Fascinating History

Boudicca on her chariot Thirteen feet under the City of London lies a red layer of oxidized iron, mixed with ash and the charred remains of Roman Londinium. This is evidence of Boudicca's revenge on Rome. Boudicca was the wife of King Prasutagus of the Celtic tribe known as the Iceni. Prasutagus, was on good terms with the Roman conquerors but despite that he was worried. He had two daughters and no male heir and felt that he must do his best to ensure the future was good for them. He thought he was being clever when he left half of his kingdom to his daughters and the other half to the Roman Emperor. This, he thought, would appease Rome and ensure his family was left in peace. He was so wrong. In A.D. 60, King Prasutagus died and the Romans confiscated his land and the land of his tribesmen. Suddenly the Iceni were slaves. The Roman procurator Decianus Catus, (the province's CFO in today's terms) was overzealous in his efforts to ingratiate himself with the emperor. He ord...

Bronze bust of Caligula (with a particularly menacing look) Caligula, born in 12 A.D. and Roman emperor from 37 to 41 A.D., being one of the most twisted, weird and utterly psychotic figures in history, was not really known for his sense of humour, even though he might have thought he was the most humorous guy on earth. Suetonius gives as an example of this 'sense of humour': "As an example of his sense of humour, he played a prank on Apelles, the tragic actor, by standing beside a staue of Jupiter and asking: 'Which of us two is greater?' When Apelles hesitated momentarily, [Caligula] had him flogged, commenting on the musical quality of his groans for mercy. He never kissed the neck of his wife or mistress without saying: 'And this beautiful throat will be cut whenever I please'." Such was Caligula's humour. Watching others suffering was fun for him to such an extent that he would order that men were executed in front of him and very close to him...

Seneca was a Roman stoic philosopher and dramatist. He was unfortunate enough to be Nero's tutor and in 65 A.D. Nero forced him to commit suicide, after accusing him of taking part in a conspiracy to assasinate him. Seneca wrote several plays and philosophical essays and was also a prolific letter-writer. One of his most famous essays tackles the shortness of life and argues that "life is long if you know how to use it". This particular essay has been very influential over the centuries, as many consider it to be a source of timeless wisdom. Some interesting excerpts are: "Why do we complain about nature? She has acted kindly: life is long if you know how to use it. But one man is gripped by insatiable greed, another by a laborious dedication to useless tasks...Many are occupied by either pursuing other people's money or complaining about their own...Some have no aims at all for their life's course, but death takes them unawares as tehy yawn languidly - so mu...

Commodus in 'Gladiator' (played by Joaquin Phoenix) Commodus was one of the most sadistic, cruel and self-indulgent Roman emperors. To add to all this, he was also extremely bad at governance, like Caligula and Nero before him. He was widely hated and was strangled by his bath attendant in A.D. 192, contrary to the popular film 'Gladiator' , which shows him dying in the arena (in which he did however fight very often). The story of his conception is perhaps equally as loathsome as his personality and traits. He was the son of the emperor Marcus Aurelius and his wife Faustina. Apparently, one day Faustina saw a gladiator in the arena, who aroused an immense passion in her. She became obsessed. Juvenal tells us: "Faustina, daughter of Antoninus Pius and wife of Marcus Aurelius, having seen the gladiators pass one day, conceived the most violent love for one of them; and this passion having made her ill for a long time, she confessed it to her husband. Chaldeans whom ...

The founder of the Tudor line of British kings was a servant. Yes, this is true. He was Welsh and his name was Owain ap Maredudd ap Tydwr. 'Ap' in Welsh means 'son of', so in English his name translated as Owen, son of Meredith, son of Theodore. Apparently Owen worked as a seravnt in Catherine of France's household, wife to the late Henry V. He used to enjoy bathing skinny-dipping in the Thames and Catherine used to spy on him through the reeds. She was so impressed that she wanted to marry him. Of course all hell broke loose when she made this intention public. An official inquiry was held. However, Catherine stood by Owen through it all and finally in 1432 their marriage was official. His surname Theodore was changed to Tudor and history was made.

