A Wizarding History of Britain from Earliest Times: Excerpt 2

A HISTORY OF WIZARDING BRITAIN FROM EARLIEST TIMES

BOOK 3: UNDER THE NAILED BOOT

The next two chapters, concerning Rome's rise to power in Italy and subsequently around the Mediterranean are omitted as only being of interest to specialists in Roman history, and I am therefore skipping straight to chapter 4.

In common with many other historians of his lifetime, Binns has the annoying habit of assuming that everybody can read Latin, and anybody who can't should be shielded from the corrupting effect of the writers he quotes - interestingly enough, ones known to Muggles. As I don't share either of these assumptions I have provided translations in the footnotes.

It is, incidentally, not immediately obvious whether Hogwarts students would be able to read these quotations. Although spells are mostly in a language that is, to put it politely, the Canine dialect of Latin, there is no indication that Hogwarts students learn any language, living or dead (unlike those at Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, who certainly study English at some point).

The quotations in this chapter are all from Suetonius' "Lives of the Caesars", though Binns never attributes them.

CHAPTER 4: THE WOLVES TRIUMPHANT

What, then, was the situation shortly before the commencement of our era, by which time this pernicious state had been in existence for some seven centuries? From the bucolic and innocent use of the power of virginity and the Henge effect, the Romans had moved on to learn the more dubious techniques of "Left Hand" sexual magic and with their aid assimilated the wizarding Sabine tribe. Having thrown off the yoke of Etruscan rule they vanquished their erstwhile vanquishers and absorbed their magical arts: in particular, the use of runes (1), augury (2) and haruspicy (3).

From the conquered Carthaginians they obtained another magical art, one for which the term "Dark" is far too mild an expression. As mentioned in Chapter 1, even from the earliest times the Romans were aware of the properties of infant corpses in augmenting the power of spells, and even more so when the unfortunate child was of potentially wizarding powers, and particularly in the latter case took steps to prevent this loathsome practice taking place. The Carthaginians (much to the horror of the Romans' Muggle subjects) not only practised this foul act, but even took it a stage further, for not only did their magic make use of such corpses but their unspeakable practices involved their using their own offspring; instead of clutching them tenderly to their breasts, they would feed them to the insatiable maws of the figures of their Superwizards, who recompensed them, as was shown in Chapter 3, by granting them power to threaten and even come near to defeating Rome.

A people with a more wholesome reputation, having defeated a nation of such unnatural parents, might well have obliterated them, as indeed was the case. It is a cause for revulsion to discover that having destroyed the Carthaginians the Romans adopted the very practices that were so condemned, enhancing their powers but at the same time producing the first rift between Muggles and Magicians. Despite the ability of the Magicians ("Patricians") to confuse and mislead the Muggles ("Plebeians") to an extent that cannot be accounted for purely in terms of Oblivation, there remained a residuum of distaste and distrust that while it could not be consciously accounted for by the Muggles, later can be seen to be a contributory factor in the separation of Magicians from Muggles.

The practice of infant necromancy inevitably took its toll. Legislation in the succeeding centuries endeavoured to increase the magical population by enforcing early marriage; rewarding child-bearing; and insisting that each family retain at least two boys and one girl. The necessity for such legislation to be reiterated shows how ineffective it was, and from this time the numbers of Patricians shrank visibly. In desperation, intermarriage with Muggle-born wizards was made legal; but the insatiable demand for infant blood continued, and many a child that had barely drawn its first breath contributed to this thirst. (4)

Adults, however, also contributed to the need for blood, and the Patricians, showing deep cunning, managed to provide not one but three needs at a blow. The instauration of gladiatorial combats, originally intended to empower the ancestral Superwizards but now usurped by their descendant, provided entertainment for the populace; inured them to the sight of death, and provided vast quantities of blood shed in an emotionally charged atmosphere. Blood, indeed, and slaughter were part of the lives of the beasts most often used as familiars: neither the ferrets of the Greeks nor the wildcats of the Druids, nor even the helpful owls of the Germanic peoples, their creature of choice was the eagle, a raptor and a carrion eater that even the Romans accused of discarding its own young (5). It is little wonder that through these foul means the Romans were able to dominate the whole of the Mediterranean sphere, and were well on their way to becoming the paramount wizards of the Old World, using their pre-eminence to build a monopoly in magic.

