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Honk · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
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  Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
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  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
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  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. It's okay to ask for help when it's needed.
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  Speaker 1: A student solving a difficult math problem might rely on
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  Speaker 1: a tutor for assistance, or someone trying to move furniture
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  Speaker 1: may ask a few friends to assift in lifting a couch.
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  Speaker 1: In a case of ancient Rome, however, help came from
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  Speaker 1: a very unusual and loud source. Around three b C,
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  Speaker 1: a Gaelic tribe known as the Sonns invaded the northern
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  Speaker 1: coast of Italy, a territory then occupied by the Roman Republic.
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  Speaker 1: A man named Errants invited the Senones south to his
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  Speaker 1: town of Clusium, hoping to get revenge on the man
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  Speaker 1: who had seduced his wife and made a fool of him.
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  Speaker 1: The tribe accepted the invitation and marched towards Clusium, but
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  Speaker 1: the Romans, expecting an attack, stood by an anticipation they
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  Speaker 1: sent three ambassadors to handle the negotiations. The men instructed
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  Speaker 1: the Synones that if they attacked Clusium, then the Roman
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  Speaker 1: military would step in and defend the town. The Senones
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  Speaker 1: agreed to the ambassador's demands on the condition that they
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  Speaker 1: be granted some land instead. This led to an argument,
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  Speaker 1: which in turn started a physical fight, and in the
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  Speaker 1: end one of the Roman ambassadors killed a Snone chieftain.
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  Speaker 1: The tribe pulled back to decide on a course of action.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps unsurprisingly given that one of their leaders had been
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  Speaker 1: slain in action, the Synones chose to attack Rome. They
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  Speaker 1: brought their sizable forces to the Alia River and overtook
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  Speaker 1: the Romans, many of whom either died in battle or
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  Speaker 1: drowned in the river. The Sononas kept marching while many
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  Speaker 1: surviving Roman soldiers escaped to the Etruscan city of v
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  Speaker 1: They didn't bother going back to Rome to warn anybody, though,
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  Speaker 1: as there weren't enough soldiers left to defend them. In
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  Speaker 1: their opinion, the city was as good as gone. As
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  Speaker 1: a result, the gates were left wide open. The Synons
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  Speaker 1: reached the Roman entrance by nightfall. However, they were also
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  Speaker 1: careful to them The open gates felt like a trap,
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  Speaker 1: so they set up camp and decided to wait to attack. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: Roman men in the city who could fight took up
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  Speaker 1: weapons to defend their homes. They stood watch, protecting the senators,
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  Speaker 1: women and children at the Capitoline Hill near the center
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  Speaker 1: of the city. Some people remained in their homes, prepared
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  Speaker 1: to defend them to the death, while others left Rome
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  Speaker 1: entirely until the battle would be over. The Synons put
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  Speaker 1: their plan into action and scale the hill, determined to
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  Speaker 1: sack Rome as retribution for the death of their chieftain. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: they were met with the full force of the city's inhabitants,
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  Speaker 1: who fought them head on. The Romans let the invaders
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  Speaker 1: climb to a certain point for tossing them back down,
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  Speaker 1: forcing the Synones to retreat and regroup. The Synone commander
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  Speaker 1: split his army into two teams after that. One was
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  Speaker 1: tasked with finding the grain in the nearby cities, as
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  Speaker 1: the surviving Roman soldiers had carried it all to Vy
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  Speaker 1: and his men were hungry. The other team readied for
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  Speaker 1: another attack. Meanwhile, Quintus Catacus, the leader of the Roman
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  Speaker 1: survivors from the Battle of the Alia, began recruiting more
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  Speaker 1: soldiers for his army. He wanted the great but disgraced
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  Speaker 1: Roman commander Marcus Furious Camillus to lead them. In order
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  Speaker 1: for that to happen, though his reinstatement had to be
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  Speaker 1: approved by the Senate, who were still hold up in
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  Speaker 1: the Capitoline Hill. A messenger was chosen to travel back
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  Speaker 1: to Rome to request the transfer of power. He climbed
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  Speaker 1: up a side of the hill that had gone unnoticed
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  Speaker 1: by the Synons. The messenger snuck through and delivered the
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  Speaker 1: request to the Senate, who allowed for Camillus to command
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  Speaker 1: the Roman army. He had made it in and out alive,
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  Speaker 1: but he had also left evidence behind. The Synones discovered
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  Speaker 1: the messenger's path. Seeing a new opportunity, they scaled the
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  Speaker 1: side of the hill at nights while the Romans slept,
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  Speaker 1: and they would have gotten away with it too, if
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  Speaker 1: it hadn't been for those meddling geese. That's right, it
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  Speaker 1: wasn't the dogs or the guards that had caught the
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  Speaker 1: Snones sneaking up the hill that night. It was the geese.
