National Geographic History

ROYAL PALACE ODYSSEUS’ HOME was located in ancient Ithaca, but the actual archae- ological site has yet to be identified. That does not mean visualizing Odysseus’ palace is impossible. French architect Jean-Claude Golvin specializes in ancient heritage reconstructions and has imagined Odys- seus’ royal residence as something between a Mycenaean palace and a rural homestead. The entrance is through a colonnaded porch, and the main building is organized around a colonnaded courtyard. The great banquet hall would be supported by sturdy columns. A bathroom with basins, like the one found among the remains of the Mycenaean palace of Pylos, may have been near the entrance, as the bathing of guests was part of Greek hospitality. While disguised as a beggar, Odysseus is bathed after he enters the palace. On the upper floor stand the bedrooms and the store­room. Large warehouses and workshops uncovered by archaeologists excavating Mycenaean palaces are notably absent from The Odyssey, and so they do not appear here. ACUARELA DE JEAN-CLAUDE GOLVIN. MUSÉE DÉPARTEMENTAL ARLES ANTIQUE © JEAN-CLAUDE GOLVIN / ÉDITIONS ERRANCE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 47

RITES AND RITUALS A 15th-century German Haggadah depicts the events in Exodus that Passover commemorates, including a lamb sacrifice and baking matzo. Opposite: Prayers recited during a seder are inscribed on a 19th-century glass Passover goblet. ILLUSTRATION: LEBRECHT/ALBUM PASSOVER GOBLET: THE JEWISH MUSEUM/ART RESOURCE/SCALA, FLORENCE

PASSOVER FEAST OF FREEDOM Recalling the Israelites’ escape from enslavement, Passover has deep roots in Jewish history. Against a backdrop of exile and loss, Passover evolved into the richly symbolic feast celebrated every spring by Jews all over the world.

THE LATE MIDDLE AGES A lamb, unleavened bread, and wine comprise a 15th-century Passover meal in a panel of the “Last Supper Triptych,” 1464-1467, by Flemish painter Dieric Bouts, Saint Peter’s Church, Leuven. SCALA, FLORENCE and smear its blood on the doorposts and lin- tels of their homes. Then God instructs them: They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleav- ened bread and bitter herbs … This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every first- born in the land of Egypt … The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt (Exodus 12:8-13). ANGEL Every spring, Jews the world over gather Hebrews shall repeat this ritual in thanksgiv- OF DEATH to mark Passover, Judaism’s ancient ing to God for generations to come, Moses tells celebration of divine deliverance. As them and explains the guidelines for doing so. Exodus tells how God told in the Book of Exodus, Moses They will celebrate “from the evening of the sends an angel to seeks freedom for enslaved Hebrews fourteenth day until the evening of the twen- kill all the Egyptians’ in Egypt, but Pharaoh refuses to let them go. ty-first day”of Nisan,the first month in the He- firstborn sons—from Unleashing his wrath, God sets 10 plagues up- brew calendar, which usually falls in late March princes to paupers— on Egypt, each one worse than the next. The and early April. to punish Pharaoh final one is most terrible of all: God will kill the for not freeing the firstborn son of each family in Egypt. A Storied Meal Israelites. 19th- The Israelites will be spared if they follow century engraving, God’s instructions.They must slaughter a lamb, Passover continues to be celebrated as a great Gustave Doré “without blemish, a year-old male” spring festival of Judaism. In many parts of the world it lasts for seven days, while in Israel it TARKER/BRIDGEMAN/ACI is celebrated for eight. It is a joyous time when families gather for a seder, a meal rich with HISTORY 13th century b.c. Seventh century b.c. OF EXILES According to tradition, Deuteronomy establishes Moses delivers the the celebration of Israelites from enslavement Passover as a pilgrimage in Egypt, which will be festival to Jerusalem, commemorated by the centering its rituals at feast of Passover. Solomon’s Temple. THE TABLETS OF THE LAW WERE REVEALED BY MOSES AFTER LEADING ISRAELITES OUT OF EGYPT. 17TH-CENTURY PAINTING, MUSEUM CATHARIJNECONVENT, UTRECHT, NETHERLANDS AKG/ALBUM

587 b.c. a.d. 70 Second century a.d. Neo-Babylonian king The Romans destroy the Compiled from the Torah, Nebuchadnezzar II conquers Temple of Jerusalem. the Mishnah, and other Jerusalem and exiles the Without its central place sources, the Passover Jews to Babylon. They will of worship, Passover seder is formalized into a return when Persia defeats his must evolve to new text called the Haggadah, empire about 50 years later. conditions of exile. which means “the telling.”

FAST FOOD ancient rituals, to remember their ances- tors’ deliverance. The feast holds meaning Modern matzo (bread for Christians too: All four Gospel writ- without yeast) is ers recount how the crucifixion of Jesus of prepared for use during the Passover Nazareth takes place on, or around, the period. Exodus celebration of Passover in Jerusalem. recounts how the Israelites prepared Much of the core symbolism of Pass- this as they rushed over, enacted year after year, can be to flee Egypt because found in the seder. Modern Passover it cooks faster than celebrations follow the rules set out bread that has to rise. in Exodus, but the ritual has absorbed many changes over the centuries, reflect- ALAMY/ACI ing the upheavals and impacts of history. Tradition holds that Moses lived in the 13th century b.c., the period in which pharaohs such In 587 b.c., the Neo-Babylonian king Nebu- as Ramses II ruled ancient Egypt. Some biblical chadnezzar II laid siege to Jerusalem, destroyed historians believe that the rituals outlined by the Temple, and made Judah a province of his Moses predate this time,going back to the dawn empire. Swaths of the population of Judah were of Jewish history.Slaughtering spring lambs and forcibly deported to Babylon. Many scholars eating unleavened bread may have once been use this deportation to mark the creation of separate spring festivals that were later incor- the Jewish diaspora, large communities of Jews porated into the story of the exodus. Biblical living outside Jerusalem. scholars broadly agree that the oldest material in the Book of Exodus is from about the ninth Several biblical books including Jeremiah, century b.c., and that it took its current form Kings, Chronicles, and Ezra document the events in the fifth century b.c. of the exile. Perhaps the most famous passage In the Hebrew Bible, the Israelites are deliv- is the beautiful Psalm 137, which laments: “By ered out of slavery and will eventually settle in the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we Canaan, the so-called Promised Land. The city remembered Zion ...How can we sing the Lord’s of Jerusalem will become their capital, ruled song while in a foreign land?” by kings David and Solomon, who built a grand temple there. The Israelites’ memory of their During their captivity in Babylon, the Jew- time in Egypt is never far away, as the celebra- ish exiles reflected deeply on what had befallen tion of Passover continues over the centuries. In a Foreign Land Another exile, occurring some eight centuries after the time of Moses, would further shape Judaism and Passover. At this time, the Prom- ised Land had split into two kingdoms: Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Geopolit- ically, Judah—centered on its hilltop capital, Jerusalem—was sandwiched between two great regional powers: Egypt and the Neo- Babylonian empire. Modern Passover celebrations follow the rules set out in Exodus; even so, the ritual has evolved over the centuries. 52 MARCH/APRIL 2023

A HIGH HOLY DAY Worshippers fill Solomon’s Porch in Herod’s Temple during a first-century celebration of Passover. The painting is by 21st-century biblical illustrator and artist Balage Balogh. BALAGE BALOGH/RMN-GRAND PALAIS them: on their suffering and their covenant with JUDAISM’S CALENDAR God. Scholars and scribes continued to write, forming the foundation of several books of the JEWISH FESTIVALS are celebrated according to the Jewish calendar, Old Testament as well as solidifying the To- which is based on the lunar cycle but periodically adjusted to rah (the five first books of the Old Testament: keep pace with the solar cycle. Year one of this calendar begins Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and on the first day of creation, according to the Hebrew Bible, which Deuteronomy). These books certainly have roots that corresponds to the year 3761 b.c. in the Gregorian calendar. predate the Babylonian The Jewish calendar year begins around the autumnal equi- period, but many bib- nox and then has 12 lunar months, each lasting about 30 lical historians concur days: Tishrei, Cheshvan, Kislev, Tevet, Shevat, Adar, Nisan that a dynamic pro- (the spring month in which Passover occurs), Iyar, Sivan, cess of scholarship and Tammuz, Av, and Elul. These 12 months add up to a year of 353, 354, or 355 days. To adjust this to the solar calendar, JEWISH RITUAL CALENDAR every few years a second 30-day month of Adar is added FROM THE RHINE VALLEY, and the year is referred to as “pregnant.” In October 2023, 1320, CLUNY MUSEUM, PARIS the Hebrew year 5784 will begin­—a pregnant year with two months of Adar. RMN-GRAND PALAIS

