And when Salomon embellished the temple with vessels and riches, a lot was spent for it. Aside from all this, we know that in the Levant there are regions rich in gold and silver. But none of these things can equal or compare to [the wealth] of Peru because counting what was in Cajamarca when the ransom [was collected] for Atahualpa, and what was later divided in Jauja and in Cuzco, and what else there was in the kingdom, it is such a great sum that I, although I could, do not dare to state it. But if one wanted to build another temple with it, it would be more opulent than the one of Cuzco and as none that has existed in the world. All that had been taken from Peru is nothing compared with what is lost in the land, buried in tombs of kings and of caciques and in the temples. The Indians themselves know it and acknowledge it.

I picked up this first-hand account of the Spanish expedition that toppled the Aztec empire because Diamond had mentioned it in Guns, Germs, and Steel, and I was not disappointed. My primary take-away was this: Why didn’t we read this in school? Real history is nothing like school history. Oddly, real history is more like a swords-and-sorcery novel: evil priests, hair matted with blood, commit human sacrifices atop pyramids amidst a city built on a lake inside a volcanic crater; frenzied fighting ensues.

I have been a pulp fiction fan for decades now.

Some other guy wrote a pretty good summary of early 20th century pulp, including Doc Savage.

I still haven’t gotten around to reading The Savage Gentleman yet. It’s getting so that I scarcely have time to watch TV any more, much less read fiction.

I have been reading Gibbon’s Decline and Fall. It’s almost fiction. It’s history written as an adventure story.