WEBVTT 00:00:00.700 --> 00:00:07.710 Welcome to toldinstone. This video explores three ancient conspiracy theories: an outbreak 00:00:07.710 --> 00:00:14.080 of hysteria in classical Athens, a plot at the court of Alexander, and a crusade against 00:00:14.080 --> 00:00:20.289 a mysterious Persian cult. But before I tell those stories, I have an announcement. 00:00:20.289 --> 00:00:27.969 I have started two new YouTube channels to complement my videos here on toldinstone. 00:00:27.969 --> 00:00:32.558 One of the new channels is called Scenic Routes to the Past. 00:00:32.558 --> 00:00:38.530 Scenic Routes is a travel channel, which follows my journeys to various historical destinations. 00:00:38.530 --> 00:00:44.870 Unlike toldinstone, it is not focused exclusively on ancient history. The first two videos, 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. 00:00:52.378 --> 00:00:56.829 My other new channel is called Toldinstone footnotes. 00:00:56.829 --> 00:01:01.878 This channel hosts episodes of my podcast, in which I interview some of the most interesting 00:01:01.878 --> 00:01:09.829 historians working today. It also features Q & A videos, livestreams, and much more. 00:01:09.829 --> 00:01:14.950 If you could take a moment to subscribe to my new channels, I would deeply appreciate 00:01:14.950 --> 00:01:22.680 it. Thank you for your time – and now, without any further ado, ancient conspiracy theories. 00:01:22.680 --> 00:01:30.220 A conspiracy theory arises in the hazy gulf between suspicion and fact. It is discussed, 00:01:30.219 --> 00:01:38.859 accepted, rejected, dismissed. It may be definitively debunked; it may even be proven. But it exists 00:01:38.859 --> 00:01:45.259 independently of any verifiable source, living in the court of public opinion, feeding on 00:01:45.259 --> 00:01:49.721 itself. Ancient history is full of conspiracies, in 00:01:49.721 --> 00:01:56.899 the sense of coordinated plots against power. Famous examples include the Catilinarian Conspiracy, 00:01:56.899 --> 00:02:02.718 an attempt – thwarted by Cicero – to overthrow the Roman Republic; the Pisonian Conspiracy, 00:02:02.718 --> 00:02:08.280 which sought to supplant Nero; and the Barbarian Conspiracy, an apparently concerted attack 00:02:08.280 --> 00:02:13.419 on Roman Britain by the Picts, Saxons, and Irish. 00:02:13.419 --> 00:02:19.809 There are fewer instances of conspiracy theories in the most familiar sense – i.e., the assumption 00:02:19.810 --> 00:02:25.789 that a secret organization is pulling strings behind the scenes. Speculation about those 00:02:25.789 --> 00:02:32.598 in power, of course, is as old as civilization itself, and our sources reverberate with rumors 00:02:32.598 --> 00:02:38.509 about the undue influence of courtiers and relatives of rulers. Claims that the whole 00:02:38.509 --> 00:02:44.219 political system was being subverted, however, tended to emerge only in periods of acute 00:02:44.219 --> 00:02:48.979 crisis. The affair of the herms in Classical Athens 00:02:48.979 --> 00:02:55.659 is one of the best-documented examples. Athens, famously, had a democratic government, in 00:02:55.659 --> 00:03:02.560 which a large part of the citizen body participated. In combination with a lively tradition of 00:03:02.560 --> 00:03:07.930 criticizing public figures – epitomized by the comedies of Aristophanes – the immediacy 00:03:07.930 --> 00:03:14.200 of the democracy made the schemes and scandals of prominent politicians a popular conversation 00:03:14.199 --> 00:03:19.060 topic. The most talked-about of all Athenian politicians 00:03:19.060 --> 00:03:26.539 was the brilliant, charming, and utterly unscrupulous aristocrat Alcibiades. A scion of the same 00:03:26.539 --> 00:03:31.669 family that had produced Pericles, Alcibiades made his name by promoting an aggressive foreign 00:03:31.669 --> 00:03:37.109 policy against Sparta and her allies. He was admired for his compelling speeches 00:03:37.110 --> 00:03:42.540 before the Assembly, and for such political stunts as entering no fewer than seven awesomely 00:03:42.539 --> 00:03:48.139 expensive chariots in the Olympic race. His dissolute private life, however, led many 00:03:48.139 --> 00:03:54.389 Athenians to distrust him, and set the stage for the affair of the herms. 00:03:54.389 --> 00:04:00.669 Herms were small statues placed at crossroads and beside doorways. They consisted of a simple 00:04:00.669 --> 00:04:07.169 stone pillar, topped by a god’s head and garnished with a prominent erect phallus. 