Useless Facts

From which arises the famous quote"infamy, infamy, they've all got it infamy".

 

So they wanted to assassinate Caesar to prove a point and become infamous? I know the play has Brutus...

I'm gonna go take this to Book Discussion. One moment.

 

Weren't knives (or poison) a fairly common method of "removing" someone from power for the Romans?

 

Who does the appointing? And how do we be sure that whoever is appointed isn't just a puppet for the appointers?

 

True.

Then again, perhaps I ought to study up Roman politics. I'll do it when I relinquish my love affair with Ancient Egypt and my fascination with Ancient Greece.

NEVER!!!

Um, er... Addictions are a very difficult thing to break from.

 

I beg your pardon, but he was killed in 44 BC, which on my calculator works out to 2,059 years ago.

 

Wait, that makes...

*consults whiteboard*

Hrmmm.....

Well by Thor! You're right! Guess it shows what happens when a history major attempts to tackle the hard task of basic addition. I was never a math whiz in my youth.

 

This is a pre-Google episode.

I omitted the qualifier "in English".

 

I think that Caesar removed either of those options when he marched his army (in defiance of the law) into Italy, by crossing the river Rubicon, and made it clear that he intended to use force to seize power.

And it is from that episode that we derive the expressions "to cross the Rubicon" and "the die is cast", both meaning that there is no turning back now.

 

"Vampir" is the only Serbian word accepted in all world languages.

 

Not without the 'e' it isn't.

 

Depends on a language really. Sometimes it is spelled "vampire", sometimes "vampyre". But it certainly does originate from the word "vampir".
Also, the world' s first vampire was most probably Serbian peasant called Petar Blagojevich, who died in 1725. It was the first well-documented case of vampire hysteria in the world. It is believed that he killed 9 of his fellow villagers after he became a vampire.

 

Not Vlad Tepis?

 

Nein. Stoker took his character, the word 'Dracula', Romanian for 'Dragon' if I recall and had a field day with it. It helped that Vlad loved to terrorize his enemies via impalement.

 

Jure Grando or Giure Grando (? - 1656) was a person from Istria (Croatia) who may have been the first real person described as a vampire in historical records

 

No, that was ageees later

 

"Vlad Țepeș" redirects here. For other uses, see Vlad Țepeș (disambiguation).
Vlad III Dracula
Владъ Цепѣшъ
Voivode of Wallachia

The Ambras Castle portrait of Vlad III, c. 1560, reputedly a copy of an original made during his lifetime[1]
Reign 1448; 1456–1462; 1476
Wives

• Transylvanian noblewoman
• Ilona Szilágyi

Issue Mihnea cel Rău, Vlad IV, and Mircea (disputed name)
House House of Drăculești (branch of the House of Basarab)
Father Vlad II Dracul
Mother Cneajna of Moldavia (presumed)
Born November or December 1431[1]
Segesvár, Kingdom of Hungary
(city now known as Sighișoara, Romania)
Died December 1476 or January 1477, exact date unknown (aged 44-45)
Wallachia (exact location unknown)
Signature
Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (1431–1476/77)

No, ages earlier - but he wasn't a vampire until Bram Stoker in 1897.

 

Hmmm I haven't heard of him. Since we are neighboring countries and Serbo-Croatian was practically one language until some 20 years ago, the fact remains that a word "vampire" originates from these lands. But the first documented case of vampirism was officially recorded by Austro-Hungarian officials since Serbia was under the Austrian government back then. There were six government officials (3 doctors among them) present while Petar Blagojevic was being exhumed, staked and finally burned.
As I can see, the only source mentioning Jure Grando is a certain 17. century book, and two other books written a century later, which were full of fantastic details. Also, I see now on wikipedia that Jure Grando was possibly a "shtrigun", which is more a witch than a vampire.

 

Right, I thought of a Stoker's book.

 

Again, Wiki...

The inhabitants of Kisilova demanded that Kameralprovisor Frombald, along with the local priest, should be present at the procedure as a representative of the administration. Frombald tried to convince them that permission from the Austrian authorities in Belgrade should be sought first. The locals declined because they feared that by the time the permission came, the whole community could be exterminated by the vampire, which they claimed had already happened "in Turkish times" (i.e. when the village was still in the Ottoman-controlled part of Serbia). They demanded that Frombald himself should immediately permit the procedure or else they would abandon the village to save their lives. Frombald was forced to consent.

Together with the Veliko Gradište priest, he viewed the already exhumed body ...

Only 1 government official, and 1 priest.

Certainly, I'd be hard-pressed to believe that a small Serbian village had 1 doctor, let alone 3, back in 1725!

 

I guess I mixed this case with Serbian's second well-known vampire, Arnaur Pavle (Arnold Paole). There was indeed a significant commission while this one was being exhumed. From the Wiki:
"The new commission included a military surgeon, Johann Flückinger, two officers, lieutenant colonel Büttner and J. H. von Lindenfels, along with two other military surgeons, Siegele and Johann Friedrich Baumgarten. On the 7th of January, together with the village elders and some local Gypsies, they opened the graves of the deceased. Their findings were similar to Glaser's, although their report contains much more anatomical detail. The commission established that, while five of the corpses (the hadnack 's wife and child, Rade, and the standard-bearer's wife and child) were decomposed, the remaining twelve were "quite complete and undecayed" and exhibited the traits that were commonly associated with vampirism. "
Of course a small Serbian village couldn't have 3 doctors, I never said they did. These were Austrian doctors and officials. This whole thing with Pavle happened in 1731, couple of years after Blagojevic.
This is rather interesting subject, I must say

 

Buckingham Palace has 602 rooms

In “Silence of the Lambs”, Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins) never blinks.

Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave. (ive not tried this though)

The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 672.

Termites have been known to eat food twice as fast when heavy metal music is playing. (i need to try this, i have a large enough collection of ragers to try)

thats it from me today!

 

I just read this and laughed out loud. Wanted to give you a "like", just to realised I already "liked" it a very long time ago!

 

Ha, I'm gonna use this fact in one of my stories, given the chance.


P. S. Yaaay, my 500th post.

 

Congrats on 500!