2018-05-01 National Geographic History PDF

BIRTH OF THE
NEW YORK
SKYLINE
PURPLE REIGN
PHOENICIA’S TRADE EMPIRE
WHERE LIES PHILIP?

MACEDON’S ROYAL TOMBS
GOLDEN TOUCH
THE SCIENCE OF ALCHEMY
PLUS:
MAY/JUNE 2018
Picasso Fights Fascism

The Genius of “Guernica”
The Great Trials of
World History and the
Lessons They Teach Us
E D TIME OF
IT Taught by Professor Douglas O. Linder
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4. The Trial of Sir Thomas More
5. The Trial of Giordano Bruno
6. The Salem Witchcraft Trials
7. The Boston Massacre Trials
8. The Aaron Burr Conspiracy Trial
9. The Amistad Trials
10. The Dakota Conflict Trials
11. The Lincoln Assassination Conspiracy Trial
12. The Trial of Louis Riel
13. The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde
14. The Trial of Sherif Joseph Shipp
15. The Leopold and Loeb Trial
16. The Scopes Monkey Trial
17. The Trials of the “Scottsboro Boys”
18. The Nuremberg Trials
19. The Alger Hiss Trial
20. The Rivonia (Nelson Mandela) Trial
21. The Mississippi Burning Trial
22. The Trial of the Chicago Eight
23. The McMartin Preschool Abuse Trial
24. The O. J. Simpson Trial
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97 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017
FROM THE EDITOR
On September 20, 1932, a click of a camera

captured 11 construction workers having lunch or a smoke—while dangling
their feet more than 840 feet in the air. Taken on the 69th floor of the
building now known as 30 Rockefeller Plaza, “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper”
exudes camaraderie and good humor, making it safe to assume that these
men had no fear of heights.
Little else about these workers is known for certain. Researchers have
tentatively identified a few of them: Peter Rice, a Mohawk ironworker from
Canada; Albin Svennson from Sweden; Gustáv Popovic from Czechoslovakia;
and Sonny Glynn and Matty O’Shaughnessy from Ireland. Roughly 40,000
people worked on the Rockefeller Center complex in the 1920s and ’30s, but
few personnel records survive, making conclusive IDs difficult.
In the early 20th century poverty and civil unrest often brought immigrants
to the United States. Many sought economic opportunities and peaceful
lives. Maybe they wanted citizenship, or maybe they would return home
once they made their fortune. Despite different origins and intentions, they
had much in common: a desire for a better life, the simple enjoyment of a
lunch break, and nerves of steel to seek both on a skyscraper.
Amy Briggs, Executive Editor

ILLUSTRATION: ARTPUPPY/GETTY IMAGES
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 1

HIGH RISE
BIRTH OF THE
EXECUTIVE EDITOR AMY E. BRIGGS
NEW YORK
SKYLINE
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PURPLE REIGN
PHOENICIA’S TRADE EMPIRE Design Editor FRANCISCO ORDUÑA
WHERE LIES PHILIP?
MACEDON’S ROYAL TOMBS
Photography Editor MERITXELL CASANOVAS
GOLDEN TOUCH
THE SCIENCE OF ALCHEMY
PLUS:
Contributors
Picasso Fights Fascism LUCAS AZNAR MILES, IRENE BERMAN-VAPORIS, MARC BRIAN DUCKETT,
The Genius of “Guernica” SARAH PRESANT-COLLINS, THEODORE A. SICKLEY, JANE SUNDERLAND
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VOL. 4 NO. 2
SECOND TRY
A year after their shocking defeat at
Puebla on May 5, 1862, French forces
return to attack the city, as depicted
in this 1867 painting by J.-A. Beaucé.
Features Departments
14 Phoenicia’s Purple Reign 4 NEWS
The Phoenicians built a Mediterranean trade empire through its most China’s first emperor sought
valuable commodity: a precious purple dye worth its weight in gold. the secret of eternal life,
as revealed by newly deciphered
26 The Mystery Tombs of Philip II messages from the third century B.C.
The 1977 discovery of treasure-filled tombs in Greece lifted the lid on
the life and death of Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great. 6 ENIGMAS
Legend says a rabbi brought

36 Roman Women on the Rise a golem to life in Prague
As Rome turned from republic to empire, Roman women found new roles to protect the city’s Jews in the 1500s.
opening up to them in commerce and politics. This story would grow and inspire
future fantastic tales, like Frankenstein.
48 Alchemy’s Golden Age 10 WORK OF ART
Shrouded in secrecy and ritual, alchemy sought to
marry spirituality to science in the 1600s. After bombs rained terror on
Guernica in 1937, Picasso’s
62 Victory at Puebla depiction of the horror delivered a
searing denunciation of war.
On May 5, 1862, the outgunned, outmanned Mexicans
were expected to lose to the French at the Battle of Puebla,
90 DISCOVERIES
but they won. Their surprise upset is celebrated every May.
The somber monuments of
74 New York City Hits the Heights Tiwanaku in Bolivia have
Manhattan’s skyscrapers grew taller and taller at the turn of puzzled travelers for centuries. In the
the 20th century, setting world records in a race to the top. 1800s, scholars began to unlock their
secrets to reveal a once thriving culture.
PHILIP II OF MACEDON, CHIARAMONTI MUSEUM, VATICAN
NEWS
IMPERIAL IMMORTALITY
QIN SHI HUANG DI, born Zhao
Zheng, in a 19th-century
TheChineseEmperor Korean illustration

AKG/ALBUM
WhoTriedtoCheatDeat
Newly translated letters shed light on the dual obsession of Chin ’s first
emperor: To reach all corners of his new empire and to live forev r.
A
rchaeologists in China somewhat awkward reports of but tactfully impl
have found that the their findings. These strips, would continue the s
first Chinese em- part of a cache of thousands
peror,who reigned of such documents, were Eternal Empire
morethan2,000yearsago,or- found in Hunan Province in Qin Shi Huang Di is
dered a national search for the central China. perhaps best know
elixir of life, a substance that One village’s message de- today for the thou
would grant him immortality. ciphered by Chinese scholars sands of terra-cottta
Aseriesofbamboostripscon- hoped a local herb might fit soldiers and hors s
tainmissivesfromhisregional the bill; another noted that no buried in his mausole
officials, who sent polite and such elixir had yet been found, um. Their discovery in
i
4 MAY/JUNE 2018
BOUNDLESS BRUTALITY
WITH HIS puffed-out chest like a hawk and voice of
a jackal, Qin [Shi Huang Di] is a man of scant mercy,”
wrote historian Sima Qian in the second century B.C. Oth-
er accounts tell how Qin Shi Huang Di left his mark on
captured warriors by castrating them and keeping them
as eunuch slaves. The emperor’s brutality extended into
every area of life, including his obsessive quest to find the
potion for eternal life. According to Sima Qian’s account,
460 Confucian scholars—whose criticism of the emperor
included his impious interest in the elixir—were brought
before him and buried alive. Elsewhere, he recounts that
the emperor ordered the burning of philosophical books.
Modern historians believe that although the burial incident
is probably myth, it does reflect Qin Shi Huang Di’s hatred
of scholarship, and his attempt to impose uniformity of
thought over his vast imperial domains.
CONFUCIAN
scholars are
shown being
buried alive in
an 18th-century
SHIP OF FOOLS? painting.
UIG/ALBUM
A 19th-century Japanese
woodblock print depicts the
naval mission sent by Qin Shi
Huang Di to find the magical
herbs of longevity.
THE EMPEROR’S TERRA-

COTTA ARMY (detail)
near Xi’an, China
TOP: MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON/SCALAA, FLORENCE; BOTTOM: STUDIOEAST/GETTY IMAGES
1974 brought him something for a potion that would extend search, they also show the Scholars found that Qin
like immortality. Born Zhao his life—either by granting extraordinary bureaucracy he Shi Huang Di’s last years were
Zheng, he took the throne of him immortality or extreme created, including a sophisti- spent in paranoid seclusion in
the central Qin province in 246 longevity. He sent scholars cated mail service across his his palaces. His search for an
B.C. He conquered China’s six across the land as well as the huge empire.Although his dy- elixir had failed and he died
other provinces, and in 221 B.C., sea: In 219 B.C. the emperor nasty, the Qin, collapsed just in 210 B.C. Ironically, he may
changed his name to Qin Shi dispatched a naval mission to after his death, his reforms have hastened his death by
Huang Di, which means “first what is today Japan. transformed China: Weights ingesting quantities of cinna-
sovereign emperor of Qin.” The recently deciphered and measures were standard- bar (mercury sulfide),believed
Not content with this feat, bamboo strips not only reveal ized and defenses were linked to be life-giving but actually
the emperor began searching Qin Shi Huang Di’s elixir to create the Great Wall. highly toxic.

ENIGMAS
Prague’s Protector:
The Golem
Strong, solid, and single-minded, golems are legendary pro-
tectors in the Jewish tradition. Made of mud and brought to
life through ritual, the most famous is the Golem of Prague
who patrolled the 16th-century streets of the Jewish ghetto.
he golem is supposed to be the accusation that Jews ritually sacrificed
T perfect soldier: Mindless and

obedient, it serves its creator
without question. The fear-
some creature was called forth to
protect and defend Jewish communities
when under threat. The most famous go-
Christian children at Passover for their
blood. This untruth emerged in medie-
val Europe and often led to persecutions.
Enter the Golem

The legend of the Golem of Prague takes
lem tale is set in late 1500s Prague, capital place in the late 16th century during the
of today’s Czech Republic. The truth and reign of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II.
provenance of the story may be shroud- In Prague, the Rabbi Judah Loew ben
ed in mystery, but its cultural reach and Bezalel—better known as Rabbi Loew—
influence is very solid. was a prominent member of the Jewish CHARACTER INFLUENCE
Jews had settled in Prague as early as community. A Talmudic scholar, rabbi, Third in a series of films, The
the 10th century, but they were not al- and philosopher, he wrote more than 20 Golem’s (1920) depiction of
ways welcome in the city. Persecution by booksandbecamefamousforhiswisdom, the creature as a giant man
with thickset features later
Christians in the 11th and 12th centuries earning him the name “Maharal,” which influenced the character
led to the formation of a Jewish ghetto, means“great sage.”Rabbi Loew takes cen- design of Frankenstein’s
which would remain the center of Jewish ter stage in the legend of the golem. monster in the 1930s.
life in Prague for centuries. Rampantanti- There are many versions of the tale,but SZ PHOTO/BRIDGEMAN/ACI
Semitism in the Middle Ages was fueled most begin with an accusation: A Chris-
by outrageous beliefs about Jews, tian child has disappeared,and suspicion
including the “blood libel,” an immediately falls upon Prague’s Jewish
community. Grisly rumors circulate that

theJewshavekidnappedthechildinorder
CRUDE AND SHAPELESS to use his blood in their Passover rituals.
These rumors spark threats of violence
ALTHOUGH the term “golem” appears in the and expulsion from the city.
Bible with the sense of “formlessness,” the In the legend, Rabbi Loew wisely rec-
Talmud (Jewish commentaries on the Bible) ognizes the danger and fashions a golem
understands the golem as an uneducated fromthemudoftheVltavaRiverthatruns
person. From this combination, a tradition of through the city. He and two other rabbis
a monstrous, ugly, and clumsy figure emerged, sculpt a body and walk around it seven
typified in this 20th-century painting of Rabbi times, chanting incantations. The golem
Loew with the golem, by Karel Dvorák. begins to glow, and then the three men
recite a verse of Genesis (2:7):“Then the
Lord God formed a man from the dust of
THIERRY ESCH/GETTY IMAGES
“Then the Lord God Formed
a Man from the Dust”
JEWISH SCHOLARS have debated whether a golem might exist,
or whether it serves as a symbol of how life comes about only
through God’s transforming power. Some scholars contrast an
empty, soulless golem with the humanity of Adam. Talmudic
tradition, however, considers that, for the first hours of his life,
Adam was golemlike, “his dust kneaded into a shapeless hunk.”
the ground and breathed into his nostrils

the breath of life, and the man became a
living being.”
Rabbi Loew scratches into the crea-
ture’s forehead the Hebrew word
emet—truth—and the golem comes to
life. Charged by Loew with finding the
missing child, it tracks down the boy and
brings him before the people. The child
THE CREATION OF ADAM
confesses that his father had forced him MINIATURE FROM A 1332
to hide in their basement in order to bring ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT OF
THE HISTORIA SCHOLASTICA
about the destruction of the Jews. The AKG/ALBUM
case is dismissed, and the golem saves

the Jews of Prague.

ENIGMAS
THE REAL
RABBI LOEW
RABBI LOEW’S association
with the golem was a
19th-century invention.
In life, the chief rabbi of
Prague was a revered
scholar, and was on friend-
ly terms with Holy Roman
Emperor Rudolf II. In 1594
the rabbi met Rudolf to
discuss alchemy. Below,
his tomb in Prague’s Old
Jewish Cemetery.
THE NAVE OF PRAGUE’S OLD-NEW SYNAGOGUE,

WHERE RABBI LOEW WORSHIPPED. BUILT IN
1270, IT IS THE OLDEST SURVIVING SYNAGOGUE
IN EUROPE. ACCORDING TO LEGEND, ITS
FOUNDATION STONES WERE BROUGHT BY ANGELS
FROM THE DESTROYED TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM.
MIROSLAV KROB/AGE FOTOSTOCK UIG/ALBUM
The endings of the legend vary. In in the attic of the Old-New Synagogue, Multiple elements of the golem tale
some, the golem runs away. In others, he locks the door, and forbids anyone to en- have deep and ancient roots in Jewish
growstoopowerfulandrampagesthrough ter.There the golem remains, some say to mysticism, storytelling, and culture. The
thecity,causingpanicanddestruction.To bebrought back to life when the Jews need word “golem” is from the Hebrew mean-
protect the city, Rabbi Loew erases one protection once more. ing unformed matter and is related to the
letter from the word on the golem’s fore- unformed clay with which God made
head,changing it from emet to met, which The Golem’s Influence Adam (the name Adam itself is derived
has some of the elements of the Hebrew Although the Golem of Prague takes place from the Hebrew word adamah, mean-
word for death. The life force leaves the in the 1500s, the story does not date to ing“earth”). Monotheistic religions hold
golem,and Rabbi Loew hides the remains that time; scholarly consensus says that that the gift of life comes from God, and
the tale originated much later, most like- any human attempting to“play God”was
lyinthe 19th century after several authors a dangerous—and tantalizing—idea to
published tales of Prague’s protector. medieval Jewish theologians.
Theologians believed that a learned
person who possessed sufficient arcane
knowledge might indeed be able to cre-
Many curious people have ate an artificial human out of inorganic
tried to enter the synagogue’s material. During the Middle Ages, the
attic to find the golem. kabbalistic work Sefer Yetzira (Book of Cre-
ation) became a key source for the magic
OLD-NEW SYNAGOGUE, PRAGUE,
formulas and instructions required for
IN A 19TH-CENTURY ENGRAVING bringing a golem to life.
GRANGER/AGE FOTOSTOCK
THE VLTAVA RIVER in its course
through Prague, by whose banks
Rabbi Loew is said to have created
the golem from mud, following an
arcane Jewish ritual.
VOLHA KAVALENKAVA/AGE FOTOSTOCK
The book gave practical advice to rab- Other versions of the golem story place (1920)—followed. Of the three, only the
bis, such as not attempting to make a go- the creature in different cities, including final installment survives.
lem on their own, and only using purified Chełm in Poland, with different rabbis As the Golem of Prague story became
virgin mud. The 11th-century Spanish as the creators. The Prague version of more and more famous, the 13th-century
Jewish scholar Solomon ben Yehuda ibn the story became the most popular af- Old-New Synagogue became a focus of
Gabirol was said to have actually created ter Czech writer Leopold Weisel’s 1847 renewed fascination for visitors to the
a female golem, who served him food and publication of a book of Bohemian Jewish city. The synagogue is the oldest ex-
helped him with household chores. folktales. The successful collection went tant synagogue in Europe and has been
Tales of the golem circulated widely through several editions and contained a Prague’s main Jewish place of worship for
in Europe and seem to have entered the version of the story that credited Rabbi more than seven centuries. The golem
broader consciousness by the 19th cen- Loew with the creation of the creature, legend heightened many people’s curiosi-
tury. In 1808 one of the Grimm brothers, despite the real Loew never being associ- ty about the structure, especially the attic
Jacob, wrote a tale about Polish Jews who ated with the type of practices that could where the remains of the golem allegedly
created golems that grew uncontrollably. bring a golem to life. rest. Many tales are told of those who have
In order to prevent his golem from grow- The Golem of Prague also made its way attempted to find it there. During World
ing too tall, one man rubs out the first into several novels, stories, and even to War II, in which more than a quarter of
letter on his golem’s forehead, who then the big screen in the 20th century. The a million Czech Jews were murdered by
crashes to the ground and crushes him. broad features of the story were high- the Nazis, stories circulated that German
The Romantic writers of the age—most lighted in the 1915 German silent mov- officers entered the attic and were later
notably Mary Shelley, in the 1818 novel ie The Golem. Two more films—The found torn limb from limb, perhaps vic-
Frankenstein—also incorporated elements Golem and the Dancing Girl (1917) and tims of the golem.
of the golem legend into their stories. The Golem: How He Came Into the World —Javier Alonso López

5
1 Bull 2 Mother and Child 3 Broken Man 4 Gored Horse

Picasso’s use of a bull, a Wailing with grief, the harrowing A dead soldier lies on the The panicked horse is one
traditional Spanish symbol, figure of the mother mourning ground: eyes wide open, one of the central figures in the
is ambiguous here. Does it her dead child is reminiscent of arm outstretched, and one painting; its wounded body
represent Spanish victims, or Michaelangelo’s “Pietà” in which the hand clutching a useless sword blindly charges through the
Spanish brutality? Virgin Mary cradles her dead son. as terror deluges him. carnage and destruction.
The Genius Guernica
of “Guernica” PAIN
While Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica” was inspired by the

horrors inflicted by the 1937 fascist bombing of the
small town, its howl of terror has grown to stand for
atrocities of war experienced all over the world.
10 MAY/JUNE 2018
6
INTERPRETING
8 “GUERNICA”
PICASSO WAS cagey about
explaining his works, and
“Guernica” was no exception:
“If you give a meaning to certain
things in my paintings it may be
very true, but it is not my idea to
give this meaning. What ideas
and conclusions you have got
I obtained too, but instinctively,
unconsciously. I make the
painting for the painting. I paint
7 the objects for what they are.”
Over the years, artists and
critics have marveled at the
painting’s powerful imagery
and attempted to explain it. For
critic Herbert Read, it was “the
modern Calvary, the agony in
the bomb-shattered ruins of
human tenderness and frailty.”
Australian critic Robert Hughes
placed it within the Western
art tradition as “the last great
history painting. It was also the
last modern painting of major
importance that took its subject
from politics with the intention
of changing the way large
numbers of people thought and
felt about power.”
AGE FOTOSTOCK. © SUCESIÓN PABLO PICASSO. VEGAP,
MADRID, 2018
5 Light Bulb 6 Woman at the Window 7 Wounded Woman 8 Man in Terror

