Favorite Historical Periods, Events, Characters

[livius drusus]

I'm a history nerd, of that there is no doubt. Between my studies both at school and at home, and my youth in Rome, I've developed a genuine fondness for all kinds of favorite historical bits and pieces.

Just to name a few:
Spartacan rebellion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartacus) - ancient sources include chapters 8-11 of Plutarch's Life of Crassus (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Crassus*.html), chapter 14 of Appian's The Civil Wars (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=App.+BC+1.14.116). Underdogs kick ass until the hammer falls and 5000 crucifixes line the Via Appia.
Medieval hagiography (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook3.html) - the big miracles are my favorite bits, but conflicts between the individual and society, particularly class and gender-based, are surprisingly prominent and quite fascinating in the lives of saints.
Marquis de Sade (http://dir.salon.com/sex/feature/2000/12/07/sade/index.html) - the fucked up sex is just the bait; his actual life was an amazing slice of the end of aristocracy and birth of revolution in France.
1914 Christmas Truce (http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/christmastruce.htm) - a touch of humanity amidst brutality.
Emma Goldman (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/goldman/Goldmanarchive.html) - Outspoken, brilliant, unique, fearless, an all-around great woman.
Vietnam (http://countrystudies.us/vietnam/) - not the war, the country.

I can't be the only one with history favorites. Even if I am, do me a favor and make some shit up so I don't feel like a helpless dweeb.

[Ymir's blood]

Let's see...


Barbarian Europe :viking:
The Vikings and the Dark Ages :spamhammer:
Medieval life especially crime, disease, heresies and the Inquistion :spanishinq:
Colonialism :lion:
Nineteenth Century America including the American Civil War, Gangs and gangsterism, and the Old West :cowboy: :whitehat: :blackhat:
Turn of the Century (20th) America though the Roaring Twenties and into the Great Depression. (Rise of organized crime, prohibition) :gangster:

[livius drusus]

Oh yeah! I'm down with the Medieval disease and Roaring 20s too. I have to ask though: are you sure you didn't just pick the periods with the best possible smilie representatives?

[beyelzu]

I love the Roman republic, the might of the legions, the power of Rome. I love how, in contrast to how we view it today, Rome stopped at the edge of the city and people from outside the city were real romans to the romans.

I love roman slavery when contrasted with american slavery. I dont think slavery was a good thing, but I find the idea of the institution of slavery in rome to be incredibly interesting.


I love the age of enlightenment and reason. I love the late nineteenth century, when surely it seemed like anything is possible. Tesla inventing radio and an ac motor.

[wade-w]

The Enlightenment. I'd love to have been able to sit in on the debates in the Salons in Paris.

[beyelzu]

galileo


tesla


newton


some serious badass scientists.


Caesar and Marius from rome.


and my all time favorite, historical event has to be the Battle of Thermopylae

[livius drusus]

I dig the Salons too, particularly since so many of them were held by women. They're fascinating studies in intellectual and women's history.

[LadyXoc]

Heian Japan

14th century Europe

Regency England

most any pervy dead Popes, various Borgias, and I'm a bit of a Lorenzo de' Medici groupie.

[Ymir's blood]

I can't believe I forgot the 'Golden Age of Piracy!' :pirate: :parrot:

Oh, for anyone who is interested in the gangs and gangsterism in the Nineteenth Century, Herbert Asbury's "The Gang's of New York" is a hell of a read. Not the most scholarly work but very enjoyable. It is sort of the basis of the recent movie but isn't actually a novel but work of history drawn from newspaper accounts of the times. I haven't seen the movie, but am thankful for it for no other reason than to return the book to print.

Asbury also did books on New Orleans and Chicago. I've got both but haven't read them yet.

Oh yeah! I'm down with the Medieval disease and Roaring 20s too.
Any interesting books on Medieval disease? I've got "Armies of Pestilence","Disease and History", and "In the Wake of the Plague."


I have to ask though: are you sure you didn't just pick the periods with the best possible smilie representatives?
Why livius, is there any period for which good smilies can't be found in your depository?

[Ymir's blood]

most any pervy dead Popes, various Borgias, and I'm a bit of a Lorenzo de' Medici groupie.
I picked up a copy of "The Bad Popes" at Barnes & Noble some time ago. Good read but doesn't go into a lot of detail.

[LadyXoc]

Any interesting books on Medieval disease? I've got "Armies of Pestilence","Disease and History", and "In the Wake of the Plague."