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  Speaker 1: They were considered sacred to the goddess Juno and were
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  Speaker 1: beloved within the city. Their honking alerted the Romans to
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  Speaker 1: the synoon's presence. The now awakened Roman soldiers started shoving
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  Speaker 1: enemies down the hill, knocking the approaching invaders behind them
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  Speaker 1: as well. When the fighting was over, Roman officials wanted
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  Speaker 1: to punish the guards who hadn't heard the Snones sneaking in. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: they pinned the blame on one person and tossed him
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  Speaker 1: off the cliff instead. The Synones, however, said that they
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  Speaker 1: would only leave Rome if they were paid to do so.
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  Speaker 1: The Romans, out of options and out of an army,
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  Speaker 1: agreed to their conditions, but before their transaction could be completed,
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  Speaker 1: Camillus finally showed up, and he had brought reinforcements. He
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  Speaker 1: rallied everyone and told the Synones that if they wanted
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  Speaker 1: the city, they had to fight for it. And fight
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  Speaker 1: they did, but if you'll part of the pun their
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  Speaker 1: goose was cooked. Camillus's army had grown considerably since the
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  Speaker 1: Battle of the Alia River. It was comprised of veterans
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  Speaker 1: from that fight, as well as a slew of new
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  Speaker 1: volunteers who dispatched the Synones easily. The story of the
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  Speaker 1: Romans versus the Synones varies depending on the account being told.
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  Speaker 1: Roman historian Livy's version is often cited as the definitive rendition,
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  Speaker 1: but the philosopher Plutarch used to tell it differently, as
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  Speaker 1: did Greek historian Diodorus Sicilis. However, one fact remains constant
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  Speaker 1: in all of the different versions of the tale. The
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  Speaker 1: true heroes were not the Roman soldiers who overcame the
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  Speaker 1: odds and seized victory from the jaws of defeat. It
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  Speaker 1: was the loud honking geese who saved Rome that day. Curious,
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  Speaker 1: you better believe it. There's a stretch of the Atlantic
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  Speaker 1: Ocean widely considered to be strange and mysterious. It's located
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  Speaker 1: off the southern tip of Florida, between Puerto Rico and Bermuda,
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  Speaker 1: and it's known as the Bermuda Triangle. The Bermuda Triangle
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  Speaker 1: has been cited as the reason for the disappearance of
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  Speaker 1: numerous ships and planes, many of which have never been found.
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  Speaker 1: The theories behind the area's effects almost outnumber the vessels.
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  Speaker 1: It has claimed. Everything from aliens to magnetic fields to
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  Speaker 1: methane leaks emanating from the ocean floor below are supposedly
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  Speaker 1: responsible for all the unexplained occurrences. Sadly, the Bermuda Triangles
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  Speaker 1: bark is far worse than its bite. In reality, that
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  Speaker 1: part of the Atlantic is no more dangerous than any
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  Speaker 1: other part of the ocean, but the tall tales told
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  Speaker 1: about it have certainly made sailors and pilots think twice
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  Speaker 1: before steering their crafts through the sea. But there is
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  Speaker 1: another triangle out there, one that's actually more dangerous despite
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  Speaker 1: its location, and it's not in the middle of the
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  Speaker 1: ocean either. In fact, it's a lot closer to home
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  Speaker 1: than most people realize. This other triangle has been the
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  Speaker 1: site of some of the most baffling nautical mysteries on
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  Speaker 1: the planet. In April of nineteen thirty seven, for example,
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  Speaker 1: the steamship O S McFarland was navigating icy waters when
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  Speaker 1: it's captain George Donner went to get some sleep in
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  Speaker 1: his cabin. He told his first mate to let him
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  Speaker 1: know when they were nearing port. Unfortunately, Captain Donner disappeared
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  Speaker 1: before his first mate got the chance. The crew searched
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  Speaker 1: the whole ship for any sign of him. They even
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  Speaker 1: broke down the door of his cabin, but alas Captain
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  Speaker 1: Donner was gone and never seen again. Sixteen years earlier,
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  Speaker 1: another incident occurred with a schooner called the Roosevelt. The
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  Speaker 1: ship boasted a crew of eleven who set sail with
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  Speaker 1: a load of lumber on October. The trip should have
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  Speaker 1: been an easy one, but less than a day later,
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  Speaker 1: its remains were found bobbing like a cork upside down
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  Speaker 1: in the water. A ferry captain in the area noted
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  Speaker 1: that the Roosevelt looked like it had crashed into another ship.
