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“The Forum in Rome is the most stately,

most solemn. grand , majestic, and

mournful sight conceivable.”

          …Charles Dickens (1845)

Many visitors to the Forum Romanum may formulate misleading mental pictures of what daily life was like there in the glory days of the late Republic and early Empire.  (First century, B.C. and A.D.)  They may conjure up images of only dignified senators, consuls, judges, and other V.I.P.’s in purple-bordered togas coming and going in their conduct of government and justice.  They may envision only splendid colonnaded temples set high upon marble staircases, and other handsome porticoed public buildings like the Basilica of Aemilia or the massive Tabularium (the Hall of Records) as the backdrop.  Such notions fall quite short of the reality of the site, however.

While this Forum was the seat of government, it was also much more:  The business, banking, and religious center, an open-air market, a marketplace of ideas.  It was a popular venue for making deals of every nature.  It was a clamorous hub of activity and enterprise.  It was a hangout for the idle rich and the jobless poor, and every social class in between. 

Surging throngs moved through the Forum from sunrise to mid-evening.  The tumult and the din were beyond the power of words to describe, the medley of sights and sounds impossible to convey.  One had to be there!

In front of one temple or another, smoke rose from sacrificial rites and the chanting of priests perpetually filled the air.  From behind rough wooden tables, along the Via Sacra, whose paving stones remember the footsteps of Caesar, peddlers of fast-food shouted their prices and offerings.  Fishmongers, having set up shop in the porticoes of various edifices, befouled the air with unpleasant and pungent odors.  (Their eventual eviction was one of the earliest steps taken to improve the image of the Forum.)

Crowds of buyers and vendors of all sorts of wares jostled with lobbyists en route to their usual station in front of the Senate chamber.  Street entertainers, beggars, the homeless, noisy little kids being shushed by every passing senator and retired old men looking to kill time, juvenile delinquents up to mischief, artists and con-artists, all mingled with howling cats and growling dogs.  Donkeys pulling carts were, at times, bumper to bumper.

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The Roman forum as it appears today. xlizziexx, Pixabay

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There were young men  –  such as Julius Caesar and Marcus Tullius Cicero  –  studying law by clerking for prominent attorneys, patricians strutting by with their coteries of lackeys, consuls with their secret service agents, (called lictors), robed judges late for court, prosecutors and litigants, and bureaucrats on their way to political patronage jobs.  There were poets of every stripe reciting their verses from makeshift platforms all the livelong day, hecklers, roustabouts, welfare recipients yelling at legislators, “Increase the dole!”  There were armed troops on horseback, helpless to do much of anything toward wresting some order out of all this.

Campaigning politicians in their bleached-white togae candidae in pursuit of votes, would at certain times of the year swell the ranks of Forum habitues.  The better-educated citizens liked to swarm around the news bulletins (Acta Diurna) posted on large wooden boards propped against some column or arch.  Daily life in the Forum was, in short, a loosely choreographed, colorful bedlam.  It was Times Square, Piccadilly Circus, and the Casbah rolled up into one.

There were crowds going one way, crowds going another; crowds stopping and obstructing movement in either direction, with all the participants exceedingly animated and obstreperous, gesticulating wildly.  The lone thoroughfare, the Via Sacra, was just about impassable.

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The Via Sacra as it appears today. Carla Tavares, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

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The morning hours, before the heat set in, saw the greatest concentration of people.  In one speech, Cicero complained about getting shoved and elbowed along by the crunch of humanity trying to shoe-horn their way through the Arch of the Fabii at the eastern entrance.  His Roman pride and dignity were particularly offended at the sight of hordes of foreigners:

“These Spaniards and Gauls walking haughtily through our Forum!”

He surely would have made note of the large numbers of Greeks, Syrians, Numidians, and Illyrians as well.  Cicero would often mumble with disdain about a certain one of his political foes, a powerful crony of the dictator Sulla,

“… hovering about the Forum with his hair fancily combed and shining with unguents!”

The Forum was the scene of occasional riots and bloodshed, the staging ground for some of the capital’s most shameful disorders.  Practically every society, or guild, or private interest group would inevitably organize a “March on the Forum” to air their grievances and demands.  Such events could turn violent, as could some political rallies.

The historian Livy complained one day about a group of women who had  marched on the Forum:

“Indeed it was with some embarrassment that

I came a few minutes ago to the Forum, right

through a throng of women.  If I had not held

in respect the dignity and basic decency of each woman

as an individual (it would mortify them to be seen

receiving a scolding from a consul, say, or a

Senator),  I would have said:  ‘It is not right for

you to concern yourselves about which laws are

passed or repealed here.”

But Seneca in his serene stoicism saw it all through a different lens and marveled at the cosmopolitanism of the place:

“…where flow together from every corner of the globe, those induced by ambition, or by appetite for pleasure.”

By late afternoon, the inebriated would stagger in, following hours of guzzling and eating at nearby cauponae (taverns).

There were also some other unsavory characters, wanted back home by the local authorities, who poured in from the provinces to take refuge in the obscurity of the slum district of Rome, just a few minutes’ walk from the Forum.

