Heroes and Villains in History:

Rather than being black or white our world

consists of different shades of grey. One mans
terrorist is another mans freedom fighter. There
are people who the world either venerates as
heroes or abhors as villains. But it must be kept
in mind that what these people did or what
world knows they did, is just the repercussion of
the decisions they made and actions they took in
crucial moments of their lives in tandem with
what life put on their plates. Had these actions
been a bit different or had they been taken at a
different time these people would have been
unknown to us or might have even been on the
opposite side of the table. It depends completely
upon the witness to decide who the hero is and
who the villain is.

1. Spartacus:
The very name of the slave rebellion leader
Spartacus generated terror in the minds of the 73
BC Romans. He was a man who scared Rome
with his military might and made Rome realize
that if you treat anyone below human standards,
you would not be punished for your sins, but by
your sins. Spartacus is till date revered as a man
who fought back against slavery and oppression
against the Roman Empire in its heydays.
Once a great gladiator who satiated the bloodlust
of the Roman populous, Spartacus led an escape
of Gladiators and slaves from the Roman
Empire and led them to war against it.
He along with his team of 70 slaves escaped to
the dormant volcano of Vesuvius where he made
his first display of military brilliance against the
Roman army of 2000. He in a very cunning
manner looted the Roman militia of their
valuable stocks of military arms and armor from
their tents in the middle of the night.
However, this victory at Mount Vesuvius was
just the beginning of a much larger campaign
which would change the way the civilized
world saw slaves.
This victory of Spartacus encouraged more
slaves and gladiators to join their rebellion,
swelling his army to 40,000.
Seeing that these Revolts might have some
devastating repercussions, the Senate sent two
legions of militia to track the insurgents and
bring them to justice. Due to insubordination in

the ranks of the Roman militia the army was

badly mauled, adding to the humiliation of
Romans and sprouting optimism in the slaves
hearts.
A series of other battles took place between
Romans and the Gladiator army in which
Spartacus reached an upper hand, though not
without losses. Fearing that Rome might recall
its veterans from Spain and hoping to reignite a
revolt in Sicily, Spartacus made a failed attempt
to make it to Sicily, but was betrayed by the his
aides. Spartacus was now marooned on the
hostile parts of Italy; he had by then realized that
his by far successful and lucky rebellion would
meet its end. Outmaneuvered and outmatched,
Spartacus was forced to fight a battle which he
knew he would lose. When the dust of war
settled, the rebellion had reached its untimely
end. But even in his death Spartacus defied the
Romans. They scoured the whole battlefield but
the dead body of Spartacus was never found.

2. Joan of Arc:
Joan of arc also known as the maid of New
Orleans was born in a peasant family on 6th
January, 1412. She was a pious child and
frequently went to church. At the age of 13 she
began hearing some voices and receiving
apparitions of divine personnels but couldn't
recognize them.
She called herself a messenger of god and that
her missions was made clear by god to wipe out
the English heretics, free the states of France
help King Charles VII and bring back the glory
of catholic state of France. She gained the
French monarchs trust by recognizing him
through his disguise while he was making an
attempt to feign an assassination against himself.
She cut her hair short and wore armor. She led
the French armies to victory against the English
and recovered New Orleans in the battle of
herrings in 1429. After that, she made a series of
victories and regained many French territories
from British powers. At this time king Charles
feared her growing influence and deceived her
by not sending sufficient reinforcement. As
Joan was illiterate the bishop of Beauvais, made
her make some damaging statements in lieu of
which he charged her as heretic, adulteress and
demonic possessed and sentenced her to be
burnt alive. While under trial she was tortured

but still managed to always retain her dignity.

When asked if she knew she was in God's grace,
she answered: 'If I am not, May God put me
there; and if I am, may God so keep me.'" The
question was a scholarly trap. Church doctrine
held that no one could be certain of being in
God's grace. If she had answered yes, then she
would have convicted herself of heresy and
would be remembered in history as a heretic
witch. If she had answered no, then she would
have confessed her own guilt and would have
been executed and her name might not have ever
figured in history! It was her smart reply that led
her to be vindicated and canonized as a saint by
the same church that condemned her. It was this
one act of hers that immortalized her as a French
hero and not a heretic witch or a nameless
warrior.

