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The Anabasis, by Xenophan, is the story of Greek mercenaries looking to become wealthy from looted treasures and slaves
by readthenotes1 4y ago
The Anabasis, by Xenophan, is the story of Greek mercenaries looking to become wealthy from looted treasures and slaves
- hinkley 4y agoThe older I get, the more I see the association between Vikings and Mongols with rape and pillage is just PR.
- kasey_junk 4y agoBecause it was so prevalent everywhere or because you think Vikings and Mongols didn’t rape & pillage?
- inglor_cz 4y agoNot the OP, but yeah, it is like saying "Oh, look, Fred over here is such a naughty drinker" when the whole city is chock-full of raging alcoholics.
- hinkley 4y agoI am SHOCKED to learn that there is gambling going on in this establishment! Here are your winnings, sir.
- Retric 4y agoThey both got a reputation for raiding christian institutions in areas where they where normally left alone in wartime. A major difference for the people recording history at the time, but largely meaningless for most of the population back then.
- ALittleLight 4y agoIf a city full of raging alcoholics think Fred has a drinking problem, then he very likely does.
- inglor_cz 4y agoGood argument. But maybe the speaker just wants to draw attention away from his own drinking problem... ?
- filoleg 4y agoIt isn't just a PR, it is about the scale, especially when we are talking about Mongols. Sure, ancient greeks did raping and pillaging, but (please correct my historical knowledge here if I am wrong, because I definitely could be) iirc ancient greeks didn't come even close to the scale of mongols who essentially conquered and held and insane chunk of the continent under their thumb for nearly a century (counting from the start of what's considered their golden age until the start of their decline). Especially considering the time period in question. It is one thing to control a large occupied territory using modern logistics, communication, and transportation tech. In the era before firearms were widely used, telegraph didn't exist, and where horse cavalries and archers were extremely relevant, that's a whole other magnitude. It's like saying "Nazi Germany atrocities are all just PR, look at those african warlords over there." Sure, atrocities of those warlords are absolutely terrible and inhumane, but it is the scale of Nazi Germany that, rightfully, gives them that "PR".
- boomboomsubban 4y ago>please correct my historical knowledge here if I am wrong, because I definitely could be Alexander the Great was Greek, and though less successful than the Mongols he conquered a comparable amount of the world. His personal empire collapsed quickly, but Greeks still controlled much of it for quite a while. His army committed similar atrocities, but we remember him as "The Great."
- Retric 4y agoThere are a few ways of comparing them but the Mongol empire grew to about four and a half times the physical size of Alexander the great’s empire and had at least an order of magnitude more people.
- boomboomsubban 4y agoSurely you don't mean Alexander the Great's rape and pillaging was acceptable because he only did it to 15% of the world's population rather than 30% with the Mongols.