WTF Fun Fact 12559 – The Roman Gladiatrix

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The Romans were entertained by some pretty gruesome violence. And while gladiatorial combat didn’t originate in ancient Rome, that’s where we think of most of it taking place.

Gladiators were either born poor or were being punished for something. The most famous gladiator, Spartacus, had served as a soldier until a mistake got him imprisoned and enslaved and sent to train as a gladiator (prisoners had no choice – they could either train or be easily killed in the arena).

But if everything you know about gladiators comes from Spartacus or Russell Crowe’s turn in the arena, then you might be surprised to learn that every now and then, Romans could catch a glimpse of women in the arena fighting for their lives.

Referred to as gladiatracies (or Amazons, colloquially), they found topless, and there was an erotic element to their skillset. They weren’t pitted against men but other women or, occasionally, dwarves. It all depended on the predilections of that particular emperor at the time.

In fact, the memorably unstable emperor Nero put Ethiopian men, women, AND children in the arena together, presumably to shock and (for some) delight.

There were female gladiators in ancient Rome. They were rare, but we know gladiatrices existed partly because they were viewed as symptoms of a corrupt society and officially banned in 200 AD.

After all the scandal of seeing women this way, Septimius Severus (the emperor after the also-unstable gladiator-loving Commodus) decided that people had seen enough debauchery from women in the arena and banned female gladiators in 200 AD. –  WTF fun fact

Source: “Did female gladiators exist?” – BBC Culture

WTF Fun Fact 12558 – The Horseback Doctor

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Irakli Khvedaguridze sees some interesting injuries and ailments on his rounds: a local shepherd with crippling back pain, a hiker who took a tumble into a gorge, someone mauled by an animal. He doesn’t have the modern tools that city doctors have, and even if he did, he probably couldn’t bring them along since he travels on horseback to see his patients.

According to National Geographic, “Khvedaguridze, the only licensed doctor across nearly 386 square miles of mountainous land in this historic region in northeast Georgia, serves as a lifeline for the dwindling community of Tush people who remain in this remote area throughout the eight months of winter.”

His white horse, Bichola, can’t always walk through the snow in winter. And that’s when he makes the trek on foot, turning his shoes into skis using birchwood planks.

The small number of medical supplies the 80-year-old can carry is always accompanied by a hunting knife, matches, and two days’ worth of food. After all, you never know what might happen in the Caucasus mountains – it’s wild territory with very few people to help a doctor in need.

After graduating from the Medical Institute of Georgia (now called the Tbilisi State Medical University) in 1970, Khvedaguridze worked at an urban hospital. But after finding out the Tusheti mountain doctor left the area in 1979, Khvedaguridze decided someone needed to take his place. He’s from that area, so he felt the responsibility to return. After all, who else would take such a job? For decades he would do one-month rotations in the mountains a few times a year, but in 2009 he made the permanent move. His other option was to retire.

He described doctoring as a “mediation between God and the sick” to National Geographic.

“For me, there’s no night or day,” he said. “If they call me to help someone, no matter the circumstances, no matter the rain, snow, day or night, I have to go. Even if I’m as old as 90, should there be people who need me, I will go to help them. It’s my duty.” –WTF fun fact

Source: “This doctor braves mountains by horseback and on foot to make house calls” — National Geographic

WTF Fun Fact 12557 – Presidents Who Were Cheerleaders

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Cheerleading is a very athletic sport. And for men who join the squad, it requires a lot of strength. Still, we were surprised to learn that some former US presidents were high school or college cheerleaders – it’s just hard to picture!

But not only were five presidents former cheerleaders, but some other prominent politicians were too. In fact, if a few elections had gone the other way, we’d have even more presidential pom-pom-wielders.

The first presidential cheerleader was Franklin D. Roosevelt. He cheered on sports teams from the sidelines at Harvard in 1900 and stayed on the squad for five years.

Dwight Eisenhower was a member of the West Point Academy football team until a knee injury ended that. But he loved sports, so the next best thing was to become a cheerleader for his former teammates.

