been interrupted by legendary battles, coronations of kings and scientific breakthroughs, and it even helped inspire one of the most famous wartime truces on record. Get the facts on seven famous historical events that fell on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
1. 800: Charlemagne is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
Often called the “Father of Europe,” Charlemagne was a Frankish warrior king who united much of the continent under the banner of the Carolingian Empire. Beginning in the late 700s, Charlemagne forged a vast kingdom through extensive military campaigns against the Saxons, the Lombards and the Avars. A devout Catholic, he also aggressively converted his subjects to Christianity and instituted strict religious reforms.
On Christmas Day 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne “emperor of the Romans” during a ceremony at St. Peter’s Basilica. This controversial coronation restored the Western Roman Empire in name and established Charlemagne as the divinely appointed leader of most of Europe. More importantly, it placed him on equal footing with the Byzantine Empress Irene, who ruled over the Eastern Empire in Constantinople. Charlemagne would serve as emperor for 13 years, and his legal and educational reforms sparked a cultural revival and unified much of Europe for the first time since the fall of the Roman Empire.
2. 1066: William the Conqueror is crowned king of England.
The 1066 holiday season played host to an event that permanently changed the course of European history. On Christmas Day, William, Duke of Normandy—better known as William the Conqueror—was crowned king of England at Westminster Abbey in London. This coronation came in the wake of William’s legendary invasion of the British Isles, which had ended in October 1066 with a victory over King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings.William the Conqueror’s 21-year rule would see many Norman customs and laws find their way into English life. After consolidating his power by building famous structures such as the Tower of London and Windsor Castle, William also gave copious land grants to his French-speaking allies. This not only permanently changed the development of the English language—nearly one-third of modern English is derived from French words—but it also contributed to the rise of the feudal system of government that characterized much of the Middle Ages.
3. 1776: George Washington and the Continental Army cross the Delaware River.
At the end of 1776, the Revolutionary War looked like it might be lost for colonial forces. A series of defeats by the British had depleted morale, and many soldiers had deserted the Continental Army. Desperate to strike a decisive victory, on Christmas Day General George Washington led 2,400 troops on a daring nighttime crossing of the icy Delaware River. Stealing into New Jersey, on December 26 the Continental forces launched a surprise attack on Trenton, which was held by a force of German soldiers known as Hessians.General Washington’s gamble paid off. Many of the Hessians were still disoriented from the previous night’s holiday bender, and colonial forces defeated them with minimal bloodshed. While Washington had pulled off a shock victory, his army was unequipped to hold the city and he was forced to re-cross the Delaware that same day—this time with nearly 1,000 Hessian prisoners in tow. Washington would go on to score successive victories at the Battles of the Assunpink Creek and Princeton, and his audacious crossing of the frozen Delaware served as a crucial rallying cry for the beleaguered Continental Army.
4. 1814: The Treaty of Ghent ends the War of 1812.
On December 24, 1814, while many in the western world celebrated Christmas Eve, the United States and Great Britain sat down to sign a famous peace agreement ending the War of 1812. Negotiations had begun in Ghent, Belgium, earlier that August—the same month that British forces burned the White House and the U.S. Capitol in Washington. After more than four months of debate, the American and British delegations agreed to a settlement that essentially ended the war as a draw. All conquered territories were relinquished, and captured soldiers and vessels were returned to their respective nations.While the Treaty of Ghent effectively ended the 32-month conflict, it did not take effect in the United States until it was ratified in February 1815. In fact, one of the greatest American victories of the war—at the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815—came more than a week after the Treaty of Ghent had been signed.
5. 1868: President Andrew Johnson issues a final pardon to Confederate soldiers.
At the tail end of his term as president, Andrew Johnson gave a handful of former Confederate rebels a famous Christmas present. By way of Proclamation 179, on December 25, 1868, Johnson issued amnesty to “all and every person” who had fought against the United States during the Civil War.
Johnson’s blanket pardon was actually the fourth in a series of postwar amnesty orders dating back to May 1865. Earlier agreements had restored legal and political rights to Confederate soldiers in exchange for signed oaths of allegiance to the United States, but these pardons exempted 14 classes of people including certain officers, government officials and those with property valued over $20,000. The Christmas pardon stood as a final and unconditional act of forgiveness for unreconstructed Southerners, including many former Confederate generals.
6. 1914: The World War I Christmas Truce is reached.
The year 1914 saw the Christmas spirit manifest itself in the most unlikely of places-a World War I battlefield. Starting on the evening of December 24, scores of German, British and French troops in Belgium laid down their arms and initiated a spontaneous holiday ceasefire. The truce was reportedly instigated by the Germans, who decorated their trenches with Christmas trees and candles and began singing carols like “Silent Night.” British troops responded with their own rendition of “The First Noel,” and the weary combatants eventually ventured into “no man’s land”—the treacherous, bombed-out space that separated the trenches—to greet one another and shake hands.According to accounts from the men involved, the soldiers shared cigarettes and pulls of whiskey, and some exchanged Christmas presents with men they had been shooting at only hours before. Taking advantage of the brief lull in combat, some Scottish, English and German troops even played a pick-up game of soccer on the frozen battlefield. The truce was not sanctioned by the officers on either side, and eventually the men were called back to their respective trenches to resume fighting. Later attempts at holiday meetings were mostly forbidden, but as the war dragged on the “Christmas Truce” would stand as a remarkable example of shared humanity and brotherhood on the battlefield.
7. 1968: Apollo 8 orbits the moon.
As part of 1968′s Apollo 8 mission, astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders spent the night before Christmas orbiting the moon. The operation was originally planned to test out the lunar module—later used in the Apollo 11 moon landing—in Earth’s orbit. But when work on the module fell behind schedule, NASA ambitiously changed the mission plan to a lunar voyage. Apollo 8 went on to result in a series of breakthroughs for manned space flight: The three astronauts became the first men to leave Earth’s gravitational pull, the first to orbit the moon, the first to view all of Earth from space and the first to see the dark side of the moon.Apollo 8 is perhaps best remembered today for the broadcast the three astronauts made when they entered the moon’s orbit on Christmas Eve. As viewers were shown pictures of the moon and Earth from lunar orbit, Borman, Lovell and Anders read the opening lines of the book of Genesis from the Bible. The broadcast—which ended with the famous line “Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth”—became one of the most watched television events in history.
Although it’s one of the world’s most famous monuments, the prehistoric stone circle known as Stonehenge remains shrouded in mystery. Built on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, Stonehenge was constructed in several stages between 3000 and 1500 B.C., spanning the Neolithic Period to the Bronze Age. Its massive scale suggests that Stonehenge was vitally important to the ancient peoples who built it, but the monument’s purpose has been the subject of widespread speculation for centuries. Theories run the gamut, casting Stonehenge as anything from an ancient healing center to an alien landing site. In the 17th and 18th centuries, many believed Stonehenge was a Druid temple, built by those ancient Celtic pagans as a center for their religious worship. Though more recent scholars have concluded that Stonehenge likely predated the Druids by some 2,000 years, modern-day Druidic societies still see it as a pilgrimage destination.
