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whencyclopedia · 5 months ago

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The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome

This comprehensive and engaging narrative covers many ancient civilizations, including Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, early China, Greece, and Rome. Bauer's accessible writing and use of primary sources make complex historical events understandable and interesting. Ideal for history enthusiasts and general readers, this book offers a balanced and detailed overview of ancient history.

The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome by Susan Wise Bauer is a sweeping and well-researched work that endeavours to present a coherent narrative of ancient history from its earliest beginnings to the fall of the Roman Empire. Bauer, a historian and seasoned author, undertakes the formidable task of chronicling the development of human civilisations across the globe, weaving together historical events, cultural evolutions, and significant personalities.

The book is organised into 70 chapters, each serving as a vignette illuminating specific eras, events, and figures in ancient history. Bauer's narrative is both chronological and thematic, a dual approach that allows readers to follow the progression of historical events while also understanding each period's broader cultural and societal developments.

Bauer begins her journey in Mesopotamia, exploring the rise and fall of ancient societies such as Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, and Assyria. She delves deeply into the development of writing with cuneiform, the establishment of legal codes exemplified by Hammurabi's Code, and the growth of urbanization and statecraft under rulers like Sargon of Akkad. Her detailed descriptions provide a vivid picture of how these early societies laid the groundwork for future civilisations.

The narrative then shifts to ancient Egypt, where Bauer traces the history from the early dynastic periods through the heights of the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. Her portrayal of Egyptian pharaohs such as Ramses II and Cleopatra pays particular attention to the complexities of their reigns. Bauer's exploration of Egyptian religion, monumental architecture like the pyramids and the temples at Karnak, and the daily life of its people enriches the reader's understanding of this ancient culture.

Bauer also examines the ancient civilizations of the Indus Valley and China. She discusses the sophisticated urban planning and social organization of the Harappan culture, as well as the early Chinese dynasties of Shang and Zhou, highlighting their contributions to writing, philosophy, and governance. Bauer's ability to interweave these diverse cultures into a single narrative thread is a testament to her skill as a historian and storyteller.

The book provides an in-depth look into ancient Greece and the Roman Republic and Empire. Bauer details impactful philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, military and political exploits executed by figures like Alexander the Great, the legacies of Julius Caesar and Constantine, and many other topics. Readers should pay attention to the discussion on the administrative and military structures that enabled Rome to maintain its dominance and its defining cultural and technological innovations. Bauer then concludes with the fall of Rome, marking the end of ancient history as traditionally defined and setting the stage for the medieval period.

Having published over six books, Bauer's writing style and storytelling skills to cover such a large timeline are evident, making complex concepts understandable and lively to a broad audience without sacrificing depth or accuracy. Her narrative is richly detailed while avoiding overwhelming readers with excessive minutiae. The book is well-supported by maps, timelines, and illustrations that contextualize the narrative and provide visual aids. Bauer's use of primary sources and quotations adds depth to her account, bringing the voices of ancient peoples into the modern narrative.

However, the book's scope also presents challenges. Some readers may find certain sections too brief, as Bauer moves quickly through some significant events and figures to maintain the narrative's momentum. Despite her efforts to include non-Western civilisations, the book still feels like it leans heavily towards a Eurocentric perspective, particularly in its treatment of the later chapters on Greece and Rome.

Overall, The History of the Ancient World is an impressive and highly readable account of ancient history. Susan Wise Bauer's synthesis of a vast array of historical data into a coherent narrative is commendable. While the book's scope means that some areas are covered more briefly than others, it remains an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the history of the ancient world.

#History #Sumer #RomanEmpire #Mesopotamia

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aphroditelovesu · 1 year ago

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Yan!Julius Caesar Random Headcanons

❝ 📜— lady l: I love writing these random headcanons and if you guys want more historical characters feel free to send them! If you're curious about how he is yandere, I posted a general headcanon of him, which you can read by clicking here. Here are historical facts and some additional ones from my head. I hope you like it and good reading!! ❤️

❝tw: not entirely historically accurate and perhaps murder (?).

Julius Caesar was born in 100 BC and became an important Roman military and political leader. His conquest of Gaul (present-day France) and his successful campaigns contributed to his rise to power.

In 44 BC, Julius Caesar was appointed dictator for life by the Roman Senate. This move sparked concern among senators, leading to a plot that resulted in his assassination on March 15, 44 BC, known as the "Ides of March". The man did not last long as a dictator.

Julius Caesar played an important role in reforming the Roman calendar. The Julian calendar, introduced in 45 BC, was an adaptation of the lunar calendar to the solar year, forming the basis of the modern Gregorian calendar. So much so that the month of July is in his honor.

Julius Caesar formed a political alliance known as the First Triumvirate with Pompey and Crassus. They shared power and influence to advance their political and personal agendas. It didn't last long because soon they started fighting each other for power. A yandere obsessed with power, I dare say.

Julius Caesar is known for writing "Commentaries on the War in Gaul", also called as Commentarii de Bello Gallico, a series of accounts of his campaigns in the region. These writings offer valuable information about military tactics and life at that time. A great military commander and also a great fanfic writer.

There are reports that say that when he was 30 years old, he passed in front of a statue of Alexander the Great and wept because he had reached the same age and had not conquered as much as the Macedonian King. An inferiority complex, I would say.

The title "Caesar" became a dynastic name used by many Roman leaders after Julius Caesar. The first Roman Emperor, Augustus, was his nephew and adopted heir, and he adopted the title "Caesar" as part of his name. A curious fact is that many Brazilians have Caesar (César in portuguese) in their name.

In addition to his military achievements, Julius Caesar had a deep taste for literature and writing. He frequently exchanged letters and discussed poetry with various intellectuals of the day. A true cultured man and a renaissance ahead of time.

The death of Julius Caesar was one of the key events that contributed to the fall of the Roman Republic and the subsequent rise of the Roman Empire. His legacy has had a lasting impact on history and politics. Our man is credited as one of the greatest military commanders of all time.

Rumor has it that Julius Caesar had a secret superstition of avoiding black cats, believing them to bring bad luck. This contrasted with his image as a fearless leader. Poor kitty, so many powerful men were afraid of cats.

