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Transcript
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Welcome to toldinstone. This video explores
three ancient conspiracy theories: an outbreak
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of hysteria in classical Athens, a plot at
the court of Alexander, and a crusade against
0:14
a mysterious Persian cult. But before I tell
those stories, I have an announcement.
0:20
I have started two new YouTube channels to
complement my videos here on toldinstone.
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One of the new channels is called Scenic Routes
to the Past.
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Scenic Routes is a travel channel, which follows
my journeys to various historical destinations.
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Unlike toldinstone, it is not focused exclusively
on ancient history. The first two videos,
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which you can view now, document my quest
to find a railroad lost in the Alaskan wilderness.
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My other new channel is called Toldinstone
footnotes.
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This channel hosts episodes of my podcast,
in which I interview some of the most interesting
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historians working today. It also features
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If you could take a moment to subscribe to
my new channels, I would deeply appreciate
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it. Thank you for your time – and now, without
any further ado, ancient conspiracy theories.
1:22
A conspiracy theory arises in the hazy gulf
between suspicion and fact. It is discussed,
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accepted, rejected, dismissed. It may be definitively
debunked; it may even be proven. But it exists
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independently of any verifiable source, living
in the court of public opinion, feeding on
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itself.
Ancient history is full of conspiracies, in
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the sense of coordinated plots against power.
Famous examples include the Catilinarian Conspiracy,
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1:56
an attempt – thwarted by Cicero – to overthrow
the Roman Republic; the Pisonian Conspiracy,
2:02
which sought to supplant Nero; and the Barbarian
Conspiracy, an apparently concerted attack
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on Roman Britain by the Picts, Saxons, and
Irish.
2:13
There are fewer instances of conspiracy theories
in the most familiar sense – i.e., the assumption
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that a secret organization is pulling strings
behind the scenes. Speculation about those
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in power, of course, is as old as civilization
itself, and our sources reverberate with rumors
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about the undue influence of courtiers and
relatives of rulers. Claims that the whole
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political system was being subverted, however,
tended to emerge only in periods of acute
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crisis.
The affair of the herms in Classical Athens
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is one of the best-documented examples. Athens,
famously, had a democratic government, in
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which a large part of the citizen body participated.
In combination with a lively tradition of
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criticizing public figures – epitomized
by the comedies of Aristophanes – the immediacy
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of the democracy made the schemes and scandals
of prominent politicians a popular conversation
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topic.
The most talked-about of all Athenian politicians
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was the brilliant, charming, and utterly unscrupulous
aristocrat Alcibiades. A scion of the same
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family that had produced Pericles, Alcibiades
made his name by promoting an aggressive foreign
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policy against Sparta and her allies.
He was admired for his compelling speeches
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before the Assembly, and for such political
stunts as entering no fewer than seven awesomely
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expensive chariots in the Olympic race. His
dissolute private life, however, led many
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Athenians to distrust him, and set the stage
for the affair of the herms.
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Herms were small statues placed at crossroads
and beside doorways. They consisted of a simple
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stone pillar, topped by a god’s head and
garnished with a prominent erect phallus.
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In the spring of 415 BC, just as the Athenian
government, spurred by Alcibiades, was about
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to launch a vast armada to conquer Sicily,
nearly all the herms in Athens had their noses
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and phalluses knocked off.
While this might seem like a harmless prank,
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the mutilation of the herms threw Athens into
a frenzy. Herms, after all, were images of
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the gods, and any injury to them was sacrilege.
That so many divine images had been damaged
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at the outset of the Sicilian expedition seemed
a bad omen, and a conspiracy theory arose
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that the herms had been broken by a secret
cabal that sought to destroy the government.
4:49
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Back to Classical Athens. A public investigation
brought additional information to light: shortly
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before the herms were mutilated, a group of
young men had broken other religious statues
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and mimicked the Eleusinian Mysteries, the
most sacred Athenian ritual. One of the participants,
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it was said, had been Alcibiades. It began
to be whispered that Alcibiades had also been
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responsible for smashing the herms, and that
his acts of sacrilege were part of a plot
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to overthrow the democracy.