LET MY PEOPLE GO After leading his people to safety by parting the waters of the Red Sea, Moses watches as the pursuing Egyptians are engulfed and destroyed in a 1530 painting attributed to Lucas Cranach the Elder. Pinakothek, Munich, Germany HERITAGE IMAGES/GETTY



CURRENCY national renewal inspired by the 1 Sanctuary EXCHANGE period in Babylon brought togeth- er the composition of the books Measuring 172 feet long by 34 feet After arriving in of Moses, as they are known now. wide, the impressive structure featured Jerusalem, foreign a gleaming facade decorated with gold coins had to be Nearly 50 years later,in 540 b.c., and white marble. exchanged for Babylon and the Neo-Babylonian shekels, which were regime fell to the Persian conqueror 2 Court of the Priests accepted in the Cyrus the Great, who allowed the ex- Temple. A silver iled Jews to return to Judah. In the Book Only priests and Levites were allowed shekel (above) was of Isaiah 44:28, the prophet has God say of access here. On a great altar, the blood minted in Jerusalem Cyrus:“He is My shepherd, And he shall per- of sacrificed animals was poured out in the first century a.d. form all My pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, You and their fat burned. shall be built and to the temple,Your foundation QUINTLOX/ALBUM shall be laid.” Given the experience of Babylo- Western Wall, the only part nian exile, it is not surprising that an ancient of the Second Temple still story about captivity—in which God intervenes visible today to smite the enemy, while “passing over” and saving his chosen people—proved to be the THE SECOND TEMPLE foundational narrative of the Jewish faith. In 22 b.c., Herod the Great began a major Home or Temple? expansion of the Jerusalem Temple (known as the Second Temple), which Following the return from the Babylonian exile, had been built in 516 b.c. The Babylonians Passover could once again be celebrated in Je- destroyed the First Temple (attributed to rusalem.This moment is chronicled in the bib- King Solomon) in 586 b.c. lical Book of Ezra, which recounts how the Jews returned from Babylon, renewed in their faith, FERNANDO BAPTISTA/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION to rebuild their temple: are clearly given to households. In the Book On the fourteenth day of the first month the of Deuteronomy, however, Passover is listed returned exiles kept the passover. For both the among the three pilgrimage festivals, along priests and the Levites had purified them- with the Feast of Weeks (early summer) and selves … So they killed the passover lamb for the Feast of Tabernacles (fall) that must be cel- all the returned exiles, for their fellow-priests, ebrated in Jerusalem: “You must not sacrifice and for themselves. It was eaten by the people the Passover in any town the Lord your God of Israel who had returned from exile, and al- gives you except in the place he will choose as so by all who had joined them and separated a dwelling for his Name.” themselves from the pollutions of the nations of the land to worship the Lord, the God of Significant differences in the setting of the Israel. With joy they celebrated the festival sacrifice—as well as whether the sacrificial of unleavened bread for seven days; for the meat should be roasted or boiled—have been Lord had made them joyful (Ezra 6:19-22). the cause of much debate among religious scholars.The differences suggest that the Pass- The Bible offers radically different accounts over ritual underwent considerable evolution of the setting in which the Passover ritual over the long time period in which the Torah was to take place. In Exodus, the instructions was composed and compiled. The Book of Deuteronomy lists Passover among the three pilgrimage festivals that must be celebrated in Jerusalem. 56 MARCH/APRIL 2023

Tower of Antonia, Roman fortress Solomon’s Porch 1 23 4 5 Royal Stoa (portico) 3 Court of the Israelites A narrow space beyond Nicanor’s gate was where the Paschal lamb was sacrificed. Only Jewish men could enter this space. 4 Court of Women This area was the only place in the Temple where Jewish women were allowed entry. 5 Court of the Gentiles Pilgrims could buy animals for sacrifice and exchange foreign currency in this large outer courtyard. Historians detected a general trend. Before THE PUZZLE OF PASSOVER the Babylonian exile, the ardor with which Passover was observed waxed and waned. IN THE NEW TESTAMENT It was zealously observed in the seventh century b.c. by King Josiah. Revered for up- THE GOSPELS OF Matthew, Mark, and Luke suggest that Jesus’ Last holding orthodoxy, and closely associated with Supper was a Passover seder the night before his crucifixion. By the law as set out in Deuteronomy, Josiah had contrast, the Book of John states that Jesus dined before the feast celebrated Passover in the Temple. Follow- of the Passover: After eating with his disciples, Jesus is arrested ing the trauma of the exile, and the return to and brought before Pontius Pilate the next morning; the Jews Jerusalem, a trend emerged to recentralize the do not want to defile themselves by entering Pilate’s residence, ritual in the Temple. because this would prevent them from celebrating the Passover meal that evening. Boston University biblical scholar Jonathan Every spring in the post-exile period, Klawans explains the discrepancy by interpreting the Last Supper the newly rededicated Temple in Jerusalem as a normal, non-Passover meal in which the Jewish blessing of hummed with preparations for the festival. bread and wine was a standard ritual. Other scholars prefer to Families would enter the Temple compound focus less on the precise timing and more on the confirmation and offer their sacrificial animal. The Hallel, in all four Gospels that Jesus dies around the time of Passover, a based on the Psalms, would have been sung feast that powerfully symbolizes sacrifice and redemption.

SYMBOLIC FOODS in celebration. The sacrificial In a.d. 70, more than 500 years after it had animals would be killed by been destroyed by the Neo-Babylonians, ca- Various symbolic the priests, returned to the tastrophe befell the Jewish Temple a second foods are needed for family, and then cooked and time. Following a revolt against Roman rule, the seder and are perhaps eaten somewhere in the forces of the future emperor Titus be- presented on a special the temple precincts. sieged Jerusalem before entering the city and seder plate called a By the time of Jesus of Naz- destroying nearly all of the Temple, except keara. These include a areth, early in the first century the Western Wall. Initially, the practice of hard-boiled egg, bitter Passover was thrown into confusion by the herbs, and a roasted a.d., Jerusalem was a bustling great loss of the Temple. It fell to the highest bone, symbolic of the pilgrimage center. The Gospel of religious authority of the time, Rabbi Gama- lamb sacrificed by the John records: “Now the Passover of liel of Yavne, to reinterpret the Passover sed- Israelites on the night the Jews was near, and many went up er so it could still be celebrated without the of the exodus. from the country to Jerusalem before the Pass- central sacred structure. over to purify themselves.” (John 11: 55). The BRIDGEMAN/ACI sheer number of people pouring into Jerusalem Dispersion and exile once again became wo- meant that by Jesus’time,the Temple,while still ven into the Jewish national story, and Pass- central to the festival,was no longer an exclusive over adapted accordingly. Although many of setting for the Passover ceremony. The Paschal the traditions recorded in the Mishnah had lamb would have been eaten in private homes long predated the dark year of a.d. 70, some across the city. were developed after this event. Some were introduced through tradition rather than on Beyond the Temple the basis of religious authority. One exam- ple of this is the addition of the roasted egg, For the full celebration of Passover, Hebrews dipped in salted water to symbolize both the abstain from leavened bread (made with yeast), tears of the enslaved Israelites and the de- a time called the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, struction of the Temple by the Romans. or Chag Hamatzot. Matzo is also at the heart of the seder, as is a roasted lamb, both calling back As the Jewish world adapted to life with- to the instructions laid out in Exodus. out a central temple, the Passover seder was formalized into the text called the Haggadah. Many modern Passover rituals were devel- Meaning“the telling,”and compiled from the oped in the post-Babylon period. Surviving at Torah, Mishnah, and other sources, the Hag- first by oral tradition, they were written down gadah emerged toward the end of the second in the Mishnah in the first and second centu- century and forms the basis of the Passover ries a.d. The Mishnah has a section devot- meal as it is celebrated by Jews across the ed to different dishes served during a seder world today. Although the ceremony reflects and what they symbolize. Matzo and roasted the slow adaptation of Jews to living in a world lamb remain at the heart of the meal. Four cups with no central place of worship, the longing of wine must also be served. A paste of fruit, for such a place is reflected in the words that wine, and nuts, called haroseth, is part of the are traditionally said at the end of the seder: seder and symbolizes the mortar the enslaved l’shana haba’ah b’Yerushalayim—next year in people used to build Pharaoh’s monuments and Jerusalem. cities. Bitter herbs, the maror, recall tears and pain caused by exile and enslavement. ADAPTED FROM AN ARTICLE BY JAVIER ALONZO LÓPEZ WITH ADDITIONAL TEXTS BY JULIUS PURCELL. LÓPEZ SPECIALIZES IN WRITING ON JUDAISM AND The Mishnah also explains the roles for fam- ily members in the meal. Children participate EARLY CHRISTIANITY. JULIUS PURCELL IS DEPUTY EDITOR OF HISTORY. by asking the Ma Nishtana, or Four Questions. When the adults answer, they tell the Exodus Learn more story. The call-and-response nature of the meal becomes a vehicle to reiterate the story The Passover Haggadah: A Biography of Israel in Egypt, beginning with enslavement Vanessa L. Ochs, Princeton University Press, 2020 and ending with triumph. 58 MARCH/APRIL 2023