#history #yandere historical characters #yandere julius caesar #yandere julius caesar headcanons #julius caesar #headcanons #yandere headcanons #yandere history

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nanshe-of-nina · 2 months ago

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Favorite History Books || Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World’s First Empire by Eckart Frahm ★★★★☆

… This birth of Assyria in the proper sense of the term— its emergence as a land that included great cities such as Nineveh, Calah, and Arbela, and soon others much farther away— marked the beginning of a new era: the Middle Assyrian period. Now a full-fledged monarchy, Assyrians started to see their land as a peer of the most powerful states of the time, from Babylonia in the south to Egypt in the west. During the eleventh century BCE, the Assyrian kingdom experienced a new crisis, this one caused by climate change, migrations, and internal tensions. It lost most of its provinces, especially in the west. But when the dust settled, it managed to rise from the ashes faster than any of the other states in the region. A number of energetic and ruthless Assyrian rulers of the Neo-Assyrian period (ca. 934– 612 BCE) took advantage of the weakness of their political rivals, embarking on a systematic campaign of subjugation, destruction, and annexation. Their efforts, initially aimed at the reconquest of areas that had been under Assyrian rule before and then moving farther afield, were carried out with unsparing and often violent determination, cruelly epitomized in an aphoristic statement found in another of Esarhaddon’s inscriptions: “Before me, cities, behind me, ruins.” . . . During the last years of Esarhaddon’s reign, Assyria ruled over a territory that reached from northeastern Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean to Western Iran, and from Anatolia in the north to the Persian Gulf in the south. Parks with exotic plants lined Assyrian palaces, newly created universal libraries were the pride of Assyrian kings, and an ethnically diverse mix of people from dozens of foreign lands moved about the streets of Assyrian cities such as Nineveh and Calah. Yet it was not to last. Only half a century after Esarhaddon’s reign, the Assyrian state suffered a dramatic collapse, culminating in the conquest and destruction of Nineveh in 612 BCE. Assyria’s fall occurred long before some better- known empires of the ancient world were founded: the Persian Empire, established in 539 BCE by Cyrus II; Alexander the Great’s fourth-century BCE Greco-Asian Empire and its successor states; the third-century BCE empires created by the Indian ruler, Ashoka and the Chinese empero, Qin Shi Huang; and the most prominent and influential of these, the Roman Empire, whose beginnings lay in the first century BCE. The Assyrian kingdom may not have the same name recognition. But for more than one hundred years, from about 730 to 620 BCE, it had been a political body so large and so powerful that it can rightly be called the world’s first empire. And so Assyria matters. “World history” does not begin with the Greeks or the Romans— it begins with Assyria. “World religion” took off in Assyria’s imperial periphery. Assyria’s fall was the result of a first “world war.” And the bureaucracies, communication networks, and modes of domination created by the Assyrian elites more than 2,700 years ago served as blueprints for many of the political institutions of subsequent great powers, first directly and then indirectly, up until the present day. This book tells the story of the slow rise and glory days of this remarkable ancient civilization, of its dramatic fall, and its intriguing afterlife.

#historyedit #assyrians #neo assyrian empire #asian history #iraqi history #history #history books #nanshe's graphics

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russianperioddrama · 8 months ago

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Welcome to the Russian Period Dramas Bracket everyone! The order of things will look something like this:

Polls will start posting tomorrow. One group (A, B, C, D) will be posted per day, starting with Group A. Polls will run for a week. Once all polls for a round close, polls for the following round will begin posting within 24-48 hours (depending on mod availability). You may send in asks with “propaganda” if you wish.

Round 1 matches are listed out below for a full text version. Note that titles are listed in the format: English tittle (official/”official”* or translated) | transliterated title. (*There are occasionally some variations in what is the “official” English title. I tried my best here, usually prioritizing what is used by a major streaming service or wiki).

GROUP A

Ekaterina: The Rise of Catherin the Great | Ekaterina (2014) vs. Pushkin: the Last Duel | Pushkin: Poslednyaya duel (2006)

The Barber of Siberia | Sibirskiy tsiryulnik (1998) vs. Tchaikovsky's wife | Zhena Chaikovskogo (2022)

The Duelist | Duelyant (2016) vs. Life of a Mistress | Volnaya gramota (2018)

Catherine the Great | Velikaya (2015) vs. Poor Nastya | Bednaya Nastya (2023)

Detective Anna | Anna – detectiv (2016) vs. Gardes-marines Ahead! | Gardemariny, vperyod! (1988)

Bloody Lady | Krovavaya Barinya (2018) vs. Institute For Noble Maidens | Institut blagorodnykh devits (2010)

Union of Salvation | Soyuz spaseniya (2019) vs. Star of Captivating Happiness | Zvezda plenitelnogo schastya (1975)

Russian Ark | Russkiy kovcheg (2002) vs. Poor Poor Paul | Bednyy bednyy Pavel (2003)

GROUP B

The Silver Skates | Serebryanyy konki (2020) vs. Sins of Our Fathers | Grekhi ottsov (2004)

Bezsonov (2019) vs. Voskresensky (2021)

Sunstroke | Solnechnyy Udar (2014) vs. The Fall of the Empire | Gibel imperii (2005)

Matilda (2017) vs. Gloomy River | Ugryum-reka(2021)

The Road To Calvary | Hozhdenie po mukam (2017) vs. How the Steel Was Tempered | Kak zakalyalas stal (1973)

Admiral (2008) vs. Quiet Flows the Don | Tikhiy Don (2015)

Morphine | Morphiy (2008) vs. Battalion | Batalyon (2015)

Rasputin | Grigoriy R (2014) vs. Christmas Trees 1914 | Yolki 1914 (2014)

GROUP C

War and Peace | Voyna I mir (1966) vs. The Queen of Spades | Pikovaya dama (1982)

Pechorin (2011) vs. A Hero of Our Time | Geroy nashego vremeni (2006)

Eugene Onegin | Yevgeny Onegin (1959) vs. A Cruel Romance | Zhestokiy romans (1984)

Gogol (2017) vs. The Idiot | Idiot (2003)

Anna Karenina: Vronsky’s Story | Anna Karenina. Istoriya Vronskogo (2017) vs. Anna Karenina (2009)

Crime and Punishment | Prestuplenie i nakazanie (2007) vs. Brothers Karamazov | Bratya Karamazovy (2009)

Fathers and Sons | Ottsy i deti (2008) vs. Lady Into Lassie | Baryshnya krestyanka (1995)

Two Women | Dve zhenshchiny (2014) vs. The Emperor’s Love | Lyubov imperatora (2003)

GROUP D

Sophia (2016) vs. The Youth of Peter the Great | Yunost Petra (1980)

Furious | Legenda o Kolovrate (2017) vs. Alexander: The Neva Battle | Aleksandr. Nevskaya bitva (2008)

Viking (2016) vs. Iron Lord | Yaroslav: Tysyachu let nazad (2010)

The Terrible | Groznyy (2020) vs. Tsar (2009)

Godunov (2018) vs. Schism | Raskol (2011)

Land of Legends | Serdtse Parmy (2022) vs. Golden Horde | Zolotaya Orda (2018)

Conquest | Tobol (2019) vs. Secrets of the Palace Revolutions | Tayny dvortsovykh perevorotov (2000)

Elizabeth | Elizaveta (2022) vs. Cathedral | Sobor (2021)

#russian period dramas #russian period dramas bracket #tumblr bracket #tumblr polls #period dramas #perioddramaedit #russian tv #russian movies #russian media

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alexanderlightweight · 2 years ago

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@faejilly i mentioned that i'd only written half and so here is the other half, though there are bits of it scattered around tumblr seeing as other people have prompted more in this universe

hoarfrost kiss on lips aflame

so here it is and i hope you enjoy it and ty again for the prompt because i love where this verse has gone.

