1
00:00:00,700 --> 00:00:07,710
Welcome to toldinstone. This video explores
three ancient conspiracy theories: an outbreak

2
00:00:07,710 --> 00:00:14,080
of hysteria in classical Athens, a plot at
the court of Alexander, and a crusade against

3
00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:20,289
a mysterious Persian cult. But before I tell
those stories, I have an announcement.

4
00:00:20,289 --> 00:00:27,969
I have started two new YouTube channels to
complement my videos here on toldinstone.

5
00:00:27,969 --> 00:00:32,558
One of the new channels is called Scenic Routes
to the Past.

6
00:00:32,558 --> 00:00:38,530
Scenic Routes is a travel channel, which follows
my journeys to various historical destinations.

7
00:00:38,530 --> 00:00:44,870
Unlike toldinstone, it is not focused exclusively
on ancient history. The first two videos,

8
00:00:44,869 --> 00:00:52,378
which you can view now, document my quest
to find a railroad lost in the Alaskan wilderness.

9
00:00:52,378 --> 00:00:56,829
My other new channel is called Toldinstone
footnotes.

10
00:00:56,829 --> 00:01:01,878
This channel hosts episodes of my podcast,
in which I interview some of the most interesting

11
00:01:01,878 --> 00:01:09,829
historians working today. It also features
Q & A videos, livestreams, and much more.

12
00:01:09,829 --> 00:01:14,950
If you could take a moment to subscribe to
my new channels, I would deeply appreciate

13
00:01:14,950 --> 00:01:22,680
it. Thank you for your time – and now, without
any further ado, ancient conspiracy theories.

14
00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:30,220
A conspiracy theory arises in the hazy gulf
between suspicion and fact. It is discussed,

15
00:01:30,219 --> 00:01:38,859
accepted, rejected, dismissed. It may be definitively
debunked; it may even be proven. But it exists

16
00:01:38,859 --> 00:01:45,259
independently of any verifiable source, living
in the court of public opinion, feeding on

17
00:01:45,259 --> 00:01:49,721
itself.
Ancient history is full of conspiracies, in

18
00:01:49,721 --> 00:01:56,899
the sense of coordinated plots against power.
Famous examples include the Catilinarian Conspiracy,

19
00:01:56,899 --> 00:02:02,718
an attempt – thwarted by Cicero – to overthrow
the Roman Republic; the Pisonian Conspiracy,

20
00:02:02,718 --> 00:02:08,280
which sought to supplant Nero; and the Barbarian
Conspiracy, an apparently concerted attack

21
00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:13,419
on Roman Britain by the Picts, Saxons, and
Irish.

22
00:02:13,419 --> 00:02:19,809
There are fewer instances of conspiracy theories
in the most familiar sense – i.e., the assumption

23
00:02:19,810 --> 00:02:25,789
that a secret organization is pulling strings
behind the scenes. Speculation about those

24
00:02:25,789 --> 00:02:32,598
in power, of course, is as old as civilization
itself, and our sources reverberate with rumors

25
00:02:32,598 --> 00:02:38,509
about the undue influence of courtiers and
relatives of rulers. Claims that the whole

26
00:02:38,509 --> 00:02:44,219
political system was being subverted, however,
tended to emerge only in periods of acute

27
00:02:44,219 --> 00:02:48,979
crisis.
The affair of the herms in Classical Athens

28
00:02:48,979 --> 00:02:55,659
is one of the best-documented examples. Athens,
famously, had a democratic government, in

29
00:02:55,659 --> 00:03:02,560
which a large part of the citizen body participated.
In combination with a lively tradition of

30
00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:07,930
criticizing public figures – epitomized
by the comedies of Aristophanes – the immediacy

31
00:03:07,930 --> 00:03:14,200
of the democracy made the schemes and scandals
of prominent politicians a popular conversation

32
00:03:14,199 --> 00:03:19,060
topic.
The most talked-about of all Athenian politicians

33
00:03:19,060 --> 00:03:26,539
was the brilliant, charming, and utterly unscrupulous
aristocrat Alcibiades. A scion of the same

34
00:03:26,539 --> 00:03:31,669
family that had produced Pericles, Alcibiades
made his name by promoting an aggressive foreign

35
00:03:31,669 --> 00:03:37,109
policy against Sparta and her allies.
He was admired for his compelling speeches

36
00:03:37,110 --> 00:03:42,540
before the Assembly, and for such political
stunts as entering no fewer than seven awesomely

37
00:03:42,539 --> 00:03:48,139
expensive chariots in the Olympic race. His
dissolute private life, however, led many

38
00:03:48,139 --> 00:03:54,389
Athenians to distrust him, and set the stage
for the affair of the herms.

