Fascinating History

A bucket of scrolls Printing did not exist in the ancient world so books were all hadwritten. There was no such thing as paper made of wood pulp either, so papyrus was used, a sheet made of processed papyrus reeds which grew in the Nile region of Egypt. Papyrus was indeed one of Egypt's most important exports. Papyrus was expensive and it came in several gradings according to quality. A encyclopaedia from around 70 A.D. lists these as: Grade 1: the Emperor Augustus's own, the finest of all, favoured above all for letter-writing (these were 13-inch sheets) Grade 2: His wife Livia's own (also 13 inches) Grade 3: priestly, reserved for Egyptian sacred texts (10-inch sheets) Grade 4: amphitheatre papyrus, amde at Rome in Fannius' workshop under the amphitheatre and extremely thin (9-inch sheets) Grade 5: Saite, named after an Egyptian town with low quality papyrus beds (less than 9 inches) Grade 6: Taeneotic, named after another Egyptian town, sold by weight, not quality Gr

"Do not waste what remains of your life in speculating about your neighbours, unless with a view to some mutual benefit. To wonder what so-and-so is doing and why, or what he is saying, or thinking, or scheming...means a loss of opportunity for some other task."

Augustus (aka Octavian) Suetonius describes what Augustus looked like: "Augustus was remarkably handsome and of very graceful gait even as an old man;but negligent of his personal appearance...body and limbs so beautifully proportioned..." And he always had bad hair days? "He cared so little about his hair that, to save time, he would have two or three barbers working hurriedly on it together and meanwhile read or write something..." His countenance apparently had mysterious powers... "He always wore so serene an expression, whether talking or in repose, that a Gallic chief once confessed to his compatriots: 'When granted an audience with the Emperor during his passage across the Alps I would have carried out my plan of hurling him over a cliff had not the sight of that tranquil face softened my heart; so I desisted.' " And his eyes.. "Augustus's eyes were clear and bright and he liked to believe that they shone with a sort of divine radia

Jane Austen It is probably surprising to hear that career women existed in 18th century London. In fact, they dominated the business of clothes (the rag trade, as we would call it), they ran schools, they were dentists and silversmiths, wrote novels (think of Jane Austen) and books on being a good housewife. There were also some women who took to highway robbery. An account from 1763 tells of how a gentleman and his wife were ambushed on Harrow Road. One of them "insisted the gentleman should do her a favour under a thick hedge" . The highway-woman's partner apparently got jealous and took the gentleman's wife under the other hedge for similar purposes. While the highway-woman was being 'entertained' by her captive, she heard the ticking of his watch and demanded that he surrender that to her as well, which he did "with some reluctance" .

Beef was the preferred meat in Restoration London - at least if you could afford it. The French Henri Misson, visiting England at the time, wrote: "I always heard they were great fresh eaters and I found it true. I have known several people in England that never eat any bread and universally they eat very little: they nibble a few crumbs, while they chew the meat by whole mouthfuls. Generally speaking, the English tables are not delicately served... [they will have] a piece of roast beef; another time they will have a piece of boiled beef and then they salt it some days beforehand and besiege it with five or six heaps of cabbage, carrots, turnips, or some other herbs or roots, well peppered and salted and swimming in butter." Sunday was of course the day when it was "...common practice to have a huge piece of roast beef of which they stuff till they can swallow no more and eat the rest cold, without any other victuals, the other six days of the week." Of course buc

Henry VIII - excessive masticator No, before you even think of it, this has nothing to do with spitting. Meat was the main part of an aristocrat's diet in Tudor times. In Henry VIII's time, at Hampton Court Palace, there were about 1,000 servants or more, depending on the times of year (there were more in the winter). There was a strict hierarchy amongst the servants and so even kitchen staff were divided into ranks. Around two-hundred or so people worked in the palace kitchen. At the very bottom of the kitchen staff hierarchy were the so called 'Spit Boys'. Their job was to turn the enormous iron spits used to roast the large quantities of meat. Their job was arduous and painful as they had to do this for hours on end. The spits were over big open fires which emanated alot of heat. These guys were not boys though, as the sheer size and weight of the loaded spits meant that no mere 'boy' could do this. The term 'boy' was used in a derogatory way. The spi