Magnus watches with delighted curiosity as Alexander writhes and pants and tries so hard to stay in place. The warm magic that Magnus is currently pressing into Alexander is melting the ice in his veins only for it to refreeze. It’s a continual battle and Alexander is panting from the intensity of his temperature rising and falling in such a rapid staccato.

Magnus’ name is gasped out, a hopefully, desperate plea that Magnus ignores to let his warm fingers run up the cold tendon of Alexander’s throat. Its spasms under his touch and Alexander whines and throws his head back into the pillows, arching up and pressing his throat more firmly into Magnus’ grip.

“Darling, stop it.” Magnus chides teasingly, “I’m doing a scientific experiment. We’ll have fun together later.” Even as he says it, he rubs his thumb in slow, meticulous circles over the bite he left high on Alexander’s throat. It takes but a tiny crook of his thumb and magic is imbued into it and Alexander moans and goes limp as his body melts.

It lasts for a moment and then Magnus can feel the angelic grace icing over the warmth of his magic, and he lets it win, for now.

“So many interesting things to discover.” Magnus murmurs as he pets over Alexander’s ribs and chases away the coolness with the tip-tap of his fingers wreathed in magic. “Whatever am I going to do, hmm? I don’t have enough time to focus on you how I’d like.” Magnus is completely serious, and he presses a kiss to Alexander’s brow, frowning as he realizes they don’t have time for him to see what Alexander’s body does in a magical bath.

“Magnus, we have plenty of time. We just need to take it slow.” Alexander reminds him of Magnus’ precious boy, completely forgetting how impatient Magnus can be.

“Yes, of course. We’ll take things slow.” Magnus repeats, letting his voice dip into a mocking agreement. “When should we slow things down, darling? When you’re already in my bed? How do you plan on taking things slow when I don’t plan on letting you go anywhere?”

Alexander looks up at him in surprise before a hint of panic enters his expression, “Magnus, you know I have to go back to the Institute, do you have any idea the kind of trouble those idiots can get into?”

“Yes, yes.” Magnus mutters and it’s with visible frustration that he leans down and kisses Alexander’s mouth. “You’re needed to wrangle the recruits the clave is sending through. Something about how one of them has an ego the size of Empire State Building?”

“He’s a fantastic soldier, but he doesn’t work well with others, and he forces his team to overcompensate for him. They have to watch his back while he doesn’t watch theirs. Imogen is hoping I can help figure out a way to make him understand teamwork.”

Alexander doesn’t sound particuarily hopeful himself, more tired than anything and Magnus has to remind himself that summoning a hoard of small demons to torment the recruits with will only add to alexander’s stress.

“One of these days.” Magnus threatens his boy, because if the clave doesn’t stop pulling Alexander away from him for inane reasons, Magnus is going to storm Alicante herself.

“One of these days.” Alexander agrees without hesitation, even going so far as to smile gently up at Magnus. “You have my blood, Magnus. I can’t be kept from you.”

Magnus clasps the small vial around his neck. There is a hollow quartz from an Edom volcano on a platinum chain and inside of it is a frozen gem formed from Alexander’s blood. Another vial rests in his vault for emergencies but Magnus was loathe to let all of it part from him.

“You can’t be.” Magnus agrees, because with Alexander’s blood and blessing he can never truly be kept from Magnus, not even over water. Because Alexander’s very blood is steeped with his inhumanity and the power in it makes it all the more incredible.

“Then it will be fine.” Alexander assures him and Magnus places a warm hand over Alexander’s slow beating, cool heart.

“And you’ll get the teas you need, so I have them here?” Magnus reminds his boy, because until Magnus can figure out what foods and magical fauna work the same as nephil ones, he’s taking no chances.

“Yes, I’ve already sent a message. They’ll have a bag ready for me to bring over with me on my next visit.

“We eat a lot of chocolate.” Alexander mentions thoughtfully, “and organ meat is a delicacy. The more intelligent the prey, the tastier the flesh is the belief.” Alexander hesitates and then he gives Magnus a very careful look. “Nephilim consider ourselves the highest standard of intelligence and instinct.”

Magnus considers what Alexander is saying and then he reaches out to rub a thumb over the edge of Alexander’s bottom teeth.

“So cannablism isn’t unheard of among your people.” Magnus can’t say he’s surprised, even if he is slightly shocked that Alexander is sharing such information with him.

“It’s not.” Alexander murmurs and he smiles a little, “the Circle opened itself up to becoming a ripe hunting ground for certain of our kind with particular tastes.”

Magnus lets out a titter, because this is delightfully hidden information and such a delicious secret at that.

“Tell me more?” Magnus asks, voice a low croon that draws Alexander to him like a flame lures in a moth. His boy reaches up and large, cool hands cup Magnus’ face and pull him down into a hungry kiss.

“What do you want to know?” Alexander asks him, like his boy doesn’t already know how greedy Magnus is for knowledge.

“Everything, darling.” Magnus whispers to him and he lets his words settle against Alexander’s cheek, “tell me all that you know, my love. Teach me all your secrets until I can hoard them myself.”

Alexander kisses him again for that and his lips are soft, for all that they’re cold and frosted tip of Alexander’s tongue makes Magnus’ shiver.

“Okay.”

#lumine writes #writing wednesdays #writing wednesday #shadowhunters #malec #magnus bane #alec lightwood #my fics #my fanfics #my ficlets

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camisoledadparis · 17 days ago

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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … November 6

1494 – Suleiman the Magnificent, Ottoman Sultan, was born (d.1566); the tenth and longest‐serving Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, reigning from 1520 to 1566. He is known in the West as Suleiman the Magnificent and in the Islamic world, as the Lawgiver, deriving from his complete reconstruction of the Ottoman legal system. Within the empire, Suleiman was known as a fair ruler and an opponent of corruption.

As well as being a capable goldsmith and distinguished poet, Suleiman was also a great patron of artists and philosophers, overseeing the golden age of the Ottoman Empire's cultural development.

Historians claim that Suleiman, in his youth, had an admiration for Alexander the Great as he wanted very much to learn how he had managed to unite the peoples of the east and the west.

Pargali Ibrahm Pasha was the boyhood friend of Suleiman. Ibrahim was originally Greek Orthodox and when young was educated at the Palace School as a devshirme (the systematic abduction of young boys from conquered Christians lands by the Ottomann sultans as a form of regular taxation in order to build a loyal slave army).

