History, for most of history, has been the stories the winning side tells. They may or may not be true. As time passes, future generations look back in judgment of how they lived. A judgment that was different from that they themselves would have arrived at.

This is particularly true today, though it has happened previously as well. Mankind did not spring forth as it is now, with universities and literacy insisted on. Given that, it is little wonder that a Code of Ethics for History took time.

Again, one can only fairly judge people in the times they lived in, not by our standards. Or to put it more directly, would you want to be judged by Roman or some other standards that the present? You might not come out as sterling as you think.