Have you tried "Medicine & Society in Later Medieval England" by Carole Rawcliffe? It's a fun read if you're not squeamish (and I'm assuming you're not, since you have "Armies of Pestilence," etc.)

[livius drusus]

I'm a bit of a Lorenzo de' Medici groupie.

Have I got a site for you, LadyXoc. Check out The Medici Archive Project (http://www.medici.org/), specifically the document highlights (http://www.medici.org/news/dom/domarchive.html). It's insanely cool.

[LadyXoc]

I'm a bit of a Lorenzo de' Medici groupie.

Have I got a site for you, LadyXoc. Check out The Medici Archive Project (http://www.medici.org/), specifically the document highlights (http://www.medici.org/news/dom/domarchive.html). It's insanely cool.

That is absolutely frabjous and I am embarrassed to admit I squealed like a teenage girl when I clicked on the link. Thanks, liv!

[Roland98]

Any interesting books on Medieval disease? I've got "Armies of Pestilence","Disease and History", and "In the Wake of the Plague."

Marry me. :)

I haven't read "In the Wake of the Plague." I'll have to put it on my Amazon "to buy when I get some scrilla" list.

To those I'd add (though they don't focus specifically on medieval disease) Crosby's "Plagues and Peoples" and "Ecological Imperialism," as well as Sheldon Watts' "Epidemics and History" and Rosen's treatise, "A History of Public Health" (an excellent read in its own right, and far less boring than the vanilla title makes one think it would be). Edited to add: I also have Zeigler's "Black Death;" a bit dry in some places, but a good overview.

Medieval Europe also fascinates me; I have a ton of books (currently packed away, alas) on that era, focusing mostly on England and Ireland. I also have quite a few on WWII, specifically Holocaust stories and Nazi medicine. I've mostly skipped the 1600s-early 1900s period, except as it pertains to infectious disease. Someday I'll catch up and do more in-depth study...

[Adora]

Napoleon- Doesn't get much better than a crazy short dude who thought there was rats in his jacket.

And then, his nemesis...

Russia- You don't fuck with the motherland. It fucks with you.

Speaking of crazy mothers...

Agrippina II- Mother of Nero. She was one hardass bitch.

Um, anyway, I can usually find something to interest me at some point in time anywhere. I guess I'm just easily amused. Oh, but the Medievil society kids still scare the pants offa me. Someone please tell them that tobacco shop dragon pendants don't make their penises bigger?

[Ymir's blood]

Any interesting books on Medieval disease? I've got "Armies of Pestilence","Disease and History", and "In the Wake of the Plague."

Marry me. :)
and I thought I had morbid tastes... :wink:


I haven't read "In the Wake of the Plague." I'll have to put it on my Amazon "to buy when I get some scrilla" list.
It's by Norman F. Cantor and apart from a minor quibble it was very interesting. The quibble was where he claimed that a crossbow took thirty minutes to reload though perhaps he thinking of the ballista?
To those I'd add (though they don't focus specifically on medieval disease) Crosby's "Plagues and Peoples" and "Ecological Imperialism," as well as Sheldon Watts' "Epidemics and History" and Rosen's treatise, "A History of Public Health" (an excellent read in its own right, and far less boring than the vanilla title makes one think it would be). Edited to add: I also have Zeigler's "Black Death;" a bit dry in some places, but a good overview.
I'm planning to make an Amazon order in the near future and will be sure to check those out.

[Roland98]

Any interesting books on Medieval disease? I've got "Armies of Pestilence","Disease and History", and "In the Wake of the Plague."

Marry me. :)
and I thought I had morbid tastes... :wink:

:) I'm rarely accused of being normal. Occupational hazard, I guess.

It's by Norman F. Cantor and apart from a minor quibble it was very interesting. The quibble was where he claimed that a crossbow took thirty minutes to reload though perhaps he thinking of the ballista?

Yeah, I was reading the reviews on Amazon (and on a few of Cantor's other books) and it looks like he's smart and a good author but a bit sloppy on the facts sometimes. Still, they have it used for a couple of bucks so I'll most likely pick it up.

[godfry n. glad]

Napoleon- Doesn't get much better than a crazy short dude who thought there was rats in his jacket.

And then, his nemesis...



You mean...Arthur Wellesley?

godfry

[livius drusus]

Agrippina II- Mother of Nero. She was one hardass bitch.