One enduring hypothesis for Stonehenge’s purpose comes from the initial observation, first made by 18th-century scholars, that the monument’s entrance faces the rising sun on the day of the summer solstice. For many, this orientation suggests that ancient astronomers may have used Stonehenge as a kind of solar calendar to track the movement of the sun and moon and mark the changing seasons. New excavations in recent years, however, have unearthed a different theory based on hundreds of human bones found at the site, dating across 1,000 years and showing signs of cremation before burial. The presence of these remains suggests that Stonehenge could have served as an ancient burial ground as well as a ceremonial complex and temple of the dead. In 2010 archaeologists discovered a second stone circle located just over a mile away from the more famous landmark. Dubbed “Bluestonehenge” for the 25 Welsh bluestones that originally made up the site, this secondary monument provides more evidence that Stonehenge could have been part of a huge memorial complex where high-ranking individuals took part in elaborate rituals and ceremonies honoring the dead. Yet as no written records exist, this theory—like all those about Stonehenge’s purpose—can only remain a matter of speculation.
They say “money makes the world go round,” and long before the invention of money as we know it, people were using goods such as salt, cattle and even weapons as forms of currency. From China’s “flying money” to Siberian “soft gold,” here are eight things you may not know about the history of money.
Paper banknote issued by China's Song Dynasty
1. China created the world’s first paper money. Nearly 700 years before Sweden issued the first European banknotes in 1661, China released the first generally circulating currency. In fact, usage of paper notes dates backs even earlier, to the 7th century Tang Dynasty. For centuries copper coins had been China’s primary currency. In order to carry large amounts of cash, people hefted around an ever-increasing number of these coins–not the easiest, or safest, thing to do over long distances. In an attempt to lighten their load, merchants began to deposit these coins with each other and were issued paper certificates for the coin’s value. The paper was certainly lighter. So light, in fact, that it is believed to have earned the nickname “flying money,” for its tendency to blow away in a stiff wind. The use of paper money remained limited for the next 200 years, until a copper shortage forced merchants and Song Dynasty government officials alike to issue and accept paper notes backed by gold reserves—the first legal tender in the world. 2. The Inca built a great empire—without the use of money at all. Unlike the neighboring Aztecs or Mayas, who used goods such as beans and textiles to buy and sell products, there was no concept of “money” among the Inca. So, how did they manage to create the largest—and wealthiest—empire in South America? Through a highly regimented system known as the “Mit’a.” From the age of 15, Incan males were required to provide physical labor to the state for a set number of days, sometimes as much as two-thirds of the year. They built public buildings and palaces, as well as an extensive system of roads (14,000 miles in all), which linked the empire together and allowed for its ongoing expansion. In return, the government provided all the basic necessities of life; food, clothing, tools, housing, etc. No money changed hands. Indeed, even if there had been money, there was simply nowhere for an Incan to spend it—no shops, no markets, no malls. That’s not to say that Incan society didn’t value the massive piles of gold and silver sitting beneath their lands. In fact, the Inca used these precious metals as part of their religious worship, considering gold the “sweat of the sun,” and silver the “tears of the moon.”
Early British tally sticks (Getty)
3. Medieval merchants developed an early version of the credit card. In an era when currency was often unavailable (and few people were literate), the tally stick, a forerunner of today’s high-tech credit cards, became increasingly popular in Europe. In this early version of financial record keeping, notches were made on a wooden stick to indicate the amount lent—and owed. The sticks were then split down the middle; the creditor kept one half and the debtor the other. When a payment was made, the sticks were paired up, and the payment was marked on the stick. The tally stick system also had another built-in benefit: It was nearly impossible to counterfeit, as the shape, size and grain of the wooden halves had to match up perfectly. Tally sticks were used in much of Europe, but probably nowhere as extensively as in England. For more than 700 years, tally sticks were used to collect taxes from local citizens, until the system was finally abandoned in 1826. Eight years later, when the British parliament finally decided to get rid of the thousands of leftover tally sticks being kept in storage, they decided to burn them in an underground furnace that heated the House of Lords, resulting in a massive fire that destroyed most of the complex—the worst fire to hit London since the Great Fire of 1666. 4. Czarist Russia created a tax payable only in animal fur. The arrival of Russian hunters and trappers in what was then the remote wilderness of Siberia in the 1600s kicked off a “fur rush” that many historians have compared to the later California gold rush in its intensity. At the height of the Russian fur trade these pelts had became so valuable that they were called “soft gold” and accepted as hard currency throughout the empire. By some estimates, they accounted for more than 10 percent of Russia’s total revenue. Eager to reap the financial rewards of the trade, Russia’s czarist government began to regulate the price of the pelts. By the early 17th century, in an attempt to keep up with the massive worldwide demand, they went one step further, imposing a new tax on thousands of Siberian peasants. The “yasak” was an annual tribute, payable solely in fur, required of every male over the age of 18. Successful payment of this fur tax meant protection from harm, while refusal often resulted in vicious attacks and raids at the hands of hired gangs. 5. Paul Revere played a key role in the creation of early American currency. Revere, famed for his 1775 “midnight ride” to warn American colonists of an impending British invasion, was actually far more famous in his day for his work as an engraver and as one of the colonies’ premiere silversmiths. Just months after his exploits near Concord, it was Revere who was tasked with designing the engraving plates for the first Continental currency, or Continentals, produced by Massachusetts to fund the war. By the end of the American Revolution, these early paper notes had become worthless, and one of the first projects undertaken by the U.S. government following the ratification of the Constitution was the passage of the Coinage Act, establishing the U.S. Mint and regulating coin production. The first regularly circulating coins in American history were delivered in March 1793, consisting of exactly 11,178 one-cent pieces—or $111.78—and made of rolled copper provided, in part, by Paul Revere. 6. The first gold rush in American history took place in North Carolina, not California. In 1799, the 12-year old son of a Cabarrus County farmer named John Reed discovered a gold nugget weighing an estimated 17 pounds, so large that his family used it as doorstop. When more gold was discovered in neighboring counties, it kicked off the first prospecting boom in American history, drawing thousands of people to the area, many of them newly arrived immigrants. By the early 19th century, more than 30,000 North Carolinians were mining for gold, making it the second largest profession in the state after agriculture. The prospect of financial reward was so high that professional mining companies soon entered the scene, bringing with them workers and engineers with years of experience extracting precious metals from South American mines. For more than 30 years, all gold used in U.S. coins was mined in North Carolina, and a U.S. Mint was opened in the city of Charlotte in 1837. However, decades of mining eventually depleted the region’s reserves, and by the 1860s, the Carolina Gold Boom had ended. 7. Counterfeiting was rampant during the American Civil War. Money tampering has been around nearly as long as money itself has existed. Early coins were shaved around the edges, with the perpetrator pocketing the excess precious metals. Rome, among other ancient civilizations, made counterfeiting a crime punishable by death. The U.S. government struggled with the issue from its inception, going so far as to hire an ex-counterfeiter to design some of its first coins. Despite these efforts, the problem continued, likely reaching its apex during the American Civil War. With dozens of different notes and coins being issued by state, local and federal governments on both sides, it was nearly impossible to detect the real from the fake. It’s been estimated that at least one-third (and possible half) of all money then in circulation was fraudulent. In fact, the U.S. Secret Service was created in 1865—not to protect the president—but to combat counterfeiting. The term “greenback,” a now-common term for money, also traces its origins to the war. The phrase was derived from the intricate green ink designs used on the reverse side of Civil War-era banknotes, which the U.S. Treasury Department hoped would prevent counterfeiting. 8. West Point Mint was “the Fort Knox of silver” and has a whole lot of gold. When most people think of vast amounts of precious metals tucked away in secure locations, it’s Fort Knox that comes to mind. Few people know that a tiny facility in New York State once rivaled Knox in the wealth department, and was home to the largest concentration of silver in the United States. Opened in 1937 and originally known as the West Point Bullion Depository, the Mint is located just miles from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. There are currently more than 54 million ounces of gold in “deep storage” at the facility, with an estimated value of more than $80 billion dollars, making West Point the second largest gold depository after Fort Knox. Though it did not achieve official status as a U.S. Mint until 1988, it had begun striking pennies and gold medallions decades earlier. Today, it issues coins struck with the “W” mint mark in gold, silver and platinum, including the only U.S. coins issued to commemorate the September 11 attacks.
