Category: Forgotten Figures
Forgotten Figures: Imhotep
No, this Imhotep is not the priest from The Mummy (1999). Imhotep was an ancient Egyptian man who took a simple enough idea that had developed over the centuries and turned it up a notch to create what was then the world’s largest stone building. He is forgotten by all but Egyptologists and amateur enthusiastic historians but in his own time and for centuries afterward, he was a legend as an architect and healer. Eventually, he would become a god.
One of the few images of Imhotep, currently housed at the Louvre.
Background
Imhotep lived and came to prominence in the reign of Djoser, which happened circa 2650 B.C. His origins are largely unknown but classical historians put his town of birth at Gebelein, which was south of ancient Thebes in Upper Egypt. Still others put his birthplace at Ankhtow, a suburb of Memphis in the north (Lower Egypt). So I think we can safely say that no one has any firm idea where this man came from. What we do know is that Imhotep was born into a fascinating and complicated time.
This was the early period of ancient Egypt, before all the famous pharaohs like Ramses II and Tutankhamun. No, those people lived in the 19th and 18th Dynasties respectively while Djoser is considered the first pharaoh of the Third Dynasty. These people lived more than a thousand years apart and Egypt was not yet the powerhouse it would become in the New Kingdom. Narmer had united Upper and Lower Egypt circa 2900 B. C. so the country was fairly new when you compare it to what it would eventually become: a three thousand year long relatively successful regional power. The art compared to the Middle and New Kingdom art was basic and architecture was just in its infancy but Imhotep would help bring along a sort of renaissance that we would call the Pyramid age. That’s still a little farther off in Egyptian history than we’ll cover today, however.
Forgotten Figures: Zenobia
Of all of the people to cross paths (and swords) with the Romans during their thousand year empire, Zenobia of Palmyra in particular stands out. She has long been overshadowed by the more famous women who took on Rome: Cleopatra and Boadicea. However, as you’ll see, she was every inch the political genius and warrior queen that her predecessors were. If Emperor Aurelian (who we covered last time) had been a weaker man, she may have even succeeded in her venture.
Background
Palmyra was a desert city along the all-important trade routes to the east that would become the Silk Road in later years. As such, it could have protection monopolies and charge tolls on the incoming and outgoing merchants. It was a wealthy city nominally conquered by Rome but really the Romans let them govern themselves quite readily—not that they had a choice as you’ll see in a moment.
Rome of the third century A. D. was not the powerful imperial Rome of its glory days. Rather, the empire was in chaos due to a game of musical chairs with Emperors, economic chaos as inflation ran unchecked and barbarian hordes seemingly coming from every direction. Did I mention there was also a plague going around killing everyone too? It was a tough time to be a Roman and eventually because of it, the emperors ruling in Italy just could not handle things. The empire split into three sections, essentially. Odaenathus in the east, Postumus in Gaul and Britain and Gallienus in central Italy. Due to the revolving door of emperors during the third century, this situation would not last long though. Continue reading
Forgotten Figures: Aurelian
Lucius Domitius Aurelianus—Aurelian to modern scholars—is one of the most famous men you’ve never heard of. What I mean by that is he is remembered as an absolutely amazing Emperor within Roman history, but the average person has never, ever heard of him. That’s a shame because as you’ll see, Aurelian deserves to be put up there with the more recognizable Augustus, Trajan and Hadrian.
A bust of Aurelian.
Background
Aurelian is not as familiar to our modern ears because he ascended to the throne during what’s known as the Crisis of the Third Century. This crisis of political, economic and social factors is a confusing mess of events for modern historians trying to piece together a coherent narrative and not much is actually known about it. What is known, however, is that during this period, the Roman Empire split into three distinct areas ruled by different emperors and pseudo-emperors.
This period is not the high point of Roman culture, believe me. The written word was rarer, there were severe manpower shortages throughout the empire as the plague made its rounds and emperors rose and fell with alarming frequency. In the so-called Middle Empire of the time, the Emperor Gallienus ruled until he was assassinated by a military coup led by Claudius, who would later earn the title Gothicus for his campaigns against the Goths. Unfortunately, Claudius Gothicus likely succumbed to the plague killing his men, leaving no clear successor and a bunch of ambitious, seasoned military officers behind.
