A Brief History On an unknown date in 267, Odaenathus, King of Palmyra, was assassinated along with his son and co-king. Digging Deeper Odaenathus’s biographer in the Historia Augusta laments the king’s assassination in the following passage: “Some god, I believe, was angry with the commonwealth, who, after Valerian’s death, was unwilling to preserve Odaenathus alive. For of a surety he, with his wife Zenobia, would have restored not only the East, which he had already brought back to its ancient condition, but also all parts of the whole world everywhere, since he was fierce in warfare and, as most writers…
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A Brief History On March 14, 1964, Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby was convicted of killing the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald. Ruby was sentenced to death for the murder, which had been broadcast live on national TV, but on appeal a new trial was ordered that did not happen when Ruby died of a pulmonary embolism in 1967. Digging Deeper Born Jacob Leon Rubenstein in Chicago to parents of Polish/Jewish heritage, Ruby got in trouble as a juvenile but later served in the US Army during World War II. Moving to Dallas, Ruby was…
A Brief History On March 13, 222, the Roman army hailed Severus Alexander as emperor, following the assassination two days earlier of his cousin Elagabalus. Digging Deeper In at least two excerpts from the biography of Alexander in the Historia Augusta, the emperor is described as having a disdain for jewelry. In the first, the biographer says, “All the jewels that he had he sold and the proceeds he deposited in the public treasury, saying that men had no need of jewels, and that the women of the royal household should be content with one hair-net, a pair of earrings,…
A Brief History On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria and the absorption of Austria into Germany became a fact. Other countries have either merged or absorbed independent lands, either voluntarily or involuntarily, and today we look at some of those mergers. Digging Deeper A long lasting, but tenuous merger is the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. This union was a work in progress from 1535 to 1801, until most of Ireland became independent in 1922. The USSR, which resulted from Russia transforming into a giant communist state in 1922, incorporated 21 “republics” and…
A Brief History On March 11, 222, Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, known better as Elagabalus, was assassinated by the Praetorian Guard and replaced by his 14-year-old cousin. Digging Deeper Elagabalus served four years as Emperor and died at age 18, after a depraved reign of murder, torture, and perversity. Some of the other Roman Emperors that vie for the title of “Worst” include: Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, known as Caligula, who was so awful that a major motion picture was made about his bizarre reign. Nero, although not guilty of fiddling while Rome burned, was pretty bad, murderous,…