Written by the Winners: Difference between revisions

 

== Real Life ==

* Pretty much [[Historical Hero Upgrade|anything you were taught]] about Christopher Columbus or the story of Thanksgiving in Elementary School, if you're American. Though this is slowly changing.

** YMMV on whether the change feels more like going to the opposite extreme than a move towards neutrality.

* Nearly all of our information about the Roman Empire comes from Roman sources. The only reason we are at all aware of the Romans ever doing anything bad is because of [[Values Dissonance]] (they wrote about something that seemed ''good'' to them, like efficiently exterminating a particularly troublesome tribe). And then, our information about the Roman Empire has been mostly processed through Christianity, which means we need to keep in mind the possibility of [[Historical Hero Upgrade]] and [[Historical Villain Upgrade]], particularly on part of Christian and Pagan emperors.

** There is little evidence outside a few passages in Suetonius to suggest that Tiberius had a [[Moral Event Horizon|rape palace]] built on Capri. It is also worth remembering that Suetonius was commissioned to write his history by the Flavian dynasty which succeeded Tiberius's own Julio-Claudians. The Flavians were akin to modern "family values" politicians who espoused a return to the piety of Augustus and the Republic, in deliberate contrast to the supposed excesses of the later Julio-Claudians.

** While the [[Flanderization]] of Caligula is surreal enough, it's nothing compared to what his daughter and sister got. (Meassured in surrealness rather then evilness.) The [[Unreliable Narrator|official history]] on the emperor Caligula teaches us that the conspiracy that had him murdered was very brave, wise, and benevolent. Not only was Caligula so evil and mad that he totally deserved to die, his two years old daughter who was murdered at the same time (because she was his only heir and thus a threat to the usurper) was '''also''' so evil that she totally deserved to die. The same history writing tell us not only that all political decisions he ever made was evil, crazy and stupid, but also that many of them was very popular... but that's only because the population is stupid. The later theory was also used to [[Hand Wave]] why empress Drusilla was considered a popular politician... while using unsubstantiated slander to [[Retcon]] her into a mere [[Sex Slave]] of her brother.

** The objective historical truth about Drusilla is that the imperial oath was aimed at her as well as her brother, that the coins of the empire depicted her like they would depict any emperor, that she had a imperial cult around her just like the other emperors had, and that there was a national mourning when she died. Also, that she was married to another man and that her brother was married to another woman. Two of the funny quirks about the rumors about [[Brother-Sister Incest]] is that they 1. Seems to have started after Caligula's death, and thus long after Drusilla's death. 2. That the story was simplified by pretending that Drusilla's husband and Caligula's wife didn't exist, rather then commenting on how ''they'' reacted to the stories.

** For patriotic Serbians, the lost battle of Kosovo (1389) is perhaps ''the'' defining moment of their country's history. For the Turks it [[But for Me It Was Tuesday|is one hard-fought Ottoman victory among many]].

*** Kind of hard to say the Turks could write it off so easily, that A) They lost the entirety of that particular part of their army and B) It resulted in the death of their Sultan Murad.

** Similar to the Scottish example but even more extreme, ''every battle'' in which the Irish faced the English is almost completely forgotten about in England while being seen as watershed moments in Irish history. This includes not only the rare occasions when the Irish actually won such as Yellowford (1598) but also occasions like the Battle of Kinsale (1601) when English commanders pulled off spectacular victories. The one partial exception seems to be the Battle of the Boyne (1690) - and even there it is only recalled in England because Ulster Unionists are so vocal about it.

* In a strange ''inversion'', ''Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms'' ([[Very Loosely Based on a True Story|very loosely]] [[Novelization|novelized]] as ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'') was officially commissioned by a supporter of the losing side (Shu) after the fact, and as a result many historical characters from Wu and Shu (who lost) are [[Historical Hero Upgrade|lionized]], while Wei, the victor, is [[Historical Villain Upgrade|demonized]]. Cao Cao, in particular: he was historically rather a good ruler.