In December 1770 Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn at Bonngasse 20 and baptized with the name of his famous grandfather - a successful musician from Flemish Belgium - and he was given this name in hopes to surpass his famous ancestor. Recognizing he had a prodigy his hands, Ludwigs father Johan van Beethoven tried to present his talented son at his first show at the age of 7. His father pushed him hard and would wake him in the middle of the night to practice his music. By the age of 16 Beethoven was employed as court organist in Bonn by the brother of Emperor Josef of Vienna. The same year he visited Vienna, met Mozart and returned home shortly before his mother died. His father become an alcoholic and forced to retire from his job in service of the Court. Ludwig was forced into adulthood, making real money and had to take care of his two younger brothers. In 1792 at the age of 21 Beethoven arrives in Vienna - the cultural capital - a city overflowing with music in hopes to expand his future. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had died just the year before and the great composer Haydn was ageing - destiny had prepared a place for Beethoven. Music is everywhere - and in less than a year he creates a big name for himself. Beethoven catches the attention of the famous composer Haydn who is amazed at the young talent who arrived from Bonn and begins studying with him.

One of the most important things for Beethoven was making contact with the aristocrats - who hosted concerts in their palaces on a weekly basis. They would meet regularly and host the best musicians of the town. He would seek sponsors who would let him make music the way he wanted rather than what was expected of him. Aristocratic patrons such as Joseph Franz von Lobkowitz around the same age as Beethoven would seek fun in their palaces and inviting a wild child like Beethoven made life exciting. These patrons were critical for Beethovens finances. However by his mid 20s Beethoven noticed his hearing was disappearing. He had to site closer and closer to the stage to hear the notes and music. This began with the high frequency notes such as piccolos, flutes and top of the violin while maintaining the lower frequencies. This would distort what he was hearing. He became isolated from conversations and began avoiding people. Losing hearing, the one important element of his senses was the cruelest form of torture. This is when he wrote his famous Moonlight Sonata as the music reflected his own mortality. The ideas came faster to him than he could digest them - he changed the course of music. He stood between 2 generations - one foot firmly ground in Mozart / enlightenment and Goethe. His other part was a member of romanticism - he transformed music from enlightenment into romanticism.

For the people of Pompeii the world reached a horrific end in the Autumn of 79 AD. The only surviving eyewitness account of the event consists of two letters written by Pliny the Younger (who was 17 at the time of the eruption) to the Roman historian Tacitus some 25 years later. Observing the first volcanic activity from across the Bay of Naples 29 kilometers away, Pliny the Elder (his uncle) launched a rescue fleet immediately - while Pliny the Younger stayed behind. He wrote of a extraordinary dense cloud rising above mount Vesuvius. His words describe a pine-tree with spreading branches which was sometimes bright and sometimes dark and spotted - impregnated with earth and cinders. After three tremors the sea rolled back upon itself. Flashes appeared through dark clouds and ash fell like a blanket of snow.

Meanwhile for Pliny the Elder things were taking a turn for the worse. As commander fo the Roman fleet at Misenum he went to investigate the phenomenon at close range. He ordered the fleet galleys to evacuate the people on the coast. As he neared the other side of the bay he encountered thick showers of hot cinders, lumps of pumice and pieces of rock. Ignoring the helmsman to turn back Pliny insisted that Fortune favors the brave and continued to Stabiae - a town about 4.5km from Pompeii. Very soon they realized the strong onshore wind prevented any ships from leaving. Pliny and his party saw flames shooting from parts of the mountain - presumed to be burning villages. Forced to stay overnight the crew attempted to approach the beach with pillows tied to their heads to protect from rockfall - however the wind had not changed and exhausted Pliny sat down on a sail for a rest to never stand again.

The Roman conquest of Britain began in 43 AD but resistance in the north was fierce. Roman General Quintus Petillius Cerialis led the 9th Legion into the north and founded Eboracum in 71 AD (which became York) Originally Eboracum was intended to be a military fortress aligned along the river Ouse measuring about 50 acres in size. This wooden camp was upgraded to stone in 108 AD and garrisoned by the 6th Legion. The famous Emperor Hadrian reportedly visited Eboracum in 122 AD in order to plan his great walled frontier, which would be named after him. Emperor Septimus Severus visited in 208 AD and made it his private base while campaigning against Scotland, and he became the first of three Roman Emperors who would die in Eboracum. In 237, the town became a colonia, the highest legal status any Roman city could attain as Eboracum was the largest town in the north and the capital of Britannia Inferior. This is exactly the time period from when these 7 gladiators hailed.

Detailed analysis of these gladiators from York revealed some fascinating results. The bones showed various degrees of wear and tear as one might expect from the dangerous sport: 6DRIF-18 revealed a spinal fracture of the first vertibrae, 6DRIF-21, 6DRIF-3, and 3DRIF-16 meanwhile have fractured forearms, ankles and wrists. 6DRIF-22 has a skull injury as well as a stab to the neck - his extra vertebrae did not seem to assist with his fate. 6DRIF-23 meanwhile had 4 cuts to his jaw and was fully decapitated - clearly not the best fate to have. Last but not least 3DRIF-26 is fascinating indeed - he had a left shoulder injury, fractured ribs, damage wrists - and from a genetic standpoint is a deviation from the rest. His background compared to ancient samples from the time period matches very close to Ptolemaic Egyptians or the Near East.