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question for historians: we hear a lot of "you gotta judge them by the standards of their times" nonsense to justify horrors from the past, but do you know any examples of people using that same ARGUMENT in the past? like I cannot IMAGINE medievals saying "well, Athens was another time you see"

Cat Manning

@catacalypto.bsky.social

isn’t Dante putting the virtuous pagans in Limbo kind of this?

Matt Gabriele

@profgabriele.com

maybe? but not really? he's just saying he likes them.

27/10/26, 2:32 am0 reposts1 like

James A. Palmer

@jamespqr77.bsky.social

If anything, I think Dante is doing the opposite, or nearly so. The virtuous pagans aren't given a pass, it's just that some are so virtuous as to at least partially transcend all the ways they were also wrong.