Leonidas’ Record Lasted
26. Leonidas of Rhodes’ Olympic mark of 12 individual victories (164 – 152 B.C.) remained unbroken for more than 2100 years before Michael Phelps surpassed it in 2016.
27. Greek philosopher Chrysippus of Soli died in 206 B.C., at age 73, after a laughing fit brought on by his own joke. His biographer says he saw a donkey eating figs and shouted that it should be given pure wine to wash the figs down.
28. Xenophanes, who died in 490 B.C., discovered fish fossils during his lifetime and concluded that the land where they were found must once have been underwater. He was the first known person to use fossils as proof for a theory about Earth’s history.
29. In 559 B.C., a Chinese prisoner named Yuan Huangtou was condemned to death by being sent off the top of a large tower attached to a kite. He survived the flight and claimed the record for the highest jump survived by a person in the process. He was later starved to death in prison.
30. After the battle of Carrhae in 53 B.C., the Parthians captured the Roman commander Marcus Licinius Crassus and allegedly poured molten gold down his throat because of his famous greed.
31. Xin Zhui was a Chinese noblewoman who died in 163 B.C. When her body was found in 1971, it was extraordinarily well preserved. She had been kept in an unknown fluid, which let her skin stay soft and moist. Her muscles still let her arms and legs flex at the joints, and all organs and blood vessels remained intact.
32. The ‘Alulu beer receipt’ is an ancient stone tablet that is actually a 5,000-year-old beer receipt. It records the purchase of the “best” beer from a brewer in 2050 B.C., from the Sumerian city of Umma in ancient Iraq.
33. Around 1800 B.C., a king named Erra-imittī in Mesopotamia appointed a palace worker king named Enlil-bâni to rule for a short time in order to avert a disaster he had been warned about by an oracle. Near the end of that period, Erra-imittī died while eating soup, and Enlil-bâni ruled for 24 years.
34. Ancient Greek explorer, Pytheas, was the first person to write about the mythical isle of Thule during his travels between 330-320 B.C. He described Thule as a land of fire and ice where the sun never sets, located about six days of sailing north from Britain. His description closely resembles the island of Iceland in summer, which has Glaciers, volcanoes and is north of Britain.
35. In 3rd century B.C., a Chinese Emperor’s son named Modu Chanyu tested his guards’ loyalty by ordering them to kill his favorite horse and then his favorite wife. He executed those who refused, and those who did not, he later ordered to shoot his father. None failed to do so, and he became the Emperor.
Ancient Gold Straw Discovery
36. The oldest known drinking straw was uncovered in a Sumerian tomb dated 3,000 B.C. It was a gold tube inlaid with precious stones.
37. In 458 B.C., Aeschylus, an ancient Greek tragedian, was killed when an eagle dropped a tortoise on him after mistaking his bald head for a rock that could break the reptile’s shell.
38. In 480 B.C., King Xerxes I of Persia built bridges to invade Greece, but a storm ruined them. Furious, he threw chains into the sea, whipped the sea 300 times, and burned it with red-hot irons while his men shouted at the water. The next bridge he built was not destroyed.
39. A mysterious culture in Eastern Europe existed between 5,500 to 2,700 B.C. and built sophisticated, organized, densely-populated settlements, only to burn them to the ground every 60-80 years and rebuild the same settlement as before.
40. The first recorded cases of cancer were found on papyrus manuscripts in Egypt dating back to 3000 BC. These manuscripts mention 8 cases of breast tumors that were removed by cauterization with a tool called the fire drill. The writing says about the disease, “there is no treatment.”
41. Ancient Greek astronomer Eratosthenes of Cyrene proved that the earth was round in 240 B.C. He also came up with latitudes/longitudes. He was also able to calculate earth’s circumference that was accurate to within 2%.
42. In 585 B.C., a solar eclipse occurred in the middle of a battle between the Lydians and the Medes. They promptly ceased fighting and signed a peace treaty.
43. In Egypt 1503 B.C., Hatshepsut became the second woman to rule and chose to take the title of king. She donned male clothing and wore a false beard.
44. The first scientist named in history was En Hedu’anna, the chief astronomer-priestess of Ur. She lived around 2300 B.C., was the only daughter of the great empire architect Sargon of Akkad, and is called the Shakespeare of the ancient world as her works were studied for 500 years or more after her death.
45. The first recorded battle in history was the Battle of Megiddo in 1457 B.C. It left such an impression on the Levantine people there that they believed the final battle of humanity would take place there as well. That’s where the word Armageddon comes from.
Bematists Measured Great Distances
46. Ancient people measured long distances by hiring “bematists.” They were trained to count steps while walking between locations and could measure hundreds of miles with more than 95% accuracy. Eratosthenes used one to calculate the circumference of the Earth that was accurate to within 15%, in 240 B.C.
47. The first recorded autopsy was carried out in 44 B.C. on Julius Caesar to find out which of the 23 stab wounds he received had killed him. It was a chest wound that severed his aorta.
48. In the 23rd century B.C., the Assyrians had the first large organized army. They pioneered modern-day psychological terrorism, skinned people alive, and mutilated them if they didn’t believe their kings were one with God.
49. According to moderate estimates, the Romans possibly lost over 40,000 men in a single day at the Battle of Cannae (216 B.C.), which may have accounted for somewhere between 5 to 10% of the total Roman male population during the late 3rd century B.C. period.
50. Alphabetical order was introduced in the 3rd century B.C. by Zenodotus, who also happened to be the first librarian at the Great Library of Alexandria.
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