LAMENTATION AND HOPE Jews pray at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, the only remaining part of the Second Temple, expanded by Herod the Great and destroyed by the Romans in a.d. 70. Following its destruction, Temple-oriented festivals such as Passover evolved into their current form. REINHARD SCHMID/FOTOECA 9X12

SEX SYMBOL Artworks, such as the Eugene Brunet 1884 sculpture below, often emphasize Messalina’s notoriety as a sensuous woman with an unbridled sexual appetite. Museum of Fine Arts, Rennes, France JEAN-MANUEL SALINGUE/RMN-GRAND PALAIS

messalina sex, politics, and power The teenage bride of Emperor Claudius, Messalina knew how to play politics in imperial Rome. But after her death, Messalina’s shrewd moves were overshadowed by Roman writers who focused on her sexual escapades. EMMA SOUTHON

MESSALINA IMAGINED BY THE 19TH-CENTURY FRENCH SYMBOLIST PAINTER GUSTAVE MOREAU. GUSTAVE MOREAU MUSEUM, PARIS PHILIPPE FUZEAU/RMN-GRAND PALAIS O ne of the greatest villains of the Roman Empire is the empress Messalina. The third wife of the emperor Claudius, she is remembered today as the most promiscuous woman in Rome, the nympho- maniac empress. The Messalina in the modern imagination is a pinnacle of uncontrolled, vi- olent, irrational, and impulsive behavior. Her sexual appetite is unrivaled, and her motivations quite wicked. When Mikhail Bulgakov was fill- ing Satan’s ball in The Master and Margarita, he included Messalina as a guest. When Charlotte Bronte needed to describe the mad wife in the attic in Jane Eyre, Bronte likened her to a German vampire as well as Messalina.Of all the scandal- ous women who violated Roman gender roles, Messalina has come down through history as the most scandalous of all. Noble Beginnings Valeria Messalina was at most 18 in a.d.38 when she married her only husband, Tiberius Clau- dius Nero Germanicus. Claudius on the other hand was a 47-year-old, twice-divorced, father of two. The pair were first cousins once removed, both descended from the Divine Augustus’s sis- ter Octavia. The marriage was a great honor for Claudi- us, as his previous wives had been of moderate prestige compared to Messalina.His marriage to a descendant of Octavia coincided with his be- lated entry into public life and was a sign that the newemperor—his nephewCaligula—approved 62 MARCH/APRIL 2023

IAPMONPLDEITRPIILCAOSLTS circa a.d. 20 Valeria Messalina is born in Rome, daughter of Marcus Valerius Messalla Barbatus and Domitia Lepida. 38 Teenage Messalina marries her 47-year-old cousin Claudius, uncle of Emperor Caligula. Their first child is a girl, Claudia Octavia. 41 After Caligula’s death, Claudius becomes emperor and Messalina empress. She gives birth to their son, Britannicus. 43 Appius Junius Silanus, Messalina’s stepfather, is executed for treason; some say also for rejecting her advances. 47 Senator Valerius Asiaticus becomes a victim of Messalina’s plotting because she desired his gardens. 48 Messalina is executed after publicly marrying her lover, Senator Gaius Silius, and perhaps planning a coup with him. CLAUDIUS AND MESSALINA A cameo (left), made around a.d. 45, shows the imperial couple on a chariot sowing abundance across the empire. National Library of France, Paris ERICH LESSING/ALBUM

THE JULIO-CLAUDIAN DYNASTY GAIUS OCTAVIUS ATIA MARC ANTONY OCTAVIA AUGUSTUS LIVIA TIBERIUS (r. 27 B.C.-A.D. 14) CLAUDIUS AHENOBARBUS ANTONIA NERO THE ELDER TIBERIUS ANTONIA DRUSUS (r 14-37) MINOR BARBATUS DOMITIA MESSALINA CLAUDIUS GERMANICUS (r 41-54) OCTAVIA BRITANNICUS CALIGULA (r 37-41) MESSALINA WITH HER SON, BRITANNICUS. ROMAN STATUE CIRCA A.D. 50. LOUVRE MUSEUM, PARIS RMN-GRAND PALAIS IMPORTANCE OF of him and was tying him closely to the line of BEING JULIA succession. THE JULIA FAMILY (Julii) was held in high regard by the For Messalina, however, the marriage was Roman people, who looked to the family as successors likely less thrilling.Her new husband had spent of Julius Caesar (Emperor Augustus was Julius Caesar’s his entire life until this point as a family em- great-nephew and adopted son). Lineage was a key barrassment. He had visible disabilities that factor in the match between Claudius and Messalina. The allegedly prompted his mother to refer to him 30-year age gap and general incompatibility between as a monster, his great-uncle Augustus to for- them were overlooked in favor of their heritage. The pair’s bid him from sitting with the rest of the family marriage formed one of the “purest” connections to in public, and his uncle Tiberius to banish him the Julio-Claudian dynasty, in that it descended directly from any public office. Imperial Rome was an from Octavia, sister of Augustus. Tiberius, Caligula, and unfriendly place for disabled people,and no one Claudius all descended from Livia, Augustus’s third wife, knew that better than Claudius. He had seen and were thereby linked also to the Claudian line. his siblings receive glorious honors and advan- tageous marriages. Claudius had no prestige and brought little but his bloodline to enhance Messalina’s own. It is hard to imagine that she

looked forward to marriage to a man 30 years Observing the Empress POWER TRANSFER her senior whose achievements she could not even brag about. Most information on Messalina’s relation- Dutch artist ship with Claudius comes from the first and Lawrence Alma- The pair had two children in quick succes- second-century a.d. historians Tacitus and Tadema recreates sion, and Claudius unexpectedly—and con- Suetonius, each writing decades after her death a moment when troversially—became emperor. After Caligula during a time critical of Rome’s early emperors. Claudius is found was assassinated in a.d.41,Claudius took refuge Suetonius writes of the pair in The Twelve Caesars, behind a curtain and in the army camps and haggled for two days to but his descriptions are short and matter-of-fact. proclaimed emperor convince the Senate to accept him as emperor. Tacitus has much more to say on the subject. after the death of Caligula. Walters Art Messalina’s husband, with no experience Messalina’s first years as Claudius’s wife and Museum, Baltimore and little promise, had surpassed everyone’s empress were not included in these works, so it expectations when he took power. Still in her is unclear if her notoriety was present from the BRIDGEMAN/ACI early 20s and prepared for a life of aristocratic start of her husband’s rule. Roman men tend- leisure, Messalina had become an empress. Just ed to perceive women as being constitutionally weeks after her husband ascended to the Ro- corrupt, unlike men, who became corrupted. Ro- man throne, she made history by being the first man law viewed women as perpetual minors and woman to give birth to a Roman emperor’s son. distrusted them to control their own property. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 65