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  Speaker 1: Pieces had been torn away and parts of the vessel
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  Speaker 1: had been bashed in. There were just two problems. First,
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  Speaker 1: the entire crew was gone. Not a single member of
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  Speaker 1: the eleven person team could be found to explain what
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  Speaker 1: had happened. And Secondly, no other ships had reported a
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  Speaker 1: collision that day, nor did any of them have similar
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  Speaker 1: damage done to their hulls. The Rosabelt's demise could not
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  Speaker 1: be fully explained. Of course, the Triangles mysteries weren't limited
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  Speaker 1: to missing crews and broken ships. Strange happenings were also
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  Speaker 1: found below the water. In two thousand seven, Mark Holly,
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  Speaker 1: a professor of underwater archaeology at a local college, had
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  Speaker 1: gone on a diving expedition to map shipwrecks. Shortly into
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  Speaker 1: his trip, he discovered a cluster of vertical stones arranged
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  Speaker 1: on the seafloor in a surprising and familiar your fashion.
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  Speaker 1: To Holly, it was just like England's equally mysterious Stonehenge.
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  Speaker 1: What set these rocks apart from their land based counterparts, however,
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  Speaker 1: was the addition of a massive boulder. The Bowlder measured
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  Speaker 1: four ft tall by five ft wide and was adorned
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  Speaker 1: with carvings of what appeared to be a mastodon. The
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  Speaker 1: stones were believed to have been placed there nine thousand
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  Speaker 1: years ago, but by whom the jury on that is
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  Speaker 1: still out. And finally, no discussion of the triangle would
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  Speaker 1: be complete without mention of the Thomas Hume. The Thomas
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  Speaker 1: Hume was a three masted schooner that had set sail in.
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  Speaker 1: It's six man crew tried to steer the ship through
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  Speaker 1: a squall in late May of that year. Another ship
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  Speaker 1: on the water that day, the Ruce Simmons, chose to
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  Speaker 1: turn back instead of pushing through. The Thomas Hume, however,
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  Speaker 1: pressed on it disappeared, along with its crew, thought to
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  Speaker 1: have been lost forever. Some odd theories cropped up over
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  Speaker 1: the years, though, including one worthy Thomas Hume had really
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  Speaker 1: been repain need and renamed after sailing to a different port.
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  Speaker 1: That didn't make much sense, though one seventeen years later,
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  Speaker 1: the request finally found it hadn't been repainted, nor had
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  Speaker 1: it taken on a new name. It had simply sunk
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  Speaker 1: during bad weather. But these stories are what have added
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  Speaker 1: to the legend of the triangle for the last several
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  Speaker 1: hundred years. So where does this bizarre part of the
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  Speaker 1: world exist? For time and gravity fluctuates and vessels of
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  Speaker 1: all kind go missing at an alarming rate. Its borders
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  Speaker 1: can be traced from Manitowac, Wisconsin, to Luddington, Michigan, before
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  Speaker 1: traveling south to Benton Harbor, about fifty miles west of Kalamazoo.
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  Speaker 1: It's called the Lake Michigan Triangle and it is responsible
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  Speaker 1: for more shipwrecks, lost planes, and strange events than the
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  Speaker 1: Bermuda Triangle ever has. The Lake Michigan Triangle is a
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  Speaker 1: treasure trove of unexplained phenomena, from giant chunks of ice
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  Speaker 1: falling out of a blue sky to multiple UFO sightings
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  Speaker 1: following a meteor strike, and there are still tales about
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  Speaker 1: Lake Michigan yet to be told, as more rex are
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  Speaker 1: uncovered let's just hope the people who travel its waters
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  Speaker 1: today don't end up a part of the story. I
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  Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
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  Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
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  Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how
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  Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
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  Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
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  Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World
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  Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.