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Tobias

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Posts posted by Tobias


  1. That family in South America is quite interesting. I honestly can't see them gaining very much in the way of a new Byzantine state, however.

     

    It was Basil II who was named "Bulgaroktonos", meaning "The Bulgar Slayer". He did marry his sister to the Ruler of Kiev, who was named Vladimir. As a consequence of his marriage, he was baptised as a christian, and went on to convert most of his people, the Rus, to christianity. He was not the Vlad the Impaler we have all come to know and love, however; Vladimir of Kiev was a fair while before that unpleasant fellow...:)


  2. Mine is most likely Dante Alighieri, the author of "la Divina Commedia", as another great, Giovanni Boccaccio, put it. The Divine Comedy is particularly interesting, although i have yet to read it in depth (to my shame).

     

    Dante tells of a journey in Holy Week, 1300, throughout the realms of the dead. He is guided through Hell (The first “cantiche” of the Divine Comedy, known as Inferno) and Purgatory (The second “cantiche”, Purgatorio) by the great poet, Virgil. He then embarks into Paradise (The third “cantiche”, Paradiso), guided by Dante's ideal of a perfect woman, named Beatrice, apparently a real woman he met in Florence. The entire journey is fraught with obstacles and amazing and terrible sights. The poem is truly epic, and even the merest flick-through of it is rather addictive.


  3. This is one of my favourite sayings, and is also my personal quote in my posts. it is perhaps rather appropriate;

     

    "He wrapped himself in quotations - as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of emperors"

     

    - Rudyard Kipling

     

    I also like this one, written by Douglas Adams:

    "The answer to the great question of...life, the universe and everything: forty-two!"

    From "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"


  4. An Australian mixed-breed: My mother is Irish and German, and her family came to Australia in the late 1800's, and my father was a Scot on both his mother and father's sides, having migrated to Australia in the 1950's, and i'm apparently able to trace my ancestry back to William Wallace, although i didn't know he had any children. Perhaps i am merely of the same family as him, not a direct descendant :)


  5. From what I have seen, this part of Spain really had no real purpose. After the conflict with the visigoths it just sat there. The Byzantine Empire did not possess the strength to really reinforce it when it became threatened.

     

    It was part of Justinian's grand plan to reunite the east and the west; but this small portion of Spain was the most of the old Western Empire they could retrieve, as they lacked the resources to conquer the Franks and the whole of Spain, as was seen by the fact that even this strip of land in Southern Spain could not be held for long.


  6. This is a rather interesting option; it certainly may make for some more quality conversation, and hopefully for some better topics as well. Of course, i can't talk, having not started a topic for an age, but i hope this shall encourage people to raise the quality of their posts and topics, whilst hopefully not alienating people.

     

    Besides, it gives me all the more motivation to work hard to become a patrician :)


  7. My old history teacher encouraged all of us to correct him if he was wrong; he says that it is good for a student to do so, as both the student and the teacher learn from it. Of course, he said there was limits, but suitably applied...


  8. G'day all

    I apologise if this subject has been covered before in advance. I was curious about how many Roman soldiers could read. After reading a book concerning Gaius Marius, it said that Marius once commented that writing was "a lettered version of learning to swim; it saves lives". So; does anyone have any opinions on whether it was a useful for Roman soldiers to be able to read, and around how many could read at any time?


  9. The chap helped by Justinian was Athanagild.

     

    A Roman force protected by a naval contigent was sent from Gaul in 551 by Justinian. With this aid, Athanagild overcame his opponent, King Agila, near Seville in 554. Athanagild was then crowned King.

     

    Despite what he owed to them, Athanagild was reluctant to cede very much territory to the Romans. Eventually, he was forced to give up quite an amount of Hispania Baetica, apparently to an elderly Byzantine governor named Liberius, although this is debateable.

     

    Athanagild, apparently not learning his lesson, attempted to throw the Romans out of Iberia; however, he did not succeed, and soon invited the establishment of a Byzantine enclave in the south that would last for a further seventy years. It was apparent that the population of the area preferred the Byzantine Governor to the Visigothic King.

     

    Unfortunately, there is not in depth detail about this western outpost of Byzantine power. It's borders stretched to include the Straits of Gades and Nova Carthago, Corduba and Assionia, i believe.


  10. lol, i never did get around to replying to that fellow Arvioustus in that thread <_<

    I can't say i have read any books devoted entirely to Belisarius, although my "History of the Byzantine Empire" did give a fair insight into his campaigns.

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