IN THE LAP OF A LOVER Messalina’s appetites were popular subjects for 19th- century artists. In this 1886 painting, Spanish artist Joaquín Sorolla depicts her draped before a gladiator. BBVA Collection Spain. ALAMY/ACI ANNALS OF TACITUS PAGE FROM A 16TH-CENTURY ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT, AUSTRIAN NATIONAL LIBRARY, VIENNA DEA/ALBUM It is possible that opinions of Messalina changed over time,but when Tacitus’s narrative picks up around a.d.47,six years into Claudius’s reign, the historian thinks Messalina’s a mon- ster. Tacitus’s first mention of the empress de- scribes her manipulating her husband to punish two of her personal enemies: Valerius Asiaticus and Poppaea Sabina.Asiaticus owned the lovely Gardens of Lucullus, which Messalina coveted. She spread rumors of an extramarital affair be- tween Asiaticus and Poppaea (who had taken a lover Messalina desired for herself). Claudius had the pair arrested and Asiaticus killed. Pop- paea was imprisoned, and Tacitus reports she died by suicide after repeated harassment from Messalina’s agents. In Tacitus’s telling, Messalina frequently uses the judicial system and the functions of the state for her own selfish ends. Through them, she obtains revenge on those who cross her, reject her sexual advances, or spark her envy. She exiles relatives and executes rivals. She lies about omens and circulates rumors to scare her husband into doing her bidding. She makes the personal political. Marriage and Betrayal Messalina’s actions ultimately brought her down. Roman historians reported her undoing and subsequent murder with glee and snicker- ing delight. Tacitus is again the chief source of information on Messalina’s final scandal.Other authors retold Messalina’s story, including the 66 MARCH/APRIL 2023



CON S PIR ATOR S Roman poet Juvenal who wrote a scathing con­ The adulterers then do something so unex­ demnation of her in his Satires, composed in the pected—so open and shocking—that even the Some historians late first or early second century a.d. Writing ancient sources can barely believe it.The couple believe Messalina a century later, Roman historian Cassius Dio hold their own wedding while Claudius is out of and Gaius Silius continued the tradition of rendering Messalina town in Ostia.Messalina dons the yellow veil of aimed to overthrow as a villain,calling her“the most abandoned and a bride and proceeds publicly through the streets Claudius and lustful of women.” to Silius’s home, where they exchange vows. take power for They then throw a raucous party that includes, themselves. The episode begins in a.d. 48, when Messa­ according to Tacitus, Messalina wantonly letting 1888 engraving, lina starts a love affair with Senator Gaius Sil­ her hair down. Les Imperatrices ius. Silius’s complicity varies across sources; Romaine. in Juvenal and Dio he is a passive victim of her The actual events and meaning of that day are dominance, while in Tacitus he is an enthusi­ still debated by modern historians. Was this a WHITE IMAGES/SCALA, FLORENCE astic participant. Messalina lavishes him with real wedding or a performance? Was it an at­ decadent gifts,from family heirlooms to houses. tempted coup rather than a brazen affront? Some 68 MARCH/APRIL 2023 Their affair proceeds until it becomes public characterize the day as an attempt to overthrow knowledge. Silius divorces his wife, but Messali­ Claudius, motivated entirely by political am­ na cannot free herself from her emperor husband. bition to rule. The truth will never be known because neither conspirator survived the night. Rumors of their wedding party, whether real or staged, reach Claudius in Ostia very quickly. To break the news, his administrators send his two favorite mistresses to tell him that his wife has publicly divorced him by marrying another man. Claudius, in Tacitus’s telling, panics, be­ lieving that Messalina and Silius are attempting to overthrow him. Claudius has them immedi­ ately arrested. Guards escort Messalina to the Gardens of Lucullus,and Silius is brought before Claudius at the army camps.Silius and his allies are executed on the spot for treason, and then Silius’s name vanishes from history. Claudius procrastinates over Messalina’s fate. She is his wife of a decade, the mother of his chil­ dren, and a woman he loves by all accounts. He softens and decides to give her a hearing the next day. Claudius’s supporters fear that Messalina will escape punishment, so they take matters into their own hands. They falsely tell Roman centurions and a tribune to go to the gardens and execute Messalina on the orders of the emperor. Messalina is in the gardens with her mother. Tacitus reports that even when she is trapped, Messalina does not give up. She tries to find a way out of the situation, but to no avail. When the soldiers arrive, they give her the option to kill herself, but she is unable to do it. Tacitus sneers that she was so lacking in virtue that she couldn’t even take her own life. One of the tri­ bunes runs her through and ends her life. Tacitus reported that Claudius is unmoved at the news of his wife’s death: “[H]e called for a

PLEASURE PALACE Classical authors claimed that Messalina hosted wild orgies in the imperial palace on Palatine Hill, allegedly inviting her lovers there when her husband, the emperor Claudius, was away. The Palatine Hill is shown here, as viewed from the Roman Forum. CORBIN ADLER/ALAMY/ACI

ERASING THE PAST in Germany during Claudius’s early rule, wrote an encyclopedia of natural phenomena,in which ROMANS WHO LIVED exemplary lives could be pronounced gods after he included musings on mammalian sexuality. death, but villains faced the postmortem punishment of damnatio me- Humans, he notes, are the only animals who moriae, of having one’s name erased from history. If the government don’t have breeding seasons and who are never declared it, one’s name would be struck from public and private records, sated when it comes to sex. As an illustration, property seized, and portraits defaced. Caligula and Nero were two he tells the reader about Empress Messalina, early emperors who were damned. Roman women could also be con- who engaged in a competition with a sex worker demned; most were sentenced along with their husbands. Only a few, to see who could take the most lovers. After 25 such as Messalina and Julia the Elder (daughter of Augustus Caesar), “embraces,”Messalina won. received their own condemnation outright. The practice continued into later eras. In the early 200s, Emperor Caracalla condemned his brother A generation later, the anecdote grew even Geta after murdering him. Portraits of Geta, even as a boy (above), more outrageous when it was related by noted were defaced, and it became a crime to say his name. misanthrope Juvenal in his Satires. Messalina appears in the section on why he hates women. THE PICTURE ART COLLECTION/ALAMY Calling her the“Imperial Whore,”Juvenal claims that every night Messalina disguised herself in cup and went through the routine of the banquet. a blonde wig—a hair color associated with bar- Even in the days that followed, he betrayed no barians—and worked at a low-class brothel, symptoms of hatred or of joy,of anger or of sad- where she would have sex until the sun came ness,or,in fine,of any human emotion.”The Ro- up. She would be sent away“exhausted but not man government decrees a damnatio memoriae yet satisfied.” against Messalina, striking her name from public and private places and destroying her statues. By a.d. 220, when Cassius Dio was writing But this official erasure did not cause Messalina hisRoman History,Messalina’s imagined brothel to fade from memory. Rather, her sexual appe- has moved into the imperial palace, where she tites and bigamous wedding gave rise to rumors, invites men to buy sex from her and from other jokes, and gossip that would overtake her every aristocratic women,some of whom are forced by other action in the historical imagination, in- Messalina into sex work. Dio also related a tale cluding her political machinations. concerningadancer,Mnester,whofindshimself the focus of Messalina’s unwelcome advances. Rumors and Innuendo He rejects her repeatedly until Messalina com- plains to her husband that Mnester will not obey These jokes and whispers started early. Pliny her, pretending that he is merely insubordinate. the Elder, who was a young army officer serving Claudius, none the wiser, orders Mnester to do whatever his wife commands,and thus Mnester must submit. This scene seems ripped directly from Greek and Roman comedy: The cuckolded husband and the unfaithful, sexually rapacious wife are stock characters. The story shows that Messalina’s real fall was so dramatic that any- thing could be said about her and be believed. These kinds of stories delegitimize Messalina and reveal how Roman (and modern) misogyny works. In the sources that purport to be telling history—Tacitus,Suetonius,and Dio—Messa- lina is promiscuous but also clever, calculating, and cruel. She schemes with allies both within her household and the Senate to concoct plans and accumulate power. She uses the law courts and alliances to torment her enemies, and she runs a citywide network of spies and inform- ers. She gathers information and deploys it to 70 MARCH/APRIL 2023

control her husband and thus control an empire. Messalina’s true scandals were that she over- MESSALINA’S END All these things are undoubtedly nefarious, but stepped the defined boundaries of an empress’s they demonstrate a certain respect for Messalina appropriate place and engaged too openly in the Messalina clutches as a complete person. cruel politics of the Roman imperial system, cul- a dagger but fails minating in a very strange but very public coup to take her own The popular imagination has not dwelled on attempt. To remember her as merely the “Im- life, as Claudius’s these aspects.Writers from Pliny and Juvenal to perial Whore”and“most promiscuous woman ally curses her Bronte and Chuck Palahniuk employ Messalina in Rome”does her a disservice. Messalina was a mother and a only to highlight her lascivious nature.She is not much more complicated, and interesting, scan- guard prepares to a political operator but merely a wanton woman dal than that. kill the empress. operating in the shadows of the bedroom. Sex Oil painting by scandals remove her from the masculine,public CLASSICAL HISTORIAN DR. EMMA SOUTHON IS AUTHOR OF AGRIPPINA: THE Victor François Eloi sphere of power and politics and place her back MOST EXTRAORDINARY WOMAN OF THE ROMAN WORLD, AND A FATAL THING Biennoury, 1850, where women belong: in the domestic, private HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM. SHE HOSTS THE HISTORY IS SEXY PODCAST. Grenoble Museum sphere of wife and mother. Her sharper edges soften when she is diminished into the simplest Learn more DAGLI ORTI / AURIMAGES category of female villain: a woman who enjoys sex a lot. The First Ladies of Rome: The Women Behind the Caesars Annelise Freisenbruch, Vintage Books, 2011. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 71

