"The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones." This may be so for individuals. But history is different. "The glory that was Greece, and the grandeur that was Rome" still flourish in memory, conveniently omitting the jury that sentenced Socrates to death and the crowds cheering as wild beasts tore apart their fellow humans in the Coliseum. When we think of the Middle Ages, the beauty of cathedrals distracts from the squalor and stench. Could we be transported to any of those earlier times, we would find them suffocating and terrifying. Yet we seem to miss something we imagine they had that gave life savor and tang.
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