BBC History - UK (2022-01)

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10 JANUARY 1430

To celebrate his wedding to Isabella of Portugal, the

Burgundian ruler Philip the Good founds the Order

of the Golden Fleece. Later adopted by his Habsburg

successors, it becomes the pre-eminent Catholic order

of chivalry, considered the most prestigious in the world.

The coat of arms of Simon de

Lalaing, a knight of the Order of the

Golden Fleece, which was

founded in January 1430

1 JANUARY 404

A monk tackles

the gladiators

Telemachus intervenes in

an attempt to halt Rome’s

bloody public games

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century AD, the gladiatorial

games that had once so

entranced the Roman crowds were in

steep decline. To the disappointment of

the connoisseurs, brutal slaughter had

gone out of fashion. Under the new

state religion, Christianity, the games

were seen as a reactionary relic.

Attendances were dwindling, the

arenas were crumbling and the

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what it had been.

Then, for the fans, came the worst

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(though in truth it’s hard to be sure of

the exact date), a crowd gathered at

one of Rome’s arenas, perhaps the

Colosseum, for some good unclean fun.

Just as things were getting interesting,

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rushed to the gladiators and tried to

drag them apart. “In the name of Christ,

forbear!” he shouted – or so some later

accounts claimed.

The protester, it transpired, was an

ascetic monk named Telemachus from

the eastern part of the empire, who was

visiting Rome for some purpose of his

own. Appalled by the “abominable

spectacle”, he was determined to stop

it. The fans, though, were not happy.

According to the church historian

Theodoret of Cyrrhus, writing just a little

after these events, the crowds reacted

violently to Telemachus’s intervention,

stoning him to death. And that seemed

to be the end of that.

But it wasn’t. When the young

(and extremely God-fearing) emperor

Honorius heard about the monk’s fate,

he decided that enough was enough.

By his edict, gladiatorial games were

banned. So were trousers, interestingly

• but that’s another story.

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