Ronald Regan was all about the extracurricular activities at Eureka College, joining the acting club, serving as a radio announcer, student body president, and member of the swim and football teams. He also joined the cheerleading squad to root for athletes in other sports.

George H.W. Bush was a cheerleader at Yale, just as his father before him (and his son after him). He was also the president of his fraternity, a member of the Skull and Bones society, and captain of the baseball team.

George W. Bush had become a cheerleader at his high school Phillips Academy before joining the Yale squad. That makes him a third-generation male Yale cheerleader!

Now, there are some other prominent political figures who were cheering for their sports teams with pom poms back in their school days as well – none other than Ruth Bader Ginsberg was one of them. Trent Lott is another.

And had Rick Perry or Mitt Romney won their elections, they would have added to the list o presidential cheerleaders as well!

–  WTF fun fact

Source: Which four US Presidents were also cheerleaders? — Grunge

WTF Fun Fact 12556 – Halley’s Anti-Comet Pill

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Where there’s fear, there are people willing to take advantage of it for their own gain.

Hundreds of years ago, comets could be a terrifying phenomenon. It looked like the sky was falling, so it’s not surprising that people have long interpreted them as harbingers of doom.

1910 was the first year that people really knew to expect the comet and could convey that to a larger global population. There were still people who remembered seeing it in 1834.

But we still didn’t entirely understand the nature of comets, so people were more susceptible to rumors about their dangers. While they’re all false, some researchers and commentators were happy to propagate rumors that Halley’s Comet had a tail made of a toxic substance that would contaminate the earth.

It was visible to the naked eye beginning on April 15th disappearing on July 5th. But some people weren’t excited to catch a glimpse because they thought it would bring about the end of the world.

The warning from a handful of scientists was rooted in real concerns. It was a close pass, and a previous comet (named Morehouse) had just been studied closely, and scientists found the fail emitted a toxic gas called cyanogen. But that’s no reason to blow it up into a rumor that a high-speed comet full of poison was headed straight for earth.

Famous scientists were asked to debunk the rumor but had a hard time admitting it was entirely impossible (which people needed to hear in order to chill out). Of course, the press coverage of cherry-picked remarks only made the story bigger and the fear worse.

Reactions ranged from hysteria to people selling all of their possessions to others drinking themselves to death in preparation for the end of the world. Some people caulked their windows and did their best to seal every hole in their homes to prevent the entrance of the supposed toxic gas.

In the panic, some charlatans decided to sell an easy cure in the form of a pill. Of course, it was a sugar pill and had no medicinal value, but they failed to mention that part. There was also an anti-Halley’s comet elixir. It’s unclear how much money people make from these quack remedies for problems that didn’t exist but clearly enough to pay for advertising space.

In the end, Halley’s comet passed without incident – and it was barely visible in the night sky. –WTF fun fact

Source: “Halley’s Comet, Covid-19, and the history of ‘miracle’ anti-comet remedies” — Discover Magazine

WTF Fun Fact 12555 – The London Bridge of Arizona

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London Bridge is falling down
Falling down, falling down
London Bridge is falling down
My fair lady

Did you sing this song as a kid? We sure did, although we had no idea just how many more verses it had – there are lines about building it up with iron bars as well as gold and silver, but in the end, the bridge was simply taken down and replaced.

Originally built in the 1830s, it spanned the River Thames in London, England. But by 1968, it was up for sale. We can’t really relate to the desire to buy an old bridge that’s falling down, but apparently, millionaires can. American entrepreneur and chainsaw manufacturer Robert P. McCulloch (who also inherited a fortune from his grandfather) decided to buy the bridge to serve as a tourist attraction in the new community he was planning in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. He paid $2.5 million (but there wasn’t exactly a bidding war over it).

And what millionaires want, they tend to get. He bought the bridge, had it dismantled, and transported it to Arizona on a cargo ship. After sailing through the Panama Canal, it landed in Long Beach, California, and was trucked to Lake Havasu City. There, it was reassembled and opened in October 1971.

But you don’t have to worry about using a crumbling old bridge if you visit it. The masonry from the old bridge simply forms the outer structure of the new “London Bridge,” which includes reinforced concrete. It now connects an island in the Colorado River with the main part of Lake Havasu City.