She sure as shit was. I still can't get over her marrying Uncle Claudius in the first place, never mind her vise-like grip on Nero's nads.

[livius drusus]

Have I got a site for you, LadyXoc. Check out The Medici Archive Project (http://www.medici.org/), specifically the document highlights (http://www.medici.org/news/dom/domarchive.html). It's insanely cool.

That is absolutely frabjous and I am embarrassed to admit I squealed like a teenage girl when I clicked on the link. Thanks, liv!

Oh believe me, I was keening when I first stumbled on that site. I even sent them several emails pointing out that despite my total lack of scholarly credentials, they desperately need to hire me. So far they haven't been convinced, but I'm not above begging. :prayer:

[godfry n. glad]

Ah, liv... You are not alone.

My interests include:


American women's sufferage movement
Meiji Japan
Eugene V. Debs
Sung/Yuan China
The Atlantic Celts
Warring States China and early Chinese philosophy
17th Century England - Rule by Divine Right, Commonwealth, Restoration and Glorious Revolution
The Silk Roads/ancient Old World trade
The American Revolution and the foundation of the United States
Roman Palestine, the historicity of Jesus and the development of the early Christian church
The development of metallurgy (which is probably more anthropological/archeological than historical)
Environmental thought


I have budding interests in:


Ancient Persia
Central Asia
Cultures at the periphery of the Roman Empire...(who says they're "barbarians"?)
Development and diffusion of food crops


All over the map, eh?

godfry

[Shake]

Well, I've always been a fan of military history, perhaps influenced by my being a product of a (US) Civil War history buff (Dad's got probably 75 books on events and people relating to that period alone). I enjoy the History Channel's Mail Call show, among others.

I also enjoy the history of science and mathematics. It's just interesting to see how ideas develop over time.

Speaking of which, one of the best series ever, Connections by James Burke, was influential to me growing up. I've also read his book The Pinball Effect. Good stuff!

Dad studied a lot of other history; took a course called Men and their Cultures, which we've talked about extensively. It's fueled my interest in some of the ancient cultures: the Greek city-states, etc.

Medieval times have also held some interest for me.

[Bella]

Three words: Jack the Ripper.

[Farren]

Paris with, and at the time of, the great impressionists. I would have loved to have sat, sipping Absinthe with them and discussing art in a fevered manner.

Any of the Greek city-states in their heyday (as one of the privileged, preferably) aside from Sparta. As Bertrand Russel put it, the greatest achievement of the Romans was the propagation of Greek ideals and culture. They even sent their young gentry to be schooled in Greece.

The late sixties in the US, living in a hippy commune. I've always felt a kind of resonance with the stories of that time and community, especially after my own OTT "summer of love" living in an "anything goes" commune where every weekend was a party gathered round the bonfire in the garden (we felled a huge dead tree that was dead thanks to termites and had a near infinite supply of wood and dope) singing along to tunes ably played by our resident musician on his guitar, the whole weekend long.

[Gawen]

The Romans....all of them.
Ancient Egypt
Romano/Celtic
Celt/Scottish
WW2-more ETO than PTO...but I like the naval side (battles and tactics) of PTO and really love studying the Nazi's.
Pirates. Someone mentioned Pirates. A must read book is Under the Black Flag by David Cordingly.
Medieval (1200-1550) used to be big with me....having spent considerable time and money in the SCA. But no longer floats my longboat. Scottish history is about as far as I delve into it now.
The American French and Indian wars and the Revolution has sparked a bit of interest lately.

[Ymir's blood]

Pirates. Someone mentioned Pirates. A must read book is Under the Black Flag by David Cordingly.
That be me, by thunder! :pirate:

I've seen that book several times but haven't picked it up (yet).

[pzmyers]

The Enlightenment, of course. But that's also a twofer: it coincides with the Age of Piracy.

There's also the Great Northern War at about the same time. That wild-eyed, obsessed, crazed genius Charles XII of Sweden in his doomed and self-destructive struggle against the evil Russian czar, Peter the Despicable.

I'm also fond of Periclean Athens. Also the Age of Alexander and particularly the Diadochi.

In the history of Rome, I'll pick one year: 69 AD.

The Albigensian Crusade. Enough said.

15th century Turkey and the Balkans. Now there was chaos and radical upheaval.

1859. 1918.

The Summer of Love (I remember that one.)


Then, of course, there was the Transplanetary Diaspora of the 22nd Century, and the subsequent Great Polyspeciation Event, which radically changed our entire concept of humanity (splintering it irreparably, actually), after which all the prior historical traumas looked like itsy-bitsy boo-boos of little consequence.