Ancient Egypt stood as one of the world’s most advanced civilizations for nearly 3,000 years and created a culture so rich that it has spawned its own field of study. But while Egyptian art, architecture and burial methods have become enduring objects of fascination, there is still a lot you probably don’t know about these famed builders of the pyramids. From the earliest recorded peace treaty to ancient board games, find out 11 surprising facts about the Gift of the Nile.
1. Cleopatra was not Egyptian.
Universal History Archive/Getty Images
Along with King Tut, perhaps no figure is more famously associated with ancient Egypt than Cleopatra VII. But while she was born in Alexandria, Cleopatra was actually part of a long line of Greek Macedonians originally descended from Ptolemy I, one of Alexander the Great’s most trusted lieutenants. The Ptolemaic Dynasty ruled Egypt from 323 to 30 B.C., and most of its leaders remained largely Greek in their culture and sensibilities. In fact, Cleopatra was famous for being one of the first members of the Ptolemaic dynasty to actually speak the Egyptian language.
2. The ancient Egyptians forged one of the earliest peace treaties on record.
Giovanni Dall'Orto/Wikimedia Commons
For over two centuries the Egyptians fought against the Hittite Empire for control of lands in modern day Syria. The conflict gave rise to bloody engagements like 1274 B.C.’s Battle of Kadesh, but by time of the pharaoh Ramses II neither side had emerged as a clear victor. With both the Egyptians and Hittites facing threats from other peoples, in 1259 B.C. Ramses II and the Hittite King Hattusili III negotiated a famous peace treaty. This agreement ended the conflict and decreed that the two kingdoms would aid each other in the event of an invasion by a third party. The Egyptian-Hittite treaty is now recognized as one of the earliest surviving peace accords, and a copy can even be seen above the entrance to the United Nations Security Council Chamber in New York.
3. Ancient Egyptians loved board games.
Gianni Dagli Orti/Corbis
After a long day’s work along the Nile River, Egyptians often relaxed by playing board games. Several different games were played, including “Mehen” and “Dogs and Jackals,” but perhaps the most popular was a game of chance known as “Senet.” This pastime dates back as far as 3500 B.C. and was played on a long board painted with 30 squares. Each player had a set of pieces that were moved along the board according to rolls of dice or the throwing sticks. Historians still debate Senet’s exact rules, but there is little doubt of the game’s popularity. Paintings depict Queen Nefertari playing Senet, and pharaohs like Tutankhamen even had game boards buried with them in their tombs.
4. Egyptian women had a wide range of rights and freedoms.
DEA/A. Dagli Orti/De Agostini/Getty Images
While they may have been publicly and socially viewed as inferior to men, Egyptian women enjoyed a great deal of legal and financial independence. They could buy and sell property, serve on juries, make wills and even enter into legal contracts. Egyptian women did not typically work outside the home, but those who did usually received equal pay for doing the same jobs as men. Unlike the women of ancient Greece, who were effectively owned by their husbands, Egyptian women also had the right to divorce and remarry. Egyptian couples were even known to negotiate an ancient prenuptial agreement. These contracts listed all the property and wealth the woman had brought into the marriage and guaranteed that she would be compensated for it in the event of a divorce.
5. Egyptian workers were known to organize labor strikes.
Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
Even though they regarded the pharaoh as a kind of living god, Egyptian workers were not afraid to protest for better working conditions. The most famous example came in the 12th century B.C. during the reign of the New Kingdom pharaoh Ramses III. When laborers engaged in building the royal necropolis at Deir el-Medina did not receive their usual payment of grain, they organized one of the first recorded strikes in history. The protest took the form of a sit-in: The workers simply entered nearby mortuary temples and refused to leave until their grievances were heard. The gamble worked, and the laborers were eventually given their overdue rations.
6. Egyptian pharaohs were often overweight.
rob koopman/Wikimedia Commons
Egyptian art commonly depicts pharaohs as being trim and statuesque, but this was most likely not the case. The Egyptian diet of beer, wine, bread and honey was high in sugar, and studies show that it may have done a number on royal waistlines. Examinations of mummies have indicated that many Egyptian rulers were unhealthy and overweight, and even suffered from diabetes. A notable example is the legendary Queen Hatshepsut, who lived in the 15th century B.C. While her sarcophagus depicts her as slender and athletic, historians believe she was actually obese and balding.
7. The pyramids were not built by slaves.
Peter M. Wilson/Corbis
The life of a pyramid builder certainly wasn’t easy—skeletons of workers commonly show signs of arthritis and other ailments—but evidence suggests that the massive tombs were built not by slaves but by paid laborers. These ancient construction workers were a mix of skilled artisans and temporary hands, and some appear to have taken great pride in their craft. Graffiti found near the monuments suggests they often assigned humorous names to their crews like the “Drunkards of Menkaure” or the “Friends of Khufu.” The idea that slaves built the pyramids at the crack of a whip was first conjured by the Greek historian Herodotus in the fifth century B.C., but most historians now dismiss it as myth. While the ancient Egyptians were certainly not averse to keeping slaves, they appear to have mostly used them as field hands and domestic servants.
8. King Tut may have been killed by a hippopotamus.
Gianni Dagli Orti/Corbis
Surprisingly little is known about the life of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamen, but some historians believe they know how he died. Scans of the young king’s body show that he was embalmed without his heart or his chest wall. This drastic departure from traditional Egyptian burial practice suggests that he may have suffered a horrific injury prior to his death. According to a handful of Egyptologists, one of the most likely causes for this wound would have been a bite from a hippopotamus. Evidence indicates that the Egyptians hunted the beasts for sport, and statues found in King Tut’s tomb even depict him in the act of throwing a harpoon. If the boy pharaoh was indeed fond of stalking dangerous game, then his death might have been the result of a hunt gone wrong.