Now, when we say it connects an island, we don’t mean that a bridge was needed there. In fact, a canal was dug to create the island after the bridge was built. But it had the intended effect. Interest in buying land in the area increased, and it did indeed become a tourist destination (and it still is to this day). –  WTF fun fact

Source: “Arizona’s London Bridge: A Brief History” — Arizona Highways

WTF Fun Fact 12554 – The 3500-Year-Old Mom Joke

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Ancient Babylonians, they’re just like us! Ok, maybe not exactly, but it turns out they liked a good joke and even managed to record some on clay tablets. In 1976, archaeologist J.J. van Dijk found one such tablet in Iraq, and it contained a significant discovery – the first recorded “yo mama” joke.

Judging by the handwriting, van Dijk believes it was a student’s writing (which makes sense – but imagine having to sneak a clay tablet behind your back to pass notes in class!). The student inscribed 6 “riddles” on the tablet, though pieces were broken off.

Sadly, the jokes aren’t funny today, but it’s not surprising that you lose a little something in translation over 3500 years. What we do find amusing is that the 6th joke is a lewd joke about moms.

The rest don’t make much sense. For example:

In your mouth and your teeth, constantly stared at you, the measuring vessel of your lord. What is it? Beer.

See? Not funny. And neither is this one, although it gives us some indication that people have always enjoyed insulting politicians as well:

He gouged out the eye. It is not the fate of a dead man. He cut the throat: A dead man. Who is it?
A governor.

Now, the moment you’ve been waiting for, the actual “joke” (or at least the part that’s left):

…of your mother is by the one who has intercourse with her.
What/who is it?

Sadly, there’s no punchline left on the tablet. But instead of being disappointed, we’re just amused that insulting mothers has been the go-to insult for so very long. Apparently, it’s something we’re all very sensitive about. –WTF fun fact

Source: “3,500-Year-Old Jokes Have Something to Say About Yo Mama” — Discover Magazine

WTF Fun Fact 12553 – The World’s Most Stolen Painting

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It may be one of the most important paintings in Western history, ushering in the era known as the Renaissance, but Jan van Eyck’s masterpiece Adoration of the Mystic Lamb also has a more dubious honor. It’s the world’s most stolen painting.

Perhaps the most impressive part is that the altarpiece weighs over 2 tons – that’s 4000 pounds! That’s more than a rhinoceros (albeit less aggressive). It also measures 14.5 by 11.5 feet.

Also known as the Ghent Altarpiece, Adoration of the Mystic Lamb has 12 panels depicting everything from the Annunciation, Adam and Eve, the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, and Jesus himself. But the central theme is an incredibly detailed rendering of pilgrims gathered to honor the Lamb of God.

In 2010, Noah Charney, who authored the book Stealing the Mystic Lamb: the True Story of the World’s Most Coveted Masterpiece, explained the painting’s importance to NPR:

“It’s the first great oil painting — it influenced oil painting for centuries to come. It’s the first great panel painting of the Renaissance, a forerunner to artistic realism. The monumentality of it and the complexity of it fascinated people from the moment it was painted.”

The altarpiece was initially designed to go in the cathedral of St. Bavo in Ghent. And that’s where it stayed for a century.

But in 1566, Calvinist militants set out to destroy the piece. When Catholic guards discovered the plot, they disassembled it and hid it in the cathedral tower. It survived the planned attack, but in 1794 four panels were stolen during the Napoleonic Wars and put on display in the Louvre.

After Napoleon’s defeat in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo, France sent the painting back to Ghent. But in 1816, a vicar at the cathedral reportedly stole the wing panels, which eventually ended up in the Berlin museum. But in 1919, one condition in the Treaty of Versailles was returning those panels to Ghent.

In 1934, thieves broke into the cathedral and stole the lower-left panel, which has still not been recovered. What’s on display in Ghent currently is a copy of that panel.

