Tragic Legends & Myths in Human History

Tragic Legends & Myths in 

Human History

Preface

This book/article will not discuss statistical tragedies of ginormous proportions. This book will try to mention all the stories, legends, myths of the past and the present, that have become source of tragic inspiration, some even turn into religious zealotry, and are mostly based on true events, so epic fictional stories like The Count of Monte Cristo & Ben Hur don’t count. So it will not mention slavery, massacres, holocausts, holodomors, world wars, bombings, plagues, natural disasters, et al. unless there is some legend or myth attached to it.

What are legends?

A legend is a semi-true story, which has been passed on from person-to-person and has important meaning or symbolism for the culture in which it originates. A legend usually includes an element of truth, or is based on historic facts, but with 'mythical qualities'. Legends usually involve heroic characters or fantastic places and often encompass the spiritual beliefs of the culture in which they originate.

What are myths?

A myth is a story based on tradition or legend, which has a deep symbolic meaning. A myth 'conveys a truth' to those who tell it and hear it, rather than necessarily recording a true event. Although some myths can be accounts of actual events, they have become transformed by symbolic meaning or shifted in time or place. Myths are often used to explain universal and local beginnings and involve supernatural beings. The great power of the meaning of these stories, to the culture in which they developed, is a major reason why they survive as long as they do - sometimes for thousands of years.

What are folktales?

A folktale is a popular story that was passed on in spoken form, from one generation to the next. Usually the author is unknown and there are often many versions of the tale. Folktales comprise fables, fairy tales, old legends and even 'urban legends'. Again, some tales may have been based on a partial truth that has been lost or hidden over time. It is difficult to categorize folktales precisely because they fit into many categories.

What is the difference between legends, myths and folktales?

Myths, legends and folktales are hard to classify and often overlap. Imagine a line (or continuum) as illustrated below, with an historical account based on facts at one end and myths or cultural folktales at the other; as you progress towards the mythical/folktale end of the line, what an event symbolises to people, or what they feel about it, becomes of greater historical significance than the facts, which become less important. By the time you reach the far end of the spectrum, the story has taken on a life of its own and the facts of the original event, if there ever were any, have become almost irrelevant. It is the message that is important.

Cain and Abel

Peter Paul Rubens - Cain slaying Abel, 1608-1609

One night, when Cain and Abel were both young men, Eve had a terrible dream. When she awoke she told the dream to Adam: "While I was sleeping, I saw in a night vision that the blood of our son Abel was entering the mouth of our son Cain. Cain drank his blood without mercy. Abel beseeched him to leave a little, but he drank his blood completely." Hearing this, Adam said, "Surely this means that Cain must intend to kill Abel. Come, let us keep them apart. Let each of them live in a separate place." So Adam said to them, "My sons, let each of you go to your own place." And they did. After this, God sent the angel Michael to Adam. God said, "Adam understands that Cain intends to kill Abel. Go to him and tell him not to reveal this mystery to Cain, for Cain is a son of wrath who will kill Abel, his brother. So too should you tell Adam not to grieve because I will give him another son, Seth. Seth will bear my image, and through him many mysteries will be revealed." And the angel came to Adam and spoke to him, and Adam revealed what the angel told him only to Eve, and they both grieved to learn the fate of Abel.

Dreams and visions are often understood to be prophetic. Here Eve has a prophetic dream or vision—she calls it a "night vision"—in which Cain behaves like a beast or a vampire and drinks all of Abel's blood. When Eve tells this dream to Adam, he understands its meaning at once—that Cain will murder Abel. He hopes to prevent this by separating them, but God sends the angel Michael to reveal the inevitability of this fate, as well as promising them the birth of another son, Seth, who is clearly intended to take Abel's place.

The prophecy of the birth of Seth, and the description of his powers makes it seem likely that this myth reflects the veneration of Seth that played a central role in Gnosticism. For Gnostic texts about Seth see Apocalypse of Adam, where Adam communi-cates a secret Gnostic revelation to Seth. Eve's dream portrays Cain's crime in the stark and primitive terms of drinking a victim's blood. For an equally primitive myth, see "How Samael Entered the Heart of Man," p. 454. Sources: Penitence of Adam 22:2:1-23:3:2. Studies: Apocalypse of Adam in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, edited by James Charlesworth, vol. 1, pp. 707-719.

Some traditional interpretations consider Cain to be the originator of evil, violence, or greed. According to Genesis, Cain was the first human born and Abel was the first to die.

The Body of Abel Found by Adam and Eve by William Blake, 1826

Cain, by Henri Vidal, Jardin des Tuileries, Paris

The Beheading of the Holy Prophet and Forerunner John the Baptist

The face of St. John the Baptist, in the Cathedral of Our Lady in Amiens.

       

Icon of St. John the Baptist.

Holy Scripture tells us that after St. John the Baptist was beheaded, the impious Herodias forbade the prophet’s head to be buried together with his body. Instead, she desecrated the honorable head and buried it near her palace. The saint’s disciples had secretly taken their teacher’s body and buried it. The wife of King Herod’s steward knew where Herodias had buried St. John’s head, and she decided to rebury it on the Mount of Olives, on one of Herod’s estates.

Mark 6:14-29 “King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known. Some were saying, ‘John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.’ Others said, ‘He is Elijah.’ And still others claimed, ‘He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago.’ But when Herod heard this, he said, ‘John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!’ For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his bother Philip’s wife, whom he had married. For John had been saying to Herod, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.’ So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she was not able to, because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled, yet he liked to listen to him. Finally the opportune time came. On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests. The king said to the girl, ‘Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.’ And he promised her with an oath, ‘Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.’ She went out and said to her mother, ‘What shall I ask for?’ ‘The head of John the Baptist,’ she answered. At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: ‘I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.’ The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother. On hearing of this, John’s disciples came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.”

When word reached the royal palace about Jesus’ preaching and miracles, Herod went with his wife Herodias to see if John the Baptist’s head was still in the place they had left it. When they did not find it there, they began to think that Jesus Christ was John the Baptist resurrected. The Gospels witness to this error of theirs (cf. Mt. 14:2).

       

   

Why does the Church give such veneration to St. John the Baptist, even fixing a strict fast day in his honour?

Jesus Himself said that St. John was the greatest prophet “among those born of women” (Luke 7, 28). Some hearing these words are surprised. They ask: Surely, Christ Himself is the greatest man born of women? However, Christ was not born of a woman (i.e. a married female), he was born of a Virgin. Therefore, in obedience to our Lords words, that St. John is the greatest born of women, the Church duly honors him. In fact, there are no fewer than six feasts of St. John in the Church Year. The first is his Conception on September 23/October 6. Then comes his commemoration on January 7/20, the day after the Feast of the Baptism of Christ. The third is the Second Finding of his head on February 24/March 9. His next feast is the Third Finding of his head on May 25/June 7. The fifth is his Birth, or Nativity, on June 24/July 7, and finally today’s feast, the last in the Church Year, his Beheading on August 29/September 11.

The parents of St. John were great and holy people in their own right and their child was a gift in answer to prayer made to them in their pious old age. His father was St. Zachariah, Prophet, Priest and Martyr. His mother, St. Elizabeth, was the sister of St. Anna, that is the sister of the mother of the Mother of God. This relationship between the Mother of God and her kinsman, St. John, is expressed in the icon which hangs over the holy doors in every Orthodox church. This shows Christ in the center, the Mother of God on His right and St. John the Baptist on His left. This icon is called the Deisis, and signifies how our salvation is related not only to Our Savior, but also to His Holy Mother and St. John.