As one of the leaders of the Sicilian Expedition,
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Alcibiades was forced to leave the city before
he could clear his name. In his absence, the
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conspiracy theory continued to grow, connecting
the mutilation of the herms and violation
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of the mysteries with an aristocratic scheme
to replace the government. When a small Spartan
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force was reported in the vicinity, it was
immediately assumed that they had been summoned
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by the conspirators. Arrests were made; armed
patrols were posted in the city center; and
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finally, Alcibiades himself was summoned back
to Athens to be tried for his supposed crimes.
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Although it’s entirely plausible that Alcibiades
mimicked the mysteries with his friends, and
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not impossible that he was associated with
the men who mutilated the herms, there is
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no reason to think that he was plotting to
overthrow the democracy. Aristocratic coups
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were a legitimate threat – there would be
two within a decade of the Sicilian Expedition
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– but Alcibiades had little to gain from
overthrowing a government that had just awarded
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him an important command. In this case, he
seems to have been nothing more or less than
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the victim of a conspiracy theory.
To a degree that a democratic leader like
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Alcibiades could only envy, monarchs dominated
both public discourse and popular suspicion
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in antiquity. The most familiar examples are
the Roman emperors, whose plots, perversions,
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and peccadilloes pervade our sources. Emperors
were frequently implicated in conspiracy theories,
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especially – and understandably – when
their predecessors perished under suspicious
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circumstances. Perhaps the most interesting
conspiracy theory involving a classical ruler,
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however, centers on the death of Alexander
the Great.
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Alexander died at Babylon on June 10, 323
BC, aged 32. According to his most reliable
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ancient biographers, he had fallen ill ten
days before, during or shortly after a wine-soaked
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banquet. His illness began as a fever, mild
enough – at first – for the king to ignore
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as he prepared to invade Arabia. Within a
few days, however, he had become too weak
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to sit up or speak. Still burning with fever,
he lapsed into a coma, and never woke.
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An alternative tradition added dramatic details.
At the final banquet, according to this version
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of events, Alexander was draining a goblet
of wine when he cried out in pain. Collapsing,
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he was carried away by his friends, and lay
in agony until the final coma overtook him.
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Almost as soon as Alexander died, it began
to be rumored that he had been poisoned. The
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culprit, it was said, was Antipater, the king’s
regent in Europe, who had sent his young son
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Iollas to dose Alexander’s cup with a potion
prepared by Aristotle.
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Aristotle certainly had reason to resent Alexander.
He had been the king’s tutor; and when the
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Persian campaign began, he sent his nephew
Callisthenes to accompany the Macedonian army
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and write a history of its conquests. Alexander,
however, proceeded to execute Callisthenes
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on a trumped-up treason charge. As might be
imagined, this did not improve his relationship
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with the young historian’s uncle.
According to the rumors that sprouted after
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Alexander’s death, Aristotle had procured
water from the bitter springs of the river
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Styx, whose deadly water would dissolve any
container besides the hoof of a mule. With
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the connivance of Antipater, Antipater’s
son Cassander, and a very literal drug mule,
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the poison made its way to Babylon, and to
the king’s cup.
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The Styx water is legendary, and the involvement
of Aristotle supremely unlikely. That Alexander
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was poisoned, however, is not beyond the realm
of possibility. Alexander’s mother Olympias
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believed – or claimed to believe – that
Antipater was responsible for her son’s
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death. She executed several men on charges
of involvement in the plot, and dishonored
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the supposed poisoner Iollas by exhuming his
body and scattering the bones.
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Antipater’s son Cassander, Iollas’ brother,
returned the favor by executing Olympias and
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leaving her body to rot unburied. He also
took vengeance on Hyperides, an Athenian orator
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who had dared to propose honoring Iollas for
poisoning Alexander. After Hyperides was captured
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by Cassander’s bounty hunter, his tongue
was cut out, he was executed, and his body
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– like that of Olympias – was left to
be devoured by the birds and beasts.