Unsurprisingly, the Nazis (known to pilfer priceless art) stole the painting during WWII as it was being transported to the Vatican. They were convinced it held a clue to a mystical treasure map that would help them find the relics of Christ’s passion. Yet it ended up stored away in an Austrian salt mine. The mine was rigged with explosives, but the Allies managed to take the mine, dismantle the bombs, and save all the priceless works of art hidden inside.

More intrigue surrounds the painting, and there were many more attempts to steal it. But today, it’s back in Ghent (though one panel – Righteous Judges – is still a replica since it’s never been located) and on display. –  WTF fun fact

Source: “The Most Stolen Work of Art” — Encyclopedia Britannica

WTF Fun Fact 12552 – Mithridates’ Poison Plan

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King Mithridates VI of Pontus (aka Mithridates the Great) ruled what is now eastern Turkey from 120-63 BCE. The ruled while the Roman Empire was in its prime, but was its sworn enemy. His goal was to build his own empire, which required taking parts of Rome.In fact, according to the ancient writer Plutarch, in 88 BCE, Mithridates’ armies slaughtered 150,000 Roman and Italian noncombatants in one day in his quest for land.

More recently, Mthridates VI has been referred to as The Poison King. His predecessor Mithridates V had been assassinated with poison and he became obsessed with studying toxicology. There is plenty of proof of this, but what we’re not entirely sure about is the story that he microdosed an elixer of toxins to build up an immunity to poisons in case someone tried to assassinate him.

Ancient writers attest to the story, but modern historians aren’t so sure. Still, historians admit that there are enough sources with stories of some of his public attempts to ingest poison that it’s partly true.

It’s also likely that he conducted experiments on potential poison remedies by using prisoners as his subjects.

Ancient writer Pliny the Elder wrote that Mithridites VI created his own elixer made up of toxins he thought would make him immune to poisoning. It became known mithridate (or mithridatium).

But if the legends are true, all of these plans backfired on the king. Eventually, Rome came for him and on the eve of his capture, he did try to poison himself with the lethal dose of poison he kept hidden in his sword’s hilt. But it didn’t work. Some believe that it was because he shared it with his daughters (who both died) and there wasn’t enough left for him. But this only adds to the theory that he may have, in some way, made himself immune to poison. Of course, he didn’t save the recipe.

In the end, Mithridates VI convinced a servent to slay him with a sword to avoid being captured by the Romans. And there’s really no antidote for that. –  WTF fun fact

Source: “Mithridates’ Poison Elixir: Fact or Fiction?” – World History Encyclopedia

WTF Fun Fact 12551 – The Six-Sided Book

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A 16th-century book with a single binding is constructed so that it can be read in 6 different ways and contains six different texts. All six books are religious and were first printed in Germany in the 1550s and 1570s. Each book has its own tiny clasp closure.

Erik Kwakkel, a medieval book historian at The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, first discovered a type of book he dubbed a “Siamese twin” about eight years ago.

“The binding is called “dos-à-dos” (back to back), a type almost exclusively produced in the 16th and 17th centuries. They are like Siamese twins in that they present two different entities joint at their backs: each part has one board for itself, while a third is shared between the two. Their contents show why this was done: you will often find two complementary devotional works in them, such as a prayerbook and a Psalter, or the Bible’s Old and New Testament. Reading the one text you can flip the “book” to consult the other,” he wrote.

Check it out:

From the Folger Library

But when he posted about the 6-sided book, the oddity was picked up by a wide range of news sources. It’s an incredible piece of technology (a word we now reserve mainly for electronic capabilities).

It’s incredible what you can find in library archives!

The book was discovered in the National Library of Sweden. It is also referred to as a dos-à-dos, and Kwakkel states:

“Not only is it a rather old one (it was bound in the late 16th century), but it contains not two but six books, all neatly hidden inside a single binding (see this motionless pic to admire it). They are all devotional texts printed in Germany during the 1550s and 1570s (including Martin Luther, Der kleine Catechismus) and each one is closed with its own tiny clasp. While it may have been difficult to keep track of a particular text’s location, a book you can open in six different ways is quite the display of craftsmanship.” –  WTF fun fact

Source: “A Medieval Book That Opens Six Different Ways, Revealing Six Different Books in One” — Open Culture