Picasso added the bulb late in One interpretation of this figure Desperate to escape the The terrified man’s upraised
the mural’s development. Some emerging from a building with her firestorm, she has stumbled. arms and spread fingers call
theorize that the light fixture is lamp is that she represents the The odd angle of her crumpled back to Francisco de Goya’s
there to represent modernity viewer. Her light ensures the world leg makes the figure appear 1814 anti-war painting, “The
and technology. will know what happened here. wounded and suffering. Third of May 1808 in Madrid.”
P
ablo Picasso had been searching savagery of modern warfare on everyday As global tensions soared on the eve of
for three months for something people. Picasso’s work,“Guernica,”is one World War II, Spain’s bitter civil war
to paint in April 1937. Living in of the 20th century’s greatest works of rapidly internationalized: The republic
Paris, the Spanish artist had art and a strong statement against war. received aid and arms from the Soviet
been given a commission to Union, while Franco was armed by fascist
produce a mural for the Spanish Pavil- War Crime Germany and Italy.
ion of the 1937 Paris World’s Fair. Tur- In July 1936 the authoritarian Spanish On April 26, 1937, crew members on the
moil had disrupted his process, both in general Francisco Franco had launched British battleship H.M.S. Hood watched
his private life and in the civil war raging a semi-successful coup against Spain’s warplanes assembling over the coast of
in Spain. The horror of this war would democratic republic; a swath of Spain northern Spain. What they saw was a
give Picasso his inspiration to paint a bold, fell under Franco’s control, while the mixed formation of German and Italian
unflinching vision of the devastation and other half was retained by the republic. bombers on a mission to bomb the small

1937
Picasso’s
ORONOZ/ALBUM. © SUCESIÓN PABLO PICASSO. VEGAP, MADRID, 2018

Guernica is destroyed
by fascist forces helping
Process
General Franco on
April 26. In exile in Paris,
Picasso begins sketches
for “Guernica” on May 1.
ON MAY 1, 1937, just days after the attack, The vast finished
Picasso made the first sketch of what canvas debuts in the
Spanish Pavilion of
would become his anti-war masterpiece. Paris’s World’s Fair
The bull and the horse were present in the in June.
earliest drafts, along with the fallen warrior 1939
beneath the horse and the woman with a
lamp. Picasso had, in fact, used several of Following tours in
Europe and America,
these elements in a previous work, a 1935 Picasso places
engraving depicting a minotaur. Although “Guernica” in the care of
the central figures remained constant, New York’s MOMA; he
ORONOZ/ALBUM. © SUCESIÓN PABLO PICASSO. VEGAP, MADRID, 2018

refuses to allow it to be
Picasso made many revisions to the over- shown in Spain until the
all work. Its austere palette of black, white, dictatorship ends.
and gray is said to have been inspired by
1981
the grainy quality of newsprint, reflect-
Six years after dictator
ing that the Spanish Civil War was one of General Franco dies,
the first conflicts intensively covered by “Guernica” is sent from
the media. After just five weeks, the vast, New York to Madrid’s
Prado Museum. In 1992
mural-size canvas was complete. There is it transfers to the nearby
a story (perhaps apocryphal) that a Nazi Reina Sofía Museum,
officer later showed Picasso a photo of the its permanent home.
picture, and asked him, “Did you do this?”
Picasso is said to have replied: “No, you did.”
AGE FOTOSTOCK. © SUCESIÓN PABLO PICASSO. VEGAP, MADRID, 2018

WORKERS AT MOMA ROLL UP “GUERNICA”
TO SEND TO SPAIN IN SEPTEMBER 1981.
DPA/ALBUM. © SUCESIÓN PABLO PICASSO. VEGAP, MADRID, 2018
PABLO PICASSO STANDS IN FRONT OF “GUERNICA,” IN A 1937

PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN BY DAVID SEYMOUR.
WORK OF ART
DEATH
FROM ABOVE
APRIL 26, 1937, was a Monday, a
market day in Guernica. That after-
noon, German and Italian bombers
dropped 550-pound explosives to
crush buildings so that fire would
spread more quickly. They were fol-
lowed by waves of planes dropping
incendiaries that burned at 2500°C.
By the evening most buildings
in Guernica were uninhabitable.
Although the death toll, at first
thought to be thousands, was later
revised down to between 200 and
300, it sent a terrifying message
to the world: The fascist powers
were prepared to unleash the new
weapon from the sky on civilians,
the prelude to the devastating
carpet-bombing of European cit-
ies during the Second World War.
GUERNICA IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE BOMBING
UIG/GETTY IMAGES
Basque city of Guernica. The attack be- appalling news from Guernica, Picasso after Picasso—and Spain made the tran-
gan around 4:30 p.m. and lasted for three knew he had his theme at last. sition to democracy as a constitutional
hours as high explosives and incendiaries Working at great speed, he filled a monarchy. Even though this meant that
laid waste to the undefended town. vast canvas with what would become Spain was not the republic that Picasso
As soon as news of the attack became the defining image of the horror of war. had dreamed of, “Guernica” was allowed
known, war correspondent George From its unveiling at the World’s Fair, to return in 1981 and was shown at the
Lowther Steer of the Times of London where it caused a sensation, the paint- Prado Museum in Madrid. The paint-
raced to Guernica and filed a report to ing toured the world. It ended up in the ing’s power to provoke had not dimin-
alert the world: “At 2 a.m. today when United States where it would remain for ished over the years. Because the pas-
I visited the town, the whole of it was a the next 42 years. Housed in the Muse- sions of the Spanish Civil War had not
horrible sight, flaming from end to end.” um of Modern Art in New York City, it faded, “Guernica” was displayed behind
Steer also identified that the raid was hugely influenced a generation of postwar bomb- and bulletproof glass. In 1992
not carried out for military purposes but American artists. Jackson Pollock, the “Guernica” made its last journey, to the
with the specific aim of terrorizing civil- great abstract artist, went to the museum nearby Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid,
ians: “A factory producing war material every day just to gaze at it. Once, over- where it is now visited by an average of
lay outside the town and was untouched. hearing a fellow gallery visitor express 11,000 people every day.
So were two barracks some distance from an unflattering opinion about the canvas, Today, in a world where warfare still
the town.” Pollock invited the man outside where he threatens peaceful civilians across the
suggested they fight it out. globe, Picasso’s depiction of terror, ago-
Art Strikes Back Picasso had always said that he would ny, and loss remains the strongest anti-
The day after the attack, Pablo Picasso was not allow the picture to travel to his war artwork of the ages.
sitting in the Café de Flore, Paris, and read homeland until Spain was a republic.
of the atrocity in the newspaper. With the General Franco died in 1975—two years —Toby Saul

SETTING SAIL
A horse-head prow looks ahead as a
modern replica of a Phoenician ship
sails off the coast of Tyre, Lebanon.
Purple’s popularity lasted well into the
Roman Empire, as this bowl of pigment
from Pompeii attests (right).
PHOTO: ROBERT CLARK; BOWL: DEA/ALBUM
MASTERS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN
THE PHOENICIANS
In the first millennium b.c. the seafaring Phoenicians’ vast
trade empire spanned the Mediterranean. At its core was
a vibrant purple fabric worn by powerful kings, the hue
courtesy of a dye created from humble sea snails, and
worth its weight in gold.
MARK WOOLMER
BUILDING A TRADE NETWORK
Phoenicia created and maintained a dominant trading network throughout
the Mediterranean world via an extensive network of colonies. Classical
authors dated the first settlements to around the 12th century B.C., just
after the fall of Troy. Today’s historians now believe their founding occurred
somewhat later, from the ninth century B.C., following a period in which
Phoenician merchants assessed and tested sites for commercial viability.
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TURNING TO THE SEAS
SIDONIAN HARBOR
RRich in cedar, wine, olive oil, and
Scale varies in ppurple dye, the cities of Phoenicia
this perspective EGYPTIAN HARBOR vvied with one another for
RICHARD SCHLECHT/NG MAPS
ccommercial supremacy. Historians
ce thought they turned to
a trade to finance the tribute
manded by the Assyrians. It is
n believed that a drop in rainfall
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DESPITE falling into the orbit of the powers of the day enabled it to thrive Tripolis
Egyptians, the Assyrians, and later for centuries. It supplied Jerusalem LEBANON
thePersians,thecityofTyreflourished with the costly materials for Solo- Byblos
Beirut
for much of the first millennium b.c., mon’s Temple in the 10th century b.c.
TIMBER
thanks in part to the lucrative trade in Later it surpassed Sidon as the pre- Sidon
Sarepta WOOL
Tyrian purple. Split between the Leb- eminent Phoenician trading power, PURPLE DYE
TYRE WINE
anese mainland and an island just off and it went on to found the colony of
CERAMICS
the coast (see above), Tyre’s geogra- Carthage in North Africa in around OLIVE OIL SYRIA
phy led to the city’s success. Its main- 814 b.c. When Tyre resisted Alexan-
land portion gave easy access to tim- der the Great, however, its luck ran
ber and other rich natural resources, out. Building a causeway from the
WINE
while the island provided a strategic mainland, Alexander took the city in JORDAN
JOR
defense and rapid access to the sea. 332 b.c. and executed thousands of ISRAEL
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P
hoenician myth tells the tale of a beautiful sea
nymph, Tyrus, and the god Melqart, who so ght
to win her heart. Melqart dispatched his f thfu
hound to scour the beaches of modern-d Leba
non in search of a gift for her. When thedo returned,
his muzzle was stained violet. When Melqart l oked closer,
he found in the dog’s teeth a crushed sea snail, o zing and purple.
The god’s dog had certainly stumbled on a trea- strip of land along e c dern-day THE FINE
sure, and Melqart showed it to Tyrus. Imme- Lebanon, Syria, and nort THIN
diately smitten with the color, Tyrus agreed to The name“Phoenician,”given to t the addition to timbe
marry Melqart if he could fashion her a robe in Greeks,isthoughttorelatetopurple.TheGreeks and other staples,
t e ni
the same vibrant hue. Determined and resource- themselves were unclear on the origins of the
crafted an r
ful, Melqart collected enough sea snails to fulfill word,phoínix, and as it could be used to signify a luxury goods across
the wish of his beloved, and thus“Tyrianpurple” reddish purple color,it came to be regarded as an the ancient world.
and the Phoenician trade in textiles was born. allusion to the purple fabric for which the Phoe- Above, a Phoenician
Although this legend originates in later nicianswerefamed.Anotherpopulartheorywas glass-paste necklace
from the fourth to
Greco-Roman traditions, the depiction of a dog that the word could be linked to the legendary third century B.C.
chewing the shell of a murex sea snail has been king Phoinix,believed by some to have instigat- Archaeological
found on several Tyrian coins, indicating that ed the use of purple dye in the city of Tyre. The Museum of Villa
the tale was linked to Phoenician identity, and Greeks first used the term Phoenician at some Giulia, Rome
WHITE IMAGES/SCALA, FLORENCE
that it may well have had Phoenician origins.De- point during the ninth to seventh centuries B.C.,
spite the mythologized accounts for the genesis but—significantly—it has noknown equivalent
of Tyrian purple, this dye played a fundamental in any of the languages of the ancient Near East,
role in shaping and defining the real history and including Phoenician itself.
economy of the Phoenicians. The Phoenician people were preeminent
merchants, sailors, explorers, and settlers,
Masters of the Sea who—unlike their Syrian and Canaanite
Although the Phoenicians were among the most neighbors—never sought to create a uni-
influential of the Mediterranean peoples of the fied military empire or kingdom. Instead,
first millennium B.C., they are also one of the they coalesced into several fiercely inde-
least understood by modern historians. Strict- pendent city-states, the most important of
ly speaking, there was no one kingdom called which were Arwad, Byblos, Berot (modern
“Phoenicia” but a series of cities occupying a Beirut), Sidon, Sarepta, and Tyre. Politically
15th-13th Ninth 539 B.C. 332

2 B.C.
centuries B.C. century B.C. The Phoenicians Alexxander the Great
ANCIENT The Phoenician city Tyre grows into a find new trading conqquers Tyre after
PURPLE of Sarepta harvests commercial center opportunities to the a lon
ng siege, and the
murex mollusks to of power. The age of east following the regio
on’s independent
POWER create a vibrant, Phoenician colony Persian defeat Phoeenician culture
valuable purple dye. building begins. of Babylon. begins to fade.
MELQART DISCOVERS PURPLE DYE IN HIS DOG’S MOUTH. DETAIL OF A 1636

PAINTING BY PETER PAUL RUBENS. MUSÉE BONNAT-HELLEU, BAYONNE, FRANNCEE
AKG/ALBUM
TO DYE FOR
”MANUFACTURING TYRIAN
PURPLE IN ANCIENT PHOENICIA.”
COLORIZED ILLUSTRATION BY
AMBROSE DUDLEY, REPRODUCED
IN HUTCHINSON’S HISTORY OF THE
NATIONS, 1915
ALAMY/ACI
COLORIZED BY SANTI PÉREZ
How Phoenicians Turned

Sea Snails Into Gold
THE EXTRACTION of purple dye from into a pulpy mass. The glands were
the carnivorous sea snail murex then placed into a vat of salt water
was described in detail by Pliny and heated for 10 days. The glands
the Elder in his Natural History. It would melt, leaving behind a color-
was a lengthy process and a smelly less compound that produced the
one. The first step was to harvest purple dye when re-exposed to air
the mollusks from the sea by sub- and sunlight. Production created a
merging mesh traps baited with foul stench for which the industry
cockles or pieces of fish. When became famous. In most Phoenician
enough snails were caught, the settlements the dye manufacturing
mucous gland that produces the facilities (and the associated heaps
dye had to be extracted from the of rotting shells) could be found on
animal. Large murices had their the outskirts of a town or city, well
glands removed with a metal tool, downwind from residential areas. DEATH SHROUD OF EMPEROR CHARLEMAGNE. WHEN THIS WAS PRODUCED IN
while smaller specimens—body, The terrible smell was worth it, for THE NINTH CENTURY A.D., TYRIAN PURPLE STILL EXPRESSED IMPERIAL POWER.
ERICH LESSING/ALBUM
gland, and shell—were crushed the dye could fetch its weight in gold.
autonomous, these city-states shared a common
language and script as well as several distinctive
cultural characteristics and traits. They were
further unified by their maritime and trading
interests, thus allowing modern historians to
characterize them as a distinct civilization; how-
ever, the Phoenicians never considered them-
selves as having a shared ethnic identity. Instead
they most likely would have defined themselves
by the city where they held citizenship: “I am a
man of Byblos”or“I am from Sidon”rather than
“I am a Phoenician.”
In antiquity their neighbors—the Egyptians,
the Hebrews, and the Neo-Assyrian Empire to
the east—considered the Phoenicians as mer-
chants par excellence, whose commercial acu-
ALAMY/ACI
men across the Mediterranean provoked respect

and admiration, as well as ire and envy. Although
outsiders’views of the Phoenicians as commer-
cially canny verge on caricature, the literary and PAPER TOWN
archaeological sources bear out the centrality
of trade to Phoenician culture. By the end of the THEPHOENICIAN city of Gebal, whose ruins are shown above, was later
fifth century B.C. their trade routes stretched named Byblos for the Greek word for “papyrus,” one of the city’s key
from India in the east to at least as far west as trading commodities. As befits a bookish place, Byblos is the site of the
Mogador in North Africa (modern Essaouira earliest known Phoenician inscription using the alphabet—yet another
in western Morocco). Their networks encom- innovation, along with Tyrian purple, that the Phoenicians adapted and
passed the entire Mediterranean and significant spread throughout the Mediterranean world.
parts of the Black Sea, Red Sea, and Persian Gulf.
Along these routes, the Phoenicians exported
an extensive range of commodities, including
ornate metal objects, jewelry, carved ivories, ce- Assyrians. “Your awnings were made of fin- SHELLING OUT
darwood, athyrmata (trinkets), wine, and olive est cloth, of purple,” notes the Old Testament A Murex brandaris
oil. But what stirred particular desire was their prophet Ezekiel, in his inventory of the luxury
y (below), one of two
fine quality, brightly colored fabrics. In Book VI products traded by Tyre. ecies rves
the Phoenicians.
of The Iliad, Homer describes the kind of fabric e glands of many
considered fit for Hecuba, queen of Troy: Precious Purple ousands were
In antiquity fabric production was the mosst required to produce
She [Hecuba] then went down into her fra-labor-intensiveofallcrafts.Itishardtooversta a fraction of an
grant store-room, where her embroidered its cultural, social, and economic significancce. ounce
purple dye.
robes were kept, the work of Sidonian wom-
Clothing not only offered people protectio on
DEA/GETTY IMAGES
en, whom [Paris] had brought over from fromtheelementsbutalsodenotedsocialsta .
Sidon when he sailed the seas upon that Cloth was used to record events or stories in e
voyage during which he carried off Helen.form of tapestries, and it could even be of su
uch
Hecuba took out the largest robe, and thevalue that it functioned as a form of currenc .
one that was most beautifully enriched with Very little is known about the appearancee or
embroidery, as an offering to [Athena]: it
method of manufacture of Phoenician fabrrics
glittered like a star. (Translation by Samuel
as very few fragments of it have survived. De-
D
Butler, 1898) spite this dearth of information in relatio to
textiles, the ancient sources do provide det led
Brightly decorated garments feature promi- accounts of the production and use of the r-
nently among the Phoenician tribute to the ple dye. The discovery of substantial facillities
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY

