Thinking About 1066

"At the base of many a great fortune there was a great crime"

You don't have to be a history fan to know about the year 1066 A.D., when William, Duke of  Normandy, crossed the English Channel and after one battle on its southeastern shore, ended Saxon rule and rather quickly and efficiently took over the whole country.  Those who had served him were given the demesnes of the evicted Saxon lords and all the poor souls who had worked the land for them (meet the new boss!).  It was a perfect crime, and the perpetrators benefited for many generations.

There were many other well-executed thefts before and after.  Early in the First Century B.C., Roman proconsul Caepio, during the confusion of the Cimbric War in southern Gaul, found the hoard known as the Gold of Tolosa and made off with it. Where did this trove come from?  It had previously been stolen from the Temple of Apollo at Delphi in Greece by raiding Gauls. Caepio's family back in Rome, which was noble but usually short on funds, were soon known for their great wealth.  The last heir was Marcus Brutus, main assassin of Julius Caesar.

Two later thefts kept the early Empire solvent.  In 70 A.D., Titus took away the treasures of the Temple in Jerusalem after suppressing the Jewish Revolt, proudly commemorating his appropriation on the Arch which bears his name.  At least a more useful Coloseum got built also.  Emperor Trajan went after the Dacians in what is today Romania , subduing them in 107 A.D.  Do you think he probably didn't want much more from them than a cessation of their frequent raids?  Not a chance.  He relieved them of 165 tons of gold and 330 of silver.  As valuable as precious metals were the captured unfortunates who became slaves.  It is estimated that over a million Gauls suffered their liberty being stolen from them during Caesar's campaigns in what are today France and Belgium.

A multi-talented American lady, Lizzie Magie, was disenchanted with the unrestrained monopoly rampant in the U.S. economy, typified, for her and many others, by Mr .J.D. Rockefeller  In 1904, she published an outline of what she considered an instructive entertainment called "The Landlord's Game."  It circulated around, being changed and developed in the meantime.  A Quaker group in Atlantic City (of all places) renamed the property squares after their local streets.  Unemployed salesman Charles Dawson was introduced to the board game by his Quaker friends on a visit to A.C. and -- as you have probably guessed -- just took it as his own, selling it in prominent toy and department stores and then to Parker Brothers in 1934.  He didn't even come up with the catchier name; some Philadelphia business school students had.  Ms. Magie had to settle for a $500 quit-claim payment while Dawson became a multimillionaire.  They say there's little justice this side of the grave.  We  can only hope things are more honest on that other side.

Lizzie Magie, 1930s