It was at this point that Gaius Julius Caesar came to the fore. Of the line of the founder of the city and thus the heir of all the magic that that entailed, he enhanced it by taking a further turning along the Left Hand path by combining the techniques of his Superwizard Ancestor with those of his Superwitch Ancestress. Gaudeamus Battle discusses without coming to any firm conclusion the suggestion that he followed the example of the wizard Tiresias in physically transforming from one sex to the other, citing a contemporary description of him as "omnium mulierum uir(um) et omnium uirorum mulier(em)" (6).

His explorations in the Left Hand path are difficult to reconcile with a statement that indicates pre-eminence in the Right Hand path, namely that "Pudicitiae eius famam nihil quidem praetor Nicomedis contubernium laesit" (7). In this context one also should consider his being hailed as "queen" to Gnaeus Pompeius' "king" (a curiously early use of a locution more often associated with modern times) further exemplified by the comment at one stage in his career that "... se quae concupisset, proinde ex eo insultaturum omnium capitibus; ac negante quodam per contumeliam facile hoc ulli feminae fore, responderit quasi adludens: in Suria quoque regnasse Sameramin magnamque Asiae partem Amazonas tenuisse quondam." (one that is indeed best left veiled in the obscurity of a dead language) (8).

Even in more conventional amours the general opinion was that "pronum et sumptuosum in libidines fuisse" (9) and one of these liaisons, with the mother of Brutus (who was by some alleged to be his son), was so notorious that when he had property sold to her at a bargain price it was commented that "quo melius ... emptum sciatis, tertia deducta; existimabatur enim Seruilia etiam filiam suam Tertiam Caesari conciliare" (10) - an indication that even in ancient times neither Magicians nor Muggles were free from the temptation to vulgar plays on words.

These measures, however, did not suffice him. Robbed of the opportunity of practising the "Jocasta Technique" as described by Gaudeamus Battle(11) by his mother's predeceasing his birth, the other method he used to increase his already redoubtable powers was that drawn from the Carthaginians. He was one of the many Roman wizards who used the frail corpses of their own offspring in that detestable variant of necromancy that fills with repulsion the mind of every magician endowed with a conscience, to the effect that of all offspring begotten by him a bare handful survived - one daughter of a marriage whose existence was necessary to bind an ally to him; the children of the above-mentioned Servilia, and the son of Cleopatra who was protected by his mother's own powerful magic. The assiduous reader may well wonder what would have happened had his mother survived and herself practised this magic, but speculation on alternative possibilities is not the province of the serious historian. Be that as it may, in addition to this wholesale shedding of his own blood, the blood that poured into the sand from the gladiators slain at his command in the "games" that he was so renowned for promoting, further fuelled his magic, and through the most detestable of means his position became paramount, not least as a result of his power to send his inner essence out of his body to spy upon his rivals.

Rome having dealt with the threat to its pre-eminent magical position both in the Italian peninsula and in the South, Caesar felt it advisable to confront a danger that, as was seen in Chapter 2, had in the past been viewed as very real but of late years had been dismissed: that of the Druidical Peoples of North West Europe. As shown in Book II, they had achieved a perfect synthesis of Muggle and Magician, each part of the population contributing their own skills and abilities to the well-being of the population as a whole, marred only by the lamentable tendency of the young males when excited by their native mead and ale, or even by wine whose purchase they thus ensured (12), of both sections to engage in battle with other tribes. The power of both their Muggle warriors and their Magicians were such that, at a time when the youthful city of Rome had already gained domination over its neighbours, they were able to enter and slaughter its senior Wizards; and indeed, as will be remembered, the remaining population was preserved only by the vigilance of its Familiars, a flock of geese. This traumatic experience was seared into the collective minds of the Romans, and they willingly supported Caesar's offer to turn his attention not only to the Druidical inhabitants of what is now Northern Italy but also to those beyond the Alps in what is now France.

