When authors refer to other great works, people, and events, it’s usually not accidental. Put on your super-sleuth hat and figure out why.
Literary and Philosophical References
Virgil, Aeneid (1.10; 1.12)
Homer, Odyssey (1.10; 1.12)
Plato (1.10)
Seneca (1.10)
Cicero (1.10)
Sallust (1.18)
Plato, Republic (1.28, 36, 38)
Gospel of Luke, New Testament (1.27)
Many Old Testament References (1.27)
Historical References
King Henry VIII of England (1.8)
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor from 1519 and King of Spain from 1516 (1.8)
Amerigo Vespucci (1.10)
Dionysus of Syracuse (an ancient tyrannical king of Syracuse (1.29)
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (1.29)
Ferdinand the Catholic, or II King of Aragon (and a bunch of other places) (1.29)
Crassus, the third (and least famous) member of the First Triumvirate: Pompey and Julius Caesar (1.33)