When you admire the more interesting parts of history, without taking into account the ugly, nasty side of them, you get shitty political movements (It is incredibly popular among xenophobic nationalist assholes to admire the Roman Empire, the Crusaders, the Spartans, the Vikings, as some kind of cultural ideals that we should aspire to...)

For some reason, though, they always envision themselves as being warrior-kings, or some equivalent thereof in such societies, instead of members of a slave caste...