Kosmo
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Posts posted by Kosmo
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ASHKELON, Israel
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We all know that the Ostrogoths occupied Italy for a while prior to the bloody reconquest by the Eastern Empire. What happened to them after their final defeat?
The Visigoths founded the Kingdom of Spain. The Franks founded France. Anglo-Saxons, England. Was there any place that the Ostrogoths finally ended up as kingdom, or were they just absorbed by other barbarian kingdoms?
After the Roman reconquest of Italy there were probably not many organized groups of Ostroghots left. The reminder were probably assimilated into the Latin-speaking majority, or by Longobards and Franks. Generally the goths were always a diverse group and the Ostrogoths even more so. Maybe it is better to see them as an umbrella term covering a diverse people precariously binded together around some weak institutions like the Amal dynasty and the Arian church by the spoils taken from their subjects. Like for many other similar groups, defeat meant the collapse of the institutions and, much more important, losing access to the spoils of conquest . Most migratory tribes ended without leaving much behind, including Huns, Vandals, Suevi, Alans, Burgunds, Gepids, Avars etc
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I ARRIVED in Ostia Antica from Rome, where I
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Mount Vesuvius preserved the city of Pompeii in ash nearly 2,000 years ago, but current neglect of this Unesco World Heritage site in southern Italy is taking its toll. A courtyard column of a Roman house collapsed on Thursday, the latest in a series of crumbling artifacts at the site, Reuters reported. Last year there were other collapses, including part of what is known as the House of Gladiators. The damage played a role in a no-confidence vote against Culture Minister Sandro Bondi earlier this year. Although Mr. Bondi survived the vote, he ended up resigning in March.
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Cr?ciun Fericit from Bucure?ti, Romania.
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Is it true that forum rules prohibit the comparison of the Roman experience with other cultures in other times and places?
The only prohibition is against silly comparisons like Centurion vs. Ninja. We had some issues with analogies between Romans and the Han dynasty, but the main reason why comparisons with other cultures, especially exotic ones, should be made with care is that most people here have a good knowledge of Roman history but not necessary of all cultures in human history. So, for example a comparison made between the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the collapse of Mayans would be useless for me as I don't know much about Mayans.
Returning at the topic, could we make a summary comparison of the Late Empire and a barbarian kingdom like the Franks under the Merovingian dynasty to see if the social structure was really simplified?
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The First Battle of Bull Run, like freshman year of college, was a time for earning reputations
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In another thread someone suggested, flippantly, that the demise of Rome began with Marius and the professional army. This is a really good point.
That would probably be me, so, thank you. But my main point was that the professional army becoming the leading political power created costly civil wars and political instability and those created conditions for collapses. Indeed, one side effect was that the army was able to use its political power to reward itself with most of the tax money making it very expensive.
The border regions were less affected by this taxation because most of the money the army got was spent locally. An important resource redistribution occurred as the Empire gathered money from the Mediterranean provinces and sent it to the northern limes. It is very probable that poor but heavily militarized provinces like Britain were a drain to the Empire.
The greatest challenge to the theory you present is the massive and long lasting decrease in population and in prosperity suffered by the regions of the Western Empire beginning from approx. 400 AD. A good example is Sub-Roman Britain where towns, villas and coin disappear for 3 centuries. If this is a positive result of the simplification of social structures then we can hail Pol Pot as a genius of social engineering.
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Indeed there are many theories about the collapse of the Western Empire and usually they serve some contemporary agenda. It is not clear what to you mean by increased complexity but I presume that is about a larger cost of government.
In reality, Romans from Western Europe did not opt out of the Empire but were subjected to a violent conquest that provoked a catastrophic reduction in population and in living standards. The part that survived for another 1000 years became even more centralized and bureaucratic, even more top-heavy.
Empires are so often successful because they offer substantial economies of scale both regarding the cost of defense and that of government. A look at the history of states in Continental Europe from Middle Ages up to WW2 will show you that they heavily taxed their subjects and spent most of the money on armies but that did not prevent devastating wars and expensive armaments races. Continental empires like Romans or the EU/NATO can eliminate the military conflicts within the empire and secure a cheaper common defense. Also, the government of a small entity has most of the attributes of a large one but a smaller tax base so they have to tax more. For example, the cost of US diplomatic representation is spread among 300 million Americans, but an independent Vermont would still have to keep a large number of embassies from the taxes of 625,000 people.