Samuel Pepys There was no abundance of pornography in Samuel Pepys' London. If you wanted a porno book you had a long search to look forward to and when you eventually found it the likelihood would be that it was in French. Worse still, nine times out of ten it would not be illustrated. Only Aretino's Postures (the title says it all really) was equiped with explicit illustrations, although the British Library copy has had these omitted... One of the most famous books of this kind was the L'Ecole des Filles which described all kinds of situations, whereas the Dialogue Betwwen Tullia and Octavia took the reader further, into the world of s&m, group sex and other such practices. Rare Verities even went so far as to describe acts of bestiality. Samuel Pepys, not a man to shy away from the pleasures of the flesh, one day went into his bookseller's shop, where he saw a copy of L'Ecole des Filles : "...I saw the French book which I did think to have had for my w

Abelard and Heloise Most have heard of the tragic love story of Heloise and Abelard - (if not then please see my post in the May archives, dated May 6th). Heloise was unusually educated for a seventeen-year-old girl in the 12th century AD. Her favourite topic was philosophy. After she and Abelard had falled in love, she exchanged numerous letters with him on the nature of love, lost and the meaning of marriage (he wanted to marry her but she did not). Heloise was strongly opposed to the institution of marriage, arguing of "...the basic impossibility of combining marriage and scholarship..." . Heloise was greatly influenced by her Classical studies and she often expressed her disdain for the idea of a woman giving up her independence in order to enter into a profitable marriage. She wrote: "God is my witness that if Augustus, Emperor of the whole world, thought fit to honour me with marriage and conferred all the earth on me to possess for ever, it would be dearer and mor

Tiberius Suetonius has alot to tell us of Tiberius's sexual appetites. (The faint-hearted and sensitive should not read on). "On retiring to Capri he devised a pleasance for his secret orgies: teams of wantons of both sexes, selected as experts in deviant intercourse and dubbed analists, copulated before him in triple unions to excite his flagging passions. Its bedrooms were furnished with the most salacious paintings and sculptures, as well as with an erotic library, in case a performer should need an illustration of what was required. Then in Capri's woods and groves he arranged a number of nooks of venery where boys and girls got up as Pans and nymphs solicited outside bowers and grottoes: people openly called this "the old goat's garden," punning on the island's name. He acquired a reputation for still grosser depravities that one can hardly bear to tell or be told, let alone believe. For example, he trained little boys (whom he termed tiddlers) to cr

I think the following website pretty much says it all on the subject. :-) http://www.roman-empire.net/society/soc-dress.html

Tiberius Claudius Nero was nothing like his suspicious, tyrannical son. Born in 85 B.C. he was a member of the Claudian family. He was a supporter of Julius Caesar and after he had served as quaestor, Caesar sent him to command his fleet in the Alexandrian War. Tiberius did very well and the battle was won so when he came back home to Rome, Caesar made him a priest (do not think of Christian-style priests, this is more of a political position) and then sent him off to set up colonies in the Roman provinces, mainly Gaul. After Julius Caesar was assassinated, Tiberius called an amnesty in order to stop senators quarelling with each other and was later made praetor. As a supporter of Julius Caesar, he was on Mark Anthony's side and not Octavian's. His dislike for Octavian was about to get worse though. In either 43 or 42 B.C. Tiberius married Livia who was also his cousin (this may explain why Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero were all rather unhinged, so to speak, as the

1963 was a year of scandal for British politics. The Profumo case nearly brought the government down and as if that wasn't enough, Duncan Sandys, the son-in-law of Winston Churchill announced that he was going to resign because of some nasty rumours that had been spread about him. What where these rumours about? Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, was the daughter of a Scottish millionaire. She was brought up in lavish surroundings and had all that she asked for. In the inter-war years she married a wealthy American stockbroker and several years later, during the war, she stepped into an empty lift shaft and suffered horrible injuries. Amazingly she recovered and was able to walk again. However, it was said that her personality had acquired a new trait; she had become utterly promiscuous. Her appetite was said to be insatiable. In 1947 she got a divorce. Shortly afterwars, she met Ian Campbell, the future Duke of Argyll. Margaret wanted a title and Ian needed her cash. The result was thei

Claudius "Most people think that Claudius was poisoned; but when and by whom is disputed. Some say that the eunuch Halotus, his official taster, administered the drug while he was dining with the priests in the Citadel; others that Agrippina did so herself at a family banquet, poisoning a dish of mushrooms, his favourite food. An equal dicrepancy exists between teh accounts of what happened next. According to many, he lost his power of speech, suffered frightful pain all night long, and died shortly before dawn. A variant version is that he fell into a coma but vomited up the entire contents of his overloaded stomach and was then poisoned a second time, either by a gruel - the excuse being that he needed food to revive him - or by means of an enema, the excuse being that his bowels required relief and must be emptied too."