00:04:07.169 --> 00:04:12.889 In the spring of 415 BC, just as the Athenian government, spurred by Alcibiades, was about 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 00:04:18.970 --> 00:04:24.949 and phalluses knocked off. While this might seem like a harmless prank, 00:04:24.949 --> 00:04:31.220 the mutilation of the herms threw Athens into a frenzy. Herms, after all, were images of 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 00:04:37.720 --> 00:04:43.580 at the outset of the Sicilian expedition seemed a bad omen, and a conspiracy theory arose 00:04:43.579 --> 00:04:49.959 that the herms had been broken by a secret cabal that sought to destroy the government. 00:04:49.959 --> 00:04:54.508 You know what isn’t a conspiracy theory? Tiege Hanley skincare for men, the sponsor 00:04:54.509 --> 00:05:00.960 of this video. Tiege Hanley makes affordable, easy-to-use products, which – as a busy 00:05:00.959 --> 00:05:05.180 YouTuber with rather dry skin – I find very helpful. 00:05:05.180 --> 00:05:11.340 I’d recommend starting with the level 1 system, which includes a daily face wash, 00:05:11.339 --> 00:05:16.750 a bi-weekly exfoliating scrub, and both AM and PM moisturizers. 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. 00:05:22.199 --> 00:05:28.199 Don’t just take my word for it. 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One of the participants, 00:06:16.490 --> 00:06:22.310 it was said, had been Alcibiades. It began to be whispered that Alcibiades had also been 00:06:22.310 --> 00:06:27.589 responsible for smashing the herms, and that his acts of sacrilege were part of a plot 00:06:27.589 --> 00:06:33.359 to overthrow the democracy. As one of the leaders of the Sicilian Expedition, 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 00:06:39.160 --> 00:06:44.250 conspiracy theory continued to grow, connecting the mutilation of the herms and violation 00:06:44.250 --> 00:06:49.759 of the mysteries with an aristocratic scheme to replace the government. When a small Spartan 00:06:49.759 --> 00:06:54.250 force was reported in the vicinity, it was immediately assumed that they had been summoned 00:06:54.250 --> 00:07:00.329 by the conspirators. Arrests were made; armed patrols were posted in the city center; and 00:07:00.329 --> 00:07:07.519 finally, Alcibiades himself was summoned back to Athens to be tried for his supposed crimes. 00:07:07.519 --> 00:07:12.719 Although it’s entirely plausible that Alcibiades mimicked the mysteries with his friends, and 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:17.539 not impossible that he was associated with the men who mutilated the herms, there is 00:07:17.538 --> 00:07:22.899 no reason to think that he was plotting to overthrow the democracy. Aristocratic coups 00:07:22.899 --> 00:07:27.569 were a legitimate threat – there would be two within a decade of the Sicilian Expedition 00:07:27.569 --> 00:07:32.579 – but Alcibiades had little to gain from overthrowing a government that had just awarded 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 00:07:38.720 --> 00:07:44.360 the victim of a conspiracy theory. To a degree that a democratic leader like 00:07:44.360 --> 00:07:51.098 Alcibiades could only envy, monarchs dominated both public discourse and popular suspicion 00:07:51.098 --> 00:07:58.110 in antiquity. The most familiar examples are the Roman emperors, whose plots, perversions, 00:07:58.110 --> 00:08:05.740 and peccadilloes pervade our sources. Emperors were frequently implicated in conspiracy theories, 00:08:05.740 --> 00:08:10.860 especially – and understandably – when their predecessors perished under suspicious 00:08:10.860 --> 00:08:17.090 circumstances. Perhaps the most interesting conspiracy theory involving a classical ruler, 00:08:17.089 --> 00:08:20.239 however, centers on the death of Alexander the Great. 00:08:20.240 --> 00:08:28.620 Alexander died at Babylon on June 10, 323 BC, aged 32. According to his most reliable 00:08:28.620 --> 00:08:34.459 ancient biographers, he had fallen ill ten days before, during or shortly after a wine-soaked 00:08:34.458 --> 00:08:40.768 banquet. His illness began as a fever, mild enough – at first – for the king to ignore 00:08:40.769 --> 00:08:46.209 as he prepared to invade Arabia. Within a few days, however, he had become too weak 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. 