9. Some Egyptian doctors had specialized fields of study.
Blaine Harrington III/Corbis
An ancient physician was usually a jack-of-all-trades, but evidence shows that Egyptian doctors sometimes focused on healing only one part of the human body. This early form of medical specialization was first noted in 450 B.C. by the traveler and historian Herodotus. Discussing Egyptian medicine, he wrote, “Each physician is a healer of one disease and no more…some of the eye, some of the teeth, some of what pertains to the belly.” These specialists even had specific names. Dentists were known as “doctors of the tooth,” while the term for proctologists literally translates to “shepherd of the anus.”
10. Egyptians kept many animals as pets.
The Art Archive/Corbis
The Egyptians saw animals as incarnations of the gods and were one of the first civilizations to keep household pets. Egyptians were particularly fond of cats, which were associated with the goddess Bastet, but they also had a reverence for hawks, ibises, dogs, lions and baboons. Many of these animals held a special place in the Egyptian home, and they were often mummified and buried with their owners after they died. Other creatures were specially trained to work as helper animals. Egyptian police officers, for example, were known to use dogs and even trained monkeys to assist them when out on patrol.
11. Egyptians of both sexes wore makeup.
The Art Archive/Corbis
Vanity is as old as civilization, and the ancient Egyptians were no exception. Both men and women were known to wear copious amounts of makeup, which they believed gave them the protection of the gods Horus and Ra. These cosmetics were made by grinding ores like malachite and galena into a substance called kohl. It was then liberally applied around the eyes with utensils made out of wood, bone and ivory. Women would also stain their cheeks with red paint and use henna to color their hands and fingernails, and both sexes wore perfumes made from oil, myrrh and cinnamon. The Egyptians believed their makeup had magical healing powers, and they weren’t entirely wrong: Research has shown that the lead-based cosmetics worn along the Nile actually helped stave off eye infections.
The Dead Sea Scrolls have been called the greatest archaeological find of the 20th century. First discovered outside Jerusalem in the late 1940s, this ancient collection of texts includes the oldest known biblical manuscripts, dating back some 2,000 years. Below, find out more about the scrolls and their deep religious and historical significance.
Part of the Isaiah Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls. (Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images)
1. Teenage shepherds accidentally stumbled upon the first set of Dead Sea Scrolls.
In late 1946 or early 1947, Bedouin teenagers were tending their goats and sheep near the ancient settlement of Qumran, located on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea in what is now known as the West Bank. One of the young shepherds tossed a rock into an opening on the side of a cliff and was surprised to hear a shattering sound. He and his companions later entered the cave and found a collection of large clay jars, seven of which contained leather and papyrus scrolls. An antiquities dealer bought the cache, which ultimately ended up in the hands of various scholars who estimated that the texts were upwards of 2,000 years old. After word of the discovery got out, Bedouin treasure hunters and archaeologists unearthed tens of thousands of additional scroll fragments from 10 nearby caves; together they make up between 800 and 900 manuscripts.
2. Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were sold in the classifieds section.
Athanasius Yeshue Samuel, a Syrian Orthodox archbishop of Jerusalem, bought four of the original Dead Sea Scrolls from a cobbler who dabbled in antiquities, paying less than $100. When the Arab-Israeli War broke out in 1948, Samuel traveled to the United States and unsuccessfully offered them to a number of universities, including Yale. Finally, in 1954, he placed an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal—under the category “Miscellaneous Items for Sale”’—that read: “Biblical Manuscripts dating back to at least 200 B.C. are for sale. This would be an ideal gift to an educational or religious institution by an individual or group.” Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin, whose father had obtained the other three scrolls from the initial collection in 1947, secretly negotiated their purchase on behalf of the newly established State of Israel. Unfortunately for Samuel, much of the $250,000 he received went to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service since the bill of sale had not been properly drawn up.
3. Nobody knows for sure who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were written between 150 B.C. and 70 A.D., remains the subject of scholarly debate to this day. According to the prevailing theory, they are the work of a Jewish population that inhabited Qumran until Roman troops destroyed the settlement around 70 A.D. These Jews are thought to have belonged to a devout, ascetic and communal sect called the Essenes, one of four distinct Jewish groups living in Judaea before and during the Roman era. Proponents of this hypothesis note similarities between the traditions outlined in the Community Rule—a scroll detailing the laws of an unnamed Jewish sect—and the Roman historian Flavius Josephus’ description of Essene rituals. Archaeological evidence from Qumran, including the ruins of Jewish ritual baths, also suggests the site was once home to observant Jews. Some scholars have credited other groups with producing the scrolls, including early Christians and Jews from Jerusalem who passed through Qumran while fleeing the Romans.
4. Almost all of the Hebrew Bible is represented in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Dead Sea Scrolls include fragments from every book of the Old Testament except for the Book of Esther. Scholars have speculated that traces of this missing book, which recounts the story of the eponymous Jewish queen of Persia, either disintegrated over time or have yet to be uncovered. Others have proposed that Esther was not part of the Essenes’ canon or that the sect did not celebrate Purim, the festive holiday based on the book. The only complete book of the Hebrew Bible preserved among the manuscripts from Qumran is Isaiah; this copy, dated to the first century B.C., is considered the earliest Old Testament manuscript still in existence. Along with biblical texts, the scrolls include documents about sectarian regulations, such as the Community Rule, and religious writings that do not appear in the Old Testament.
5. Hebrew is not the only language of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The majority of the Dead Sea Scrolls are in Hebrew, with some fragments written in the ancient paleo-Hebrew alphabet thought to have fallen out of use in the fifth century B.C. But others are in Aramaic, the language spoken by many Jews—including, most likely, Jesus—between the sixth century B.C. and the siege of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. In addition, several texts feature translations of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, which some Jews used instead of or in addition to Hebrew at the time of the scrolls’ creation.
6. The Dead Sea Scrolls include a guide to hidden treasure.
One of the most intriguing manuscripts from Qumran is the Copper Scroll, a sort of ancient treasure map that lists dozens of gold and silver caches. While the other texts are written in ink on parchment or animal skins, this curious document features Hebrew and Greek letters chiseled onto metal sheets—perhaps, as some have theorized, to better withstand the passage of time. Using an unconventional vocabulary and odd spelling, the Copper Scroll describes 64 underground hiding places around Israel that purportedly contain riches stashed for safekeeping. None of these hoards have been recovered, possibly because the Romans pillaged Judaea during the first century A.D. According to various hypotheses, the treasure belonged to local Essenes, was spirited out of the Second Temple before its destruction or never existed to begin with.
Did you know that some people think England’s beloved Bard never existed? According to one longstanding theory the literary masterpieces attributed to Shakespeare were actually written by Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford. Find out more about this hypothesis and explore other interesting aspects of Shakespeare’s life and legacy.