Various ancient authors speak to us of the sundry types who lingered  –  or should we say “malingered”  –  in the precincts of the Forum.  Certain groups acquired the habit of convening in the same area each day, so that in time different spots and corners were named for them.  For example, members of the legal profession in need of clients loitered near the Rostra (the balustraded elaborate speakers’ platform).  A large clague of idlers met near the Sun Dial.   Jewelers and makers of musical instruments set up shop along the Via Sacra.  Other sources inform us that perfume sellers were generally found at the southern end.  Book publishers conducted business in the Argiletum, the wide street that entered the Forum to the side of the Basilica Aemilia.  This section was plagued by pickpockets.  At dusk the petty thieves could be spotted there divvying up the day’s take.  Fortune-tellers were all over the place.

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3-D reconstruction of the Basilica Aemilia as it would have appeared in its day. L.VII.C, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

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The Basilica Aemilia as it appears today. Jordiferrer, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

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At any rate, it was through such unbridled mayhem that senators, magistrates, and other officials had to pick their way to the Curia (Senate building), or to the Basilica (courthouse), or to the Tabularium (Hall of Records), often to a soundtrack of sibilant hisses and jeers from the cynical populace, many of whom were on the dole.

It wasn’t until daylight began to lose itself in the west, that the crowds would disperse and go quickly home, for the streets of Rome were no place to be after dark, what with muggers, rapists, and other malefactors on the prowl.

Juvenal, in one of his satires, has something to say about it:

“Consider the dangers of a Roman night. Chipped ceramic dishes, tossed from a rooftop, that might shatter on your head.  Danger in every window you pass under.  You can only hope that the resident may be content to pour down the contents of a slop-pail.  A rickety horse-drawn wagon whose axle breaks, spilling its load of marble on the pavement, gangs of bullies with malice in mind, a dead body to step over.  Such is the privilege of the poor bloke who, having been assaulted, prays to get home with a few teeth left in his mouth.  You would be foolish to go out to dinner if you haven’t yet made out your will.”

As far back as the second century before Christ, Plautus the playwright, in one of his dramas, offered a virtual guide on where to find whom:  “Monstrabo quo quemque hominem facile inveniatis loco.”  (I’ll show you where you can track-down men of every type.)

“Qui mendacem et goriosum apud Cloacinae Veneris sacrum.”  (Who would like a liar or a pedantic, check out the shrine of Venus Cloacina.)

“Qui periurum convenire volt hominem ito in Comitium.”  (If you hope to meet up with a perjurer, go over to the Comitium.)

“In medio propter canalem, ibi ostentores meri.”  (Around the middle section, near the pond, are those who put on airs, showoffs.)

“Sub veteribus ibi sunt qui dant quique accipiunt faenore.”  (Down by the old shops are the loansharks.)

“Pone aedem Castoris, ibi sunt subito quibus credas male.”  (Behind the Temple of Castor are the swindlers. Do not trust them.)

“Confidentes garrulique et malevoli supra lacum, qui alteri de nihilo audacter dicunt contumeliam.”  (Beyond the pond are those cocky and garrulous wiseguys who gratuitously harass others with insults.)

“Ditis damnos maritos sub basilica quaerito ibidem erunt scorta exoleta.”  (You will find the rich, derelict husbands at the base of the basilica, where there will be waiting mature ‘escorts.’)

A century later, the satirist Gaius Luciliuis, whom Horace credits as the originator of that genre of literature, echoes Plautus’  sentiments with this:

“Nunc vero a mani ad noctem, festo atque profesto, totus item pariterque die populusque iactare indu foro se omnes, decedere nusquam; uni se atque eidem studio omnes dedere et artiverba dare ut caute possint, pugnare dolose, blanditia certare, bonum silulare virum se, insidias facere ut si hostes sint omnibus omnes.”   (Now truly from morning to  night, holiday or not, the commoners and the elite descend on the Forum with no plans for ever leaving.  They pull the same stunts on one another, and fight like cats and dogs then make nice in an effort to seem reputable, while at the same time they continue to plot against their own kind like irreconcilable foes.)

Such were the day-to-day activities in the great Forum Romanum, with some exceptions.  On days of special events, such as the inauguration of the newly elected consuls, or a sacrosanct ritual of the Vestal Virgins, or a triumphal parade honoring victorious legions with their spoils of combat and their pitiful prisoners-of-war in tow, or any other highly ceremonial celebration, perhaps, for example, an official state visit by the diplomatic corps representing all the provinces and allies—for such occasions, the authorities would see to it that a sanitized version of the Forum was presented.  On the days leading up to such hoopla, a company of elite Roman troops would make a clean sweep of it, rousting and ousting all the unwanted dramatis personae.  This would be followed by a squad of street cleaners ridding this hallowed ground of all the accumulated debris.  The following day the usual suspects would flock back to the Forum and renew the madcap circus ambience, amid the architectural splendor of the place.

That splendor of the majestic rectangle (540 yards by 270) would be heartlessly ravaged by the invading barbarians of the early Middle Ages, who reduced the old marketplace into today’s ruin-strewn graveyard.  Sic transit gloria mundi—thus passes the glory of the world.

Hierapolis, 2nd century A.D. The sky was painted in a hue of blood-orange as the sun descended. The white travertines of Pamukkale glowed crimson, as if soaked in ancient blood. In the heart of Hierapolis, behind the Temple of Apollo, a sacred courtyard stood silent. Only the priests of Cybele —the Galli, dressed in red robes with silver clasps— bowed before the gate of the underworld.

Ariston, high priest of the temple and guardian of the Ploutonion, was a man past fifty, but his eyes gleamed with the fire of youth. His voice rumbled like the breath of the earth itself. Like his father before him, he had inherited the duty of guarding this gate — the door between the world of the living and the realm of the dead.

