The death of Julian left the Roman army in a tight situation. They were still 200 miles deep in Persian territory and were running low on provisions. Julian’s eccentric decision not to name a successor left them with an immediate practical problem. Who was to lead them? And needless to say the decision had to be made quickly – a crisis like this required decisions to be made without delay.
The events of 1688 have been remembered in British history as the Glorious Revolution. A tyrannical Catholic king was out of control and was destroying the country’s constitution, its liberties and its religion. In desperation William the Third was invited across to rescue the British and replace the unacceptable James the Second. William of Orange landed unopposed. He drew support to himself from the disaffected subjects of James and advanced slowly on London, carefully giving the British plenty of time to come round to his side and so to avoid any bloodshed.
I think it must have been about 2004 that the penny dropped. But habits are strong things, and it probably wasn’t until around 2008 that I had modified my behaviour. Following the news makes you less informed than reading history. I still watch the news when something is going on that has caught my attention. Who wouldn’t want to hear Barak Obama’s first speech as president? And long running events like the Arab Spring and the financial crisis have a sort of soap opera like ability to keep you tuning in to see what happens next. And it pays to know the name of the head of state of countries in Europe. But I no longer feel that I need to consume the news every day or follow every twist and turn of what is going on with any great degree of attention. Instead, I have increased the amount of history I read. As a result, I feel better informed.
Libya was the first country in which bombs were dropped from an aircraft during a conflict. The year was 1911 and the bombers were Italian fighting the Ottoman Empire for control of what was at that time one of their provinces. The use of this advanced technology gave the Italians a distinct advantage over the Turks, but led to a huge escalation in costs making the war much more expensive than had been anticipated.
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| Six of biggest threats to Britain over the years |
Britain has had many enemies over the years, here are a few of the ones that posed the biggest threat to the British way of life. Here are half a dozen of my favourites.
I am a climate change skeptic. I am a scientist and I think skepticism is crucial to the way the scientific method works. Seek out the key facts – not all the facts just the key ones. On the basis of these come to a decision. Then look for any reason to junk the decision.
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| Short Japanese Surrendering to Tall Americans (thanks to Wikipedia) |
I have been very interested lately in a branch of economic history that until recently I knew nothing about, but which seems to offer a way of looking at the past that has never crossed my mind before. And it is surprisingly simple, suspiciously so in fact. You can tell a lot about changes in society simply by looking at average height.
I’ve thought that the Elgin Marbles should be returned to Greece ever since I first saw them at the British Museum. The display at the museum is fine, but as soon as I saw them in three dimensions I knew it was wrong to keep them. I can’t explain it logically or make any eloquent case in the way Steven Fry has recently done. I just think that they should be back where they came from.
There is a lot of coverage in the media today of the recent report that seems to make clear beyond all doubt that our pre-human ancestors were using fire around a million years ago in Africa. This is an interesting enough thing to discover in itself, but it has added significance because there is a theory that it was the discovery of fire that created humans as they are today.