39
00:03:54,389 --> 00:04:00,669
Herms were small statues placed at crossroads
and beside doorways. They consisted of a simple

40
00:04:00,669 --> 00:04:07,169
stone pillar, topped by a god’s head and
garnished with a prominent erect phallus.

41
00:04:07,169 --> 00:04:12,889
In the spring of 415 BC, just as the Athenian
government, spurred by Alcibiades, was about

42
00:04:12,889 --> 00:04:18,969
to launch a vast armada to conquer Sicily,
nearly all the herms in Athens had their noses

43
00:04:18,970 --> 00:04:24,949
and phalluses knocked off.
While this might seem like a harmless prank,

44
00:04:24,949 --> 00:04:31,220
the mutilation of the herms threw Athens into
a frenzy. Herms, after all, were images of

45
00:04:31,220 --> 00:04:37,720
the gods, and any injury to them was sacrilege.
That so many divine images had been damaged

46
00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:43,580
at the outset of the Sicilian expedition seemed
a bad omen, and a conspiracy theory arose

47
00:04:43,579 --> 00:04:49,959
that the herms had been broken by a secret
cabal that sought to destroy the government.

48
00:04:49,959 --> 00:04:54,508
You know what isn’t a conspiracy theory?
Tiege Hanley skincare for men, the sponsor

49
00:04:54,509 --> 00:05:00,960
of this video. Tiege Hanley makes affordable,
easy-to-use products, which – as a busy

50
00:05:00,959 --> 00:05:05,180
YouTuber with rather dry skin – I find very
helpful.

51
00:05:05,180 --> 00:05:11,340
I’d recommend starting with the level 1
system, which includes a daily face wash,

52
00:05:11,339 --> 00:05:16,750
a bi-weekly exfoliating scrub, and both AM
and PM moisturizers.

53
00:05:16,750 --> 00:05:22,199
Every box comes with an instruction card that
helps you get the most out of your products.

54
00:05:22,199 --> 00:05:28,199
Don’t just take my word for it. Tiege Hanley
has received more than 5,000 5-star reviews

55
00:05:28,199 --> 00:05:34,110
on their website from satisfied customers
around the world. To become one of those satisfied

56
00:05:34,110 --> 00:05:39,060
customers, sign up for Tiege Hanley, and get
discounts on all products, the ability to

57
00:05:39,060 --> 00:05:45,079
customize your boxes, and much more.
As a special offer for toldinstone viewers,

58
00:05:45,079 --> 00:05:50,168
if you click on the link in the description,
you’ll get 30% off your first box, plus

59
00:05:50,168 --> 00:05:58,339
a free gift. So take advantage of this exceptional
deal, click that link, and get started today.

60
00:05:58,339 --> 00:06:04,519
Back to Classical Athens. A public investigation
brought additional information to light: shortly

61
00:06:04,519 --> 00:06:10,120
before the herms were mutilated, a group of
young men had broken other religious statues

62
00:06:10,120 --> 00:06:16,490
and mimicked the Eleusinian Mysteries, the
most sacred Athenian ritual. One of the participants,

63
00:06:16,490 --> 00:06:22,310
it was said, had been Alcibiades. It began
to be whispered that Alcibiades had also been

64
00:06:22,310 --> 00:06:27,589
responsible for smashing the herms, and that
his acts of sacrilege were part of a plot

65
00:06:27,589 --> 00:06:33,359
to overthrow the democracy.
As one of the leaders of the Sicilian Expedition,

66
00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:39,160
Alcibiades was forced to leave the city before
he could clear his name. In his absence, the

67
00:06:39,160 --> 00:06:44,250
conspiracy theory continued to grow, connecting
the mutilation of the herms and violation

68
00:06:44,250 --> 00:06:49,759
of the mysteries with an aristocratic scheme
to replace the government. When a small Spartan

69
00:06:49,759 --> 00:06:54,250
force was reported in the vicinity, it was
immediately assumed that they had been summoned

70
00:06:54,250 --> 00:07:00,329
by the conspirators. Arrests were made; armed
patrols were posted in the city center; and

71
00:07:00,329 --> 00:07:07,519
finally, Alcibiades himself was summoned back
to Athens to be tried for his supposed crimes.