Cobbe portrait of William Shakespeare
1. Shakespeare’s father held a lot of different jobs, and at one point got paid to drink beer. The son of a tenant farmer, John Shakespeare was nothing if not upwardly mobile. He arrived in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1551 and began dabbling in various trades, selling leather goods, wool, malt and corn. In 1556 he was appointed the borough’s official “ale taster,” meaning he was responsible for inspecting bread and malt liquors. The next year he took another big step up the social ladder by marrying Mary Arden, the daughter of an aristocratic farmer who happened to be his father’s former boss. John later became a moneylender and held a series of municipal positions, serving for some time as the mayor of Stratford. In the 1570s he fell into debt and ran into legal problems for reasons that remain unclear.
2. Shakespeare married an older woman who was three months pregnant at the time. In November 1582, 18-year-old William wed Anne Hathaway, a farmer’s daughter eight years his senior. Instead of the customary three times, the couple’s intention to marry was only announced at church once—evidence that the union was hastily arranged because of Anne’s eyebrow-raising condition. Six months after the wedding, the Shakespeares welcomed a daughter, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith followed in February 1585. Little is known about the relationship between William and Anne, besides that they often lived apart and he only bequeathed her his “second-best bed” in his will.
3. Shakespeare’s parents were probably illiterate, and his children almost certainly were. Nobody knows for sure, but it’s quite likely that John and Mary Shakespeare never learned to read or write, as was often the case for people of their standing during the Elizabethan era. Some have argued that John’s civic duties would have required basic literacy, but in any event he always signed his name with a mark. William, on the other hand, attended Stratford’s local grammar school, where he mastered reading, writing and Latin. His wife and their two children who lived to adulthood, Susanna and Judith, are thought to have been illiterate, though Susanna could scrawl her signature.
4. Nobody knows what Shakespeare did between 1585 and 1592. To the dismay of his biographers, Shakespeare disappears from the historical record between 1585, when his twins’ baptism was recorded, and 1592, when the playwright Robert Greene denounced him in a pamphlet as an “upstart crow.” The insult suggests he’d already made a name for himself on the London stage by then. What did the newly married father and future literary icon do during those seven “lost” years? Historians have speculated that he worked as a schoolteacher, studied law, traveled across continental Europe or joined an acting troupe that was passing through Stratford. According to one 17th-century account, he fled his hometown after poaching deer from a local politician’s estate.
5. Shakespeare’s plays feature the first written instances of hundreds of familiar terms. William Shakespeare is believed to have influenced the English language more than any other writer in history, coining—or, at the very least, popularizing—terms and phrases that still regularly crop up in everyday conversation. Examples include the words “fashionable” (“Troilus and Cressida”), “sanctimonious” (“Measure for Measure”), “eyeball” (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”) and “lackluster” (“As You Like It”); and the expressions “foregone conclusion” (“Othello”), “in a pickle” (“The Tempest”), “wild goose chase” (“Romeo and Juliet”) and “one fell swoop” (“Macbeth”). He is also credited with inventing the given names Olivia, Miranda, Jessica and Cordelia, which have become common over the years (as well as others, such as Nerissa and Titania, which have not).
6. We probably don’t spell Shakespeare’s name correctly—but, then again, neither did he. Sources from William Shakespeare’s lifetime spell his last name in more than 80 different ways, ranging from “Shappere” to “Shaxberd.” In the handful of signatures that have survived, the Bard never spelled his own name “William Shakespeare,” using variations or abbreviations such as “Willm Shakp,” “Willm Shakspere” and “William Shakspeare” instead. However it’s spelled, Shakespeare is thought to derive from the Old English words “schakken” (“to brandish”) and “speer” (“spear”), and probably referred to a confrontational or argumentative person.
7. Shakespeare’s epitaph wards off would-be grave robbers with a curse. William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, at the age of 52—not bad for an era when the average life expectancy ranged between 30 and 40 years. We may never know what killed him, although an acquaintance wrote that the Bard fell ill after a night of heavy drinking with fellow playwright Ben Jonson. Despite his swift demise, Shakespeare supposedly had the wherewithal to pen the epitaph over his tomb, which is located inside a Stratford church. Intended to thwart the numerous grave robbers who plundered England’s cemeteries at the time, the verse reads: “Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbeare, / To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, / And cursed be he that moves my bones.” It must have done the trick, since Shakespeare’s remains have yet to be disturbed.
8. Shakespeare wore a gold hoop earring—or so we think. Our notion of William Shakespeare’s appearance comes from several 17th-century portraits that may or may not have been painted while the Bard himself sat behind the canvas. In one of the most famous depictions, known as the Chandos portrait after its onetime owner, the subject has a full beard, a receding hairline, loosened shirt-ties and a shiny gold hoop dangling from his left ear. Even back in Shakespeare’s time, earrings on men were trendy hallmarks of a bohemian lifestyle, as evidenced by images of other Elizabethan artists. The fashion may have been inspired by sailors, who sported a single gold earring to cover funeral costs in case they died at sea.
9. North America’s 200 million starlings have Shakespeare to thank for their existence. William Shakespeare’s works contain more than 600 references to various types of birds, from swans and doves to sparrows and turkeys. The starling—a lustrous songbird with a gift for mimicry, native to Europe and western Asia—makes just one appearance, in “Henry IV, Part 1.” In 1890 an American “bardolator” named Eugene Schiffelin decided to import every kind of bird mentioned in Shakespeare’s oeuvre but absent from the United States. As part of this project, he released two flocks of 60 starlings in New York’s Central Park. One hundred twenty years later, the highly adaptable species has taken over the skies, becoming invasive and driving some native birds to the brink of extinction.
10. Some people think Shakespeare was a fraud. How did a provincial commoner who had never gone to college or ventured outside Stratford become one of the most prolific, worldly and eloquent writers in history? Even early in his career, Shakespeare was spinning tales that displayed in-depth knowledge of international affairs, European capitals and history, as well as familiarity with the royal court and high society. For this reason, some theorists have suggested that one or several authors wishing to conceal their true identity used the person of William Shakespeare as a front. Proposed candidates include Edward De Vere, Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe and Mary Sidney Herbert. Most scholars and literary historians remain skeptical about this hypothesis, although many suspect Shakespeare sometimes collaborated with other playwrights
Sparta is a city in Laconia, on the Peloponnese in Greece. In antiquity, it was a powerful city-state with a famous martial tradition. Ancient writers sometimes referred to it as Lacedaemon and its people as Lacedaemonians.Sparta reached the height of its power in 404 B.C. after its victory against Athens in the second Peloponnesian war. When it was in its prime, Sparta had no city walls; its inhabitants, it seems, preferred to defend it with men rather than mortar. However, within a few decades, after a defeat against the Thebans at the Battle of Leuctra, the city found itself reduced to a “second-rate power,” a status from which it never recovered.The prowess and fearlessness of Sparta's warriors has inspired the Western world for millennia and, even in the 21st century, has been incorporated into Hollywood films like "300" and the futuristic video game series "Halo" (where a group of super- soldiers are called “Spartans”).
Yet the real-life story of the city is more complicated than popular mythology makes it out to be. The task of sorting out what is real about the Spartans from what is myth has been made more difficult because many of the ancient accounts were written by non-Spartans. As such, they need to be taken with the appropriate grain of salt.