As the Sultan's male favorite, he shared Suleiman's quarters and his tent while at home and on campaign. Suleiman made him the royal falconer, then promoted him to first officer of the Royal Bedchamber. Eventually, Ibrahim Pasha became the Grand Vizier in 1523 and commander in chief of all the armies. Suleiman also conferred upon Ibrahim pasha the honor of beylerbey of Rumelia, granting Ibrahim authority over all Turkish territories in Europe, as well as command of troops residing within them at times of war.

According to a 17th century chronicler, Ibrahim had asked Suleiman not to promote him to such high positions, fearing for his safety, to which Suleiman replied that under his reign no matter what the circumstance, Ibrahim would never be put to death.

Ibrahim would eventually fall from grace with the Sultan. During his thirteen years as Grand Vizier, his rapid rise to power and vast accumulation of wealth had made Ibrahim many enemies among the Sultan's court.

Reports had reached the Sultan of Ibrahim's imprudence committed during a campaign against the Persian Safavid empire, in particular his adoption of the title serasker sultan was seen as a grave affront to Suleiman. Suleiman's suspicion of Ibrahim was worsened in a quarrel between the latter and the Minister of Finance Iskender Chelebi. The dispute ended in the disgrace of Chelebi on charges intrigues against the Sultan, with Ibrahim convincing Suleiman to sentence the Minister to death. Before his death however, Chelebi's last words were to accuse Ibrahim of conspiracy against the Sultan. Since these were his dying words, Suleiman became convinced of Ibrahim's disloyalty and on March 15, 1536, Ibrahim's lifeless body was discovered in the Topkapi palace.

1730 Hans Hermann von Katte (1704 – 1730) is executed in Prussia. Prince Fredrick II of Prussia (aka Frederich the Great) was thought to be lovers with, Katte. They planned to escape Prussia together, but were discovered. The court sentenced Katte to life in prison but refused to judge the prince. Fredrick’s father thought this too lenient and ordered Katte executed and Fredrick imprisoned. Frederick was awakened at 5:00 AM and told to look out his prison window at the execution of Katte. He called out to him "My dear Katte, a thousand pardons." Katte called back, "My prince, there is nothing to apologize for" just before he was beheaded.

1949 – Brad Davis, American actor, best known for his role in the 1978 film Midnight Express, was born on this date (d.1991).

Davis was born Robert Creel Davis in Tallahassee, Florida to Eugene Davis, a dentist whose career declined due to alcoholism, and his wife, the former Anne Creel. His brother Gene is also an actor. According to an article in The New York Times published in 1987, According to an article in The New York Times published in 1987, Davis suffered physical abuse and sexual abuse at the hands of both parents. As an adult, he was an alcoholic and an intravenous drug user before becoming sober in 1981. Davis was known as "Bobby" during his youth, but took Brad as his stage name in 1973.

At 17, after winning a music talent contest, Davis worked at Theatre Atlanta. He later moved to New York City and attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, as well as studied acting at the American Place Theater. After a role on the soap opera How to Survive a Marriage, he performed in off-Broadway plays. In 1976 he was cast as Sally Field's love interest in the television film Sybil. He played the lead role in Larry Kramer's play about AIDS, The Normal Heart (1985).

His most successful film role was as the main character in Midnight Express (1978), for which he won the Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actor. He also had a small role in Roots. The steamy shower scene in Midnight Express and Davis' portrayal of the sexy Gay sailor in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's film adaptation of Jean Genet's Querelle (1983) made him a Gay film icon.

Davis was married to Susan Davis, who later became an Emmy Award-winning casting director. They had one child, Alexandra (now Alex, he's a transman).

Diagnosed with AIDS in 1985, Davis kept his condition secret until shortly before his death. Although it was announced he died of AIDS in 1991 in Los Angeles, he actually died of an intentional drug overdose. Near death and in severe pain in a hospital, he opted to return home and end his life on his own terms. With his wife and a family friend present, he committed assisted suicide. Susan Davis continues to campaign to combat AIDS.

1952 – Michael Cunningham is an American writer, best known for his 1998 novel The Hours, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999.

Cunningham was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and grew up in Pasadena, California. He studied English literature at Stanford University where he earned his degree. Later, at the University of Iowa, he received a Michener Fellowship and was awarded a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. While studying at Iowa, he had short stories published in the Atlantic Monthly and the Paris Review. His short story, "White Angel", was later used as a chapter in his novel A Home at the End of the World. It was included in "The Best American Short Stories, 1989," published by Houghton Mifflin. A Home at the End of the World, a gay love story, was also made into a 2004 movie with Colin Farrell, Dallas Roberts and Robin Wright.

Cunningham is currently professor of creative writing at Yale University.

Although Cunningham is gay and has been in a long-term domestic partnership with psychoanalyst Ken Corbett, he dislikes being referred to as a gay writer, according to a PlanetOut article. While being gay greatly influences his work, he feels that it should not be his defining characteristic.

1955 – Wolfgang Busch, born in Heppenheim, Germany, is a two time Humanitarian award winner, was inducted into the Queens Business Hall of Fame for his company Art From The Heart Films, was inducted into the LGBT Hall of Fame and is a multiple award winning documentary filmmaker, director, producer, cinematographer and editor, including a humanitarian award for his documentary "How Do I Look". He also received a "Keep The Dream Alive" Martin Luther King Humanitarian award for his social and artistic activism for the Black and Hispanic LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) Ballroom community, aka Harlem Drag Ball community.

He is an entrepreneur, grass-root organizer, motivator, inspirational and touches people life's from all walks of life. His Art In Education Documentaries are screened worldwide. He lectures about Artistic Empowerment and HIV/AIDS education at the most prestigious universities, Yale, NYU, Penn State, not for profit organizations The Door, LGBT Community Center in New York City and Chicago, the Gay Mens Health Crisis, community-based organizations and Churches across the United States; London, Amsterdam, Paris and Berlin.

From 1990-2000 he produced New York New Rock, a weekly TV show highlighting cultural and educational aspects of various communities such as the local New York City Rock and R & B communities, LGBT, arts, sports, politics and fashion reaching 500,000 Manhattan households. The show was a successful outreach tool for artists and not for profit organizations and Busch was able to sign national and international record and licensing deals for several artists.

As an openly gay artist, he has been embraced by a wide range of LGBT organizations to produce high level events including GLAMA (The Gay and Lesbian American Music Awards), SAGE (Senior Action in a Gay Environment) Lifetime Achievement Awards ceremonies and events for LifeBeat, Center For the Media Arts and Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center.

1957 – Cam Clarke is an American voice actor and singer known for his work in animation, video games and commercials. Among his notable roles are Leonardo and Rocksteady in the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, Shotaro Kaneda in the 1989 original Streamline Pictures English dub of Akira, and Liquid Snake in the Metal Gear series. He often serves as a voice double for Matthew Broderick.

Clarke was born Cameron Arthur Clarke in Burbank, California, to actor Robert Clarke and singer Alyce King.