In the western Gallic Empire consisting mainly of Britain and Gaul, a man named Postumus had been ruling wisely and justly. He was beloved by his troops and the people he ruled over because the Western provinces had been neglected by the emperors in the central Empire. And when Gallienus, the current central emperor tried to launch a military campaign to retake the provinces, Postumus repulsed him twice. He was no dummy and managed to maintain his hold over the Gallic Empire for around nine good years.
In the East, a man named Odaenathus had been the de facto ruler for years. His main strength was that he was keeping the Sassanids in Persia from retaking territory they had lost to Rome centuries ago. Odaenathus was also no dummy and had a sphere of influence over most of the eastern provinces, including Syria, Egypt and Asia Minor. He ruled from the trade city of Palmyra, which had grown influential as it was one of the last main stops along the silk road before traders entered Persia. As such, it could charge taxes and create protection rackets that made the city obscenely wealthy. When Rome’s influence was degrading in the East, Odaenathus seized his opportunity to extend Palmyra’s influence over the surrounding provinces and although he officially had the approval of Gallienus, Gallienus couldn’t have dislodged him if he tried. Odaenathus was too smart and too powerful.
A map of the three different ’empires’ that had split from Rome during the crisis years.
Forgotten Figures: Introduction
So the poll results are in and you guys voted largely in favour of me writing them all. However, the most popular series by far was this one I’m doing right now: Forgotten Figures. 31.25% of people voted for it alone, plus the 25% of people that voted for all of the above, which made me really happy because this is an article series I’m really looking forward to. So now I’ll give you a brief introduction and explain how it’s going to run.
There are many fascinating figures throughout history that have largely been forgotten by the public these days. Everyone’s heard about Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan and Christopher Columbus. If you asked a random person on a normal city street and gave them that list, they’d be able to tell you the accomplishments of at least one of those. (Or so one would hope, especially for the last person on that list.)
But what about the interesting people that mainstream history has forgotten? What about Galla Placidia, Zenobia, Sneferu, Aurelian, Shapur and so many more? The accomplishments of these people should not be forgotten, but I’m also going to dive into the history that people would rather forget: the brutal reign of Caracalla, the just weirdness of Elagabalus and so many more ugly little pieces of history.
However, at one point during this hopefully long article series, you’re probably going to say, “Carrie, do you think we’re all stupid? Of course I know who [x] is.” That’s right, you probably will know someone I’m doing a feature on at one point or another. And it’s probably because you’ve studied history a little more than the average person. If you’re a fan of Roman history and you’re scoffing at me including Aurelian on the list of forgotten figures, that’s fine, but just remember that I’m talking about people forgotten by the general public. Let’s face it: if you asked random people on a city street to name the two major things Aurelian did during his five-year reign, they’d probably just look at you blankly. Scholars of Roman history easily could, but the average person? Not so much because you never hear about him in the mainstream media.
One of my goals is also to bring more famous Eastern historical figures to my largely Western audience. So if you’ve even made a cursory study of Chinese history, you’re going to scoff at me when I talk about Princess Zhao of Pingyang and Emperor Li Shih-min (T’ai-Tsung). You’ll have to bear with me on those articles because although they are very well known in their countries of origin, they don’t exactly ring bells to Western ears. Heck, I only know about them thanks to a humour site called Cracked and some ancient history books I picked up at a garage sale. And that’s a shame.
My specialty is ancient Roman and Egyptian history, but hopefully if the series goes well I’ll take more time to research and learn about obscure figures from around the world. I know Greek history would be fascinating and I’m eager to learn more about China’s long history. Of course I’ll also be taking some more modern figures that have been forgotten, but those will be a little more rare.
I don’t know how I’m going to format things yet, but I’ll probably give you a background look at the times the particular Forgotten Figure lived in, then a (hopefully detailed) biography followed by a summation of their accomplishments. If this format seems popular, I’ll probably stick to it but just be aware that if it doesn’t seem to be working, I’m going to be changing things around.
So there’s your introduction to my newest series: Forgotten Figures. Come back next week for my first installment in the series, Forgotten Figures: Aurelian.