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The Byzantines sit in an uncomfortable middle for a modern intellectual. Too European to be exotic and "diverse" in the contemporary shallow meaning of the word
by inglor_cz 4y ago
The Byzantines sit in an uncomfortable middle for a modern intellectual. Too European to be exotic and "diverse" in the contemporary shallow meaning of the word, but at the same time too Orthodox to be culturally comprehensible to modern Westerners. Speaking an Indo-European language that is nevertheless very distant from all the current major Indo-European language groups and uses its own hard-to-read script.
- dnqthao 4y agoI thought Ancient Greek was the 2nd most common language for people to learn after Latin if they want to understand the era.
- inglor_cz 4y agoNevertheless the fraction among general intellectuals is todays negligible, and most current opinion makers wouldn't be able to say "Hello" in either language. This increases the civilizational distance significantly. It used to be much higher; 100 years ago, both Greek and Latin were compulsory subjects in many schools.