Early Sparta
Although there is evidence of Bronze Age habitation not far from Sparta, it seems that the city itself was not founded until the early Iron Age, in the time after 1000 B.C. Four villages — Limnae, Pitana, Mesoa and Cynosoura, which are located near what would be the Spartan acropolis — came together to form the early city.Historian Nigel Kennell writes in his book "Spartans: A New History" (John Wiley & Sons, 2010) that the city’s location in the fertile Eurotas valley gave its inhabitants access to an abundance of food, something its local rivals did not enjoy. Even the name Sparta is from a verb meaning “I sow” or “to sow.”
Although Sparta made efforts to consolidate its territory in Laconia, we also know that, at this early stage, the people of the city appear to have taken pride in their artistic skills. Sparta was known for its poetry and it pottery, its wares being found in places as far flung as Cyrene (in Libya) and the island of Samos, not far from the coast of modern-day Turkey. Researcher Konstantinos Kopanias notes in a 2009 journal article that, up until the sixth century B.C., Sparta appears to have had an ivory workshop. Surviving ivories from the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta depict birds, male and female figures and even a “tree of life” or “sacred tree.”
Poetry was another key early Spartan achievement. “In reality we have more testimony to poetic activity at Sparta in the seventh century than for any other Greek state, including Athens,” writes historian Chester Starr in a chapter of the book "Sparta" (Edinburgh University Press, 2002).
While much of this poetry survives in fragmentary form and some of it, such as from Tyrtaeus, reflects the development of the martial values that Sparta would become famous for, there is also work that appears to reflect a society concerned with art, rather than just war.
This fragment from the poet Alcman, which he composed for a Spartan festival, stands out. It refers to a choir girl named “Agido.”
There is such a thing as retribution from the gods. Happy is he who, sound of mind, weaves through the day unwept. I sing the light of Agido. I see it like the sun, whom Agido summons to appear and witness for us. But the glorious chorus mistress forbids me to either praise or blame her. For she appears to be outstanding as if one placed among a grazing herd a perfect horse, a prize-winner with resounding hooves, one of the dreams that dwell below the rock...
(Translation by Gloria Ferrari, from Alcman and the Cosmos of Sparta, University of Chicago Press, 2008)
War with Messenia and subjugation
A key event on Sparta’s road to becoming a more militaristic society was its conquest of the land of Messenia, located to the west of Sparta, and its conversion of its subjects to helots (slaves).Kennell points out that this conquest appears to have begun in the eighth century B.C. with archaeological evidence from the city of Messene showing that the last evidence of habitation was during the eighth/seventh centuries B.C. before a period of desertion began.The incorporation of the people of Messenia into Sparta’s slave population was important as it provided Sparta with “the means to maintain the nearest thing to a standing army in Greece,” Kennell writes, “by freeing all its adult male citizens from the need for manual labor.”Keeping this population of slaves in check was a problem the Spartans would have for centuries with some deeply cruel methods employed. The writer Plutarch (who lived A.D. 46-120) claimed that the Spartans used what we might consider death squads.
“The magistrates from time to time sent out into the country at large the most discreet of the young warriors, equipped only with daggers and such supplies as were necessary. In the day time they scattered into obscure and out-of-the-way places, where they hid themselves and lay quiet; but in the night they came down into the highways and killed every Helot whom they caught.”
(Translation by Bernadotte Perrin via Perseus Digital Library)
Spartan poetry written in the seventh century B.C. also hints at a move to a more martial society. Tyrtaeus writes:
Here is courage, mankind’s finest possession, here is the noblest prize that a young man can endeavor to win, and it is a good thing his city and all the people share with him when a man plants his feet and stands in the foremost spears relentlessly, all thought of foul flight completely forgotten, and has well trained his heart to be steadfast and to endure, and with words encourages the man who is stationed beside him. Here is a man who proves himself to be valiant in war...
(Translation by Richmond Lattimore, from the book "Greek Lyrics," University of Chicago Press, 1960)
The Spartan training system
The presence of large numbers of slaves relieved Spartan men from manual labor and allowed Sparta to build a citizen training system that prepared the city’s children for the harshness of war.
“At seven a Spartan boy was taken from his mother and raised in barracks, beneath the eyes of older boys,” writes University of Virginia professor J.E. Lendon in his book "Soldiers and Ghosts: A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity" (Yale University Press, 2005). “Boys were whipped to inculcate respect (aidos) and obedience; they went ill clad to make them tough; and they were starved to make them resistant to hunger ...”
If they got too hungry, the boys were encouraged to try stealing (as a way of improving their stealth) but were punished if they got caught.Spartans progressed through this training system until the age of 20 when they were allowed to join a communal mess and hence become a full citizen of the community. Each member of the mess was expected to provide a certain amount of foodstuffs.
Girls, while not trained militarily, were expected to train physically. “Physical fitness was considered to be as important for females as it was for males, and girls took part in races and trials of strength,” writes Sue Blundell in her book "Women in Ancient Greece" (Harvard University Press, 1995). This included running, wrestling, discus and javelin throwing. “They also learned how to manage horses; they drove carriages in processions and at the Hyacinthia, a festival of Apollo and Hyacinthus, they raced in two-horse chariots.”
Kings of Sparta
Sparta in time developed a system of dual kingship (two kings ruling at once). Their power was counter-balanced by the elected board of ephors (who may only serve a single one-year term). There was also a Council of Elders (Gerousia), each member of which was over the age of 60 and could serve for life. The general assembly, which consisted of each citizen, also had the chance to vote on legislation.
The legendary lawmaker Lycurgus is often credited in ancient sources with providing the groundwork for Spartan law. Kennell notes, however, that he probably never existed and was in fact a mythical character.
War with Persia
Initially Sparta was hesitant to engage with Persia. When the Persians threatened Greek cities in Ionia, on the west coast of what is now Turkey, the Greeks who lived in those areas sent an emissary to Sparta to ask for help. The Spartans refused but did threaten King Cyrus, telling him to leave Greek cities alone. “He was to harm no city on Greek territory, or else the Lacedaemonians would punish him,” wrote Herodotus in the fifth century B.C.
The Persians did not listen. The first invasion by Darius I took place in 492 B.C. and was repulsed by a mainly Athenian force at the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. The second invasion was launched by Xerxes in 480 B.C., the Persians crossing the Hellespont (the narrow strait between the Aegean and Black seas) and moved south, gaining allies along the way.Sparta and one of their kings, Leonidas, became head of an anti-Persian coalition that ultimately made an ill-fated stand at Thermopylae. Located beside the coast, Thermopylae contained a narrow passage, which the Greeks blocked and used to halt Xerxes' advance. Ancient sources indicate that Leonidas started the battle with a few thousand troops (including 300 Spartans at its core). He faced a Persian force many times its size.After spying on the Spartan-led force, and waiting to see if they would surrender, Xerxes ordered an attack. The “Medes rushed forward and charged the Greeks, but fell in vast numbers: others, however, took the places of the slain, and would not be beaten off, though they suffered terrible losses. In this way it became clear to all, and especially to the king, that though he had plenty of combatants, he had but very few warriors. The struggle, however, continued during the whole day,” wrote Herodotus.
