HISTORY FUN FACTS - September 26th

This Day In History in 46BC, Julius Caesar dedicated a temple to Venus Genetrix, fulfilling a promise he made at the Battle of Pharsalus.

 

Venus was the Roman Goddess of Sex. Also love, beauty, fertility, victory and desire. So, basically all of the dwarves except Grumpy.

 

The Battle of Pharsalus was during the Civil War where Caesar was trying to gain control of Rome from his nemesis, Gnaeus Pompey.

 

The Battle of Pharsalus was a battle Julius Caesar should have lost. He was greatly outnumbered, in a foreign land cut off from his supplies, with a starving army.

 

Pompey's army was twice the size with plenty of food and a local population happy to pleasure his soldiers.

 

Pompey wanted to wait out Caesar, but he was under pressure from the senators, who wanted a quick victory so they could return to their hookers in Rome.

 

Battle commenced and Caesar showed his skill. With Venus at his side, he won a decisive victory over Pompey.

 

Pompey, embarrassed by his defeat, abandoned his men and fled the camp dressed as a peasant women on the Game. After a small diversion at a local village where, thanks to his dress, he was able to earn a few coins, he escaped Caesar's soldiers. Well, for a while. 

 

This Day In History in 1087, William II was crowned King of England.

 

King William, the second after the first, was the third son of William I of England, otherwise known as William the Conqueror. Or, depending who you spoke to, William the Bastard.

 

William II was King of England until his death in 1100 when he was killed by an unfortunate encounter with an arrow whilst out hunting.

 

Of course, it was a totally innocent encounter and rumours that William's younger brother, Henry, deliberately had him shot, are completely untrue.

 

It's not as if Henry fled the forest with all of the men, who were not so loyal to William, and rushed to Winchester to secure the Royal Treasury the same day. And it's not as if once he had done that, he hurried to London two days later to be crowned King of England before either archbishop could arrive.

 

Oh, he did. That's awkward.

 

After King William II had been shot and his men abandoned the body in the forest and scarpered, it was later found by a peasant and then transported to Winchester Cathedral for burial.