Misconceptions

Okay, this isn't strictly speaking writing-related, but as a historian I think it's necessary nevertheless. Here, in no particular order, are some very common misconceptions about the history of the world.

Opponents of Christopher Columbus' expedition believed that the world was flat.

This is one of the most persistently taught myths in schools throughout the United States, and it's simply false. The ancient Greeks proved that the world was round thousands of years before Columbus' time, and that knowledge wasn't lost during the Dark Ages. There may have been individuals who argued in favor of a flat Earth, but the scholarly consensus was that the world was indeed round.

Columbus' opponents didn't think he'd fall off the edge of a flat world. Rather, they argued that the world was too big and he'd never make it to Asia. In that respect, they were right: Columbus believed that the world was about half its actual size, while his opponents' estimates were much closer to the reality. Fortunately for Columbus, the Americas were about where he expected Asia to be.

George Washington won the battle of Trenton because the Hessians were drunk.

I remember learning about this one distinctly in middle school, and it painted such a great picture: the hard-bitten Americans overcoming the lazy Hessian mercenaries through sheer determination. As with most things military, the truth wasn't that simple.

While the Hessian commander, Johann Rall, publicly dismissed concerns that the Americans would launch an attack, private letters show that he was well aware that his position in Trenton was threatened and even requested reinforcements prior to the battle. The evidence suggests that the Hessians were quite sober when battle was joined, though they may have been very tired.

The Battle of Trenton was a historically significant victory for the Americans, but it wasn't a victory won by exploiting the enemy's laziness. Washington won the battle primarily because he had more men (2,400 to the 1,500 Hessians) and, more importantly, three times as many cannons (18 to 6).

Napoleon Bonaparte was unusually short.

Although he was nicknamed the “Little Corporal,” Napoleon was not especially little. He stood about 5'7”, which seems on the short today but was above-average for his time.

Propaganda is partially to blame for the persistent image of Napoleon as a short man; the British press frequently depicted him as much smaller than average. Another culprit is the lack of standardization in units of measure at the time. Napoleon was 5'3” in French pouces, which were somewhat longer than British inches.

When told that her people had no bread, Marie Antoinette said “Let them eat cake.”

As with many incorrectly attributed quotes, this one is completely incongruous with the alleged speaker's persona. Marie Antoinette lived in the lap of luxury, but she was nevertheless well-known for her sympathy for the poor. She even donated generously to charity, suggesting that she was quite aware that her people needed meaningful help.

Moreover, the phrase was quoted long before Marie Antoinette supposedly said it in 1789. Jean-Jacques Rousseau mentioned it in his Confessions in 1766, when Marie Antoinette was just 10 years old and three years away from marrying the future Louis XVI.

Nero played his lyre while Rome burned.

The Roman emperor Nero was certainly not a model of virtue; among other offenses, he likely ordered the murder of his own mother early in his reign. The legend that the music-loving emperor whipped out his lyre and played a song while the city burned to the ground, however, is most likely a fabrication, as is the accompanying tale that he set the fire in the first place.

Most modern scholars agree with Tacitus' account that places Nero in Antium at the time the fire started. When word reached him, he rushed back to Rome and personally directed rescue and rebuilding efforts, even opening the palace gardens to people left homeless and destitute by the blaze.

It's true that Nero later built his palace, the Domus Aurea, on land cleared by the fire, but there are multiple issues with the theory that he set the fire in order to make room. First, the fire started more than half a mile away from the actual site of the new palace. Second, the flames damaged portions of Nero's existing palace; since he later reproduced the destroyed portions in the new palace, it seems unlikely that that was his intended results. Finally, the timing of the fire is inconsistent with arson; it started just a few days after a full moon, when the arsonists would likely have been spotted.

St. Francis of Assisi said, “Preach the Gospel at all times; use words only if necessary.”

Oddly, I don't hear this phrase used in a positive sense very often. Instead, I hear Christians tear this quote down, saying that it's absolutely necessary to use words to preach the Gospel. While I agree with the sentiment, the argument itself is a straw man: St. Francis never said it.

As with Marie Antoinette's quote, the very idea would have been highly out of character for St. Francis of Assisi. In his personal ministry, Francis was the original “soapbox preacher,” sharing the Gospel with anyone nearby. He was known to preach in as many as five villages in a single day, standing on bales of straw or the steps of public buildings. In short, he was about as strong an example of preaching the Gospel with words as any Christian in history.

More to the point, none of Francis' disciples or biographers attribute this quote to him.

Abner Doubleday invented baseball.

In 1908, the powers-that-be in the world of baseball declared that Abner Doubleday invented the sport in Cooperstown, New York in 1839. Historians debunked this myth almost immediately, noting that:

• Doubleday was attending West Point in 1839, and there is no record of his taking leave.
• The story was based on the testimony of Abner Graves, a man who was later committed to an insane asylum.
• In his extensive writings, Doubleday only once mentioned baseball (he requested equipment for his soldiers in 1871).

Abner Doubleday is a noteworthy historical figure in his own right, a Union officer in the Civil War who famously fired the first return shot at the Confederate bombardment at Fort Sumter, yet he's known far better for something he never actually did. In all likelihood, the Mills Commission sought out an American war hero to name as the game's inventor rather than acknowledging the British influence on the sport.

Like most sports, baseball didn't really have a single creator. The officially recognized “father of baseball,” Alexander Cartwright, probably did more to create the sport than anyone else, but even he was only named to provide a clear alternative to the Doubleday myth. Still, he's as good a choice as anyone, and a far better choice than Abner Doubleday.

Thomas Edison invented the light bulb.

It's telling that the actual title of Thomas Edison's patent for an incandescent light bulb was “Improvement in Electric Lights.” Edison did not, by any stretch of the imagination, invent the light bulb. Other inventors created working incandescent bulbs decades before.

What Edison actually created was a commercially viable light bulb, though he wasn't the only inventor to do it; his contemporary, Joseph Swan, created a similar bulb in Britain. Edison deserves credit for overcoming an especially difficult engineering challenge, but he's not the man responsible for creating the light bulb in the first place.

During meals, the ancient Romans would deliberately vomit in order to eat more.

There are few more enduring images of the decadence and excess of Roman society than the picture of wealthy people eating, throwing up and eating again just because they could. That image, though, is inaccurate.

The Roman word “vomitorium,” literally a room designed for spewing forth, refers a large passageway designed to allow crowds to make a quick exit. Vomitoria were part of ancient arenas, and they're still used in stadiums and large theaters today. The term does not, however, refer to a room set aside for actual vomiting as part of a binge and purge cycle.

In short, the Romans had their faults, but they weren't all bulimic.