SAIL WATER
The characteristic square Enough drinking
shape of a Phoenician cargo water was stored
ship’s sail was only unfurled to last a day.
when wind conditions were At nightfall, the
favorable. The ship’s main coast-hugging
propulsion came from its Phoenicians made
banks of oars. landfall to take on
more water and
other supplies.
CARGO DECK
Carefully fenced
off from the crew,
this part of the deck
held the bulk of
the goods: timber,
leather, perfumes,
and precious bales of
purple-dyed cloth.
STEERING OAR
Phoenician sailors
preferred to travel by
sea between March
and October, when
conditions were at CARGO HOLD OARS
their best. Using the Fragile, heavy items, such as Made from prized Phoenician
North Star as their ceramic storage vessels full cedarwood, they were handled
guide, the ship’s of wine and oil, were stored by up to 12 rowers on each side
course was set by this belowdecks. Here they were of a commercial ship. Time
bigger, steering oar. protected from breakage, and was kept to the tune of an
acted as all-important ballast. onboard flautist.
SOL 90/ALBUM
Rub-a-dub-dub,
Phoenicians Sailed in Tubs
“TARSHISH WAS thy merchant, [Tyre], tubs—or hippo, from the horse heads
by reason of the multitude of all kind on their prows. Archaeologists got
of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and a chance to find out for themselves
lead, they traded in thy fairs . . . and when they explored the remnants of
thou wast replenished, and made two remarkably preserved ships in
very glorious in the midst of the 1999. Two Phoenician vessels were
seas.” Ezekiel’s “Lament for Tyre” in surveyed off the coast of Israel in
the Bible reveals the envy of not only conjunction with the U.S.-based
Phoenicia’s wealth but also its sea- Leon Levy Expedition. Dating from
manship. From the ninth century b.c., the eighth century b.c., they measure
as they spread throughout the Med- 52 feet in length and 20 feet wide.
iterranean, the Phoenicians became As the Greeks suggested, they are
skilled sailors. The Phoenicians left rather tubby—all the better to car-
no written accounts of their boats, ry cargo. In this case it was 12 tons COIN DEPICTING A PHOENICIAN SHIP AND A HIPPOCAMPUS. SIXTH TO FIRST
but Greek accounts did describe of wine each, perhaps destined for CENTURIES B.C. NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM, BEIRUT
them. They called them gauloi— Egypt or the new colony of Carthage. ERICH LESSING/ALBUM
for murex harvesting, processing, and dyeing at
Arwad, Beirut, Sidon, Sarepta, Tyre, and other
cities along the Levant coast, highlights just how
important and widespread this industry was
among the Phoenicians.
The Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder offers
the most comprehensive description of how the
dye was manufactured in his Natural History,
written in the first century A.D. The basic raw
material was an opaque liquid that was obtained
from the mucus glands of two types of sea snail,
Murex trunculus and Murex brandaris. The for-
mer was used to make a blue-purple dye known
as royal blue while the latter was used to make ERICH LESSING/ALBUM
Tyrian purple.
Both dyes were indelible and did not fade eas-
ily, a rare property for ancient colorants. Its pro-
duction, however, produced an offensive smell,
and the irony that such a prized product could SARGON’S CEDARWOOD
come out of such an unpleasant process was not
lost on ancient authors, such as Pliny himself, ADETAIL from a frieze, found at Dur Sharrukin in Iraq, the capital of the
who wrote: Assyrian king Sargon II, carved in the eighth century B.C. It depicts the
transportation of prized Phoenician cedarwood from Tyre to build Sargon’s
Let us be prepared then to excuse this frantic palace. This section of the frieze charts the progress of the cargo north
passion for purple, even though at the same along the Aegean coast in horse-headed Phoenician vessels. The sea is full
of fish, a sphinx, and (center right) a merman.
time we are compelled to enquire, why it is
that such a high value has been set upon the
produce of this shell-fish, seeing that while
in the dye the smell of it is offensive, and the
color itself is harsh, of a greenish hue, and example: according to the fourth-century B.C. PURPLE PROSE
strongly resembling that of the sea when in historian Theopompus (quoted here much later Traces of Phoenician
a tempestuous state? by Athenaeus), men in the city of Colophon in culture can be
what is today Turkey,“used to walk about the found as late as
the Byzantine
As each murex produced only a few drops of city wearing purple garments,which was at that period, such as this
precious mucus, the manufacture of commer- time a color rare even among kings, and greatly tombstone (below)
cial quantities of Tyrian purple required the sought after; for purple was constantly sold for from A.D. 500. It
harvesting of vast quantities of these creatures. its weight in silver.” bears an inscription in
Archaeologists have calculated that 12,000 In fact, purple dyes were so desirable that Phoenician of a sea-
snail diver named
averaged-size mollusks (just under a quarter astute businessmen created a multitude of Zoilos. National
of an inch long) were required to produce barely inferior-quality imitation hues to meet the con- Archaeological
0.05 of an ounce of dye. Such an amount was siderable demand.Because of this phenomenon, Museum, Beirut
sufficient to color just the trim of a regular-size g
fragments off purple colored textiles a pot-
purple-colored t P. MAILLARD/AKG/ALBUM
garment, and so distilling enough dye to stains sherds have to be subject to chemical analysis by
even a small piece of cloth required enorm mous
numbers of the animals. To dye an entire rrobe
would cost a fortune.
Consequently, Tyrian purple dye was at tim mes
worth more than its equivalent weight in sillver
or gold while purple-dyed fabrics could co om-
mand extraordinarily high prices. To give one o
NATIONAL
ATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 21
ROYAL PURPLE
Purple was exclusive to royalty in the
Byzantine Empire, and the production
of purple dye was carefully controlled.
Above, flanked by her attendants, the
empress Theodora is swathed in a purple
tunic on a sixth-century mosaic in the
Church of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy.
LEEMAGE/GETTY IMAGES
BRONZE GLASS
Votive bronze statu t e A glass-paste
from the Temple of t Phoenician mask
Obelisks, Byblos. 18t from Carthage,
century B.C. America (date unknown).
University, Beirut National Museum
DEA/ALBUM of Carthage,
IVORY
Byrsa, Tunisia
E. LESSING/ALBUM
Assyrian-style carving
of a winged griffin
discovered at Nimrud.
Eighth century B.C.
Musées Royaux des
Beaux-Arts, Brussels
DEA/ALBUM
Many Influences,
Many Cultures
UNFORTUNATELY, no complete item city of Nimrud shows how Phoeni- MIXED METALS
of the trademark luxury product— cian craftsmen blended Assyrian Detail of a bronze
and silver divinity
purple-dyed cloth—have survived, motifs, such as winged creatures,
statuette with
but the Phoenicians were trading into their design. Likewise, Egyptian Egyptian-style
many other kinds of high-end goods elements such as solar disks and solar disk. Eighth
that have: jewelry, sculpture, furni- sphinxes were worked into Phoe- century B.C. Louvre
ture, and religious items. These nician artifacts. Stone statues at Museum, Paris
objects proved more durable and Sidon show clear Greek influences DEA/ALBUM
have endured, offering ample proof with almond-shaped eyes, and the
that Phoenician craftsmen excelled hint of a smile. Phoenician crafts-
in both quantity and quality. They manship was highly regarded and
were able to incorporate a broad its silversmiths widely praised.
range of styles and work in differ- Egyptian chroniclers admired Phoe-
ent motifs from across the ancient nician glassmaking, reporting with
world. A huge cache of Phoenician admiration that a king of Byblos
ivories discovered in the Assyrian owned a large glass window.
archaeologists before they can by designated as
genuine examples of royal blue or Tyrian purple.
Fading Away
Although the coast of Lebanon could sustain a
high concentration of murices, when demand
outstripped supply they were imported from
other areas of the Mediterranean and from the
Gulf of Aqaba. The decimation of local murex
populations, combined with the desire to acquire
ever increasing numbers, led the Phoenicians to
found overseas settlements in regions where
this type of industry could flourish.
ALEXANDER ATTACKS THE CITY
The presence of sizable quantities of crushed QUINTLOX/ALBUM OF TYRE. LATE 15TH-CENTURY
FLEMISH MANUSCRIPT
murex shells at Almuñécar (Sexi), Toscanos,
and Morro de Mezquitilla in Spain; Carthage,
Kerkouane, and Djerba (Meninx) in Tunisia; and
Essaouira (Mogador) in Morocco, provide evi-
dence for the large-scale manufacture of purple WHEN ALEXANDER ATTACKED
dye in both Iberia and North Africa. According
to Pliny, after Tyre, it was the North African city THE SACKING of Tyre by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. signaled the
of Meninx that produced the most vivid hue of beginning of the end of a Phoenician culture that had once touched every
purple. Thus it could be said that the craze for corner of the Mediterranean. Alexander’s taking of Tyre was extremely
purple went hand in hand with the Phoenicians’ brutal. His Roman biographer, Quintus Curtius Rufus, described the
greatest achievement—the adaptation and aftermath of the butchery: “2,000 Tyrians, who had survived the rage of
transmission of the alphabet across the Medi- the Macedon troops, now hung nailed to crosses all along the beach.”
terranean, a revolutionary experiment that they
exported alongside their other commodities.
For much of their history the Phoenician cities textile industry they had created continued to
had flourished in the service of larger empires, flourish. Purple fabric remained a luxury that
including Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Persia. It only the rich and powerful could afford. Several
was Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C. laws were passed that even decreed who could
who ultimately undid them, when he sacked and could not wear purple. The Romans began
Tyre in 332 B.C. Phoenicia was subjected to strict developing their own techniques for farming the
Macedonian rule for the next 270 years, and by murex and other shellfish in rock-cut pools,
the end of the first century B.C. it had become so which kept the practice alive for centuries.
hellenized that Plutarch referred to its inhabi- Production of the purple dye continued in the
tants as Hellenes. eastern half of the Roman Empire until the sack
Rome would be the next to take over the Phoe- of Constantinople in A.D. 1204. Today synthet-
nician cities after the Roman general Pompey ic dyes and advances in production have made
had subdued the last remains of the Seleucid purple fabric available to all. Despite the equal
Empire in 64 B.C. Phoenicia was formally in- access, to this day many countries around the
corporated into the Roman province of Syria, world still associate the Phoenicians’ Tyrian
which heralded the beginning of a period of ro- purple with royalty, wealth, and splendor.
manization. By the close of the first century A.D. A LEADING AUTHORITY ON THE PHOENICIANS, MARK WOOLMER IS
there were very few remnants of the indigenous HONORARY RESEARCH FELLOW AT THE DEPARTMENT FOR CLASSICS AND
ANCIENT HISTORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM, ENGLAND.
culture that had existed before the arrival of the
Learn more
Macedons and Romans.
Even though the Phoenicians’economic dom- BOOK
A Short History of the Phoenicians
inance gradually faded into history, the purple Mark Woolmer, I.B. Tauris, 2017.

OPEN SESAME
A hunting scene above a marble door
flanked by two Doric columns forms the
facade of Tomb II in the necropolis of Aigai,
near Vergina in northern Greece. Many
historians believe this is the resting place of
the father of Alexander the Great, Philip II of
Macedon, whose image is depicted, above
right, on a gold stater coin in the Fitzwilliam
Museum, Cambridge, England.
FACADE: LAURENT FABRE PHOTOGRAPHY
STATER COIN: BRIDGEMAN/ACI
The Tomb of Philip II
MYSTERY OF
MACEDON
The 1977 discovery of treasure-filled tombs in Greece
sparked global fascination with Philip II of Macedon,
whose death launched the career of his son Alexander
the Great. Historians are sure one of the tombs contains
the bones of the murdered King Philip, but which one?
BORJA ANTELA
O
WHAT vershadowed by his more famous dealt with their own political challenges, Philip
PHILIP BUILT son, Philip II of Macedon was was using his military and diplomatic flair to
Philip constructed the an exceptional ruler in his own make rapid conquests in the Thrace region.
circular Philippeion, right. He remade his army into By 351 Athens started to recognize the threat
above, in the great a formidable fighting machine from its upstart northern neighbor. But by then
sanctuary of Zeus at
Olympia to celebrate to bring the whole Greek mainland under his it was probably too late. Through his army’s use
his 338 B.C. victory control in the middle of the fourth century B.C. of a new phalanx formation and the long sa-
at Chaeronea, which At the time of Philip’s accession in 359 B.C., rissa pike, Philip won the battle of Chaeronea in
brought the Greek Macedon was regarded by most Greeks as an 338 to take control of mainland Greece, a con-
mainland under the
sway of Macedon. only partially hellenized kingdom and quest that would play a key role in his
TERRANCE KLASSEN/AGE FOTOSTOCK
somewhat peripheral to the Greek world. son’s spectacular victory over the
Philip came to the throne at a time of Persian Empire in the decade to
dynastic violence in Macedon, but come. It was, perhaps, inevi-
as Athens and Thebes to the south table that warlike Philip, blind
359-338 b.c. 336 b.c.
Philip II becomes king of the small Philip is murdered at his daughter’s

kingdom of Macedon in northeast wedding. Historians speculate
A FATHER’S Greece. Having revitalized his army, whether it was a small act of
with a new infantry formation (the revenge or part of a wider dynastic
IMPERIAL phalanx) and arming them with plot. Philip’s son, Alexander III,
LEGACY the sarissa pike, Philip conquers succeeds him and will later become
mainland Greece by 338 B.C. famous as Alexander the Great.
PHILIP II OF MACEDON, CHIARAMONTI MUSEUM, VATICAN
28 MAY/JUNE 2018 AURIMAGES
PHILIP IS MURDERED BY PAUSANIAS IN
A 1902 GERMAN ENGRAVING CLUES IN THE COFFIN
MARY EVANS/AGE FOTOSTOCK
GUILT OR GRIEF?
W
ho wanted Philip II killed? For centuries,
authors have speculated that there may
have been more behind the murder of
the Macedon king than the personal
grudge of a bodyguard. Did Alexander himself have a hand
in it? Nevertheless, in 1977, when the casket in Tomb II
was opened, archaeologist Manolis Andronikos found
a clue that could indicate with soft purple cloths and
a degree of tenderness on laid them in a gold larnax.”
the part of the son. Under a He felt sure that whoever of-
heavy crown made of gold ficiated at this funeral cer-
oak leaves and tiny acorns lay emony had observed the
partially incinerated bones Greek funeral customs of a
wrapped in a cloth of deep bygone age. More tantalizing
purple, a color reserved for still, Andronikos knew that
royalty. Many scholars believe Alexander the Great was an
they are the bones of Philip. avid fan of Homer, always car-
This arrangement of human rying a copy of The Iliad with
remains reminded Androni- him. If the young Alexander,
kos of Homer’s description of age 20, piously officiated at
the burial of the Trojan hero the funeral of his slain father,
Hector: “They gathered the perhaps he wasn’t the man
white bones, covered them behind the king’s murder.
in one eye and lame from battle injuries, was not Vergina), the wedding guests were preparing to
destined to pass away peacefully in his sleep. His watch a procession in the theater. Pausanias ap-
own end would be violent and bloody. proached the king, Diodorus relates, unsheathed
his Celtic dagger, plunged it between Philip’s
Blood Wedding ribs,“and such was the end of Philip who, in the
Philip’s death came in 336 B.C. when his body- course of a reign of twenty four years, had been
guard murdered him on the day of his daughter’s the greatest of the kings of Europe of his day.”
wedding. The first-century B.C. Greek histo- The assassin was quickly killed by the oth-
rian Diodorus Siculus explained that Philip’s er soldiers—perhaps conveniently. Diodorus orus
assassin, Pausanias, had a motive for murder: wrote that the motive came from Philip’s ffail-
revenge. Acting on a personal grudge against the ure to punish men who had sexually assaullted
king, the bodyguard took spectacularly public Pausanias, but other historians believed therre to
action: After a day of wedding banquets in the have been a wider plot involving more powerful
ancient Macedon city of Aigai (near modern-day figures pulling the strings behind the scen nes.
330 b.c. 323 b.c. 317 b.c.
Alexander topples the mighty Having forged an empire Philip III and his wife, Euryd
dice,
Achaemenid (Persian) Empire stretching to India, Alexander the are murdered by Olympiass,
with the death of its last emperor, Great dies from fever in Babylon. mother of Alexander the Great.
Darius III. His lightning sweep through His half brother Arrhidaeus, Alexander’s son, Alexander IV,
Asia is facilitated by the battle who may have been mentally rules Macedon, which remains
readiness and tactics of his army, in impaired, becomes the new king a key regional power until the
part a legacy of his father, Philip. of Macedon, as Philip III. rise of the Roman Empire.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT, CAPITOLINE MUSEUMS, ROME

CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES
Northern Threat
After his ascent to the throne in 359 B.C. Philip II expanded
Macedon rule across much of the northern region of Thrace. To the
south, Athens and Thebes tried to resist the expansion of Macedon,
but they wer d at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 B.C.
Macedon before 359 B.C.

Conquests of Philip II Black
Allies of Athens Sea
Thra
Ae
ge
an
S
MAP: EOSGIS.COM
The main beneficiary of the regicide was un- Macedon kings were traditionally buried. The
doubtedly the dead king’s son Alexander, age 20. funeral took place, his son went on to amaze the
Alexander and his father had already had heated world, the centuries went by, other empires, such
discussions about Philip’s treatment of Olym- as the Roman and Ottoman, rose and fell. Over
pias, his former wife and Alexander’s mother. the centuries, the once mighty Aigai and its
Later chroniclers, including the Roman author tombs fell into oblivion.
Justin, would claim that mother and son actually
orchestrated the king’s assassination. Aigai Unearthed
Rumors of Alexander’s involvement in his fa- French archaeologist Léon Heuzey was the first
ther’s death would have been quickly quashed at to suggest that the lost city and its tombs of
the time for the sake of a smooth succession. In Macedon kings lay hidden near modern-day
the presence of his father’s body, Alexander was Vergina in northeastern Greece. In 1937 Con-
named king of Macedon and proclaimed Alex- stantin Rhomaios, an academic and Greek ar-
ander III—although posterity would, of course, chaeologist, followed Heuzey’s hunch and start-
remember him by a“greater”title. Whatever the ed excavating near the city. Work halted during
true actions behind Philip’s assassination, the World War II and the later Greek Civil War. In
unexpected circumstances of the king’s death 1962 Manolis Andronikos, one of Rhomaios’s
meant that a lavish royal tomb needed to be con- former assistants, took over the project. For the
structed, possibly in haste. next 15 years, Andronikos’s team would come
In 336 B.C. a king as exceptional as Philip closer and closer to finding the resting place of
required a fitting tomb. The Macedon capital Alexander’s bellicose father.
was in the city of Pella, but kings were not buried The site at Aigai contains hundreds of tumuli,
there. Philip’s corpse didn’t have to travel far, some dating as early as 1100 B.C. Andronikos
as Aigai, the site of his murder, was also where and his team focused their efforts on a mound
30 MAY/JUNE 2018
HOLDING HISTORY IN THE HAND
Educated at Oxford, Greek
archaeologist Manolis Andronikos
first worked at Vergina as a student
in the 1930s. Later, he returned to
direct the dig at the Great Tumulus,
uncovering two royal tombs in
1977. More royal tombs would be
discovered later, cementing the
theory that the Vergina site was
indeed Aigai. Once inside Tomb II, he
opened the gold larnax containing the
partially incinerated remains of what
was clearly a royal figure. “Everything
indicated that we had found a royal
tomb,” he wrote, “and if the dating
that we had assigned was correct—as
it seemed to be—I didn’t even dare
think about it. A shiver ran down
my spine, something like an electric
shock went right through me. Was I
holding Philip’s bones in my hands? It
was too overwhelming a thought for
my brain to take on board.”
MANOLIS ANDRONIKOS (CENTER) SUPERVISES
WORKERS EXCAVATING THE GREAT TUMULUS AT
AIGAI (VERGINA). PHOTO FROM LATE 1970S
RICHARD DIBON-SMITH/AGE FOTOSTOCK
known as the Great Tumulus. Measuring more ATHENS of 16 shining rays that served as the symbol of
than 360 feet across and nearly 40 feet high, the ON TOP Macedon royalty. Carefully, he eased the vessel
structure clearly contained a large monument of The Dexileos grave open and saw bones inside.
prominence. Years of patient, systematic sifting stela from circa 394 Precious grave goods surrounded the larnax:
b.c. (below) shows a
followed. Finally in 1977, Andronikos uncovered mounted Athenian
Weapons,pieces of gold and silver,and everyday
a series of tombs inside. crushing a foe. objects lay close by. In another part of Tomb II
One of these, now known as Tomb I, had Later that century, he came upon another precious gold larnax, in
been raided, but the other, known as Tomb II, Athens would itself which lay the remains of a woman. The tomb’s
remained intact. On November 8, 1977, the team be crushed before splendor made it obvious that the remains be-
Philip’s new army,
removed the central stone of Tomb II’s vault trained in the new longed to an important figure, but Andronikos
after grueling physical effort. Using a step lad- Macedon phalanx could not tell yet if they belonged to Philip II.
der, Andronikos climbed down into the chilly formation.
tomb. He already felt sure they had found the DEA/ALBUM B
Buried in Philip’s Tomb
final resting place of a great Macedon king. News of the discovery provoked huge excite-
What Andronikos saw was breathtak- ment across the world, reviving historical in-
ing. The impressively large and carefully terest in Macedon and in Philip II. The un-
constructed chamber was divided into an confirmed identity of the king in Tomb II
inner and an outer vault. The beautiful walls fueled curiosity and wonder. Andronikos,
were decorated with magnificent murals. In by then a Greek national hero, argued that
the inner room, which had probably been the large size of the tomb and the opulence
constructed first, stood a marble sarcopha- of the grave goods pointed to a grave for an
gus. Heart pounding, Andronikos reached especially highly regarded king, and stated
inside and found a gold larnax, or funerary his confidence that it was that of Alexander’s
casket, bearing the Vergina Sun, a sunburst father. The two parts of the vault of Tomb II