For this reason St. John has the special title of the “Forerunner”, in Greek “Prodromos”, which in is a common Greek Christian name. St. John alone can claim to be the Forerunner of Christ, therefore the pioneer of our Faith. How can we fail therefore to give him special honor?

The Holy Foreunner is also given the title of “Prophet”. In fact it can be said that he was the last Prophet of the Old Testament. As you may recall, the last seventeen books of the Old Testament are the Prophetic Books, from St. Isaiah to St. Malachi. In this way, we can also say that St. John is the first Prophet of the New Testament. Thus, St. John can be considered as a hinge, joining the Old Testament and the New Testament. We also note that not only was St. John the Baptist the first Prophet of the New Testament, but that the last Prophet of the Old Testament was also called John. This was St. John the Theologian, who wrote the last book of the New Testament and its only prophetic book, the Book of Revelation.

St. John the Baptist, the first Prophet of the New Testament, was also the first Martyr during Christ’s public preaching, some three years before the holy Archdeacon Stephen, who was the First Martyr after Christ’s Ascension.


It can also be said that St. John the Baptist was the first Monk, indeed this is why he is the patron-saint of monks and the monastic life. This is the meaning of the first Gospel today, in which our Lord tells the young man who wishes to follow him, first of all to obey the commandments and then to give up all his riches. That is how St. Antony the Great decided to go into the desert, on hearing this very Gospel, so imitating St. John the Baptist.

We recall the importance of monastic life for the Orthodox Church. Monasticism is the barometer of the Church. When monastic life flourishes, so the whole Church flourishes. When monastic life is weak, then the whole Church is weak. And St. John stands at the head of this.

The first step towards monastic life, and indeed towards Christian life in general, is repentance. And this is the first word of St. John. Therefore he is great, because he preaches repentance. Repentance is the letter A of the Orthodox Christian alphabet, it is the mark of truth, the mark of sobriety, the absence of exaltation, the sense of reality. Thus, St. John’s first disciples, Andrew and Peter, were also the first disciples of Christ. And we should not forget that St. John preached repentance not only on earth, but also in hades. After his beheading, St. John went down to hades, where all departed mankind was held captive, and there preached to all generations, from Adam and Eve on, of Christ’s imminent coming, in less than three years from then.

The second step in monastic life is poverty, not only in terms of having no money, but also in having no power. St. John fearlessly denounced power that was abused, that was used to do evil. This is the meaning of today’s second Gospel, the Gospel for St. John. This Gospel tells us how St. John had denounced Herod Antipas, the son of the Herod who had slaughtered the Holy Innocents nearly thirty years before in Bethlehem, who at the time of St. John’s preaching was the ruler in Galilee.

As we have heard, it was at Herod’s birthday-party, that Herod, excited by his daughter’s dancing, gave way to his wife’s demand to behead St. John. This is a reason why we Orthodox do not make a great fuss of our birthdays, but rather of our saints’ days. For this episode with Herod is the only time in the New Testament that we hear of a birthday, and it caused a great crime to be committed.

The punishment of Herod was terrible. Firstly, his kingdom was invaded by the Arab Prince Aretas, who was all too keen to avenge his daughter’s honor. Then Herod was exiled with all his family by the angry Romans. Exiled by them to Lerida in Spain, it was here one terrible winter that his daughter Salome fell through a hole in the ice while crossing a frozen river. As she sank into the river, the ice froze around her neck. Struggling to free herself, she moved her legs, as though dancing. At that moment, however, jagged edges of ice cut through her neck and she was beheaded. Her sinful and unrepentant body disappeared forever beneath the ice. Eyewitnesses saw her decapitated head on the ice, picked it up and took it to Herod—on a platter. As regards Herod and Herodias, they too disappeared, for they fell into a crevasse which opened up during an earthquake in Lerida. Thus, they disappeared from history, without obeying St. John’s call to repentance, swallowed by the fires beneath the earth. But as regards St. John who called and still calls to repentance—his name lives on forever.

The Beheading of St. John the Baptist.

Osiris

The Story of Osiris, Isis and Horus: The Egyptian Myth of Creation From Geb, the sky god, and Nut, the earth goddess came four children: Osiris, Isis, Set and Nepthys.

Osiris was the oldest and so became king of Egypt, and he married his sister Isis. Osiris was a good king and commanded the respect of all who lived on the earth and the gods who dwelled in the netherworld.

However, Set was always jealous of Osiris, because he did not command the respect of those on earth or those in the netherworld. One day, Set transformed himself into a vicious monster and attacked Osiris, killing him. Set then cut Osiris into pieces and distributed them throughout the length and breadth of Egypt.

With Osiris dead, Set became king of Egypt, with his sister Nepthys as his wife. Nepthys, however, felt sorry for her sister Isis, who wept endlessly over her lost husband. Isis, who had great magical powers, decided to find her husband and bring him back to life long enough so that they could have a child. Together with Nepthys, Isis roamed the country, collecting the pieces of her husband’s body

and reassembling them. Once she completed this task, she breathed the breath of life into his body and resurrected him. They were together again, and Isis became pregnant soon after. Osiris was able to descend into the underworld, where he became the lord of that domain. The child born to Isis was named Horus, the hawk-god. When he became an adult, Horus decided to make a case before the court of gods that he, not Set, was the rightful king of Egypt. A long period of argument followed, and Set challenged Horus to a contest. The winner would become king. Set, however, did not play fair. After several matches in which Set cheated and was the victor, Horus’ mother, Isis, decided to help her son and set a trap for Set. She snared him, but Set begged for his life, and Isis let him go. When he found out that she had let his enemy live, Horus became angry with his mother, and rages against her, earning him the contempt of the other gods. They decided that there would be one more match, and Set would get to choose what it would be. Set decided that the final round of the contest would be a boat race. However, in order to make the contest a challenge, Set decided that he and Horus should race boats made of stone. Horus was tricky and built a boat made of wood, covered with limestone plaster, which looked like stone. As the gods assembled for the race, Set cut the top off of a mountain to serve as his boat and set it in the water. His boat sank right away, and all the other gods laughed at him. Angry, Set transformed himself into a hippopotamus and attacked Horus’ boat. Horus fought off Set, but the other gods stopped him before he could kill Set. The other gods decided that the match was a tie. Many of the gods were sympathetic to Horus, but remembered his anger toward his mother for being lenient to Set, and were unwilling to support him completely.

The gods who formed the court decided to write a letter to Osiris and ask for his advice. Osiris responded with a definite answer: his son is the rightful king, and should be placed upon the throne. No one, said Osiris, should take the throne of Egypt through an act of murder, as Set had done. Set had killed Osiris, but Horus did not killed anyone, and was the better candidate. The sun and the stars, who were Osiris’ allies, descended into the underworld, leaving the world in darkness. Finally, the gods agreed that Horus should claim his birthright as king of Egypt.

The Crucifixion of Jesus

32 As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. 33 They came to a place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). 34 There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. 35 When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. 36 And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. 37 Above his head they placed the written charge against him: this is jesus, the king of the jews.

38 Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. 39 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” 41 In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 42 “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44 In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

The Death of Jesus

45 From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli,[a] lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).[b]

47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”

48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 49 The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”

50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and[c] went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

55 Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph,[d] and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

Matthew 27:32-56

Karbala Tragedy

The Battle of Karbala took place on Muharram 10, in the year 61 AH of the Islamic calendar (October 10, 680 AD)a in Karbala, in present-day Iraq.[6] The battle took place between a small group of supporters and relatives of Muhammad's grandson, Husayn ibn Ali, and a larger military detachment from the forces of Yazid I, the Umayyad caliph.

