Quote Originally Posted by Rocky
Expat, I've wondered how could you type all these people who have been dead for over a thousand years?
The same way we try to type people whom we don't know personally but about whom we have information -- based on what we know of their lives, their personalities, as described by themselves or people who knew them personally.*shrugs*.

After all, we both think that Julius Caesar was probably ENTj, don't we? It may be incorrect but it's not based on nothing. I'm not just guessing. These are all people about whom I have read enough to get an idea (correct or incorrect) of their likely types.

There isn't an awful lot of personal information about Trajan, but there is something.

As for Julian, there are tons of information, lots of letters and other works, besides descriptions by eyewitnesses - he's one of the best-documented individuals of the ancient world.

Time means nothing as such. What counts is the information available. I agree with you about Alexander the Great, but that is not the case of every single individual of the ancient world.

I'm not a specialist on each of the individuals I listed, but I do know enough about them to risk a typing - which may be wrong, of course. But I pretty much doubt that any of those I listed was an ISTp.

Quote Originally Posted by Rocky
Anyway, I would say Nelson Mandela was an INTP, not ENFJ.
Mandela's is almost blinding in his interviews. And, by all accounts, including his own, as President of South Africa - an executive position, as in the US - he could not and would not concern himself with the actual governing ( ) and concentrated on public relations ( ). He left the actual running of the governent to his then deputy, today the president, Thabo Mbeki, INTj in my opinion.

I'm not "sure" of these typings in a manner -- I think there is a good case for all of them. If anyone disagrees and has solid information, we can discuss it.