Clarke is the nephew to guitarist Alvino Rey and pianist Buddy Cole, cousin to actress Tina Cole and writer Chris Conkling, half brother to musicians Ric and Lex de Azevedo, and uncle to voice actress Emilie Brown and actress Rachel Coleman.

Clarke began his acting career in The Hollywood Palace as The King Family Show. He continued to perform with his family on various television specials until the 1980s when he got his first voice acting roles in Snorks and Robotech. He was taught by Michael Bell.

To date, Clarke has voiced over four hundred titles. From 1987 until 1996, Cam Clarke would most notably portray Leonardo, the leader of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as well as Rocksteady, one of the show's antagonists. Clarke would reprise the role of Leonardo in non-musical spoken portions of the first show of the "Coming out of their Shells" concerts designed around the Ninja Turtle characters held at Radio City Music Hall, though the later VHS tape released of the event leaves him uncredited.Clarke is openly gay, and his experiences inspired his album Inside Out, which changed pronouns in lyrics of classic songs and his one-man autobiographical play Stop Me If I Told You This.

1988 – Tom Neuwirth, better known by his drag stage persona Conchita Wurst, is an Austrian singer. Wurst came to international attention when winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix".

Born in Gmunden, Neuwirth moved to Graz to do his Matura with a focus on fashion, before embarking on a singing career through the 2007 casting show Starmania. He subsequently became a founding member of the short-lived boyband Jetzt Anders!.

In 2011, Neuwirth began appearing as Wurst – a drag persona noted for her beard – and came second in the Austrian preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. Wurst was successfully selected to represent Austria at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014, where she proved victorious.

Wurst's entry and victory courted controversy, being condemned by some of the continent's social conservatives and right-wingers who saw her performance as a promotion of LGBT rights. Conversely, it brought her international attention and established her as a prominent LGBT icon, resulting in invites to perform at various LGBT pride parades and the European Parliament.

Neuwirth describes himself as a gay man and uses female pronouns to describe his Wurst character, but male pronouns when referring to himself.

1991 – Paul Poirier is a Canadian ice dancer. With Piper Gilles, he is the 2021 World bronze medallist, as well as a three-time Four Continents medallist (silver in 2014 and 2020, bronze in 2019), three-time Skate Canada International champion (2019, 2021–22), and two-time Canadian national champion (2020, 2022). Gilles and Poirier competed for Canada at the 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics.

With earlier partner Vanessa Crone, he is the 2010 Grand Prix Final bronze medallist, 2011 Four Continents bronze medallist, 2008 World Junior silver medallist, and 2011 Canadian national champion. Crone and Poirier competed for Canada at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Paul Poirier was born in Ottawa, Ontario, to Debra Mendes de Franca and Marc Poirier. In 2015, he graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Arts in linguistics. He continues graduate studies in linguistics part-time. He speaks English, French, Japanese, and Spanish. His brother played in the Ontario Hockey League.

Poirier is gay and has spoken about "perhaps [being] a role model for...younger queer athletes."

2012 – Washington State voters approve Referendum 74 legalizing same-sex marriage.

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theconstitutionisgayculture · 1 year ago

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Anarchist always say that they will create an anarchy when civilization (or america) falls not realizing this has already happen multiple times (collapse of the bronze age, the fall of the Roman empire, the dead of Alexander the great, etc) and people always loop back at creating government.

There is a decline on kingdom, country, whatever, then after the collapse, warlords or influential people of the old civilization rise trying to stablish their rule, they fight for some time and people organize to protect themselves for this warlords or the warlords successfully stablish their rule in a territory. Government is Bach baby, wash and repeat.

People always seek to create some kind of cooperation in times of crisi and finally evolves in government.

Yep. Anarchy is only a temporary state that almost always arises after a civilization fails, and only lasts until a new government forms. They'll say things like "anarchy isn't total chaos, we'll have rules we'll just decide them for ourselves" without realizing that a group of people getting together and deciding to live under a set of rules is exactly what a government is. Government isn't just a massive federal superstate. It's a tribal hierarchy, it's a cooperative, it's a republic, it's a homeowners association, it's a dictatorship, it's an oligarchy, etc.

The kind of anarchy they want, where they all have their own homesteads and they trade with each other and they're completely self-sufficient could only ever happen in a place with very low population, lots of unoccupied land, and abundant natural resources. Otherwise everyone will just start fighting over the things they lack, or not wanting the wrong kind of people living near them, as has happened through the entirety of human history. Places like that have existed. Hell, the westward expansion of America was all about finding places like that. But even on a brand new continent where the only way to get there from the Old World was a long, arduous, dangerous sea voyage, it didn't take long for the New World to fill up with people and for those people to expand government from coast to coast. And that's on a newly discovered continent. There aren't any of those left. Any anarchist society would need to form in a place where there are already tens of millions of people. Or more. In order to get the ideal conditions--low population, lots of unoccupied land, and abundant natural resources--most of those people would need to die or voluntarily leave. I'm not going to run down all the problems with getting to, and keeping, the anarchist ideal, but you can probably see where I'm going. The conditions needed for their idea of anarchy to flourish can only spring up in the modern world after some horrible disaster that either kills off most of the population, or drives them somewhere else. So right off the bat they're all waiting and hoping for mass human death. They see that as as the best alternative to the problems we face today. And I don't agree with that. I don't think society is so broken that it can never be fixed or replaced with something better. I don't think everything needs to be destroyed so a few people can live out their homesteading fantasies.

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noblehcart · 1 year ago

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Do not read unless; you're a mega nerd interested in Bulgaria in the 14th century or @malka-lisitsa

Bulgaria under Ottoman rule (1396–1878)

The fall of the last tsardom; the Tsardom of Vidin marked the end of what’s historically known as the Second Bulgarian Empire. By this, the Ottomans had subjugated and occupied Bulgaria. Even though a Polish-Hungarian army commanded by Władysław III of Poland set out to free Bulgaria and the Balkans in 1444, they were defeated in the battle of Varna from the Ottomans.

The new authorities dismantled Bulgarian institutions and merged the separate Bulgarian Church into the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople (although a small, autocephalous Bulgarian archbishopric of Ohrid survived until January 1767). Turkish authorities destroyed most of the medieval Bulgarian fortresses to prevent rebellions. Large towns and the areas where Ottoman power predominated remained severely depopulated until the 19th century.

Even though conversion to Islam was not forced on the Bulgarian people, several cases of forced Islamization were recorded such as the Pomaks who got to keep their Bulgarian language, dress and some customs that were compatible with Islam.

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Bulgaria became a thriving cultural centre. The flowering of the Turnovo school of art was related to the construction of palaces and churches, to literary activity in the royal court and the monasteries, and to the development of handicrafts.

