Everybody knows a novel by Daniel Dafoe that is known as Robinson Crusoe. This book had been all-time bestseller at the times when there was no such word as “bestseller” itself. In fact, by the end of the 19th century, no book in the history of Western literature had spawned more editions, spin-offs, and translations than Robinson Crusoe. There had been more than seven hundred such alternative versions, including children’s versions with mainly pictures and no text. Hundreds of adaptations in dozens of languages, had been published - from The Swiss Family Robinson to Luis Buñuel’s film adaptation.
But there are several historical facts unknown to general public. First of all the full title of the book was not Robinson Crusoe. When the novel was published in April 25, 1719 it had the following title: The Life and strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver’d by Pyrates. Written by Himself.
In Hollywood movie adaptations of the novel somehow Robinson Crusoe is a cast away somewhere new African continent, this Friday is of African origin. But in the book Robinson Crusoe was most certainly based in the Caribbean. Since author mentions that the Crusoe’s island was almost in the mouth of the river Orinoco, it was probably the island of Tobago, since that island is near the mouth of the river Orinoco, and in sight of the island of Trinidad.
And this is what modern public most definitely don’t know. Daniel Defoe wrote a sequel to the first book which had another long title: THE FARTHER ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE; Being the Second and Last Part OF HIS LIFE, And of the Strange Surprizing Accounts of his Travels Round three Parts of the Globe. Written by Himself.
But wait! Here is more… There is even the third book written by Daniel Defoe with the title Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe. That book had really nothing with the adventures of Robinson as the first two books. It represents a series of moral essays. What has that got to do with Robinson, you may ask? Well Daniel Defoe just attached the name Crusoe to increase sales of this book and to attract the attention of the readers. .
We all know about the deeds of Alexander the Great, one of the greatest heroes of antiquity. We know the details of his death too. But what happened after?
There were various stories circulating in ancient Greece at the time. According to one, Alexander’s body was placed in pure gold sarcophagus. This sarcophagus was in turn placed in a gold casket and covered with a purple robe. The second story tells us that the coffin with Alexander’s body was placed together with his armor in a gold carriage with a vaulted roof.
But there is more. Another legend tells us that there was an attempt to preserve Alexander’s body. A clay vessel with is body was filled up with honey. Evidently, each of former Greek generals wanted to get it. Ptolemy outsmarted them all and stole Alexander’s corpse and brought it to his capital Alexandria. He put it on a display, for everyone to see. One of the latest rulers of Egypt Ptolemy IX desperately needed money. For him Alexander’s tomb was all you can eat treasure. Without thinking twice, he melted the gold sarcophagus of Alexander and made a lot gold coins.
Trying to cover his tracks, Ptolemy IX put Alexander’s body in a glass sarcophagus instead. It did not work, though. Citizens of Alexandria were furious and could not forget Ptolemy’s unforgivable deed. They started riots. In the end, greedy Ptolemy IX was killed, which served him right.
But, wait, there is even more. It seems that Alexander’s body was kept on display till late antiquity. There was one nasty looter related to this story. It was no one else but Roman emperor Caligula who robbed Alexander’s tomb, stole his armored breastplate and wore it in Rome. Well, as we know, Caligula also ended badly.
It was around two hundred of our era when finally emperor Septimius Severus closed Alexander’s tomb to the public. His son, emperor Caracalla was a big fan of Alexander the Great and often visited his tomb during his rule. After that, history loses track of Alexander’s tomb. The details are pretty vague and unverified.
When I was going through the archives of my local web analytics company, I found another interesting case, when major government in Europe was cheated and lost its national treasure to Bolsheviks. The first case is related to the Civil war in Spain in the thirties of the twentieth century. It is called infamously Moscow gold case.
Short lived Spanish Republic desperately needed arms and military equipment but other European countries did not want to get involved in the civil war and did not sell anything to the Spaniards. The only country that ignored this embargo was the Soviet Union. That is why in 1937 the Spanish republic sent most of the gold reserves from its national Treasure to Russians. One must say, that at the time Spain was on the fourth place in the world for its stored gold. And the USSR got most of it, which amounted at the time to five hundred million dollars.
When Franco and his supporters learned about it, they heavily protested this transaction, stating that this gold belongs to the people and not to the Spanish government. But the transaction turned sour for the republicans because Soviets sold them all kind of military junk stored since World War I. Besides, prices were extremely inflated for each rifle and each bullet. This outdated equipment, part of which was malfunctioning right from the start, turned out to be one of the huge factors that impacted the defeat of the Spanish Republic.
When World War I started Romania was on the side of the Entente Powers. Its military campaign was against Germany was not successful and soon German troops moved into Romania and even occupied its capital Bucharest. Romain administration had no other choice but to send its national Treasure abroad. It was hard to choose which Ally country would safe keep the Treasure until bad times are over. There were plans to send it to England or the United States but Germans troops controlled Central Europe and there was a big chance that they would intercept the Treasure. Sweden or Denmark were another choice but there was a problem to transport all values there safely because German submarines were all over the North Sea.
In this hard situation the decision had been made to send Romanian national Treasure to tsarist Russia. According to mutual agreement Russia would safe keep Treasure until the end of the war. Under heavy guard almost hundred tonnes of gold bars and coins with the total cost of 1.25 billion dollars was sent to Moscow and safely got there. Soon situation at the front became even worse for Romania, so its administration send additional valuable transport to Russia. It included priceless items, like jewels of Romanian royalty, jewels of ancient rulers, jewels dated to the time of Roman empire and antique jewels of the pre Roman era. But this was not all. Russia also received for safekeeping archives of the Romanian Academy, priceless religious artifacts and manuscripts and even multiple deposits that citizens kept at the Romanian banks. There is no estimate for this second transport, but, most definitely, even if we try to do this, it will probably will be several times more than the first transport.
Well, it is highly likely that you already know what happened next, when Bolsheviks overthrow the old authorities in Russia. They refused to abide and respect an treaty signed by tsar and previous government. Basically, they got it all and multiple attempts of Romanian government to recover the Treasure were unsuccessful. The most important part of two transports was never returned. Only in 1935 Romanians received back bits and pieces of the archives and in 1956 small part of the paintings and ancient objects. That was all.
Up until now Romanians still can’t return their Treasure. They tried repeatedly to get it back after the fall of the Soviet Union but to no avail. All negotiations failed. Russian side sank down demands each time, refusing to discuss them further.