But tonight was different. Even visitors from Rome had come for the ritual. According to ancient lore, once every seventy-nine years, when the stars aligned, the gate would open for the blink of an eye, and the voice of the god Pluto could be heard. That night, the sky promised such an event.

The Deadly Breath and Rising Legends

Every creature that approached the arched gate of the Ploutonion collapsed within minutes. Even today, this deadly gas was demonstrated using small animals. But tonight, something else was planned. 

Ariston opened the lid of a small marble coffin. Inside lay a carefully preserved body — Eurynome, the ancient sorceress of the city and once the woman Ariston had loved. Myths surrounded her. Some claimed she had spoken to the god of the underworld three days before her death and vowed to return. Some called her mad, others a prophetess. But Ariston had never forgotten her words.

He placed the coffin near the cave’s mouth, where the gas subtly rose. The priests chanted, and the stars slowly shifted into alignment.

The Gate Opens

Just before midnight, the ground trembled. A deep, low hum echoed from the Ploutonion. The gas at the entrance momentarily dispersed. The gate —or as Ariston believed, the veil between life and death— had indeed parted.

A whisper: “Eurynome…” It was a woman’s voice. Familiar.

Ariston fell to his knees, tears in his eyes. A silhouette appeared at the gate —draped in white, glowing eyes, empty yet full of light. The body in the coffin stirred. The priests stepped back in awe. No one had ever seen such a thing.

From Eurynome’s chest, a wisp of smoke rose and drifted into the Ploutonion. Her soul was being offered to the god.

The Price of Forbidden Knowledge

But every open gate demands a price. The tremors intensified. Columns cracked. The hum from the depths became a roar. Was it Pluto’s wrath? Or had the balance between life and death been disturbed?

Ariston heard the god’s voice, deep and terrible: “Close the gate.”

He understood. The gate was not merely a passage for the dead —it was a temptation for knowledge, power, and corruption. Humanity was not ready.

He shouted: “Seal the gate! Set the stones, begin the prayers!”

The priests obeyed. Ancient texts described the three seals to close the Ploutonion: Fire, Blood, and Breath.

A goat was sacrificed, its blood poured onto the threshold. Ariston cut his own hands and reached into the rising mist. Lastly, three priests extended their arms and offered sacred breath with solemn hymns.

Silence fell. The roar ceased. The mist withdrew. Eurynome’s body, now serene, was returned to the coffin —a smile on her face.

A Thousand Years of Silence

The gate never opened again. Ariston never left the temple. He never spoke of what he had seen. On his tombstone, he had one sentence engraved:

“To open a gate is not to speak with gods; it is to silence oneself.”

Centuries passed. Wars, earthquakes, and empires came and went. Until one day in 2013, archaeologists descended beneath the ancient stones and found an inscription near the gate of Ploutonion:

“The passage sealed by Ariston. He who opens it will speak through the price.”

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(Pluto’s Gate), a sacred cave believed to be an entrance to the underworld and the oldest local sanctuary, Hierapolis. It was described by Strabo (629-30) as an orifice in a ridge of the hillside, in front of which was a fenced enclosure filled with thick mist immediately fatal to any who entered except the eunuchs of Kybele. The Plutoneion was mentioned and described later by numerous ancient writers, in particular Dio Cassius (68.27), who observed that an auditorium had been erected around it, and Damascius ap. Photius (Bibl. 344f), who recorded a visit by a certain doctor Asclepiodotus about A.D. 500; he mentioned the hot stream inside the cavern and located it under the Temple of Apollo. There is, in fact, immediately below the sidewall of the temple in a shelf of the hillside, a roofed chamber 3 m square, at the back of which is a deep cleft in the rock filled with a fast-flowing stream of hot water heavily charged with a sharp-smelling gas. In front is a paved court, from which the gas emerges in several places through cracks in the floor. The mist mentioned by Strabo is not observable now. The gas was kept out of the temple itself by allowing it to escape through gaps left between the blocks of the sidewalls. Carole Raddato, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

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Cover Photo, Above Left: Credit Carole Raddato, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

In “The Conquest of Peru,” we left Pizarro departing Tangarará, which he founded on the Pacific coast in mid-September of 1532. From the coast with his riders and foot soldiers, he traveled up the mountains, where reports of war and carnage became reality. The Spaniards were not aware of the severity of the ongoing “war of succession” between the two sons of Inca Huayna Capac for the crown of the “Land of Four Parts” or Tahuantinsuyo in the Quechua language. It was Topa Inca (1471-1493), the son of the great Sapa Inca Pachacuti (1438-1471), who expanded the empire’s borders north to Ecuador and south to Chile. His son, Huayna Capac, on his deathbed, made the fatal mistake of splitting the kingdom between his two sons (de la Vega, 1539-1616), for his first son, Ninan Cuyochi, who died of smallpox.  Huascar Capac and his deceased brother were born to a Coya or princess of the imperial court at Cusco. His half-brother Atahualpa (1502-1533), born to a Cara princess of the court at Quito, was shunned by the nobility at Cusco for not being of royal blood. Spanish chroniclers of the late sixteenth century depict Atahualpa as brave, ambitious, and popular with soldiers. The father deeply loved his second son and persuaded his legitimate son, Huayna Capac, the future Great (Sapa) Inca in Cusco, to have Atahualpa reign in the northern reaches of the empire at Quito, over a thousand miles away. This situation led to persistent conflicts between the half-brothers and, as de la Vega underlined, they were soon entangled in a deadly civil war that lasted from 1529 to 1532. Antagonisms intensified while ethnic groups sided with one faction or the other, ravaging cities and towns, wreaking havoc on economies, and decimating the population.