[Kaonashi]

Native America before the white bastards came along and Ancient Japan/China/Korea

[BigBlue2]

I can't be the only one with history favorites. Even if I am, do me a favor and make some shit up so I don't feel like a helpless dweeb.
Ancient Greece from 490-400BC. Marathon, Thermopylea, Salamis, the Golden Age of Athens, the military nuthouse that was Sparta, Herodotus, Thycidides, Pericles, Socrates, topped off by a 30-year war that destroyed it all and led to the rise of the greatest conqueror of Ancient times (Alexander). What's not to love.

[Johnny Pneumatic]

Ancient China, Australian Aborigines, "Native" Americans, Japan, India, Archimedes, Leonardo da Vinci, Charles Darwin, Tomas Paine and many other things.

[Petra]

I used to be such a luscious fantasist, wiling away hours lost in daydreams. Still am to a degree, and will still indulge myself in the fantasy of being able to travel back in time to different places. I guess it's what made me want to be a traveller.

The Rubaiyat (http://www.arabiannights.org/rubaiyat/index2.html) of Omar Kayyam (http://www.okonlife.com/) and that whole Arabian Nights (http://www.arabiannights.org/index2.html) thing has always seduced me to the cultures of ancient Persia, Arabia and Northern India. Even my love of horses comes from the Arabian. Those cultures were so rich, and embraced life so sensuously: the heady scent of burnt spices, the trade routes bringing people of all cultures together in noisy, colourful, dangerous, robust markets brimming with exotica and erotica, art and industry, science and ideas. The whole imagery of belly dancers and poets and pomegranates and grapes and mosiacs and music and....ahhhh.....I wanna export myself there.

And lately, by the Tavern Door agape,
Came stealing through the Dusk an Angel Shape,
Bearing a vessel on his Shoulder; and
He bid me taste of it; and 'twas--the Grape!

The Grape that can with Logic absolute
The Two-and-Seventy jarring Sects confute:
The subtle Alchemist that in a Trice
Life's leaden Metal into Gold transmute.

The mighty Mahmud, the victorious Lord,
That all the misbelieving and black Horde
Of Fears and Sorrows that infest the Soul
Scatters and slays with his enchanted Sword.

But leave the Wise to wrangle, and with me
The Quarrel of the Universe let be:
And, in some corner of the Hubbub coucht,
Make Game of that which makes as much of Thee.



Having lived in Jerusalem, I'd also like to be able to go back through all it's many layers and live a little in each of it's ages.

And of course live among the people who lived in the city of Petra (http://www.culturefocus.com/syria_jordan.htm), my namesake. :)

Petra, by John William Burgon

It seems no work of Man's creative hand,
by labor wrought as wavering fancy plnned;
But from the rock as by magic grown,
eternal, silent, beautiful, alone!
Not virgin-white like that old Doric shrine,
where erst Athena held her rites divine;
Not saintly-grey, like many a minster fane,
that crowns the hill and consecrates the plain;
But rose-red as if the blush of dawn,
that first beheld them were not yet withdrawn;
The hues of yough upon a brow of woe,
which Man deemed old two thousand years ago,
match me such marvel save in Eastern clime,
a rose-red city half as old as time.


And then I'd like to check out the Americas - north, central and south. Before the Europeans. All of it. Everywhere.


And then the trip the Maori took from Hawai'iki to Aotearoa. They navigated the Pacific Ocean in pretty small canoes. Hawai'iki is lost to legend now, but some say it is Hawai'i (which makes sense as Maori look more like Hawai'ians than they do, say, Fijians) and we can only speculate that either a volcanic eruption, or tribal war, or whatever caused them to undertake such a huge and dangerous journey.


Oh, and I really dig that whole flapper thing of the roaring '20s, too, as someone else mentioned. I'd be perfectly happy getting about in one of those old cars, wearing my flapper dress and cloche, shimmying and cha-cha'ing with champagne in hand, to the band playing in the gazebo on Rockefeller's lawn. I would be soo there. :D


And the bohemians, too. Cafeing with the writers, musicians and artists of that time. And the beat generation. And the hippies. A good few decades could be had with them, I'd say. :yup:


In fact, the whole Paris/New York art scene of the first half or so of the 20th Century would be great to go hang out in.