LEADING TO DEATH Messalina perished in the Gardens of Lucullus, which were located close to the top of Rome’s 18th-century Spanish Steps and the Trinità dei Monti Church. MINEMERO/ISTOCK



HOLDING COURT Catherine II of Russia makes a grand entrance before her courtiers in a colorful lithograph by Alexandre Nikolayevich Benois, 1909. State Open-Air Museum Tsarskoye Selo, St. Petersburg, Russia. ALBUM/FINE ART IMAGES 74 MARCH/APRIL 2023

CATHERINE II OF RUSSIA BECOMING ‘THE GREAT’ The upstart foreigner may have stolen Russia’s throne, but once in charge, there was no stopping her enlightened reforms, her expanding empire, and her ceaseless pursuit of love and legacy. EVE CONANT NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 75

UPWARDLY I n 1729 a baby girl was born to fading Prus- frugal self. Their mismatched marriage was an NOBLE sian nobility in the bleak garrison town of unhappy one, and a daughter was unlikely to The future Catherine Stettin, Germany (Szczecin, Poland, today). raise the family fortunes. Years later, in what the Great, Sophie, Her childhood was lacking in parental love would become some 700 pages of lively, frank, moved to the ducal but rich in education–and social striving. and self-justifying memoirs and letters, the castle (above) in At 14, she was summoned to Russia to change Russian empress would write of her entry into Szczecin, Poland, her name, religion, and language to marry a fu- the world:“I was not very joyfully welcomed.” when her father, Prince ture tsar. In the end, however, it was Russia that Christian Augustus of would be transformed by her. Her excellent education had one purpose: Anhalt-Zerbst, became Sophie Friederike Auguste was raised on the to marry well. It included lessons in every- governor. fringes of power in the Prussian empire. Her thing from proper curtsying to philosophy and mother, Johanna, was a master at exploiting so- French, the lingua franca of Europe’s elite. She DEA/W. BUSS/GETTY IMAGES cial and family connections, while her father, challenged her teachers, especially on matters Prince Christian Augustus of Anhalt-Zerbst, of faith over logic. When her Lutheran tutor had a name more impressive than his quiet, threatened the cane, it taught her only that brains were more persuasive than brawn.“I am convinced in my inmost soul that Herr Wagner was a blockhead,”she wrote.“All my life I have had this inclination to yield only to gentleness and reason—and to resist all pressure.” Although anxious over this“devil of pride” in her daughter, Johanna nonetheless brought Sophie on her travels to northern German courts. It was part of an early campaign to ar- range a marriage for the girl, who, while plain in appearance, had an abundance of charm. On one court visit in 1739, at age 10, Sophie met her recently orphaned second cousin, Karl Peter Ulrich—the only surviving grandson of Tsar Peter I, better known as Peter the Great. Attuned to the whisperings of court gos- sip, Sophie overheard that the child duke was hotheaded and, though just 11, “inclined to drink.” Young Peter was physically abused by his primary tutor and often left hungry as pun- ishment. He found solace in toy soldiers and playing the violin, poorly. No one seemed to take his education seriously. His “most con- scientious teacher,”she would poignantly re- call of her future husband’s troubled early life, “was the ballet master Landé, who taught him to dance.” RULERS 1725 1727 1740 OF RUSSIA Russian tsar Peter I Peter II, a grandson Empress Anna, niece (“the Great”) dies at of Peter the Great, of Peter the Great, dies FAMILY DISHES. A GILDED SOUP age 52 without naming becomes tsar. The after her 10-year rule. BOWL BEARS THE ARMS OF a successor. His wife young monarch’s reign Her two-month-old CATHERINE II’S PARENTS. becomes empress of is cut short by his grandnephew is named Russia, Catherine I. death at age 14. the next tsar, Ivan VI. ACI/BRIDGEMAN 76 MARCH/APRIL 2023

FAMILY PORTRAIT? German artist Anna Rosina Lisiewska composed a formal portrait in 1756 of the Russian royal family: future tsar Peter III, Catherine II, and a young Paul (whom some scholars identify as a page). National Museum, Stockholm, Sweden. SEPIA TIMES/GETTY 1741 1745 1762 A swift coup deposes Elizabeth’s nephew, After Elizabeth’s the young Ivan VI the future Peter III death, Peter III reigns and installs Elizabeth, marries a German for six months but is daughter of Peter the princess. She takes the overthrown. His wife Great, as empress. She name Catherine and takes the throne and will reign for 20 years. will bear a son in 1754. rules as Catherine II. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 77

FOLLOWING IN HER FOOTSTEPS from Lutheranism to Russian Orthodoxy, and spent long nights pacing barefoot on cold floors THE FIRST TIME the lively daughter of Peter the Great was begged to seize memorizing Russian words.Her efforts resulted the throne, she rolled over and went back to sleep. The future Empress not only in pneumonia but also in a glowing Elizabeth preferred a carefree life, having lost her betrothed (the future reputation as a devotee of her new homeland. Catherine the Great’s uncle) to smallpox. But by 1741, at 32 and with ru- Her image was further boosted when, gravely mors swirling she’d be sent to a convent, the childless Romanov staged ill, she waved off a Lutheran priest in favor of an a midnight coup, imprisoned the infant tsar Ivan VI, and began a reign Orthodox one. marked less by affairs of state than by opulence, court intrigues, and late hours. Coups tended to happen at night, so perhaps it was wise to stay up. Her relationship with the childlike Peter evolved,but it was mostly for the worse.Of their EMPRESS ELIZABETH. OIL ON CANVAS, 1754 GEORG CASPAR VON PRENNER. TRETYAKOV GALLERY, MOSCOW. unromantic wedding night in 1745, she wrote: “… he went to sleep and this went on for nine HERITAGE IMAGES/GETTY years.”To pass the time, she played blindman’s buff,whist,and faro with her ladies-in-waiting. A few years later, it would be this ill-prepared She became an accomplished equestrian, us- and abused boy whom the childless Russian ing her long skirts to disguise when she was empress Elizabeth, searching for a legitimate not riding sidesaddle. Peter played with his toy Romanov heir, would pluck away from Prussia. soldiers or would“scrape”on his violin, which, Thanks to family ties with Johanna, Empress she wrote,“tortured my eardrums from morning Elizabeth would next turn her matchmaking eyes to night.” The unhappy couple did everything to his former court playmate,the socially astute but secure the Romanov lineage with an heir. and well-educated Sophie. Perhaps it seemed a good match. Empress Elizabeth was getting frustrated. Soon enough, Catherine was advised by her The pairing was doomed. chief lady-in-waiting that in times of “major consequence” there were exceptions to the Building a Family rules of fidelity, and she could“choose between S.S. and L.N.”without intervention. Both were Summoned to Russia, the 14-year-old bride-to- gentlemen-in-waiting to Peter; Lev Naryshkin be treated the young duke as her“master”and was passed over for Sergei Saltykov, a rakish worked to please the empress. Sophie took the 26-year-old, and in 1754 a son was finally pro- Russian name Catherine (Ekaterina), converted duced. Who—exactly—his father was remains a question. The empress named the baby Paul EMBLEM OF HONOR. CATHERINE II PRESENTED HER MAIDS OF and immediately separated him from Catherine, HONOR WITH A SPARKLING GIFT: HER DIAMOND MONOGRAM. as she did a daughter born three years later.Both 1775-1780. STATE HERMITAGE MUSEUM, ST. PETERSBURG. were unlikely progeny of Peter, who, accord- ing to Catherine, once said aloud,“God knows HERITAGE IMAGES/GETTY where my wife gets her pregnancies.” Isolated from her children,constantly warned of her financial“debts”to the empress, and ap- pearing to lose her position in court, Catherine filled her days—then years—with reading.Phi- losophers such as Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Tacitus,she wrote,“produced a revolution in my thinking.” She asked to leave Russia, a request the empress rejected.So she stayed,determined to “hold her head high,” and from then on let others, when in her presence, guess“on which foot to dance.” In 1762 the empress died of a stroke,and Peter gained the throne. His true loyalty to Prussia became painfully clear, from reversing Russia’s hard-won military gains against the Prussian empire to forcing Russian officers into ill-fitting 78 MARCH/APRIL 2023