FIT FOR A WARRIOR KING
MACEDON’S
MILITARY TREASURES
P
hilip and his son Alexander owed their conquests
to military strategy and advanced technology, so
weapons and armor form a significant portion of
the grave goods discovered at Aigai. Tomb II con-
tains spectacular objects of enormous historical value.
In one corner of the chamber the archaeologists found
a ceremonial sword of bronze and silver and decorated
with a scene depicting the the battlefield. The same is
murder of the queen of the true of the very heavy shield
Amazons by Achilles. Also (right), made of leather, gold,
found were a pair of bronze ivory, and glass. Figures of
greaves, worn to protect the a man and a woman can be
shins. The breastplate (left), made out at the center, sur-
made of iron and ornamented rounded by gold. Although
with gold leaf appears more some historians believe the
ceremonial than practical. armor belonged to Philip,
Covered with leather and other studies suggest they
cloth, it is embellished with are a generation younger,
small, gold lion heads. The leading some researchers
breastplate’s heft would have to argue they may belong to
been far too unwieldy to have Alexander’s half brother, or
been worn by a soldier on even Alexander himself.
were constructed at different times and the AMBITIOUS expressed her doubts about this identification.
stone slab lying across the sarcophagus had not MOTHER Lehmann argued that the style of tomb found by
been dressed at all, suggesting a situation of ur- Alexander’s Andronikos postdated Philip’s death in 336 B.C.
gency, which could be explained by the sudden- mother, Olympias, She also questioned the idea that the gold crown
depicted below on a
ness of Philip’s death. Historians know from third-century b.c. belonged to Philip, arguing that it was his son
written sources that Philip suffered numerous medallion, stopped Alexander who introduced this Persian-style
physical injuries in his many battles, and the at nothing to headgear after his conquest of the East.
damage to remnants of the skull appears to be secure the throne On the basis of her theory that Tomb II dates
consistent with those descriptions. for her children. to after Alexander the Great’s reign, Lehmann
Archaeological
If the male remains did belong to Philip, then Museum of suggested that the two bodies inside Tomb II
who was the woman in the other chamber of Thessaloníki belong to Alexander’s half brother, Philip III
Tomb II? Is she Meda, one of Philip’s seven ALBUM Arrhidaeus—who officially succeeded Alexan-
hil-
wives, who is said to have killed herself on Phil der
deronhis death in 323 B.C.—and his warrior wife,
ip’s death? Or is she Cleopatra, the last of his
h Eurrydice. The pair were deposed and killed a few
wives, who died—perhaps burned to death— — yeaars later, at the hands of Alexander’s mother,
on the orders of Olympias, Alexander’s venge-- Olympias, who wanted Alexander’s own son
ful mother? In either case, the discovery of tto succeed him.
the tomb helped bring to life the violent Lehmann’s theory received a swift rebut-
jockeying for power after Philip’s death. tal from other archaeologists. Some took
Not all historians have accepted An- issue with her argument that the crown
dronikos’s conclusion that the body in from Tomb II was in an oriental style that
Tomb II is indeed that of Philip. In 1980 postdates Philip. They claim Philip was de-
American archaeologist Phyllis Williams picted wearing such headgear. Others point
Lehmann published an article in which she o
out the difficulty of imagining that a king like
32 MAY/JUNE 2018
THE CEREMONIAL SHIELD
FOUND IN TOMB II AT AIGAI, AS
WELL AS THE IRON-AND-GOLD
BREASTPLATE (FAR LEFT), IS FROM
THE FOURTH CENTURY B.C.
MUSEUM OF THE ROYAL
TOMBS OF AIGAI, GREECE
SHIELD: DEA/ALBUM
BREASTPLATE: DEA/ALBUM
Philip III Arrhidaeus would have warranted such who are the occupants of Tomb II? This latest
a magnificent tomb. His reign was by no means study reverts to Lehmann’s argument, suggest-
glorious, and it is believed that he had to del- ing that they are probably the remains of Philip III
egate power to Alexander’s generals because of Arrhidaeus and Eurydice. As of this writing, the
mental deficiency. location of Philip’s body remains undecided.
What has never been in doubt since the dis-
Bones to Pick covery of these lavish tombs, however, is the im-
Archaeological claims and counter-claims con- portant contribution they made to understand-
tinue to roil around the occupants of Tomb II. ing the extraordinary civilization that produced
In 2010 anatomist Jonathan Musgrave, from the Alexander the Great. The stunning artifacts and
University of Bristol in England, presented find- intriguing burial practices put modern visitors
ings that suggested that damage to the eye socket face-to-face with an epoch-shaking event of the
of the bones found in Tomb II are consistent past. By advancing understanding of the ancient
with Philip’s right-eye injury sustained when world, Andronikos’s achievement is on a par
he laid siege to the city of Methone in 355 B.C. with Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankh-
Then, in 2015, a joint Spanish-Greek study of amun’s tomb or Heinrich Schliemann’s unearth-
the tombs reignited the controversy. The team’s ing of Troy.
researchers concentrated on the skeletons in
Tomb I, and they found that the left leg of the BORJA ANTELA IS PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT HISTORY
AT THE AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA, SPAIN.
tall, middle-aged male skeleton bore signs of a
crippling blow to the knee.
Learn more
Various sources concur that in 339 B.C., three
By the Spear: Philip II, Alexander the Great, and the Rise and
years before his murder, Philip received a similar Fall of the Macedonian Empire
leg injury. If Philip’s body lies in Tomb I, then Ian Worthington, Oxford University Press, 2014.

THE TREASURE TOMBS OF
The Museum of the Royal Tombs of Aigai, Greece, conserves the hoard of
e A
DEA/ALBUM
b
D a MAN’S LARNAX
This pure gold casket
decorated with rosettes
and a 16-pointed star was
C found inside the marble
sarcophagus. It contained
DEA/ALBUM
the bones of an adult male.
THE MAIN CHAMBER OF TOMB II

The bones of a man and a gold crown were found in
a gold larnax (casket). Nearby were finely wrought
weapons and armor as well as everyday objects: a
cooking pot, tripod, bucket, bowls, silver cups, and
even a sponge.
b MAN’S CROWN
Found inside the man’s
larnax, this crown is
composed of 313 gold
leaves and 68 tiny gold
acorns, sacred to Zeus.
M
U
/ALB
DEA
1 WOMAN’S LARNAX
Found in the antechamber,
this larnax contained the
burned bones of a woman,
age around 20, and a crown.
Her remains were wrapped
in gold and purple cloth.
c SILVER ALABASTRON 2 BREASTPLATE

BRIDGEMAN/ACI
This alabastron (perfume This breastplate was

bottle), decorated with the found in the antechamber.
head of Alexander in the Decorated with intricate
guise of Hercules, forms part reliefs, it is made of leather
ROBERT J. TERINGO
of a silver set found in the covered with a layer of

DEA/ALBUM
funeral chamber. iron and silver.

MACEDON
grave goods found in 1977.
THE TUMULUS TROVE

T
The Great Tumulus near Vergina contains numerous
Th
d SWORD royyal tombs, confirming the site as that of Aigai,
is marble-tipped wh
w hich, along with Pella, was a key city in Alexander the
ord was found lying eat’s native Macedon. Shown here are some of the
on
n the floor of the tomb. treasures of Tomb II, one of two sepulchres that Manolis
s abbard is decorated
w th strips of gold. Andronikos first uncovered in the tumulus in 1977.
Although some historians dispute his claim that Tomb II is
that
t of King Philip II of Macedon, its glittering grave goods
offer an insight into a culture that produced two of the
greatest commanders and empire builders in history.
4 WOMAN’S CROWN (DETAIL)
DEA/ALBUM
This item was found in the woman’s
DEA/ALBUM
larnax in the antechamber.
e LANTERN
This bronze lantern is
perforated to allow light to
shine out. It is adorned with
faces of the god Pan.
3 QUIVER
This gold quiver was found
in the antechamber of the
tomb. It is decorated with an
DEA/ALBUM
intricate relief depicting the

capture of a city and may have
been part of a war booty.
4
3
DEA/ALBUM
ANTECHAMBER
A room discovered abutting the
2
main chamber. Inside, a gold
larnax containing the remains
M
LBU
DEA/ALBUM
of a young woman was found,

A/A
DE
along with various weapons.

A N E W AG E FOR ROM A N WOM EN
MORE THAN
MATRONS
As Rome transitioned from republic to empire, the lives
of wealthy Roman women transformed, too. War, money,
and politics opened up avenues to women for wielding
influence and reshaping their lives.
MARÍA ISABEL NÚÑEZ

A GODDESS
WITH MANY FACES
The goddess of magic and
crossroads, Hecate was often
depicted with three faces, as she
is in this third-century Roman
statue. Antalya Archaeological
Museum, Turkey
NEUROBITE/GETTY IMAGES
R
AGAINST evealing insights into ancient Roman To avoid bloodshed, the Sabine women acqui-
THEIR WILL attitudes toward women are found in esced to marry their captors. The myth reflects
A detail from Nicolas one of the city’s origin stories. Romu- how Rome expected women to submit and obey.
Poussin’s 1637-38 lus, founder and leader of Rome, knew As Rome moved from republic to empire, these
painting “The Rape of the city needed families to survive and old values would change—shaped by war, pros-
the Sabine Women”
(above) depicts the prosper, but it had no women. Romulus ap- perity, and politics.
brutal legend of how proached the neighboring Sabine kingdom, but
Rome boosted its it declined to send Rome its daughters. Unde- Daughters, Mothers, and Wives
female population. terred, he crafted a plan: Romulus held a marvel- In public and private life, Rome was a man’s
Louvre Museum,
Paris
ous festival and invited the Sabines. During the world. Roman families were run by the oldest
PHAS/GETTY IMAGES
festivities, he gave a signal living male, called the paterfamilias, or
to the Roman men, who father of the family. He made private de-
seized the Sabine women cisions for the family, managing their
and fought off their men. wealth and property and determining
450 b.c. 146 b.c.
Rome’s legal code, the Law The Punic Wars with Carthage
MOTHERS, of the Twelve Tables, is
compiled. Tablet V places
result in Rome’s mastery of the
Mediterranean. Cornelia, daughter
HEROINES, women under the control of Scipio Africanus the Elder and
RULERS of male heads of the
household, setting the tone
mother to the Gracchus brothers,
is held up as an example of an ideal
for many centuries to come. modest Roman matron.
THE GODDESS VESTA BLESSES A MARRIAGE
38 MAY/JUNE 2018 ON A RELIEF FROM THE SECOND CENTURY A.D.
BRIDGEMAN/ACI
the course of his children’s lives. Men could par- lives were rigidly controlled from childhood. WHO’S THE
ticipate in public life; they could attend political They could not participate in public life, either FAIREST?
events, speak in public, vote, and hold office. through oration, voting, or holding office. The role of ornatrix
Roman women were most closely associated Marriage and motherhood were the aims of (hairdresser) was
with the home and hearth, exemplified by the a respectable Roman woman. In the sponsalia, often undertaken
by freedwomen
figure of the matron, a submissive feminine ide- a kind of engagement ceremony, a Roman girl who worked for rich
al. The patriarchal society believed most wom- marked her betrothal by wearing a ring on the mistresses. Below,
en incapable of serious thought and in need of third finger of her left hand, as according to an- a silver mirror from
male guidance. For example, a legal code from cient tradition, a nerve ran from there directly to the Boscoreale Villa
near Pompeii. Louvre
the mid-fifth century B.C., the Law of the Twelve the heart. Her wedding day was regarded as the Museum, Paris
Tables, decreed:“Women, even though they are most important event of her life. Once she had BRIDGEMAN/ACI
of full age, because of their levity of mind shall be married, she could start bearing children and
under [male] guardianship.”In order to keep this upholding Roman values, bringing her children
dangerous “levity of mind” in check, women’s up according to patriotic principles. Any sexual
42 b.c. 27 b.c. a.D. 527
Hortensia, the daughter of Rome becomes an empire, in which Empress Theodora rules
a famous orator, delivers a Augustus’ then wife, Livia Drusilla, over the flourishing eastern
fiery speech in the Forum, will define the role of empress. Roman Empire with her
becoming one of the first Through patronage and private husband Justinian. Under
Roman woman to speak out influence, she expands women’s their co-rule, rights are
in public against a law she public powers that can be exercised granted to women that will
considers unjust. only through male relatives. shape later legal systems.
OBSERVED BY A MAN, A WOMAN NURSES A BABY
ON THE THIRD-CENTURY SARCOPHAGUS OF MARCUS
CORNELIUS STATIUS. LOUVRE MUSEUM, PARIS
DEA/ALBUM BRINGING UP BABIES
MOTHERHOOD
IN ROME
P
art of being an ideal Roman wife was being a good
mother and providing a husband with offspring.
If a couple were infertile, then another woman
might serve as a surrogate, despite the risk that
this woman might displace the original wife altogether.
A first-century B.C. inscription, the Laudatio Turiae, details
a loving husband’s praise for his dead wife. He reveals
the lengths to which a cou- Maternalism was deemed
ple might go for an heir: to be a natural female state,
“When you despaired of which meant that good ma-
your ability to bear children trons were also expected to
and grieved over my child- raise children left mother-
lessness . . . you proposed less, a practice warmly
a divorce outright and of- applauded by the Roman
fered to yield our house moralist Seneca. Surro-
free to another woman’s gacy and fostering were
fertility.” Despite the hus- embedded in Roman ideas
band’s refusal and the evi- of motherhood. After all,
dent mutual affection of the Rome’s mythical founders,
pair, the extreme solution Romulus and Remus, were
reveals the precarious posi- raised by a foster mother in
tion of any infertile woman. the form of a she-wolf.
POWER BEHIND relations outside of marriage, even by unmarried Wars were no exception. Many heads of families
THE THRONE women or widows, were considered a crime and had died during the wars, or were absent for long
Augustus’ wife Livia could be punished by the paterfamilias without periods fighting, and some Romans were alarmed
Drusilla is portrayed a trial, often taking the form of an honor killing. at the increasing number of wealthy women, who,
as the goddess Ceres by necessity, were playing a growing role in busi-
in this marble statue
from around A.D. 15. Punic Wars, Protesting Women ness and enterprise.
Louvre Museum, When the Roman Republic was disrupted by In 215 B.C., during the Second Punic War,
Paris war, its social relations were disrupted, too. The Rome’s rulers passed the Lex Oppia, a sump-
SCALA, FLORENCE Punic Wars, a series of three conflicts occurring tuary law to keep women from appearing too
between 264 and 146 B.C., created new opportu- ostentatious during wartime. The law decreed
nities in the lives of Rome’s women. When the that women could possess no more than half an
men of Rome left to fight the Carthaginian (Pu- ounce of gold, that they could not wear multi-
nic) empire, some Roman women colored tunics (especially purple ones), and they
saw their chance to expand their could not ride in horse-drawn chariots in town,
rights, however limited. As Ro- except for religious occasions.
man generals such as Scipio Over the course of a century, Rome defeated
Africanus the Elder warred Carthage and emerged in 146 B.C. as the domi-
against the Carthaginian leader nant power in the Mediterranean. When the
Hannibal, a battle of the sexes was war ended, however, the Lex Oppia remained in
also occurring on the home front. effect. In 195 B.C. Rome’s matrons had decided
In wartime women have been able the law needed to go, too. They marched on the
to challenge traditional roles, only to Forum and pressured the government to repeal
find themselves thrust back into old the law, revealing how female power could be
ways once the war is over. The Punic channeled into victory.
The battle, however, was far from over. Ro- THE PERFECT truth—license; and if they win on this occasion
man men still believed that women were par- MOTHER what is there that they will not attempt?”
ticularly vulnerable to corruption arising from In this 17th- To help head off such gender anarchy, Cato
luxury and greed. There was great unease that century painting supported the Lex Voconia in 169 B.C., which
Rome’s new wealth and power from its victory by Alessandro prevented very rich citizens from willing their
Varotari (above),
over Carthage would lead to moral trouble for Cornelia, daughter wealth to a female heir. The law was partly mo-
women’s “purity.” of the general Scipio tivated by the enduring idea that naturally frivo-
Looking for a traditional, modest matron who Africanus, tells a lous women would fritter the money away. Many
knew her place, Roman men idealized Cornelia, friend boasting women found legal strategies to get around the
of her finery that
daughter of the heroic general Scipio Africanus restriction, however, with the collaboration of
her jewels are her
and mother to the war heroes Gaius and Tiberius children. National men registered in other classes.
Gracchus. Cornelia publicly scorned luxury and Gallery, London
riches. She famously said of her sons: “Haec or- AKG/ALBUM Speaking Her Mind
namenta mea—These are my jewels.” During the next century, women would speak
A prominent critic of female outspokenness up for their rights again due to a war. After the
was Marcus Porcius Cato—Cato the Elder— murder of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C., 1,400 rich
who held the role of censor toward the end of women were to be forcibly taxed to help fund
the Punic Wars. Cato’s rejection of luxury, and the ensuing civil wars.
nostalgia for an older, sterner age, sometimes To the shocked disapproval of the Roman po-
cloaked an ingrained misogyny. He once wrote, litical elite, Hortensia, daughter of the orator
with apparent satisfaction, that if a man’s wife Quintus Hortensius, delivered a fiery speech
committed adultery “he could kill her with im- in Rome’s Forum, summarizing the injustice
punity.” He also wrote: “What [women] really and hypocrisy of the Roman patriarchy. Ac-
want is unrestricted freedom—or to speak the cording to the writings of historian Appian, she

FROM
MATRON
TO PATRON
POMPEII WAS HOME to a number of groundbreaking,
wealthy women who wielded public power. One
of them was Eumachia, daughter of a brickmaker,
who married into a high-ranking family. Using her
wealth, she became a notable public benefac-
tor, building many structures in Pompeii. One of
the largest and best preserved is the Building of
Eumachia (right) in the city’s forum. Within it is
a statue of a veiled Eumachia (below) which was
dedicated to her by the fullers guild, the influen-
tial tradesmen responsible for dying and cleaning
clothes. Eumachia was also the public priestess
of the Concordia Augusta, the cult of the deified
Augustus, associated with his wife Livia. Some
scholars believe the statue of Eumachia inten-
tionally mimics Livia’s features to link her with a
traditional Roman matron. In Pompeii it seems
that women like Eumachia could become strong,
independent figures, as long as they behaved in
socially sanctioned ways.
STATUE OF EUMACHIA,
BEARING THE INSCRIPTION
“TO EUMACHIA,
DAUGHTER OF LUCIUS,
PUBLIC PRIESTESS, THE
FULLERS [DEDICATED
THIS STATUE]”
ARALDO DE LUCA
BUILDING OF EUMACHIA,
IN THE FORUM AT POMPEII
DEA/AGE FOTOSTOCK
A WOMAN HOLDING WRITING
IMPLEMENTS ON A FIRST-
CENTURY FRESCO FROM POMPEII.
NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL
MUSEUM,
MUSEUM NAPLES
ERICH LESSING/ALBUM GAIUS MUSONIUS RUFUS
In his Dissertations, first-century A.D. philosopher and jurist
Gaius Musonius Rufus said that women should receive
the same education as men: “Trainers of horses and of
dogs make no distinction between male and female in
their training.” When asked whether women should study
philosophy he said, “Women have received from the gods
the same ability to reason as men . . . It is not men alone who
possess eagerness and a natural inclination towards virtue,
but women also . . . Women are pleased no less than men
by noble and just deeds, and reject the opposite of
such actions.”
JULIUS PAULUS
Regarded as one of the most important Roman jurists in the
LONG, LEGAL second and third centuries A.D., Paulus believed that custom,
not inferiority, was the reason women could not be appointed
STRUGGLE as judges. He argued that it was not lawful for a father to

separate his daughter from her husband if she did not agree to
Several imperial-era Roman jurists argued the separation, and that a dowry could only be claimed with a
that nothing justified unequal treatment daughter’s consent. He also said there was no justification for
of women. Until the wholesale reforms of limiting women’s rights over their property. Paulus’s call for
Justinian in the sixth century, many of these changes to the law to reduce discrimination against women
ideas of equality did not gain acceptance. was never answered in his time.
proclaimed:“Why should we pay taxes when we WOMAN to at least three children, and freedwomen who
have no part in the honors, the commands, the OF POWER had at least four children, could be legally inde-
state-craft, for which you contend against each Augustus’ niece pendent and did not have to remarry if widowed.
other with such harmful results?” Antonia Minor,
depicted on
On that occasion, Hortensia carried the day: this bronze coin
The Augustan Age
The tribunes were forced to reduce the number (below), remained Augustus’wife Livia Drusilla enjoyed consider-
of women affected by the new tax and to include an independent, able power and respect in Roman society. Livia
wealthy men, too. The triumph was, however, a unmarried widow. accrued a huge fortune, helped craft her hus-
rare one. Throughout much of Rome’s history, She had a cruel band’s diplomatic relations, and was one of few
reputation: When
women could not make a will and most legal her daughter Livilla Roman women to be depicted on monuments,
business they engaged in was subject to male conspired against most notably Augustus’ Ara Pacis, the Altar of
supervision. In some cases they did not inherit Emperor Tiberius, Peace, where only she and her emperor husband
property,and they could not pass their property Antonia starved wear a laurel wreath.
her to death.
on to their own children. BRIDGEMAN/ACI
While most Roman poets focused on men,
During the early imperial era,however,female Ovid took care in his poetry to include Livia in
activity outside of the domus (home) began to his confident prediction of the flourishing of
increase. Although female emancipation the Augustan line, in which “Livia shall be a
was not the aim, women’s rights started new divinity, Julia Augusta.” Her ascension
to improve as a consequence of legisla- marked an attitude shift toward women,
tion. Emperor Augustus enacted laws who were now seen as more capable. A
to raise the birthrate and strengthen tiny minority of rich noblewomen were
the institution of marriage, which gave steadily gaining control over political
women benefits for having more chil- power and their own finances. But Livia
dren. Freeborn women who gave birth also symbolizes, paradoxically, a reliance
44 MAY/JUNE 2018
GAIUS
The most enigmatic of the Roman jurists, Gaius’s full name is
not known. Believed to have been active in the middle of the
second century A.D., he is perhaps best known for his assertion
that the law of guardianship, enshrined in Rome’s ancient Law
of the Twelve Tables, was no longer valid: “There seems . . . to
have been no very worthwhile reason why women who have
reached the age of maturity should be in guardianship; for the
argument which is commonly believed, that because they are
scatterbrained they are frequently subject to deception and
that it was proper for them to be under guardians’ authority,
seems to be specious rather than true.”
JUSTINIAN AND THEODOR A

