Tractatus Theologico-Politicus

A bile bear in a "crush cage" on Huizhou Farm, Huizhou , China

A map of Belgic Gaul in the first century BC, showing the relative position of the Nervii

01The Nervii reportedly forbade wine and merchants among themselves to keep their warriors undiluted by Roman goods or influence.
02Caesar describes grabbing a shield from an anonymous soldier and entering the front rank personally — he did not know the man's name.
03The Nervii, once 60,000 warriors strong by Caesar's count, were reduced to 500 fighting men and three chieftains after the battle at the Sabis.

Published anonymously in Hamburg in 1670, Spinoza's Tractatus argued Scripture was human-authored propaganda. Within a year, four separate European governments banned it; it circulated in disguise as a medical textbook.