Gin

So, who here likes to drink? I assume you do, dear reader, or why else would you spend time reading about a brief history of Gin? If you don’t drink and you are here, well, I don’t get you. Gin is famous for being the base of many cocktails or mixed drinks such as the Martini, the Negroni, the Tom Collins, the Aviation, the French 75, and the GIN and Tonic. Sure the last one in the list probably came to mind first but you can’t start with the easiest, that’s no fun. So, what is Gin? Where does the name come from? And why do people say it tastes like Christmas? Well, I swear, I will answer those questions with this article on Gin.

Gin is a distilled grain spirit flavored with juniper berries and other “botanicals” (basically just a fancy way to say other stuff is in it for flavor). By the way, juniper is where the “Christmas” taste comes from, as many relate it to tasting like pine or evergreen. The name of Gin comes from the ye old English word genever, which derives from the Latin word for Juniper. Juniper has had medical uses for centuries and was supposedly the berries and “fragrant” plants that plague doctors would place at the end of their long beaked plague masks to ward off the miasma (bad air) of the plague. The plague doesn’t spread from bad air by the way, just had to mention that in case you still were under that impression. Juniper wine and spirits were brewed as a tonic by Roman Catholic monks before its official mention in the 13th century. These tonics were used for the next few hundred years as solutions to most ailments (and would get you loaded in the process). Dutch distillers were particularly adept at flavoring Juniper wine and tonics and it became popular throughout the area.

Fast forward to the 16th century, the Eight Years War broke out in the Habsburg Netherlands, and the English got involved to fight one of their old nemeses, the Spanish. While in the Eight Years War, English soldiers started drinking Jenever, an early Dutch version of Gin, although distinctly different from today’s version. Some historians believe this is where the term “Dutch courage” comes from, as the English soldiers would drink to soothe those pre-battle, “I could get killed in the next hour,” jitters. Once the war was over, they brought a taste for Jenever back home. Then, this thing called the “Glorious Revolution” in England happens, where King James II and VII (same guy) of England, Scotland, and Ireland is deposed and replaced by the Dutch Mary II and William III. So, you have a war in the Netherlands, a Dutch King and Queen on the English throne, and English soldiers with a taste for jenever, you get an explosion of popularity for what becomes Gin.

Fast forward again, this time to the 17th century - the British government gets rid of regulation for Gin, slaps tariffs on foreign spirits, leading to a rapid rise in popularity for Gin. This event leads to a fun period in British history called the “Gin Craze.” Gin was cheap compared to other spirits at the time, and humans love to get hammered on cheap booze, so naturally by the mid-1700s, “gin houses” had taken over half of the drinking places in London. Also, because it was cheap, the poorer citizens of Britain really started drinking it, leading the rich to associate it as a lower-class drink as the rich still drank French Brandy. They started attributing wild stories, like women selling their children for a jug of Gin and fathers and men neglecting work to drink all day to an addiction for Gin and other grain spirits, leading for a push to either ban outright or heavily regulate Gin. Numerous “Gin Acts” started to be passed in Britain during the 18th century in an attempt to control its consumption. I must note though, that Gin is also referred to as “a cornerstone of the British Empire” for a lesser-known reason. Gin was used to mix with the drug quinine (used to prevent/treat malaria). Quinine had an especially bitter taste and was distributed to far flung British colonialists, and their armies via tonic water. These colonolists and soliders mixed tonic water with Gin, creating the GIN and Tonic, to get their daily anti-malarial dose. Modern tonic water has significantly less quinine in it than the version a century or two ago but there is still quinine in every Gin and Tonic you consume. Tell that last fact every time someone orders a Gin and Tonic, I swear, you will be popular.

By the 19th Century, other liquors and spirits were able to be acquired throughout the western world, and Gin slid in popularity. At this time, you have a rise in cocktails, Gin being the basis for many, as it was still cheap. By the 1950s, Gin started to fall out of favor with drinkers due to the rise of Vodka but, do not despair, my fellow Gin drinker! Gin is back on the rise, this time with a craft Gin explosion on the market of distilled spirts. The 2010s saw a rise in Gin consumption and in 2021, consumers spent $2.9 billion on Gin at retail.

The Sundial

Sundials - you may have seen them in your weird aunt’s garden growing up, on some obscure British documentary regarding solar worship, or maybe you are a watch nerd like me and heard that sundials predated modern watches but are shit compared to what we have now. You may be wondering how accurate they are, who used them, and how did they have a religious use. Or maybe you aren’t. Regardless, you now find yourself reading a short article on the history of sundials and some notable examples of their uses. Lucky you! You must be fun at parties.

