History With The TARDIS - The Great Fire of Rome

Before I get back into the swing of things with this blog, let's take another look at how Doctor Who has portrayed key moments / figures in history. This time, it's the story commonly entitled The Romans.
On screen, the Doctor and his companions have arrived outside Rome in the year 64AD. They spend a month or so relaxing at a villa, whose owner is off campaigning in Gaul. One day, the Doctor decides to visit Rome, and young companion Vicki goes with him. Ian and Barbara stay behind - only to be captured by slave-traders. The Doctor and Vicki find the body of an elderly lyre player on their travels - one Maximus Pettulian. The Doctor decides to impersonate him, in order to find out how the old man came to be killed. Believing he has failed, the assassin tries again, but is chased off. The Doctor and Vicki arrive in Rome and meet the Imperial family - Nero and his wife Poppaea. Ian and Barbara also find themselves in the city (he having first of all spent a few days as a galley-slave).
Vicki stops Poppaea from poisoning Barbara, and almost kills Nero instead. The Doctor upsets the Emperor by playing the lyre better than him. Nero plans to have him fed to alligators in the arena, but the Doctor inadvertently sets fire to the Emperor's plans for a new Rome with his spectacle lens - inspiring Nero to deliberately torch the city so that his dream will be built. Nero plucks his lyre as the city burns. Under cover of the fire, the time-travellers make their way back to the villa, and thence off to the TARDIS.

This story was written intentionally to have a lot of humour, and so not to be taken too seriously, despite some grim things happening in it. When it comes to the real facts, it is often way off the mark.
First of all, there is the villa that the travellers are staying in. The writer seems to be thinking of a villa as a small holiday home like those round the Med you might rent today. In fact, this would have been a vast agricultural estate with an army of slaves working it all year round.
As for the absence of the owner, there wasn't any campaigning going on in Gaul at this time. He is much more likely to have been in Britain, Boudicca having rebelled just 3 - 4 years earlier.
Then we have the portrayal of the Emperor.
Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was 17 when he came to the throne. His mother was wife to the Emperor Claudius, and it is commonly held that she arranged the old Emperor's death in order that her son should inherit. This was 10 years before the Great Fire, so Nero should be under 30. On screen, we get Derek Francis playing him as a much older character. Very handsome as a youth, Nero did pile on the pounds thanks to his debauched lifestyle, and his double chins appear on both coins and statuary.

He certainly enjoyed the arts and performing himself - something which the Roman aristocracy disapproved of. Nero certainly planned to totally remodel Rome. He began by buying up huge sections of the Caelian Hill and extended the palace on the Palatine (from whence the word 'palace' derives) onto it. Today, under a park, lie the remains of part of his complex - the Domus Aurea or Golden House. In the flat area between the hills he had a vast ornamental lake built, and next to it a huge golden statue of himself was set up. A colossal statue in fact - which might give you a clue as to what his successors built on the site of the lake.
Two characters who appear at Nero's court are based on real figures - the cup-bearer Tigellinus, and the poisoner Locusta. The real Tigellinus was a Prefect of the Praetorian Guard. He outlived Nero - but only just. He backed the wrong successor - the short-reigned Galba - and was executed by the equally short-reigned Otho, in what is known as the Year of the Four Caesars.

