History may not be a very popular hobby these days, but there are several facts about the past that even people who are far from historians know about.

Axar.az report that we’ve all heard the story about 300 Spartans and about what happened to witches in the Middle Ages. These stories became popular thanks to movies and seem to be true. But if we start checking reliable sources, we’ll quickly find out that many events didn’t quite happen the way we think they did.

We’re always looking for the truth. And we will amaze you with facts that professional historians and regular people see in completely different ways.

Myth № 1: Gladiators were slaves.

The mass culture often shows gladiators as slaves who were taught to fight. They fought and killed each other for people’s entertainment. But if we take a closer look at historical facts, we will find out that their lives were not so tragic. In the beginning, the fighters were really chosen from local slaves, conquered people, and criminals.

But as gladiator fights became more and more popular, free people started coming to gladiator schools. Most of the time, they were ex-soldiers who wanted to win money. Later, even noble people would become gladiators. They did it to become famous and nobody forced them to fight to their death.

Myth № 2: Alexander the Great had the biggest empire in human history.

Alexander the Great created a huge empire not only by the standards of the time but even by today’s standards. This is why he is believed to be the greatest conqueror of all time. But if we take a look at actual facts, we will see that the Mongol Empire was actually the biggest in the world.

In the 12th-14th centuries, the Mongols owned all of Central Asia, China, the Middle East, Korea, and Eastern Europe all the way up to Austria. To put this in perspective: Alexander the Great only had ancient Egypt, a part of Persia, and a part of India. Also, right after the monumental Alexander the Great died, his empire ceased to exist whereas the Mongol Empire existed for a much longer time.

Myth № 3: In the Middle Ages, witches were burned.

Many people truly believe that thousands of innocent women were burned in Europe in the Middle Ages. But in fact, up to the 15th century, the church denied the fact that witches existed. The mass witch hunt started in the 16th and 17th centuries. The reason for this was the plague pandemic.

The diseases spread so quickly that 24% of the European population died in just several years. There was no remedy for it and people were in such a panic, they thought that it was caused by witchcraft. So by the 16th century, both the church and regular people were scared of magic and executed everything who had any connection to it. But witches were burned only to demonstrate this to people. Most of the time, they were hanged — this was the most popular way of execution.

Myth № 4: Spartans threw weak babies over the mountain.

Spartans were really tough about bringing up their future warriors. The fact that they threw weak babies over a mountain is known from the ancient Greek writer, Plutarch. But modern scientists believe that it’s either not true or it was just a one-time thing, not a regular phenomenon.

In ancient Sparta, there really was a tradition to throw people into pits, but it was only done to prisoners and criminals. Recent anthropological studies showed that the remains belonged to men aged 18 to 35. There were also other bones found, but there was no trace of newborn babies. So today, there is no evidence that Spartans killed weak babies.

Myth № 5: Shakespeare created Hamlet.

One of the most famous Shakespeare plays is Hamlet. However, very few people know that it is actually based on a different piece — The Life of Amleth. It was written by Saxo Grammaticus in the 13th century.

The plotlines of both plays are almost identical: the main character is Amleth, the Prince of Denmark. The young man was mad because of his mother’s hasty marriage to the usurper, so he kills him.