00:08:52.570 --> 00:08:59.670 An alternative tradition added dramatic details. At the final banquet, according to this version 00:08:59.669 --> 00:09:06.399 of events, Alexander was draining a goblet of wine when he cried out in pain. Collapsing, 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. 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 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 00:09:23.139 --> 00:09:28.789 Iollas to dose Alexander’s cup with a potion prepared by Aristotle. 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 00:09:34.809 --> 00:09:39.679 Persian campaign began, he sent his nephew Callisthenes to accompany the Macedonian army 00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:46.549 and write a history of its conquests. Alexander, however, proceeded to execute Callisthenes 00:09:46.549 --> 00:09:52.500 on a trumped-up treason charge. As might be imagined, this did not improve his relationship 00:09:52.500 --> 00:09:57.740 with the young historian’s uncle. According to the rumors that sprouted after 00:09:57.740 --> 00:10:02.149 Alexander’s death, Aristotle had procured water from the bitter springs of the river 00:10:02.149 --> 00:10:08.509 Styx, whose deadly water would dissolve any container besides the hoof of a mule. With 00:10:08.509 --> 00:10:14.039 the connivance of Antipater, Antipater’s son Cassander, and a very literal drug mule, 00:10:14.039 --> 00:10:17.419 the poison made its way to Babylon, and to the king’s cup. 00:10:17.419 --> 00:10:23.899 The Styx water is legendary, and the involvement of Aristotle supremely unlikely. That Alexander 00:10:23.899 --> 00:10:30.159 was poisoned, however, is not beyond the realm of possibility. Alexander’s mother Olympias 00:10:30.159 --> 00:10:35.490 believed – or claimed to believe – that Antipater was responsible for her son’s 00:10:35.490 --> 00:10:40.539 death. She executed several men on charges of involvement in the plot, and dishonored 00:10:40.539 --> 00:10:45.549 the supposed poisoner Iollas by exhuming his body and scattering the bones. 00:10:45.549 --> 00:10:51.519 Antipater’s son Cassander, Iollas’ brother, returned the favor by executing Olympias and 00:10:51.519 --> 00:10:58.250 leaving her body to rot unburied. He also took vengeance on Hyperides, an Athenian orator 00:10:58.250 --> 00:11:04.929 who had dared to propose honoring Iollas for poisoning Alexander. After Hyperides was captured 00:11:04.929 --> 00:11:09.679 by Cassander’s bounty hunter, his tongue was cut out, he was executed, and his body 00:11:09.679 --> 00:11:15.899 – like that of Olympias – was left to be devoured by the birds and beasts. 00:11:15.899 --> 00:11:21.440 The dramatic sequence of accusations and murders that followed Alexander’s death does not, 00:11:21.440 --> 00:11:26.920 of course, prove that the king was poisoned. Our most reliable ancient sources roundly 00:11:26.919 --> 00:11:33.539 reject the theory, which seems to be a product of popular suspicion and political maneuvering. 00:11:33.539 --> 00:11:38.919 Although we’ll never know for certain, malaria – exacerbated by alcoholism and old battle 00:11:38.919 --> 00:11:45.099 wounds – is a far more likely culprit for Alexander’s death than poison. 00:11:45.100 --> 00:11:49.810 Not far from Babylon, but more than half a millennium after the death of Alexander, the 00:11:49.809 --> 00:11:55.528 deadliest of all ancient conspiracy theories began in a small Mesopotamian village, where 00:11:55.528 --> 00:11:59.490 a prophet named Mani started to preach a new religion. 00:11:59.490 --> 00:12:05.409 Mani’s creed, which we call Manichaeism, proclaimed a universal conflict between the 00:12:05.409 --> 00:12:11.920 powers of Light and Darkness. To ensure the ultimate triumph of the Light, a chosen few 00:12:11.921 --> 00:12:17.150 – the Elect – were called upon to renounce all worldly possessions and devote their lives 00:12:17.149 --> 00:12:23.559 to rituals combatting the Darkness. It was the duty of all other believers – the Hearers 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 00:12:29.100 --> 00:12:34.500 finally escape the prison of the flesh. With the personal support of the shah, Mani 00:12:34.500 --> 00:12:39.009 proselytized throughout the Persian Empire, proclaiming a religion that perfected and 00:12:39.009 --> 00:12:45.789 replaced the teachings of Jesus, Zoroaster, and the Buddha. Missionaries were sent to 00:12:45.789 --> 00:12:49.939 India, to the steppes of Central Asia, and into the Roman Empire. 