That'll do for now. I'd better get some sleep. :wave:

[JoeP]

Ah, the Rubaiyat. Love it.

[xouper]

My all time most favorite:



10:56 pm EDT, July 20, 1969 - mankind first set foot on the Moon.
If that isn't an amazing event in history, I don't know what is.


Honorable Mentions:


240 BC, Alexandria - Eratosthenes measured the circumference of the Earth. He also measured the distance to the Moon and the Sun, and is credited with inventing a clever method for finding prime numbers (the Sieve of Eratosthenes).


1859, Berlin Academy - Bernhard Reimann published a conjecture that is today the most studied and celebrated unsolved problem in all of mathematics. A million dollar prize awaits the first person who solves it. The Reimann Hypothesis can be stated simply: "all the non-trivial zeros of the zeta function have real part one half." Understanding what that means to mathematics would fill a rather large book.


the winter solstice, 11:11 UTC, December 21, 2012 - the first day of the new Mayan era (I would have said Mayan "Millennium" but their eras - 13 baktuns - are more than 5,000 years long). Many in the New Age Community consider this date to have enormous significance for the Earth and for the human race. As this date draws near, watch for more about it from nutcases and wackjobs all over the world.


February 9, 1964 - The Beatles made their first American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show.

[livius drusus]

Great picks, xouper. Where do the million dollars for the Reimann prize come from and is the new Mayan era an apocalyptic thing or ...?

(Sure, I could look them up myself, but I much prefer making you do all the work. :clever: )

[JoeP]

(Sure, I could look them up myself, but I much prefer making you do all the work. :clever: )
:faint: Now there's a slippery slope. :control:

Watch out, xouper...

[xouper]

Great picks, xouper. Where do the million dollars for the Reimann prize come from and is the new Mayan era an apocalyptic thing or ...?
The million dollar prize (one of seven such prizes) is personally funded by a rich guy by the name of Landon Clay who recently founded the Clay Mathematics Institute because he is a big fan of mathematics, although he is not himself a mathematician.

See: http://www.claymath.org/millennium/

As for the Mayan date 2012, some (erroneously) believe that the Mayan calendar ends on that date, and thus so will the world - the apocalyptic view. Others believe that the Maya had some great spiritual insight and made great spiritual predictions for that date - I have no idea where they get such nonsense.

In any case, here's a typical website, quite popular with many New Agers, and which is full of enough nonsense to last you until well past 2012:

http://www.2012.com.au/

The Mayan Long Count calendar rollover in 2012 is perhaps a bit more dramatic than the Gregorian calendar Millennium rollover (1999 to 2000), as follows:

December 20, 2012 = Mayan date 0.12.19.19.17.19
December 21, 2012 = Mayan date 1.0.0.0.0.0

As you can see, five of the six numbers in the Mayan Long Count date roll over to zeros. This assumes a 13 baktun cycle, which is not unanimous among Mayan scholars.

[livius drusus]

See: http://www.claymath.org/millennium/

I guess he likes math a lot. Meanwhile, the only reasonable pertinent comment this pathetic English major has to make is that all the problems but one are named after people. :pleased:

In any case, here's a typical website, quite popular with many New Agers, and which is full of enough nonsense to last you until well past 2012:

http://www.2012.com.au/

Hey cool! The Quickening! So we'll all become immortal and be able to taste music and touch the molten core of the earth and whatnot? Sounds like a blast to me. How kind of the Mayans to arrange their calendar to look so pretty when I'm alive to see it. :D

[Blake]

... Honorable Mentions:

...

February 9, 1964 - The Beatles made their first American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Not to quibble, but I'm going to quibble. :D That was their first live appearance. Jack Paar found out about the booking and scooped Sullivan by scoring some tape and airing it the month before. ;) Sullivan was so angry he had to be convinced not to cancel them.

[wade-w]

1859, Berlin Academy - Bernhard Reimann published a conjecture that is today the most studied and celebrated unsolved problem in all of mathematics. A million dollar prize awaits the first person who solves it. The Reimann Hypothesis can be stated simply: "all the non-trivial zeros of the zeta function have real part one half." Understanding what that means to mathematics would fill a rather large book.