We can't tell for certain if Robin Hood, the famous outlaw, really existed or not as all references to him are found in poetry and folk tales. His life, if indeed he lived at all, is shrouded in mystery. we are not sure if he lived in Nottinghamshire or Yorkshire either. The fact is that in Medieval times pretty much everyone was an outlaw at some point in their lives. Contrary to popular belief, forests were not the havens of rebels and free-spirited people. The word 'forest' is a norman word which originaly meant a place which was designated to be the hunting ground for the king. People would have dreaded living near forests, let alone inside one, as there were terrible taxes levied on villages that were close to them. In fact, there is a true story of a village which was near a proposed new forest for the king. The villagers, having found out about this came up with a great plan to discourage the king from wanting to have his forest there. In those days, madness was thou...

Images of Agrippina the Younger In 54 A.D. Nero became emperor of Rome after the death of Claudius, who was thought to have been poisoned by his wife Agrippina, who also happened to be Nero's mother. Nero's real name was Lucius, but his mother decided that Nero Claudius Caesar was more suitable so she got him to change it. Agrippina was always plotting in the background. As a wife of a former emperor and mother to the current one, she saw herself as a new version of Livia. Nero was only a teenager when he came to power, just seventeen years old. Having been under the influence of his mother all his life, he now saw an opportunity to do what he wanted instead. Within the first year of his reign he had made it obvious to her that she was not going to be sharing his power. When an Armenian ambassador visited Rome, Nero did not let Agrippina sit next to him to receive the guest. During the following months, mother and son quarelled openly about his affair with an ex-slave-girl call...

If you sat at a dinner or banquet in Tudor times you would not find a familiar setting. For one thing, you had to bring your own cutlery as this was never provided, even in the richest of households or at Court. Spoons in particular were highly prized items, often silver or gold and considered essential. They were a popular christening gifts, thus we now have the expression "born with a silver spooon in his mouth" . The more expensive the spoon the higher up in society you were, therefore it became a status symbol as well. At the dinner table you would not have had a plate for youself but you would be sharing with up to 4 people from a large dinner plate. The head of the table of course, would only share with one other as he or she (in the case of Queen Elizabeth) were the privilidged ones. As you were sharing with others you were expected to maintain a certain standard of behaviour. For example, you were not allowed to put your bones or discarded food back in the dinn...

Apparently when Henry VIII was young he was a great athlete. He was involved in various sports, amongst which were football. This contrasts markedly with the image we have of him as a fat bloke riddled with gout, which of course describes his later years. When he became king he was only 18 years old. His brother Arthur, who had been the heir to the throne had died several years earlier. He was thus made Prince of Wales and future king and also had to marry his brother's wife, Katharine of Aragon. Henry's marriage to Katharine did not make him very happy as the desired male heir was not forthcoming. Over 10 years she suffered many miscarriages and when a boy was born he only died a few months later. This made Henry extremely depressed. He could not understand why Katharine could not come up with a male child and came to the conclusion that God must be angry with him. He could not think why though until he came across a passage in the Levitikon book of the Bible, which gave him a...

If your idea of a medieval woman was that of a damsel in distress, passively waiting for her brave knight to save her then you are seriously mistaken. The passivity of Medieval women was a Victorian invention. On the contrary, sources of the time tell us of women who are expected to be sexually active and are. Damsels were married women in the service of noblewomen and it was common for them to take lovers. If their husbands expressed any complaints about this they could easily be silenced when the damsel in question would explain to her husband what a brave and famous knight she was bedding. Presumably, even if that did shut him up, it didn't eradicate his resentment. Indeed, being a prude was not valued in the Middle Ages. In one of her letters to Abelard, Heloise declares: "The name of wife may seem more sacred or more worthy, but sweeter to me will always be the word lover or, if you permit me, that of concubine or whore." Another suprising fact of the time was th...