COLORFUL CHAPEL Catherine II, an early proponent of inoculation, was one of the first Russians to be vaccinated against smallpox. In 1768 a ceremony in the Catherine Palace chapel (shown here in a circa 1850 watercolor) celebrated the procedure’s success. ALBUM/AKG-IMAGES NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 79

Catherine II. Crowds surged. More military gathered,offering her parts of their uniforms— proud Russian green, not Peter’s Prussian blue—to wear on horseback at the head of what became a force of 14,000 marching toward the estate where Peter III was relaxing. He gave up without a fight. Eight days later, imprisoned on an estate, Ropsha, outside St. Petersburg, he was dead. Strangled and possibly poisoned (some ac- counts say those who kissed him in his open casket left with swollen lips from a lingering toxin), the official cause of Peter III’s death was ignominious:“a severe attack of hemorrhoidal colic.”His murder would never be directly linked to Catherine, but his diagnosis became a snide euphemism for assassination. EQUAL EDUCATION Enlightened Despot WOMEN COULD BE MORE than wives, in Catherine’s view. They could be Neither Romanov nor Russian, Catherine useful members of society—if well-educated and well-mannered. Two suddenly had supreme power over 20 million years into her reign she created the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens, people. Her 34-year reign, the longest of any which would teach 200 noble girls everything from morals to fine arts and female leader of Russia, would be guided by geometry. Students enrolled at age six and were not allowed trips home her desire to finish what Peter the Great had from St. Petersburg during their 12 years of schooling, though Catherine started: modernization, Westernization, and visited often. In the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, Vladimir Lenin took over expansion into the largest empire on Earth. the school’s ornate building as his headquarters. Little was overlooked on Catherine’s imperial SMOLNY INSTITUTE. A STATUE OF VLADIMIR LENIN STANDS OUTSIDE THE SITE OF THE FORMER GIRLS’ SCHOOL. to-do list.Waking as early as five each morning, she moved quickly to appease Russia’s nobility LEONID ANDRONOV/ALAMY and reassure Europe with messages of peace and tolerance.Guided by Enlightenment principles, Prussian blue uniforms. The new tsar began to she wanted to be a despot,but a benevolent one, talk of marrying another woman, questioned enlightened by reason over dogma, tyranny, or Paul’s lineage, and publicly rebuked Catherine, revenge.Those who helped her seize power were calling her dura, or fool,at a state banquet before lavishly rewarded,former opponents pardoned. briefly, drunkenly ordering her arrest. “You only did your duty,”she assured one who had urged Peter III to rise against her. Catherine had to think, and fast: It was “a question of perishing with him, or by him, or She asked for open dialogue.“I am very fond else of saving myself, my children, and perhaps of the truth,” she wrote to one official. “Argue the state from the disaster”that was Peter III. with me without any danger if it leads to good “The last choice seemed to me the surest.”That results in affairs.” When she found members of her own Senate uneducated about their vast choice, removing him from power, was one nation, she furnished them with an atlas. Her that already had growing support. social,health,and educational reforms included At 5 a.m. on June 28 the tsarina was the creation of the country’s first orphanage. She rushed with the aid of a few dozen offi- argued for the scientific but terrifying advance- cers and supporters to St.Petersburg’s As- ment of inoculation and become one of the first sumption Cathedral and declared Empress in Russia to be immunized against smallpox. Catherine expanded schools across the empire CATHERINE’S CROWN. ENCRUSTED WITH SOME 5,000 and set up Russia’s first public educational in- DIAMONDS AND A 398-CARAT RED SPINEL, DEFINED IMPERIAL stitution for women, the Smolny Institute for POWER FOR 155 YEARS—UNTIL TSARIST RULE ENDED IN 1917. Noble Maidens, fully aware that it was on the nobility that her fragile hold on power depended. ALBUM/FINE ART IMAGES 80 MARCH/APRIL 2023

CORONATION COUTURE Catherine’s coronation portrait shows her in all her imperial splendor. Topped by a sparkling diamond crown, she displays the royal regalia and is draped with the blue sash of St. Andrew, the highest honor of the Russian Empire. JOSSE/LEEMAGE/GETTY

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PALACE SQUARE Rising high above St. Petersburg, the Alexander Column stands before the Winter Palace, the former residence of Russian royals, and the State Hermitage Museum, founded by Catherine the Great in 1764. LINGXIAO XIE/GETTY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 83

with the French satirist Voltaire and other En- lightenment philosophers.When the penniless Denis Diderot put his library up for sale, she bought it—but ordered that it stay with him. Letters of ideas and mutual flattery that flowed between her and Europe’s most progressive thinkers were shared far and wide,advancing her publicity campaign at home and abroad.“Would one ever have suspected 50 years ago that one day the Scythians [Russians] would so nobly recom- pense in Paris the virtue, science, and philosophy that are treated so shamefully among us?” Vol- taire’s question must have pleased her. CATHERINE THE CREATIVE Reforms in Russia SHE CALLED IT SCRIBBLING, but the scale and intimacy of Catherine’s In 1765 Catherine embarked on her most am- writings bring her into focus like few other rulers. Ever keen to argue her bitious project yet, one that would take her up positions—and have the last word—she wrote letters and multiple ver- to three hours each day and two years to write. sions of her memoirs as part of a canon ranging from legal arguments and Her Nakaz, or Instruction, was designed to be Russian history to children’s books, satirical plays, and comedic operas. a guidebook for the reorganization of Russia’s entire legal and administrative system, BOLSHOI THEATER (ABOVE LEFT). FOUNDED BY CATHERINE II IN 1776 TO PROMOTE THE ARTS IN RUSSIA based heavily on the French philosopher Montesquieu’s 1748 Spirit of the Laws. It sup- ALBUM/FINE ART IMAGES ported humanitarian ideas of a free citizenry beholden to a clear set of laws, and it disavowed She became a self-admitted“glutton”for art, capital punishment and torture.It also attempt- collecting across Europe. To house it all, she ed to raise the ever troubling question of serf- chose a wing off the Winter Palace that would dom in Russia. Serfs, who were bonded to the grow into the world’s largest museum, after the land and treated as possessions to be bought Louvre. Visitors would be met by a plaque de- and sold, made up half the empire’s population. tailing humorous rules of etiquette.“All ranks shall be left outside the doors,similarly hats,and Serfdom was an institution Catherine con- particularly swords.”And:“Speak with modera- sidered“intolerable,”though she herself awarded tion and not too loudly, so that others present serfs to her supporters. It was a system so en- trenched that a noble’s wealth was measured have not an earache or headache.” in the number of“souls”owned, not in land. In It was a haven for the intellectual exchange for serfs,nobles had to serve the state, informality she loved, and she typically through military service. named it her Hermitage. Once completed,her Nakaz was bogged down In 1763, her second year on the by her own bureaucracy and heavily edited by throne,she began what would be- her counselors. Only a fraction of her original come a lifelong correspondence work was published—gone were sections al- lowing serfs to buy their freedom and limiting INSTRUCTION MANUAL. CATHERINE THE GREAT BASED their servitude to six years. What was released MUCH OF HER SYSTEM OF LAW, THE NAKAZ, ON THE was nonetheless progressive enough that it was WORKS OF THE FRENCH PHILOSOPHER MONTESQUIEU. translated across Europe—and banned in France. REPRODUCED BY KIND PERMISSION OF THE LILLIAN GOLDMAN Her effort also resulted in the first ever meet- LAW LIBRARY, YALE UNIVERSITY ing of a representative national assembly from all parts of her empire. The delegates were to freely discuss their region’s needs,but they also chose to debate a proper title for Catherine in gratitude for gathering them. According to his- torian Robert Massie, the most popular titles were “the Great” and “All-Wise Mother of the

