Unknown "My Precious " Naughty - 16 years, 7 months, 14 days ago

Unknown "My Precious " Naughty - 16 years, 7 months, 14 days ago

*******Famous Barbarians*******
Unknown "My Precious " Naughty - 16 years, 9 months, 28 days ago

Vortigern

Vortigern was a warlord in Britain during the 5th century C.E. By all accounts, Vortigern appeared to be a usurper and a pretender to the rule of Britain, and was shown to be a man of low character and inclinations. He achieved his position through assassination and treachery, killing even the young king, Constans, to whom he was an advisor. Constans' baby brother, Uther, was unknown to Vortigern and so escaped his treachery. Vortigern ruled Britain with the aid of Saxon mercenaries who kept him in power until he, too, dealt with them harshly. The Saxons eventually turned on him and Vortigern met his death in a blazing castle tower in Wales at the hands of Geoffrey of Monmouth, although some sources claim that the tower was mysteriously struck by lightning, catching it on fire. (Later, when the Tarot decks of the middle ages and renaissance were designed, this imagery became the inspiration behind the card "The Tower". Vortigern is the figure in the foreground plummeting headfirst from the lightning-blasted tower.) After Geoffrey's rule of Britain, Constans' brother, Uther Pendragon, became ruler of Britain, and Uther Pendragon was the father of the legendary King Arthur. (Representation of "The Tower" from the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck).
Unknown "My Precious " Naughty - 16 years, 9 months, 28 days ago

Vercingetorix

During Julius Caesar's occupation of Gaul (now much of which is France) in the first century B.C.E., things were going fairly smoothly for the Romans until an upstart Swabian Barbarian named Ariovistus came moseying across the Rhine to see what was going on. In fury, Julius Caesar chased him and his troops back across into Germany (58 B.C.E) and proceeded to pursue the occupation of Gaul much more aggressively than before. In anger, many of the Gallic barbarian tribes, such as the Averni, rose up in revolt against the harsh Roman treatment. A feisty young barbarian named Vercingetorix (pronounced Ver-sin-JEH-toh-ricks) was adamant that Caesar and the Romans would be driven out of Gaul. His people raised him to kingship in 52 B.C.E. Under his leadership, the Gallic tribes were very largely successful in quashing the Roman occupation, until the fateful batttle of Alesia, where Vercingetorix and his troops were forced to yield to Julius Caesar. Vercingetorix was captured as a prisoner of war, taken back to Rome by the victorius Julius Caesar, imprisoned there, and later executed by strangulation in 45 B.C.E. Of course, Caesar himself was assassinated the next year by his own people, so "what goes around, comes around."
Unknown "My Precious " Naughty - 16 years, 9 months, 28 days ago