Locusta, meanwhile, is supposed to have been the one employed by Nero's mother, Agrippina the Younger, to poison Claudius. She also did away with Claudius' own son and heir Britannicus. She also outlived Nero - but again only just. Galba had her executed as well.
A significant character in the TV programme is the slave-trader Sevcheria. He is a totally fictitious figure. The programme seems to be cutting the costs of an extra actor by having him suddenly become Nero's sadistic right hand man in the second half of the story. In fact, this role was closer to the real Tigellinus.
And what of the Great Fire itself? There is an old adage about Rome burning whilst Nero fiddles. Well, the programme at least has the Emperor playing a lyre, which you pluck, rather than a fiddle which you play with a bow. The ancient Romans themselves came up with a number of theories as to the cause of the fire. One was indeed that Nero was behind it, so that the Senate would allow him to build his dream Rome. He wasn't there in person, however. He was in Antium. Another story had him closer to the city, playing his lyre in the gardens of Maecenas (now a district of low rent housing just to the south of Termini station). Another theory, which Nero himself promoted, was that the fire had been started by a religious sect known as the Christians. Whatever happened to them? Christians were subjected to a dreadful persecution after the fire. Which brings us to the slave Tavius. He is shown to be a secret devotee of this new-fangled cult. He is seen to wear a crucifix. In reality, it would more likely have been the symbol of a fish he would have worn.
The theories that have Nero deliberately starting the fire all tend to come from writers who were patronised by later Emperors, so who had an agenda. At the time, Nero was only criticised for his tardiness in returning to the city to supervise the relief effort. Thousands of people were made homeless.
Nero lived only a further four years after the Great Fire. He was deposed, and chose to commit suicide rather than be captured and executed. His ashes were buried near the northern gate of the city - beside what is now the church of Santa Maria Del Popolo. This used to have a monastery attached and a tree in its grounds was supposed to be haunted by Nero's ghost - so the Pope had it cut down.
[Santa Maria Del Popolo is worth visiting for two superb Caravaggio altar pieces - The Crucifixion of St Peter, and The Conversion of St Paul. There's a side chapel designed by Raphael. Martin Luther stayed at the adjoining monastery on his trip to Rome - the one that initially triggered his desire to see the Church reformed].
One last thing - the stuff about "the arena". The Romans would probably have gone for crocodiles (from Egypt) rather than alligators. One well-respected Doctor Who guide book bemoans the fact that what we see on screen of the arena where Ian has to fight Delos is far too small to be the Colosseum... (And a Big Finish audio set during the Boudiccan Revolt has a couple of soldiers talking about visiting that well-known Roman landmark). Oh dear...
Yes, as mentioned above, at the end of Nero's life you would have got your feet wet if you visited the site of the Colosseum. Otho's successors, Vespasian and then his son Titus, drained the lake and built the famous arena. It was the first stone-built - so permanent - arena in the city. Prior to this there were only Theatres, plus temporary wood-built arenas.

History With The TARDIS - The Massacre

The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve (1966).
Time for another look at an historical event as seen through the lens of the time-traveling Doctor.
On screen, the Doctor and his companion Steven Taylor arrive in Paris in the late summer of 1572. The Doctor decides to go and seek out the apothecary Charles Preslin. Steven is left in a tavern, where he meets a group of young Huguenots.
The city is full of visitors who have come to celebrate the wedding of Marie de Medici, of the Catholic Royal Family, to Henri of Navarre, a Protestant. The Queen Mother, Catherine de Medici, hopes that the union will help to soothe the religious turmoils besetting the country. France is a predominantly Catholic realm, and Protestants are tolerated at best, but persecuted in many regions.
Steven gets involved with a conspiracy which is being planned by the Abbot of Amboise - who just happens to look exactly like the Doctor. A servant named Anne, who works for the Abbot, has learned of a planned massacre. Steven has to protect her from the Catholic forces, but makes an enemy of his Huguenot friends when he identifies the Abbot as his acquaintance.
The Abbot is behind a plot to assassinate Admiral de Coligny - the leading Protestant minister who is liked by young King Charles IX. When this plot fails - the Admiral only being wounded - the Abbot is killed, and Steven thinks it is the Doctor who has died.
Fearing that the Protestants will rebel against them, Catherine de Medici decides on a preemptive attack on them.
Steven eventually manages to find the Doctor alive and well at Preslin's shop. On learning the date - 23rd August - the Doctor realises they are in grave danger and they depart - just as the massacre of the Huguenots begins...

The story is credited to writer John Lucarotti, but much of it belongs to script editor Donald Tosh. Of all the periods of Earth's history visited by the Doctor, this is one of the most obscure. Many people know of the broad strokes of the Reformation / Counter-Reformation, but specific events in individual European countries have never made it to British school syllabuses - except for Henry VIII. Viewers in 1966 would mostly be finding out about the events of St Bartholomew's Day, 1572, for the first time.
One thing to mention straight off is the title of this story. It is generally shortened to The Massacre. The full title is wrong - as the massacre took place on the feast day itself - not it's eve.
As the story covers the build-up to the massacre, the word "Eve" should really be put to the beginning of the title.
Tosh has done his homework, as events which form the background to the story are fairly accurate. The Doctor look-alike Abbot of Amboise is entirely fictional.
The Catholic Queen Mother really did want the marriage of her daughter to Henri of Navarre - the future King Henri IV of France - to soothe tensions, but she wasn't hopeful of its success. She was unhappy at the influence Gaspar de Coligny had over the young King Charles IX. de Coligny was hoping to dissuade France from taking action against the Protestant Dutch, and this went against the policies of the Catholic ministers.
The Admiral was shot in the street on his way home from a cabinet meeting, and was badly wounded. The city was full of Huguenot supporters of Henri, and they were naturally incensed at the attack on their leader. Fearing Catholics would be massacred, the decision was taken to kill every Protestant who could be found in the city.
The signal for the massacre to begin was the tolling of the bells of the church of St Germain-l'Auxerrois, close to the palace of the Louvre. The medieval tower can still be seen today. de Coligny was dragged from his sick bed, killed, and his body dumped from an upper window. King Charles is said to have shot Huguenots for sport from the palace windows.

