Fascinated, sure. There’s a lot of history to be fascinated by, doesn’t mean you have to think it was good.
The pirate story is a great one. Probably exaggerated at best, if not almost entirely made up, because Dignity and Glory (I have capitalized those because they were concrete concepts) were huge things in Rome in those times, and those were earned through war. Having such a tale ascribed to you was a way to earn Dignity and Glory if you had political aspirations and were not (yet) able to actually go to war.
Fascinated, sure. There’s a lot of history to be fascinated by, doesn’t mean you have to think it was good.
The pirate story is a great one. Probably exaggerated at best, if not almost entirely made up, because Dignity and Glory (I have capitalized those because they were concrete concepts) were huge things in Rome in those times, and those were earned through war. Having such a tale ascribed to you was a way to earn Dignity and Glory if you had political aspirations and were not (yet) able to actually go to war.