Honorius

Not from an orthodox christian but from a Roman Catholic, I find the whole iconoclastic period in Byzantine history as futile and disgusting, can you just imagine the works of art destroyed, and they even pulled apart an enormous figure of Christ at the entrance to the Bucoleon called the Chalke...just imagine what it would've been like. As for suggesting iconoclasm was a western form is not exactly correct...if I recall correctly the iconoclast emperors were influenced by islam to an extent I think... anyway I remember that when iconoclasm was trying to be implementeed in the western provinces in the exarchate of Ravenna and stuff that the people simply ignored the Emperors demand and mosaics such as those found at San Vitale were saved etc. i dont find icons as idol worship per see but that aspect can sometimes be seen when people get a bit carried away - Hodgeteria for example I find that whole iconoclastic period as being destructive to a certain degree

sorry for necroing .. this point but i have read that book and its rather interesting, i mean i didnt see anything particularly different in the case of the theories he brings forth but still a nice read, rather detailed if I remember correctly in reference to Stilicho and Theodosius' battle at the Frigidus. by the way NN, Julius Nepos was far from being a Usurper, Romulus and his Father Flavius Orestes revolted and usurped his throne. Nepos was a genuine, legitimate emperor

So.. currently im at that stage in my life when you decide on your possible career path and if you intend to go to university you do..Anyway on to the actual thing.. i've decided to take a double degree in Secondary Education/Bachelor of Arts at the University of Notre dame.. a small Catholic one in Sydney. I am majoring in History and minoring in Theology and this semester im taking Western Civilisation.. the only unit close to ancient history as it looks like im gonna get and for the theology im taking Christology and Introduction to Theology. So far its been quite good i mean the people there are great aswell as the atmosphere though i mean the workload sux but doesnt it always? other then that im stuck in a class with 3rd year people in my Christology one.. so im totally lost up the back of the room lol..

Happy Bday lost! and thanks guys ive finally turned 18 legal age for drinking and about everything else wooo... p.s. i havent been very active lately because ive just started uni and all that stuff plus being overseas for such a long while. Anyway! yay!

so this is the first entry on recounting my entire peru trip which lasted just over a week because the whole point was for of course the 'inka trail' / Macchu picchu. So on to the whole thing! Arriving in Chile on the 28th of November and with barely a stay in the capital santiago my cousins brrother and myself were sent north... to PERU!. anyway what can i say about the flight... it was ok.. nothing flash. landing in Lima i was suprised at the really... bad amount of security, they dont put your bag through xray machines and when they do check you its random plus the machine didnt really work, the random test was done by pushing a button, if you got a red light your checked and you get a green light your fine, i kind of lol'ed at it but whatever. Ok so then we caught a short flight to Cuzco the ancient capital of the inkas and a colonial capital in its own right, the flight was amazing to say the least the Andes and the rest of the scenery was beautiful. We flew by LAN airways which i gave my thumbs up to for everything ok so arriving in Cuzco you usually get the tourist hounded thing by taxi drivers.. which about 50 did to us, really uncomfortable anyway we arrived at our hostel about 10 metres from the Plaza de Armas (the main square) now this hostel cost us like 20 dollars australian a night and it was bloody amazing, private bathrooms and 2 to a room, it was an old colonial building remade into a hostel total hotness.! Ok so the first day in Cuzco after unpacking was spent visiting a tourist agency to do a day trip the next day while we also visited one of the cathedrals. We had to pay a few soles to get in and then we were suddenly abused and kicked out by the priest for 'inappropriate clothing' it was so rude.. the way he went ballistic and we were all like 'wtf!?' we all got really peeved off.. it was an ugly church anyway in the style of the spanish ones where the altar and behind it is really really cluttered.. anyway enough of the cathedral drama we spent the rest of the first day walking around and exploring. a bit of advice to anyone going to cuzco DO NOT respond to the hounders on the street there are so many people there attempting to make a living via selling you random stuff like i mean you walk 10 metres and u get hounded by like 30 people.. so just ignore them which my brother didnt do and we got followed for an hour because this kid was trying to sell postcards. The night was spent visiting a local nightclub which was rather good except also for the fact that out side there were toddlers selling chewing gum at 4 am... which we all thought was rather odd.. ok so the next day like wow this was wonderful, we all payed 20 bux american i think it was to go out of cuzco and visit various inkan sites like Pisaq which i posted a picture of, Ollantaytambo which i will be posting soon and Chinchero a colonial town high in the andes, along with that we went on a mini tour of the markets. so it was just the 8 of us and a guide and a van. I must admit i rather enjoyed this day then the actually day we reached Macchu Picchu for some reason. anywho Pisaq was beautiful despite the cliff drops beside your 1 metre wide path, my cousin made the mistake of wearing thongs aka flip flops?/Jandels? you know? so there were a few fountains there in the 'water temple' which was still flowing from the mountains which i thought was quite interesting but i forget all the details coz it was so long a go.. Ollantaytambo.. was also an interesting place because people still live there at the base of the actual citadel/palaces but this place was PACKED and i mean Packed.. plus i got in trouble for stepping on a building which i thought was just a stone despite that it was ok nothing great. Chincherro was ok aswell it was very spanish colonial with the 300 year old church but other then that it didnt have very much else that night was once again spent clubbing and the day after it was the start of the inka trail !

