A Hispanic Roman named Maximus? Clearly, all readers have immediately thought of the protagonist of the movie Gladiator, played by Russell Crowe. But the truth is, there was a historical figure with that name who lived nearly three centuries later than the character in the film and was proclaimed emperor in the turbulent context of […]
Characters
Posted inAge of Exploration
Pier Gerlofs Donia, the Giant Peasant Who Fought Against Dutch and Germans in Frisia
If someone visits the Fries Museum in the town of Leuvarden, in the Netherlands, they will see among the exhibits a zweihänder (also called biedenhänder). This is a type of enormous sword, typical of the Modern Age, with a long handle and crossguards suitable for inevitable two-handed use. According to tradition, this weapon belonged to […]
Posted inModern Era
Giovanni della Porta, the Renaissance scholar who encrypted messages inside eggs to fool the Inquisition
Giovanni Battista della Porta was born in November 1535 in Vico Equense, a municipality of the Kingdom of Naples that since 1504, by the Treaty of Lyon, belonged to the Crown of Aragon and with the rise to the throne of Joanna the Mad was transformed into a viceroyalty, remaining in Spanish possession until 1704. […]
Posted inSecond World War
Eduard Bloch, the Jewish doctor whom Hitler helped to leave Germany in 1940
In March 1941 it had been about a year and a half since the outbreak of World War II, but there were still eight months before Pearl Harbor was attacked and the United States entered the fighting. That’s why Collier’s Weekly, one of the most important and widely read weeklies in the country at the […]
Posted inHistory
10 historical characters who mysteriously disappeared
Every day people disappear somewhere in the world. It’s disturbing, but it’s a fact. It is not something that has to do with modern times, it has happened throughout human history. And when the disappeared person is a public, known, or prominent figure, it is recorded for posterity as a mystery. The list of these […]