72
00:07:07,519 --> 00:07:12,719
Although it’s entirely plausible that Alcibiades
mimicked the mysteries with his friends, and

73
00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:17,539
not impossible that he was associated with
the men who mutilated the herms, there is

74
00:07:17,538 --> 00:07:22,899
no reason to think that he was plotting to
overthrow the democracy. Aristocratic coups

75
00:07:22,899 --> 00:07:27,569
were a legitimate threat – there would be
two within a decade of the Sicilian Expedition

76
00:07:27,569 --> 00:07:32,579
– but Alcibiades had little to gain from
overthrowing a government that had just awarded

77
00:07:32,579 --> 00:07:38,719
him an important command. In this case, he
seems to have been nothing more or less than

78
00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:44,360
the victim of a conspiracy theory.
To a degree that a democratic leader like

79
00:07:44,360 --> 00:07:51,098
Alcibiades could only envy, monarchs dominated
both public discourse and popular suspicion

80
00:07:51,098 --> 00:07:58,110
in antiquity. The most familiar examples are
the Roman emperors, whose plots, perversions,

81
00:07:58,110 --> 00:08:05,740
and peccadilloes pervade our sources. Emperors
were frequently implicated in conspiracy theories,

82
00:08:05,740 --> 00:08:10,860
especially – and understandably – when
their predecessors perished under suspicious

83
00:08:10,860 --> 00:08:17,090
circumstances. Perhaps the most interesting
conspiracy theory involving a classical ruler,

84
00:08:17,089 --> 00:08:20,239
however, centers on the death of Alexander
the Great.

85
00:08:20,240 --> 00:08:28,620
Alexander died at Babylon on June 10, 323
BC, aged 32. According to his most reliable

86
00:08:28,620 --> 00:08:34,459
ancient biographers, he had fallen ill ten
days before, during or shortly after a wine-soaked

87
00:08:34,458 --> 00:08:40,768
banquet. His illness began as a fever, mild
enough – at first – for the king to ignore

88
00:08:40,769 --> 00:08:46,209
as he prepared to invade Arabia. Within a
few days, however, he had become too weak

89
00:08:46,208 --> 00:08:52,569
to sit up or speak. Still burning with fever,
he lapsed into a coma, and never woke.

90
00:08:52,570 --> 00:08:59,670
An alternative tradition added dramatic details.
At the final banquet, according to this version

91
00:08:59,669 --> 00:09:06,399
of events, Alexander was draining a goblet
of wine when he cried out in pain. Collapsing,

92
00:09:06,399 --> 00:09:12,350
he was carried away by his friends, and lay
in agony until the final coma overtook him.

93
00:09:12,350 --> 00:09:17,920
Almost as soon as Alexander died, it began
to be rumored that he had been poisoned. The

94
00:09:17,919 --> 00:09:23,139
culprit, it was said, was Antipater, the king’s
regent in Europe, who had sent his young son

95
00:09:23,139 --> 00:09:28,789
Iollas to dose Alexander’s cup with a potion
prepared by Aristotle.

96
00:09:28,789 --> 00:09:34,809
Aristotle certainly had reason to resent Alexander.
He had been the king’s tutor; and when the

97
00:09:34,809 --> 00:09:39,679
Persian campaign began, he sent his nephew
Callisthenes to accompany the Macedonian army

98
00:09:39,679 --> 00:09:46,549
and write a history of its conquests. Alexander,
however, proceeded to execute Callisthenes

99
00:09:46,549 --> 00:09:52,500
on a trumped-up treason charge. As might be
imagined, this did not improve his relationship

100
00:09:52,500 --> 00:09:57,740
with the young historian’s uncle.
According to the rumors that sprouted after

101
00:09:57,740 --> 00:10:02,149
Alexander’s death, Aristotle had procured
water from the bitter springs of the river

102
00:10:02,149 --> 00:10:08,509
Styx, whose deadly water would dissolve any
container besides the hoof of a mule. With

103
00:10:08,509 --> 00:10:14,039
the connivance of Antipater, Antipater’s
son Cassander, and a very literal drug mule,

104
00:10:14,039 --> 00:10:17,419
the poison made its way to Babylon, and to
the king’s cup.