The first bar of chocolate was produced in 1847, even though cocoa had been known to the Europeans since 1502. The first chocolate bars were of dark chocolate and consisted mainly of cocoa solids, which made them rather dry and not very pleasant to eat. All throughout the 1870s, European sales of chocolate were very high. In 1876, a Daniel Peter of Switzerland, invented milk chocolate. He had discovered that adding powdered milk to the chocolate mix made for a wonderfully tasting bar. Until then efforts to add milk in it's liquid form to chocolate, had resulted in the milk going rancid and the consistency of the chocolate not being solid enough. An Englishman called George Page, developed Daniel Peter's work on chocolate even more. However, milk chocolate didn't really become popular until the early 20th century, as people were used to the bitter, intense taste of dark chocolate. By the 1890s chocolate had become a common purchase and the German, British and American soldie...

The laws of England, Scotland and Wales can sometimes be very peculiar, as there are plenty of outdated ones which have not been written off and are technically still applicable. For example, did you know that it is illegal in London to check in to a hotel with a false name specificaly for the purpoose of having sex? Apparently if you get caught you are faced with the once hefty fine of £20! I am sure it is not the fine which would worry most who might get caught nowadays though... ;-) It seems that this is a law which was made with adulterers in mind; after all, why would people use assumed names if thy were not hiding something. Laws targeting adulterers have been many and some are funny,like the above, but others are very unpleasant indeed. In Nottingham, if a married woman seduces the husband of another man and gets found out by the seduced's wife, that lady has the right to monetary compensation from the seducer's husband. This sounds to me to be really unfair, espec...

Ancient bust of Nefertiti and Computer reconstruction of Nefertiti's face from skull Queen Nefertiti of Ancient Egypt, was said to be one of the most beautiful women of her time. Much of the details of her life are shrouded in mystery as are the circumstances of her death and where indeed her mummy was burried. She was the wife of Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, who later on called himself Akhenaten. Her name means "the beautiful one has come", which makes archaeologists wonder whether she had actually come to Egypt from elsewhere and was not Egytian at all. Others say she was the daughter of the nobleman Ay, who later became Pharaoh himself. No matter what her genealogy was, Nefertiti became a legend. When her husband, after 4 years on the throne, decided to start worhiping the Aten a new god whose sympbol was the sun-disk, dismiss all other gods and moved the capital to the middle of the desert, building there a new city called Amarna, that really rubbed the priests of Amon up ...

When we use the term gentleman nowadays what do we really mean? Well, most people using the word are probably thinking of the 19th century concept of the Victorian gentleman. Seeing as not even the Victorians were really sure what constituted a gentleman and what didn't, we cannot really be blamed for not being certain ourselves. There are various views on the definition of the gentleman. Below are the relevant links: The Victorian Gentleman http://www.victorianweb.org/history/Gentleman.html Newman's Gentleman http://www.his.com/~z/gentleman.html Uses of the word and etymology http://www.searchword.org/ge/gentleman.html I leave you to decide...

Valeria Messalina Valeria Messalina was the third wife of the emperor Claudius. She was notorious for being an absolute nymphomaniac. She married Claudius in A.D. 38 and bore him two children; Britannicus and Octavia, who were rumoured to have actually been fathered by Caligula as she was a frequent attendee to his many banquets and orgies... Claudius became emperor in A.D. 41, after Caligula was finally murdered and Messalina, although now empress, did not supress her urges. In fact she became all the more adventurous and behind Claudius's back she had many affairs, many of them at the same time and in the same room. At night she would even dress up as a prostitute and incognito she would trade as a prostitute - such was her insatiable appetite for men. She once challenged the famous Roman prostitute, Scylla, to an all-night sex-athon, whereby the winner was the one who copulated with the most men. Messalina won. She copulated all night and although Scylla gave up at dawn, exhaust...