When Muawiyah I died in 680, Husayn did not give allegiance to his son, Yazid I, who had been appointed as Umayyad caliph by Muawiyah; Husayn considered Yazid's succession a breach of the Hasan–Muawiya treaty. The people of Kufa sent letters to Husayn, asking his help and pledging allegiance to him, but they later did not support him. As Husayn traveled towards Kufa, at a nearby place known as Karbala, his caravan was intercepted by Yazid I's army led by Al-Hurr ibn Yazid al Tamimi. He was killed and beheaded in the Battle of Karbala by Shimr Ibn Thil-Jawshan, along with most of his family and companions, including Husayn's six month old son, Ali al-Asghar, with the women and children taken as prisoners.  The battle was followed by later uprisings namely, Ibn al-Zubayr, Tawwabin, and Mukhtar uprising which occurred years later.

The dead are widely regarded as martyrs by Sufi Sunni and Shia Muslims. The battle has a central place in Shia history, tradition and theology and it has frequently been recounted in Shia Islamic literature. Mainstream Sunni Muslims, on the other hand, do not regard the incident as one that influences the traditional Islamic theology and traditions, but merely as a historical tragedy.

Al-Husayn and His Baby

By the afternoon 70 brave persons had sacrificed their lives in Karbala to save Islam. All had fought under nerve racking conditions, severe thirst, dehydration, exhaustion, and agonizing feeling of what would happen to the family of the Prophet (S) afterwards. Husayn endured all that and more, for he saw all his beloved ones brutally cut to pieces, including children. Remaining the only one, Imam Husayn was to face the enemy head on.

Precisely at that moment Imam Husayn heard his baby crying incessantly, agonizing because of the thirst. Imam Husayn's love for his family was unbound, especially for a suffering baby. He held the six months old baby, his youngest son (‘Ali Asghar) in his arms, and appealed to the enemy fighters for some water for the baby.

Imam wanted to awaken their conscience and stir their human feelings but the stone-hearted enemy, instead of giving water, zoomed an arrow toward the agonizing baby and killed him instantly. Imam Husayn was shocked. He felt an unbearable wave of pain. The sight of the limp baby in his arms was agonizingly painful. He filled his palm with the blood of the baby, and threw it upwards toward the sky, complaining to Allah (swt),

"O' Allah, O' my Lord! My consolation is the fact that Thou in Thine Majesty are witnessing what I am going through."

Al-Husayn by Himself

Imam Husayn (a.s.) was alone, one man against thousands. He took them on, fighting them bravely, and kept fighting, receiving many wounds in the process. Thousands of enemy fighters were surrounding him but none dared to move toward him.

The silence was broken when Shimr screamed for an attack, and then screamed again, threatening, and in response they attacked collectively, and one sword fell on Imam Husayn's left wrist and deeply cut his left hand. The blood gushed like a fountain.

Another sword was soon to follow and it hit his upper back. Imam Husayn (a.s.) felt numb as he fell to the ground, bleeding profusely. He was near the point of shock, even though staggering he tried to stand by leaning on his sword. Then he received the fatal blow.

It was at this point, that Shimr whose mother was a disbeliever, came forward and severed Imam Husayn's noble head from the body, the noble head kissed often by the Prophet (S)! Shimr and others had the audacity to carry it on the tip of a spear to Yazid, 600 miles away!

Umar Ibn Sa'ad ordered the horsemen to trample upon the supine bodies of Imam Husayn and all others killed, to disfigure them even further, as if the wounds, the bloodied bodies, and the headless forms were not enough.

For three days the exposed bodies of the martyrs were left lying in the desert of Karbala. Afterwards, the people of the tribe of Bani-Asad, who were not far away from the battle field, helped bury them.

Umar Ibn Sa'ad and his forces (representing Bani Umayya) took the women and children as prisoners in shackles, put them on camels, and proceeded in a caravan from Karbala to Kufa. At the forefront of the procession were the heads of Imam Husayn (a.s.) and his followers on the tip of spears. The scene was both grotesque and pathetic. This was the leftover of the beloved family of Prophet Muhammad (S), in such a deplorable unimaginable condition, all caused by people who called themselves Muslims!

Tragedy of Makkah

Death of Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr

The Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik then sent against ibn al-Zubayr the general al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf. When Hajjaj approached Mecca, he sent a letter to Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr telling him he had three choices; to be taken and chained to Abd al-Malik who was then the caliph of Damascus; to leave by himself wherever he wished, renouncing claim on all the lands he had under his control; or to continue fighting to the death. He then went to his mother (Asma bint Abu Bakr) for advice, and she was over a hundred years old. So Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr said to his mother:

In death I will find peace and tranquility. My people have deserted me, even my children and my family, and I am left with a handful of men around me. And the people (al-Hajjaj) are willing to give me whatever I want from this world (i.e. they would let him leave freely without hindrance). So what is your counsel?

Thereupon Asma replied to her son:

You know better than me your circumstances. But I say to you this: if you know you are upon the truth, go forth and die like your companions; and if you are after this world, then you are the most wretched of men, for you have wasted yourself and those who are with you. And for how long shall you live in this world? And if you are upon the truth, but now that your companions have left you, you have become weak... this is not the action of a free man and a man of the deen.

Then he said, "I am afraid I will be mutilated by the people of al-Sham", to which she replied "My son, a slaughtered goat does not feel the pain when it is skinned". He kissed her upon the forehead and said:

I swear by Allah, this is my opinion. I have no desire to live in this world, for my aspiration is the life of the hereafter, and all my life I have stood up for truth. But I wanted to know your opinion so that your opinion strengthens my opinion!

And then his mother said, “Come closer my son!” When he came closer to her, she embraced him and when she did so, she felt that he had some metal armour on. And she said, “O’ my son! What is this? For people who want Shahaadah don’t wear this!” He said, “O’ my mother! I only did this to comfort you!” She said:

My son, take it off. Tie your belt so when you fall, your ‘awrah is not exposed! Fight with bravery for you are the son of Zubayr and the grandson of Abu Bakr and your grandmother was Safiyyah.

That day he fought bravely and would repel huge numbers of men until finally, they threw a rock upon him and he was on the floor and was still fighting. Then they cut off his leg and finally, they martyred him. And when they martyred him, al-Hajjaj came to the mother of Abdullah and wanted to break her resolve, and he said, “How has Allah dealt with His enemy?” but she answered, “You have ruined his life, but he has ruined for you the hereafter!"

They beheaded Abdullah ibn Zubayr and stuck his body up on a cross. The men of al Hajjaj were saying, “Allahu Akbar, Takbir!” and Abdullah ibn ‘Umar went by and he heard them saying that, and he turned towards his body and said,

I was there the day Abdullah was born and I am here the day he has died, and I heard those who said Takbir the day he was born and I heard those who have said Takbir the day he has died, and I swear by Allah those who said Takbir the day when he was born were far greater than those who have said Takbir today!

The soldiers went to al Hajjaj and said, "Take his body down, it has been up for days.” to which he responded, “I swear by Allah I will not take it down until Asma’ begs me.”

And when they told Asma’ that, she said, “Take me to where the body of my son is.” She made du’a for her son and said, “Isn’t it time that knight of Allah was allowed to come off his horse?” And when they told this to al-Hajjaj, he felt so little and mean that he brought the body down.

