Ancient Assassins?
Fortean Times|March 2017

BARRY BALDWIN sifts through the evidence at a pair of classical crime scenes in an attempt to figure out who done what to whom in a saga of political conspiracy and family plots that makes Game of Thrones look like The Waltons...

Barry Baldwin
Ancient Assassins?

At sunrise, one day in June 336 BC, watched by a huge crowd on the theatre of the old capital city of Aegæ, Philip II, King of Macedon, marched into the arena behind a ceremonial parade of statues of the 12 Olympian gods, plus an unlucky 13th, an image of himself.

His bodyguard followed at a distance: Philip wished to demonstrate that he was protected by universal goodwill and needed no weapons. Arrayed in a white ceremonial robe, he walked between two young Alexanders, his 21-year old son, the future ‘Great One’, and the King of Epirus, his new son-in-law.

These festivities were part of the ritual attending the dynastically arranged and just concluded nuptials between his daughter Cleopatra (Alexander the Great’s sister) and Alexander of Epirus, brother of Philip’s currently estranged wife Olympias, and one-time lover of Philip himself: in effect, the bride was also her bridegroom’s niece – compare the marital tangles of ex-Stone Bill Wyman – and the marriage incestuous.

As Philip paused by the arena entrance, a young member of his Bodyguard rushed forward and stabbed the King with his sword – shades of Indira Ghandi.The 46-year-old monarch lay dead in the dust.The assassin attempted to flee – there was a horse waiting at the city gate – but tripped and fell, rather like John Wilkes Booth breaking his leg after shooting Lincoln in the Ford Theatre. A gaggle of Macedonian noblemen who had begun a pursuit caught up, but instead of seizing him for arrest, they (Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby leap to mind) butchered him with their weapons.

Bu hikaye Fortean Times dergisinin March 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

Bu hikaye Fortean Times dergisinin March 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

FORTEAN TIMES DERGISINDEN DAHA FAZLA HIKAYETümünü görüntüle
Lightning Or Legendry?: The Chase Vault Moving Coffin Mystery Revisited
Fortean Times

Lightning Or Legendry?: The Chase Vault Moving Coffin Mystery Revisited

The moving coffins of Barbados have been a staple subject of books on the unexplained for over a century, and yet no one has so far provided a wholly satisfactory solution to the mystery. BENJAMIN RADFORD argues that we might have been looking in the wrong place...

time-read
10+ dak  |
November 2019
The Haunted Generation
Fortean Times

The Haunted Generation

Bob Fischer Rounds Up The Latest News From The Parallel Worlds Of Popular Hauntology...

time-read
3 dak  |
November 2019
The House On The Borderland In Search Of William Hope Hodgson
Fortean Times

The House On The Borderland In Search Of William Hope Hodgson

In his new book, EDWARD PARNELL goes in search of the ‘sequestered places’ of the British Isles and explores how these haunted landscapes shaped a kaleidoscopic spectrum of literature and cinema. Here, he arrives in Cardiganshire to look for the house in which the neglected master of weird fiction William Hope Hodgson wrote one of his greatest works.

time-read
10+ dak  |
November 2019
Fortean Traveller: 117. The Mediæval Crime Museum, Rothenburg, Germany Fortean Traveller
Fortean Times

Fortean Traveller: 117. The Mediæval Crime Museum, Rothenburg, Germany Fortean Traveller

STEVE TOASE feels the thumbscrews tighten as he explores a grisly collection exploring the history of mediæval torture and its relationship with the law

time-read
7 dak  |
November 2019
Where Ghosts Gather
Fortean Times

Where Ghosts Gather

In 1977, Usborne published World of the Unknown: Ghosts, the children’s book that inspired a generation of junior forteans. Four decades on, following a concerted fan campaign, the book is back in print... and the perpetually haunted BOB FISCHER tracked down its pleasantly surprised writer, Christopher Maynard, to discuss its genesis and unexpected impact.

time-read
10+ dak  |
November 2019
A Bang On The Head
Fortean Times

A Bang On The Head

MARK GREENER explains how traumatic brain injury can change personality, creating serial killers and even vampires.

time-read
7 dak  |
November 2019
Out Of The Shadows
Fortean Times

Out Of The Shadows

In an extract from a new book celebrating the history of Boscastle’s Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, Professor Ronald Hutton introduces the photographs of Sara Hannant, which aim to bring a range of enigmatic objects from the museum’s unique collection to life.

time-read
3 dak  |
Christmas 2016
The Face In The Window - Windowpane Ghosts And Lightning Daguerreotypes
Fortean Times

The Face In The Window - Windowpane Ghosts And Lightning Daguerreotypes

One of the most fortean of lightning phenomena is the “lightning daguerreotype,” where a face or figure, often recognised as a particular deceased person, is mysteriously etched upon a windowpane. Chris Woodyard traces some of the fenestral flaps of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

time-read
10+ dak  |
Christmas 2016
Bodies On Ice
Fortean Times

Bodies On Ice

Couple who went missing 75 years ago ... found by chance in thawing Swiss glacier

time-read
2 dak  |
October 2017
happy old christmas
fortean times

happy old christmas

you thought it was all over, but due to the orthodox refusal to accept the new fangled gregorian calendar, many people – from margate to memphis – will still be celebrating christmas in january. ted harrison goes in search of some stubborn old traditions...

time-read
8 dak  |
january 2017