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Lima-Cusco Region

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Atahualpa and his army of quiteños “people of Quito” defeated Huayna Capac cuzqueños “those of Cusco.” However, it is at Quipaipán in the most significant military battle of Inca history (1532), that the war took a decisive turn for Inca Atahualpa. After the battle, the Inca headed south and stopped at Cajamarca (Kaxamarka in Quechua), while his superior officers (apukispays) chased Huascar’s army south; they defeated and captured him near Cusco. Had it not been for Pizarro’s arrival at that time, the entire Inca empire would have fallen to Atahualpa at Quipaipán.

As the Spaniards moved up the Andes Mountain range, they encountered devastation and remnants of scorched villages. The local people believed that the Spaniards would come to help Inca Huascar against his half-brother Atahualpa, who was now encamped with his army in the Pultumarca valley near Cajamarca. In July 1532, with 62 riders and 106 infantrymen, Pizarro reached the ruined village of Caxas, nine thousand feet up in the mountains on the paved road to Cajamarca. The going was hard in the Cordillera Vilcabamba because the biting cold, ice, and snow of the Salcantay range had replaced the mild climate and sea breeze of the coast. Many troopers suffered from the cold and became sick, as did the horses. Meanwhile, Atahualpa reached the outskirts of Cajamarca, where, informed by his scouts, he waited for the Spaniards.

On Friday, 15 November 1532, the Spaniards arrived on the hills over Cajamarca. The city below looked finely built and paved with smooth stones; it was deserted. Half a mile beyond, in the Pultumarca valley, was Atahualpa’s camp and its thousands of warriors. Pizarro ordered his army to go down to the deserted town before dusk, for they could quickly be overpowered in the open. There, they set up camps in large houses with covered stockades attached for horses. Once settled, Pizarro planned to invite the Inca the following day and capture him. For this purpose, in the morning, he sent Hernando de Soto with Felipillo as translator, and Hernan Pizarro with Yacané, who, with Felipillo, were the young men captured off the coast of Tumbes. Thirty-armed riders protected the envoys.

They made their way through the Inca’s camp and were impressed by thousands of fires and warriors. Courtiers and high-ranking war chiefs welcomed the envoys. Atahualpa made them wait several hours outside his lodgings and appeared when the rowdy visitors’ impatience could no longer be contained. The Inca faced the Spaniards with ire and contempt. This thirty-five-year-old lord with long black hair and gold ornaments dangling from his ears and neck, together with the mascapaycha‘s red imperial headband, magnified his eminent position. He sat on his usnu, an elevated golden throne with officials (kurakas) at his sides. Heated exchanges about the presence of armed white bearded men in his kingdom, soldiers of an unknown king, were baffling to him, as was this equally unknown world they claimed to come from.

The Spaniards displayed their skills riding horses and shooting arquebuses. Pedro de Alvarado, an expert rider, brought his horse at full gallop, heading straight to the seated Atahualpa. He came to an abrupt stop only a few feet from the deadpan Inca. A lesson of remarkable horsemanship, while Atahualpa displayed a lesson of lordly stoicism. To seal the meeting, chicha, the traditional fermented drink made of corn and seasoned with a variety of wild plants, was poured into three large gold cups. The Spaniards held the cups but did not drink, so the Inca, noticing their distrust, sipped from each cup to show his guests they had nothing to fear. Atahualpa accepted Pizarro’s invitation to visit Cajamarca the following day. 

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Atahualpa, the last Incan Emperor. @sciencephotolibrary.com

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At noon, after a night of anxiety, the Spaniards were still waiting for Atahualpa. Pizarro hid his forces, including cavalry under Hernando de Soto, Sebastian de Belalcazar, and Hernando Pizarro, along with their saddled horses, in sheds that opened onto the plaza. Juan Pizarro was in command of the infantry and would closely follow the riders’ thrust. Captain Pedro de Candia and the artillery were on the Rumitiana hill behind the town for support. Pizarro, on horseback together with twenty-five-foot soldiers, hid in a structure in the middle of the plaza. Fear was palpable, given the overwhelming odds; several foot soldiers wetted their pants. The plan called for a forceful exit on the plaza, aiming for Atahualpa, who would be carried on his golden litter, then to surround and capture him. A simple plan of victory or death, for there was no other way for a handful of Spaniards in this war of conquest. The Inca likewise had plans, which were to make sure none of the bearded men escaped and survived. Atahualpa’s command officer, Rumiñahui, with battle-hardened warriors, was sent to close any escape route on the back of the town to capture all Spaniards for public execution.

By mid-afternoon, lookouts saw the Inca leave his camp with a large retinue of unarmed warriors, for the Inca bet on numbers to capture the bearded men alive. He was eager to show the Andean supreme deity Viracocha and the people of the empire that no god or man could ever stand or defeat him. He arrived at the plaza on his golden litter held by courtesans, protected by bodyguards and a compact group of unarmed warriors to display his apparent peaceful intent. Calling for the Spaniards, he sent unarmed scouts to find out where they were. They reported that the bearded ones were hiding in nearby sheds around the plaza. The Inca was about to order a more forceful investigation when Dominican Friar Vicente de Valverde, chaplain of the army, pushed his way through the throng to the Inca’s litter with Martinillo, also from the 1526 encounter off Tumbes as translator, screaming God’s name to the heretics while brandishing the Holy Bible.