In the fourteenth century many new monasteries were built under the patronage of Ivan Alexander on the northern slopes of Stara Planina, especially in a area near the capital Tarnovo which became known as "Sveta Gora" (Holy Forest)—a name also used to refer to Mount Athos. The numerous monasteries across the Empire were the very centre of the cultural, educational and spiritual life of the Bulgarian society. After the mid fourteenth centuries, many monasteries began to build fortifications under the thread of Turk invasions, such as the famous Tower of Rely in the Rila monastery.

In the 14th century, the Ottoman Turks were a rising power in the region. In 1393 they captured Turnovo. All Bulgarian resistance to the Turks ended in 1396. Bulgaria was under Turkish rule for nearly 500 years.

The Bulgarians had to pay taxes to the Turks. They also had to surrender their sons. At intervals, the Turks would take the cream of Bulgarian boys aged 7 to 14. They were taken from their families and brought up as Muslims. They were also trained to be soldiers called Janissaries.

The Bulgarian People Under the Rule of the Ottoman Empire (15th-18th C.)

The fall of the medieval Bulgarian states under the Ottoman rule interrupted the Bulgarian people’s natural development within the framework of the European civilization. To the Bulgarians that was not just a temporary loss of their state independence as it was in the case of other European peoples which had had this bitter experience at different stages of their history.

In the course of centuries the Bulgarians were forced to live under a state and political system that was substantially different from and distinctly alien to the European civilization which had evolved on the basis of Christianity and the Christian economic, social and cultural patterns.

The intrusive nature of Islamism and its intolerance to anything that was not part of it, resulted in the continued confrontation between the Ottoman empire and Christian Europe in the l5th-l8th centuries. That fact drew an iron curtain between the Bulgarian people on the one side, and Europe and the free Slav countries on the other.

In other words, Bulgaria was separated from the progressive trends of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment as well as from the nascent modern bourgeois world.

The Bulgarians were pushed into a direction of development which had nothing in common with their seven-century history until then, history deeply connected with the natural course of the European political, economic and cultural development.

The Turkish conquerors ruthlessly destroyed all Bulgarian state and religious structures. The natural political leaders of the people in the Middle Ages, i.e. the boyars and the higher clergy, vanished from sight. That deprived the Bulgarians of both the possibility for self-organization and any chance of having foreign political allies for centuries on end.

The place allotted to the Bulgarian people in the Ottoman feudal political system entitled it to no legal, religious, national, even biological rights as Bulgarian Christians. They had all been reduced to the category of the so called rayah (meaning ‘a flock’, attributed to the non-Muslim subjects of the empire).

The peasants who represented the better half of the Bulgarian population were dispossessed of their land.

According to the Ottoman feudal system which remained effective until 1834, all of it belonged to the central power in the person of the Turkish sultan.

The Bulgarians were allowed to cultivate only some plots. Groups of rural Christian families, varying in number, were put under an obligation to give part of their income to representatives of the Muslim military, administrative and religious upper crust, as well as to fulfil various state duties.

The number of the families liable to that payment was determined according to their position in the Ottoman state, military and religious hierarchy. The establishment of that kind of intercourse in agriculture – the fundamental pillar of the economy at that time, clearly led to the total loss of motivation for any real farming or and production improvements both among the peasants and the feof-holders.

The complex and incredibly burdensome tax system forced the farmers to produce as much as needed for their families’ subsistence, while the feudals preferred to earn a lot more from looting and from the incessantly successful wars waged by the Ottoman empire in all directions until the end of the 17th century.

The Ottoman Turkish state was founded on and propped up by the dogmas of the Koran. At the beginning of the 15th century when the empire prostrated from India to Gibraltar and from the mouth of the Volga to Vienna, it proclaimed itself the supreme leader of Islam – Prophet Mohammed’s standard and sword, and a leader of the Koran-prescribed perpetual jihad (holy war) against the world of Christianity.

It went without saying that under this conception the Bulgarian Christians could not hope for any. access to even the lowest levels of statecraft. The enormous imperial bureaucratic machinery recruited its staff only from among Muslims.

The Bulgarian people was subjected to national and religious discrimination unheard of in the annals of all European history. During court proceedings, for example, a single Muslim’s testimony was more than enough to confute the evidence of dozens of Christian witnesses. The Bulgarians were not entitled to building churches, setting up their offices or even to wearing bright colors.

Of the numerous taxes (about 80 in number) the so called ‘fresh blood tax’ (a levy of Christian youths) was particularly heavy and humiliating. At regular intervals, the authorities had the healthiest male- children taken away from their parents, sent to the capital, converted into Islam and then trained in combat skills.

Raised and trained in the spirit of Islamic fanaticism, the young men were conscripted in the so called janissary corps, the imperial army of utmost belligerence known to have caused so much trouble and suffering to both the Bulgarians and Christian Europe.

The Turkish authorities exerted unabating pressure on parts of the Bulgarian people to make them convert their faith and become Muslims. That policy was meant to limit the Bulgarian ethnos parameters and to increase the Turkish population numbers. For, according to the medieval standards in that part of Europe, the affiliation of a given people was determined by the religion it followed. With a view to facilitating the assimilation process, the Turkish authorities took the Christian names of those who had converted into Islam and gave them Arab names instead.

A variety of ways and means was used in the assimilation of the Bulgarian people. Some of these were the aforementioned ‘blood tax, and the regular kidnaping of children, pretty women, girls and young men to Turkish families.

Quite frequently, whole areas were encircled by troops and their inhabitants forced to adopt Islam and new Arab names, while the objectors were ‘edifyingly’ slain. In those cases, however, the ‘new Muslims’ were allowed to go on living in the compact Bulgarian environment, i.e. as a community which retained both its language and its Bulgarian national consciousness.

The present-day Bulgarian Muslims representing about five percent of modern Bulgaria’s population, are descendants of those Mohammedanized Bulgarians, whom the Bulgarian Christians used to call pomaks (from the Bulgarian root-words macha or maka, meaning harassed or caused to suffer). And yet the thousands of Bulgarians whom Bulgaria lost once and for all were those who had been subjected to individual conversion to Islam. For, it is only natural that having fallen into a community of strangers, speaking a different language and practicing different customs and faith, they had easily and quickly been assimilated.

The genocide carried out by the Ottoman Turks during hostilities in the Bulgarian lands, at the time of uprising or riot suppression, during the frequent spells of feudal anarchy, or even of Ottoman troops move-ups from garrison stations to the battle-field, had struck heavy blows on the Bulgarian nation. The Bulgarian Christian population was treated as infidel and hostile and it was outlawed even at the time of peace. Individual and mass emigration of Bulgarians to foreign lands was another cause for no lesser losses to the Bulgarian nation. There were times when whole regions became depopulated.

During the l5th-l7th centuries the Bulgarian nation had suffered a gradual but grave biological collapse which predetermined, to a large extent, its demographic, economic, political and cultural place in the European civilization. According to some Bulgarian historians’ estimations, the beginning of the Turkish oppression in the 15th century found Bulgaria with a population of about 1.3 million. Those were the then demographic parameters of any of the large European nations, for example, the population in the present-day territories of England, France or Germany.