The sixth-century A.D. law code issued by the Byzantine
emperor Justinian was drawn up by a committee of jurists,
reflecting the views of Justinian’s wife and co-ruler, Theodora.
This compilation of laws stated “there is no difference
between men and women.” It also rejected the injustice of
denying women certain rights and did not recognize sex-
based reasons (ratio sexus) as justification for discrimination.
It regarded it as deeply unjust that “[women] do not have
the same right to inherit from one another or from men, but
instead are penalized for having been born female.”
on traditional roles. She wielded influence only a“disease in my flesh,”he dissolved Julia’s mar- THE RIGHTS
in private and through her husband and sons. riage to future emperor Tiberius and then exiled OF WOMEN
In public she carefully projected the image of a her to the tiny island of Pandateria in 2 B.C. He A 13th-century copy
respectable matron. gave orders that upon her death, she was not of the Justinian Code
Some of the younger generation in Augustus’ to be buried in his mausoleum. Julia’s punish- (above) reproduces
the decree issued in
family were able to take advantage of these new ment didn’t end with her father’s death. When A.D. 529. Co-crafted
changes. One example was Antonia Minor, Au- Tiberius took power in 14 A.D., he punished her by Justinian’s wife,
gustus’niece and Livia’s daughter-in-law. After further by withholding her allowance.Julia died Theodora, its
fulfilling her duty to the state by giving birth to later that year of starvation, some sources say. take on equality
three children—Germanicus, Livilla, and the The fates of Livia, Antonia, and Julia showed forms the basis for
many modern
future emperor Claudius—she decided not to the growing fractures in old Roman ideas about legal systems.
remarry. She was thus able to enjoy the full legal women. The republican biases toward women PRISMA/ALBUM
benefits of being a widow, left in peace to manage were falling away as women were able to move in
her vast property herself without male interfer- society with more independence.Despite these
ence. The republican ideal that making a fortune advances, some traditional attitudes persisted.
was vulgar or undignified was being abandoned. The first-century A.D. philosopher Seneca ar-
More women owned vast estates and managed gued that“men and women contribute an equal
them personally. share to human society, but the one is born to
Not all women enjoyed new freedom. Augus- command, the other to obey.”For Rome’s wom-
tus’ own beloved daughter, Julia the Elder, paid en, these entrenched beliefs would slow prog-
a steep price for flagrantly breaking the rules of ress, limiting most of these new advances to the
Roman society. A bright and articulate woman, wealthiest women in the empire.
Julia was publicly punished by her father for
MARÍA ISABEL NÚÑEZ IS PROFESSOR OF ROMAN LAW
adultery and promiscuity. Calling his daughter AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OVIEDO, SPAIN.

WORKING WOMEN
Despite discrimination, there are notable cases of imperial-era
ALCESTE
DETAIL OF A PAINTING
FROM POMPEII. NATIONAL
ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM,
NAPLES
BANKERS
In 1959 a hoard of wooden tablets was found near Pompeii.
Dating between around A.D. 26 and 61, they detail a series
of banking transactions made in the rich province and yield
ample evidence that women were both lenders and borrowers.
Historians believe that although women needed a guarantor
to vouch for them, they could, at this stage in Roman history,
take or give loans in their own right.
MANAGERS
Although some very wealthy women were landowners, it was
not common to find women who actually managed property.
One landowner, Valeria Maxima, believed to be living in the
first century A.D., employed two female managers, Eucrotia and
Cania Urbana, to run her estate. Another case was Prastina
Maxima, the administrator (autrix) for a rich senatorial family.
MANUFACTURERS
Some rich women owned clay quarries, such as Domitia Lu-
cilla Minor, mother of the second-century emperor Marcus
Aurelius. She is known to have taken an active part in
the business, which produced bricks and other hugely
lucrative building materials.
MERCHANT SHIP FOR GRAIN

TRANSPORT ON A FRESCO
FROM OSTIA. WOMEN WERE
KNOWN TO OWN SHIPS AND
TRADE IN CEREALS.
women flourishing in traditionally maale roles.
GLADIATOR. SOME WEALTHY

WOMEN ALSO OWNED GLADIATORS.
PAINTING FROM POMPEII. NATIONAL
ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM, NAPLES
TRADERS
Pompeii was an important center for packaging and distribut-
ing garum, or fish sauce. Several women worked for the city’s
garum magnate, Aulus Umbricius Scaurus—including Umbri-
cia and Eutyches. Although Scaurus called the shots, the fact
that the names of these women appear on the inscriptions on
amphorae strongly suggests they enjoyed independence
in their business affairs.
DOCTORS
Many women were specialists in childbirth and gynecologi-
cal conditions. There is, however, also evidence that women
worked in other areas of medical science. A second- or third-
BACKGROUND: FOGLIA/SCALA, FLORENCE. FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: FOGLIA/SCALA, FLORENCE; BRIDGEMAN/ACI; SCALA, FLORENCE
century epitaph to one Domnina praises her for having “deliv-
ered your fatherland from disease.” Another Roman inscription
by Glycon, a doctor, gives his wife Pantheia qualified praise for
“raising high our common fame in the art of medicine, and
even though a woman, you did not fall short of my skill.”
Protoscience or Pseudoscience?
PARADOX
With roots in ancient practices and secret arts, alchemy strove to
use both science and mysticism to understand the forces of creation.
Famous for trying to turn lead into gold, alchemists in the 16th and 17th
centuries included the most brilliant minds of the age, bold scientists
who through their work paved the path to modern chemistry.
JOAQUÍN PÉREZ-PARIENTE
FOOL’S GOLD
An alchemist’s fruitless search for the
philosopher’s stone is depicted in a
cluttered study filled with papers, books,
and flasks in Eugène-Louis-Gabriel Isabey’s
19th-century painting. Palais des Beaux-
Arts, Lille, France
THIERRY LE MAGE/RMN-GRAND PALAIS
O ne 17th-century manuscript handwritten by Isaac
Newton came up for auction in 2016. It contained
cryptic instructions for preparing “sophick mer-
cury,” an alchemist’s potion. Isaac Newton, the
scientist, literally wrote the book on the fundamental laws of mo-
tion, but his interest in the more mystical side of science was well
documented. It turns out, this scientist was also an alchemist.
Over the course of his life, Newton wrote more among matter, spirit, and life), historians
than one million words on the subject of al- have traced the discipline’s Western history
chemy. After publishing his landmark work to scholars in Harran in Syria and in ancient
Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy Egypt around the time of Alexander the Great’s
(better known as the Principia) in 1687, he was conquest. The roots of the word “alchemy” re-
quick to return to his alchemical pursuits at main obscure. Some scholars believe the word
Cambridge University in England. blends Greek and Arabic, reflecting the influ-
Today the word“alchemy”evokes magical im- ence of both cultures. The Greek word for Egypt,
ages of wizened men surrounded by dusty books Khemia, was paired with the Arabic prefix al- to
and bubbling potions, but in Newton’s time, it create a new name for the region: al-Khemia.
fell in the realm of legitimate scientific inquiry. Many early alchemists studied in Alex-
Much like astrology attempted to explore the ef- andria, Egypt, but their texts were lost to the
fects of the cosmos on humanity, alchemy aimed West for centuries until scholars in Spain and
to understand the fundamental relationship be- Sicily translated them from Arabic and Greek
tween the life force and inert matter. It blended into Latin in the 12th century. Renewed access
wisdom gleaned from practical arts—such as to these texts ignited interest in alchemy. Schol-
metallurgy, medicine, and glassmaking—with ars in the coming centuries would pursue these
abstract ideas from philosophy and religion. lines of thinking with great interest.
Through experimentation, alchemists hoped to
learn how the mystical spark of life could change Alchemy 101
or“transmute”matter to improve it. Base metals, Many of these translated texts did not provide
like lead, could change to higher metals, like gold. step-by-step instructions for re-creating the
The spark of life could perhaps thwart disease, work of ancient alchemists. Manuscripts were
prolong human life, or grant immortality. Much laden with arcane terms: Green Lion, Sophick
like astrology would give way Mercury, the Horned Head, Doves of Diana,
to astronomy, so alchemy Divine Water, and Universal Spirit. They were
would eventually lead often illustrated with beautiful but obscure sym-
to chemistry. bols and images.
While alchemy’s These mysterious symbols, cryptic codes, and
exact origins are religious images drove scholars to decipher what
difficult to pin- they believed was the wisdom of the ancient
point (many civi- world. To protect their work, they guarded their
lizations explored findings and even coded their terminology. De-
the relationship spite this willful attempt to conceal their art, it
ALCHEMICAL DISK FROM THE 18TH has been possible to extract some common ideas
CENTURY. MUSEUM OF THE HISTORY from texts that point to the main theoretical
OF MEDICINE, PARIS
BRIDGEMAN/ACI concepts in Western alchemy.
50 MAY/JUNE 2018
ADVANCES
OF
ALCHEMY
1583
Elizabethan alchemists John
Dee and Edward Kelley begin
a tour of central Europe, and
they are welcomed at the
court of Rudolf II in Prague.
1600-1620
Many alchemical treatises,
including Atalanta fugiens, are
published in this period. In 1620
Francis Bacon expounds the
scientific method in his
Novum organum.
1648
Emperor Ferdinand III is said
to witness the transmutation
of mercury into gold in
Prague. Similar claims will
follow in the next decades.
1654
Writing as Eirenaeus
Philalethes, Harvard scholar
George Starkey publishes
The Marrow of Alchemy, an
influential volume of the time.
1687
Isaac Newton publishes his
Mathematical Principles of
Natural Philosophy, known as
the Principia. His work lays
the foundation for modern
scientific practice, yet Newton
still pursues alchemy with
great interest.
HIS DARK
MATERIALS
An alchemist preparing
ingredients. Illustration
from the 15th-century
vellum manuscript The
Ordinal of Alchemy by ISAAC NEWTON
ANONYMOUS OIL PAINTING.
Thomas Norton. British SCIENCE MUSEUM, LONDON
Library, London AKG/ALBUM
BRIDGEMAN/ACI
Collecting in different concentrations. A skillful alchemist
could apply a philosopher’s stone to manipulate
Condensation the metal and transmute it into a higher sub-
stance, like gold.
HE ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT of alchemical operations was One of the first authors to enter into alchemi-
T believed to be invisible. Referred to by the treatises as the

“universal spirit,” it was a vital element that impregnated
the cosmos from the dawn of creation and was the impetus
for all transformations that occurred on Earth. The alchemists de-
sired to capture this spirit to harness its power. It was believed that
cal medicine was the English Franciscan monk
Roger Bacon, in the 13th century. Although Ba-
con was a pioneering scientific experimental-
ist, he also believed that alchemy could prolong
existence to the point of achieving the longevity
this force manifested itself most strongly in springtime, when life
returns after winter, and of the biblical patriarchs, some of whom appar-
the world trades frost ently lived for as long as 900 years. He argued
for dewdrops. Dew was that humanity had suffered a process of degen-
believed to be rich in eration since the time of the patriarchs but that
this mystical substance, alchemy could redress this.
and people would col- Only a very few people, however, were be-
lect it by stretching out lieved to have the knowledge and skills to pre-
pieces of cloth at night pare this extraordinary healing substance. In the
to collect the conden- mid-14th century the Franciscan monk John
sation. This 1677 en- of Rupescissa proposed his theory of quintes-
graving from the Mutus
sence, a supposedly more accessible procedure
liber shows a man and
woman wringing out
than producing a philosopher’s stone. He argued
the dew into a vessel. that in all material substances there existed a
The artist signals it is quintessence, or fifth element, from which the
spring by including two heavenly bodies were formed.
astrological signs of the The quintessence could be activated in alco-
season: Aries the Ram hol by distilling it in a special container. Main-
(left) and Taurus the tained at moderate temperature (that of fresh
Bull (right). horse manure, it was advised) for a month, the
MARY EVANS/ACI
liquid was successively evaporated and then re-
condensed. According to a 16th-century text,
“those who smell [the quintessence] believe
themselves transported to the Land of Para-
ELEMENTAL One essential idea was that the work of the dise to capture the celestial fragrance.” It was
This 18th-century alchemist was similar to that of God during cre- believed that by swallowing this substance its
miniature depicts a ation. The alchemist worked with a mineral sub- perfection restored health. It is no coincidence
vessel decorated with stance similar to the prima materia (first matter) that these methods gained popularity at a time
the elements that,
according to present during the initial chaos of creation. By when Europe was reeling from the outbreak of
Aristotelian exposing this raw substance to a series of ritu- the Black Death.
teachings, als and treatments, the alchemist could purify
make up it. As the alchemical process progressed, the Good as Gold
creation: air,
mineral substance changed color from black to Gold was deemed a noble metal by medieval sci-
fire, water,
and earth. red. This red product was called the elixir, or a entists. Its malleable nature as well as its resis-
BNF/RMN-GRAND PALAIS philosopher’s stone; it contained the cos- tance to corrosion and oxidation made it seem a
mos’ concentrated, vital energy. perfect substance. It was believed by alchemists
According to some alchemical to be capable of curing disease. All attempts to
treatises, the philosopher’s stone prepare potable gold failed until the discovery of
could turn base metals into gold. nitric acid around 1300. When this compound is
During the late Middle Ages, al- mixed with ammonium chloride or common salt
chemists conceived of metals it produced aqua regia (royal water), a yellowish
very differently than now. Rather fuming liquid that dissolves metals, including
than seeing elements, all metals gold. Unfortunately for those who then tried to
were thought to be compounds, drink this “remedy,” it also dissolves people. In
composed of different substances the 16th and 17th centuries many potable gold
52 MAY/JUNE 2018
1
2
3
4 56
9
8
7
LEEMAGE/PRISMA
“ as ab o ve, so bel ow ”
his illustration, reproduced in how alchemical ideas were reconciled with lower realm corresponds to earth: 7 the
Opus medico-chymicum (1618) a Christian world view. In the upper section male archetype Adam associated with
by Johann Daniel Mylius, illustrates the is the Trinity: 1 the Father, 2 the Son, and the sun, 8 the female archetype Eve,
key alchemical formulation “as above, 3 the Holy Spirit. In the central section, associated with the moon, both linked to
so below.” This notion, that the laws that within the concentric circles, appear the the divine world above. Between the two
govern the heavens also rule the earth, had three alchemical elements: 4 mercury, 5 are seven trees 9 representing the seven
a clear appeal to those exploring universal sulfur, and 6 salt. Below, five birds appear metals, with gold at the summit touching
laws, such as Isaac Newton. It also reflects representing alchemical operations. The the heavenly spheres.
Anxious claimed to have witnessed the changing of a large
quantity of mercury into gold. Twenty years
About Alchemy later the German Johann Friedrich Schweitzer
claimed a stranger gave him a sulfur-colored
LONG WITH scholars who experimented with optics or
A
powder capable of transmuting lead into gold. A
magnets, alchemists fell under suspicion for presuming to book published in 1784 selects 112 similar cases.
understand the secrets of God’s creation. Antipathy toward
alchemists was also bound up with their knowledge of met- Science’s Golden Age
allurgy: In the third century A.D. Emperor Diocletian ordered the alchem-
As interest in alchemy rose between the 16th
ical texts of the Egyptians to be destroyed, fearing that the gold they
might produce could undermine the empire’s economy. Although some
and 18th centuries, science was also experienc-
early Christian authors ing a golden age, dubbed the “scientific revolu-
criticized alchemy, large tion.” Huge strides were made in scientific
numbers of alchemical understanding—from Copernicus’s theory of
texts were being copied heliocentrism to Newton’s description of the
by monks by the 1300s. laws of motion. Many of these advances came
Even so, anxiety over about, in part, because of better scientific stan-
the compatibility of dards, like those developed by scholar Francis
faith and science per- Bacon (no relation of Roger). A nobleman in the
sisted, expressed in the court of Elizabeth I and later James I, Bacon
story of Doctor Faus-
wrote that“The best proof by far is experiment.”
tus (shown here in his
This idea became the cornerstone of the scien-
study in Rembrandt’s
1652 engraving). Wea- tific method, by which theories are proposed
ried by the slow pace of after direct observation and experimentation
virtuous experimenta- rather than being based on tradition, supersti-
tion, Faustus turns to tion, or religion.
the dark arts to make a When Francis Bacon was developing his new
deal with the devil that idea, alchemy still fell into the realm of science.
will consign his soul to While alchemists attributed mystical causes to
eternal perdition. results, they did carry out scientific experiments
QUINTLOX/ALBUM
that resulted in genuine discoveries. John Dee, a
gifted Elizabethan mathematician, astronomer,
and alchemist, is a good example of this duality.
Caught between magic and science, Dee taught
ESSENTIAL recipes circulated, each trying to solve the co- navigational skills to the sailors who would
WORK nundrum of dissolving gold for safe consump- embark on voyages of discovery, while he also
Alchemists carried tion, but with little success. claimed the ability to communicate with angels.
out distillations in At this time, an astonishingly large number Elsewhere in Europe at the time, interest in
glass vessels such of witnesses were prepared to testify to having alchemy intrigued people at all levels of soci-
as this 17th-century
retort, to extract seen metals such as mercury and lead turned ety, whether physicians, apothecaries, peddlers,
the “quintessence.” into gold or silver. The process was always the nobles, or priests. The Medici rulers of Tuscany
National Museum same: The alchemists melted the metal financed alchemical research. Holy Roman Em-
of Science and to be transmuted in a crucible. They peror Rudolf II was as fascinated by alchemy as
Technology,
then took a small fragment of a phi- he was by astronomy. Rudolf attracted Elizabe-
Milan
LEEMAGE/PRISMA
losopher’s stone, wrapped in wax than alchemists and occultists to his court in
or paper, and rubbed it against the Prague, including Edward Kelley and John Dee.
melted metal until it transformed Those in the upper echelons of power re-
into gold. Numerous transmuta- mained cautious: The ability to create gold
tions of this type were apparently would be marvelous—but only, of course, if the
carried out in front of qualified knowledge remained in the “proper hands.” In
witnesses. Early chemist and the wrong hands, power could be lost, or anarchy
physicist Robert Boyle claimed to could result. Even so, fascination with alchemy
have seen it happen on three sepa- was not all about wealth; many of its practitioners
rate occasions. In 1648 the Holy were genuinely motivated by the quest for physi-
Roman emperor Ferdinand III cal healing and spiritual enlightenment.
54 MAY/JUNE 2018
BRITISH LIBRARY, LONDON/BRIDGEMAN/ACI
all the col ors of t he p eacock