Atahualpa asked what the yelling was all about, but could not understand, and, enraged by Martinillo’s stuttering, threw both friar and Bible to the ground. This outraged Pizarro, who burst out of the shed with infantry onto the plaza, while Pedro de Candia’s artillery boomed, arquebuses were discharged on the crowd, and a red waving flag summoned the cavalry, which came out stamping grounds, bugles blaring, lances, axes, and saber blades glinting in a no quarter charge. The panicked Incas were no match for the unknown weapons, the ferocious war dogs, and the brutal and pitiless men. Fear seized the unarmed men who tried to escape the plaza, piled up against its walls, forming human pyramids where many were slaughtered. Fear was everywhere, for fear, at that moment, was the Spaniards’ most powerful ally, without which they would have been defeated. The Inca was thrown from his golden litter and seized by Francisco Pizarro. That evening, taken to the town’s Amaru Huasi or Snake House by torchlight, the Spaniards saw a man torn by defeat but still radiating majesty, looking fiercely and imperiously at his captors.

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Cajamarca’s Battle. @JuanLepiani, 1922-1927 in wikipedia.org

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The following day, November 16, Hernando de Soto on Pizarro’s orders, rode down into the valley in Atahualpa’s camp, where he recovered eighty thousand pesos of gold and seven thousand marcos of silver (Xeres 1983; 1534-fol.XIII). He also came back with over a hundred women and thousands of quiteño prisoners. The many cuzqueños they encountered, were forcefully enlisted in Atahualpa’s army as carriers. Few of them were retained as support personnel while others were ordered to go home.

After days of negotiations, according to Spanish military ransom tradition, Pizarro demanded Atahualpa, as conditional freedom, to fill three rooms to a man’s height, one with gold and two with silver. Upon agreement, over weeks, gold and silver plates, cups, figurines and panels reached Cajamarca in long caravans of llamas carrying loads which, according to estimates, totaled over twenty tons. Why was the astute reason for Atahualpa to pay Pizarro for his restricted autonomy? It was classic Andean barter; the Inca traded gold and silver, of which he had plenty, for a limited self-determination which was better than no freedom. With the capture of Atahualpa, the Spaniards were, if not yet in control of the empire, major players in its future.

A few weeks later Atahualpa’s brother and rival, Huascar, was found drowning in the Andamarca river. Questioned by Pizarro, Atahualpa pleaded his innocence. With no convincing proof of the Inca’s guilt, Pizarro spared his life. The cuzqueños, however, were enraged for they could not understand Pizarro’s leniency; they knew that Atahualpa was Huascar’s murderer. Spanish officers likewise did not believe Atahualpa’s claim of innocence, for they were tipped about his contacts with the quiteño general Quisquis then master of Cuzco, who was last seen near Jaujá, planning to mobilize forces to surround Cajamarca. Even though the gold and silver rooms were not fully stacked up as promised, Pizarro was satisfied but, for security reasons, did not release Atahualpa. Many officers were convinced of Atahualpa’s duplicity and of his hand in Huascar and his family’s execution. However, as a hostage Atahualpa was worth protecting; dead, he had no value. The Spaniards conviction of Atahualpa’s guilt rested largely on their interpreter Felipillo who, at times, translated for his own benefit or that of others. Each party, for its own purpose, wanted Atahualpa executed. Diego de Almagro, who arrived with a reinforcement of two hundred men, was worried that, on one hand, he was not certain of the Inca’s guilt, but on the other that the gold and silver share would mostly go to Pizarro’s men, who already had “saved some” for themselves. Spanish officials were concerned that the fifth of gold and silver, the quinto real owed to the Crown under the 1528 Agreement could be lost or delayed. Friar Vincente de Valverde, as a Dominican with an inquisitorial mentality, demanded the Inca be burned at the stake for his refusal of baptism.

The unstable situation led Pizarro to remain firm in not sentencing Atahualpa to death; he was in fact the only one left on the Inca’s defense. In mid-July, however, after tedious legal proceedings, Atahualpa was indicted for treason, the murder of his brother Huascar, killing family princes and princesses of his father clan (panaca), but also, for having children with his sisters and keeping matrimonial relationships with them and last, for being a heretic who refused the true God. On 26 July 1533, Atahualpa Inca, with his hands tied, was led to Cajamarca’s Plaza in a procession including Friar Vicente de Valverde, the mayor Juan de Porras, Captain Juan de Salcedo, and military officers.  The Inca walked with the serenity of a warrior’s utter indifference to his fate. In the middle of the plaza, a tree trunk was driven into the ground with a pile of wood at its base. Atahualpa understood that he would be burned at the stake and asked the priest Valverde, Why? Valverde answered that fire was for idolaters consigned to hell, while strangulation or garrote was for believers of the true cross, sent to heaven. Atahualpa elected garrote to prevent his soul from being dispersed to the four winds, never to live again. He was immediately baptized under the name of Juan, while Pizarro promptly changed the terms of his execution from burning to strangling. The Incas’ wives cried, begging to follow their lord into the afterlife; many of them did.

With Cajamarca and its province now under Spanish control, Pizarro knew that, for absolute socio-political and economic power, the Spaniards needed to occupy Cusco, the seat of government of the Inca empire. The current leader, Túpac Manco Capac Inca (1514-1544), was born in Tiahuanaco, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. He was one of the sons of Huayna Capac and his second wife, the Coya (princess), Shihui Chimpu Rontocay. Throughout his childhood with his siblings, they were repeatedly told that Atahualpa had slaughtered their family. Now in his late twenties, Manco Capac was already a seasoned military officer stationed in the town of Charcas in the Paititi mountains, leading thousands of warriors during the fratricide war.

