Titans of History (2 page)

This is a collection of biographies of individuals who have each somehow changed the course of world events. This list can never be either complete or quite satisfactory: I have chosen the names; thus the list is totally subjective. There may be names you think are missing and others whose very inclusion you question: that is the fun and frustration of lists. You will find familiar names here—Elvis Presley, Jack Kennedy, Jesus Christ, Bismarck and Winston Churchill for example—but also many you may not know. Our modern world is dominated by the Near and Far East so that in this book you will not just find “traditional” leaders such as Henry VIII or George Washington but also the creators of the rising powers of today: Ayatollah Khomeini, Supreme Leader of Islamic Iran, Deng, who forged modern China, King Ibn Saud, founder of Saudi Arabia.

When I started this project, I tried to divide these characters into good and bad, but I realized that this was futile because many of the greatest—Napoleon, Cromwell, Genghis Khan, Peter the Great, to name just a few—combined the heroic with the monstrous. In this book, I leave it to you to make such judgments. We can go further still: the political and artistic genius of even the most admirable of these characters requires ambition, insensitivity, egocentricity, ruthlessness, even madness, as much it demands decency and heroism. “Reasonable people,” said George Bernard Shaw, “adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people adapt the world to themselves. Therefore change is only possible through unreasonable people.” Greatness needs courage (above all) and willpower, charisma, intelligence and creativity but it also demands characteristics that we often associate
with the least admirable people: reckless risk-taking, brutal determination, sexual thrill-seeking, brazen showmanship, obsession close to fixation and something approaching insanity. In other words, the qualities required for greatness and wickedness, for heroism and monstrosity, for brilliant, decent philanthropy and brutal dystopian murderousness are not too far distant from each other. The Norwegians alone have a word for this:
stormannsgalskap
—the madness of great men.

In the last half-century, many history teachers seemed to enjoy making history as boring as possible, reducing it to the dreariness of mortality rates, tons of coal consumed per household and other economic statistics, but the study of any period in detail shows that the influence of character on events is paramount, whether we are looking at the autocrats of the ancient world or the modern democratic politicians of our own day. In the 21st century, no one who looks at world history after 9/11 would now claim that the character of US President George W Bush was not decisive in its contribution to the momentous decisions that were taken during this period. Plutarch, the inventor of biographical history, puts this best in his introduction to his portraits of Alexander and Caesar: “It is not histories I am writing, but lives; and in the most glorious deeds, there is not always an indication of virtue, of vice; indeed a small thing like a phrase or a jest often makes a greater revelation of a character than battles where thousands die.”

SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE

c.
1302–1213
BC

His majesty slaughtered them all; they fell before his horse, and his majesty was alone, none with him
.

Inscription on the temple walls of Luxor

Rameses II was the most magnificent of the Egyptian pharaohs, whose long reign—over sixty years—saw both military successes and some of the most impressive building projects of the ancient world. He subdued the Hittites and the Libyans, and led Egypt into a period of creative prosperity but he was probably the villain of the Exodus.

Some of the greatest wonders of the ancient world owe their existence to Rameses: he typifies the old-fashioned hero-king, admired for his conquests and monumental works, often won and built at a terrible human cost. His reign marks the high point of the Egypt of the pharaohs, in terms of both imperial power and artistic output.

During the reign of Rameses' father, Seti I, Egypt had been involved in struggles for control over Palestine and Syria with the Hittites of Anatolia (in modern Turkey). Despite some initial success, when Rameses inherited the throne in 1279
BC
Hittite power extended as far south as Kadesh in Syria.

Having been a ranking military officer, in title at least, since the age of ten, Rameses was keen to begin his reign with a victory. However, his first engagement with the Hittites, at the Battle of Kadesh in 1274, was a strategic failure. Despite winning the battle,
Rameses could not consolidate his position and capture the actual city of Kadesh. In the eighth or ninth year of his reign he captured towns in Galilee and Amor, and shortly afterward he broke through the Hittite defenses, taking the Syrian towns of Katna and Tunip. No Egyptian ruler had been in Tunip for at least 120 years.

