Author: Scott Manning
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The Nazi Massacre at Distomo, Greece
Resting on a hill above the town of Distomo, Greece, is a massive memorial and ossuary. It contains the names and skulls of victims from a 1944 German massacre in this town where 218 men, women, and children were slaughtered. ((Stephanie Bird, et. al., eds., Reverberations of Nazi Violence in Germany and Beyond: Disturbing Pasts (London:…
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The Case Against the Medieval Ball and Chain
Paul B. Sturtevant recently published an article at the Public Medievalist that argues the use of the ball and chain, technically called a one-handed military flail, is greatly exaggerated. More to the point, “they never existed.” This has caused heartache for some of my friends, such as Daniel Wallace, who have a romanticized vision of…
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Verdun and the Village that Was
There were 9 villages around Verdun before World War I. Now there are none. A 303-day battle will do that to a region, especially during that war. At Verdun alone, the Germans and the French collectively exchanged 60 million artillery shells, 300,000 deaths, and an additional 450,000 wounded or captured. ((Paul Jankowski, Verdun: The Longest…
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Book Review: Caesar in the USA
Wyke, Maria. Caesar in the USA. Berkely: University of California Press, 2012. xii + 306 pp. Julius Caesar has ebbed and flowed in American memory, but he remains entrenched in pop culture, which is the main thesis of Maria Wyke, author of Caesar in the USA (2012). Wyke is a professor of Latin at University College…
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In Memory of the 700 Thespians at Thermopylae
Off to the side of the larger statue of Leonidas at Thermopylae, there is a monument to the 700 Thespians who died alongside the Spartans. Unveiled in 1997, it depicts Eros, the oldest of the gods. The Romans knew him as Cupid. The Thespians held Eros above all other gods, likely because he had no parents. Nearly 600 years…
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William Wallace and Andrew Murray are getting a Stirling monument
A new monument is in the works for Stirling. When complete, visitors will see a massive depiction of William Wallace and his lesser-known counterpart Andrew Murray, the victors of Stirling Bridge. The steel artwork will measure over 26 ft high and cost roughly £150,000. The sculptor is Malcolm Robertson, an award-winning artist who beat out a half…
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The Real Location of Stirling Bridge
Unlike the depiction in Braveheart (1995), the Battle of Stirling Bridge was fought near a wooden bridge, and not in an open field. Before the English could finish crossing, the Scots attacked. In the frenzy to retreat back over the bridge, the whole thing collapse in the River Forth. Many of the English drowned while those trapped…
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I Speak Spartan: The Lasting Lingo of 300
While there is plenty to say about the breakthrough filming style of 300 that has since been imitated to death, the real legacy of the movie is the quotable dialogue. Numerous one-liners have infiltrated popular culture, as “This is Sparta!” has become arguably as popular as “I am your father.” The real beauty of the…
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The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme
A few years ago, I had the pleasure of visiting the Low Countries. Among my list of must-do’s was the Somme and of course, the Thiepval Memorial. I plugged the address in and headed off in my rental car. [huge_it_maps id=”8″] The memorial is 150 ft tall, so I assumed I’d see it as…
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The Urquhart Trebuchet
On an elevated position off the shore of Loch Ness is Urquhart, a medieval castle that has been the site of plenty of history. Ness is a skinny lake placed diagonally on a map running roughly 23 miles from northeast to southwest in the Scottish Highlands. [huge_it_maps id=”5″] Urquhart rests in the middle on…
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Armies “Living off the land” Walking Dead style
Among the many things I learned from a day-long Julius Caesar Workshop with Captain Antonio Salinas was a superb analogy for armies “living off the land.” Although battlefields tend to dominate popular memory when it comes to warfare, logistics direct and often determine entire campaigns. For example, the Gauls eventually adopted a scorched earth approach to…
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Leuctra Victory Monument
I remember the exact moment when I decided to go to Greece. I was flipping through my copy of the Landmark Xenophon when I came across a blurry black and white photo of the Leuctra Victory Monument, celebrating the Theban and Boeotian victory over the Spartans in 371 BC. This battle was important for many reasons,…