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A new history of Byzantium reveals the inner workings of a late antique empire
- Uehreka 5y agoThis sounds fascinating. I almost want to get it just so I can learn what is meant by “The cursus publicus was hailed for its efficiency, at least until Justinian got his hands on it. “
- atdrummond 5y agoA modern analog would be the USPS historically and what it's turned into under recent administrations, especially accelerated under DeJoy's administration.
- hetspookjee 5y agoImagine an analogous overlay much like you provided but continuous for such historical texts. That would be something. Like a Google translate from historical or cultural texts to your own contemporary culture, or a battery of footnotes. On a tangent. The latest version of Candide on Gutenberg has such footnotes spread throughout to explain some obscure mentions in the text. An absolute recommender.
- thaumasiotes 5y agoA battery of footnotes, commentary, and other marginalia is the norm for historical texts. The commentary is frequently more significant than the primary work.
- Koshkin 5y ago> cursus publicus Didn't the Byzantians speak Greek (rather than Latin)?
- doctor_eval 5y agoThis is fascinating. “The cursus publicus (Latin: "the public way"; Ancient Greek: δημόσιος δρόμος, dēmósios drómos) was the state mandated and supervised courier and transportation service of the Roman Empire, later inherited by the Eastern Roman Empire. It was a system based on obligations placed on private persons by the Roman State” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursus_publicus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursus_publicus
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- dr_dshiv 5y agoIsn’t it wild that the Roman Empire lasted until the 1400s, only to finally fall to the Ottoman Empire? But as the Empire fell, a large set of manuscripts were brought by the great Plethon to Cosimo d’Medici. Marsilio Ficino’s translation of Greek classics into Latin—like the complete works of Plato and the Hermetica—helped kindle the European Renaissance as we know it.
- wrp 5y ago>...the Roman Empire lasted until the 1400s, only to finally fall to the Ottoman Empire The Byzantine empire was in decline for several centuries, starting with the Islamic expansion. By the time Constantinople fell to the Turks, it had been reduced to a city-state.
- bwanab 5y agoThat isn’t really accurate. The Roman Empire of the several centuries after the Arab conquests had its down period in the 800s, but came back strongly for several centuries from 900 through 1200 during which time they were the most powerful of all the states of Europe and Western Asia.
- dan-robertson 5y agoOne thing to note is that the Greek works likely could not have survived medieval Europe if they had left Constantinople a lot earlier. There were two great advantages to renaissance scholars: 1. The works were still in their original Greek (rather than translations into Latin done long ago, or the translations from Greek to Arabic (and then to Latin) that came in through moorish Spain). 2. Religious attitudes allowed the works to be studied close to their original form. Early Christians were basically of the opinion that if a book disagreed with the bible it was heresy and should be destroyed, and if it agreed with the bible it was unnecessary and could be destroyed. That was less the case in the eastern side of the church and of course a big exaggeration too: there were old Latin translations of eg Plato however they had been quite bastardised to conform with Christian theology (I understand Aristotle was a little less bastardised as early Christian theology was itself quite Aristotelian). By the renaissance less bastardisation was required (if translating to Latin rather than the vernacular). Without being transferred so late to the west, the works may never have made it to modern times in such a complete form.
- delsarto 5y agoIf, like me, your knowledge of Constantinople is limited to the They Might Be Giants song, an excellent light-ish read (as much as 100s of years of Byzantine, as in the ridiculously complex, history can be) is Ghost Empire by Richard Fidler https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Empire_(book) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Empire_(book)
- yawgmoth 5y agoThe History of Byzantium podcast is both accessible and well done- https://thehistoryofbyzantium.com/ https://thehistoryofbyzantium.com/
- bwanab 5y agoHighly recommended.
- kanzenryu2 5y agoSo... many... assassinations
- pram 5y agoWhat a coincidence, I’ve just been watching videos about the late Roman Empire. If you’re interested I highly recommend the channel “Thersites the Historian” because he goes through many periods and individual reigns in great detail. https://m.youtube.com/channel/UClHybiqQOzR8kUpg5BbnjdQ https://m.youtube.com/channel/UClHybiqQOzR8kUpg5BbnjdQ
- intrasight 5y agoIf you like history, like podcasts, and are interested in Byzantium, you will love Robin Pierson's “The History of Byzantium” podcast. https://thehistoryofbyzantium.com/about/ https://thehistoryofbyzantium.com/about/
- chrismaeda 5y agoThe fall of Rome podcast is also very good. It covers approx. 300-600 AD. https://wondery.com/shows/the-fall-of-rome-podcast/ https://wondery.com/shows/the-fall-of-rome-podcast/
- acjohnson55 5y agoTides of History, also by Patrick Wyman, is also fantastic. Among many other topics, it covers the fall of the Byzantine Empire and rise of the Ottoman Empire.
- oofabz 5y agoI'd like to recommend another podcast on the subject, 12 Byzantine Rulers by Lars Brownworth: https://12byzantinerulers.com/ https://12byzantinerulers.com/ It's a short one, 17 episodes of about 20 minutes each. But these episodes are information-dense and have surprising depth. Also, this was one of the first podcasts ever published, starting in 2005.
- arminiusreturns 5y agoFor the evolution of the Byzantian side look towards the history of the Venetians, and their subsequent evolutions. For example, this adds new colour to the East India Companies perception in history.
- Archelaos 5y agoIf the illustration should show Constantinople in the period the book deals with, it is off by many centuries. Windmills were a development of the 12th century. It is like placing a knight on a motorbike instead of a horse.
- somedude895 5y ago> It is like placing a knight on a motorbike instead of a horse. I just wondered if in a thousand years the lines of the different eras will become irrelevant enough that this could be a representation of the olden times. There would be plenty of photographic evidence proving that people on motorbikes never wore knight's armor, but it's possible that detail isn't important in that context.
- Archelaos 5y ago> There would be plenty of photographic evidence proving that people on motorbikes never wore knight's armor Really? -- See: https://data8.lustich.de/bilder/l/14804-ritter-auf-motorrad.jpg https://data8.lustich.de/bilder/l/14804-ritter-auf-motorrad....
- webmaven 5y ago> I just wondered if in a thousand years the lines of the different eras will become irrelevant enough that this could be a representation of the olden times. Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/771/ https://xkcd.com/771/
- billfruit 5y agoThe book itself seems to have middling reviews in Amazon, the top most review goes like this: "The author who, on the first page of the first chapter of this book, identifies the Book of Malachi, the last book of the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) as the final book of the New Testament hardly inspires confidence in the reader. This glaring error and a perusal of his sources, all essentially in English, induced me to return the book."