               So let’s start with what is a sundial – a device with a circular or semicircular disc base, markers for hours or some way to signify time, and with a pointed angled pole in the center known as the gnomon (Greek for pole) that casts a shadow from the sun onto the markers etched or inscribed into the disc base. As the sun moves throughout the day, the shadow of the gnomon tells us what time it is using those markers.

               Ok, so now that you know what a sundial is, let’s understand its uses. There are a number of uses but let’s start with the most obvious: a clock. Our ancient friends created the sundial to be a clock. Humans have been fascinated by the passage of time and as soon as we could count the hours, we have been frustrated with people for being late. The sundial was one of the first, most common clocks and was even used well up into the 19th century to check the accuracy of mechanical clocks. A second use of sundials is in the study of astronomy. Early astronomers, such as the Greek Aristarchus of Samos, created sundials that marked the passage of time and seasons, by studying the sun. A third use of the sundial was for a religious function, they were used to mark important seasonal festivals and for marking the specific times of day used for prayer. An example of this would be the use of sundials during the medieval period to mark when Muslims were supposed to pray. In fact, most sundials from the golden age of Islam indicate times on the sundial for when prayer was supposed to occur.

               Some notable examples of famous sundials are the Egyptian shadow clocks that date to 1500 BCE.  There was at one point a belief amongst historians that even the Egyptian obelisks could have been used as large sundials to measure the passage of time, but this idea has since been discounted mostly. The Greeks seem to have been particularly fascinated with sundials, two examples would be the Hemicycle by Aristarchus of Samos. This sundial not only measured time but also a concept (that goes way over my head) known as seasonal hours depending on the length of the shadow. Another is an octagonal building known as the Tower of the Winds in Athens. The building, completed around 100BCE, had eight “planar” sundials facing the cardinal directions of the compass. The Romans, as always, stole a famous example from a rival tribe, the Samnites. They put this sundial on display in the city of Rome in 290BCE and the first original Roman sundial for the city was not built until over 100 years later.

               So, what killed off the sundial and relegated it to a garden ornament? Well, of course, the mechanical clock. Mechanical clocks started to come around in the 14th and 15th century and as they become more accurate with springs, pendulums, and gears, sundials started to disappear. They were stubborn as hell though, and lasted well into the 19th century to measure the accuracy of mechanical time keeping devices. So, next time that weird aunt with the sundial in the garden invites you over, make sure you regale her with the EXTREMELY exciting uses and past of the sundial.

Cincinnatus

The Roman statesman Cincinnatus is someone in history that most Americans have heard of, even if we didn’t know that we have. The lovely city of Cincinnati (shout out to skyline chili), in the not so lovely state of Ohio, is named in his honor. Like myself, you may be asking “why is there a city named after Cincinnatus in a country that was founded 2200 years after his death?” Well, read on and it’ll be explained - or don’t, do what you want.

Cincinnatus lived from c.519 BCE to 430 BCE in or around Latium and was from a rich Patrician family that had roots dating to the Roman Kingdom. At the time of Cincinnatus, there were both external and internal threats to Rome’s early Republic. The Romans had expelled the Etruscans to form that Republic thus ending the Roman Kingdom that had existed in the previous 200 years. Internal strife was rampant, with a push from the Plebeian population demanding equal rights and a reduction in the power of the landowning Patrician families. Because this tale involves some Roman political offices, we have to dive into those, I won’t get into the intimate details of the Roman Republic’s governing offices (I dont want you to close your browser out of sheer desperation to stay awake) but let’s explain three of them at least – Consul, Tribune, and Dictator.

Consuls were a sort of executive branch of the Republic, elected/appointed from the ranks of the Senatorial/Patrician class. There were always two Consuls, and they served terms of one year. Consuls almost always came from the Patrician families (rich landowning families that loved to trace their lineage to mythological or historical figures). Because the Consuls came from the upper class of Roman society, they tended to pass laws or enact a change that favored themselves and their rich friends. Consuls were considered so important that the Romans marked their years not by numbers but by which Consuls were in power. Then, there were the Tribunes. There were ten Tribunes of the Plebs throughout most of the Republic’s history and these Tribunes were selected to represent the interest of the common people, known as Plebeians (shortened to Plebs). These Tribunes were put in place early in the Republic’s history to check the power of the Consuls and the Patricians, but as is usually the case when it comes to the rich vs poor, its MUCH easier said than done. These Tribunes could call an assembly of the people and propose legislation that, if passed, would only affect the Plebeians. However, their biggest power was their veto, Tribunes could veto acts from the Senate or Consuls. This veto was used throughout the Roman Republic to bring the government to standstills when the Plebeians felt overtly threatened or wanted change. Lastly, there was the title or office known as Dictator. While being the same word that we use today, the word and title meant something entirely different to our Ancient Roman friends. Dictator was usually an office created in extreme times of strife, trouble, or war in order to vest power in one person to solve whatever crisis had arisen. Because there were always two Consuls and a full Senate, the idea was to make sure one person was calling the shots in order to best resolve the crisis and avoid conflicting solutions or ideologies that may be detrimental. Usually, this dictator was a temporary office with a strict term limit, but that term limit could be extended if necessary.