The killing went on throughout the 24th of August. Massacres then spread out from Paris to take in all of France over the next couple of weeks. The exact death tolls are not known, but it has been estimated that about 2000 died in Paris, with a further 3000 in the provinces.
In the longer term, all of Catherine de Medici's sons became king - but all were short-lived. Charles died 2 years after the Massacre. His brother Henri III was assassinated. As mentioned above, Henri of Navarre eventually became king, though he had to convert to Catholicism to do so. He is said to have claimed that "Paris is well worth a mass". He introduced religious tolerance policies, such as the Edict of Nantes, allowing Protestants to practice their faith unmolested. Ultimately, he was also assassinated - by a Catholic fanatic.
It was the events of 24th August 1572 that introduced the word "massacre" to common parlance. One consequence for England, was the influx of Huguenot refugees to the City of London. You can see their houses if you take a walk around the Spitalfields area - as my next post will show.
Sadly, you can't enjoy this Doctor Who story any more - it no longer exists in the archives except for its soundtrack.

History With The TARDIS - The Visitation

A Doctor Who story with a conclusion set in London, 1666? It can only mean the Great Fire.
The bulk of this story sees the Fifth Doctor, with companions Tegan, Nyssa and Adric, encountering the survivors from a crashed alien escape ship. These reptilian Terileptils do not want to be rescued, however, as they are escaped convicts. They would rather take over the Earth as their new home - getting rid of the human inhabitants using a genetically engineered variant of the plague. This takes place in 17th Century Middlesex - round about where Heathrow Airport will be built in a few centuries time.
The Doctor must track the Terileptils to their secondary base which has been set up in London. The plague-infected rats are being stored in a bakery here awaiting release. In a struggle, a burning brazier is knocked over and one of the alien handguns falls into the flames. The aliens use a highly flammable gas to compensate for Earth's atmosphere - and when the gun explodes it starts a major conflagration. The Doctor works out what this means for history - saying this fire should be allowed to run its course. When the TARDIS dematerialises, we see the name of the street where the bakery is situated - Pudding Lane...

One of those occasions when the Doctor is responsible for a major historical event - one that he is unable to alter.
The real Great Fire did indeed begin in a bakery - that of a Thomas Farriner (or Farynor) - in Pudding Lane. It started in the chimney of the shop just after midnight on September 2nd. Apart from the big civic buildings, this was a city of wood, with houses crammed together on narrow streets. The fire quickly spread to adjoining properties.
There wasn't any fire brigade in these times, just the watchmen who patrolled the streets plus local militia known as the Trained Bands. Each parish church had to hold equipment for fire-fighting - ladders and long fire-hooks. The latter were to help pull down building that were already ablaze or at risk of fire. This would create fire-breaks, that a fire would not be able to cross.
When the Lord Mayor of London - Sir Thomas Bloodworth - was informed of the fire, he is supposed to have exclaimed: "Pish! A woman could piss it out." Diarist Samuel Pepys was woken by a maid at about 3am. He took a look, considered it not much of a threat, and then went back to bed. By morning, the full extent of that threat was becoming apparent.
The Mayor's failure to take the fire seriously and create fire-breaks in the first few hours had meant that it had spread over a wide area of the City. The previous month had been extremely dry, and there was now a strong easterly wind. Once the fire reached the river side, it met with a number of highly flammable materials being stored in the numerous wharves and warehouses. Pepys went to the Tower to observe the fire from on high, then set off by boat to Whitehall Palace to report to King Charles (II) and his brother the Duke of York. Later, Pepys settled himself at an inn on Bankside, in Southwark, to watch the progress of the fire from there. When his own home was threatened, he buried his most prized possessions in the garden - including his cheese.
People whose homes had burned were forced to move further and further away - some having to transport their belongings four or five times in a day, as the fire continued to spread wider and wider. The various city gates became congested with people fleeing the city. Finsbury Fields would eventually become a tented town for those made homeless.
The fire did not abate until September 5th.
It had destroyed more than 13,000 houses, 87 churches, 44 Company Halls, and three City Gates, as well as major buildings such as the Royal Exchange and the Guildhall. Its most famous casualty would be the medieval St Paul's Cathedral. The lead from its roof melted and ran down the streets.
The official death toll was only 6, but this is widely believed to be a gross underestimate. There would have been many people living in the affected areas who were not properly registered with the authorities. The heat from the fire would have totally cremated bodies - leaving little sign.

