What historical ‘fact’ doesn’t have much evidence to support it? – 17 details about the past that textbooks get wrong

History, as they say, is written by the victors. Which inevitably means that certain details are going to be misinterpreted.

This results in inaccuracies being taken at face value, and it’s only when you dig a little deeper that the more complicated truth starts to emerge. But to save you from wading through archives and diaries, KyloWrench put the following question to r/AskReddit:

‘What historical ‘fact’ doesn’t actually have much evidence to support it?’

Get ready to correct the history books, here are the top answers…

1.

‘That Roman gladiatorial matches were always ‘to the death’.

‘In reality, gladiators were the Roman Empire’s sports stars, and many of them were contracted volunteers. Kids played with the Roman equivalent of action figures, there were fan clubs, merch with the gladiator’s image, and the lanistae (trainers/managers/promoters) invested heavily in training, equipment, and marketing to reap the returns through betting, public favor, and political influence.
Gladiators were an expensive investment, so if one died in the arena, his lanista could seek reimbursement for the loss from the editor (the event’s sponsor).

‘In point of fact, the ‘death battles’ were usually convicted criminals, and they were held during midday mealtimes so that the audience could leave for lunch without missing the evening’s much more popular gladiator bouts.’
-Cold-Jackfruit1076

2.

‘St Patrick introduced Christianity to Ireland.

‘Vatican records & Irish history show St Palladius was sent to Ireland before Patrick. Even more, records show he was sent to preach to people already believing in Christ, which meant it had already been introduced to the island.’
-IgnatiusRileyFreeman

3.

‘Whats so wild to me is the Hanging Garden of Babylon.

‘It’s one of the 7 Ancient wonders of the world, but we cant find proof it existed. It was described in such detail we just assume it to be true.’
-Funnyguyinspace

4.

‘A good chunk of the studies used to inform current day psychology have being difficult to reproduce. A lot have returned wildly different results then the ones originally published.’
-quiet0n3

5.

‘Prima Nocte (the idea that in the Middle Ages, nobles could sleep with the bride on the night of the marriage) has no evidence to support it.’
-Bwint

6.

‘Marie Antoinette never said “let them eat cake”‘
-depredador93

7.

‘That the people who built the Titanic thought it was unsinkable. What actually happened was that White Star said in their advertising that the ship was “practically unsinkable,” meaning that it was designed so well that it was close to being as safe as possible (also untrue but for different reasons). The public latched onto the unsinkable part of the advertising and didn’t think further about it. White Star never bothered to correct them because this got the ship easy publicity and they were close to bankrupt at the time and needed to recoup their losses.’
-Embarrassed-Sound611

8.

‘Everyone that lived in Scandinavia in 9th to 11th were Vikings. Vikings were just the raiders and warriors. Ones that stay at home were just Norsemen and women’
-Beneficial-Jelly5746

9.

‘That Medieval Europe was a dirty, nasty place where people threw buckets of shit out the windows and never bathed. Sanitation and hygiene in the Middle ages is well documented and there’s plenty of literature on the subject.’
-themanfrommars101