3. Genghis Khan (Temjin):

The story of Genghis Khan is the story of a
mans quest for survival against all the
circumstances that life threw at him. Its the
story of a man who would rise from an ordinary
boy, Temjin in the unknown steppes of
Mongolia to one of the greatest war machines,
Genghis Khan who would subjugate whole of
Asia and Eastern Europe making the largest
contiguous empire in the history of world.
As destiny would have it, at a young age of 8 his
father was assassinated and his family was
abandoned by his tribe. Forced to live in
destitution, Temjin inculcated in him hardiness
and brutality.
In a climate of tribal warfare, thievery, raids,
corruption and continuing acts of revenge,
Temjin was married out to Borte for the need of
alliances. But as the legend goes, on their
wedding night the rival tribe Merkits attacked
his tent and kidnapped his wife. Faced with
dilemma whether to try to save his wife or to
protect his own, the man who one day would
become the conqueror of Eurasia decided to spur
his horse and make a run from the scene!
Burning with revenge and love for his wife he
approached his blood brother Jamukha.
Jamukha, kept his oath to Temjin and together
they ravaged the Merkits, reducing them to
oblivion and Temjin was re-united with his
wife. However, this incident resulted in Jamukha

fearing the rising sun of Temjin and taking up

arms against him. Little did Jamukha know that
he would be the first major victim of Genghis
military brilliance?
Although in command of a larger army, Jamukha
was defeated and was turned in by his own
general. Temjin then offered his friendship to
Jamukha, asking him to return to his side but
Jamukha refused the offer of friendship and
reunion, saying, there only exists one Sun in
the sky and he asked for a noble death instead.
Once free from internal rebellions Temjin took
the title of Genghis Khan the universal ruler
and truly lived up to it.
His first step to domination was to conquer
China, which at the time was one of the worlds
most prosperous and civilized nations. In his
quest to conquer the mighty civilization,
Genghis merely relaxed outside the capital city
walls, cutting off their entire food supply. After
three long months Zhongdu, the capital became
a graveyard where, more people were dying of
starvation and diseases than of Mongol arrows.
Once the city became weak Genghis finally
attacked it. The Chinese retaliated with arrows
and fire, leading to a mass killing of first line of
attackers, but the funny thing was that the first
lines of attackers were all Chinese slaves and
prisoners captured in the Mongol raids, so in
other words, Chinese were killing their own
people!
Genghis Khan possessed a special hatred against
any civilization having large cities and towns
and, adding to this the Shah of Persia had made
a mockery of Genghis by humiliating his
diplomats, who had very politely asked Shah to
surrender his kingdom. By some accounts the
end result of this bloody business was that th
of the population was wiped out and the
magnificent cities of Babylon and Samarkand
(Islamic capital of that time) were leveled to the
ground. According to stories, so fierce was
Genghis wrath that he even went so far as to
divert a river through the Khwarezmid the
Persian emperor's birthplace, erasing it from the
map!

4. Vlad III The Impaler (Dracula):

The story of Vlad III, the prince of Wallachia is
the story of the wrath of a man who was once a
boy that legend holds was sexually tortured and

exploited by the Turks upon being taken

hostage. Its the bloody legacy that this brutal
man left behind that inspired the 1897 novel by
Bram Stoker based on the life of Count Dracula.
Its odd that the name known for stirring
nightmares actually belonged to a crusader of a
religious cause who protected his nation against
the approaching Turkish onslaught. He was not
only a ruler, but a fine gentleman, a wise
politician, a warrior, an erudite and a well
learned man. He ruled thrice in 1448, 1456-1462
and in 1476. But is only remembered for the
legends of the very cruel punishments he bought
on the populous. A mass murderer with the
knowledge of Turkish, Romanian, Latin and
German was born in the land of constant
uncertainty, Transylvania.
During his lifetime Vlad III, became famous as a
tyrant taking sadistic pleasure in torturing and
killing people. Impalement or decelerated killing
was his preferred methods of torture and
execution.
He was very clever, and proved to be one of the
greatest military geniuses ever on the earth. He
generally launched his attacks late at night.
The Turkish Sultan, angry with Vlads resistance
once stormed towards the capital city, but lo and
behold, he was confronted by a most gruesome
sight: thousands of stakes held the remaining
carcasses of some 20,000 Turkish captives, a

horror scene which was ultimately nicknamed

the "Forest of the Impaled." This terror tactic,
deliberately stage-managed by Vlad the Impaler
was definitely successful; the scene had a strong
effect on the Sultans most stout-hearted officers
forcing them to admit defeat. To secure his rule
he had many leading nobles killed. In his aim of
protecting Wallachia, he didn't spare the sword
for anyone.
He tortured people by ordering them to be
skinned, boiled, decapitated, blinded, strangled,
hanged, burned, roasted, hacked, nailed, buried
alive, stabbed, etc. He also issued laws allowing
hacking off noses, ears, sexual organs and limbs
as a method for punishing thieves. Once while
negotiating with Turks, he got riled up because
the Turks would not remove their Turbans as a
sign of respect to Vlad (Turks could only show
their respect to Allah). So Vlad had the
Turbans nailed to their heads.
This is how brutal the repercussions of a childs
torture had on his adult mind.