History Main / JuliusBeethovenDaVinci

* The 2nd half of season 4 of ''Series/Warehouse13'' has a trio that were turned immortal in the 1540s. Since then they've regularly taken on new identities to keep hidden.
* The "BigBad" of the first half of season 3 of ''Series/{{Eureka}}'' is Eva Thorne. She might not be immortal, but in the 30s she was exposed to a radioactive accident which slowed her natural aging. By 2008 she's 107 years old but looks to be around her 50s. Her original name was Susan Perkins and she has changed identities at least once to avoid notice and get where she is.

* In ''Lillim'', the children of UsefulNotes/{{Lilith}} (the titular Lillim) have been masquerading as gods for centuries. And so [[Myth/NorseMythology Odin]] has been [[Myth/EgyptianMythology Set]], [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Zeus]], and [[Myth/MesopotamianMythology Enlil]]; Friga has been Hera and [[Myth/HinduMythology Kali]]; Cain is also known as Hod; and Loki (the protagonist and hero) has been Apollo, Prometheus, Gilgamesh, Horus, and [[spoiler:the serpent that tempted Eve.]]

->'''Chloe''': I came here for help, not to be cut open by some [[JackTheRipoff Jack the Ripper wannabe]]!\\
'''Curtis Knox''': I ''was'' UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper.

* In ''Literature/TheNightAngelTrilogy'', [[spoiler: Acaelus Thorne, also known as Durzo Blint, Gaelan Starfire, and quite a few other aliases, has been the hero of every single historical legend told on his home continent for the past 700 years.]]

** ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag'' introduces the idea individuals who have the genetics and [[GeneticMemory thus memories]] of one of the AbusivePrecursors, Aita. This means that numerous historical figures (and potentially countless unknown persons) have been a variation of the same individual. Most purported Sages are unnamed, but in addition to [[spoiler: Bartholomew Roberts and the Count of St. Germain]]--who play major roles in ''Black Flag'' and ''[[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedUnity Unity]]''--they also seem to include the Wandering Jew from the Bible, Jacques de Molay, and (seemingly) David Bowie.

* Creator/DeanCain appeared on a season 7 episode of ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' as Doctor Curtis Knox, an immortal who had been, among other people, UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte and UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper. Who is very likely Vandal Savage mentioned above under Comic Books. For added fun, Knox is dealt with by the ComicBook/MartianManhunter who's played by Phil Morris, the same guy who voiced Savage in the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' animated series. Which, in a very roundabout way, makes him TheDanza.

[[folder:WebOriginal]]
* Circe of the Literature/WhateleyUniverse has apparently lived for thousands of years, and claims to be the original Circe of Greek mythology.
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A sub-set of BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy. Long-living, [[{{Immortality}} nigh-immortal]] characters are a staple of SpeculativeFiction. Of course, there's the question of how they didn't get found out. Easy enough, actually -- move around a lot, take on a new name every so often, and you're golden, especially in times when written records were rare and getting census information from anywhere further away than the next village required an Epic Quest. Having psychic and shape shifting powers helps a lot too. Compare with AncientConspiracy.

* ComicBook/VandalSavage, from Franchise/TheDCU, was [[AncientEgypt Cheops]], UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat, UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar, UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan, UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler, and UsefulNotes/{{Blackbeard}}. And if there's anyone famous conqueror that he wasn't, he probably at least advised that person. At least that's his story. Every so often there'll be a {{retcon}} in which another immortal will say he's making half of it up.

* The Immortal of ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'' went by UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln at one point. And yes, he ''did'' serve as president. However, he seems to have a fairly average human memory, and so remembers very little of his distant past -- he has only a faint recollection of being Lincoln, and a far-future version of him barely remembered anything about his present-day life.

** And depending on which of the never-meant-to-be-resolved [[MultipleChoicePast and several, contradictory, accounts of the origins of]] ComicBook/ThePhantomStranger you elect to believe, The Stranger may have been [[FlyingDutchman The Wandering Jew]].
*** Post-[[ContinuityReboot New 52]], the Phantom Stranger is [[FlyingDutchman Judas]].

** ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' has revealed him to have been (and subsequently forgot that he was) ''[[Literature/BookOfGenesis Cain]]''. The biblical Cain. Who in DC continuity is now revered as the inventor of crime (being that he committed the first murder). This contradicts what had been established about Cain in the [[ComicBook/TheSandman Sandman]] series (it might be a case of CanonDiscontinuity).
*** The Sandman title exists outside of the main DC universe as part of the Vertigo line, and tends to move between being canon and not being canon depending on whoever happens to be in charge of DC at the time. It can generally be assumed that many of the things established in the Sandman books are not considered to apply to normal DC continuity.
*** That Cain is from a different earth anyway, according to a comment [[CainAndAbel Abel]] made before [[AmusingInjuries being]] [[DeathIsCheap interrupted]]. Also, WordOfGod (in the ''Sandman Companion'') hints that Cain and Abel aren't real people, more like anthromorphic personifications of murder and victimization.
*** Latest {{retcon}} - Savage wasn't Cain at all, he "stole" the Mark of Cain from a man who was passed it by Cain.

** Orlando, the centuries-old transsexual from Creator/VirginiaWoolf's novel of the same name, ''Literature/{{Orlando}}'' has been the Greek mythological figure Bion, the Arthurian knight Roland, the French paladin Orlando (romanticised in ''Orlando innamorato'' and ''Orlando furioso'') and the title character of Anne Desclos' ''Literature/StoryOfO''. He even became Orlando the Marmalade Cat following a curse.

* ''Series/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' has some unusual metafictional examples of this trope.

* Both Arisians and Eddorians (Bergenholm and Gharlane of Eddore, in particular, but also various Atlanteans, and the Emperor Nero, to name a couple of other notables) do this in the ''Literature/{{Lensman}}'' books.

* A variation exists in Creator/MichaelMoorcock's works, where several major historical or legendary heroes were incarnations of the Eternal Champion, most notably Myth/KingArthur and the Carolingian knight [[Literature/TheSongOfRoland Roland]].
** One of the [[Literature/TheElricSaga Elric]] stories features a crossover in which several incarnations (including Elric himself) are pulled together by fate to fight alien wizards. It managed to be even more epic than it sounds.

* In a partial subversion, Nevyn, Master of the Aethyr, in the {{Literature/Deverry}} novels has shown up to play a major role in his country's history quite a few times, but he always does it under the same identity: the shabby old herbalist named Nevyn (save for the few times he temporarily uses his birth name of Galrion). But since he generally drops out of sight for twenty or thirty years between his major appearances, those people old enough to remember the old herbman named Nevyn from his previous appearance refuse to believe that the shabby old herbman named Nevyn who just rode into town could possibly be the same man. Those people who notice the multiple Nevyns across history assume the name is inherited (whether from father to son or master to apprentice is debated).
* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', the Chee (Benevolent Alien Androids that are supremely powerful but physically incapable of violence) have had many identities over the centuries. When the Animorphs discover this they press for details, ''expecting'' a story about the Chee being key figures in history, [[SubvertedTrope but the androids actually made an effort to not affect human civilization]]. Erik helped build the pyramids, but he was a slave who quarried rocks, not their designer. He also claims to have coined the phrase "New Deal", but it was in a poker game while he was the White House butler, not as a Washington official. He also said he was Beethoven's helper or butler.
** Then there was Mr. King, Erek's 'father', who suggested pasteurization to Louis Pasteur.
* There is an old science-fiction short story which claimed that [[ScienceMarchesOn Martians]] have been disguising themselves as humans since at least the 15th century, as a way to explain the "chains" of great men in a field being born in the same year that another died. The only Martian appearing in the story apparently took the identities of Creator/MichelangeloBuonarroti (1475-1564), Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton (1642-1727), Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) , Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), Creator/AntonChekhov (1860-1904), [[spoiler:the protagonist's friend, and, after said friend dies, the protagonist's newborn son.]]
* In the ''Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures'' novel ''Birthright'', the villain is an immortal searching for the TARDIS. At various points in time he was Thomas the Rhymer, John Dee and the Count of Cagliostro.

* There is an old science-fiction short story which claimed that [[ScienceMarchesOn Martians]] have been disguising themselves as humans since at least the 15th century, as a way to explain the "chains" of great men in a field being born in the same year that another died. The only Martian appearing in the story apparently took the identities of Creator/MichelangeloBuonarroti (1475-1564), UsefulNotes/GalileoGalilei (1564-1642), UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton (1642-1727), Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) , Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), Creator/AntonChekhov (1860-1904), [[spoiler:the protagonist's friend, and, after said friend dies, the protagonist's newborn son.]]

* Flint, from the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Requiem For Methuselah," claims to have been Music/JohannesBrahms, Creator/LeonardoDaVinci, Myth/{{Merlin}}, Lazarus, UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat, [[Characters/BooksOfKings King Solomon]], and Methuselah, among others, in addition to "a hundred other names that you do not know". His birth name was Akharin, a Sumerian soldier. In the (presumably non-canonical) Star Trek/Legion of Superheroes crossover comic series published by IDW, Flint also turns out to be the Trek universe doppleganger of the immortal DC Comics villain Vandal Savage (see Comics, above).

