gnostek‹›1 / 2Parthian-era bronze statue believed by some scholars to represent General Surena.Surena1010%Greatest Persian generalsSurena annihilated seven Roman legions at Carrhae in 53 BC — 20,000 dead, 10,000 captured — then was executed by the Parthian king within the year, fame deemed more dangerous than Rome itself.+ See More01At Carrhae, Surena killed roughly 20,000 Romans and captured 10,000, destroying Crassus's entire eastern army.02He killed the triumvir Crassus — one-third of Rome's ruling power — ending Rome's richest man.03King Orodes II had Surena executed shortly after the victory, reportedly fearing his general's growing prestige.
gnostekTarrare800%the 10 most interesting wikipedia articles everTarrare, an 18th-century French soldier, ate live cats, eels, snakes, and a 14-month-old toddler — then vanished from a hospital ward. His autopsy revealed a stomach cavity large enough to fit a small child.+ See More01Army surgeons used Tarrare as a spy courier, hiding dispatches inside raw meat he swallowed whole.02A 14-month-old infant disappeared from the hospital ward where Tarrare was confined; he was the prime suspect.03His autopsy revealed a massively distended stomach, corroded organs, and a body riddled with tumors at death around age 26.
gnostek+37‹›1 / 44Regensburg400%City walls of antiquityA Roman legionary fortress built around 179 CE forms the literal foundation of modern Regensburg — its stone walls, still standing to several metres, prop up the ground floors of inhabited apartment buildings.+ See More01Castra Regina was built in 179 CE to garrison Legio III Italica on the Danube frontier of the Roman Empire.02The fort's massive sandstone corner tower, the Porta Praetoria, still rises above street level in central Regensburg today.03Regensburg's medieval street grid follows the Roman fort's internal axes — the legionary plan still organizes a living city.
gnostekKilling of Abdulrahman al-Awlaki3805%drone strikes with civilian casualtiesSixteen-year-old Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen eating dinner in Yemen, was killed by a drone two weeks after his father. The Obama administration later said it was a mistake. His grandfather asked why.+ See More01Abdulrahman was born in Denver, Colorado — an American citizen by birth, killed by American order.02He had run away from home to find his father; he never made it back alive.03White House press secretary Robert Gibbs suggested Abdulrahman should have 'had a more responsible father.'
gnostek‹›1 / 2Hobby Lobby400%Largest Private CompaniesA craft-store chain generating $7 billion annually tithed tens of millions to build a biblical museum in Washington D.C. — then watched federal agents seize 5,500 smuggled Iraqi antiquities from its own collection.+ See More01Hobby Lobby paid $3 million in civil fines and forfeited 5,500 artifacts to the U.S. government in 2017.02The smuggled cuneiform tablets and cylinder seals entered the U.S. labeled as 'tile samples' from Israel.03The Museum of the Bible, funded largely by the Green family, opened in 2017 just blocks from the U.S. Capitol.
gnostek‹›1 / 2Egill Skallagrímsson600%Heroes of the medieval eraEgil Skallagrímsson committed his first killing at age seven with an axe at a ball game. He later composed a poem so good it talked an enemy king out of executing him.+ See More01Egil killed a boy at a childhood game, age seven; his mother praised him as future-Viking material.02Captured by King Eiríkr Bloodaxe, Egil composed 'Höfuðlausn' overnight — the poem bought his head.03He reportedly suffered a disfiguring bone disease now theorized as Paget's disease of the skull.
gnostek‹›1 / 8Bugsy Siegel300%Real events that inspired the Sopranos, Goodfellas, and GodfatherBugsy Siegel was reading the Los Angeles Times on a sofa in Beverly Hills when a rifle bullet blew his right eye out of its socket — landing four feet away on the floor.+ See More01Nine .30-caliber rounds were fired through the window; two entered Siegel's head, one exiting through his right eye socket.02Fifteen minutes after the shooting, three men walked into the Las Vegas Flamingo and declared themselves the new owners.03The hit was never officially solved; Meyer Lansky, his childhood friend, was the prime suspect he never named.
gnostek‹›1 / 2Exterior view of the building known as Ransom Room, in Cajamarca where the Inca Atahualpa was confined.Ransom Room1210%High profile ransom demandsAtahualpa filled a 22-foot room once with gold and twice with silver to purchase his freedom. Pizarro accepted the metal, pocketed the treasure, then had the Inca emperor strangled anyway in 1533.+ See More01The ransom room measured roughly 22 feet long by 17 feet wide; gold filled it once, silver twice.02Estimated value of Atahualpa's ransom: over $1.5 billion in today's terms — the largest ever paid.03Pizarro's justification for execution was a fabricated charge of plotting rebellion after payment was complete.
gnostek+16‹›1 / 23The Anatomical Zodiac ManTrès Riches Heures du Duc de Berry100%Most famous medieval artPainted between 1412 and 1416 for the Duke of Berry, the February calendar page of the Très Riches Heures shows a peasant warming bare legs by a fire — the oldest surviving painted snow scene, accurate enough that meteorologists have studied it.+ See More01The Très Riches Heures was commissioned by Jean, Duke of Berry, and painted by the Limbourg brothers between 1412 and 1416.02The February page is the earliest known Western painting to depict snow with meteorological accuracy, including drifted drifts and bare trees.03The Limbourg brothers — all three — died in 1416, likely of plague, leaving the manuscript unfinished for sixty years.