On the 27th October 312 AD the battle of Milvian Bridge was fought near Rome. The two men contending for control of Rome and the Empire were Constantine, who controlled Gaul, England and parts of Germany and Maxentius, who controlled Italy, Spain and Africa.
It happens the two were brothers in law.
The day before the monumental and pivotal battle, Constantine saw a flaming cross in the sky, taking I as an omen, he had his men put a cross on their shields and banners.
Full of strength at what their commander had seen, Constantine’s men won the battle. Maxentius drowned crossing a bridge over the Tiber.
Rome would soon be unified under one ruler (only Licentius remained in Constantine’s way.)
Constantine would spend the ret of his reign Christianising his subjects.
He converted on his deathbed, becoming the first Christian Emperor, in 337 AD.
The man in the Iron Mask died today in 1703.
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On the 19th November 1703 a prisoner, whose identity was hidden by a mask he wore, died in the Bastille in Paris. He had been a prisoner for 34 years. Before the Bastille, he had been sent to the prison at Pignerol by one of Louis XIV’s ministers, with the instructions: “It is of extreme importance that he be closely guarded and that he is unable to communicate by letter or any other means…He must be kept in a completely isolated place, so that his guards cannot hear him… And you will never listen to anything he wished to tell you.”
To this day, despite tens of suggested possibile candidates, all who have been refuted, we still are no nearer knowing who he was. -
Definitely. You can see how easily it could be romanticised and turned into a film.
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