Claudius "Most people think that Claudius was poisoned; but when and by whom is disputed. Some say that the eunuch Halotus, his official taster, administered the drug while he was dining with the priests in the Citadel; others that Agrippina did so herself at a family banquet, poisoning a dish of mushrooms, his favourite food. An equal dicrepancy exists between teh accounts of what happened next. According to many, he lost his power of speech, suffered frightful pain all night long, and died shortly before dawn. A variant version is that he fell into a coma but vomited up the entire contents of his overloaded stomach and was then poisoned a second time, either by a gruel - the excuse being that he needed food to revive him - or by means of an enema, the excuse being that his bowels required relief and must be emptied too."

A decree issued by Queen Elizabeth I in 1597 details what people should and should not wear. The decree is very elaborate. For men: "Her Majesty doth straightly charge and command that none shall wear in his apparel cloth of gold or silver tissued, silk of colour purple, under the decree of an Earl, except Knights of the Garter in their purple robes only. None shall wear cloth of gold or silver, tinselled satin, silk or cloth mixed or embroidered with gold or silver, woollen cloth made out of the realm under the degree of a baron, except Knights of the Garter, Privy Counsellors to the Queen's Majesty." As for women, Elizabeth felt that only countesses could wear cloth of gold or silver tissued, or purple silk, except viscountesses who were allowed to wear cloth of gold or silver tissued in their kirtles only . Every rank had its own particular way of dressing, textiles that only they could wear. The poor wore coarse woollen garments...

To all London readers, I hope you, your family, friends and colleagues are all ok on this terrible day. Please take care! A.

George IV was the son of the notorious King George III. Instead of developing a reputation for being well and truly mad like his father, George junior became known as a great ladies man and bon viveur. George loved to indulge and he did so often. Throughout his life he had a series of mistresses, the first of which was Mary Robinson when he was 18 years-old in 1780. She was an actress and said to be extremely witty with very long dark hair. He saw her in a performance at the Drury Lane Theatre and started sending her expensive gifts. As the affair progressed he decided to write her a bond for 20,000 guineas, which was a lot of money in those days. However, when the affair was over the Prince took the bond back and instead gave her an annuity of 500 pounds per annum. Next on his list was Mrs Grace Dalrymple Eliot. She had married a man 20 years her senior, a doctor for the aristocracy. This gave her entry to London's high society circles where she met the Prince as well as other men

Josephine The story of Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine de Beauharnais has got to be one of the most passionate and stormy love affairs in history. Josephine's husband had been executed at the guillotine during the Terror in Paris in 1794. As a widow however, she did not remain idle for long and became mistress to several prominent politicians of the time. In 1795 she started a relationship with Napoleon, who was 6 years younger than her and married him in March of the following year after an intense an all-consuming love affair. In 1810, after years of failing ot produce an heir for him they both agreed to divorce. The intensity of their relationship comes across very strongly in Napoleon's letters to her, an example of which is the below: "Dec. 29, 1795 I awake all filled with you. Your image and the intoxicating pleasures of last night, allow my senses no rest. Sweet and matchless Josephine, how strangely you work upon my heart. Are you angry with me? Are you unhappy? A

The Roman Emperor Hadrian (A.D. 117 - 138) loved to travel. In fact he spent most of his reign travelling through his provinces and has the honour of being the only ruler to have ruled over most of the European mainland, North Africa until the end of the Sahara, the Middle East and Britain and to have actually been to these places. Wherever Hadrian travelled to, as well as having a huge entourage to go with him (his wife, familly, friends, staff, slaves, etc.), he was followed by a large number of petitioners, hoping to present him with their issue. There is a tale of a woman who comfronted Hardian while he was on horseback and asked him to listen to her plight. When he told her he had no time, she replied that he might as well not be the emperor, at which point Hardian decided to listen to her and got off his horse. In Cassius Dio's words: 'Once, when a woman made a request of him as he passed by on a journey, he at first said to her, "I haven't time," but afterw