Why they called it French is because of a notorious outbreak of it in the French army, but you may know that this phrase referes to the dreaded Syphilis. The disease is thought to have reached Europe from America, via Columbus's ships and the first known epidemic struck Italy in the late 1400s. Interestingly enough it has been called the English disesase by the French, Polish by the Russians, and the Christian disease by the tribes of the Arabian lands. Many well known figures in history are said to have suffered from suphilis, most notably Guy de Maupassant, Charles VIII of France, Friedrich Nietzsche, Al Capone, Paul Gaugin and even Adolf Hitler. In its late stages the disease causes dementia, whereby the suffered became insane. Nowadays syphilis is treated with antibiotics but before the Second World War people were very unfortunate indeed if they happened to contract it. It is very much a sexually transmitted disease and therefore when you got it you were instantly stigmat...

Did you know that up until recently mail travelled in tunnels underneath London? Well, I didn't know. Apparently, in 1913 digging started for an underground railway, specifically for the Post Office. The work finished in 1927 and in December of that year the first mail-ridden trains started to run underground. The whole purpose of this sustem was to reduce the number of mail vans in London streets and in that respect it did not fail. The journey started at Paddington, then stopped under a street near Selfridges, then further down Ofxord street, past High Holborn, Bloomsbury, stopping at the biggest Post Office depot in London, Mount Pleasant, under the remains of the Roman wall, past St. Pauls' Cathedral, Liverpool Street station, finally arriving at a post office in Whitechapel Road.. The underground mail tunnel was tiny, only 9 feet in diameter. Bagfuls of mail would be sent down shafts from sorting offices, leading to the Mail Rail platforms. Then the bags were loaded...

In 18th century London you could order your false teeth via post. All you had to do was get a pice of soft wood, bite into it (thus leaving your teeth marks on it) and send this, together with a ribbon which measured your gums, to the person who made the teeth. After a short wait you would receive your new teeth, which cost around £3 and 4 shillings. False teeth in those days were not as reliable as the ones you can get nowadays. The dentures were made of wood. If you were lucky enough to only need the bottom set of teeth then you could look forward to a firly firm set of teeth, with which you could eat with as well. On the other hand, if you required the top part, you could look forward to your teeth sliding out at the most inconvenient and embarassing moments. If you needed the whole lot, both top and bottom, there was a solution to this problem by way of a spring attached to the back, holding top and bottom set together and allowing you to open your mouth. However, once you did...

"Every woman's husband and every man's wife". Thus is Julius Caesar characterized by Curio, according to Suetonius. Julius Caesar was a man of great intensity. He openly enjoyed the "company" of both men and women and there were many scandals to go with this. He never hesitated to "borrow" other noblemen's wives and also "lend" his own wife Pompeia. He was notorious for this and a typical ditty of the time, after his triumph in Gaul, says: "Look to your wives, ye citizens, a lecher bald we bring, In Gaul adultery cost thee gold, here 'tis but borrowing." Yes, he was bald and although this did not deter him from his conquests, it was a source of constant bother to him as he was often ridiculed for his baldness, by his enemies. Actually, with all the "borrowing" he got up to no-wonder he made so many enemies. Amongst the ladies he "borrowed" were Postumia, the wife of Servius Sulipcius, Lollia, the wife...

Necrosis of finger tips caused by septicemic plague When people get to 40 or 50 year old nowadays, we consider them middle-aged. In Elizabethan times you were lucky if you got past the age of 30. The poor however, were not expected to live longer than 20, at the most 25. Thomas Paynel wrote in 1541: "nowadays, alas, if a man may approach to forty of sixty years men repute him happy and fortunate" . Indeed, if you got to live past the age of 40, you were thought to be extremely old, as old as people over 100 seem to us today. Life was short and riddled with suffering. Diseases ran wild and the plague was as much a part of everyday life as having a cold is today. In Elizabethan times a plague epidemic occured roughly every four years. It was something you knew would come but you didn't know exactly when and where it would strike. Laws in 1568 decreed that an affected person's house had to be shut up for a minimum of twenty days, all windows and doors boarded up and nobo...