The treatment of material to create the raven, the swan, and the phoenix. The This phenomenon was often compared
philosopher’s stone was believed to fol- exact sequence of colors was important to the beauty of a rainbow or a peacock’s
low a set pattern. During the process, the because it showed that the process was tail. The illustration above appeared in
material being transmuted took on vari- progressing correctly as each variation the manuscript Splendor Solis from the
ous colors. The three main stages were corresponded to a different phase and late 16th century and depicts a peacock
black, white, and red, each appearing to different temperatures. The texts al- inside an alchemical vessel showing off
one after the other. In texts, the phas- so describe intermediate phases during the colors of its tail in all their jewel-
es are sometimes represented by the which iridescent colors could appear. toned brilliance.
MAGICAL CITY
In the late 1500s the Holy
Roman emperor Rudolf II
made Prague a hub of
Renaissance learning,
inviting the most brilliant
European minds of the day
to his court here. These
included Francis Bacon,
astronomer Johannes Kepler,
and alchemist John Dee.
JAN WLODARCZYK/AGE FOTOSTOCK
Michael Maier’s series). Records show that Flamel died in 1418,
but many theorized he faked his death and was
Mysterious Emblems still alive.
Another example of a popular alchemical
ICHAEL MAIER’S 1617 Atalanta fugiens presents 50 enig- treatise of this golden age was Atalanta fugiens,
M matic “emblems,” each interposed with epigrams and

musical scores. Considered to be the pinnacle of printed
alchemical literature, this work reflects the age’s thirst
for “hidden” esoteric knowledge. Its singular combination of images,
text, and music—an early example of multimedia—is explained in the
published in 1617 by the German alchemist
Michael Maier. It is believed Maier belonged
to the Rosicrucian movement, a secret society
that emerged during this period and claimed to
have access to ancient secret knowledge. Al-
treatise’s introduction, in which Maier writes: “We have joined Optics
to Music and the sense chemy had even spread to the New World. In
to the intellect,” in order the 1600s Harvard scholar George Starkey (us-
to gain “a single view ing the rather more impressive pseudonym of
and embrace these “Eirenaeus Philalethes”) wrote alchemical works
three objects of the that deeply influenced Isaac Newton.
more spiritual senses.” Although Newton’s Principia could only be
The picture on the left understood by a learned few when it was pub-
is an example of the lished in 1687, Newton’s intention was to reveal
mysterious symbolism and explain the workings of the natural world
included in the work. It using the scientific method. Among his revo-
shows emblem 50: a
lutionary ideas are the three laws of motion that
dragon and a woman,
drenched in blood,
are fundamental to modern physics and which
destroying each other. understand the complexity of the entire universe
They represent oppos- as a wonderfully simple set of general laws.
ing forces that cancel
each other out, the Alchemy’s Legacy
dragon symbolizing As demonstrated in the case of aqua regia and ni-
fire and earth, while the tric acid, alchemists did make important chemi-
woman is water and air. cal discoveries and practical achievements.
WELLCOME LIBRARY, LONDON
Modern scientists owe the discovery of the
production of sulfuric acid—a key component
in many chemical processes—to the experi-
ments of a European alchemist from the early
MERE MORTAL? In the early 17th century Italian astrono- 13th century. Many instruments and techniques
This 18th-century mer Galileo peered through his telescope and used in laboratories today had their origins in
engraving depicts observed four moons orbiting Jupiter, a phe- the workshops of alchemists. Scientific laws and
14th-century scribe nomenon that helped prove that Earth is not maxims were developed and tested through their
and alchemist Nicolas
at the center of the universe. Galileo’s 1610 work as well. Such triumphs help explain why
Flamel. His death was
recorded in 1418, and observations spurred on the scientific revolu- alchemy and mainstream science remained in-
Flamel was buried tion, but even as his observations were being tertwined for so long.
in the Paris church of disseminated throughout Europe, large num- As Enlightenment values spread throughout
Saint-Jacques-de-la- bers of influential alchemical treatises were also Europe and North America in the 1700s, the
Boucherie.
LEEMAGE/PRISMA
being published. alchemical notion of a “universal spirit,” began
In 1612 the Book of Hieroglyphical Fig- to look more like superstition and less like real
ures was also provoking widespread inter- science. Alchemical ideas lingered on in the form
est. Attributed to Nicolas Flamel, a 14th- of dubious products hawked by charlatans. By
century French scribe turned alchemist, then, however, most scientists had begun to ac-
the book describes how Flamel allegedly cept that changes in matter took place thanks to
discovered the secret of the philosopher’s material, not spiritual, changes. The old alchemy
stone with which he went on to achieve was on its way to being “transmuted” into the
immortality. (Flamel has made appearanc- new science of chemistry.
es in modern works of science fiction and
fantasy; he and his philosopher’s stone fea-
JOAQUÍN PÉREZ-PARIENTE IS A CHEMIST AT SPAIN’S NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
ture heavily in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter AND A WRITER ON THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND ALCHEMY.
A ROYAL STIR
Francesco I of Medici, the
Grand Duke of Tuscany
(bottom right), stirs a
vessel, surrounded by
assistants in his alchemical
laboratory, in Giovanni
Stradano’s 1570 oil painting.
Palazzo Vecchio, Florence
RAFFAELLO BENCINI/RMN-GRAND PALAIS
he process
ACTUAL pieced togeth-
er by Principe
TREE OF DIANA
FORMED BY
GOLD CRYSTALS
ALCHEMY
starts with forming an al- IN A MERCURY
AMALGAM
loy of two metals: silver
and antimony, the latter
Some alchemical of which is derived from
texts describe lab the sulfite mineral stib-
nite. This alloy is treat-
experiments that ed with mercury until it
can be replicated forms an amalgam. The
today. Based amalgam is then distilled
on notebooks to separate off the mer-
cury again. The process
written in the of forming an amalgam
17th century, and then separating off SPL/AGE FOTOSTOCK
Johns Hopkins the mercury is carried out several times. The result is a
University variant of mercury that contains properties not found in
common mercury. One such new property is that when
professor this new form of mercury is placed in a flask with gold
Lawrence M. and heated gently, the gold dissolves easily, giving off
Principe performed heat. Also, after a while the gold in this mixture of spe-
alchemical procedures cial mercury and gold begins to adopt tree-like shapes
known by chemists as metallic trees or the Tree of
like those followed by Robert Diana (above). When the alchemists saw this remark-
Boyle and Isaac Newton. He published his able change happening, it must surely have suggested
findings in his 2013 book, The Secrets of that they were indeed vitalizing the mineral before them.
Alchemy (University of Chicago Press). It was this process that the alchemists followed in order
to obtain the so-called philosopher’s, or “sophick,” mer-
cury, one of the essential ingredients for the transmuta-
ALCHEMISTS OFTEN COMBINED ANTIMONY (ABOVE) WITH
SILVER TO FORM AN ALLOY IN ONE STEP OF THE ALCHEMICAL tion of base metals. It shows how the metaphorical lan-
PROCESS TO PRODUCE “SOPHICK” MERCURY. guage used in the alchemical treatises, for example, the
IN THIS ILLUSTRATION FROM THE 1599 ALCHEMICAL TREATISE Tree of Diana, in fact describes real chemical processes.
THE TWELVE KEYS, THE ASTROLOGICAL SYMBOL OF THE PLANET
MERCURY APPEARS BEHIND THE FLOWERS.
“Sophick Mercury”
Mercury, sulfur, and salt were alchemists’
three main elements, although they did also
use elements obtained in the laboratory. In the
drawing opposite, two serpents are entwined
around the winged caduceus of Mercury. They
represent the metallic elements referred to,
in highly cryptic terms, by alchemist Nicolas
Flamel: “The male sulphur is nothing but fire and
air . . . The feminine sperm is argent vive, which
is nothing but earth and water.” Together, they
give rise to a product from which philosopher’s
mercury can be made. During this phase the
material reverts to a black color.
ANTIMONY: SPL/AGE FOTOSTOCK. ILLUSTRATION: CULTURE-IMAGES/ALBUM. BACKGROUND: GRANGER/ALBUM
CADUCEUS (MERCURY’S STAFF) WITH ENTWINED
SERPENTS, IN A DRAWING FROM THE BOOK
OF ABRAHAM THE JEW BY NICOLAS FLAMEL.
BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE DE FRANCE, PARIS
BNF/RMN-GRAND PALAIS
FATEFUL DAY
French forces in the foreground
are repelled by General
Zaragoza’s Mexican army
outside Puebla on May 5, 1862.
Painting by Patricio Ramos
Ortega. National History
Museum, Mexico City
DEA/ALBUM
The Story of Cinco de Mayo
VICTORY
AT PUEBLA
The stunning defeat of invading French forces at Puebla on May 5,
1862, is now an annual celebration of Mexican culture. Behind the
color and music of Cinco de Mayo lies the story of a nation struggling
to free itself of centuries of war and colonial domination.
ISABEL BUENO
From the
Jaws of
Defeat
July 1861
Mexico is reeling from civil war.
President Benito Juárez freezes
repayment of Mexico’s debt
with France, Britain, and former
colonial ruler, Spain.
October 1861
France, Britain, and Spain sign
the London Convention, agreeing
to send military forces to Mexico.
Their troops will begin landing at
Veracruz in January 1862.
February 1862
Mexico’s foreign minister,
Manuel Doblado, secures
agreement from the Europeans
not to advance while the debt
is being negotiated.
March 1862
The French renege on the deal
and show signs of moving west.
P
FROM START arades, brightly colored dresses, siz-
The San Andrés Chalchicomula TO FINISH zling street food, festive music, and
munitions explosion kills many
Mexican soldiers. Diego Rivera’s 1951 laughter fills the streets every May 5,
mural at the National a date circled in revolutionary red
Palace, Mexico City on any Mexican calendar. On May 5,
April 1862 (above), depicts the
1862, a ragtag Mexican army defeated the better-
Spain and Britain break Spanish conquest in
with France and withdraw. 1519. Mexico finally equipped hosts of the Second French Empire
Advancing French troops shut the door on at the Battle of Puebla. The battle itself did not
overcome Mexican troops at European colonialism decide the war—the French returned to capture
the Cumbres de Acultzingo. with the expulsion of
Puebla and Mexico City in 1863. France con-
the French in 1867
1867.
trolled Mexico until 1867, when Mexican troops
May 2, 1862 overthrew their government and returned to
French troops march on being an independent republic.
Puebla. General Zaragoza Over time, the Battle of Puebla grew in na-
distributes his ill-equipped
forces throughout the city to tional significance. The victory strengthened
prepare its defense. the morale of a very young Mexico and became
the rallying cry of resistance to foreign domi-
nation. In commemoration of this day, Cinco
May 5, 1862
Although Zaragoza’s forces aree de Mayo began as a celebration of the French
outnumbered and out-armed, defeat, but the holiday has grown and changed
the French are repulsed at with time. For Mexicans in Puebla, as well as
Puebla, a stunning Mexican Mexican-Americans in the United States, it has
victory celebrated to this day. become a complex symbol of Mexican culture,
resilience, and character.
CINCO DE MAYO POSTER
64 MAY/JUNE 2018 IN ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA
STEVE SKJOLD/ALAMY/ACI
AKG/ALBUM © 2018 BANCO DE MÉXICO DIEGO RIVERA FRIDA KAHLO MUSEUMS TRUST, MEXICO, D.F./VEGAP
MESTIZO NATION
THE SQUARE of the Three Cultures in Mexico City embodies how
many different ethnicities shaped the nation. It is dominated by the
Church of Santiago de Tlatelolco (right), built in the 16th century
over the still visible ruins of Aztec-era temples. Nearby, a plaque
describes the toppling of the Aztec Empire by Spain in 1521: “Nei-
ther a victory nor a defeat, but the painful moment of birth of the
Mexico of today, a race of Mestizos.”
AKG/ALBUM
Fractured Foundations the New World, they seized their moment and CRY
FREEDOM!
To understand the Battle of Puebla, it is neces- rebelled. On September 16, 1810, Miguel Hi-
Priest Miguel
sary to understand the roots of Mexico itself, dalgo y Costilla, a priest and political leader in Hidalgo—depicted
going back to the 16th century. After Spain de- the central Mexican town of Dolores, exhorted here in a detail from
feated the Aztec Empire in 1521, a new, blended Mexicans to rise up in a fiery speech delivered a mural by José
society arose in Mexico, bringing together sev- from his pulpit—the“Cry of Dolores.”War fol- Clemente Orozco—
rallied the Mexican
eral different cultures. Finding a balancebetween lowed, ending with Mexico’s defeat of Spain in independence
its pre-Hispanic roots and new European iden- 1821. Hidalgo became the father of his country, movement from his
tity proved challenging. and September 16 is celebrated as Mexico’s In- pulpit in 1810.
For three centuries after Cortés’s invasion, dependence Day. ALBUM © JOSÉ CLEMENTE OROZCO,
VEGAP, BARCELONA, 2018
España Nueva (New Spain) was the most impor- Even though the colonists had b been united in
tant overseas province of the Spanish Empire. a desire to be free, Mexicans were divided over
It was ruled by a viceroyalty made up of many the direction of their new nation.FFor the next
indigenous aristocratic families who had sought 40years,internaltensionswrackeedthecoun-
an alliance with the Spanish in order to defeat try. Liberals, conservatives, and ceentral-
the Aztec Empire. Even so, resentment and ten- ists all clashed as they sought to define
sions between Mexican natives, the Spanish, Mexico’s future.
and the criollos—those of European origin who Internal upheaval and econom mic fra-
had been born in America—continued to grow, gility were compounded by waar with
creating a shaky basis for the colony. the United States in the 1840s. DDisputes
In 1808 Spain was invaded by the Napole- over control of Texas drew Mexicco into
onic armies, which weakened Spanish control a two-year conflict with its north hern
of New Spain. Many of the colonists wanted neighbor in 1846. In a humiliatiing
independence, and like many other colonies in surrender, Mexico ceded to the
Protagonists of Puebla
BENITO JUÁREZ GENERAL ZARAGOZA
himself English, and discussed politics
T he ambitious leader who rose
above his humble origins and led
a divided Mexico through war
in the city’s bars with other Mexican
emigrés. He returned to Mexico in 1855
T he tragic, young general who
made a plan, stood his ground,
and emerged victorious
Born in 1806 to Mesoamerican parents, and took up the post of justice minis- Born in Texas in 1829—then a part of
Benito Juárez grew up in Oaxaca, where ter, introducing important, if divisive, Mexican territory—Ignacio Zaragoza
for much of his childhood he spoke solely reforms. Juárez was briefly imprisoned served as Juárez’s war minister in 1861,
the regional Zapoteco language. Hav- during the Reform War, following which at only age 32, and then as general of
ing learned to speak Spanish and also he was elected president of Mexico in the Army of the East, whose ill-equipped
studied the law, he took up a number 1861. In the ensuing debt crisis and for- forces repelled the French attack on
of local and regional government posts eign French invasion, the Battle of Puebla Puebla on May 5, 1862. After a brief visit
while working tirelessly to improve the was an unexpected victory. Following the to Mexico City, where he was acclaimed
rights of indigenous Mexicans. Juárez expulsion of the French in 1867, he was by Juárez and the people, he contracted
was forced into exile to the United elected to the presidency two more typhoid and died only months after the
States in the 1850s, where he, times. After his death in 1872, he famous victory. To honor him and his
almost penniless, lived in a New was declared “Distinguished Son of bravery, the city was renamed Puebla
Orleans boardinghouse, taught the Fatherland and the Americas.” de Zaragoza.
BENITO JUÁREZ
IN AN UNDATED PHOTOGRAPH
UIG/ALBUM
United States its claims to Texas, Utah, Nevada, FLAGGING the crumbling Spanish Empire, as well as provide
and California, along with swaths of what are FORTUNES a check on the expansion of the United States.
now Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, A national flag of Napoleon III also had a perfect excuse to invade:
and Wyoming in 1848. Mexico (below) an 80-million-peso debt Mexico owed to Euro-
Reeling from the defeat, political tensions captured by pean nations, including France.
American troops
increased. The liberal faction favored the sepa- during the Mexican-
ration of church and state and freedom of reli- American War of To War Again
gion, while the conservatives wanted to main- 1846-48, in which The Mexican-American War and the Reform
tain ties between Mexico’s government and the Mexico lost swaths War devastated Mexico’s economy. The nation
of territory to its
Catholic Church. Another internal conflict en- had taken loans from the United Kingdom,
northern neighbor
sued, later known as the Reform GRANGER/ALBUM
Spain, and France to finance
War, which ended in 1860 with tthese war efforts, but
a liberal victory. The next year, now Mexico was hard-
Benito Juárez became president. pressed to pay them
Born to Mesoamerican parents, back. In the summer
Juárez would soon become a of 1861, in an attempt
crucial player in the Cinco de to stabilize Mexico’s
Mayo story. war-torn finances,
Following the liberal resump- Juárez announced
tion of power, disaffected con- that payment would
servatives approached France’s stop for two years.
Napoleon III to intervene. The In a short-lived
French ruler was only too keen alliance, the United
to move into the space left by Kingdom, Spain, and
66 MAY/JUNE 2018
NAPOLEON III GENERAL LORENCEZ
T he French emperor who sought

power in North America and
targeted Mexico to get it
his attention to Mexico in a bid to exploit
waning Spanish influence in the region T he overconfident French officer
who underestimated an opponent
and lost a battle he should have won
and to halt future American expansion.
Nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, In spite of the setback at the Battle of Son of an aristocrat general who fought
Charles-Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte Puebla in 1862, Napoleon III defeated alongside Napoleon at Austerlitz,
failed at several attempts to seize power Mexico and imposed Maximilian as a General Charles Ferdinand Latrille,
in France, b the United States Count of Lorencez, earned his own
consolidat an efforts to oust stripes in the Crimean War. Racist
self empe . gime in 1867, the contempt for the Mexicans influenced
do everyth thdraw. At home, a stri
greatness opes to rebuild May
Great Brit t imperial power his
of Russia i d the rise of Ger- retre
intervened p . III was ultimately wiel
Italians in t and later died in app
dence. In 1 England. and l
NAPOLEON N III GENERAL LOREENCEZ

IN AN 1870 ENGRAVING IN AN 1866 ILLU
USTRATION
GRANGER/ALBU
UM AKG/ALBUM
France sent a joint military expedition to force government to access Mexico’s resources and, STRONGHOLD
Mexico to honor the debt. By January 1862, in particular, to take advantage of the instability OF PUEBLA
6,000 Spanish soldiers, 3,000 French troops, in the United States, then embroiled in its own Puebla (shown
and 700 British soldiers disembarked in the civil war and unable to stop a French advance. above in an 1865
photograph) held
Mexican port of Veracruz. Juárez acted quickly and created a new battal-
a strategic position
Before the forces moved toward Mexico City, ion known as the Army of the East, commanded because of its
the country’s capital, Juárez sent an ambassador by Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza. The president ordered location between
to negotiate with the European powers. A meet- the fortification of the city of Puebla, anticipating the port of Veracruz
ing was organized in a hacienda near Veracruz a French march on Mexico City. As predicted, the and the capital,
Mexico City.
named La Soledad on February 19, 1862. There, French troops were advancing on Puebla by late ALINARI/GETTY IMAGES
the Mexican foreign minister, Manuel Doblado, April 1862—on the way to the coveted capital.
met with the British and the Spanish represen- The differences between the two armies were
tatives, who eventually agreed to the Mexican glaring. The French army regarded itself as the
requests to defer payment of the debt. The par- best in the world, having remained undefeated
ties agreed not to advance out of agreed zones since the Battle of Waterloo, nearly half a century
near Veracruz while negotiation of the debt was before. The well-dressed French soldiers were
being resolved. The French, however, had their also well armed with pistols, carbines, bayonets,
own agenda. Days after talks began at La Soledad, and cannons, and had the invaluable support of
more French troops disembarked, commanded the Zouaves, elite French military troops feared
by French general Charles Ferdinand Latrille, all over Europe for their ferocity, The Mexican
Comte de Lorencez. side, meanwhile, was hampered by lack of com-
French intentions were now evident to all, bat experience. The few weapons they had were
and clearly had little to do with a default on a old, and their troops were underfed. To make
loan. Napoleon III wanted to topple the Juárez matters worse, the country was polarized, with