105
00:10:17,419 --> 00:10:23,899
The Styx water is legendary, and the involvement
of Aristotle supremely unlikely. That Alexander

106
00:10:23,899 --> 00:10:30,159
was poisoned, however, is not beyond the realm
of possibility. Alexander’s mother Olympias

107
00:10:30,159 --> 00:10:35,490
believed – or claimed to believe – that
Antipater was responsible for her son’s

108
00:10:35,490 --> 00:10:40,539
death. She executed several men on charges
of involvement in the plot, and dishonored

109
00:10:40,539 --> 00:10:45,549
the supposed poisoner Iollas by exhuming his
body and scattering the bones.

110
00:10:45,549 --> 00:10:51,519
Antipater’s son Cassander, Iollas’ brother,
returned the favor by executing Olympias and

111
00:10:51,519 --> 00:10:58,250
leaving her body to rot unburied. He also
took vengeance on Hyperides, an Athenian orator

112
00:10:58,250 --> 00:11:04,929
who had dared to propose honoring Iollas for
poisoning Alexander. After Hyperides was captured

113
00:11:04,929 --> 00:11:09,679
by Cassander’s bounty hunter, his tongue
was cut out, he was executed, and his body

114
00:11:09,679 --> 00:11:15,899
– like that of Olympias – was left to
be devoured by the birds and beasts.

115
00:11:15,899 --> 00:11:21,440
The dramatic sequence of accusations and murders
that followed Alexander’s death does not,

116
00:11:21,440 --> 00:11:26,920
of course, prove that the king was poisoned.
Our most reliable ancient sources roundly

117
00:11:26,919 --> 00:11:33,539
reject the theory, which seems to be a product
of popular suspicion and political maneuvering.

118
00:11:33,539 --> 00:11:38,919
Although we’ll never know for certain, malaria
– exacerbated by alcoholism and old battle

119
00:11:38,919 --> 00:11:45,099
wounds – is a far more likely culprit for
Alexander’s death than poison.

120
00:11:45,100 --> 00:11:49,810
Not far from Babylon, but more than half a
millennium after the death of Alexander, the

121
00:11:49,809 --> 00:11:55,528
deadliest of all ancient conspiracy theories
began in a small Mesopotamian village, where

122
00:11:55,528 --> 00:11:59,490
a prophet named Mani started to preach a new
religion.

123
00:11:59,490 --> 00:12:05,409
Mani’s creed, which we call Manichaeism,
proclaimed a universal conflict between the

124
00:12:05,409 --> 00:12:11,920
powers of Light and Darkness. To ensure the
ultimate triumph of the Light, a chosen few

125
00:12:11,921 --> 00:12:17,150
– the Elect – were called upon to renounce
all worldly possessions and devote their lives

126
00:12:17,149 --> 00:12:23,559
to rituals combatting the Darkness. It was
the duty of all other believers – the Hearers

127
00:12:23,559 --> 00:12:29,099
– to support the Elect with alms, and so
gain a chance to be reborn as an Elect, and

128
00:12:29,100 --> 00:12:34,500
finally escape the prison of the flesh.
With the personal support of the shah, Mani

129
00:12:34,500 --> 00:12:39,009
proselytized throughout the Persian Empire,
proclaiming a religion that perfected and

130
00:12:39,009 --> 00:12:45,789
replaced the teachings of Jesus, Zoroaster,
and the Buddha. Missionaries were sent to

131
00:12:45,789 --> 00:12:49,939
India, to the steppes of Central Asia, and
into the Roman Empire.

132
00:12:49,940 --> 00:12:55,089
Adda, one of Mani’s chief disciples, led
the first Roman mission, which established

133
00:12:55,089 --> 00:13:01,240
communities in the provinces of Syria and
Egypt. Equipped with translations of Mani’s

134
00:13:01,240 --> 00:13:07,090
scriptures and trained to engage philosophers
and priests in theological debate, Manichaean

135
00:13:07,090 --> 00:13:12,910
preachers gained converts rapidly, sowing
cells of believers from Alexandria to Rome.