For a magician of his calibre, an army was barely necessary. Nevertheless he paid as much attention to his Muggle soldiers as he did to his magical following, gaining the awe and admiration of both by an example of his powers: rather than riding a horse, he bred and raised on his own estate a thestral which throughout his career was his sole steed. The nature of society at the time being what it was, in the case of the Romans through the gladiatorial games and in the case of the Druidical peoples through the endemic intertribal warfare, it was, of course, visible to all; but when in the presence of civilian Muggles he was in the habit of disguising its appearance. To produce a lasting illusion of hoofprints on the ground was, of course, impractical so he adopted the compromise of allowing it to appear to be a horse with toes instead of hoofs, thus allaying many of its spectators' suspicions.

It was on this dread creature that he led his forces against the Druids and their warriors. In one respect he was ultimately successful, defeating the Muggle warriors despite druidical support and seizing their over-king, but to his chagrin he discovered that the ultimate source of magical power was to be found not, as he had believed, in the Forest of the Carnutes (13) but across the Channel in Britain. Thus for the first time the Heirs of the Wolves turned their dread attention on these islands.

Great though Caesar's wizarding powers were, however, those of the Druids were greater. By an astounding feat of magic that required the full Druidical Council meeting at the Stone Hall (14), they accomplished what had hitherto been considered an impossible feat and brought about an alliance of the chieftains of what is now South East England under Cassivellaunus. This leader, who was both Wizard and warrior, had a personal grudge against Caesar for having seduced along the Left Hand path the Gaulish princess Flora, Cassivellaunus' beloved, and this spurred him to ever greater activity.

Picture the scene atop the White Cliffs of Dover as the British warriors stand in wonder at the great ships sailing beneath them; and again a little later as the massed ranks of chariots await the landing, the warriors protected not, as the Roman forces were, by armour but by the power of the sigils painted on their bodies; for, as will be remembered from Book II, even those counted as Muggles in these islands were gifted with a modicum of magical talent. But strong talent was embodied in the powerful figure of Cassivellaunus, the purity of whose love for the gentle Flora in their joint pursuit of the Right Hand path could be seen by all: for at a time when no horse in Britain was tall enough to carry a full-grown man, alone of his people he rode astride - not a horse, but a shimmering silver-grey unicorn.

Then came that lamentable moment, long regretted in tale and song, when that awful portent of things to come occurred, and to face the beauteous creature the grim thestral first set its clawed foot on British soil.

Despite the strength lent to them by their Druids, the British forces could not at first prevail against the forces of the Wolf, and Cassivellaunus prudently withdrew, initiating peace talks to preserve his men while the Druids regrouped their strength and within a few days they had summoned up such a storm as the Romans had never before seen, smashing their ships and demoralising the men. Further defeats in battle were inflicted on the Romans, and further storms were summoned, compelling Caesar at last to quit these shores.

Great was the rejoicing at his departure, but great the alarm and sorrow when the very next year he returned again, this time taking more care with the camp for his men. But again the Druids raised a destructive storm, wrecking many ships and forcing Caesar to bring his surviving vessels ashore. In the ensuing fighting Caesar wielded his magical powers to such effect that the Romans hard pressed Cassivellaunus' men; but even so this would have availed them little had it not been for the treachery of Mandubratius, a prince of the tribe of the Trinobantes whose father had been slain by Cassivellaunus in the tribal wars alluded to above. The information that he was able to give Caesar concerning the techniques of the Druids was such that rather than the ignominious expulsion of the previous year the two forces fought to a stalemate. Despite this ignoble and perilous action (though no Divination among the Britons could foresee the events of succeeding centuries) Caesar was not able to proceed further but, fearing further storms, retreated to the safety of subjugated Gaul.

True to his duplicitous nature, when preparing his account of these episodes Caesar not only suppressed all reference to the magical aspects of the campaign (being felt to be unsuitable for a Muggle readership though many of them were in no doubt of his powers) but also claimed to have been victorious to the extent that his conquest was acknowledged, hostages given and tribute paid. Apart from later suggestions of friendship, however, there is no confirmation of this assertion.

Wisely, Caesar chose not to make a third attempt, using his accomplishments in Rome and his necromantic use of the unhappy Gaulish chieftain Vercingetorix to consolidate his position.