One thing the Doctor might have found ironic is that aliens were blamed for starting the fire. These aliens were foreigners - especially Catholic ones. One Frenchman did actually admit to starting the fire deliberately, and he was hung for it. However, it was then discovered that he did not arrive in the City until after the fire had been raging for two days. He was at sea when it began.
Some lynchings and other attacks were reported on foreign tradesmen, though many thought these merely used the fire as an excuse to get rid of business competitors.
Plans to totally redesign the layout of the city came to nothing, due to the complexity of the land ownership. This means that the narrow winding street named Pudding Lane can still be visited today.
"Pudding" does not refer to delicacies cooked up by Thomas Farriner's bakery. "Puddings" were piles of stinking offal from slaughtered animals which dropped to the ground as they were transported down this street to be dumped in the Thames.

There are two monuments to the Fire to be seen in London today. One is the golden cherub statue at Pye Corner, Smithfield (subject of an earlier post), and of course The Monument.
Until 1830, the plaque at the base of the Monument continued to explicitly blame Catholics for causing the fire. The height of the Monument is the same as the distance from its base to where Farriner's bakery stood. At the top is a golden urn with flames. Sir Christopher Wren wanted to place a statue of King Charles on top, but he refused, saying "It wasn't me who started the fire...".

History With The TARDIS - Marco Polo

As this blog grew out of my other, Who specific, one - TARDIS Musings - I thought it might be time to devise a series of posts that link the two together. The TARDIS has visited many periods of Earth's history over the decades. What was the historical context to those stories? How accurate were they?
We will start way back in 1964 with the story known as Marco Polo - 7 episodes written by John Lucarotti, and directed by Waris Hussein. Lucarotti had written an epic series about Polo for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation a year or so before.
At this time, Doctor Who was intended to have a strong educational remit - helping to popularise History, Geography and Science. As well as learning about Polo and Kublai Khan, we also get to learn about the origins of the word "assassin", how condensation works, the original tale of Aladdin - when he was an old, evil character, rather than a young pantomime hero - and that bamboo explodes in fire, amongst many other things.

The TARDIS materialises in the foothills of the Himalayas, and promptly suffers from a power failure. The time travelers meet Marco Polo who is leading a caravan towards Cathay. There is a young girl heading for an arranged marriage in the party - and a Tartar Warlord named Tegana, supposedly on a peace mission but who really plans to assassinate Kublai Khan. Polo intends to keep the TARDIS and gift it to Kublai Khan so that he will finally be allowed to return home to Venice. They stop at many locations - it is one of the longest Doctor Who stories in narrative terms - before finally arriving in the capital, where Polo saves the Khan's life. He relents and lets the Doctor have the key to the TARDIS back, so the travelers escape onto their next adventure.

The story of Marco Polo is one we think we know very well - the 17 year old Venetian adventurer who traveled east with his father and uncle in 1271. He made himself indispensable to Kublai Khan and was not allowed to return home for more than 20 years.
We know all this from a small book, A Description of the World, published about 20 years after his death. The writer wasn't Polo himself. On returning to Venice in 1298, he found the city at war with Genoa. He was captured by the Genoese and spent a year in prison - sharing his cell with a man named Rusticello di Pisa. It was Rusticello who put the book together.
About 150 different variations of the book exist, and it is believed that a number of the stories attributed to Polo were additions from other sources - other travelers who had visited and traded with China. Some people think that Polo only ever got as far as Mongolia, and all of the Chinese sections are collected from other travelers' tales.
Suspicions arise because he does not mention tea-drinking, the Great Wall, foot-binding or chop-sticks. The main suspicion, however, is that the Chinese do not mention him - despite his spending two decades interacting with the highest levels of government. One of the reasons that the Chinese invented paper was to record their bureaucracy in the minutest detail - yet there is no mention of a Marco Polo. Other western travelers do get written about, and their travels are better documented.
His supporters claim that there are enough elements in the book that do demonstrate that Polo visited China - descriptions of paper money and salt production - for it to be a true account. Other writers omit things which you would expect to be mentioned, and the Great Wall as we know it today was actually built some 200 years after Polo's time. Kublai Khan ruled over a region on either side of the present Great Wall - so would have had no reason to build a barrier across the middle of it.
All agree that the book does include some sections that come from other sources - European and Muslim.
Basically, it is accurate but only up to a point.
Polo died in 1324, and is buried in the church of San Lorenzo in the Castello district of his native city. His will freed a Tartar slave whom he had brought back from his travels.