136
00:13:12,909 --> 00:13:17,969
Traditionally, the Romans were tolerant of
any religion that respected the established

137
00:13:17,970 --> 00:13:24,920
social and political order. Sects that seemed
to encourage rebellion or disloyalty, however,

138
00:13:24,919 --> 00:13:29,909
were repressed. The most famous example is
the Christian Church, but instances stretched

139
00:13:29,909 --> 00:13:35,088
back to the Roman Republic, which had crushed
the cult of Bacchus for inciting immoral behavior.

140
00:13:35,089 --> 00:13:41,791
In 302, Diocletian was notified of disruptions
caused by Manichaean preaching in the province

141
00:13:41,791 --> 00:13:47,620
of Africa. The more the emperor learned about
the new religion, the more alarmed he became.

142
00:13:47,620 --> 00:13:54,370
Mani had been a friend of the Persian shah,
the arch-enemy of all things Roman. To Diocletian

143
00:13:54,370 --> 00:14:00,019
and his advisors, this seemed a clear indication
that Manichaeism was nothing less than a Persian

144
00:14:00,019 --> 00:14:07,159
plot intended to overthrow the Roman Empire.
In an imperial edict, Diocletian proclaimed

145
00:14:07,159 --> 00:14:14,049
that the Manichaeans were seeking to infect
the “innocent, orderly, and tranquil Roman

146
00:14:14,049 --> 00:14:20,208
people” with the “damnable customs and
perverse laws of the Persians, as with the

147
00:14:20,208 --> 00:14:28,219
poison of a malignant serpent.” Any Roman
who converted to Manichaeism would be executed;

148
00:14:28,220 --> 00:14:33,250
any official who supported the cult would
be sent to the mines; and the Manichaean preachers

149
00:14:33,250 --> 00:14:38,070
themselves were to be burned alive atop piles
of their scriptures.

150
00:14:38,070 --> 00:14:43,220
As the Great Persecution of the Christians
would soon demonstrate, the provincial governors

151
00:14:43,220 --> 00:14:48,660
responsible for enforcing imperial edicts
were not always enthusiastic about doing so,

152
00:14:48,659 --> 00:14:53,439
and most Manichaeans seem to have escaped
punishment. Throughout the fourth century

153
00:14:53,440 --> 00:14:58,589
and beyond, however, emperors continued to
issue edicts stripping Manichaeans of their

154
00:14:58,589 --> 00:15:03,160
civil rights, declaring them outlaws, and
condemning them to death.

155
00:15:03,159 --> 00:15:08,789
As the Roman Empire became Christian, the
Manichaeans were branded heretics and corrupters

156
00:15:08,789 --> 00:15:14,610
of the faith. St. Augustine – a former convert
to Manichaeism – was the most famous of

157
00:15:14,610 --> 00:15:20,070
the many Christian thinkers who attacked the
so-called Persian heresy. Increasingly savage

158
00:15:20,070 --> 00:15:25,270
penalties drove the sect underground, and
eventually expelled it from the empire.

159
00:15:25,269 --> 00:15:32,269
Manichaeism was never actually a Persian plot.
Although Mani had indeed enjoyed court patronage

160
00:15:32,269 --> 00:15:36,919
for a time, he had died in prison, and his
religion was being persecuted in its native

161
00:15:36,919 --> 00:15:42,240
land by the Zoroastrian priesthood long before
Diocletian issued his edict.

162
00:15:42,240 --> 00:15:47,549
Yet the Roman crusade against the Manichaeans
lasted, with interruptions, for more than

163
00:15:47,549 --> 00:15:53,459
two centuries. In keeping with the late imperial
synthesis of church and state, it became an

164
00:15:53,460 --> 00:16:00,389
issue of both policy and belief. But it had
its origins in the fatal simplicity of a conspiracy

165
00:16:00,389 --> 00:16:03,919
theory.
Click the link in the upper right for the

166
00:16:03,919 --> 00:16:08,838
exciting content on my new travel channel,
including my journey along Alaska’s Copper

167
00:16:08,839 --> 00:16:13,230
River.
For the Toldinstone podcast and other interactive

168
00:16:13,230 --> 00:16:18,980
content, follow this link to my other new
channel, Toldinstone footnotes.

169
00:16:18,980 --> 00:16:24,670
Thanks to Tiege Hanley for sponsoring the
video; you’ll find their link in the description.

170
00:16:24,669 --> 00:16:30,299
You can sign up for exclusive toldinstone
content on Patreon. You might also enjoy my

171
00:16:30,299 --> 00:16:35,839
book, Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War
Elephants. Thanks for watching.