Of note is that Manco Capac Inca was initially suspicious of Pizarro’s motives and of his long-term plans. But the recent capture of the quiteño leader Calcuchimac, a Quisquis general hanged by the Spaniards, eased his doubts. Pizarro took advantage of Manco Capac’s lifelong bitterness and made it known that the Inca should be the legitimate heir to the empire.

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Manco Capac Inca Yupanqui.  @mayaincaztec.com

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Driven by his lifelong rage for the murder of his family, Manco Capac committed to pooling Spanish and Inca forces to take back Cusco from Quiquis, which they did. On 14 November 1533, Pizarro and his army reached the hills overlooking the city and the fortress of Sacsayhuaman, two miles north of Cusco, which Quisquis’ troops had deserted. Cusco is 11,200 feet high in the Andes mountains; its name, Qusquis, in Quechua is Qusqu’wanka or “rock of the owl” in Aymara. The city was divided into two social groups or moieties: hurin (upper), associated with the priesthood and hanan (lower), related with the military. Furthermore, the city was partitioned to mirror the four provinces of the empire: the Tahuantisuyo : Chinchaysuyo (north), Antisuyo (east), Kuntisuyu (west), and Qullsuyu (south), with Cusco at their intersection. Hernando de Soto and Juan Pizarro with the cavalry entered Cusco from the north without opposition. They were followed by Francisco Pizarro, Manco Capac Inca, and his officers, while, to avoid surprises, Diego de Almagro followed with the rear guard. The Spaniards were awestruck by the city’s magnificence, its wide and well-paved streets, and the megalithic, tightly fitting stone walls of buildings. They rode to the main plaza and were received by old priests who believed the bearded men were sent by the creator deity Viracocha, the Sun, with their lord Manco Capac.

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Cusco, Plaza de Armas.  @St.Amant-wikimedia.org

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Spanish captains secured the main palatial buildings around the central plaza. Pizarro elected Inca Huayna Cápac’s Casana palace for himself. Almagro chose the one next to it while Gonzalo selected Túpac Inca’s palace. They were mesmerized by the city’s abundance of gold and silver seen on and inside major buildings and palaces. Before order could be restored, soldiers ran screaming through the paved streets of polished stones and into palaces and mansions. They came out with armfuls of valuable fine dresses, rich feathers, gold and silver plates, and precious stones. They broke into a storage area containing coca leaves, chili, corn, stacked dried goods, quinoa, weapons, and more. They ran up the wide stairs of the massive Qorikancha, or “great enclosure,” the Temple of the Sun (Inti). Its inside walls were covered with thick gold panels, while in the temple of the Moon goddess (Mama Ocllo), daughter of Viracocha and Mama Qucha, the walls were covered with silver. Halfway up the wide stairs of the Qorikancha, the High Priest (villac umu), his arms spread out, tried to stop the rush of these strange, bearded men who, for an instant, mouth agape, looked up before running up the steps laughing. They reached the Hatunkancha housing of the acllahuasi, the solar virgins dedicated to the Sun, who had been sent safely away a few weeks before to save them from sacrilege.

From Cusco, the first of many shipments of precious metals was carried to Cajamarca for processing. Sixteenth-century records account for hundreds of loads of gold and silver, equivalent to tens of tons (Xerez 1636: fol. XXI). After cutting and melting into bars, the precious metals were transferred to Lima overland for shipment to Panama and then onward to Spain. At the same time, wages of officers and soldiers were paid, together with those for services. Manco Capac Inca’s agreement with Pizarro was grounded in his persistent hate of the quiteños for in his mind, they and not the Spaniards, were the real invaders. After all, didn’t Pizarro agree to return the Inca dominion as his realm? Hernando de Soto, in command of the army, supported by thousands of native troops, was ordered to chase and capture the fleeing quiteños. He crossed the Apurimac river to confront Quisquis’ coalition at Cupi in Collabamba, where a fierce battle forced the defeated group to retreat north.  On their retreat the quiteños left a trail of vengeance and a horrifying killing spree through Quechua and Huanca towns and villages, killing men of all ages and kidnapping hundreds of women. The Spaniards, however, would turn the tide, for by mid-May 1534, they defeated again Quisquis forces in Maraycalla, but once more, he escaped the battlefield. However, he was murdered a year later in the village of Tiacambe near Quito by his lieutenant Huambracuna. Quisquis general Rumiñahui, escaped to Quito after Atahualpa’s capture and named himself Inca. Over months in 1533, he fiercely battled Sebastián de Belalcázar’s army in the empire’s northern reaches. He was taken prisoner and tortured to reveal where he hid the gold and silver of the Treasure of the Llanganates he took from the cities he burned, but he never talked and was hanged on the 26 of July 1533.

Manco Capac Inca returned to Cusco from the Maraycalla battle, wearing the mascapaycha imperial red headband with tassels, followed by Juan Pizarro, Fernando’s brother. A few months later, the Inca had misgivings about the Spaniards’ motives. They were neither friends nor partners as he thought they were, but the real invaders. His lifelong hate for Quisquis and the quiteños he realized blinded him.