Constantinople or if not perhaps Ravenna in its days of a capital

i was actually very much suprised when you found barbarian much more enjoyable.. for me BI was a total flop. the barbarian factions all had generic units while the horde options makes it basically impossible to eliminate a faction because all you can do is continually horde. furthermore the lack of provinces in certain regions was also a bummer... maybe i dislike BI because i expected to much of it as its my preferred era of roman history... anyway

justinian I was resposnsible for reconquering italy north africa and southern spain.. some say he was a great emperor .. in my opinion he really wasnt that great considering he put the treasury to death.. justinian II i dont really know that much about him except that he got exiled to the crimea and managed to retake the throne even with the abscence of his nose.. which he replaced with a silver one.. other then that i dont remember much but i think he was a violent emperor in terms of replying to those who had exiled him there is info about Justin I and II in the byzantine emperor list..

ooo sorry not a big monty python fan *shock horror*!

yep 4 days on foot last day we leave early and see the sunrise from machu picchu cant wait. and i sure will take some pics when i can catch my breath lol!

so school is now completely over 13 years.. finally over as my hsc wrapped up a few weeks ago.. iu think i did ok.. i only need about an average of 72 to get into teaching so i should prolly get that. if not oh well gonna do social working anywayz.. next week at this time i will be on the plane to the south american country of Chile. why on earth is he going there you might say. well i have all my relatives there on my fathers side and plus my cousins in australia were going to so i thought 'why the hell not' should be spending some time in the andes aswell as just sticking around the capital Santiago.. should be an experience because last time i went i was like 5 and that was like 11 years ago. aswell as going to Chile i was 'forced' or lets just say 'convinced' to go to peru and visit both Cuzco and Machu picchu.. i was fine with this until i was told that i was doing the 'trek' which takes like 4 days to get up the bloody hills *oh god* though it should be good the altitude is gonna stuff me as though my asthma has been proving i think its going to go ballistic up there.. who knows .. ive been 'training' for it doing long walks along sydneys coast.. not that its gonna help lol other then finishing school and preparing for the trip. not much else has been happening. im just trying to decide what byzantine emperor to write an article on next.. possibly and angeli but im not sure.. suggestions? anyway ive also been reading a book called 'history of the byzantine state' by George Ostrogorsky and so far its been quite good. similar to Norwichs i suppose but its good so far. anyway thats my rant after like a few months Ciao! *gotta practice my espanol!*

well i will be travelling to south america next week and staying in chile for two months. But its been decided amongst my fellow travellers that we will be visiting the inka sites of both Cuzco and Machu Picchu along with doing that trek which i was 'forced' into. anyway i was just wondering if any of you guys have been either on the trek or at either site. and is there anything in particular that i should check out? like specific buildings etc?

i have only ever had minimal interest in the exarchates that were set up by the Eastern Emperor Maurice in the 6th century to deal with the increasing number of enemies in the western provinces. i was just wondering if anyone has any good sources on how exactly these exarchates worked. there is some stuff on wikipedia but i was hoping for a bit more.. any help? anyway possibly this could devolve into a discussion on the exarchates, their effectiveness and how it worked.

Well, Dante lived and died in Ravenna, so something should have happened. But throughout much of its Renaissance existence, Ravenna was occupied by Venetian soldiers. I always thought Ravenna was part of the papal states? anyway if i recall correctly from Norwichs books that when Manuel Paleologos travelled to the west for a crusade and when he visited the italian cities that he gave a number of lectures in his greek to the growing school of greek speaking scholars in the west.

its a valid argument in my eyes that as the roman empire was centered around the mediteranean that it only fully fell after the arab invasions in the seventh cenutry. the arabs conquered a substantial amount of roman land aswell as the majority of the Visigothic kingdom in spain which correct me if im wrong was much more romanesque then most other barbarian nations? i think it was Henri Pirenne who proposed this theory

rome did fall as a political entity but its institutions did continue within the 'successor kingdoms' actually only the western empire fell with the continuation of the east.

a large part was underground after the rubbish and ground level rose, so alot of thye area under the seating is 'underground' and filled it appeared with some sewage.

just watched it on the history channel in australia wonder if anyone else has seen it.. its a series based on various cities and the subteranean buildings that it had..such as Rome.. etc anyway he went to the forum cisterns which looked great still but when they toured the remains of the Hippodrome.. it was filled with sewage..anyone else find that a bit pathetic? anyway was quite happy to see the good conservation on the bucoleon palace with enourmous courtyard mosaics quite interesting.. unhappy that they didnt show Blachernae or the Theodosian walls.. Was just wondering if anyone knows of any philanthropic organisations or how much money is actually put into conserving Byzantine Constantinople? doesnt seem like much but then again its the same at most archaeological sites.

ya as PP was saying, the Huns were pushing on the Ostrogoths and the ostrogoths were defeated and some tried to flee pushing on the visigoths.. who then moved across the Danube

i agree with Ratus the romans themselves were their own enemies. the innumerable civil wars drained necessary man power to defend the frontiers aswell as the fact that it disrupted the economic side of the empire

oh hey lol didnt notice you were from aus.. bought time a fellow aussie joined anyway... the pope just thought he had the right to crown a western roman emperor even though the regalia had been sent to Emperor Zeno in Constantinople.

probably considering he got crowned western roman emperor.. but then again most barbarian kingdoms thought of themselves as successors.. probably the most important candidate is the eastern Roman Empire

interesting. i never really took notice of the second bulgarian empire as my interest after the sack moves more to trebizond. But do you think that if the sack of 1204 never occured that perhaps the Angeloi would have been able to reconquer the Bulgarian empire in time? or not?

sadly i cannot read german though it does seem like a good site as it continues on with the Angeloi whom were despots of Epirus after the sack of 1204

i forgot to mention that Isaac endowed the churches and monastaries of Constantinople with lavish gifts which also weighed down on the treasury. so i doubt that the Orthodox church was anti angeloi then. But in his sons reign Alexius IV tried to submit the church to the Papacy.