One hundred years later, the Bulgarians were already down to 260 000 people and remained as many in the course of two more centuries. The demographic growth was suppressed through genocide, Mohammedanization and emigration. The biological collapse of the l5th-l7th centuries had repercussions which are still being keenly felt. The Bulgarian nation, nowadays, amounts to some ten million people while its European equals in number, back in the 15th century, are now sixty to eighty million-strong.

The unbearable conditions during the Ottoman yoke could not deaden the Bulgarians’ anxiety for resistance. Deprived of social and political organizations of their own, they were unable to undertake any sizeable liberation initiatives. Thus, during the first centuries of the oppression, armed resistance was only of local and sporadic nature. The so-called haidouk movement was its most frequent manifestation. The haidouks were brave Bulgarians who took refuge in the high-mountain woods, organizing there small armed detachments and bringing them down for merciless struggle against the provincial administrators.

This guerrila-type struggle continued for centuries on end (one group destroyed was instantaneously replaced by another) and succeeded in sustaining the morale of the Bulgarians by preserving, to some extent, their properties and their honor. In some places, it even had the authorities maintain more humane relationships with the Bulgarian Christians. The haidouk movement indirectly encouraged and safeguarded other forms of resistance such as maintaining the style of life, the language, the traditions and the religion, or incompliance with forced obligations and refusal to pay heavy unjustifed tax.

Liberation uprisings were the supreme form of struggle against the oppressors. The first one broke out still in 1408. Significant uprisings, proclaiming the independence of Bulgaria, took place in 1598, 1686, 1688 and 1689. They were connected with the anti- Ottoman wars waged by the West European Catholic states with which some Bulgarian representatives, mainly merchants and both Orthodox and Catholic clergymen, had established joint venture contacts.

All insurrections were quelled and accompanied with inhuman atrocities.

The Bulgarian people were living through one of the most difficult periods in its centuries long existence.

It had been deprived of its state, its church, its intelligently and its legitimate rights. Furthermore, its survival as an ethnos had also been put at stake. Linder the heel of that powerful, ruthless and uncivilized Asiatic despotism, it lasted out but remained without any substantial material and spiritual resources needed for its further development. Thus, the Bulgarians, along with all the other European peoples which had been engulfed by the Ottoman empire, were to lag some centuries behind the attainments of present-day Europe.

The Ottoman Empire was founded in the early fourteenth century by Osman I, a prince of Asia Minor who began pushing the eastern border of the Byzantine Empire westward toward Constantinople. Present-day European Turkey and the Balkans, among the first territories conquered, were used as bases for expansion far to the West during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The capture of Constantinople in 1453 completed Ottoman subjugation of major Bulgarian political and cultural institutions.

Nevertheless, certain Bulgarian groups prospered in the highly ordered Ottoman system, and Bulgarian national traditions continued in rural areas. When the decline of the Ottoman Empire began about 1600, the order of local institutions gave way to arbitrary repression, which eventually generated armed opposition. Western ideas that penetrated Bulgaria during the 1700s stimulated a renewed concept of Bulgarian nationalism that eventually combined with decay in the empire to loosen Ottoman control in the nineteenth century.

Introduction of the Ottoman System

Ottoman forces captured the commercial center of Sofia in 1385. Serbia, then the strongest Christian power in the Balkans, was decisively defeated by the Ottomans at the Battle of Kosovo Polje in 1389, leaving Bulgaria divided and exposed. Within ten years, the last independent Bulgarian outpost was captured. Bulgarian resistance continued until 1453, when the capture of Constantinople gave the Ottomans a base from which to crush local uprisings. In consolidating its Balkan territories, the new Ottoman political order eliminated the entire Bulgarian state apparatus. The Ottomans also crushed the nobility as a landholding class and potential center of resistance.

The new rulers reorganized the Bulgarian church, which had existed as a separate patriarchate since 1235, making it a diocese under complete control of the Byzantine Patriarchate at Constantinople. The sultan, in turn, totally controlled the patriarchate.

The Ottomans ruled with a centralized system much different from the scattered local power centers of the Second Bulgarian Empire. The single goal of Ottoman policy in Bulgarian territory was to make all local resources available to extend the empire westward toward Vienna and across northern Africa. Landed estates were given in fiefdom to knights bound to serve the sultan. Peasants paid multiple taxes to both their masters and the government.

Territorial control also meant cultural and religious assimilation of the populace into the empire. Ottoman authorities forcibly converted the most promising Christian youths to Islam and trained them for government service. Called pomaks, such converts often received special privileges and rose to high administrative and military positions.

The Ottoman system also recognized the value of Bulgarian artisans, who were organized and given limited autonomy as a separate class. Some prosperous Bulgarian peasants and merchants became intermediaries between local Turkish authorities and the peasants.

In this capacity, these chorbadzhi (squires) were able to moderate Ottoman policy. On the negative side, the Ottoman assimilation policy also included resettlement of Balkan Slavs in Asia Minor and immigration of Turkish peasants to farm Bulgarian land. Slavs also were the victims of mass enslavement and forcible mass conversion to Islam in certain areas.

Traditional Bulgarian culture survived only in the smaller villages during the centuries of Ottoman rule. Because the administrative apparatus of the Ottoman Empire included officials of many nationalities, commerce in the polyglot empire introduced Jews, Armenians, Dalmatians, and Greeks into the chief population centers. Bulgarians in such centers were forcibly resettled as part of a policy to scatter the potentially troublesome educated classes.

The villages, however, were often ignored by the centralized Ottoman authorities, whose control over the Turkish landholders often exerted a modifying influence that worked to the advantage of the indigenous population. Village church life also felt relatively little impact from the centralized authority of the Greek Orthodox Church. Therefore, between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, the villages became isolated repositories of Bulgarian folk culture, religion, social institutions, and language.

#// ooc #malkalisitsa #yeah i TRIED to trim it down but its still a lot #i did cut out a lot of repeating things but there's still some but i didn't wanna move too many sections around and lose the context #so i bolded/italics stuff if you just wanna hit the highlights #and come back another time to read the deets #the 14th century was NOT a good time to be in bulgaria

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lightdancer1 · 1 year ago

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Wrapped up the brief sojourn back into the dawn of the medieval era:

Next will be Napoleon's War with Alexander I in 1812.

This book raises a key point that most of the 'Rome never fell u guise, the rise of Merovingians, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and England instead of Britannia is just a hoax' special pleading ignores. Yes, the Germanic tribes had fluid senses of self, but it still counted as a very real sense of self. And if they did, so did the Roman elites that saw themselves as Romans even when the political and economic factors that held together the old Roman world collapsed completely in the West and held together in the East until the Caliphate finally toppled the old world there.