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Apukispay Quisquis. @numiscorner.com

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The conquistadors backed the coronation of Manco Capac to secure their control over the empire. Pizarro’s backing stemmed from the Spaniard’s goal to continue and perpetuate Inca internal discord. Manco Capac, however, decided that he would not be the puppet of the bearded men who frequently disrespected and humiliated him, especially the ambitious and abusive Pizarro brothers Juan and Gonzalo, unlike their father’s paternalistic relationship. Manco Capac discretely shared his growing dislike of the Spaniards’ heavy hand with principals of towns in the Tahuantinsuyo. His supporters agreed to his plans to rebuild the empire of his forebears.

At length, he resolved to escape, which he did on a dark night with his bodyguards. As agreed with kinsmen he headed for the nearby town of Mohina. Upon learning about the escape, Juan Pizarro became enraged and asked his brother Gonzalo, captain of the cavalry, for a squad of riders to capture the Inca, which they did two days later. Manco Capac was forcefully returned to Cusco in chains, placed in a cell and, for weeks, was subjected to abuses from his captors. The punishment included demeaning his first wife, the Colla Curi Ocllo, her sisters, and other noble women. The pressure to deliver more gold and silver knew no bounds. It was driven by greed, as well as to answer the persistent demands from Emperor Carlos V in Madrid to finance his ongoing wars against the French and the Turks.

Manco Capac’s hope was rekindled when the high Solar Priest (villac umu), arrived from exile in Chile where he escaped Alonso de Alvarado’s army. He raised the ire of miners along Lake Titicaca by calling, “all rise and leave no Spaniard alive.” The Solar Priest sent a message to Manco Capac, who was then planning his second escape. The chance came thanks to Hernando Pizarro’s insatiable demands for gold when Manco Capac told him that he knew where Huascar Capac’s hidden treasure was near Cusco. At that time, Manco Capac had been released from strict captivity a few months before and had regained his jailer’s confidence. As evidence, he showed Hernando a large gold statue, which was smuggled into his residence by Inca warriors as proof of Huascar’s treasure. Hernando was convinced and planned to let Manco Capac lead the way, but, to avoid warning the treasure’s guards, he and his riders would follow a couple of leagues behind. That was his mistake. A few leagues from Cusco, Manco Capac met a large group of Inca soldiers who swiftly led him to his army of tens of thousands of warriors encamped fifty miles away. Scouts informed the Pizarro brothers of the Inca gathering forces. Over the course of a few weeks, the brothers fanned out of the city to assess the seriousness of the situation. Meeting one evening, they raised the number of lookouts and guards on the city’s access roads. On May 29, 1536, Hernando and his brothers knew that the Incas’ call to arms to rid their kingdom’s capital of the Spaniards was real because that day, Cusco was surrounded.

Sixteenth-century Spanish chroniclers point to an Inca army numbering over two hundred thousand warriors headed by high-ranking officers (apuquispays), with the Solar Priest in overall command. In addition to combat troops, there were about eighty thousand support personnel and carriers. The Inca forces were to attack the city through the roads of the four suyos, Cusco’s cardinal quarters’ access routes, each headed by experienced fighters and officers. They aimed to weaken the Spaniards by dividing their forces on four fronts. The Incas’ troops under the command of officers Coyllas, Osca, Curi, Atao and Taipe would attack on the North road (Chinchaysuyo) while the South (Qullasuyo) with the bulk of the troops, was under the command of Llicli; the West (Kuntisuyo) squadrons were headed by Saradaman, Humán Quicana, and Curi Huallpa; while those of the East  (Antisuyo) were manned by archers, slingers, and blowgun shooters, under Rampa Yupanqui and Anta Allaca. The Solar Priest’s first order was to breach the water pools and canals around the city to swamp the land and turn it into an immense mud field, which would slow down the Spaniards’ deadly horse charges.

On the conquistadors’ side, there were no more than five hundred Spaniards, all of whom were experienced in military tactics and weaponry. They were fearsome battle-hardened fighters, with years of experience, from Europe to Mexico’s killing fields. In the city, they were supported by about thirty thousand native allies from several ethnic groups hostile to the Incas—chief among them were the Chachapoyas. The three Pizarro brothers knew that the key to survival rested on the cavalry, for the natives were frightened of the trampling horses and their riders, armed with lances and swords. The foot soldiers wore metal helmets, upper body armor and were deadly in close combat with swords and axes; musketeers were of limited use.

The Inca armies’ advantage was in numbers. They were able during battle to roll tired or wounded troops with fresh ones from the rear every three to four hours, allowing for unceasing assaults. Yells from tens of thousands of throats; hundreds of drums beating; blowing of trumpet-like conch-shells (pututu) calling on ancestors for help, never ceased, leaving no respite. Waves of incendiary arrows and slingshots with stones, red heat from fire, wrapped in cotton, burned the roofs of houses made of wood, covering the city with a thick, suffocating smoke. Day after day, it was a merciless fight. 

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No Mercy. @F.Castro.P – georgefery.com

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Hernando Pizarro organized Cusco’s defense around three teams with riders, each headed by his brother Gonzalo, Gabriel de Rojas, and Hernán Ponce de Leon. In contrast, he, his brother Juan, and their lieutenants would, at the sound of a bugle, move from quarter-to- quarter to support fighters where and when needed. They quickly learned that the cavalry had to be the heart of the defense strategy. Early mornings, the infantry’s task, headed by Pedro del Barco, Diego Méndez, and Francisco de Villacastín, supported by allied warriors, destroyed barricades erected across the streets during the night to clear the way for the cavalry.

