Dracula, Nero, and History

A year and a half ago I was in central Europe and sadly didn't have enough time to get to Romania, an omission I will correct next time I'm in that part of the world. But I did do a lot of reading, especially (of course!) about Dracula. I'd always wondered how Vlad Dracul and his descendants have been remembered as such villains over the centuries, especially when they were instrumental in keeping the Balkans in the hands of Christendom and out of Turkish control. But old Vlad also persecuted the medieval German diaspora that had spread across central and eastern Europe; how do we know? "It's worth mentioning that most written sources regarding his reign are based on the numerous propagandistic pamphlets spread by the Germans with the help of their new invention, the printing press."

The Roman emperor Nero was comemmorated as both the most incompetent Roman emperor (which he definitely wasn't, among the many jokers that competed for that title) as well as being so evil that Jews and early Christians were worried he would come back to life, and the famous 666 in the Book of Revelations is actually a code referring to him. Not coincidentally, Nero was the emperor who began Rome's systematic program of persecuting the Jews in Israel.

The lesson? If you don't want to be remembered for millennia as a villain, don't persecute industrious, highly literate people with a broad diaspora that's self-sustaining and wealth-generating due to trade.