Your favorite historical figures?

[username_3218976]

Your favorite historical figures?

A little different from who's your fav character, I don't know about you but I like reading history. A lot. Often I see here debates about history and characters from the Witcher world who somewhat resemble historical figures, who's your all time historical figures and why? Would you say this historical figure got an equivalent in the Witcher universe? Or maybe a parallel? You don't have to relate them, but It would be fun!

I'd start with my Top 5, but you can go 10 or more If you'd like.

Henry VII of England - Probably my all time favorite read in History, he was innovative and managed to stabilize England after the war of the roses, furthermore, he took the realm from quarrelsome nobles and brought peace.

Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus - He had the longest reign of any emperor, and his rule began what is known as the Pax Romana, a period of over 200 years of internal peace. He stabilized the borders of the empire, reformed the army and administration and was very ambitious.
Resemblance in the Witcher - Mhmm... Maybe Emhyr, but in my eyes he's got much more to prove.

Galileo Galilei - The father of modern science and modern physics.

Niccolò Machiavelli - I think Machiavelli is the father and creator of political science, his book 'The Prince' is like a landmark work in the history of political power.

Voltaire - A great inspirational figure of mine, a great enlightenment thinker and maybe someone who was ahead of his time.
Resemblance in the Witcher - Geralt, maybe. Though he's not as witty. Okay, now I have to quote Voltaire: "A witty saying proves nothing."

 

[phamvan94]

I'm not a big into history but I agree that Machiavelli was quite the interesting historical figure.

Nicholas Flamel was also intriguing, especially his research and theories into alchemy.

 

[SquallDLeonhart]

My turn Probably I'll expand it later..

Julius Caesar - Because he was an unbelievable man, with incredible cleverness, strenght, tactics.. but probably too much ambitious. And his books are simply perfect.

Rodrigo D

 

[Vattier]

Top 5...

5. Jan Zumbach - Polish sky ace from World War II. Just because he's a great pilot of 303 division.
4. Manfred von Richthofen - also known as The Red Baron. Another great sky ace. He was a true knight of the modern warzone.
3. Josef František - Czech/Polish pilot. He loved the air, the flying. He chose to be with Poles in 303 division rather than join his native, Czech division. He was a Pole out of choice I dare to say. Another great sky ace.
2. Józef Piłsudski - one of the greatest leaders of Poland. He lead the country out of the occupation, back onto the map. He had wonderful ideas and was great tactician. He chased the Bolsheviks out of Poland during the Polish-Bolshevik war, thus saving the Europe from Bolsheviks. His political mind managed to rip Vilnius out of Lithuania and join it back into Poland.
1. Simo Häyhä - (Finland) the "White Death"; the greatest sniper in history. His skills during Winter War between Finland and Soviet Union were unmatched. Soviets couldn't take him out even with the use of Artillery. He was using a rifle without scope, not to be detected by the enemy. He kept snow in his mouth to avoid breathing out warm air that could tell his position. He cleared the lighter snow from in front of his rifle not to allow a cloud of it tell his position. He had 505 confirmed sniped kills and additional 200 from machine gun.

 

[DeargRuadhri]

I love history, but I don't really like to differentiate between historical people, so there's no favourite of mine, because I respect each and every one of them (more or less) equally.

 

[CostinRaz]

Jesus Christ - The Son of God who came to us and offered us salvation, taught us about love and respect for each other. One does not need to believe in the Christian religion ( or Islam or other religions where he is considered a prophet ) to admire his teachings.

Mohammed - Prophet of God, brilliant political and spiritual leader who united the Arab tribes. Like Jesus you do not need to believe in Islam to accept his teachings.

Ghenkis Khan - Greatest leader of any nation in history to date. United the Mongol Tribes under one nation and conquered a large portion of the world. Created a nation with effective laws, trade, mail system, religious freedom for ALL religions, promoted people based on their merits and not birth.

Augustus - The creator of the Roman Empire, enough said really.

Napoleon - Incredible leader of France, expert strategist and tactician.

 

[Pandoricai]

Dick Turpin, Mary Seacole, Marc Antony, Dante

 

[secondchildren]

Sandro Pertini

 

[Garrison72]

Jesus Christ - The Son of God who came to us and offered us salvation, taught us about love and respect for each other. One does not need to believe in the Christian religion ( or Islam or other religions where he is considered a prophet ) to admire his teachings.

Mohammed - Prophet of God, brilliant political and spiritual leader who united the Arab tribes. Like Jesus you do not need to believe in Islam to accept his teachings.

Ghenkis Khan - Greatest leader of any nation in history to date. United the Mongol Tribes under one nation and conquered a large portion of the world. Created a nation with effective laws, trade, mail system, religious freedom for ALL religions, promoted people based on their merits and not birth.

