5 ms·
The Eastern front of the Roman Empire is full of surprises. One fact that always impresses me is that one of the largest hippodromes in the Roman Empire is foun
by anonu 3y ago
The Eastern front of the Roman Empire is full of surprises. One fact that always impresses me is that one of the largest hippodromes in the Roman Empire is found in modern-day Tyr, in the South of Lebanon. The entire region is dotted with Roman presence.
- Bayart 3y agoThe area was heavily urbanised before Rome was around, it stands to reason that it remained relevant throughout the Roman Empire (to the point of being the Roman Empire after the slow collapse of the Western administration).
- euroderf 3y agoSuch that Constantinople was more or less the center of "Western Civ" for, like, a thousand years.
- maximinus_thrax 3y agoDo you mean Constantinople was the center of civilization such as a thousand years? Or was it identical to a thousand years?
- Intralexical 3y agoNever fear; the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary can help you out: > like, adverb > 2. used in very informal speech to show that what you are saying may not be exactly right but is nearly so Pedantry is neither clever nor educational.
- maximinus_thrax 3y ago> Pedantry is neither clever nor educational. What about irony?
- schrectacular 3y agoIs that when something resembles an iron?
- maximinus_thrax 3y agoExactly. Irony means, like, iron.
- Intralexical 3y agoWait. Like iron, or like an iron? And what's the difference between "irony", "ironic", and "ironous"?
- maximinus_thrax 3y agoSorry, what I ment to say was like an iron. Ironous is, like, iron.
- Bayart 3y agoDepends on the definition of Western, considering it originally refers to post-Roman Latin states.
- nologic01 3y agothe barycenter of human civilization has lingered over this broader area for millennia. It is sad that in modern times it never managed to gain at least some basic stability, if not a revival and renewed contributions to the human storybook. maybe its the curse of the oil. maybe its something else.
- downWidOutaFite 3y ago[deleted]
- xkcd1963 3y agoIt was much more a response to islamic expandism than a cursed dream.
- mcpackieh 3y agoEuropean messianic dreams is an interesting way to describe three religions that all originated and were exported from from this general region, not in Europe.
- nologic01 3y agothe causes might be viciously debatable and challenged but the lost opportunity (versus a counterfactual universe where there is less strife and destruction and more coherence and construction) is quite tangible. one can only hope that the recent past is not the exact predictor of the future.
- mannyv 3y agoFunny, most people in the West seem unaware of the numerous Islamic attacks and messianic dreams of Islam. The ottoman empire was also a Muslim empire...again something people seem to forget about. And don't get me started on the Muslim tradition of enslaving everyone.
- lm28469 3y agoThere is some weird kind of selective amnesia in the west, we at the same time downplay our achievements and put the focus on our perceived errors. While everybody else is doing the exact opposite, so not only we teach our kids to hate themselves we give good reasons for others to do so as well. It's as if the only empires that existed were Europeean and the only slaves that existed were from the atlantic trade Ironic given how basically every civilisation did similar things, Europeans were just better at it for a small time but before them Arabs had a good go at it too, not even mentioning the Chinese empire. The whole world and its history is a shit show, just because you're at the tip of one of the remaining branch doesn't mean you have to hate your country and everything it did. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Muslim_conquests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Muslim_conquests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umayyad_Caliphate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umayyad_Caliphate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almohad_Caliphate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almohad_Caliphate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Africa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Africa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Asia#:~:text=Slavery%20is%20integral%20to%20the,the%20exploitation%20of%20their%20labor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Asia#:~:text=Slaver....
- dopidopHN 3y agoTyr was a old and rich city when the Roman were still a random Latin tribes in Italy. Carthage was founded by Tyr. The Phoenician are the one who bring the alphabet in Mediterranean as well. During Roman time, Tyr has lost his power. But I guess it was still a important place culturally ? Like … Rome now?
- csomar 3y agoProbably more than Rome now, but even so at the time they were not quite powerful militarily. The Phoenician never succeeded in building an empire or a military power. Carthage was the "best" and even them they sucked much comparing to the Roman/Italians. Carthage itself didn't have a military but hired mercenaries. The Phoenicians are a bunch of rich merchants and they probably re-arranged themselves in the new empire.
- dopidopHN 3y agoAbsolutely, I’m on a Phoenician kicks those days. I think they are vastly underestimated. For instance their navy and how they were building ships in a industrial manner is impressive. ( sourcing ready made parts from different specialized places) But clearly those guys were not empire builder. They would probably have been happy to keep being a Roman protectorate after the Punic wars. They were still making tons of money via the Iberia trades. Like they did under the Egyptian or the Assyrian. Something I still don’t quiet grasp is why we have so little direct written account. They invented those letters ffs.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]