Mexico on the Edge:
Invasion, Explosions, and Defeats
THE SPRING OF 1862 marked a low point in the fortunes of Mexican troops detonated the entire store, leaving hun-
the Mexican republic, following the disembarkation of dreds of soldiers and civilians dead, and hugely depleting
European forces at Veracruz in January. Despite the dip- Zaragoza’sreservesofmunitions.Meanwhile,General Lor-
lomatic triumph at La Soledad, after which Spanish and encez, the French commander,wasstudyinghowto cross
British troops decided to withdraw, it was becoming clear the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains to access Mexico’s
that French forces were poised to march on Mexico City. interior. His advance, at the Cumbres de Acultzingo, was
On March 6, with Mexican commander Ignacio Zaragoza met by General Zaragoza on April 28, who, despite admi-
alreadyfacingavastlysuperiorfoe,disasterstruck.Topre- rableresistance,wasforcedtoretreatundertheintensity of
vent munitions falling into the hands of the French, a huge theFrenchattack.TheFrenchsweptrelentlesslyon,aiming
arms dump had been created on the outskirts of San An- for the heart of the republic. The next major obstacle was
drés Chalchicomula. Careless lighting of cooking fires by Puebla, which they reached on May 5—Cinco de Mayo.
Mexico City San Andrés

Challch
hicomulla Carr i bbee an
(Ciudad Serdán) erraccruzz S eaa
Puebla La Soledaad
(Puebla de Zaragoza) ( oledad de Doblado)
Cumbres de
Acultzingo
Te
Tehuacá
án
M E X I C O
0 mi 50
NG MAPS
PUEBLA ON A 19TH-CENTURY VERACRUZ IN A 19TH-CENTURY

ENGRAVING, SHOWING THE ENGRAVING BY FREDERICK
LOCATIONS OF THE LORETO CATHERWOOD
AND GUADALUPE FORTS
SUPERSTOCK/ALBUM
BRIDGEMAN/ACI
A ZOUAVE SOLDIER IS
DEPICTED FIGHTING IN THE
CRIMEAN WAR (1853-56) IN AN
ILLUSTRATION FROM 1858. THE ZOUAVES’
BRIDGEMAN/ACI
FEARSOME
REPUTATION
HE MEXICAN defenders of Puebla
T had every reason to expect a

crushing defeat. Among the
troops under the command of
General Lorencez were the feared Zou-
aves. Brave, disciplined, and experts in
close combat, they were regarded as ideal
for Napoleon III’s plan to invade Mexico.
Men from the Zwawa tribe from Algeria
first formed this elite group in the 1830s,
but over time its ranks grew to include
men of European descent. They fought
successfully in the Crimean War (1853-
56)—in which General Lorencez also
fought. Their role in the Battle of Puebla
was exemplary. They spearheaded the
French attack, yet though they fought
fiercely against the defenders, their com-
mander’s errors cost them the battle.
the conservative faction preferring a foreign in- both stood atop a hill on the northern side of STANDING
tervention to being an independent republic. the city.The soldiers fortified Puebla by digging TALL
A great deal, therefore, was at stake, and, at trenches,buildingbreastworks,andrepairingthe Below, the
first,the Mexicans looked doomed.On April 28, forts as best they could. watchtower of the
Loreto fort. Along
the Sixth Battalion of the National Guard of the Zaragoza then placed his men in strategic with the neighboring
State of Puebla, formed by 4,000 precarious- points throughout Puebla. Roughly a thousand Guadalupe fort,
ly armed Mexicans, had their first encounter would defend the northern side and its forts, Loreto was originally
against superior French troops at the Cumbres with the remaining troops kept in reserve to a Franciscan chapel,
fortified in the early
de Acultzingo. After his resounding victory counterattack any direct assault. The plan was 1800s. Both came
there,General Lorencez boasted:“We are so su- set, and now all Zaragoza and his men had to do under heavy fire from
perior to the Mexicans in organization, race . . . was wait for the French to arrive. the
th FFrench h during
d i theth
and refinement of manners,that I am pleased to Battle of Puebla.
announce to His Imperial Majesty,Napoleon III, The Bells of Puebla ALAMY/ACI
that from this moment on, as the leader of my Just after 9 a.m. on May 5, the Mex xican forces
6,000 brave soldiers, I can consider myself the spotted the French enemy on the horrizon.Zara-
owner of Mexico.” goza and his men sat tight, while Loreencez began
On the night of May 3, General Zaragoza ar- his attack. The French plan was tobommbtheforts
rived in Puebla. Sources vary on the exact num- first in order to weaken the enemy’s defences
ber of men under his command, with estimates and then charge in an all-out assaultt.
ranging from 2,000 to 5,000 men. Because he The plan may have seemed sound on paper,
was outnumbered and outgunned, it was crucial but in practice it failed to make mu uch impact.
that Zaragoza formulate a strong defense to hold The French began shelling Fort Gu uadalupe at
the city. Puebla was surrounded by several stone 11:45 a.m., but the old stone walls held
forts, most notably Loreto and Guadalupe, which true. Discouraged, Lorencez moved his
PAYBACK
Following the French retreat
at Puebla, it was only a matter
of time before French troops
returned to take the city as part
of their continued invasion of
Mexico. Less than a year after
Zaragoza’s giant-slaying victory,
French troops took Puebla in
March 1863, following an attack
on the city’s San Javier fortress,
depicted in this painting by
Jean-Adolphe Beaucé.
CHRISTOPHEL FINE ART/GETTY IMAGES
artillery closer, but the angle of the new position MAY PRIDE There is no denying that the Mexicans fought
made targeting more difficult. By midday more A popular part of with courage, but it is equally obvious that Lo-
than half their ammunition was gone, with little Mexican Cinco de rencez made costly mistakes, a point made by
impact on the forts. It was time to change tactics. Mayo celebrations Zaragoza in the telegram he sent to Juárez im-
Lorencez ordered his soldiers to attack. The is a reenactment of mediately after the battle: “The French troops
the Battle of Puebla.
brilliant defenses set up by Zaragoza kept the In Mexico City showed their valor in combat and their leader his
French at bay. As the soldiers advanced, Mexican residents dressed as arrogance, foolishness, and clumsiness.”
guns in the forts fired on them from above. On Zacapoaxtla Indians Lorencez made two major misjudgments:
the ground the ragtag fighters held true, some and French soldiers First, he concentrated his attack on the city’s
(above) re-create the
armed only with machetes and metal-tipped well-defended forts, instead of making for the
Mexican victory.
wooden spears. Three times, Lorencez sent in EDUARDO VERDUGO/AP IMAGES/GTRES
city, which was more vulnerable. The other mis-
waves of his soldiers, and three times they were calculation was to position his cannons over a
turned back. Around 2 p.m. a hard rain began to mile from the fortifications, much too far away
fall, soaking the battlefield. It was as if Tlaloc, for the projectiles to strike with full force. When
the Aztec god of rain, was displaying his fury Napoleon III heard of his incompetence, he im-
against the French soldiers. mediately relieved him of his command.
With the ground made slick by rain and
mounting casualties, Lorencez was forced to Dispatches from the Front
retreat. Zaragoza and his men had won the day. While the battle raged in Puebla, in Mexico City
The bells of Puebla rang out, and that night the the Juárez government waited desperately for
victorious Mexican forces celebrated by singing news. Zaragoza’s silence made the president fear
“La Marseillaise,”the song of the French revolu- the annihilation of his forces. But just after
tion (and now France’s national anthem), which 4 p.m. Zaragoza sent a laconic telegram inform-
was banned at the time by Napoleon III. ing that “the enemy has showered us with
72 MAY/JUNE 2018
ERICH LESSING/ALBUM
COUP DE GRACE
ÉDOUARD MANET’S “Execution of Emperor Maximilian” (Kunsthalle
Mannheim, Germany) is an unsettling, ambiguous depiction of the
violent conclusion of French interference in Mexico in 1867. There is
pity for the condemned man, and perhaps criticism for the manner
in which Napoleon III had sacrificed this puppet king to his igno-
minious death. In any case, with this execution, European colonial
activity in Mexico—which had begun in 1519—was now at an end.
grenades. Their columns attacking the Loreto anti-Maximilian resistance,was Juárez restored
and Guadalupe hills have been repelled and we as president, and Maximilian executed.
were probably attacked by four thousand men. Ignacio Zaragoza would never live to see the
All their push was towards the hill. Then their French expelled from Mexico. At only age 33,
columns retreated and our forces advanced to- he died of typhus four months after the famous
wards them. A heavy storm then started.” victory.To honor his memory,Juárez decided to
He said nothing, however, of the final re- join his name to the city that had brought him
sult. Zaragoza’s next telegram, arriving just be- fame, renaming it Puebla de Zaragoza. In June
fore 6 p.m., clarified the outcome. Just before 1867, after returning to power, Juárez also com-
8 p.m. Juárez received the best possible news: memorated the battle itself by declaring May 5
“Mr. President. I am very happy with the be- a national holiday.
havior of my generals and soldiers. They have Since then, Mexican celebrations of Cinco
all performed well . . . Let this be for good, Mr. de Mayo have traditionally been held in Puebla.
President. I wish that our dear homeland, now Visitors flock to the city in May for parades and a
so despondent, is one day happy and respected reenactment of the famous battle.In the United
by all Nations.” States holiday observances have grown larger
The joy was, however, short-lived, and only and more widespread.From Los Angeles to New
delayed the inevitable. The Mexicans had tasted YorkCity,Mexican-Americancommunitiescel-
victory in this battle, but the French took Puebla ebratenotonlyamilitaryvictorybutalsoaproud
two years later, and Juárez’s government was Mexicanheritagewithparades,colorfuldancers,
defeated. With the support of Mexico’s con- traditional music, and delicious food.
servatives, Napoleon III imposed the Austrian-
Habsburg Maximilian as Mexico’s puppet king.
ISABEL BUENO IS AN HONORARY MEMBER OF THE VICENTE LOMBARDO TOLEDANO
Only in 1867, after the United States funded the CENTER IN MEXICO, ON WHOSE CULTURE AND HISTORY SHE HAS WRITTEN EXTENSIVELY.

REACHING FOR THE SKY
A view of the burgeoning Manhattan skyline,
taken from high over the East River in the fall
of 1937. The Chrysler Building (right)—for
less than one year, the tallest building in the
world—had been overtaken by the Empire
State Building (left), six years before.
EVERETT COLLECTION/ALAMY/ACI
JONATHAN GLANCEY
IN THIS 1884 VIEW OF MANHATTAN, THE TALLEST
STRUCTURE APPEARS TO BE THE RECENTLY COMPLETED
BROOKLYN BRIDGE (RIGHT). IN THE NEXT 60 YEARS,
THE NEW YORK CITY SKYLINE WOULD RISE TO SOAR
HIGH ABOVE THE BRIDGE.
GRANGER/ALBUM
llis Island sits in New York Harbor fac- towers of Manhattan to rise—growing bigger
E ingtheislandofManhattan.From1892
to 1954 some 12 million immigrants
passed through there on their way to
beginnewlivesintheUnitedStates.As
more and more immigrants made the Atlantic
crossing from Europe,the skyline of the city that
greeted them would change radically.
and taller than ever before. From the New York
World Building in 1890 to the art deco master-
pieces of the 1930s,the skyscrapers of New York
grew to be the tallest in the world, marvels for
an optimistic new age.
Looking Up
New York had always been a hub of enter- The architectural race to the sky began in 1854,
prise and activity,but a new jolt of energy flowed when inventor Elisha Graves Otis demonstrated
through it during this dynamic time. Through- his elevator safety brake to curious crowds in
out the 60-plus years of Ellis Island’s operation, New York. No matter how many times a man
New York City was transformed into a modern cut through cables holding the platform high
metropolis. New technology, stronger build- above gasping onlookers, Otis would descend
ing materials, and abundant labor allowed the just a few inches before safely stopping.
1890 1913 1930 1931

The New York World The Woolworth Building The art deco The Empire State
BIGGER Building opens in New (792 feet) is completed. Chrysler Building, Building opens. Taking
AND York as headquarters Inspired by European at 1,046 feet, is the its moniker from New
for the newspaper New Gothic architecture, tallest building in the York’s state nickname,
BETTER York World. Standing the “cathedral of world. But it will hold it will reign as the
309 feet high, it is the commerce” becomes the title for less than world’s tallest building
world’s tallest building. the world’s tallest. one year. for 40 years.
76 MAY/JUNE 2018
THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME
The first of New York’s buildings
to rise higher than Trinity Church,
the New York World Building,
commissioned by press magnate
Joseph Pulitzer, was as grandiose
as its name. But even the city’s
(arguably) first skyscraper was
not spared the relentless tide of
progress. It was demolished in the
1950s to widen vehicular access to
Brooklyn Bridge.
THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY/GETTY IMAGES
NEW YORK,
CITY OF THE
FUTURE
DIRECTED BY FRITZ LANG and released
in 1927, Metropolis is considered the first
feature-length sci-fi movie ever made. It
takes place in a future megalopolis filled
with gigantic skyscrapers and elevated
railways. It was modeled on New York,
whose towers and frenetic activity made
European cities—still recovering from
World War I—seem shabby and quaint
by comparison. Lang visited New York in
1924. His boat docked in the port, where,
owing to passport problems, he and his
companions had to spend the night on-
board. Manhattan’s nighttime skyline FUTURIST
gave him the idea for the film, he later FANTASY
said. During the following days, he was The iconic poster
able to walk around the city and gaze up- for Lang’s 1927
on its buildings, neon signs, and streets, movie Metropolis,
taking many rolls of photographs. depicting a
UFA/ALBUM dystopian city
in 2026
Along with Otis’s elevator,other innovations on granite. Since much of the city had been laid
laidthegroundworkforthefuture.In1855Henry out from 1811 on a tight, regimented grid, there
Bessemer,an English inventor and industrialist, was little room for ambitious new buildings to
patented his process for converting pig iron into grow unless they looked upward.
exactlythekindofstrongandlow-coststeelthat
would revolutionize structural engineering and First Impressions
architecture worldwide. Plate glass, produced The first tall buildings to rise in New York City
in volume from the 1850s, and electric lighting appearedinthelate1800s.Completedin1890,the
in the 1880s, were other essential ingredients New York World Building housed the headquar-
in the rise of the skyscraper that was to define tersforthenewspapertheNewYorkWorld.Com-
New York’s skyline. missionedbyeditorJosephPulitzer,the309-foot
Technology alone did not create the Manhat- buildingwasthetallestintheworlduntiltheMan-
tan skyscraper. Other equally important forces hattan Life Insurance Building surpassed it four
included a rapidly increasing population, soar- years later, setting the fast pace and ambitious
ing property values, the rise of a white-collar character of future Manhattan skyscrapers.
workforce, rivalry, geology, vanity, and greed. NewYork’sarchitectspushedonwardandup-
When Chicago rose anew after the Great Fire ward.New skyscrapers rose every few years,jos-
of 1871, it built the first “skyscrapers,” a name tling for visibility on the skyline. The Park Row
previously associated with ships’flags,hard-hit Buildingsprangupin1899andwouldholdtheti-
tennis balls, and ambitious top hats. tleofNewYork’stallestbuildinguntil1908when
New York entrepreneurs responded in kind— theSingerBuildingtookthecrown.Thesebuild-
but they had a geological advantage.Where Chi- ings were striking achievements, but perhaps
cago was built on muddy soil, Manhattan stood the most stunning was the Woolworth Building.
The excitement of seeing the Woolworth Building from ocean liners

made it as much a symbol of New York City as the Statue of Liberty.
78 MAY/JUNE 2018
CATHEDRAL OF COMMERCE
For all its American grandeur and size,
the Woolworth Building—shown here in
a 1921 photograph eight years after its
completion—still looks toward Europe,
especially London’s Houses of Parliament,
which F. W. Woolworth greatly admired.
PHOTOS 12/ALAMY/ACI
VIEW FROM THE TOP
“No urban night is like the night there,”
wrote poet Ezra Pound of New York, in
1912. “I have looked down across the city
from high windows. It is then that the great
buildings . . . take on their magical powers.”
Above, an aerial view of Manhattan in the
1930s, taken from the Empire State Building
by Leslie Jones.
BIGGER
GETS BEAUTIFUL
VISITORS TO NEW YORK swoon at the
sunburst motif of the spire of the Chrysler
Building, and its lustrous chrome-nickel
steel finish. Walter Chrysler’s master-
piece is prized not only for the engineer-
ing prowess involved in building it but
also for the elegance and beauty of both
its exterior and interior decoration. The
lobby is an outstanding example of art
deco with a mural on the ceiling depict-
ing human progress. Dedicating his great
building to world commerce and industry,
Chrysler set out to impress his visitors ELEVATED
and his competitors with the internation- STYLE
al scope of the many beautiful materi- One of the doors
als he assembled to adorn it: Among its of the 32 elevators
surfaces can be found Moroccan marble, in the Chrysler
Siena travertine, and the new German Building, made of
stainless steel. exotic wood and
decorated with
FRANCES ROBERTS/ALAMY/ACI colored, palm-
shaped marquetry
In the audio archives of the Ellis Island Immi- As parts of New York began to resemble man-
gration Museum are the recorded reminiscences mademountainranges,concernsoverthenature
of many immigrants and their experiences. of skyscrapers grew.From the sidewalks,streets
Among them is the lyrical voice of an animated felt increasingly like canyons,an effect exagger-
Irishman recalling, in old age, his first glimpse ated in snow,fog,and driving rain.To counteract
of Manhattan in 1913, when he was 18 years old. this,from 1916 city zoning laws insisted that tall
Someone had shouted“Land ahoy!”he recounts, buildings should recede as they climbed. This
and what he saw as he rushed to the deck of his gave rise to the distinctive ziggurat or wedding-
crowded ship was the spired Gothic crown of cake profiles of the golden age of Manhattan’s
the Woolworth Building. skyscrapers in the 1920s and ’30s.
At 792 feet, and designed by the architect
Cass Gilbert, the Woolworth had become the The Race for the Skies
world’s tallest building. Gilbert’s client, Frank One of New York’s most iconic art deco struc-
Winfield Woolworth—founder of the five- tures, the Chrysler Building, grew taller as
and-ten store—paid for this $13.5 million“ca- moguls competed to have the world’s tallest
thedral of commerce.”From its completion, and building. In 1928 Walter P. Chrysler, a Michigan
its first sightings from Atlantic liners, this ar- motor-industry mogul,got wind of plans by the
chitectural tour de force was soon as much an architect H. Craig Severance, to make his Bank
iconic symbol of New York City as the Statue of Manhattan Tower the biggest in the world.
of Liberty. It promised freedom and very big Severance’s skyscraper was to be 927 feet tall,or
dreams. Evidently, New York was a city of op- just two feet higher than the tower Chrysler was
portunity where a young Irishman might walk developing with his architect—and Severance’s
very tall indeed. former business partner—William Van Alen.In
With 77 stories, and a height of 1,046 feet, the Chrysler Building

broke the New York and world record for the tallest building in 1930.
82 MAY/JUNE 2018
ICON OF THE PAST AND PRESENT
The burnished curves of the Chrysler
Building in a 1930s photograph.
Architect William Van Alen’s
masterpiece was declared an NYC
landmark in 1978 for the outstanding
engineering and artistic quality of both
its exterior and interior.
RUE DES ARCHIVES/ALBUM
WORKING
FROM HOME
Photographer
Margaret Bourke-
White at work
on one of the
eagle-shaped
gargoyles on the
Chrysler Building,
where she had
an apartment.
Rockefeller
Center looms
behind her.
TIME LIFE/GETTY IMAGES
secret, Van Alen devised a spire for Chrysler’s JohnJ.Raskob,whocommissionedthelegendary

building that, hidden inside the structure, was skyscraper from the architects Shreve,Lamb and
revealedonlyattheverylastmoment.Upitwent Harmon.“How high can you make it so it won’t
in just 90 minutes,making the 77-story Chrys- fall down?”Raskob asked William Lamb.
ler Building the world’s tallest,at 1,046 feet high. What fell at the time was the American econ-
TheChryslerBuildingwasoneofthefirstsky- omy. Wall Street crashed as the Empire State
scrapers to use metal on the exterior,which gave Building rose at record speed, and the United
it its famous shine. Much of building’s distinc- States was plunged into the Great Depression.
tive ornamentation refers back to the automo- Not even the building’s famous appearance in
bile,where Chrysler made his fortune.Hubcaps, the 1933 RKO feature film King Kong could boost
gargoyles in the form of radiator caps, car fend- thefortunesofwhatappearedtobeRaskob’sfol-
ers, and hood ornaments decorate the outside. ly.Unable to find tenants,Raskob’s magnificent
Perhaps most distinctive are the metal eagles structure was mockingly dubbed the “Empty
that grace the corners of the 61st floor. State Building.”
The Chrysler Building’s time at the top would It took World War II to fill the building with
beshort.Just11monthsaftertheChrysler’scom- governmentagencies.Eventhen,aB-25Mitchell
pletion in May 1930,the 102-story Empire State bomber did its best to bring it down,crashing—
Building became the world’s tallest building. It accidentally—between the 78th and 80th floors
occupiedanentirecityblockonFifthAvenueand in swirling fog on July 28, 1945, and killing 14
was opened by U.S.president Herbert Hoover to people. Five years later, the Empire State Build-
great acclaim,if little business.At 1,250 feet,the ingfinally turned aprofit.The building itself was
limestone-clad tower just about matched the an architectural marvel, remaining the world’s
ambition of the high-rolling New York financier, tallest skyscraper for 40 years.
Unable to find tenants, John J. Raskob’s magnificent Empire State