Battle of Thermopylae

In the fifth century bc, the Persian realm battled the city-conditions of Greece in a standout amongst the most significantly emblematic battles ever. Their wars would decide the practicality of another course in Western culture, for even as Greece stood ready to set out on an uncommon voyage of the psyche, Persia undermined to keep the Hellenes from regularly accomplishing their fate. Persia spoke to the old ways — a universe of magi and god-lords, where clerics stood monitor over information and heads regarded even their most astounding subjects as slaves. The Greeks had pushed off their own particular god-rulers and were recently starting to test a constrained idea of political flexibility, to enhance in workmanship, writing and religion, to grow better approaches for considering, free by religious custom. But, regardless of those central contrasts, the most paramount fight amongst Greeks and Persians would rely on not so much ideological but rather more general factors: the identity of a lord and the preparation and bravery of a phenomenal band of warriors.

The long way to fight at Thermopylae started in what is presently Iran, heart of the once huge Persian domain. These days, antiquated vestiges bear witness to its since quite a while ago vanished significance, however to the Greeks of the mid fifth century bc, the Persian realm was youthful, forceful and unsafe. Persian extension had started in the mid-sixth century, when its first shah, or incredible ruler, Cyrus, had driven a rebel against the overwhelming Medes. By 545 bc, Cyrus had stretched out Persian authority to the bank of Asia Minor.

The Greeks of Asia Minor were honored amid their time of enslavement just seeing that the Persian lords for the most part stayed remote figures of energy. Stories flourished of executions and torments requested on the impulses of irate rulers. One shah's better half supposedly had 14 youngsters covered alive trying to cheat demise. There appears to have been little escape from the self-assertive oppression of the rulers referred to by the Greeks just as 'the King or the Great King, authorized by an arrangement of spies who went about as his eyes and ears. Such was the general air of abuse that one Persian aristocrat who neglected to do the shah's offering was compelled to eat the tissue of his own child — and after being demonstrated that he had quite recently done as such, could marshal not any more powerful an answer than to state, May the ruler's will be finished.

It was unavoidable, at that point, that there would be strain between the Greek and Persian lifestyles, and in 499 bc a few Greek urban areas in Asia Minor rebelled against the Persian King Darius. Darius had seized control in 521, when he and six other men squashed a connivance of ministers on a day that wound up noticeably celebrated on the Persian timetable as Magophonia — The Killing of the Magi. A wrathful man, Darius had requested that the disjoined leaders of the magi be paraded through the roads on pikes.

As indicated by the Greek student of history Herodotus, Darius was particularly incensed to discover that a far off city called Athens had set out to help his insubordinate subjects in Asia Minor. Allow, O God, he stated, shooting a bolt into the air, that I may rebuff the Athenians. He even directed one of his workers to interfere with him amid each supper three times to help him to remember his objective with the exhortation, Master, recall the Athenians. The principal Persian War finished gravely for Darius, notwithstanding, when his troops were vanquished by a littler Athenian armed force at Marathon in 490 bc. Greece was spared — however just for some time.

Darius' child Xerxes does not appear to have been particularly headed to finish his late father's incomplete business. He waffled about whether the since quite a while ago postponed discipline of Athens justified such a far-flung battle. Finally an apparition purportedly showed up in his fantasies, asking him to attack Greece — this being translated by his magi as an omen for world victory.

Xerxes put in over four years gathering warriors and accumulating supplies from each edge of his realm. The subsequent host added up to a goliath cosmopolitan armed force of armed forces. In it were Persians, Medes and Hyrcanians, all wearing felt tops, tunics, mail and pants, and outfitted with short lances, light wicker shields and destructive, effective composite bows. Assyrians went along with them, secured by bronze caps and shields, and bearing lances, blades and iron-studded wooden clubs. Bactrians, Parthians and Chorasmians included short bows and lances. The Scythian Sacae, in their tall pointed caps, abounded with bows, blades and fight tomahawks. Cotton-wearing Indian assistants were equipped with bows that shot iron-tipped bolts. There were Paricanians, Pactyans, Arabs, Ethiopians, Libyans, Paphlagonians, Ligyans, Matieni, Mariandynians, Syrians, Phrygians, Lydians, Thracians, Pysidians, Cabalians, Moschians, Tibareni, Macrone and Mossynoeci. The rundown, even in condensed shape, peruses like an inventory of lost people groups. Together, they framed an armed force that the Greek history specialist Herodotus evaluated at 1.7 million, barring the naval force. When he included ship-borne contenders and European partners to the aggregate, he went to a total of 2.6 million, an assume that he figured would need to be multiplied to represent workers, teams and camp adherents.

Herodotus' numbers should without a doubt be exaggerated, despite the fact that we will never know by how much. We can just acknowledge that Xerxes' armed force was an immense and obviously sensational power — as indicated by Herodotus, at whatever point it halted to slake its thirst, it drank whole waterways dry.

Inside Xerxes' armed force, the local Persian unexpected was generally special. Carriages brimming with ladies and workers went with the Persians on the walk. One Persian unit was especially regarded: a split battling power that Herodotus called the Immortals, claiming that any dead, injured or wiped out officer in its positions was supplanted so quickly that its 10,000-man quality never appeared to decrease.

Watching his own armed force go in audit, Xerxes himself is said to have sobbed as he thought about the quickness of human life. Not one of them, he watched, would be alive in 100 years. It was a far-fetched snapshot of knowledge for a lord who had once requested one of his own officers split in two.

The Persians kept up an awe inspiring walking request. At the front was the greater part the armed force, prevailing by a hole to shield those conventional troops from being in contact with the ruler. There took after 1,000 of Persia's finest horsemen, another 1,000 picked spearmen, conveying their lances topsy turvy, 10 sacrosanct steeds, a heavenly chariot drawn by eight stallions, at that point Xerxes' chariot. The ruler was then trailed by 1,000 honorable Persian spearmen with their lances pointed upward, another 1,000 picked rangers, 10,000 infantry, numerous with gold or silver adornments on their lances, lastly 10,000 more horsemen before another hole that isolated those fine troops from the conventional fighters who raised the back.

It is totally conceivable that Xerxes did not envision fighting any huge fights in Greece. The greatness of his power was great to the point that he more likely than not foreseen just requesting surrender keeping in mind the end goal to get it. Like his dad before him, he sent couriers ahead requesting the conventional tokens of accommodation — earth and water. Numerous Greek towns yielded even with certain pulverization. To the Persian ruler, they surrendered, had a place the land and the ocean.

Two urban communities were saved the insult of the Persian final offer. Xerxes all around reviewed the destiny of the couriers his dad had sent to Athens and Sparta. The Athenians had tossed them into a pit. In Sparta the Persian negotiators were demonstrated the place to discover the earth and water they looked for — by being pushed down a well.

Xerxes knew about the headstrong Athenians who had obstructed his dad at Marathon 10 years sooner, yet along the walk he gradually wound up noticeably familiar with Greece's other most intense city-state. At a certain point he inquired as to whether anybody in Greece would set out oppose his power. The outcast, for whom there was no affection lost for the city that had ousted him, conceded that no length of chances could persuade the Spartans to submit. The Spartans, he stated, dreaded just the law, and their law prohibited them to withdraw in fight. It instructed them to stand firm dependably and to overcome or pass on.

Realizing that they couldn't plan to crush the Persians as individual urban communities, the Greeks gathered a meeting so as to arrange a Panhellenic guard. It was there that the Spartans, whose possess city was remarkable in that it had no dividers (depending rather upon the boldness of its nationals for safeguard), pushed the development of a divider over the Isthmus of Corinth, along these lines ensuring just the southernmost piece of Greece. The urban areas north of Corinth, in any case, realizing that Xerxes could swing around the Aegean and strike Greece from the north, looked for a prior resistance. The congress embraced their procedure. The Greeks chose to adhere to a meaningful boundary at Thermopylae.