Ok, now that you understand those offices and titles, lets get to the start of the story. So, there was this guy, a Tribune of the Plebeians named G. Terentilius Harsa who led a renewed campaign to check the Consuls’ power, as he felt they had become like kings (Romans hate kings). As it usually happens with super rich people, they didn’t like G. Terentilius Harsa and his attempt to ruin their perks. They used everything they could to stop him, eventually resorting to violence. This violent repression led to a large uprising by the people against the Patricians, eventually resulting in the death of one of the two Consuls of that year. The Roman Senate and remaining Consul, used the military against the people and put down this rebellion. Once the common people had been repressed, the Roman Patricians then led a military campaign against a constant enemy, Italic tribes who didn’t like the Romans and their grabs for power in the peninsula. Things did not go the way the Romans wanted. Now here is where things get a little muddled, while historians do GENERALLY accept that Cincinnatus was a historical figure, it’s extremely difficult to separate his factual life from fiction. As anything with ancient history, there is speculation (a better word than “guessing”) to fill in major gaps. It also does not help that our main sources, like the Roman historan Livy, are not the most reliable as they are writing hundreds of years after these events.

The legend of Cincinnatus goes like this: Cincinnatus lived his life in Rome for quite a while, eventually having some children. One of these children, Caeso, opposed the Plebeian attempts at reform, led by the aforementioned G. Terentilius Harsa, with considerable violence. He would lead gangs through the street and try to drive the Tribunes of the Plebs from speaking or being in the Forum. Because Caeso was not well liked, the Plebs ran him out of town and condemned him to death. His father, Cincinnatus, received the bulk of the punishment since Caeso wasn’t around anymore, and had to retire to a farm, now destitute due to heavy fines. Some time passes and an Italic tribe known as the Aequi (the tribe the Roman’s went to war with after they put down the plebeian rebellion in the previous paragraph) break a treaty and start to march against the Romans. Or the Roman’s marched against them first, it’s a little unclear. The Romans raise an army and are unable to stop the Aequi and were defeated in battle. The threat was now dire, so the Roman people turned to a figure who was humble and honorable (the Romans equate Cincinnatus having to pay that heavy fine and working a small farm himself with being humbled and gaining honor). Representatives of the Roman State approach Cincinnatus while working his fields, asked him to become dictator for a term of six months and to destroy the Aequi threat. Cincinnatus agreed, leaving his farm to lead a newly raised army. So, Cincinnatus leads this new army, and surrounds the Aequi while they were besieging the other Roman Consular army at the Battle of Mount Algidus. Cincinnatus offered the Aequi mercy instead of destruction, and realizing their only other option was to be annihilated between two Roman armies, the Aequi agree to surrender and be ruled over by the Romans. Cincinnatus arrives in Rome to a hero’s welcome, disbands his new army, quits as dictator, thus giving up absolute power, and returns to his farm to work. I should also add that all this was accomplished in only 15 days.

Historians doubt most of that legend as it was presented but that doesn’t mean a story about a guy being handed absolute power to do a job, doing that job perfectly, then giving it up at the first chance to go back to work on a meagre farm is any less appealing to idealistic minds, even if complete bullshit. Many of those idealistic minds happened to be America’s founding fathers. Most of these founding fathers were educated in a way that held up Greek and Roman history as an enlightened and noble period in mankind and thus emulated a lot of the values and government styles. One of those men, George Washington, America’s first president, is directly compared to Cincinnatus. Washington was handed the reigns of a brand-new country, a blank slate, and the power to shape his office in any way he saw fit. But instead of allowing the power to “corrupt” him, he chose to give up command of the Continental Army, the presidential office after two terms, and return to his estate in Virginia. So, because we have a group of men founding a country that were big fans of Rome and its stories, a first president who imitated a legendary/historical figure representing how to handle power, you get a society that names cities after long dead Roman figures, thus Cincinnati, Ohio (and Cincinnatus, New York). I told you it would be explained.