It also addresses the simple reality that to some people in the Muslim world would almost surely get this book burned that the very existence of the Riddah Wars and the older Arab states that were partially still extant and likely to play the vulture ripping into the corpses of partially and fully fallen empires means that the Islamic nature of the early movement is as much hindsight as reality. Because the reality is that only after the end of the Riddah Wars and the crushing of the two potential other prophets did the singular vision of the Ummah stick, and one of them came very close to displacing the Caliphate and the Ummah altogether.

Insights like this make this arguably the best book of its kind, as it has the best possible attitudes to sacred cows and the holy origins of the secular religion of nationalism. Turning the sacred cows into holy hamburger and taking people's nationalist self-conceptions and throwing them on the charcoal to cook the sacred cows.

9/10.

#lightdancer comments on history #book reviews #medieval history #western history #byzantine history #rashidun caliphate #ummayyad caliphate

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whencyclopedia · 5 months ago

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Achaemenid Kings List & Commentary

The Achaemenid Empire (c. 550-330 BCE) was the first great Persian political entity in Western and Central Asia which stretched, at its peak, from Asia Minor to the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia through Egypt. It was founded by Cyrus II (the Great, r. c. 550-530 BCE) whose vision of a vast, all-inclusive Persian Empire was, more or less, maintained by his successors.

The Persians arrived in the region of modern-day Iran as part of a migratory group of Aryans (meaning “noble” or “free” and referencing a class of people, not a race). The Aryans – made up of many tribes such as the Alans, Bactrians, Medes, Parthians, and Persians, as well as others – settled in the area which became known as Ariana (Iran) – “the land of the Aryans”. The tribe which eventually became known as the Persians settled at Persis (modern-day Fars) which gave them their name.

Artaxerxes V (r. 330-329 BCE) was the short-lived throne name of Bessus, satrap of Bactria, who assassinated Darius III and proclaimed himself king. Alexander the Great found the dead or dying Darius III (the original accounts vary on this) in a cart where Bessus had left him and gave him a proper burial with all honors. Afterwards, Alexander had Bessus executed and took for himself the honor of the title Shahanshah, the king of kings of the Achaemenid Empire.

Conclusion

Although the Achaemenid Empire was no longer what it had been under Darius I, it was still intact when Alexander conquered it. He attempted a synthesis of Greek and Persian cultures by marrying his soldiers to Persian women, elevating Persian officers to high rank in his army, and comporting himself as a Persian king. His efforts were not appreciated by the Greek/Macedonian army and, after his death in 323 BCE, his vision was abandoned. Since he had named no clear successor at the time of his death, his generals went to war with each other to claim supremacy.

These wars (known as the Wars of Diadochi, 322-275 BCE), resulted, in part, in the rise of the Seleucid Empire (312-63 BCE) under Alexander's general Seleucus I Nicator (r. 305-281 BCE). The Seleucid Empire occupied approximately the same regions as the Achaemenid and, though it rose to a position of strength, gradually lost territory, first to the Parthians and then later to Rome. The Seleucids were succeeded by the Parthian Empire (247 BCE- 224 CE) which fell to the Sassanian Empire (224-651 CE). The Sassanians revived the best aspects of the Achaemenid Empire and would become the greatest expression of Persian culture in the ancient world.

The Sassanian Empire preserved the culture of the Achaemenids and, even after its fall to the invading Muslim Arabs, this culture would endure and spread throughout the ancient world. Many aspects of life in the modern day, from the seemingly mundane of birthday parties, desserts, and teatime to the more sublime of monotheism, mathematics, and aspects of art and architecture, were developed by the Sassanians drawing on the model of the Achaemenid Empire.

#History #AchaemenianEmpire #AchaemenidEmpie #AchaemenidEmpire #WHE #[#]

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sprites4ever · 19 days ago

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Quick German History Lesson

Over a thousand years ago, the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. He dreamt of a statue of clay, iron, silver and gold. Clueless as to the meaning of this dream, he asked his Jewish dream interpreter David, who told him that the four materials represented the four world empires, his being the golden one. If all empires were to fall, so would the world.

One of those four empires, the Roman one, outlasted all others and when it fell, people were scared. Believing the story about Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, they thought that the Roman empire was the last. So, the Christian church took advantage, granting itself divine right over Western Europe by creating an alliance of spiritual rulers in many Western European kingdoms, called the Holy Roman Empire, in order to present itself as continuing the Roman empire.

Later, when a German was made Emperor by the church, it was renamed to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.

When the church lost power in the early nineteenth century, the Holy Roman Empire was downgraded to the Rhine Alliance, a spiritual alliance of German kingdoms on the Rhine river.

After the Napoleonic wars, after Napoleon had breezed through taking over German kingdoms and whose soldiers were then stopped by the russian winter (Tsar Alexander I claimed the effort for himself, when in reality, the French quite simply froze), all European monarchs hasted to restore the old, pre-Napoleonic order. Due to their defeat by Napoleon’s patriotic soldiers, Germans took a strong liking to democratic and nationalist movements, but at the Vienna Congress, where said monarchs negotiated on how to restore the old order and keep down democracy, the Germans were appeased, as their Rhine Alliance was upgraded into the meaningless German Alliance, instead of being recognized as a nation.

Frustrated, Germany declared itself an empire in 1871.

At the turn of the 20th century, European monarchies were dying. Their form of leadership just could not satisfy their citizens anymore, who wanted to reap the fruits of their slavish factory work.

Fearing for their power, the old monarchs upped colonialism with the horrific scramble for Africa, in order to get as much land and resources as possible, to try and stay ahead of the other monarchies.

This fear of internal revolution made the monarchs more outwardly aggressive, building up their armies and making complex alliances.

One way or another, if through Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip's assassination of Austro-Hungarian Crown Prince Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, or through something else, all those dying and industrialized monarchies were bound to have a war.

In a twist of cruel irony, the monarch's fear of their demise caused their demise, as the destruction brought upon by their war was the final nail in the coffin of European monarchy.

Having been made to pay massive reparations, the newly formed democratic Weimar Republic of Germany was struck particularly hard.

Using the rise in popularity of fascism and antisemitism at the time, as well as the terrible economy of the Weimar Republic, Austrian madman Adolf Hitler had little difficulty blaming the situation in Germany on Jews and on democracy, turning Germany into the military dictatorship that started WWII and committed the Holocaust.

After the war's end and Hitler's suicide, Germany was occupied by the Western allies and the Soviet Union. The Western allies realized that Germany's loss of WWI had facilitated Hitler's rise to power, deciding to rebuild and denazify their occupation zone out of their pockets, then letting it have a democratic government, the Federal Republic of Germany. Meanwhile, the Soviets transformed their occupation zone into another Soviet Republic, the German Democratic Republic.

As the Soviet Union collapsed, the two Germanys were reunited and so, we arrive at the present day.

#germany #history #german history #history of germany

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