The past of mankind is full of deep personal’s tragedies, wars, plagues, also full of betrayals, poisons or stilettos, and torture. It’s not particularly anything really admirable in general, and yet, many people find this enchanted. I’m one of them.
Of course, there are plenty of victories and heroism too. They became legends, and it’s hard to say today whether Achilles or Hercules was part of mythology or part of history. In our little routine life, we find fascinating that type of bravery and self-sacrifice.
People applauded thoroughly different values and morality and usually in the center of that stood God. Even life had a totally different value than today. At least it looks this way from the whole we know about the past.
There you go. This is why I’m so attracted to history.
I have basically two specific periods I love to discover. The Roman Empire is definitely one of them.
The Julio-Claudian dynasty, the first Roman imperial dynasty, has every single tiny detail of what draws me to love history. If you read anything about every each of them, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. I believe that the spark was ignited by one of my most favorite books: I, Claudius, written by Robert Graves.
I also read some biography books about Caligula and Nero, the absolute worst of them. Yet, let’s don’t forget that the comparison is even with Tiberius with a very bad reputation. A man who killed most of his family or a poet-killer. Look in my eyes and tell me that this doesn’t stimulate anything in your mind.
I like the later time as well. In my eyes, it’s perfectly represented by the movie Gladiator, one of my most favorite. It’s fiction, but I loved all the actors in that, even when I hated their characters. All the story, the dialogs, it’s just marvelous.
The other period I love is the latest Middle Ages, the Renaissance. The times of Tudors in the UK, Bourbons in France, and in my lovely Czechia, there was a Habsburg time with my favorite monarch Rudolf II. The time Europe managed to leave the dark ages and yet, there was a witch hunt, there were public torture and cruel executions, a deadly plague, the era of torture toys such as Spanish boot or Iron maiden. All really ugly and repulsive. Maybe it’s my dark part of soul who must hear of it.
If I have to come up with one name, it would be Jesus, followed by Henry VIII and Borgia dynasty.
If I pointed one favorite spot out of history, I would talk about the Golden Age of Jewish Prague with chief rabbi Loew ben Bezalel ruled by Rudolf II.
And the stuff I hate the most is the Munich Agreement, which we in the Czech Republic call Munich Betrayal.
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