Despite these successes, Rameses found his advances against the Hittite empire unsustainable, so in 1258 the two sides met at Kadesh and agreed the first recorded peace treaty in history. With typical ostentation, the treaty was inscribed not on lowly papyrus but on silver, in both Egyptian and Hittite. It went further than merely agreeing to end hostilities; it also established an alliance by which both sides agreed to help the other in the event of an attack from a third party. Refugees from the long years of conflict were given protection and the right to return to their homelands.

The treaty ushered in a period of prosperity that lasted until the later years of Rameses' reign. During that time the pharaoh indulged his ruling passion: building gargantuan monuments, many of which can still be seen in various parts of Egypt. The Ramesseum was a vast temple complex built near Kurna, which incorporated a school for scribes. It was decorated with pillars recording victories, such as the Battle of Kadesh, and featured statues of Rameses that stood 56ft (17m) tall and weighed more than 1000 tons. On an even bigger scale were the monuments built at the temple of Abu Simbel. Four colossal statues of Rameses, each more than 65ft (20m) high, dominate the vast façade of the temple, which also includes friezes and depictions of other Egyptian gods and pharaohs, and statues of Rameses' favorites and family. Among these was his favorite wife Nefertari, who had her own, smaller temple built to the northeast. Her tomb in the Valley of the Queens features some of the most magnificent art of the entire ancient Egyptian period.

These works are only a few of the vast architectural projects of Rameses' reign. He completed the buildings of his father, finishing the hall at Karnak and the temple at Abydos, and in the east built the frontier city of Per-Atum. He inscribed his name and records of all his deeds on many of the monuments built by his predecessors. There is little of the surviving architecture of ancient Egypt that does not bear his mark.

It is possible that Rameses was the pharaoh of the biblical book of Exodus, the ruler who cruelly enslaved the Israelites until God sent the ten plagues that persuaded the pharaoh to release the Chosen People: this miraculous escape is celebrated in the Jewish festival of Passover. They were led to freedom by an Israelite boy discovered abandoned in Nile bulrushes and raised as an Egyptian prince with the name Moses. As they wandered through Sinai, God granted Moses the Ten Commandments. If the Israelites obeyed them, God promised them the land of Canaan. When Moses asked the nature of this God, the answer came: “I am that I am.” But Moses died before he reached Canaan. It is highly likely that Rameses's monuments were built by slave labor. Many Semites did settle in Egypt and Moses' name is Egyptian, which suggests that he at least originated there. There is no reason to doubt that Moses, the first charismatic leader of the monotheistic religions, did receive a divine revelation after such an escape from slavery. Overall, the tradition of a Semitic people escaping captivity is plausible but defies dating.

Rameses was idolized by later Egyptian kings, and his reign was a high-water mark in the military, cultural and imperial achievements of ancient Egypt. He died in 1213, when he was in his early nineties.

c.
1040–970
BC
&
c.
1000–928
BC

Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the Lord loved Israel for ever, therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice
.

The Queen of Sheba to Solomon, 1 Kings 10:8–9

David and Solomon were rulers of the Israelite kingdom in the 10th century
BC
at the apex of its splendor, power and wealth. David united the Israelite tribes and made Jerusalem their capital while his son Solomon was the founder of Jerusalem's Temple, the king whose myth transcended the bare bones of biblical history to embrace astonishing abilities as a sage, poet, lover and tamer of nature.

Yet the main source for both is the Bible, probably written centuries later. David was portrayed by the Bible as firstly a holy, ideal king but also as a superb warrior, a poet and harpist, a flawed warlord and adventurer, a collaborator with the Philistines, an adulterer, even a murderer. As an ailing king, he was responsible for the execution of his own rebellious son. The portrait of David is thus a surprisingly rounded and human one.