AMANUENSIS, or AD MANUM SERVUS, a slave, or freedman, whose office it was to write letters and other things under his master's direction. The amanuensis must not be confounded with another sort of slaves, also called ad manum servi, who were always kept ready to be employed in any business. Not much seems to have changed since then for secretaries. They are expected to work long hours, do work which is outside of theri job description, write letters for the boss and generally do any kind of shitty work without complaining. For if you complain you are not 'flexible' or you do not have the 'team spirit' and are therefore not fit to be employed. It seems that a secretary, especially in an investment bank, is viewed as a brainless, inannimate object, someone to do all the donkey-work while at the same time maintaining a smile on her face (I say 'her' because unfortunately secretaries are always female, which also points to teh fact that we still live in a pa...

Seneca Seneca did not choose wisely when he decided to live above the public baths. By the time he had realised how annoying this could be it was too late, because he had moved in, and the best he could do to vent his frustations was to write about them. I find the following passage very amusing... "I live over a bathing establishment. Picture to yourself now the assortment of voices, the sound of which is enough to sicken one... When the stronger fellows are exercising and swinging heave leaden weights in their hands, when they are working hard or pretending to be working hard, I hear their hissing and jarring breathing. When I have to do with a lazy fellow who is content with a cheap rubdown, I hear the slap of the hand pummelling his shoulders, changing its sound according as teh hand is laid flat or curved. If now a professional ball player comes along and begins to keep score, I am done for. Add to this the arrest of a brawler or a thief, and the fellow who always likes to he...

Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (b. A.D. 12, d. A.D. 41) became emperor in A.D 37. His was one of the most notorius and yet poorly documented reigns. As a boy he was nicknamed Caligula, which means 'Little Boots', by the men in the army, as he went about dressed in a soldier's uniform with matching miniature boots. He was said to be extremely cruel and his characyer appears to be that of a true psychopath. He had people executed for practicaly next to nothing, confiscated people's wealth for himself, imposed outrageously silly laws, had incestuous relations with his sisters, etc. Whatever nasty thing you can imagine, Caligula probably did it. Suetonius provides us with plenty of gossip about Caligula, and a very intriguing paragraph on his sex life: "He had not the slightest regard for chastity, either his own or others', and was accused of homosexual relations, both active and passive, with Marcus Lepidus, also Mnester the comedian, and various foreign hosta...

Dover Castle, Kent, constructed in the 1180s The lords and ladies living in the stone castles of the 13th century were a lot cleaner than their Elizabethan counterparts. For one thing, they washed themselves, all over. In fact they used soap, which was then made by boiling mutton fat with ash and caustic soda. They used a special twig to brush their teeth with. As soon as they had attended to their cleanliness (well, they actually had servants to do the attending part for them), they would go about getting dressed. Men and women wore similar clothes; there were stockings of wool or silk to put on, a shirt with long detachable sleeves, which incidentally had to be stitched on every time the shirt was worn. Once this tedious task had finished, a gown had to be worn over all this and secured with a brooch. Unlike the men, the ladies wore a tight bodice over their gowns. If they were going out and it was cold they would wear a coat, which was very roomy and if the weather was really threat...

Woad leaves Before Indigo was imported from the East in the 16th Century, the only source of rich blue dye was Woad, Isatis Tinctoria, a plant which is a member of the cabbage family and which was brought to Britain by the Celts. They called it Glasto, hence Glastonbury, which means ‘a place where woad grows’. The process by which the dye was extracted was lengthy and very smelly indeed, (think combination of raw sewage and rotten cabbage) and the people who did this work, woad dyers, were outcasts of society, since they smelt so much. As a result they were isolated and inbred. There was no way of hiding if you were a woad dyer as even if you washed yourself really well to remove the stench, the blue dye could be seen on your fingers and under your fingernails. Queen Elizabeth I, not being able to stand the stench from their workshops, decreed that woad dyers should be at least 5 miles away from wherever she was staying. As it took 50 kilos of woad in order to produce 5 kilos of pigme...

