In 492 b.c., an Athenian tragedian named Phrynichus made the disastrous decision to premiere a play about recent political events — as far as we know, the first drama in Western history to be based on a true story. As with other, more recent works of the genre — such as Selma, Ava DuVernay’s Oscar-nominated movie about the 1965 voting-rights marches in Alabama — the title of Phrynichus’ play had only to refer to the name of a certain city to evoke a strong reaction in audiences. It was called The Capture…