After conquest Romans did not have to pay taxes anymore to a distant emperor and army but to a local elite of barbarians that was unable to give anything back in terms of governance
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Why do I have to submit my birth date before I can view the video? I even made up a fake one and still couldn't watch.
Probably to see if you are over 18 because of the violence. It worked for me.
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1. He broke the string of the five previously competent emperors (the Antonine or Adoptive Emperors) whose succession was based on competence rather than inheritance. Instead, he chose his natural son, the incompetent and possibly psychotic Commodus.
2. He needlessly persecuted Christians and other minorities to maintain the Pax deorum (or peace of the gods).
3. He foolishly allowed his feckless and corrupt co-emperor Lucius Verus to waste valuable resources during the inept invasion of Parthia for Verus's pursuit of personal glory. Verus later brought back the plague (known as the Antonine plague) from his Eastern campaign, killing millions of Romans and possibly Aurelius himself.
4. He instigated fruitless and wasteful wars of aggression against the Germanic tribes, rather than making peace (which Commodus later did).
5. He trusted his duplicitous, manipulative, and possibly unfaithful wife, Faustina the Younger.
6. He allowed uncertainty and instability to develop in the Empire. This forced the effective and previously loyal general Avidius Cassius to mistakenly rebel when Cassius thought Aurelius was dead. Cassius later died in his unwise rebellion. Cassius would have been a competent and worthy successor to Aurelius. Cassius lacked only one qualification (in Aurelius
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Imprisonment was not a roman punishment but a transitional stage before another.
During the Republic a roman citizen could not be punished by death. Exile was the greatest punishment. Cicero succeeded in convicting 5 Catiline conspirators to death against opposition by Caesar and it was generally regarded in an unlawful manner. The most important of those conspirators was Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura, step father of Marcus Antonius who in-turn had Cicero executed.
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The same thing happens to Caius/Gaius
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Thank you. Yes, I celebrated and now I'm nursing the aftereffects.
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"As the novelist George Orwell observed, he who controls the past controls the future, so it is perhaps not surprising that Orwell
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We, contemporary speakers of Romance languages, proudly continue the profanity traditions of our ancestors by frequent use of these words.
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It is said that most Caledonians escaped the battlefield so while a defeat it was not decisive.
The main reason for the retreat was, probably, the Dacian War. In 85 Dacians launched a raid on Moesia forcing a major concentration of Roman forces on the Lower Danube. In 86 at the first battle of Tapae the romans were defeated, the pretorian prefect killed and Legio V Alaude was almost annihilated. The war continued in Dacia for another year and the peace was embarrassing for Romans, so they strengthened their forces in Moesia. At the same time romans had trouble in Pannonia and later in Germany. With all this conflicts the roman did not had the manpower to continue fighting in Scotland so they withdrawn much of their forces.
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Celtic influence never extended as far south as Baetica. The region was inhabited by Iberian Turdetani, descendants of the Tartessians. They were fairly urbanized and sophisticated and had strong connections with Carthaginians and even Greeks before Roman conquest. It is easy to see why these developed people where quick to become romanized. Probably the iberic culture was still present by the time of Trajan but I doubt that it was very relevant for the son of a consul from the gens Ulpia who was related with many members of the roman aristocracy in Baetica including the families to whom later emperors Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius belonged.
Probably there was some gene mixing even at the top provincial level (with Turdetani not Celts) but that is much less important then roman cultural supremacy.
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Very interesting. I realize falconry has not appeared yet, but I wonder if they tamed ravens.
Your blog is amazing.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dttRhXoJ9b8
I wonder if this is true. Anyway, I love this show.
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This is a major discovery.
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So that's why the birds are so angry?
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Leave it here.
Spartacus: Vengeance
in Colosseum
Posted
The first episode was a bit confusing for me because I had forgot most details from the first season but this series is so different for any other TV show that I just didn't care if I failed to perfectly follow the plot, I just enjoyed the ride. Except that gut wrenching scene in the brothel