Everyone knows how extravagant and decadent Roman banquets could be. There were multiple courses and loads of wine to be consumed and the feasting lasted all night. But how did these people manage to eat non-stop for so long? Well, according to Seneca, the Romans vomited so they could eat and they ate so they could vomit. Apparently, according to Cicero, Julius Caesar escaped an assassination attempt because he felt like vomiting after dinner. Instead of going to the latrine to do the deed, where his assassins were waiting in anticipation of this, he decided to vomit in his bedroom (yuk!) and so missed getting bumped off on that occasion... However, most Romans didn't feel it was necessary to leave the dining room in order to vomit. For this reason, they usually had bowls lying around, especially for this purpose, but other times they would just bend over and puke all over the floor. Who would think that there was a slave whose 'job description' was to crawl around ...

Have you ever wondered why some churches have such lovely porches? It's almost as if they were made for people to stand under. Well, you wouldn't be far from the truth on that assumption. In the 1200s weddings did not take place inside the church but at the church door, hence the lovely porches so the people attending the wedding could shelter if it rained. So, at the door of the churh, the happy groom would give his wife to be something symbolic, such as a knife. At the end of this doorstep ceremony, the couple were pronounced man and wife and were free to proceed into the church, prostrate themselves at the altar, followed by the wedding party, and hear mass. While prostrated, the altar cloth would be held over the newlyweds. At the point when they received communion, the husband would give the priest a kiss, the kiss of peace , and only after that would he give his glowing bride a kiss. (Note the bride did not have to kiss the priest). According to the Church in those...

Maybe people who saw the film "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" will know the story of Eloise and Abelard, whose love affair in the late middle ages was as tragic as it was passionate. The title of the film comes from a poem by Alexander Pope, entitled "Eloise to Abelard" . Eloise was an extremely clever young woman of 18 when she met Peter Abelard, who was 51. Abelard was a philosopher and priest and Eloise's uncle had arranged for him to be her tutor. From the moment the two met they fell madly in love. They secretly got married and managed to keep their secret very well until Eloise got pregnant and her uncle found out. Furious at this, Eloise's uncle had Abelard hunted down and castrated. After this the two lovers were not allowed to meet again. Eloise was sent off to be a nun and Abelard, who had now lost his official position in the church, was forced to retire in a monastery. They exchanged letters for the rest of their lives, but never met aga...

Vespasian was born Titus Flavius Vespasianus on 17th November of A.D. 9. He was a practical leader who gave Rome some much needed stability. His father was a banker and was often away froim home on business, taking Vespasian's mother with him as well. As a result of this he was pretty much brought up by his grandmother, Tertulla. As soon as he was legally of age and had received the toga virilis Vespasian embarked on his career, occupying various positions in public office. Around this time he married Flavia Domitilla, an ex mistress of an African knight. The marriage went well and they had three children together, out of which two, Titus and Domitian were to be future Emperors. However, before he had got married, Vespasian had started a passionate affair with a young freedwoman (ex-slave) by the name of Antonia Caenis. She had been secretary to Antonia, the mother of the Emperor Claudius and that must have been how they met. Now, there is no evidence that he and Caenis carried on...

In Anglo-Saxon England, around the year 1000 A.D., fleas were as much a problem as they had ever been. There were various suggestions on how to get rid of them, of which some of the most amusing were to lock the flea-ridden clothes of the person inside a chest or to put sheepskins around the infested bed. The fleas would hopefully jump onto the whitish sheepskin and thus allow the tormented person to squish them to death. As with the Elizabethans, the anglo-Saxons didn't really believe in washing their bodies much. In fact, monks were said to have a maximum of five baths a year, and that was considered to be overdoing it. It appears that at least one commentator of the time may have cottoned on to something when he observed that the Danish habit of bathing and combing the hair every Saturday seemed to score the Danish men points with the women. Of course, there was no concept of hygiene as we know it. A document of the time advises that if some food fell off your plate by accident,...