To the Greek strategists in 481 bc, Thermopylae spoke to their most obvious opportunity to stop or possibly postpone the Persian armed force sufficiently long to enable their joined armadas to draw the Persian naval force into an unequivocal ocean fight. A tight mountain pass, Thermopylae was a bottleneck through which the Persian armed force by one means or another needed to continue. Compelled to battle there, the Persians would be not able exploit their huge dominance in numbers; rather, they would need to confront the Greeks in close-quarter, hand-to-hand battle.

Two armed forces now arranged to merge on the minor mountain pass. For Xerxes no power, not in any case nature, would be permitted to oppose his advance. At the point when a brutal tempest tore up the principal connect his designers had worked over the Hellespont, the considerable ruler requested his specialists put to death, and he had his men whip and revile the waters for opposing him. New architects at that point crossed over the Hellespont once more. Built from about 700 galleys and triremes lashed together, the extension was a wonder of alternative military designing. Flax and papyrus links held the pontoons in line, and sides were built to shield creatures from seeing the water and freezing amid their intersection. The Persian armed force progressed inflexibly into Greece.

The Greek power that now dashed to Thermopylae was absurdly little for the test that anticipated it: 300 Spartans, 80 Myceneans, 500 Tegeans, 700 Thespians et cetera, totaling around 4,900. The comrades they deserted appear to have put little confidence in this armed force. The Athenians voted to clear their city. Their men of military age left on ships, while ladies and kids were sent to the more secure region of the Peloponnesus. Just treasurers and priestesses stayed behind, accused of guarding the property of the divine beings on the Acropolis.

On the off chance that any Greek comprehended the peril of his task, it was probably the Spartan leader, Leonidas. Albeit every city's unexpected had its own particular pioneer, Leonidas had been put in general summon of the Greek armed force. One of two Spartan rulers — Sparta had no majesty in any genuine sense — Leonidas followed his family line back to the demigod Heracles. He had handpicked the 300 warriors under his order; all were moderately aged men with kids to desert as beneficiaries. He had chosen men to pass on, and done as such clearly without the scholarly hesitance of Xerxes. Leonidas and the Spartans had been prepared to do their obligation, and, having gotten a prophet that Sparta should either lose a lord or see the city wrecked, Leonidas was persuaded that his last obligation was passing.

While in transit to Thermopylae, Leonidas sent his generally appreciated Spartans in front of alternate troops to move them with certainty. They touched base to discover the pass empty. It was just 50 feet wide and far smaller at a few focuses. There were hot springs there — these gave the pass its name — a sacrificial stone to Heracles and the remaining parts of an old divider with entryways that had fallen into demolish. The Greeks now hurried to remake it.

As Xerxes' armed force moved closer, a Persian scout rode to review the Greek camp. What he saw dumbfounded him — the Spartans, a significant number of them exposed and working out, the rest smoothly brushing their hair. It was regular practice for the Spartans to settle their hair when they were going to hazard their lives, yet neither the scout nor his ruler could understand such obvious vanity.

The Greeks, as well, started to get insight on the measure of the Persian power. At some point before the fight, the Spartan Dieneces was informed that when the Persian bowmen let free a volley, their bolts would shroud the sun. To Dieneces that was similarly also. For if the Persians conceal the sun, he stated, we might battle in the shade.Despite the imperturbable valor of Dieneces and alternate Spartans, the Greeks were shaken when the Persian host at last neared their position. At a chamber of war the pioneers bantered about withdraw, until the point when Leonidas' supposition won. The Spartan would do his obligation. The Greeks would stay put and endeavor to hold off the Persians until the point that fortifications could arrive.

The Persian armed force digs in on the level grounds of the town of Trachis, just a short separation from Thermopylae. There, Xerxes ceased his troops for four days, holding up upon the unavoidable flight of the overawed Greeks. By the fifth day, August 17, 480 bc, the immense lord could never again remain calm. The impudent Greeks were, similar to the tempest at the Hellespont, resisting his will. He now sent forward his initially wave of troops — Medes and Cissians — with requests to take the Greeks alive.

The Medes and Cissians were shocked with substantial losses. Resolved to rebuff the resisters, Xerxes sent in his Immortals. The split Persian troops progressed unhesitatingly, imagining a simple triumph, however they had no more accomplishment than the Medes.

What Xerxes had not foreseen was that the Greeks held the strategic preferred standpoint at Thermopylae. The tight war zone invalidated the Persians' numerical prevalence, and it likewise kept them from battling the way they had been prepared. Persian young men, it was stated, were educated just three things: to ride, to come clean and to utilize the bow. There was no place for mounted force at Thermopylae and, much more basic, no place to volley bolts. The Greeks had situated themselves behind the modified divider. They would need to be found the most difficult way possible.

The Persian armed force was neither prepared nor prepared for such close battling. Its favored strategy was to volley bolts from a separation, the bowmen terminating from behind the insurance of wicker shields planted in the ground. They wore next to no defensive layer and conveyed just blades and short lances for hand-to-hand battle.

Despite the fact that understudies of military history contend that genuine stun fighting has from time to time been polished — since it is contradictory to the warrior's normal want for self-conservation — the Greeks had made it their standard strategy. Greek officers maybe drew some certainty from their substantial shield and their long lances, which could outreach the Persian swords. Be that as it may, the Greeks additionally had another, more impalpable, edge: a remark for. They were shielding their homes, and they were doing their obligation — they were not battling as slaves of some half distraught god-ruler. As substantial losses sapped their warriors' determination, the Persian leaders needed to fall back on lashing them with whips keeping in mind the end goal to drive them against the decided Greek protectors.

Amid that long first day of battling, the Spartans drove the Greek resistance. Experienced Spartan warriors would turn out from behind the dividers, do savage fight with the Persians, at that point pretend withdraw keeping in mind the end goal to draw the Persians into a trap. Xerxes supposedly jumped to his feet three times in fear for his armed force.

The second day of Thermopylae took after much an indistinguishable course from the first. The different Greek contingents now alternated fighting off the assaults, however the Persians neglected to make any progress.

It is hard to state to what extent the Greeks could have held off the Persians at Thermopylae — their setbacks hitherto were relatively light — yet the inquiry was soon made disputable. At the point when the Greeks had first arrived, they discovered that the probably secure site had a shrouded shortcoming: There was a track through the mountains that could be utilized by an adversary power to encompass and demolish the protectors of the entryway. Perceiving the risk, Leonidas had dispatched his Phocian unexpected to watch the way. Along these lines the effectively modest number of troops accessible at the door was made littler still by the division of the Greek powers. The Phocians themselves were accused of the troublesome assignment of protecting a course with no common resistances. Their best expectation — Greece's best expectation — lay in the mountain track staying obscure to the Persians.

It was, at last, a Greek who deceived that mystery. The backstabber, Ephialtes, was clearly inspired by voracity when he uncovered the mountain way to Xerxes. Acting instantly on the new data, the lord sent Persian troops up the way amid the night, when dimness covered their development among the oak trees. Close to the best, they totally amazed the unfortunate Phocians. Finally allowed to battle in their typical mold, the Persians poured down bolts as the Phocians quickly tried to assemble their arms. In urgency, the Phocians hustled to higher ground for a last stand. The Persians, in any case, had no enthusiasm for pursuing the Phocians higher yet rather turned down the trail, going for the go at Thermopylae.