INTELLECTUAL PURSUITS Catherine (seated) had an enduring passion for knowledge and met with the world’s greatest minds, including Russian polymath, astronomer, and writer Mikhail Lomonosov (at left). 1884 painting, Ivan Kuzmich Fyodorov. Private collection HERITAGE IMAGES/GETTY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 85

FINLAND St. Petersburg RUSSIA Baltic Sea Szczecin Moscow (Stettin) GERMANY BELARUS EUROPE POLAND AUST. UKRAINE N. AMERICA HUNGARY ROMANIA ASIA CRIMEA EUROPE ASIA Caspian Sea Black Sea Full extent of the Russian Empire, 1796 TÜRKIYE GREECE (TURKEY) Mediterranean Sea Extents at the time of Catherine the Great’s death in 1796 Russian Empire Ottoman Empire Kingdom of Prussia AFRICA Present-day boundaries shown in gray RUSSIAN Fatherland.”Catherine refused them all.But“the partition Poland with the Prussians,and expand EMPIRE Great”did receive the most votes. her empire by 200,000 square miles. She also Catherine II greatly knew when to avoid conflict, declining a formal expanded the land The debate also helped legitimize her rule, request from King George III to send 20,000 under Russian which had already seen threats.In 1764 disgrun- Russian troops and 1,000 Cossack cavalry sol- control (above) tled military officers tried to free a remaining diers to quell a revolutionary war that appeared before her death Romanov with a claim to the throne—24-year- to be breaking out in Britain’s American colonies. in 1796. old Ivan VI, imprisoned since birth by Empress Elizabeth. He was preemptively killed by his Her military campaigns were often spear- NG MAPS. SOURCE: WARD AND OTHERS, THE guards. Claiming to be the tsar Peter III him- headed by a“favorite”—the official designation CAMBRIDGE MODERN HISTORY ATLAS, 1912 self and somehow still alive, a Cossack named of the men who would be her lovers, collabora- Yemel­yan Pugachev led a massive peasant up- tors, and intellectual confidants. One, Grigory 86 MARCH/APRIL 2023 rising against Catherine that lasted two years. It Grigoryevich Orlov,had made it possible for her was finally crushed in 1775. to seize the throne; another she would later ap- point as the conveniently pliable king of Poland. Although she started her reign sending couri- The most powerful of all, and possibly married ers to Europe with messages of peace,Catherine to her in secret, was Grigory Potemkin. He would increasingly responded with force when she saw reshape her empire’s southern reaches and build either a threat or an opportunity in the shift- up a Black Sea naval fleet—helping her fulfill yet ing geopolitical alliances around her. She would another goal of Peter the Great’s. go on to annex Crimea from the Ottomans, CLASSIC CAMEO. CATHERINE II AS MINERVA, ROMAN Epitaph for an Empress GODDESS OF WISDOM AND WAR. 18TH CENTURY, GRAND DUCHESS MARIA FEODOROVNA, PRIVATE COLLECTION. In 1789, after Catherine had been on the throne nearly 30 years, the violence of the French HERITAGE IMAGES/GETTY

EMPRESS’S FAVORITE One of Catherine’s lovers and closest advisers, Count Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov helped overthrow Peter III and put her on the throne. In 1762, she allegedly bore him a son in secret. Oil on canvas, 1766, Vigelius Eriksen. Hermitage, St. Petersburg ALBUM/PRISMA NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 87

UNPOPULAR PAUL I In her final years, as she ruled her empire, she found comfort playing on the floor with her ISOLATED AT BIRTH from his mother by the controlling empress Elizabeth, grandchildren—mothering them in ways she Paul never mended the bond broken between mother and son. Catherine was not allowed with her own children—and was wary of his ambition to rule. Paul was jealous of her power and the at- taking walks with her greyhounds. On November tention she lavished on her lovers. After Catherine’s death Paul reestablished 5, 1796, according to the historian Massie,“she male primogeniture and reversed many of her policies, including the 1785 rose at six, drank black coffee, and sat down to Charter of Nobility that had just freed nobles from taxes and military ser- write.”A few hours later she was found uncon- vice. In 1801, five years into his reign, the unpopular tsar was assassinated. scious, most likely having suffered a stroke. On November 6 it was announced that the empress PAUL I OF RUSSIA. OIL ON CANVAS, UNIDENTIFIED ARTIST, CA 1790. STATE HISTORY MUSEUM, MOSCOW was dead, and His Majesty Paul would take the throne. HERITAGE IMAGES/GETTY It was only after her death that she would be Revolution marked a drastic turning point in called“the Great.”In her lifetime she had always her love affair with the Enlightenment. Fearing opposed it, as she explained in a 1788 letter to revolution herself, she began to censor liberal the German-born diplomat Baron von Grimm. writings, including a study on the suffering of “I beg you to no longer call me, nor to any longer the serfs—and even the works of her longtime give me the sobriquet of Catherine the Great, be- friend Voltaire. cause primo, I do not like any sobriquet,secondo, my name is Catherine II,and tertio, I do not want Catherine had already learned that some of anyone to say of me as of Louis XV, that one finds her ideals were easier to imagine than to ex- him badly named.”Fond of listing items in threes, ecute. She explained as much to the philoso- she nonetheless added a fourth and final point pher Diderot, who visited her in Russia in 1773. for laughs:“My height is neither great nor small.” “In your plans for reform, you are forgetting the difference between our two positions: you Her memoirs—which revealed the inner work only on paper which accepts anything, workings of court, Peter III’s failures, and the is smooth and flexible and offers no obstacles possibility that Paul was illegitimate and per- either to your imagination or your pen, while haps not a Romanov—immediately became a I, poor empress, work on human skin, which is state secret, suppressed for a century then buried far more sensitive and touchy.” again after 1917, when the Bolsheviks set up their headquarters in her Smolny Institute for Noble ICE-CREAM COOLER. PART OF THE “CAMEO” SÈVRES Maidens and later killed the last of the tsars. DINNER SERVICE THAT WAS A GIFT FROM CATHERINE II TO GRIGORY POTEMKIN. 1778. HERMITAGE, ST. PETERSBURG. But in life, ever in control of her empire and her pen and partly in jest, she even wrote her PHOTO 12/GETTY own epitaph: “Here lies Catherine II, born in Stettin in 1729. She arrived in Russia in 1744 to marry Peter III. At 14, she had three desires—to be loved by her husband,Empress Elizabeth,and her people.She omitted nothing to achieve this.” She achieved so much more. In her style, one might argue: Primo, she was a woman ahead of her time, so she shaped her era to accom- modate herself. Secondo, she chose her battles wisely. Tertio, her lasting reforms, in the end, may have been her greatest coup of all. EVE CONANT IS A STAFF WRITER AND EDITOR FOR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC AND HAS WRITTEN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, DISCOVER, AND ARCHAEOLOGY. Learn more Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman Robert K. Massie, Random House, 2011 The Memoirs of Catherine the Great Mark Cruse and Hilde Hoogenboom, trans., Random House, 2006

REFLECTIONS IN THE NEVA Built in the early 1700s, Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral stands along the Neva River in St. Petersburg. Inside are the resting places of most of Russia’s imperial leaders, including Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. VLADISLAV ZOLOTOV/GETTY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 89

PETER THE GREAT RULED RUSSIA FROM 1682 UNTIL HIS DEATH IN 1725. PORTRAIT, CIRCA 1700 STOCK MONTAGE/GETTY CARRYING OUT PETER THE GREAT’S IMPERIAL VISION CATHERINETHEGREAT was an admirer of Russia’s most influential leader: Peter I. Better known as Peter the Great, he is credited with transform- ing and modernizing 18th-century Russia; he in- creased industrialization, strengthened the mili- tary, and encouraged relationships with Western Europe. When Catherine became empress in 1762, she was keen to prove her loyalty to Russia and its heritage. One way she demonstrated her fidelity was through works of art that connected her to Peter I. A 1791 painting (right) commis- sioned by Catherine at the end of the Russo-Turk- ish Wars shows her placing hard-won trophies from the Battle of Chesma before a metaphori- cal tomb of Peter the Great (his actual tomb is in Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral). Catherine is humble before her predecessor and entreats his blessing for her expansion of the Russian Empire. LEADER’S LEGACY. CATHERINE II PLACES TROPHIES BEFORE PETER I’S TOMB. OIL ON CANVAS, 1791, ANDREAS CASPAR HÜNE. STATE HERMITAGE MUSEUM, ST. PETERSBURG. ALBUM/AKG 90 MARCH/APRIL 2023

