Pater familias

Plate 34: Por una navaja ( For a clasp knife ). A garroted priest grasps a crucifix in his hands. Pinned to his chest is a description of the crime for which he was killed—possession of a knife.

Chinese propaganda poster from the Korean War era: "Vaccinate everyone, to crush the germ warfare of US imperialism !"

01RENAMO was founded in 1977 by Rhodesian CIO officer Ken Flower specifically to destabilize the newly independent FRELIMO government in Maputo.
02After Rhodesia fell, South African military intelligence absorbed RENAMO entirely, funding and supplying it through the 1980s as a proxy Cold War force.
03RENAMO commanders ordered limb amputations to leave living evidence — they explicitly wanted victims to walk to the nearest village as a warning.

Medieval English split tally stick ( front and reverse view). The stick is notched and inscribed to record a debt owed to the rural dean of Preston Candover , Hampshire, of a tithe of 20 d each on 32 sheep, amounting to a total sum of £2…

Under Roman law, an adult son, no matter his age or rank, remained under his father's power of life and death — patria potestas — until the father died. A consul could be executed by his own father.

Battle of the Teutoburg Forest

Three full Roman legions — roughly 20,000 men — were ambushed and annihilated in a German forest. Augustus Caesar reportedly beat his head against a wall screaming 'Varus, give me back my legions!' The Rhine became Rome's permanent border.

The Disasters of War

Goya etched 82 plates of castrated soldiers, impaled civilians, and mass graves — then hid them. They weren't published until 1863, 35 years after his death. The plates still exist; one shows a man arranged like a broken doll.

Liu Ziye

Liu Ziye forced his own aunts into his imperial harem, declared them imperial concubines, then was stabbed to death by a palace servant at sixteen — his ministers had arranged the blade.

Allegations of biological warfare in the Korean War

China charged the U.S. with dropping plague-infected fleas and cholera-laced clams over North Korea in 1952. Twenty-five captured American airmen confessed. Every confession was later recanted. The insects remain unresolved.

RENAMO

RENAMO began as a Rhodesian intelligence project to punish Mozambique for hosting ZANLA guerrillas — then became a movement that cut off ears and hands as loyalty enforcement. The Rhodesian secret service created one of Africa's most lethal insurgencies.

Trajan's Dacian Wars

Trajan's two Dacian campaigns dragged 165 tonnes of gold and 330 tonnes of silver back to Rome — enough to fund gladiatorial games lasting 123 days straight. The kingdom of Dacia ceased to exist.

Roanoke Colony

117 colonists settled Roanoke Island in 1587. Governor John White left for supplies and returned three years later to find the word CROATOAN carved into a post and every person gone — no graves, no blood.

Tally stick

For 700 years, the English Exchequer split hazel sticks to record royal debts — the king kept one half, the creditor the other. In 1834, Parliament burned the old sticks and accidentally set Westminster on fire.