Building was mockingly dubbed the “Empty State Building.”
84 MAY/JUNE 2018
THE LAST OF ITS KIND
The Empire State Building was the
tallest building in New York City and
the world for 40 years.
ANTONINO BARTUCCIO/FOTOTECA 9X12
SKYSCRAPER
SURVIVES
FIERY CRASH
ON JULY 28, 1945, a B-25 Mitchell bomb-
er was flying from Boston to Newark.
Flying was hazardous that day, with low
cloud cover and fog. The pilot ignored
the control tower’s warnings to change
course and flew through New York City.
He lost his bearings and crashed into
the north side of the Empire State Build-
ing. The impact opened up a gaping hole
around 900 feet up, between floors 78
and 80. The three crew members and 11 A DARK DAY
people inside the building died. The entire
In the 1945
building shook, but matters could have accident one
been a great deal worse: In their book of the plane’s
Why Buildings Fall Down, engineers Mat- engines was sent
thys Levy and Mario Salvadori suggest flying through the
that if the plane had directly hit one of air, landing on the
the skyscraper’s pillars, the whole tower roof of a nearby
could have collapsed. building, starting
BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES the fire shown in
the photograph.
A Modern Age martinis Mies van der Rohe drank at lunchtime.

In the years following World War II architec- Standing in its own custom-designed plaza,the
ture in New York transformed again. The new- Seagram Building became a model for countless,
est buildings did not aim to be the tallest and lesser,straight-up-and-downofficetowersbuilt
favored a new sleek, modern look. Clean lines around the world from the 1960s onward. Sky-
and gleaming surfaces would be the look of the scraper architecture in New York became rather
new skyscraper. Completed in 1952, the United uniform as stepped towers, spires, and spirited
Nations Secretariat Building was constructed decorative details all fell out of fashion.
in this streamlined style on the site of a former Le Corbusier is often cited as the villain be-
slaughterhouse facing the East River. Designed hind this move away from more intricate archi-
by the Swiss architect Le Corbusier and the Bra- tecture, yet when he visited New York in 1935
zilian architect Oscar Niemeyer under the direc- and witnessed the physical impact of skyscrap-
tion of Wallace Harrison—who had played a key ers for the first time, he said:“The skyscrapers
design role in the development throughout the of New York are romantic, a gesture of pride,
1930s of the charismatic Rockefeller Center— and that has an importance of course. But the
this was Manhattan’s first curtain-walled sky- street has been killed and the city made into
scraper. The slim, relentlessly geometric tower a madhouse.”
was like nothing the city had seen before. Today his observation hardly seems true:
The trend toward modern lines continued Manhattan’s skyscrapers failed to kill the
into the 1950s. With the completion in 1958 of street—for the most part, New York City re-
the Seagram Building on Park Avenue, designed mains one of the world’s great walking cities.
by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, rectilinear of- Manhattan’s avenues and streets are lined by
fice buildings were to become the norm. The toweringgiantsbornofagoldenageofunbound-
bronze-clad and meticulously crafted structure ed opportunity and ambition reflected in the
wasneitherthetallestnorthebiggestbuildingin gleaming architecture of the era.
the city. It was, though, the apotheosis of mid-
JONATHAN GLANCEY WAS ARCHITECTURE EDITOR FOR THE GUARDIAN UNTIL 2012;
century Park Avenue cool,as elegantly dry as the NOW HE REPORTS ON ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN FOR THE BBC.
86 MAY/JUNE 2018
STRAIGHT UP-AND-DOWN
The pared-down elegance of the
Seagram Building, viewed from Park
Avenue, looking south. Designed in
1958 by Mies van der Rohe, the glass-
enclosed bronze tower inspired many
copycat versions in the skyscraper
boom of the 1960s.
STEELWORKERS IN THE SKY
housands of men worked on piecing together the steel skel-
etons of Manhattan’s emerging skyline. Many of these labor-
ers were newly arrived Europeans, in search of the American
dream, while many others were native Mohawk American Indians
from New York State: A 1949 feature in the New Yorker described the
Mohawk workers building a bridge: “[They] are as agile as goats. They
would walk on a narrow beam high up in the air with nothing below.”
All of the skyscraper workers had to be comfortable with heights.
They had to be agile and fearless, climbing hundreds of feet without
any modern safety precautions. Their wages were comparatively high,
and they were widely admired. As early as 1908 journalists such as
Ernest Poole wrote articles praising these “cowboys of the skies.” By
the time the Empire State Building rose throughout 1930 and 1931, the
view from the sidewalk must have been spectacular: In the course of
just over a year, the site swarmed with 3,000 workers, who added 4.5
floors to the structure every week. Photographers such as Lewis Hine
and Charles Ebbets later immortalized these sure-footed laborers,
WORKMEN INSPECT A GIRDER IN THE LATER STAGES OF THE CONSTRUCTION
OF THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING IN A 1931 PHOTOGRAPH BY LEWIS HINE. although it is not known who took the iconic 1932 image “Lunch Atop
a Skyscraper,” which shows several European immigrants and at least
one Mohawk enjoying a break on a girder. While this photograph has
grown famous, the identities of most of the workers remain a mystery.
“LUNCH ATOP A SKYSCRAPER,” AN ICONIC 1932 IMAGE, PHOTOGRAPHER UNKNOWN.

MEN WORK ON THE LOWER PART OF THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

IN A 1930 PHOTOGRAPH BY LEWIS HINE.
FROM TOP TO BOTTOM: NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY/BRIDGEMAN/ACI; BRIDGEMAN/ACI; GRANGER/AGE FOTOSTOCK
TAKEN ON FEBRUARY 2, 1912, BY IRVING UNDERHILL, THE IMAGE ABOVE SHOWS THE EMERGING
THREE WORKERS CAREFULLY PLACE A GIRDER IN LOWER MANHATTAN STRUCTURE OF THE WOOLWORTH BUILDING, WHICH OPENED ON APRIL 24 THE FOLLOWING YEAR.
IN THIS UNIDENTIFIED PHOTOGRAPH FROM AROUND 1920. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/GETTY IMAGES
A WORKMAN, POISED ABOVE
LEXINGTON AVENUE, WAVES
FROM A GIRDER ON THE CHRYSLER
BUILDING IN 1929.
RUE DES ARCHIVES/ALBUM
DISCOVERIES
Tiwanaku,
Cultural Cradle
of the Americas
The mysterious Bolivian site puzzled visitors for centuries until patient
scholarship revealed Tiwanaku as the center of a lost, pre-Inca culture.
O
n the shores of “Tiwanaku . . . is re-
Lake Titicaca nowned for its remarkable
BRAZI
and surrounded buildings, which are a sight to
by three moun- see,” Cieza de León recorded
LIMA
tain ranges, the in 1549. The “man-made hill
site of Tiwanaku in Bolivia L. Titicaca built on great stone founda-
pulses with mystery. The Tiwanaku L A PA Z tions” of which he wrote is
BOLIVIA
capital of this enigmatic now identified as the Pyra-
pre-Columbian civilization CI
OC AN
O
mid of Akapana, a 59-foot-
contains structures that high structure, which
have puzzled people for modern historians believe
years. Among them are a of its strange monuments, was once dedicated to sun
HERE COMES THE SUN
sunken temple studded with shedding light on a culture worship. Only later would
The sunken court of
stone heads, and the mag- that thrived on the Bolivian archaeologists determine Tiwanaku’s Kalasasaya
nificent Puerta del Sol, the high plains from the sixth to that another “finely built” temple is aligned
Gateway of the Sun, carved the 10th centuries A.D. structure he saw there, the to allow the sun to
out of a single 10-foot-wide Kalasasaya temple, was de- shine through the
raised portal on the
block of stone. A Slow Reveal signed to track the progress equinoxes of March
Thanks to careful con- Tiwanaku, which lies just of the solar year. and September.
servation, the ruins of Ti- over 40 miles from the Bo- Cieza de León chronicled DEA/SCALA, FLORENCE
wanaku, a UNESCO World livian capital La Paz, has not his impressions of this mys-
Heritage site since 2000, so much been discovered as terious place a few years af-
have been preserved from slowly revealed. The first re- ter Spanish forces toppled
destruction. Painstaking ef- corded European account of the Inca Empire. On asking predated the Inca. The first
forts by a succession of ar- the site was by Pedro de Cie- indigenous people who had European to see the site, Cie-
chaeologists have unlocked za de León, a young Spanish built Tiwanaku, he was told za de León was also the first
some, if not all, of the secrets chronicler and conquistador. that the settlement long to grasp its antiquity.
1549 1892-1935 1903 1932

After Spain crushes In a string of works, Georges de Créqui- Wendell Bennett
the Inca, Pedro Max Uhle defines Montfort obtains the starts excavating. He
de Cieza de León a “Tiwanaku style,” first official excavation proposes Tiwanaku
describes Tiwanaku’s whose influence permit to dig in the was more of a cultic
monuments. marked the region. Tiwanaku ruins. center than a city.
LAKE TITICACA IN AN ENGRAVING IN PEDRO DE CIEZA DE LEÓN’S CHRONICLES OF PERU, PUBLISHED IN ANTWERP, IN 1554
GRANGER/ALBUM
THE FRENCH MISSION
THE FIRST FORMAL excavations in Tiwanaku
were led by French archaeologist Georges de
Créqui-Montfort, in 1903. The archaeologist
put an end to the destruction of the site, whose
stones were being used to build railroad tracks
A Culture Emerges footsteps. Some historians and bridges. Below, Créqui-Montfort (center)
Fired by the new discipline elaborated theories on the with his team of workers at the ancient site.
of anthropology, Thaddäus site based on prejudice to-
Haenke, a Czech naturalist ward the Aymara-speaking
and geographer, participated indigenous peoples of the
in the Spanish scientific ex- area. French scholar Francis
pedition to South America, de Laporte de Castelnau, for
which set off in 1789. Con- example, proposed Tiwan-
ducting a survey of the site, aku was built by Egyptian
ADOC-PHOTOS/ALBUM
Haenke drew the first known pharaohs. His basis for this
sketches of Tiwanaku. ludicrous theory was that
In the 19th century many he did not believe it possi-
other European and Ameri- ble that such complex struc-
can scholars followed in his tures could be raised by “the

DISCOVERIES
THE GATEWAY OF THE SUN, shortly before

restoration by the French archaeological
mission of 1903. In the center, a stone relief of
the Tiwanaku creator god, forerunner of the
main Inca deity, Viracocha.
ADOC-PHOTOS/ALBUM
imbecilic race that inhabits president of Argentina Bar- Georges de Créqui-Mont- intentions, his inexperi-
the country today.” tolomé Mitre passed through fort was granted the first enced team caused damage
At the other end of the Tiwanaku at a time of great official permit to excavate of their own through poor
ideological spectrum, mean- political upheaval. Inspired there. He arrived at a dark excavation methods.
while—as swaths of Central by his visit, he published an moment for Tiwanaku: German scholar Max Uhle
and South America declared emotionally charged book The railroad from La Paz was fascinated with this
independence from Spain— about the experience, seeing had just been built through ancient city as well and had
the site became an important the place as a symbol to fuse the site, causing irrevers- begun his studies in the late
symbol onto which the con- the continent’s great past ible damage. Engineers had 19th century. An assistant at
tinent’s emerging nations and dynamic present. destroyed structures and the Ethnological Museum of
projected their hopes and robbed stones from build- Berlin, he studied the Ande-
desires.In1848future Studying the Site ings to use for railroad in- an collections housed there.
Major modern archaeolog- frastructure. Appalled, At first Uhle was denied an
ical excavations at Tiwa- Créqui-Montfort did what excavation permit to dig at
naku began in 1903, when he could to preserve the Tiwanaku, so he went to
the French archaeologist ruins, but despite his good Peru instead. There, he dug
sites on the coast, such as
at the Necropolis in Ancón
Based on the resemblance between the and the Pachacamac Sanctu-
ary, where he discovered ce-
pottery of the plateau and the coast, Uhle ramics very similar to those
proposed a common “Tiwanaku style.” found in Tiwanaku. Little by
little, he uncovered a rela-
RITUAL CUP DECORATED WITH A FELINE HEAD, FROM TIWANAKU tionship between the coastal
BPK/SCALA, FLORENCE
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DISCOVERIES
Andean Artisans
TIWANAKU CULTURE stood out not only for its monumental architecture but also for its
exquisite sculpture and ceramics, objects that unite art, craft, religion, and ritual.
5
Humanlike figure holding
ritual objects. Fifth-ninth 2
centuries. Metropolitan
Museum, New York
Head, perhaps
1. SCHECTER LEE/RMN-GRAND PALAIS. 2, 3, AND 4. CLAUDE GERMAIN/RMN-GRAND PALAIS. 5. SCALA, FLORENCE.
representing a Silver diadem,

captured warrior. decorated with a
Undated. Quai Branly Viracocha-style
Museum, Paris head. Sixth-10th
centuries
Funerary cup with a

puma’s head. Fifth-11th
centuries. Quai Branly
Museum, Paris
Ritual, head-shaped
drinking cup. Seventh- 4
10th centuries. Quai
1 Branly Museum, Paris
3
artifacts of the Wari culture thought the settlement’s ar- more of a ceremonial center to track the progress of the
and those on the plateau, ea of influence reached into than a city. Some histori- solar year, and its main en-
which proved that a com- what is today Peru, Bolivia, ans disagree and assert that trances align with the sun
mon culture linked the coast and Chile. Tiwanaku had a significant during both equinoxes.
and Tiwanaku. Building on Uhle’s pains- urban population with more The Pyramid of Akapana
taking research, American than 100,000 inhabitants. is thought to have been built
Solar Power Center archaeologist and anthro- It is clear that the site did somewhat later than the
Uhle believed that Tiwan- pologist Wendell Bennett have a crucial religious func- gateway and temple, per-
aku predated the Inca and did much to restore and con- tion. The Gateway of the haps nearer A.D. 700. There
produced a highly influential serve Tiwanaku’s ruins in the Sun, believed to date from are signs that building work
“Tiwanaku style” in its art- 1930s. Bennett’s conclusions around A.D. 300, is topped was suddenly abandoned in
works and material culture, a remain somewhat contro- with nearly 50 relief carv- the 900s, although why that
theory that still holds today. versial. For instance he ar- ings of winged creatures in happened—and many other
Flourishing from around the gued that the site was not feathered headgear. At the questions about the site—
sixth century onward, it is heavily populated and was center, over the entrance it- remain unresolved. What
self, is the creator deity, an is clear, however, is that the
early version of the supreme Inca regarded Tiwanaku as a
Inca god, Viracocha. spiritual reference, and de-
In its heyday Tiwanaku’s The Kalasasaya temple sired to establish themselves
influence reached deep into what may date from a little earli- as the heirs of its greatness.
is today Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. er. Formed around a sunken
courtyard, it is constructed —Adriana Baulenas
94 MAY/JUNE 2018
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BIRTH OF THE

WHERE LIES PHILIP?

Picasso Fights Fascism

1. The Trial of Socrates

No understanding of the world today is complete without an understanding

On September 20, 1932, a click of a camera

Amy Briggs, Executive Editor

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 1

VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER JOHN MACKETHAN

Advertising ROBERT AMBERG

Customer Service SCOTT ARONSON, TRACY PELT

for subscription questions, visit www.nghservice.com or call 1-800-647-5463.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PARTNERS GARY KNELL

PRESIDENT RICARDO RODRIGO

14 Phoenicia’s Purple Reign 4 NEWS

Legend says a rabbi brought

TheChineseEmperor Korean illustration

THE EMPEROR’S TERRA-

TOP: MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON/SCALAA, FLORENCE; BOTTOM: STUDIOEAST/GETTY IMAGES

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 5

he golem is supposed to be the accusation that Jews ritually sacrificed

T perfect soldier: Mindless and

Enter the Golem

community. Grisly rumors circulate that

the ground and breathed into his nostrils

case is dismissed, and the golem saves

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 7

THE NAVE OF PRAGUE’S OLD-NEW SYNAGOGUE,

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 9

1 Bull 2 Mother and Child 3 Broken Man 4 Gored Horse

The Genius Guernica

While Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica” was inspired by the

5 Light Bulb 6 Woman at the Window 7 Wounded Woman 8 Man in Terror

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 11

ORONOZ/ALBUM. © SUCESIÓN PABLO PICASSO. VEGAP, MADRID, 2018

ORONOZ/ALBUM. © SUCESIÓN PABLO PICASSO. VEGAP, MADRID, 2018

AGE FOTOSTOCK. © SUCESIÓN PABLO PICASSO. VEGAP, MADRID, 2018

PABLO PICASSO STANDS IN FRONT OF “GUERNICA,” IN A 1937

GUERNICA IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE BOMBING

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 13

ian shi wre

15th-13th Ninth 539 B.C. 332

MELQART DISCOVERS PURPLE DYE IN HIS DOG’S MOUTH. DETAIL OF A 1636

How Phoenicians Turned

men across the Mediterranean provoked respect

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 25

359-338 b.c. 336 b.c.

Philip II becomes king of the small Philip is murdered at his daughter’s

330 b.c. 323 b.c. 317 b.c.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT, CAPITOLINE MUSEUMS, ROME

Macedon before 359 B.C.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 31

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 33

the bones of an adult male.

THE MAIN CHAMBER OF TOMB II

c SILVER ALABASTRON 2 BREASTPLATE

This alabastron (perfume This breastplate was

of a silver set found in the covered with a layer of