The Great Big Book of Horrible Things: The Definitive Chronicle of History's 100 Worst Atrocities Read Online Free PDF
Author: Matthew White
Taoist saints who had learned the secrets of the universe, were said to live on Penglai Mountain beyond the eastern seas. Xu Fu was given a fleet of sixty ships, five thousand crewmen, accompanied by three thousand virgin boys and girls because it was believed that their purity would aid the quest. Several years after he had disappeared over the horizon, Xu Fu returned and reported that a large and frightening sea monster blocked the way, so Shi Huang Di sent a boatload of archers to kill the monster. Then Xu Fu tried again, but he was never heard from again.
Modern historians trying to make sense of this tale suggest that Xu Fu simply discovered Japan and settled down. Archaeology shows that Chinese culture began to appear in Japan around this time. 4
Failure in the Search for Eternal Life
When Shi Huang Di died in 210 BCE on a tour of the provinces—possibly poisoned by the mercury in his magic elixirs—Li Si kept the news secret for two months until he could return to the capital and tie up some loose ends. Among them, he had to strip command from a dangerously conservative general and to force Shi Huang Di’s eldest son to commit suicide. To keep the empire from dissolving into chaos, Li Si kept up a pretense of a live ruler by arriving at the emperor’s carriage every day and ducking behind the curtain to consult with him. A wagonload of fish joined the entourage to disguise the smell of the emperor’s corpse. 5
The First Emperor had begun building his tomb many years earlier, employing seven hundred thousand workmen on the project and working many of them to death. The tomb complex measured three miles across, reputedly protected with booby-trapped crossbows. To protect the secret locations, the men who installed these were locked in the tomb as well. In 1974, excavation uncovered an underground army of eight thousand terra cotta statues of soldiers guarding the tomb, and that may be only a small part of treasures buried there. The tomb is reputed to contain a replica of the world floating in a sea of mercury, and a 2006 soil analysis suggests that a substantial amount of mercury is still buried in the unexcavated section. 6
Once Li Si removed all of the conservatives from any possible influence over the succession, he announced the death of the emperor and allowed the throne to pass to a prince who agreed with all of the radical changes of the previous decade. Er Shi Huang Di (the Second Emperor), however, ruled only a few years before China fell into civil war.
How Bad Was He?
As with most ancient individuals, there are only a handful of original sources, all filtered through centuries of copying and recopying, censoring, fictionalizing, moralizing, and sensationalizing, so there’s a very good chance that everything we know about Shi Huang Di is wrong, or at least more complicated than we are led to believe. If you go around burying scholars alive, you won’t fare well in the writings of subsequent scholars. 7
We can’t be certain how many people he killed, but for the sake of ranking, I’m following the common accusation of a million.
SECOND PUNIC WAR
Death toll: 770,000 1
Rank: 58
Type: hegemonial war
Broad dividing line: Rome vs. Carthage
Time frame: 218–202 BCE
Location: western Mediterranean
Who usually gets the most blame: Hannibal
Another damn: Roman conquest
B Y NOW ALMOST ALL OF THE COASTAL REGIONS OF THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN had fallen under the domination of either Carthage or Rome. These competing empires were divided by the Ebro River in Spain until the city of Saguntum in the Carthaginian sphere switched sides and asked for Roman protection. Hannibal, the Carthaginian general on the spot, would allow none of that, so he stormed and sacked Saguntum. Then, before the Romans could do much more than complain and issue their formal declaration of war, Hannibal marched a Carthaginian army from Spain, up the coast, and over the Alps into Italy.
Over the next few years, a
Modern historians trying to make sense of this tale suggest that Xu Fu simply discovered Japan and settled down. Archaeology shows that Chinese culture began to appear in Japan around this time. 4
Failure in the Search for Eternal Life
When Shi Huang Di died in 210 BCE on a tour of the provinces—possibly poisoned by the mercury in his magic elixirs—Li Si kept the news secret for two months until he could return to the capital and tie up some loose ends. Among them, he had to strip command from a dangerously conservative general and to force Shi Huang Di’s eldest son to commit suicide. To keep the empire from dissolving into chaos, Li Si kept up a pretense of a live ruler by arriving at the emperor’s carriage every day and ducking behind the curtain to consult with him. A wagonload of fish joined the entourage to disguise the smell of the emperor’s corpse. 5
The First Emperor had begun building his tomb many years earlier, employing seven hundred thousand workmen on the project and working many of them to death. The tomb complex measured three miles across, reputedly protected with booby-trapped crossbows. To protect the secret locations, the men who installed these were locked in the tomb as well. In 1974, excavation uncovered an underground army of eight thousand terra cotta statues of soldiers guarding the tomb, and that may be only a small part of treasures buried there. The tomb is reputed to contain a replica of the world floating in a sea of mercury, and a 2006 soil analysis suggests that a substantial amount of mercury is still buried in the unexcavated section. 6
Once Li Si removed all of the conservatives from any possible influence over the succession, he announced the death of the emperor and allowed the throne to pass to a prince who agreed with all of the radical changes of the previous decade. Er Shi Huang Di (the Second Emperor), however, ruled only a few years before China fell into civil war.
How Bad Was He?
As with most ancient individuals, there are only a handful of original sources, all filtered through centuries of copying and recopying, censoring, fictionalizing, moralizing, and sensationalizing, so there’s a very good chance that everything we know about Shi Huang Di is wrong, or at least more complicated than we are led to believe. If you go around burying scholars alive, you won’t fare well in the writings of subsequent scholars. 7
We can’t be certain how many people he killed, but for the sake of ranking, I’m following the common accusation of a million.
SECOND PUNIC WAR
Death toll: 770,000 1
Rank: 58
Type: hegemonial war
Broad dividing line: Rome vs. Carthage
Time frame: 218–202 BCE
Location: western Mediterranean
Who usually gets the most blame: Hannibal
Another damn: Roman conquest
B Y NOW ALMOST ALL OF THE COASTAL REGIONS OF THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN had fallen under the domination of either Carthage or Rome. These competing empires were divided by the Ebro River in Spain until the city of Saguntum in the Carthaginian sphere switched sides and asked for Roman protection. Hannibal, the Carthaginian general on the spot, would allow none of that, so he stormed and sacked Saguntum. Then, before the Romans could do much more than complain and issue their formal declaration of war, Hannibal marched a Carthaginian army from Spain, up the coast, and over the Alps into Italy.
Over the next few years, a
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