Posts dashed down the slope to caution Leonidas of the plummeting Persian armed force. There was little time left. A brisk board of war prompted the choice to part up the Greek power. There was no explanation behind the whole armed force to be obliterated at the divider. Most contingents were currently permitted to return home and get ready for a later standoff. Leonidas and his Spartans, be that as it may, would stay at Thermopylae. Remaining by them were the faithful Thespians, who thought of it as a respect to kick the bucket battling adjacent to the Spartans. Leonidas likewise kept as prisoners somewhere in the range of 400 Thebans whom he associated with having Persian sensitivities.

Albeit some have scrutinized the astuteness of Leonidas' choice, thinking about whether he was excessively impacted by a drivel prophet forecasting his conciliatory demise, the circumstance gave him no option. In the event that the whole Greek armed force had fled, it would have in the long run been gotten from behind and butchered by the quicker moving Persian rangers. Leonidas was giving the withdrawing troops the main shot they needed to escape and battle one more day.

It is from multiple points of view the incongruity of Thermopylae that Sparta, seemingly minimal free of all the Greek states, now remained as the last protector of Greek flexibility. Every one of the things that would make Greece awesome — science, workmanship, verse, show, reasoning — were unfamiliar to Sparta. The Spartans had built up a constitution of practically add up to subordination of the person to the group. Straightforward older folks figured out which newborn children could live beyond words. Austere young men were sent into military preparing at 7 years old. Austere men lived in sleeping shelter, far from their spouses, for quite a bit of their grown-up lives. The Spartans ate at a typical table, they disseminated arrive similarly in a practically socialist manner and they were prohibited to take part in what were regarded the unnecessary expressions. Such opportunities as their warrior tip top delighted in did not reach out to non-Spartans living in their domain, the Helots, who filled in as their slaves. However the Spartan tip top accepted energetically in their opportunity, and their feeling of obligation, instilled at an early age, ensured that no Spartan authority could ever need to depend on whips to drive his troopers into fight.

On August 19, the Greeks chose to incur however much harm as could reasonably be expected on the Persian armed force. Realizing that this current day's battle would be their last, they squeezed stolidly forward, abandoning the security of the divider to battle in the most extensive piece of the pass. There, they would fight the monstrous Persian armed force on open ground. They would do as such, in any case, without the Thebans, who as Leonidas had anticipated that surrendered would the Persians previously the last attack started.

Xerxes requested his men in for the murder. Indeed his administrators lashed their own particular troops to drive them forward. Numerous Persians were trampled to death by their own particular companions. Others, pushed aside, suffocated in the ocean. At the same time, the Spartans and Thespians did their destructive work. Nobody, composed Herodotus, could tally the quantity of the dead.

The Greeks battled with their long lances until the point when the poles had all broken. At that point they battled with swords. Over the span of the battle, Leonidas satisfied the prescience that had destined him. Four times the Greeks at that point pushed the foe far from his body before the Persians at long last prevailing with regards to dragging it away. It was about then that the second Persian power touched base from the mountain pass.

Presently totally encompassed, the depleted Greeks pulled back for the last time behind the divider and framed themselves into a solitary smaller body. Here, composed Herodotus, they opposed to the last, with their swords, on the off chance that they had them, and, if not, with their hands and teeth, until the Persians, going ahead from the front over the vestiges of the divider and shutting in from behind, at long last overpowered them.

The Battle of Thermopylae was finished. Leonidas and his 300 Spartans all lay dead, as did the 700 Thespians who had remained by them. The Persian dead were said to number around 20,000, despite the fact that Xerxes attempted to cover this loathsome misfortune by having the greater part of them covertly covered, leaving just around 1,000 Persian bodies for his armed force to see as it walked through the pass.

It was standard in Sparta to make extraordinary service over the demise of a lord. Riders would convey the news all through the nation, and ladies would circumvent the capital, beating cauldrons. In any case, Leonidas was denied even a legitimate internment. Xerxes requested his take cut off and settled on a stake. Whatever remains of the Greek dead he requested covered keeping in mind the end goal to disguise what a limited number of had held up his armed force for so long, and to help his veterans to remember Thermopylae that the Spartans were mortal all things considered.

The Greeks' brave remain at the mountain pass had barely even moderated Xerxes' progress. Four days of holding up and three days of battling — Leonidas' chivalry had purchased just a single more week for his countrymen. Athens, everything except surrendered, was soon sacked.

But then Thermopylae was not an aggregate disappointment. The attacking armed force had been bloodied — gravely, if Herodotus is to be trusted — and it more likely than not had some impact on Persian assurance. The fight's impact on the Greeks was unquestionable. At the point when the war was over — for Greece did at last annihilation the Persians — they built up occasions honoring Thermopylae and raised remembrances over the war zone. Four thousand men from Pelops' property/against three million once stood read one. Another observed Leonidas and his 300 men:

“Go tell the Spartans, more bizarre cruising by/that here, complying with their charges, we lie.”

Thermopylae accordingly procured an importance that rose above its substantial military effect. At last, the fight's esteem lay not in arrive picked up or lost or in men slaughtered or caught, yet in motivation. The Spartans and Thespians had shown Greece and the world a persevering lesson about mettle despite unimaginable chances.

Death OF HECTOR AND ACHILLES

The following day, having secured his reinforcement and weapons, Achilles again went out to battle. His motivation was to meet Hector, and, by executing him, to retaliate for his dead companion, Patroclus. He along these lines surged here and there the combat zone; and when finally he encountered his enemy, they shut in destructive battle. The two young fellows, each the champion warrior of his armed force, were currently battling with the strength of gloom; for, while Achilles was thirsting to retaliate for his companion, Hector realized that the destiny of Troy depended generally upon his arm. The battle was unpleasant. It was viewed with short of breath enthusiasm by the armed forces on the two sides, and by matured Priam and the Trojan ladies from the dividers of Troy. Disregarding Hector's strength, regardless of all his ability, he was destined to pass on, and soon he fell under the blows of Achilles.

Then, in sight of the two armed forces and of Hector's sobbing family, Achilles removed his adversary's protective layer, bound the dead body by his feet to his chariot, and dragged it three times around the city dividers before he backpedaled to camp to grieve over the remaining parts of Patroclus.

That night, guided by one of the divine beings, old King Priam came furtively into the Greek camp, and, taking into Achilles' tent, fell at his feet. He had come to ask Achilles to give back the group of Hector, that he may sob over it, and cover it with all the standard functions and respects.

Touched by the old man's tears, and prepared now to tune in to his better emotions, Achilles generously raised the old lord, ameliorated him with delicate words, and gave back the body, as well as guaranteed that there ought to be a ceasefire of a couple of days, so the two armed forces could cover their dead in peace.

The funerals were held, the bodies consumed, the standard diversions celebrated; and when the détente was finished, the long war was started once more. After a few other incredible battles, Achilles kicked the bucket from an injury in his foot sole area caused by a harmed bolt that was deceptively shot by Paris.

The saddening Greeks at that point covered the youthful saint on the wide plain amongst Troy and the ocean. This spot has been gone to by many individuals who respected the overcome youthful legend of the Iliad.

The Death of Darius III, Fall of Persian Empire

In the late-spring of 330, Alexander chased down the Persian ruler Darius III Codomannus. His retainers captured, maybe on the grounds that they suspected that removing him would ensure their own lives, or maybe on the grounds that they needed to pick another, more grounded ruler. Nonetheless, Alexander was excessively near ponder, and when the principal Macedonian horsemen showed up, the Persian subjects chose to execute their ruler. A relative of Darius, Bessus, turned into the new lord under the name of Artaxerxes V.

Darius was killed in the leave east of current Tehran (antiquated Rhagae). He was fifty years of age. The accompanying portrayal is taken from the Anabasis (area 3.21.6-22.2) by Arrian of Nicomedia; it was interpreted by Aubrey de Sélincourt.