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 91

DISCOVERIES The Riddle of the Roman Shipwrecks at Pisa In 1998, the first of many ancient ships was unearthed far from Pisa’s rivers and coastline. Archaeologists wanted to know how they got there. Work was under Pisa port is not as familiar. Histo- THE ALKEDO, a Roman way near the rians are well acquainted military surveillance San Rossore century b.c. while the most with Pisa’s role as a maritime craft, sank in the early railway sta- recent are from the seventh trade center. Its location at first century a.d. It is tion on the outskirts of Pisa century a.d. This location the mouth of the Arno made now on display in the in 1998, when bulldozers was an important maritime it an important port and Museum of the Ancient sliced into something wood- center for centuries, but the shipbuilding center for the Ships of Pisa. en. Arriving on the scene, site puzzled archaeologists. Romans and for pre-Roman archaeologist Stefano Bruni The dozens of wrecks were settlements in Italy. In the MUSEUM OF ANCIENT SHIPS, PISA saw that the builders had found some distance from third century b.c., Pisa be- struck the hull of an ancient the city’s rivers, the Arno came an important base for As the city evolved, sand and ship. During the next year, and the Serchio, and several the Roman fleet during the soil washed downstream by eight more vessels were un- miles from where the rivers Punic wars against Carthage. the local rivers was deposited covered at the site, turning it meet the sea. Under Roman rule, it was at their mouths as layers of into an archaeological gold known as Portus Pisanus. silt. As they built up over mine. Pisa as a Port The harbor’s significance only time, these layers upon layers grew under Emperor Augus- For the following 18 years, Pisa is world famous today tus. Long after Roman rule a team directed by Bruni for its 12th-century leaning ended, Pisa retained impor- explored the site and discov- tower, but its role as a major tance as a sea-trading city, ered the remains of more one of the four great mari- shipwrecks, over 30 in all. time republics of 11-century There were countless artifacts Italy. —ceramics, glass, metal, wood, ropes, fishing tools— The leaning tower and the and human skeletons. But of mystery of the buried ships even more interest were the are linked by the region’s ge- ages of the wrecks; the old- ology. Ancient Pisa was est ones date to the second founded on an alluvial plain: PORT 4th century b.c. ca 180 b.c. 1st century a.d. OF PISA Pre-Roman harbor After Pisa becomes The Alkedo (Seagull), structures at what a Roman colony, its a Roman military will later be the harbor develops into surveillance craft, Pisa shipyard are an important strategic sinks in the Pisa built. port for Rome. canal during a flood. BRONZE SESTERTIUS (FRONT AND BACK) FROM THE REIGN OF HADRIAN (SECOND CENTURY A.D.) FOUND IN A PISA WRECK. GIOVANNI ALBANI LATTANZI

led to a centuries-long reces- Sands and Floods TRAPPED TOGETHER sion of the coastline, leaving Pisa farther from the sea. This As Bruni’s team continued UNDER A SHIP that sank in the first century a.d., soft, sandy ground is the prin- to investigate the ancient archaeologists found the remains of a man and a cipal cause of the tilt of Pisa’s wrecks, it gradually began to dog. Their presence is a strong indication of how famous tower. piece together how so suddenly a flood could overwhelm a ship. Discov- many came to be clustered in eries like these, in which victims are found in the 6th century a.d. one place. Analysis of the position where they died, explain why the Pisa sediments suggested that the site is sometimes called the “Pompeii of the sea.” The buildup of silt San Rossore site once lay makes the canal along an ancient canal con- MUSEUM OF ANCIENT SHIPS, PISA impassable and nected to a branch of the Ser- will soon lead to its chio River in the north. Ships NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 93 disappearance. could travel from the river and down the canal to where they could unload their cargo in relatively calm waters.

DISCOVERIES THE TEAM carefully excavates the remains of broken amphorae found in one of the first Roman-era shipwrecks discovered at the Pisa site in 1998. GIOVANNI ALBANI LATTANZI The Arno River experi- of sandy sediments were cargo of food from Naples about 45 feet long and some enced major flooding many dumped onto the plain. The sank in the canal, and the 15 feet wide, with a capacity times between the second floodwaters sank unlucky skeletons of an sailor and a for a cargo of almost 42 tons. century b.c. and the seventh vessels that were moored in dog were found preserved in Various indications suggest century a.d., the period that the canal. The sand eventu- the wreckage. The oldest that it was a vessel intended corresponds with the finds. ally silted up the canal until wreck found to date sank for coastal navigation. Pasquino Pallecchi, a geolo- it disappeared from history. during a flood in the first gist involved with the exca- dec ades of the second cen- About 300 Greco-Italic vation, believes that during The absence of oxygen in tury b.c. This wreck is not amphorae were found around these floods, vast quantities the accumulated sediments fully preserved, but enough the wreckage, representing helped preserve artifacts remains to determine its approximately half the vol- from the ships, especially or- size. Team members esti- ume of the cargo. It’s not cer- ganic material. A first- mate it would have measured tain what the amphorae con- century a.d ship bearing a tained, but pork shoulders were recovered along with Almost all the finds belong to the pottery fragments, lead- amphorae-laden cargo ships, mostly ing some to posit that the vessels that plied inland waterways. boat was transporting meat stored in brine. Given that A SMALL AMPHORA FOUND INSIDE A SECOND-CENTURY A.D. SHIPWRECK AT PISA many objects belonging to the crew, such as perfume MUSEUM OF ANCIENT SHIPS, PISA burners and vessels for

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DISCOVERIES 3. 4. Hooks, Dice, and Coins Excavations at the San Rossore site have made it possible to recover a large number of personal effects and valuables that the crew of the ships carried with them, such as those pictured here. PHOTOS: MUSEUM OF ANCIENT SHIPS, PISA 2. 5. 1. 1. Pot decorated with 2. Fishing hooks 3. Coins, perhaps 4. Gaming dice made 5. Perfectly preserved engravings, Sixth to and sinkers. Date a sailor’s pay. First of animal bone. First vegetable-fiber rope. seventh centuries a.d. unknown. century a.d. century a.d. First century a.d. preserving food, are of Iberi- could be serviced and re- functions. On the first bench made the ancient canal im- an origin, it’s believed that paired before heading out. of this vessel someone once passable also had embalming the ship had set sail from etched, in Greek letters, the qualities that preserved the there. Many other wrecks were Latin word Alkedo, meaning vessels, which is why the once river boats. Among “seagull.” Archaeologists site is sometimes called Well Preserved these, the discovery of a lin- think this may have been the “Pompeii of the sea.” tre is particularly interesting. name of the ship. Possibly Many finds in the former ca- These shallow-water craft intended for river surveil- Today, the ships that have nal belong to cargo ships and had rounded hulls and lacked lance tasks, it sank late in been extracted from the vessels used on inland water- keels, making them unstable. the reign of Augustus, ground are displayed—along ways, but the presence of car- Their shape and means of around a.d. 14. At more than with their cargoes and other penters’ tools, such as mal- propulsion were similar to a 2,000 years old, the boat artifacts—in the Museum of lets, chisels, nails, and rivets, gondola. remains remarkably well Ancient Ships, Pisa, which is indicate that shipyards once preserved. located in one of the city’s stood along this portion of So far, only one wreck un- 16th-century warehouses. the waterway. There, boats covered at the site seemed The most recent ship- To date, more than 30 ships designated for military wreck is a large barge used have been found, but archae- for transporting sand, which ologists believe many more Mallets, chisels, nails, and rivets sank between a.d. 580 and lie waiting to be discovered indicate that there were shipyards 640. No vessels have been in the sandy soils of Pisa. along this portion of the waterway. found of a later date than this one. The silt that likely —Antonio Ratti 96 MARCH/APRIL 2023