Elizabethan food had little if any resemblance to contemporary English dishes. Recipes of the day added sugar, honey and fruit like oranges, prunes and dates to meat. A rabbit for example was stuffed with pepper and currants and then boiled in mutton broth. A recipe for capon (castrated rooster) included sugar, nutmeg and almonds and was served with prunes. One could also boil a capon in a broth of eight oranges, sugar, cloves, mace, cinnamon and nutmeg. The brains of capons were also utilised to make brain pies. Sheep’s head was a delicacy. Instead of a baking tin, Elizabethan cooks used a tray made of hard pastry, which was unnervingly called a ‘coffin’. Coffins were not made to be eaten of course. Fish was either poached or fried in butter, while the poor ate dried salted cod. Salmon, turbot and eel were all poached in ale. Strawberries were soaked in red wine with sugar, cinnamon and ginger and cherries would be served with mustard. A recipe for pie goes like this: “To make a pie o

Everyone has probably heard of Lady Godiva riding naked through the streets of Coventry 900 years ago. Godiva was married to Leofric, Earl of Mercer and Lord of Coventry. The notorious ride has been lost between myth and reality and we do not have any concrete evidence that it really too place at all. Roger of Wendover in 1057 writes of Godiva begging her husband to lessen the tax burden he had imposed on the people of Coventry. After having been nagged for some time about this, Leofric told her he would do as she wanted but under one condition: She would have to ride through town completely naked. The story goes that she accepted this and after ordering the people to stay indoors and shut their windows and doors (windows in Anglo-Saxon England were not made of glass and were more similar to shutters), she loowened her extremely long hair, had it cover her as a cloak and mounted her horse. The people apparently obeyed her orders and did not peep as she rode through the streets, except

Murad IV We may well have warnings of the risks associated with smoking, on packets of cigarettes nowadays, but in 17th century Turkey things were a bit more serious. Sultan Murad IV was so opposed to his subjects smoking that he issued a decree stating that anyone found smoking would be killed and their corpse left to rot, at the spot where they were executed, even if that was a coffee shop, a street or home. Naturally this was a very effective deterrant. However, Sultan Murad was not your average guy and many things as well as smoking irritated him to the point of warranting the death penalty. Like his predecessors he was rather mad and also an alcoholic. He could often be seen running through the streets at night, drunk, while simultaneously killing any unfortunate passer-by with his sword (they obviously irritated him by being there...). His favourite sport was to shoot arrows and bullets at the women of his harem and occasionaly ordered that many of them be drowned in front of him

"Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed. This mortal life is a little thing, lived in a little corner of the earth..." "To live each day as though one's last, never flustered, never apathetic, never attitudinizing - here is the perfection of character." "All things are in process of change. You yourself are ceaselessly undergoing transformation and the decay of some of your parts and so is the whole universe." "If he sinned, the harm is his own. Yet perhaps, after all, he did not!"

When the emperor Caracalla was murdered in 217, the fourteen-year-old Elagabalus succeeded him. He only ruled for 4 years, but in that short period of time he commited a variety of grotesque and debauched acts, enough to make Caligula and Commodus seem rather plain. His real name was Bassianus but as he developed an intense interest in worshippng the Syrian god Elagabal, became High Priest of the cult and so had his name changed to Elagabalus. To honor his god, he demanded that hundereds of cattle were slaughtered daily on huge sacrificial altars. He had a temple built on the Palatine Hill and ordered the Romans to worship a statue of a giant phallus, which didn't go down very well at all... Eventually he decided he was the god embodied. He started to wear women's clothes and make-up, implored his surgeons to cut his penis off and make him a vagina and when they said tehy could not do this he settled for circumcision. His body is said to have been very effeminate and he had a m

Catherine the Great was empress of Russia from 1762 until she died in 1796. She was born in 1729 in Poland and in 1744 was taken to Russia to marry the young Grand Duke Peter, heir to the throne and not of a sane mind. For seven years during their marriage Peter spent his time playing with toy soldiers and dogs and showed no interest in sex. In fact he had a physical disability, a very tight foreskin, which may have played an important part in that matter. Finally the empress Elizabeth gave Catherine the permission to take a lover, which she did and was soon pregnant. She convinced Peter it was his own child, as was the plan anyway. In the meantime he had been circumcised so that he could perform the sexual act. Catherine developed a taste for young soldiers. She had a special area built in her bedroom, which was curtained off and where she received her lovers. Gregory Orlov was her on and off lover for around thirteen years. He was said to possess excellent equipment, unbelievable ‘st

