I came across an article about the lemons and other citrus fruits in the ancient Roman world. According to research done by an Israeli archaeobotanist, the citron was the first citrus fruit to make it to the western Mediterranean around the third or second century B.C. (probably through Persia). The lemon? That had to wait […]
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The Spanish Gold of Vigo Bay
1702 The French enthroned in Spain meant that French ambitions seriously threatened British trade with the Levant. Accordingly, a powerful fleet was assembled which under command of the Duke of Ormonde and Admiral Sir George Rooke set sail to attack the Spanish port of Cadiz. Lacking the nerve to attack the harbor directly, troops were […]
Thoughts on Sir Christopher Wren
The name of Christopher Wren came up in some readings and so then I read a bit more specifically about his life from the Wikipedia entry. According to the article, he was a cross-disciplinary expert in areas such as astronomy and architecture during the latter half of seventeenth-century England. His most memorable work may have […]
The fall of Athens
In 407 B.C. and again in 405 B.C.. the Spartans in alliance with their old enemies, the Persians, destroyed two Athenian Fleets. Although Athens had suffered defeats before, notably in Sicily in 415 B.C., they had always managed to rally and beat back the Spartans. This time, however, Athens could not make up the losses. […]
The fusion of Greek and Roman culture
The more I read about him, the more I’m convinced that it was Hadrian who fused Greek and Roman culture and made it the cornerstone of Greco-Roman/Western civilization. I’m reading (casually) a book called “Monumentality and the Roman Empire: Architecture in the Antonine Age,” by Edmund Thomas, and he claims Hadrian built or rebuilt a […]
Local Government in Anglo-Saxon England
Originating in eighth century Wessex, the Anglo-Saxon shire system would replace the Roman Provinces as the British standard of local government. Throughout the eighth and ninth centuries the system gradually expanded to cover the whole of England. A Shire which usually took its name from its principle city was governed by an Eldorman, a noble […]
Would slavery have ended even without the Civil War?
To answer to my question – I think that the answer is “yes”. The bigger question is when it would have ended, and how this would have come about. I believe that slavery was being phased out in European countries even before the Civil War began, and as this sentiment swept the West it would […]
Baa! Moving the sheep during World War I
At the beginning of the Great War, plans were put afoot for the Army to move, by road, all the sheep from the farms of the southern counties of Sussex, Kent and Surrey to Salisbury Plain in order to keep them safe should the Germans invade England. One junior officer, given this task, queried the […]
The History of Sanitation
One of the things I love about history is that it’s easy to become fascinated with otherwise mundane topics. An interesting show (on National Geographic, I think) which chronicled the history of sanitation is one such example of this, and I’ll try to recount it here. As urban areas developed, good sanitation was a must, […]
