About the truth and lies, what is written by poets and historians

Kimmo Huosionmaa

None historian ever told the absolute truth, and the history has been faked from ancient Greece. The reason, why historians told lies about the leaders was practical. If the leaders of the nations didn’t like the texts, what historians wrote, their fate was very painful death in the mouth of emperors pet crocodile or lion. In the real world, the politics have been the ruling element when historians wrote their texts.


When we are observing the familiar books like Julius Caesar’s ” War in Gallic” we must consider, that there are many things, what makes us to suspect that this book is some kind of ”better version” about the things, what claimed to happen, when Julius Caesar was head of the legions in Gallic. I believe that some of those texts are written in some European courts in the medieval period, or they can be made later.


The part of the book, where Caesar tells about the invasion of Britannia is a part, what is not written any master of poems and rhetorics. And when we are looking at the pictures of Dover straight, we must see that the horses are not suitable in that place because the crag is so high. So did somebody made that mistake on purpose? Another part of this column of the text is full of errors, and all story feels like they were in some taverna.


So if the writer made those errors on purpose, we must ask does he lived at the same time as Caesar. In this case, that part of the text has been written for making Caesar suspected as the liar. But if it is written after Caesar’s time, we must consider, that this text might be written in somewhere in Danmark, and it might be portrayed the coast of Sjelland or some other island.


We must say that there is no evidence, that Caesar ever visited north as Danmark. But when we are talking about his book, we must say that even this book is not probably written by Caesar himself. Or part of that book is maybe written by himself, but there might be many columns, what are written after Caesar’s death. And if he hired some professional writers, those persons might make mistakes on purpose, for making Caesar seem like the liar.


Many writers have also been writing false things, because of they afraid that if the emperor doesn’t like them they would be executed. This fate was faced Cicero, the famous Roman poet, and historian. He was killed by Antonius, and his tongue was nailed to the wall. It’s very sad end for great writer and speaker of history. In this case, we must say, that Marcus Antonius was not able to handle critics what he faced as the rank of the emperor.


And if the writings of some persons were not satisfied rulers, those men were executed. Even in the modern era, there are people sitting in jail because they have written something, what was uncomfortable for the rulers. When we are talking about leaders of the nations, they sometimes think, that every problem will be handled by arresting journalists and writers. But when we are thinking about the role of media, we must say that there are cases in history, that reporters start to publish texts, what would protect authoritarian and support censorship.


This is called ”official press”. Some countries like that they have freedom of speech, but only persons who have right to publish their texts are the ”official reporters”. In those countries, the press is in the main role to justify the political police control, and arresting what is targeted for the members of the opposition. So the press could also be a part of the authoritarian government and support the persecution what is targeted to political resistance.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicero

https://crisisofdemocracticstates.blogspot.fi/

http://crisisofdemocracticstates.blogspot.fi/p/about-truth-and-lies-what-is-written-by.html