00:12:49.940 --> 00:12:55.089 Adda, one of Mani’s chief disciples, led the first Roman mission, which established 00:12:55.089 --> 00:13:01.240 communities in the provinces of Syria and Egypt. Equipped with translations of Mani’s 00:13:01.240 --> 00:13:07.090 scriptures and trained to engage philosophers and priests in theological debate, Manichaean 00:13:07.090 --> 00:13:12.910 preachers gained converts rapidly, sowing cells of believers from Alexandria to Rome. 00:13:12.909 --> 00:13:17.969 Traditionally, the Romans were tolerant of any religion that respected the established 00:13:17.970 --> 00:13:24.920 social and political order. Sects that seemed to encourage rebellion or disloyalty, however, 00:13:24.919 --> 00:13:29.909 were repressed. The most famous example is the Christian Church, but instances stretched 00:13:29.909 --> 00:13:35.088 back to the Roman Republic, which had crushed the cult of Bacchus for inciting immoral behavior. 00:13:35.089 --> 00:13:41.791 In 302, Diocletian was notified of disruptions caused by Manichaean preaching in the province 00:13:41.791 --> 00:13:47.620 of Africa. The more the emperor learned about the new religion, the more alarmed he became. 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 00:13:54.370 --> 00:14:00.019 and his advisors, this seemed a clear indication that Manichaeism was nothing less than a Persian 00:14:00.019 --> 00:14:07.159 plot intended to overthrow the Roman Empire. In an imperial edict, Diocletian proclaimed 00:14:07.159 --> 00:14:14.049 that the Manichaeans were seeking to infect the “innocent, orderly, and tranquil Roman 00:14:14.049 --> 00:14:20.208 people” with the “damnable customs and perverse laws of the Persians, as with the 00:14:20.208 --> 00:14:28.219 poison of a malignant serpent.” Any Roman who converted to Manichaeism would be executed; 00:14:28.220 --> 00:14:33.250 any official who supported the cult would be sent to the mines; and the Manichaean preachers 00:14:33.250 --> 00:14:38.070 themselves were to be burned alive atop piles of their scriptures. 00:14:38.070 --> 00:14:43.220 As the Great Persecution of the Christians would soon demonstrate, the provincial governors 00:14:43.220 --> 00:14:48.660 responsible for enforcing imperial edicts were not always enthusiastic about doing so, 00:14:48.659 --> 00:14:53.439 and most Manichaeans seem to have escaped punishment. Throughout the fourth century 00:14:53.440 --> 00:14:58.589 and beyond, however, emperors continued to issue edicts stripping Manichaeans of their 00:14:58.589 --> 00:15:03.160 civil rights, declaring them outlaws, and condemning them to death. 00:15:03.159 --> 00:15:08.789 As the Roman Empire became Christian, the Manichaeans were branded heretics and corrupters 00:15:08.789 --> 00:15:14.610 of the faith. St. Augustine – a former convert to Manichaeism – was the most famous of 00:15:14.610 --> 00:15:20.070 the many Christian thinkers who attacked the so-called Persian heresy. Increasingly savage 00:15:20.070 --> 00:15:25.270 penalties drove the sect underground, and eventually expelled it from the empire. 00:15:25.269 --> 00:15:32.269 Manichaeism was never actually a Persian plot. Although Mani had indeed enjoyed court patronage 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 00:15:36.919 --> 00:15:42.240 land by the Zoroastrian priesthood long before Diocletian issued his edict. 00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:47.549 Yet the Roman crusade against the Manichaeans lasted, with interruptions, for more than 00:15:47.549 --> 00:15:53.459 two centuries. In keeping with the late imperial synthesis of church and state, it became an 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 00:16:00.389 --> 00:16:03.919 theory. Click the link in the upper right for the 00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:08.838 exciting content on my new travel channel, including my journey along Alaska’s Copper 00:16:08.839 --> 00:16:13.230 River. For the Toldinstone podcast and other interactive 00:16:13.230 --> 00:16:18.980 content, follow this link to my other new channel, Toldinstone footnotes. 00:16:18.980 --> 00:16:24.670 Thanks to Tiege Hanley for sponsoring the video; you’ll find their link in the description. 00:16:24.669 --> 00:16:30.299 You can sign up for exclusive toldinstone content on Patreon. You might also enjoy my 00:16:30.299 --> 00:16:35.839 book, Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants. Thanks for watching.