* Dean Cain appeared on a season 7 episode of ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' as Doctor Curtis Knox, an immortal who had been, among other people, UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte and UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper. Who is very likely Vandal Savage mentioned above under Comic Books. For added fun, Knox is dealt with by the ComicBook/MartianManhunter who's played by Phil Morris, the same guy who voiced Savage in the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' animated series. Which, in a very roundabout way, makes him TheDanza.

*** Would be awfully hard for Dracula to be Vlad Tepes and Gilles de Rais considering that Tepes was born in 1431 and de Rais was executed in 1440. Unless he was lying, or there was a covert replacement.

* Along with EveryoneIsRelated, and LegacyCharacter this is one of the central tropes of [[Creator/PhilipJoseFarmer Philip José Farmer's]] Wold Newton Universe. Franchise/DocSavage is also [[Film/TheThing1982 R.J. MacReady]] and [[Literature/TheTimeMachine H.G. Wells's Time Traveler]]. [[Creator/AlexandreDumas Joseph Balsamo]] later became Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo and then [[Literature/TheNarrativeOfArthurGordonPymOfNantucket Arthur Gordon Pym]] (inventing fictitious sympathetic backstories for both identities) before using alien super-science found at the North Pole as Pym to become [[Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea Captain Nemo]], Literature/RoburTheConqueror, and eventually [[Film/ForbiddenPlanet Doctor Morbius]] (though [[Literature/SherlockHolmes Professor Moriarty]] briefly posed as Nemo without Balsamo's knowledge or permission before changing his name to [[Literature/TheSeaWolf Wolf Larsen]].

* In his longest work "Literature/TheCaseOfCharlesDexterWard", Creator/HPLovecraft writes about a necromancer by the name of Joseph Curwen, who along with at least two other members of his cabal, is seemingly unaffected by age. One of his confederates, who lived in Salem (during the infamous [[WitchHunt witch trials]]), moved away then returned, masquerading as his own son at Curwen's urging. Curwen himself doesn't bother with this trick. They both get found out eventually, and both escape, in one form or another, from those determined to do them harm.

* ComicBook/VandalSavage, from Franchise/TheDCU, was [[AncientEgypt Cheops]], UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat, UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar, UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan, UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler, and UsefulNotes/{{Blackbeard}}. At least that's his story. Every so often there'll be a {{retcon}} in which another immortal will say he's making half of it up.

* One of the Magical Arts teachers at SuperheroSchool Whateley Academy in the WhateleyUniverse claims she was [[Literature/TheOdyssey Circe]]. The thing is, everyone else in the Magical Arts department insists she really ''is'' Circe.

* Circe of the WhateleyUniverse has apparently lived for thousands of years, and claims to be the original Circe of Greek mythology.

* ''Film/TheManFromEarth'' has this with the main character, although he's usually a 'friend' or 'student', or otherwise indirectly involved with some historical figure. (And he points out even that doesn't happen very often, since he can only be in one place at a time and has to move on every 10 years or so to avoid any questions about why he's not aging.) He does turn out to be [[spoiler:{{Jesus}}]], though. [[UnwantedFalseFaith Bit of a misunderstanding]], that.

* Norman from ''MightyMax''. At the very least, he was both [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Hercules]] and [[Myth/NorseMythology Thor]].

* ComicBook/TheEternals of MarvelComics have been everything from kings to [[GodGuise Gods]]. One even goes by the name [[Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh Gilgamesh]] (he also performed one of [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Hercules' Labors]], having been mistaken for the man himself, along with [[Literature/SamsonAndDelilah Samson]] and Atlas at other times). Their [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute hideously deformed]] enemies the Deviants have been the inspiration for various mythical monsters and demons.

* ComicBook/VandalSavage, from Franchise/TheDCU, was [[AncientEgypt Cheops]], UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat, Creator/GaiusJuliusCaesar, UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan, UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler, and UsefulNotes/{{Blackbeard}}. At least that's his story. Every so often there'll be a {{retcon}} in which another immortal will say he's making half of it up.

* VandalSavage, from Franchise/TheDCU, was [[AncientEgypt Cheops]], UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat, Creator/GaiusJuliusCaesar, UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan, UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler, and UsefulNotes/{{Blackbeard}}. At least that's his story. Every so often there'll be a {{retcon}} in which another immortal will say he's making half of it up.