[3.21.6] The news influenced it to plain to Alexander that he should keep on pressing his interest immediately. His men and stallions were both truly very much depleted as of now by their unremitting efforts, however Alexander drove them forward none the less, and in the wake of covering a lot of ground amid the night and the next morning came to about twelve a town where Darius and his captors had halted the earlier day.

[3.21.7] Learning that they had made plans to proceed with their trip by night, he solicited the locals from the place in the event that they knew an alternate route by which he could get up to speed with them. They said they did yet the route was through uninhabited nation and there was no water - however regardless: Alexander immediately requested them to go about as aides.

He realized that the pace would be excessively for his infantry, so he got off around 500 cavalrymen and mounted in their place the hardest and fittest officers of his infantry and different units, requesting them to keep their own particular arms and gear;

[3.21.8] Nicanor and Attalus, who ordered, individually, the Hypasists and Agrianes, were told to take the rest of the power by the way as of now took after by Bessus and his gathering; they were to continue as softly prepared as was conceivable, and whatever is left of the infantry were to follow in their normal arrangement.

[3.21.9] Alexander himself at that point began off again at nightfall with all the speed he could make, and covering nearly eighty kilometers over the span of the night, concocted the Persians similarly as day break was breaking.note

They were straggling along unarmed; just a couple of made any offer of resistance; a large portion of them incontinently fled the minute they saw it was Alexander himself who was upon them. The individuals who endeavored to battle likewise made off in the wake of losing a couple of men.

[3.21.10] Bessus and his companions did not without a moment's delay relinquish the endeavor to escape in the wagon, yet when Alexander was close upon them, Nabarzanes and Barsaentes struck him down and left him and made their escape with 600 horsemen. The injury demonstrated deadly, and Darius passed on in a matter of seconds thereafter, before Alexander could see him.

[3.22.1] Alexander sent Darius' body to Persepolis to be covered in the imperial tombs, similar to the lords previously him. [...]

[3.22.2] Such was the finish of Darius; he kicked the bucket in July, amid the archonship of Aristophon in Athens. In military issues he was the feeblest and most uncouth of men; in different circles his lead seems to have been direct and nice - however reality may well be that, as his increase to the position of royalty corresponded with the affirmation of war by Macedonia and Greece, he had no chance to play the dictator.

Execution of the Romanov family

The mounting pressures of World War I, combined with years of injustice, toppled the rule of Tsar Nicholas II in March 1917. Forced to abdicate, he was replaced by a Provisional Government committed to continuing the war.

Increasing losses at the front and the fear of a German advance on Moscow eroded what little support remained for the war

and undermined the Provisional Government's authority. Capitalizing on this situation, the Germans secretly transported the exiled Vladimir Lenin in a sealed train from Switzerland to Russia in the hope he would enflame the turmoil. German expectations were realized on the night of November 6-7 when Lenin led the Bolsheviks in a successful attempt to grab the reigns of power in St. Petersburg. Anti-Bolshevik forces (the White Russians) immediately took up arms to oust the Communist regime and Russia was plunged into a brutal civil war. The following March the Communist regime signed a treaty with the Germans ending Russia's participation in World War I.

Against this backdrop of political chaos, the Tsar and his family were initially kept as prisoners near St. Petersburg and then transported beyond the Ural Mountains finally ending up in the town of Ekaterinburg in the Spring of 1918. The seven members of the imperial family and their small retinue were confined to the house of a successful local merchant, N. N. Ipatiev, which had been commandeered by the Bolshevik's for this purpose.

By mid-July a Czech contingent of the White Army was approaching Ekaterinburg and the sounds of gun fire could be heard in the distance by the royal prisoners and their Bolshevik captors. The arrival of their potential liberators sealed the fate of the Tsar and his family.

During the early morning hours of July 17 the Tsar, his wife, children and servants were herded into the cellar of their prison house and executed.

"We must shoot them all tonight."

Pavel Medvedev was a member of the squad of soldiers guarding the royal family. He describes what happened:

"In the evening of 16 July, between seven and eight p.m., when the time of my duty had just begun; Commandant Yurovsky, [the head of the execution squad] ordered me to take all the Nagan revolvers from the guards and to bring them to him. I took twelve revolvers from the sentries as well as from some other of the guards and brought them to the commandant's office.

Yurovsky said to me, 'We must shoot them all tonight; so notify the guards not to be alarmed if they hear shots.' I understood, therefore, that Yurovsky had it in his mind to shoot the whole of the Tsar's family, as well as the doctor and the servants who lived with them, but I did not ask him where or by whom the decision had been made...At about ten o'clock in the evening in accordance with Yurovsky's order I informed the guards not to be alarmed if they should hear firing.

About midnight Yurovsky woke up the Tsar's family. I do not know if he told them the reason they had been awakened and where they were to be taken, but I positively affirm that it was Yurovsky who entered the room occupied by the Tsar's family. In about an hour the whole of the family, the doctor, the maid and the waiters got up, washed and dressed themselves.

Just before Yurovsky went to awaken the family, two members of the Extraordinary Commission [of the Ekaterinburg Soviet] arrived at Ipatiev's house. Shortly after one o'clock a.m., the Tsar, the Tsaritsa, their four daughters, the maid, the doctor, the cook and the waiters left their rooms. The Tsar carried the heir in his arms. The Emperor and the heir were dressed in gimnasterkas [soldiers' shirts] and wore caps. The Empress, her daughters and the others followed him. Yurovsky, his assistant and the two above-mentioned members of the Extraordinary Commission accompanied them. I was also present.

During my presence none of the Tsar's family asked any questions. They did not weep or cry. Having descended the stairs to the first floor, we went out into the court, and from there to the second door (counting from the gate) we entered the ground floor of the house. When the room (which adjoins the store room with a sealed door) was reached, Yurovsky ordered chairs to be brought, and his assistant brought three chairs. One chair was given to the Emperor, one to the Empress, and the third to the heir.

The Empress sat by the wall by the window, near the black pillar of the arch. Behind her stood three of her daughters (I knew their faces very well, because I had seen them every day when they walked in the garden, but I didn't know their names). The heir and the Emperor sat side by side almost in the middle of the room. Doctor Botkin stood behind the heir. The maid, a very tall woman, stood at the left of the door leading to the store room; by her side stood one of the Tsar's daughters (the fourth). Two servants stood against the wall on the left from the entrance of the room.

The maid carried a pillow. The Tsar's daughters also brought small pillows with them. One pillow was put on the Empress's chair; another on the heir's chair. It seemed as if all of them guessed their fate, but not one of them uttered a single sound. At this moment eleven men entered the room: Yurovsky, his assistant, two members of the Extraordinary Commission, and seven Letts [operatives of the infamous Cheka or Secret Police]..

Yurovsky ordered me to leave, saying, 'Go on to the street, see if there is anybody there, and wait to see whether the shots have been heard.' I went out to the court, which was enclosed by a fence, but before I got to the street I heard the firing. I returned to the house immediately (only two or three minutes having elapsed) and upon entering the room where the execution had taken place, I saw that all the members of the Tsar's family were lying on the floor with many wounds in their bodies. The blood was running in streams. The doctor, the maid and two waiters had also been shot. When I entered the heir was still alive and moaned a little. Yurovsky went up and fired two or three more times at him. Then the heir was still."