As a young man Augustus was accused of various improprieties. For instance, Sextus Pompey jeered at his effeminacy; Mark Antony alleged that Julius Caesar made him submit to unnatural relations as the price of adoption; Antony’s brother Lucius added that after sacrificing his virtue to Caesar, Augustus had sold his favours to Aulus Hirtius in Spain, for 3,000 gold pieces and that he used to soften the hair in his legs by singeing them with red-hot walnut shells. Not even his friends could deny that he often commited adultery, though of course they said, in justification, that he did so for reasons of state, not simply passion – he wanted to discover what his enemies were at by getting intimate with their wives or daughters. Mark antonym accused him not only of indecent haste in marrying Livia, but of hauling an ex-consul’s wife from her husband’s dining room into the bedroom – before his eyes too! He brought the woman back, says Antony, blushing to the ears and with her hair in disorde

Octavian, or Augustus, as he is better known, was the first emperor of Rome. He was the adopted son of Julius Caesar, not because he didn't have a father already, but because Caesar took a liking to him and also left him two thirds of his estate. Octavian was born Gaius Octavius on 23d September 63 B.C. He was shrewd, astute and took a while to make up his mind about what to do, but once he made a decision there was no going back. He was only 18 when Julius Caesar was assassinated and by the age of 38 he was emperor. He was said to be extremely good-looking, with clear blue piercing eyes, he delighted when he starred young ladies out and they averted his gaze by looking to the floor, as if they were overpowered by him. Despite his stern reputation, he had several mistresses whose company he enjoyed immensely. However, there was only one woman Octavian is thought to have really loved and that was Livia. Livia was only 19 when Octavian practically abducted her from her husband Nero (

An actor performs in the modern Globe on the Bankside . Actors weren't always the softies they are now reputed to be. For instance, on a freezing, snowy December night in 1598, a troupe of them turned up at a recently vacated theatre in Shoreditch, armed with "swords, daggers, bills, axes and such like" as one contemporary account described it. The weather's contumely was such that the Thames had frozen over. Yet, with the aid of lanterns, this company of actors surrounded the area with guards and tore down the entire theatre in one evening. As the penumbra receded in the dawn hours, they began to load the stripped timber onto wagons, which they used to transport the timber to Southwark. Before getting into the reasons for this apparent lunacy, it bears remarking that the actors could do this because a) there was no regular police force in London at the time, and b) they were all trained in the use of weapons, as actors were obliged to be in the days before stuntm

It has been estimated that out of every one-hundered babies born alive, seventy would only live until their 1st birthday, while less than half lived past their 5th year. The mortality rate was extremely high and childhood was therefore very brief. As soon as a child was able to walk and mutter a few words, it was taught 'good manners'. The ideal child was seen and not heard, rising from their seats whenever their parents entered the room and addressing them as 'Sir' and 'Madam'. They would have to ask their parents for their blessing upon awaking in the morning as well as before bedtime. From the very begining, children were taught the importance of behaving in a humble and passive fashion towards their elders or betters (people higher up on the social scale, but not necessarily 'better' than them in modern terms). Men wore their hats almost all the time, even indoors, so special rules had to be invented to tell them when they should take them off. For e

We don't tend to associate early modern England with slavery but the fact is that slaves were very much a part of everyday life. In the 15th century, the Portugese had started using the west coast of Africa as a source for slaves and the English were soon to follow suit. By 1596 slave labour had become so popular in England, that Elizabeth I, on the basis that slavery was upsetting the labour market, decided all African slaves should be "sent forth of the land" to Spain or Portugal. By the 17th century though, many owners of colonial sugar plantations in Jamaica were bringing a few of their slaves with them back to London. The slaves were often stolen or they ran away. Therefore it would not be unusual to see an advert like this: "Lost or absented, a little negro boy of about 13 years of age in a grey livery with black and pink lace and a small cross in his forehead. He speaks Spanish and English indifferently well..." We can assume with a high level of certai

The streets of Rome were incredibly noisy all day. They were crowded with people and animals and ere not very clean either, in fact in modern terms we would be accurate if we said that they were filthy. Rome was full of people from all over the empire, most of them there to find their fortune and many had lost alot in the process or ended up as slaves. The majority of the people lived in high rise tenement flats (up to 6 stories high) which were usually very badly built. The buildings were almost entirely made of wood as well, which meant that they were extremely susceptible to fire. It was not unusual to see buildings like this collapse all of a sudden. Landlords would allow bad workmanship and would use cheap materials, as they could make alot of money by the whoel process of re-building. Most landlords were so corrupt like this and would also employ thugs which they would send to beat up unfortunate tenants who had not paid their rent. There were pleanty of baths to go to and it was