Born in Bethlehem the son of Jesse, during the reign of King Saul, first monarch of Israel, David was selected by the Prophet Samuel and anointed. Called to court to calm the increasingly demented Saul, he played his harp and won royal favor. When the Philistines invaded, fronted by a giant champion Goliath, David volunteered to fight and though still a boy, killed the champion with a shot from his sling. Now a hero, best friends with Saul's
son Jonathan, he married Saul's daughter but, faced with the murderous jealousy of the king, he was forced to flee. He even crossed the lines to the Philistines, accepting a generalship and city from their king. When the Philistines again invaded and fought the Israelites at Mount Gilboa, Saul and Jonathan were both killed. David mourned for them in his famous poetical lament. He became King of Judah, ruling from Hebron while one of Saul's sons ruled the northern tribes of Israel until David united both into his Kingdom of Israel. He attacked the Jebusite city of Jerusalem, which became the new neutral capital of his united kingdom and brought the famed Ark of the Covenant to the city. One day he saw there—bathing on the roof—the beautiful Bathsheba, who was married to one of his generals Uriah the Hittite. David seduced her and had her husband put on the front line in the wars—he was killed. David married Bathsheba. Buying land on the Temple Mount, he planned to build a house of God there, a temple—but God intervened: David was a man of blood and the building of the Temple must wait for his untainted son. In old age, the weakening warlord found it hard to control his seething court with its struggles for the succession. His main problem was his favorite son Absolom, the darling of the crowd, who rebelled against his father, expelling him from Jerusalem. David suppressed the rebellion but Absolom was killed, provoking another heartbreaking lament. According to the biblical account, Solomon was the surviving son of David and Bathsheba, and was anointed king while his father was still alive in order to thwart the conspiratorial aspirations of a half-brother.

After inheriting the kingdom, Solomon soon defeated his foes and built a booming commercial empire, exploiting the strategic location of Palestine—bridging the Mediterranean and Red Sea, Asia and Africa. With armies and merchants, he established a vast network of ports and overland trading routes.

The Bible describes a reign of unparalleled magnificence, in which Solomon reputedly fielded an army of 12,000 cavalrymen and 1400 chariots, and for his pleasure and prestige had a harem of 700 wives and 300 concubines. Such biblical calculations are undoubtedly exaggerations, but possibly not by much. (In Megiddo alone, the remains have been discovered of stalls said to be for 450 horses.) Using marriage to strengthen alliances, Solomon wed the daughters and sisters of kings. His marriage to the daughter of the Egyptian pharaoh, for example, secured him the Canaanite city of Gezer. The biblical report that Solomon granted the visiting Queen of Sheba “all that she desired, whatever she asked” has prompted three thousand years' worth of rumors that this included a child. Since Sheba was probably a prosperous kingdom that included modern Ethiopia and Yemen, this was another example of Solomon's shrewd
realpolitik
.

The biblical pinnacle of Solomon's achievement was the Temple he built to house the Ark of the Covenant. Described as a building of stone and cedar, with a magnificently carved interior and an exterior covered in gold, it was a wondrous testament to the greatness of God. After seven years' labor, Solomon was able to dedicate it, and it became the holiest place in the Jewish world, the memory of it cherished for thousands of years at the heart of the Jewish faith: this was the first temple built on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, which is also known by Muslims as the Haram-al-Sharif.

Solomon continued to build, and on a colossal scale, with cities and forts springing up throughout the empire. He constructed breathtaking palaces for his wives, a city wall for Jerusalem, and facilities to encourage foreign traders, including pagan shrines to make them feel at home.

Solomon's 1005 songs and his sayings, collected in the Book of Proverbs, bear witness to his genius and wisdom. Confronted in his court by two women each claiming to be the mother of
the same child, Solomon proposed dividing the infant in half, correctly judging that the real mother would abandon her claim rather than see the death of her beloved.

God was said to have granted Solomon power over all living creatures and mastery of the elements. The Jewish Bible, the Tanakh, and the Islamic sacred scripture, the Koran, both cite his miraculous ability to speak the language of the birds and ants, and to control the winds. He was said to have a magic carpet and a magic ring, the Seal of Solomon, which gave him power over demons. In the Persian and Arabic stories that, in a later millennium, made up
The Arabian Nights
, Solomon is the wizard who imprisoned the
djinn
(genies) in jars and cast them into the sea.