This year, Napoleon's sword was auctioned off for a value of US$6.8 million. It's gold-encrusted, and he liked the curved Arabian design because it was good at cutting off French heads.
Nice.
He carried this around with him as he pushed the Austrian army out of much of Italy more than 200 years ago.
Anyone else have any historical blades they'd like to share?
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Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds theirs. We live by the death of others: we are burial places! I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look on the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men.
—Leonardo da Vinci
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—"Burnt Norton," Four Quartets, T. S. Eliot