Gaius Julius Caesar was born on the13th of July 100 B.C to a well known patrician family. He was brought up in the Subura, one of the poor districts of Rome. There he learnt to mix with people of all classes and to speak Hebrew and Gallic dialects. Although his family were of a distinguished line, they were not rich. He was very close to his mother Aurelia. In 85 B.C. when he was only 15, his father died in Pisa, while on military duty. He was an epileptic and would often have seizures at awkward moments. He was extremely clever. As a young man, he left Rome to do his military service in Asia and Cilicia. During the battle of Miletus he showed great bravery and saved the lives of many legionaries, which led him to be awarded the corona civica (oak crown). This was the highest honour that could be awarded to a non-commander; when in public people would have had to stand up and applaud him. In 78 B.C. Caesar began his political career as an advocate in the Forum. He became notorious for

Commodus Commodus was the only surviving son of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. As emperor, he proved to be everything his father was not, maiking many enemies amongst the people and especially the senate. He was born in Lanuvium in A.D. 161 and there were rumours going around at the time, that he was in fact the product of his mother's passionate affair with a gladiator. As a child Commodus was fairly good natured, but as an adult he was anything but, which was good enough reason for many to suspect that Marcus Aurelius was not his real father. Despite all that, Marcus Aurelius raised Commodus as a future emperor, and in A.D.177, when the boy was only 16, he made him joint ruler, which shows he had lots of faith in him. When his father died in A.D. 180, near the Danube, Commodus became emperor. He was not interested in pursuing his father's plans of expansionism and not being particularly inclined towards the military lifestyel, he returned to Rome swiftly, leaving the campaign a

Templar knights In the early 12th century, nine French knights got together and dedicated themselves to protecting pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem. Because their weapons were stored in a building that was given to them by the monastery which stood on the site of the Temple of Solomon, they were called Templars. Within two-hundred years, the Templars had amassed enormous wealth via their activities and had made enemies in the Church. They styled themselves as the protectors of Christianity, but many accused them of being a law unto themselves. In 1208 Pope Innocent criticised them heavily. He was later followed by Henry III of England, who even went as far as to threaten them. In the meantime, the French King Phillip, spread rumours that the Templars were plotting to overthrow the Pope. Worse still, a Templar by the name of Squin de Flexian, after being expelled by the Order, accused them of being heretics and put together a long list of charges against them. Trouble was now looming

You wouldn't think there would have been much grave robbing going on in London during the 1700s but there was. Corpses were frequently 'stolen' from graves for educational purposes, for the would-be surgeons' anatomy lessons. There is a gruesome story of the body of a lady's husband having been found in the surgeon's house, soon after it was burried. Apparently, after having obtained a search warrant, she found worse than what she expected. She looked inside a big pot "which was almost full of boiling water...she took a stick and stirred it when to her great surprise she saw the head and part of the body of her husband" . I really don't know what was going on there but it does not sound like anatomy... Two men who stole a baby's body from a cemetary were sentenced to a public whipping and a year in prison. There is also a story of a gang of three who stole lead coffins to melt the lead and sell it.

I am not sure if I should be telling you all not to try this at home. Our detailed accounts of what ancient Romans ate and how they ate it come from a man called Apicius, who wrote a famous cookbook. Here is one of his recipies: Put in a mortar pepper, lovage and origan; pound, moisten with sauce, add cooked brains, pound thoroughly to dissolve lumps. Add five eggs and beat well to work all into a smooth paste. Blend with sauce, place in a metal pan and cook. When it is cooked turn out on a clean board and dice. Put in the mortar pepper, lovage and origan; pound, mix together; pour in sauce and wine, put in saucepan and bring to boil. When boiling crumble in pastry to thicken, stir vigorously and pour in the serving dish over the diced rissoles; sprinkle with pepper and serve." Would anyone eat this today?