John F. Kennedy/Assassinated

November 22, 1963, Dallas, Texas, United States

President Kennedy was murdered at the height of the Cold War, just a year after the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster. While the mythology of a lost Camelot developed in the years since his death, the Kennedy era was marked by a variety of tensions and crises. The civil rights movement gathered momentum in the early 1960s and clashed with resistance, particularly in the South. Kennedy's brother Robert, as Attorney General, launched an unprecedented war on organized crime. Cuba was the most intense foreign policy hotspot - Castro had come to power there during the Eisenhower era and plots to overthrow and assassinate him continued in the Kennedy era. Vietnam was a simmering problem that would only bloom into full-scale war during the Johnson presidency.

These domestic and foreign policy issues divided both the country and the Kennedy administration. There were many individuals and groups - Cuban exiles, mob figures, virulent racists, CIA and Pentagon hardliners - with a motive for murder. Over the years, document declassifications and personal accounts have added to the picture of a presidency beset from within and without.

But the question remains with no consensus: which of these motives, if any, turned into an actual murder plot to assassinate President Kennedy?

The presidential party left the hotel and went by motorcade to Carswell Air Force Base for the thirteen-minute flight to Dallas. Arriving at Love Field, President and Mrs. Kennedy disembarked and immediately walked toward a fence where a crowd of well-wishers had gathered, and they spent several minutes shaking hands.

The first lady received a bouquet of red roses, which she brought with her to the waiting limousine. Governor John Connally and his wife, Nellie, were already seated in the open convertible as the Kennedys entered and sat behind them. Since it was no longer raining, the plastic bubble top had been left off. Vice President and Mrs. Johnson occupied another car in the motorcade.

The procession left the airport and traveled along a ten-mile route that wound through downtown Dallas on the way to the Trade Mart where the President was scheduled to speak at a luncheon.

Assassination

President Kennedy was murdered while riding in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas at 12:30 PM CST on Friday, November 22, 1963. Several photos and films captured the assassination, including the famous Zapruder Film. JFK was rushed to Parkland Hospital, where a tracheostomy and other efforts failed to keep him alive. After he was pronounced dead around 1 PM, his body was removed against the wishes of Texas authorities and flown back to Washington aboard Air Force One with his wife Jackie and his successor, President Lyndon Johnson. An autopsy was performed at Bethesda Naval Hospital, and he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday the 25th.

Meanwhile, Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine and defector to the Soviet Union, was arrested around 2 PM at the Texas Theatre in the Oak Cliff suburb of Dallas and charged with murdering a police officer named J.D. Tippit. Protesting that he was "a patsy," Oswald was paraded in front of the world's gathering cameras and accused of murdering President Kennedy as well. Oswald's defection and Marxist sympathies were quickly covered in the nation's newspapers, in part because his curious pro-Castro activities during the summer in New Orleans had brought him to the attention of local Cuban exiles. Oswald was interrogated throughout the weekend, though no recordings or transcriptions were made. During an intended transfer to county facilities on Sunday morning the 24th, Oswald was shot and killed on live television in the basement of the Dallas Police station. His murderer was a local nightclub owner with connections to organized crime named Jack Ruby.

The death of Princess Diana: a week that rocked Britain

PRINCESS Diana’s death 20 years ago left a hole in the heart of the British public.

PA•GETTY

Princess Diana's death: 20 years later here is a look at the tragic crash that claimed her life

Diana, Princess of Wales, suffered fatal injuries in a car crash at around 12.22am on Sunday August 31 1997 in the Alma underpass near the Seine river.

Princess Diana was in the car with her partner Dodi Fayed, the son of Egyptian millionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed. He and the driver Henri Paul also died in the crash.

The only person to survive the terrible crash was her bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, who had a traumatic head injury and was left scarred for life.

After Diana was pulled from the wreckage, she went into cardiac arrest at 2.10am. Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital staff pronounced her death at 4am.

August 30 1997

Princess Diana and Mr Fayed arrived in Paris on Saturday August 30, after flying in on private jet from a brief holiday in the French and Italian Riviera.

The couple planned to stay the night before travelling to London the following day. They were staying at the five star Hôtel Ritz Paris, which was owned by Mohamed Al-Fayed.

4.35pm: Time-stamped CCTV footage caught the Princess and her partner walking through the hotel’s lobby toward the lifts.

Security cameras in the lift also captured the couple as the made their way Room 102 of the Imperial Suite.

6.54pm: After spending some time in the hotel, the couple decided to visit Mr Fayed’s private apartment near the Arc de Triomphe.

PA

Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed were spending the night of August 31 in Paris

6.59pm: CCTV footage caught the couple leaving the hotel through a back exit in a bid to avoid paparazzi cameras.

By this time, their arrival in Paris caught the attention of the press and their moves were being followed by photographers.

Minutes later, Mr Paul left for the day but asked to be informed if the couple returned to the hotel later in the evening.

9.51pm: Princess Diana and Mr Fayed returned to the hotel for a romantic dinner, but their evening was ruined by the presence of paparazzi.

Just 10 minutes into their meal, a Princess Diana and Mr Fayed left the restaurant to finish their dinner in their suite.

PA

CCTV footage in the Ritz Hotel in Paris captured Diana's final hours

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10.01pm: Mr Paul returned to the hotel and spent time in the bar with Mr Rees-Jones and bodyguard Kez Wingfield.

11pm: While waiting for the couple, Mr Paul was spotted outside the hotel addressing the gathered paparazzi.

11.37pm: Both Princess Diana and her boyfriend agreed to return to his apartment for the night.

The couple had travelled in a Range Rover and Mercedes during the day. But they but decided to leave the hotel in an unmarked vehicle to escape the photographers camped outside.

Princess Diana Crash 1997 - First BBC News Report

PA

Princess Diana and Mr Fayed left the hotel through the back door to avoid paparazzi

August 31 1997

00.10pm: Princess Diana and her entourage were caught on CCTV footage in one of the lifts as they made their way to the back of the hotel.

Mr Fayed embraced the Princess around the waist as they stood in the lobby and prepared to make a dash for the black Mercedes.

00.20pm: Princess Diana sat on the right-rear passenger seat with Mr Fayed next to her.  The vehicle left the hotel and headed towards Place de la Concorde opposite the Louvre museum.

00.25pm: The Mercedes crashed into the 13th pillar of the Alma tunnel and crumpled during the catastrophic collision.

The first photographer to arrive on the scene was Romuald Rat. Frédéric Mailliez was the first doctor to give Diana first aid and called the emergency services.

00.28am: Two police officers arrived at the scene and began cordoning it off from the gathering group of paparazzi. Eight of them were arrested and taken for questioning.

PA

Princess Diana tried to get away in an unmarked Mercedes

00.32am: Emergency crews and an ambulance arrived but it took nearly an hour for Princess Diana to be taken to hospital.

1.30am: Mr Fayed is pronounced dead.

1.55am: Princess Diana’s ambulance made a stop to administer a shot of adrenaline.

2.06am: The ambulance arrives at Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital where Princess Diana underwent a two-hour long open heart surgery.

Aftermath of Princess Diana's car crash in 1997

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Princess Diana was pronounced dead at 4am after suffering a cardiac arrest

4am: Princess Diana is pronounced dead.

An autopsy on Mr Paul’s body was carried out later in the day. Tests revealed that the driver had been three-times over the French legal drinking limit.

A 2008 inquest at the the Royal Courts of Justice ruled that both Princess Diana and Mr Fayed were unlawfully killed.

The death was blamed on the “gross negligence” of the driver and the paparazzi who hounded their car through the streets of Paris.

The inquest also found that the couple would have stood a chance of surviving if they had worn their seatbelt.

I tried to be objective in making this list, but obviously it is  unfinished and subjective, probably due to my ignorance of world events throughout human history.