(Translation by George Rawlinson)
After this beaten force withdrew, Xerxes sent an elite unit called the “Immortals” after the Spartan-led force but they too failed. Herodotus noted the battle tactics the Spartans employed.“The Lacedaemonians fought in a way worthy of note, and showed themselves far more skillful in fight than their adversaries, often turning their backs, and making as though they were all flying away, on which the barbarians would rush after them with much noise and shouting, when the Spartans at their approach would wheel round and face their pursuers, in this way destroying vast numbers of the enemy.”Eventually a Greek man showed Xerxes a pass that allowed part of the Persian force to outmaneuver the Greeks and attack them on both flanks. Leonidas was doomed. Many of the troops who were with Leonidas withdrew (possibly because the Spartan king ordered them to). According to Herodotus, the Thespians decided to stay with the 300 Spartans by their own free will. Leonidas then made his fateful stand and “fell fighting bravely, together with many other famous Spartans,” Herodotus writes.Ultimately, the Persians killed almost every Spartan. The helots the Spartans brought with them were also killed. The Persian army proceeded south, sacking Athens and threatening to break into the Peloponnese. A Greek naval victory at the Battle of Salamis halted this approach, the Persian king Xerxes going home and leaving an army behind that would later be destroyed. The Greeks led by the now dead Leonidas had prevailed.
Peloponnesian War
When the threat from the Persians receded, the Greeks resumed their inter-city rivalries. Two of the most powerful city states were Athens and Sparta, and tensions between the two escalated in the decades after their victory over Persia.
In 465/464 B.C., powerful earthquakes hit Sparta, and the helots took advantage of the situation to revolt. The situation was serious enough that Sparta called on allied cities for aid in putting it down. When the Athenians arrived, however, the Spartans refused their help. This was taken as an insult in Athens and bolstered anti-Spartan views.The Battle of Tanagra, fought in 457 B.C., heralded a period of conflict between the two cities that continued, off and on, for more than 50 years. At times, Athens appeared to have the advantage, such as the battle of Sphacteria in 425 B.C. when, shockingly, 120 Spartans surrendered.
“Nothing that happened in the war surprised the Hellenes so much as this. It was the opinion that no force or famine could make the Lacedaemonians give up their arms, but that they would fight on as they could, and die with them in their hands,” wrote Thucydides (460-395 B.C.).(Translation by J.M. Dent via Perseus Digital Library)
There were also periods when Athens was in trouble, such as in 430 B.C., when the Athenians, who were packed behind their city walls during a Spartan attack, suffered a plague that killed many people including their leader, Pericles.Ultimately, the conflict between Sparta and Athens resolved itself on the sea. While the Athenians had the naval advantage throughout much of the war, the situation changed when a man named Lysander was named commander of Sparta’s navy. He sought out Persian financial support to help the Spartans build up their fleet.He convinced a Persian prince named Cyrus to provide him with money. The prince “had brought with him, he said, five hundred talents; if this amount should prove insufficient, he would use his own money, which his father had given him; and if this too should prove inadequate, he would go so far as to break up the throne whereon he sat, which was of silver and gold,” wrote Xenophon (430-355 B.C.). (Translation by Carleton Brownson via Perseus Digital Library)
With Persian financial support, Lysander built up his navy and trained his sailors. In 405 B.C., he engaged the Athenian fleet at Aegospotami, on the Hellespont. He managed to catch them by surprise, winning a decisive victory and cutting off Athens' supply of grain from the Crimea.Athens was now forced to make peace on Sparta’s terms. They had to tear down their walls, confine their activities to Attica and (as Lysander latter ordered) submit to rule by a 30-man body later called the “thirty tyrants.”The “Peloponnesians with great enthusiasm began to tear down the walls [of Athens] to the music of flute-girls, thinking that that day was the beginning of freedom for Greece,” wrote Xenophon.
Sparta was now at the peak of its power.
Fall from power
A series of events and missteps led Sparta from being the pre-eminent force in the Aegean to becoming a second rate power.Shortly after their victory, the Spartans turned against their Persian backers and launched an inconclusive campaign into Turkey. Then in the following decades, the Spartans were forced to campaign on several fronts.In 385 B.C., the Spartans faced the Mantineans and used floods to rip apart their city. The “lower bricks became soaked and failed to support those above them, the wall began first to crack and then to give way,” wrote Xenophon. The city was forced to surrender against this unorthodox onslaught.
More challenges affected Spartan hegemony. In 378 B.C., Athens formed the second naval confederacy, a group that challenged Spartan control of the seas. Ultimately, however Sparta’s downfall came, not from Athens, but from a city named Thebes.Spurred on by Spartan king Agesilaus II, relations between the two cities had become increasingly hostile and in 371 B.C., a pivotal battle took place at Leuctra.“The power of Lacedaemon was shattered by Thebes upon the field of Leuctra. Although an ally of Sparta during the long Peloponnesian War, Thebes had become the lodestar of resistance when victorious Sparta became an angry tyrant in her turn,” writes Lendon. He notes that after a peace was agreed to with Athens in 371 B.C., Sparta turned its attention to Thebes.At Leuctra, “for reasons unclear the Spartans posted their cavalry in front of their phalanx. The Lacedaemonian cavalry was poor because good Spartan warriors still insisted on serving as hoplites [infantrymen] ...” he writes. “The Thebans, by contrast, had an old cavalry tradition, and their excellent horses, much exercised in recent wars, quickly routed the Spartan cavalry and drove them back into the phalanx, confusing its order.”
With confusion in the Spartan lines, the slaughter was on.
“Cleombrotus, fighting in the phalanx as Spartan kings did, was struck down and was carried dying out of the battle ... Other leading Spartans were soon killed fighting as well,” writes Lendon. The Theban general Epaminondas is said to have called out “grant me one step, and we will have the victory!”
And that is apparently what happened. Lendon writes that “the Thebans pushed the Spartans back one fateful step and then the leaderless Spartans were in flight and their allies with them. Of the seven hundred full Spartan citizens at the battle, four hundred died ...”
The Thebans pressed south, gaining support from communities as they marched and liberating Messinia, depriving the Spartans of much of their helot labor. Sparta never recovered from the losses in both Spartan lives and slave labor. As Kennell writes, the city was now a “second-rate power,” and never again would regain its former strength
Later history
In the following centuries Sparta, in its reduced state, found itself under the sway of different powers including Macedonia (eventually led by Alexander the Great), the Achaean League (a confederation of Greek cities) and, later on, Rome. In this period of decline, the Spartans was forced to build a city wall for the first time. There were efforts to restore Sparta to its former military might. The Spartan kings Agis IV (244-241 B.C.) and later Cleomenes III (235-221 B.C.) brought in reforms that canceled debt, re-distributed land, allowed foreigners and non-citizens to become Spartans and ultimately expanded the citizen body to around 4,000 people. While the reforms brought some level of renewal, Cleomenes III was forced to yield the city to Achaean control. The Achaean League in turn, along with all of Greece, eventually fell to Rome. But, while Rome was in control of the region, the people of Sparta never forgot their history. In the second century A.D., the Greek writer Pausanias visited Sparta and noted the presence of a great marketplace.“The most striking feature in the marketplace is the portico which they call Persian because it was made from spoils taken in the Persian wars. In course of time they have altered it until it is as large and as splendid as it is now. On the pillars are white-marble figures of Persians...” he wrote.
