Martin Wolf

You did?

I studied classics.

So I read a lot of ancient Greek and Latin at Oxford.

The first and best column by far I wrote about Donald Trump, it was in March 2016 when I said, Donald Trump is how great republics meet their end.

That was the headline.

It compared him with the Caesars, Julius and Augustus, who basically ended the Roman Empire, but they were far cleverer.

When I think, you know, you mentioned- Although they did have 250 years of religious war along with that period.

One of the things that I think is very important, which I didn't stress in the history of the last 200 years,

particularly the 20th century, is Europe spawned a lot of ideologies.

To say the least.

Spawned all of them.

So obviously every variety of Christianity you can imagine, which they happily fought over for much of their history, orthodoxy, Catholicism, Protestantism, and so forth.

And of course, socialism, communism, fascism, the dominant ideologies of the world.

And one of the things...

that happened as a result of the religious wars, which were devastating.

Arguably the most destructive single war in European history, though it's in a particular place based in Germany, was the Thirty Years' War of the early 17th century.

And I believe something like 30% of the population was killed.

And it was many other things, but it was also a religious war.

So that was the 17th century when everybody believed.

The problem is when everybody really believes in something, they often find an excuse for killing people who don't.