People in the past didn't wash very much. In fact, they hardly washed at all. A book from 1547 tells us all about the process of getting up in the morning : "When you be out of your bed stretch forth your legs and arms and your body, cough and spit, and then go to your stool...after you have evacuated your body and trussed your points combe your head...and wash your hands and wrists, your face and eyes and your teeth with cold water". Note that there is no mention of washing the body, even the point of evacuation. Deodorants seem to have been used though, as if that would solve the problem of a smelling body! The roote of fleur de lys, "taketh away the strong savour coming from the armholes". Queen Elizabeth took around portable lavatories with her, called 'close stools', when she went for visits to the countryside. These would be conveniently placed in a carriage specially provided for her. In 1565 she ordered "four close stools covered w...

The Roman Emperor Vitellius (69 A.D.) was best known for his gluttony. His reign was incredibly short-lived as it lasted for little over a year. He was born Aulus Vitellius, in 15 A.D, to Lucius Vitellius, one of the most succesful public figures of the time, and Sestilia. According to Suetonius, his horoscope was omminus and this terrified his parents, who said they would do their best to keep their son away from public office. However, they did not succeed in their intent. Young Vitellius spent his early youth in Capri, in the company of Tiberius's homosexual prostitutes and it is said that he got his father a big promotion by being very "nice" to the Emperor. Through flattery, cunning and manipulation, Vitellius managed to work his way up the Imperial ladder and held a variety of positions in public office. His first wife was a woman called Petroniana, and he had a son with her, who was allegedly born blind in one eye. It is said that Vitellius killed the boy shortly a...

Cess-pits existed in London for many centuries, from medieval times onwards. Thankfuly they do not exist now. A cess-pit was a chamber in which sewage from each individual house was 'stored' until it was emptied. This task was for the so called 'night-soil men' to do. As disgusting as this job was, it could also be dangerous, as when in 1326 a certain Richard the Raker fell into his cess-pit and drowned "monstrously in his own excrement" while he was attempting to empty it. By the 16th century a new cess-pit related job was invented, that of the 'saltpetre man'. These men extracted nitrates from excrement, so it could be used to make gunpowder. Saltpetre men had a licence from the king to enter into anyone's house at any time and remove the sewage-ridden earth of the cess-pit. In October 1660, Samuel Pepys records in his diary: "Going down to my cellar...I put my feet into a great heap of turds, by which I find that Mr. Turner's house of ...

Julius Caesar In 54 B.C Julius Caesar invaded Britain for a second time. He had invaded the year before but had been forced to withdraw. Problems in Gaul however forced him to retreat again. Britain was finally colonized by the Romans in A.D 43 under the reign of Claudius. Despite all these ups and downs though, Julius Caesar managed to make some interesting observations on how the locals lived. Here is what he had to say about their appearance, clothing and familly bliss: "Most of the tribes in the interior do not grow corn but live on milk and meat and wear skins. All the Britons dye their bodies with woad, which produces a blue colour, and this gives them a more terrifying appearance in battle. They wear their hair long and shave the whole of their bodies, except the head and the upper lip. Wives are shared between groups of ten or twelve men, especially between brothers and between fathers and sons, but the offspring of these unions are counted as the children of the man with ...

Theodora (mosaic from Ravenna, Italy) Theodora was the daughter of a Byzantine bear-tamer at the Hippodrome (the Byzantine version of the Roman arena). Her father died when she was little, leaving behind a wife, Theodora and her two sisters Comito and Anastasia. The widow re-married but things did not improve for them financialy. As soon as the girls were old enough she put her daughters on the stage, which in those days was a profession which inevitably led to prostitution. The eldest, Comito was already an accomplished courtesan by the time Theodora started to assist her. It was not too long until she too became a prostitute. She was infimous. As she could not play any musical instruments or dance, according to Procopius, she "merely sold her attractions to anyone who came along, putting her whole body at his disposal" . She would also perform outrageous acts on stage, which only added to her notoriety. She was said to be given to "unlimited self-indulgence. Often she ...