He extended his powers still further by entering into a Left Hand relationship with the Queen of Egypt. This formidable Witch had inherited from her ancestors the notorious powers of the Macedonian wizarding folk, which abilities had been bound into the bloodline both by the partially-understood inheritance effects of inbreeding and by the Left Hand arts intensified by the participants being in an incestuous relationship. Though Battle may view conjunction between brother and sister as being less powerful than his "Jocasta Technique", it must be noted that at the time Left Hand magic practised by brother and sister was believed to be of immense efficacy, and was indeed the one aspect of Egyptian magic that this line of foreign monarchs had adopted. Cleopatra, however, had in both magical and Muggle affairs turned to Egyptian practices, both having herself represented as an Egyptian monarch in the dress of an Egyptian Superwizard and also studying the arts of that ancient and magical land.

But even the lessons he learned from her did not suffice to protect Caesar. At Rome the suspicion grew that he intended to follow Romulus' example and pass over to become a Superwizard; in addition, he aroused the personal enmity of his son, Brutus, whose intention of pursuing the Left Hand path with his sister was thwarted by Caesar's having pre-empted him through the use of Battle's "Agamemnon Technique". Being greatly his father's inferior, Brutus was unable to make any moves against him until a happy chance brought him in contact with the Druid warrior, Cassivellaunus, who had pursued his foe to Rome. With the aid of the Briton he was able to bring together a group of magicians of greater or less power, who acting in concert enabled an inner coven to attack Caesar. Caesar ignored the warning of a practitioner of Divination, possibly suspecting the information to be unrealistically pessimistic on good grounds (a situation still not unknown in our own times (15)) as it appears that the same warning of doom awaiting him on the Ides of March had been given to him over the previous ten years or so. Supported by both indigenous and Druidical powers, the conspirators, armed with athames, put an end to the over-ambitious Caesar (16).

Even so an attempt was made to convince the populace that he had indeed achieved his ambition, and the Roman Muggles revered him as such. The real situation was, however, well known to his family and it was in any event impossible to deceive any wizard. Thus the first truly great and dangerous Roman Wizard passed beyond the Veil forever.

(1) There is a clear and definite line of development from the letters adopted by the Etruscans on the one hand to the Romans, and on the other hand via the "Druidical Peoples" of Northern Italy to Germany to the Futhark runes.

(2) Foretelling the future from the flight of birds.

(3) Foretelling the future from the intestines, and particularly the livers, of animals that had been killed for the purpose.

(4) This may refer to the practice, known to Muggle academics, of killing new-born babies by cutting the umbilical cord so close to the body that they bled to death.

(5) Aesop's fables (see the new Penguin translation) retains this allegation about eagles

(6) "Every woman's man and every man's woman"

(7) "His reputation for chastity was damaged by nothing apart from his intimacy with [King] Nicomedes"

(8) "...so from then on he would mount on their heads [a double meaning here, one sexual] and answered back someone who by way of insult commented that this was not easy for any woman by saying almost jokingly that Semiramis had also reigned in Syria and in the past the Amazons had held a large part of Asia." Professor Binns' mindset is clearly more 19^th than even 20^th century.

(9) "unrestrained and extravagant in his lusts"

(10) "'It's a better buy than you think - a third has been knocked off!' It was in fact believed that Servilia had been prostituting her daughter Tertia to Caesar" (the play on words is "tertia" which could mean "one third" or the name "Tertia". Names were not given initial capitals in Classical Latin.)

(11) The Jocasta Technique and the Agamemnon Technique referred to later appear to relate to mother-son and father-daughter relationships respectively.

(12) Professor Binns is even more cryptic than usual here. He may be alluding to the practice of capturing enemy tribesmen, enslaving them and selling them to the Romans for wine.

(13) For further details on this, I recommend the Goscinny and Uderzo "Asterix" books

(14) Book II shows this to be Stonehenge

(15) This either gives a recent date for the writing of the book or suggests that Sybill Trelawney was not alone in being given to unfounded prophecies of doom

(16) I am inclined to suspect, from the lack of references elsewhere, that Hogwarts views athames in much the same light as Muggle schools view switchblades.