The riders were not very successful, given the narrowness of most streets, which, at best, limited the frontal assault to two riders at a time. The deep wall of enemy warriors blocking the street could not be breached, even though many were slain. Both riders and horses were wounded in these forays; many could not fight another day. Indian allies fought boldly and impetuously, while the Spaniards battled with a determination driven by fear. Spanish captains said that they should hold the Qorikancha or “great enclosure” for its massive walls and tunnel (the chincana found in 1594; rediscovered recently), extending below the city to Sacsayhuaman. The enclosure would have been impregnable, allowing time for support to arrive from the coast. Others advised Hernando to abandon Cusco and head for Lima. Alas, it was too late, all roads and trails were now tightly held by the enemy.

The worst came when the Spaniards realized that the massive fortress of Sacsayhuaman (fortress of the royal falcon), two miles on Cusco’s northern outskirts, was held by the enemy. The Killke people had built it around 900, before the arrival of the Incas, when Pachacuti Inca (1438-1471) fortified it in the mid-fifteenth century. The Spaniards had no alternative but to retake the fortress for its proximity to the city, before more enemy forces settled there. With their indigenous allies the Spaniards battled fiercely all day with cavalry charges and foot soldiers.

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Sacsayhuaman’s Triple Walls. @ticketmachupicchu.com

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They cleared the fortress late on 6 May 1536, and returned to Cusco, leaving a large contingent of indigenous fighters to hold it. A week later, however, Sacsayhuaman was overrun again. Most worrisome for Inca warriors were the deadly riders with their lances and swords in open terrain. So, they made traps for the horses by digging round holes a couple of feet or so wide and about three or more feet deep in dirt roads in which the leg of a horse at full gallop would plunge into and break. The rider was then easy prey because he had to fight his way on foot or be captured and decapitated.

Twice, the Spaniards overran and lost Sacsayhuaman. On the third attempt, they succeeded in keeping the fortress at the end of a tough day under the leadership of Hernando Pizarro. In command of the fortress was the Solar Priest with more fighters; the frontal assault was as intense as it was brutal. A few days later, fifty horsemen led by Juan Pizarro and auxiliaries rode from Cusco, breaking through lines of warriors, running northwest toward Chinchaysuyo. The riders feigned a retreat toward Lima, which drew more Inca warriors out of the fortress. The Spaniards then swiftly turned around and attacked from the south, securing the first battlement of the perimeter walls. It is at that time that Juan Pizarro, having lost his helmet, was struck in the head by stones from sling shots, and died a few days later from his injuries. The following night, using wood ladders made on site, Spaniards and their allies scaled and fought their way up the two successive upper walls, overrunning the bastions in a savage fury.

In the morning, however, the fortress’s Muyumarca tower was still in the enemy’s hands. The Solar Priest (villac umu) planned his way out from the tower to seek reinforcement. Tuti Cusi Hualpa, the fortress commander, would hold the tower but ultimately could not resist the Spaniards’ onslaught. The following day, the Muyumarca tower was overrun, and the battle was lost. Tuti Cusi Hualpa had sworn to Manco Capac that he would hold the fortress at all costs; he failed and could not surrender. In full regalia, weapons in hand, he threw himself from the battlements to the rocks below. The Solar Priest had escaped on the riverside and joined Manco Capac in Calca with plans for a second siege of Cusco. When, a few weeks later, Inca scouts returned, they found the fortress firmly in Spanish hands. The siege had lasted for a long, brutal year of fighting.  Grain, however, was now in short supply; the Inca army could not be fed. The last harvests were exhausted, and grain storages were empty. Hunger loomed in towns and villages near and far; it was time to plant before famine would overcome everyone. Tens of thousands of allied warriors left for home, so Manco Capac Inca lifted Cusco’s siege and withdrew to Ollantaytambo and then to Vilcabamba where he established the Neo-Inca State (1537-1572).

The cost in lives of the “war of the brothers” followed by the battle of Cusco was dreadful and wrecked Inca and other Peruvian cultures. During the battle of Cusco, Lima, Ciudad de los Reyes, its original name, was very close to falling to the Inca allies’ relentless attacks. The battles were no less brutal and savage than those at Cusco, with Francisco Pizarro at the forefront. The city was saved by those pitiless soldiers from Spain and their indigenous allies who, for weeks, battled and freed Lima on the 14 of September 1536. But where did all the gold go? The upcoming article “Portobello, Peru’s Gold Gateway” will answer this question.

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Onward to Portobello.  @P.Briege the Elder-wikipedia.org 

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References – Further Reading:

José Antonio del Busto Duthurburu, 1973 – La Conquista del Perú and Perú Preincaico, 1977                        

Garcilaso de la Vega (1539-1543) by Alain Gheerbrant, 1961 – The Incas and, La Florida del Inca, 1986

Salomon and G.L. Urioste, 1991  –  The Huarochiri Manuscript

Pedro Cieza de Leon (1540-1550) – El Señorio de los Incas 1984, and La Crónica del Perú, 1985

John V. Murra, 1978 – La Organización Económica del Estado Inca

Francisco de Xerez, 2011 – Verdadera Relación de la Conquista del Perú.

Father Bernabé Cobo (1582-1657), by Roland Hamilton, 1979 – History of the Inca Empire

Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (1532-1608?), 1907 – History of the Incas

Lilian Estelle Fisher, 1966 – The Last Inca Revolt 1780-1783