(Translation by W.H.S Jones and H.A. Omerod via Perseus Digital Library)
He also describes a tomb dedicated to Leonidas, who, by this point had died 600 years earlier at Thermopylae.“Opposite the theater are two tombs; the first is that of Pausanias, the general at Plataea, the second is that of Leonidas. Every year they deliver speeches over them, and hold a contest in which none may compete except Spartans,” he wrote. “There is set up a slab with the names, and their fathers' names, of those who endured the fight at Thermopylae against the Persians.”
Modern-day ruins
Sparta continued on into the Middle Ages and, indeed, was never be truly lost. Today, the modern day city of Sparta stands near the ancient ruins, having a population of more than 35,000 people.On the ruins of ancient Sparta the historian Kennell writes that only three sites can be identified today with certainty: "the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia beside the Eurotas [the river], the temple of Athena Chalcioecus (“of the Bronze House”) on the acropolis, and the early Roman theater just below it.”
Indeed, even the ancient writer Thucydides predicted that Sparta’s ruins would not stand out.
“Suppose, for example, that the city of Sparta were to become deserted and that only the temples and foundations of the buildings remained, I think that future generations would, as time passed, find it very difficult to believe that the place had really been as powerful as it was represented to be.”
(From Nigel Kennell’s book "Spartans: A New History")
But Thucydides was only half-correct. While the ruins of Sparta may not be as impressive as Athens, Olympia or a number of other Greek sites, the stories and legend of the Spartans lives on. And modern-day people, whether watching a movie, playing a video game or studying ancient history, know something of what this legend means.
Source taken from
http://www.livescience.com/32035-sparta.html
Built between roughly A.D. 1113 and 1150, and encompassing an area of about 500 acres (200 hectares), Angkor Wat is one of the largest religious monuments ever constructed. Its name means “temple city.”
Originally built as a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Vishnu, it was converted into a Buddhist temple in the 14th century, and statues of Buddha were added to its already rich artwork. Its 213-foot-tall (65 meters) central tower is surrounded by four smaller towers and a series of enclosure walls, a layout that recreates the image of Mount Meru, a legendary place in Hindu mythology that is said to lie beyond the Himalayas and be the home of the gods.
The city where the temple was built, Angkor, is located in modern-day Cambodia and was once the capital of the Khmer Empire. This urban center contains hundreds of temples and a population that has been estimated to be as high as 1 million people. It was easily the largest city in the world until the industrial revolution.
The temple is surrounded by a 650-foot-wide (200 meters) moat that encompasses a perimeter of more than 3 miles (5 km). This moat is 13 feet deep (4 meters) and would have helped stabilize the temple’s foundation, preventing groundwater from rising too high or falling too low.
Angkor Wat’s main entrance was to the west (a direction associated with Vishnu) across a stone causeway, with guardian lions marking the way. To the east of the temple was a second, more modest, entrance.
The heart of the temple was the central tower, entered by way of a steep staircase, a statue of Vishnu at top. This tower “was at once the symbolic center of the nation and the actual center where secular and sacred power joined forces,” writes researcher Eleanor Mannikka in the book "Angkor: Celestial Temples of the Khmer Empire" (Abbeville Press, 2002). “From that unparalleled space, Vishnu and the king ruled over the Khmer people.” Vishnu and the king
The builder of Angkor Wat was a king named Suryavarman II. A usurper, he came to power in his teenage years by killing his great uncle Dharanindravarman I while he was riding an elephant. An inscription says that Suryavarman killed the man “as Garuda [a mythical bird] on a mountain ledge would kill a serpent.”
Suryavarman’s bloodlust would continue into his rule; he launched attacks into Vietnam in an effort to gain control over the territory. He also made peaceful diplomatic advances, re-opening relations which China.
He venerated the god Vishnu, a deity often depicted as a protector, and installed a statue of the god in Angkor Wat’s central tower. This devotion can also be seen in one of the most remarkable reliefs at Angkor Wat, located in the southeast of the temple. The relief shows a chapter in the Hindu story of creation known as the “churning of the sea of milk.”
As archaeologist Michael Coe writes, the relief “describes how the devas (gods) and the asuras (demons) churned the ocean under the aegis of Vishnu, to produce the divine elixir of immortality,” ("Angkor and the Khmer Civilization," Thames & Hudson, 2003). Scholars consider this relief to be one of the finest art pieces at Angkor Wat.
Suryavarman’s devotion to Vishnu is also shown in the posthumous name he was given, “Paramavishnuloka” which, according to researcher Hélène Legendre-De Koninck, means “he who is in the supreme abode of Vishnu.” ("Angkor Wat: A Royal Temple," VDG, 2001). Construction techniques
Building Angkor Wat was an enormous undertaking that involved quarrying, careful artistic work and lots of digging. To create the moat around the temple 1.5 million cubic meters (53 million cubic feet) of sand and silt were moved, a task that would have required thousands of people working at one time.
The buildings at Angkor Wat posed their own challenges. To support them a tough material called laterite was used, which in turn was encased with softer sandstone that was used for carving the reliefs. These sandstone blocks were quarried at the Kulen Hills, about 18 miles (30 km) to the north, and were likely transported to the site by river.
Beneath the central tower was a shaft that leads to a chamber where, in 1934, archaeologists found “two pieces of crystal and two gold leaves far beneath where the Vishnu statue must have been,” Coe writes, adding that deposits like these “spiritually ‘energized’ a temple, much as a battery will provide power to a portable electronic device.”
A Ficus strangulosa tree grows over a doorway at Angkor Wat. Credit: David Davis | Shutterstock.com
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Purpose
Although Angkor Wat is dedicated to Vishnu the full purpose of the temple is still debated. One question is whether the ashes of Suryavarman II were interred in the monument, perhaps in the same chamber where the deposits were found. If that were the case it would give the temple a funerary meaning.
Eleanor Mannikka has noted that Angkor Wat is located at 13.41 degrees north in latitude and that the north-south axis of the central tower’s chamber is 13.43 cubits long. This, Mannikka believes, is not an accident. “In the central sanctuary, Vishnu is not only placed at the latitude of Angkor Wat, he is also placed along the axis of the earth,” she writes, pointing out that the Khmer knew the earth was round.
In addition, in her writing, Mannikka notes a dozen lunar alignments with Angkor Wat’s towers, suggesting that it served an important astronomical role. “During the long and clear Cambodian nights, when the stars filled every inch of the black sky, the astronomer-priests stood on the long western causeway ... and recorded the movements of the moon against the towers in the top two galleries of the temple.”
5. Paul Revere played a key role in the creation of early American currency.
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