Augustus - The creator of the Roman Empire, enough said really.

Napoleon - Incredible leader of France, expert strategist and tactician.

The world would be a better place without the first two.

 

[GuyNwah]

Alfred the Great. The only English king to be called "the Great", the one who defeated and made peace with the Danes. The father, pretty much, of what is now English law, the English army, and English education. He was by all accounts a wise and learned man, the sort of man you could sit down with and have a good long conversation.

Johannes Kepler. Galileo and Copernicus may have been first, but Kepler was more influential. Much of modern philosophy of science, as well as astrophysics, theoretical physics, and the calculus are founded on Kepler's work. With the recent transit of Venus, it's timely to honor Kepler, as Horrocks's correct prediction of the 1639 transit established the accuracy of Kepler's laws.

Christopher Marlowe. Alfred and Kepler may be men you would want to have as professors, or hold long earnest conversations with. Marlowe is the man you want to paint the town red with. "When a man's verses cannot be understood, nor a man's good wit seconded with the forward child, understanding, it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room." (As You Like It)

 

[Thothistox]

Here's a few in no particular order:

Leonhard Euler - one of the most intelligent people that ever lived; single-handedly discovered a tenth of all math, wrote enough math books to fill a small library -- and he did most of it while completely blind!

Jozef Wronski - he wasn't great, but he was interesting; Wronski spent his whole life trying to refute the fundamentals of math and science and he was wrong in nearly everything he said... nearly; while trying to refute Newton's theories he managed to come up with some very useful math for which he is still remembered today.

Peisistratos - tyrant of ancient Athens - famous for one of the weirdest and most cynical stunts in political history; he found a tall Greek woman and dressed her up as Athena the goddess, and then rode into the city in a golden chariot; the stunt lured superstitious Athenians to his side because they thought he had the goddess's support

Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick I - famous for the stupidest death in all history -- he took a swim in the Saleph river in a full suit of armor

 

[AsTheDeath]

The world would be a better place without the first two.

You think? The world would be a better place without people, perhaps. But considering both Mohammed and Jesus tried to bring peace and justice to this world, it'd be a sad thing if what you said were true. Of course, many people have been killed or oppressed in their names, but can you blame them for that? Would it not have happened if they hadn't been there?

The message pretty much any religion tries to convey is one of peace, love, truth, justice... it seems so weird to me to blame religion for so much of the evil in the world. Religious people, yes, but religion? I don't know.

 

[Corylea.723]

Hey, guys, let's not get into religion, all right?

 

[secondchildren]

Right

 

[Garrison72]

You guys are no fun..

 

[Blothulfur]

Einar Belly Shaker, just for the name.

Oliver Cromwell, despite burning down my families castle i've got to admit that in breaking the foolish notion of the divine rights of kings, Old Olly ushered my nation into the modern world.

Will Shakespeare, still some of the finest wordplay and prose in existence.

Snorri Sturlusson.

Cnut, his lesson in humility to bootlicking nobility was all the more striking when he was ruler of Denmark, Norway and England at the time.

Churchill, for making a stand against a madman when all around were crying for peace in our time.

 

[Thothistox]

You think? The world would be a better place without people, perhaps. But considering both Mohammed and Jesus tried to bring peace and justice to this world, it'd be a sad thing if what you said were true. Of course, many people have been killed or oppressed in their names, but can you blame them for that? Would it not have happened if they hadn't been there?

The message pretty much any religion tries to convey is one of peace, love, truth, justice... it seems so weird to me to blame religion for so much of the evil in the world. Religious people, yes, but religion? I don't know.

The problem is not so much the message of peace, love, truth, etc., but rather all the people who are willing to spill blood because they think their particular version of peace, love, truth, etc., is the right one. It's those people that make me tend to agree with slimgrin.

 

[Corylea.723]

You guys are no fun..

Religious discussions get out of hand very quickly and frequently cause bad feelings. Every time a religion discussion has started on the forum in the past 4 years, it has escalated and become nasty. So let's just not go there.

There are lots of forums you can be nasty in, if that's your thing. This one's a haven ... let's keep it that way.

 

[CostinRaz]

The world would be a better place without the first two.

Untrue

Thothistox: Those people are acting against the teachings they claim to hold so dear. Also quite bloody frankly as someone who knows a bloody thing about religion.

It was the not cause of wars like some would like to believe. Even the Crusades started because the Byzantine Empire asked for help against the Turks. Religion was used as a pretext and a tool by various political leaders, but it very rarely the instigator of any war and even when it was there were other factors to consider.

 

[Venethor]

Gaius Marius and his nephew

Henry V

Ælfred the Great

Andrzej Sapkowski! What? He's historical FFS