As would be expected, slaves have been abused and mistreated all throughout history. In Ancient Rome, they were even given demeaning names, such as Laughter, Silly, Sexy, Pleasure and Desire. As is apparent from these names, slaves of both sexes, were more often than not, abused sexually. It is worth mentioning that in Roman society a man only committed adultery if he had sexual relations with another Roman citizen’s wife – sex with a slave did not count. Of course, not all such relationships were abusive – think of the Emperor Vespasian’s long-standing affair with Antonia-Caenis, who became a freedwoman. As a rule though, slaves were seen as property and therefore their owner had no second thoughts with regards to his ill treatment of them. Slavery in Rome

Haunted Tudor House Everyday people of the Tudor age were not typicaly dressed in lavish embroidered brocade and ruffs, as we see in famous portrtaits and paintings of the time. Indeed, very few but the super-rich could afford to dress like that. A dress of that style could cost anything from £35 onwards, which was very expensive, considering that a gentleman's income was £50 per annum. The rich tudors were very extravagant with their spending and an ideal example of this is when Henry VIII spent over £1,000 on a set of tapestries for his walls. This amount of money in those days was outlandishly enormous and more than most people would earn in an entire lifetime (the average labourer's annual wage amounting to around just £2). In much the same way, Tudor homes were not what their counterparts are today. Tudor-styled housing today is filled with varnished wooden panelling and of course all mod cons including more than one lavatory many times. The original Tudor homes had rough,

Margery Kempe (top) and Christine de Pisan (below) After the Black Death for obvious reasons, there was a noticeable shortage of people. This meant that women got the opportunity to get involved in tasks and areas which up til then were solely male territory. By 1363 a statute got rid of the law which limited women to only one trade or craft, so women were able to become traders and therefore support themselves. This newly found independence also meant that they now had more control over who they married too. One of the better known businesswomen of the time was a certain Margey Kempe, from Lynn in Norfolk. She also wrote The Book of Margery Kempe which is often seen as the first English autobiography. Margery had a taste for very expensive clothes (the modern equivalent would be designer-wear) and would spend large amounts of money to this purpose. her husband eventually got tired of this and decided he would not give her any more money for expensive clothes. At this point Margery t

In 1766 The House and Window Duties Act was passed by Parliament. This meant that every house in England and Scotland had to pay a certain amount of tax per window. (In Scotland though, houses with less than five windows weren't taxed). The more windows you had, the higher the tax, so many people decided to have many of them bricked up. This can still be seen on the walls of old town-houses in Central London. If you struck someone in 1543 and their blood was shed your hand had to be chopped off. Charles II decreed that six ravens ought to be kept in the Tower of London at all times. Legend has it that if the ravens leave the Tower the Kingdom will fall. To this day there is such a person as the Raven Master, and his chief responsibility is to clip the wings of the ravens so tehy can't fly away. Every October, the solicitor to the City of London pays rent for land that the Corporation of London rented in Shropshire. The problem is, this was about 700 years ago and this land i

The notorious necklace Marie Antoinette was born Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna in Vienna, Austria, on November 2nd 1755. Daughter of the austere empress Maria Theresa, she was married off to the young Dauphin, the future king Louis XVI of France, at the age of 14. She was thrown into the lavish lifestyle, where the pursuit of pleasure was dominant. She was unhappy in her marriage and sought refuge in an extravagant lifestyle, spending enormous sums of money when she was Queen, thus making herself extremely unpopular with the French people. One incident, which damaged her reputation to the highest degree, was the so called Diamond Necklace Affair. Chief player in this story was a woman called Jeanne de Saint-Remy de Valois, comtesse de la Motte, who was a notorious con-woman, sleeping her way to the top while simultaneously claiming to be an aristocrat. At the time Jeanne was having an affir with the Cardinal de Rohan, a gullible man off whom she borrowed large amounts of money and

Anglo-Saxon church-goers had little in common with contemporary worshippers. A crowd of them would regularly assemble in the nave in order to witness God's 'judgement' of someone accused of evil. How did they do that you may ask. Well, they would bring the unfortunate person to the church while an iron rod was placed in the fire until red hot. When the priest decided the iron rod was ready, the accused man would have to pick it up and hold it in his hand. As if this was not bad enough he was required to carry the rod over a prescribed distance, usually nine paces. In the meantime his hand was being literally roasted, while the faithful observed in utter fascination. The screams and groans of this man contrasting strongly with the pious mutterings of the priest in the background. As soon as he had walked the nine paces, the man would drop the rod and his blistered, burnt hand would be immediately bandaged. Three days after his ordeal, the accused would be taken back

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