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The dramatic sequence of accusations and murders
that followed Alexander’s death does not,
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of course, prove that the king was poisoned.
Our most reliable ancient sources roundly
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reject the theory, which seems to be a product
of popular suspicion and political maneuvering.
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Although we’ll never know for certain, malaria
– exacerbated by alcoholism and old battle
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wounds – is a far more likely culprit for
Alexander’s death than poison.
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Not far from Babylon, but more than half a
millennium after the death of Alexander, the
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deadliest of all ancient conspiracy theories
began in a small Mesopotamian village, where
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a prophet named Mani started to preach a new
religion.
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Mani’s creed, which we call Manichaeism,
proclaimed a universal conflict between the
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powers of Light and Darkness. To ensure the
ultimate triumph of the Light, a chosen few
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– the Elect – were called upon to renounce
all worldly possessions and devote their lives
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to rituals combatting the Darkness. It was
the duty of all other believers – the Hearers
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– to support the Elect with alms, and so
gain a chance to be reborn as an Elect, and
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finally escape the prison of the flesh.
With the personal support of the shah, Mani
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proselytized throughout the Persian Empire,
proclaiming a religion that perfected and
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replaced the teachings of Jesus, Zoroaster,
and the Buddha. Missionaries were sent to
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India, to the steppes of Central Asia, and
into the Roman Empire.
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Adda, one of Mani’s chief disciples, led
the first Roman mission, which established
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communities in the provinces of Syria and
Egypt. Equipped with translations of Mani’s
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scriptures and trained to engage philosophers
and priests in theological debate, Manichaean
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preachers gained converts rapidly, sowing
cells of believers from Alexandria to Rome.
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Traditionally, the Romans were tolerant of
any religion that respected the established
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social and political order. Sects that seemed
to encourage rebellion or disloyalty, however,
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were repressed. The most famous example is
the Christian Church, but instances stretched
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back to the Roman Republic, which had crushed
the cult of Bacchus for inciting immoral behavior.
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In 302, Diocletian was notified of disruptions
caused by Manichaean preaching in the province
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of Africa. The more the emperor learned about
the new religion, the more alarmed he became.
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Mani had been a friend of the Persian shah,
the arch-enemy of all things Roman. To Diocletian
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and his advisors, this seemed a clear indication
that Manichaeism was nothing less than a Persian
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plot intended to overthrow the Roman Empire.
In an imperial edict, Diocletian proclaimed
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that the Manichaeans were seeking to infect
the “innocent, orderly, and tranquil Roman
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people” with the “damnable customs and
perverse laws of the Persians, as with the
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poison of a malignant serpent.” Any Roman
who converted to Manichaeism would be executed;
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any official who supported the cult would
be sent to the mines; and the Manichaean preachers
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themselves were to be burned alive atop piles
of their scriptures.
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As the Great Persecution of the Christians
would soon demonstrate, the provincial governors
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responsible for enforcing imperial edicts
were not always enthusiastic about doing so,
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and most Manichaeans seem to have escaped
punishment. Throughout the fourth century
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and beyond, however, emperors continued to
issue edicts stripping Manichaeans of their
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civil rights, declaring them outlaws, and
condemning them to death.
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As the Roman Empire became Christian, the
Manichaeans were branded heretics and corrupters
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of the faith. St. Augustine – a former convert
to Manichaeism – was the most famous of
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the many Christian thinkers who attacked the
so-called Persian heresy. Increasingly savage
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penalties drove the sect underground, and
eventually expelled it from the empire.
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Manichaeism was never actually a Persian plot.
Although Mani had indeed enjoyed court patronage
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for a time, he had died in prison, and his
religion was being persecuted in its native
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land by the Zoroastrian priesthood long before
Diocletian issued his edict.
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Yet the Roman crusade against the Manichaeans
lasted, with interruptions, for more than
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two centuries. In keeping with the late imperial
synthesis of church and state, it became an
15:53
issue of both policy and belief. But it had
its origins in the fatal simplicity of a conspiracy
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theory.
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