Sun Tzu (words recorded c. 6th-3rd century BCE) “War Is founded On deception; Movement is determined By advantage; Division and unity Are its elements Of Change.” From Sun Tzu’s The Art of War (Chapte...

Childebert II, born around 570, was the son of King Sigebert and Queen Brunhild. Their particular family was one branch of the large and powerful Merovingian Dynasty that ruled over the Frankish Empir...

Aristotle (c. 384-322 BCE) “Virtue lies in our power, and similarly so does vice; because where it is in our powers to act, it is also in our power not to act, and where we can refuse we can also comp...

Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215) “Extremes, in fact, are dangerous, but the mean is good, and all that avoids dire need is a mean.” From “The Educator” by Clement of Alexandria, translated by Simon ...

In 671, King Grimoald of the Lombards would have been just over 60 years of age, but despite his advancing years, the king was still living life like a younger man. The grey-haired king still personal...

Plato (c. 427-347 BCE) “Do you agree, then, that the best course is for the men and women to receive the same education, share children, and co-operate in the guarding of the rest of their fellow citi...

According to folklore and oral history preserved in the Icelandic Book of Settlements (Landnámabók), an enigmatic figure named Uni lived a troubled life in Iceland during the Age of Settlement period ...

The Buddha (The Buddha lived c. 6th-5th centuries BCE, but this quote based on his teachings was recorded in the 3rd century BCE) “A person is not skilled just because he talks a lot. Peaceful, friend...

Interesting occurrences were happening in the Meroitic Kushite Kingdom (approximately modern Sudan) in the 3rd century BCE that caught the attention of ancient Greek scholars. At that time, a powerful...

Thucydides (Athenian general and historian, c. 460-404 BCE) “My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the taste of an immediate public, but was done to last for ever.” History of the Pelopon...

Cassius Dio (c. 163-235) “To tolerate the offences of the great mass of citizens is a task which demands great prudence and great power, but if anyone were to punish them all indiscriminately as they ...

As told by the Lombard historian, Paul the Deacon (c. 720-799), his Lombard ancestors had a funerary custom in which they set up post beams, topped with wooden dove figurines, at burial grounds that h...

Anna Komnene (Princess of Constantinople, c. 1083-1153) “It is the mark of a bad general, when all is peaceful, to incite his neighbors to war intentionally–for peace is the objective of all wars.” Fr...

Salmoneus was a figure of ancient Greek myth, whose peculiar ancient tale was preserved by writers such as Diodorus Siculus (1st century BCE), Virgil (c. 70-19 BCE), and Pseudo-Apollodorus (1st-2nd ce...

Lucian of Samosata (c. 120-180+) “I didn’t want just to look at cities and mountains as in paintings, but at men themselves and what they are saying and doing.” From Charon or The Observers (section 6...

George Orwell (1903-1950) “One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.” From Homa...

A man named Hrafnkel Hrafnsson moved to Iceland around the early 10th century, landing on the eastern side of the island. According to the medieval Icelandic Book of Settlements (Landnámabók), Hrafnke...

Cassius Dio (Roman statesman and historian, c. 163-235) “Whatever you wish your subjects to think and to do, you must say and do yourself. You can better educate them in this way, rather than by terro...

Geoffrey of Monmouth (12th century Welsh/English writer) “Men will become drunk with the wine which is offered to them: they will turn their backs on Heaven and fix their eyes on the earth.” From Geof...

Aristotle (c. 384-322 BCE) “It is the way that we behave in our dealings with other people that makes us just or unjust, and the way that we behave in the face of danger, accustoming ourselves to be t...

A man named Lupus was assigned as the commander or duke of the Friuli region of Italy toward the end of the reign of King Grimoald of the Lombards (r. 662-671). Lupus and the king got along quite well...

Mo Tzu (Ancient Chinese philosopher and theologian, 5th Century BCE) “[Heaven] desires that among men those who have strength will work for others, those who understand the Way will teach others, and ...

Plato (427-347 BCE) “Anyone who is going to be a truly good guardian of our community, then, will have a philosopher’s love of knowledge, and will be passionate, quick on his feet, and strong.” From R...

A person’s name can be recorded in the history books for a variety of reasons, from fame to infamy, and all of the feats, records, and peculiar events in-between. Unfortunately, not all paths to histo...

The Sibyl’s Prophecy quoted by Snorri Sturluson (c. 1179-1241) “Brothers will fight, bringing death to each other. Sons of sisters will split their kin bonds. Hard times for men, rampant depravity, ag...

According to the historians of ancient Rome, a peculiar warband of Gallic warriors neared Roman territory around 350 BCE and pillaged in the Latin and Volscian borderlands. The robbery and destruction...

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) “One’s ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to interpret Nature.” From A Study in Scarlet, in Sherlock Holmes: The Ultimate Collection (Enhanced Media, 2016)...

Miyamoto Musashi (Japanese master duelist, c. 1584-1645) “If you do not look at things on a large scale it will be difficult for you to master strategy.” From Miyamoto Musashi’s The Book of Five Rings...

Cunincpert was a Lombard king who ruled from 688 until his death in the year 700. A curious quote about the king, attributed to Cunincpert’s greatest rival—Duke Alahis of Trent and Brescia—reveals a g...

Edgar Allan Poe (American writer, 1809-1849) “Nothing is more vague than impressions of individual identity. Each man recognizes his neighbor, yet there are few instances in which any one is prepared ...

Arsinoe IV was an ambitious daughter of King Ptolemy XII of Egypt (r. 80-51 BCE). Her ambition was mirrored by her sisters, Berenice IV and Cleopatra VII. The eldest sister, Berenice, usurped power fr...