Now explain to the nice people what the zeta function is. :cool:

[xouper]

Now explain to the nice people what the zeta function is. :cool:
I guess it would also help if I spelled the man's name correctly? :doh:

For the mathematically inclined:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_zeta_function
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/RiemannZetaFunction.html

A simpler introduction:
http://www.maths.ex.ac.uk/~mwatkins/zeta/devlin.pdf

[xouper]

February 9, 1964 - The Beatles made their first American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Not to quibble, but I'm going to quibble. :D That was their first live appearance. Jack Paar found out about the booking and scooped Sullivan by scoring some tape and airing it the month before. ;)
Quibbles are good. :)

So let me ask, was the tape Paar aired of the Beatles performing in America? Because if it wasn't then it doesn't count as an American debut. :P

As far as I know, the Beatles had never set foot in America prior to arriving at LaGuardia airport on Feb 7, 1964. I could be wrong, though.

[xouper]

February 9, 1964 - The Beatles made their first American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show.
For the pedantic and/or astute observers among us, I offer this question: When did the Beatles make their second American debut? :D

[godfry n. glad]

Now explain to the nice people what the zeta function is. :cool:
I guess it would also help if I spelled the man's name correctly? :doh:

For the mathematically inclined:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_zeta_function
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/RiemannZetaFunction.html

A simpler introduction:
http://www.maths.ex.ac.uk/~mwatkins/zeta/devlin.pdf

oh....so it has nothing to do with selling mobile phones, huh? Or making Michael Douglas happy?

ah, well...

[Skep]

February 9, 1964 - The Beatles made their first American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show.
For the pedantic and/or astute observers among us, I offer this question: When did the Beatles make their second American debut? :D
Was it before or after their first American premiere? :wave:

[godfry n. glad]

February 9, 1964 - The Beatles made their first American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show.
For the pedantic and/or astute observers among us, I offer this question: When did the Beatles make their second American debut? :D


Later?

Wait...can't you have only one debut?

[xouper]

Wait...can't you have only one debut?
Exactly. You can have a "first appearance", or you can have a debut (which means the same thing), but when I wrote "first debut" that was a pleonasm (same as people who say ATM machine). :doh:

[Clutch Munny]

The Aegean before the first Peloponnesian war.

The Roman and Byzantine Near East.

Early and mid Byzantium.

20thC China.

Norse Scotland/Orkney

[livius drusus]

The Roman and Byzantine Near East.

Early and mid Byzantium.

Have you been to Turkey?

[Socratoad]

Let me think ..... hmmm this is very difficult as there are so many times, places and people with and where I would love to hang out. Oh well I guess I can post again.

However three things immediately pop into my enfeebled mind.

Socrates of course. I would love to have hung about with him. Even enduring the many hardships and even the end would be worthwhile only to be able to be among those in discussion with him in the markets squares.

Paris, in the era of the salons. Again to be able to participate in the great discussions. I would hope to gain admittance to the women's salons because of my admiration of the minds of women everywhere. like Farren methinks sipping absinthe would be an added pleasure.

Emma Goldman, simply because of my admiration of this unique fearless incorruptible person. Damn..... I doubt very much if another of her stature will ever grace this planet. I would campaign by her side until I dropped dead of exhaustion ....gladly.

[Sweetie]

Nero and Constantine <--favorite in the sense of very interesting to me.

Scotland and the Clans, Culloden, etc.

Earlier in this age, I would have liked to witness the atmosphere for the "Inklings" - the group of friends/writers: G.K. Chesterton, J.R.R.Tolkien, C.S.Lewis and whomever else.

Can't think of much else. I would like to watch sped-up but first hand the development of Islam and I would like to know more about the Turks, it interests me.

The Middle Ages doesn't interest me much, but perhaps that's bias, how it has been represented to me. What I think in the sense of those times reeks of humanity, pain and insanity so it hasn't been a favorite of mine so far.

Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Augustine.

[Socratoad]

Sweetie are you sure you mean Socrates, as included in your list. Its just possible that you mean Socratoad. Socrates picked his name from Socratoad the First, my ancient ancestor. you are aware I'm sure the we toads were around to greet the dinosaurs when they arrived and were present to wave them sad farewell upon their demise. Thus toads had developed a very complete philosophical system before Home Erectus appeared on the scene. We toads were really quite proud how quickly Socrates developed a method of reasoning based upon the ponderings of my ancestor. After all these passing eons we toads are becoming alarmed by the degradation of
philosophy by Homo Consumens. :yup:

[Sweetie]

:chuckle:

[godfry n. glad]

Socrates of course. I would love to have hung about with him. Even enduring the many hardships and even the end would be worthwhile only to be able to be among those in discussion with him in the markets squares.

Yeah, I used to think so, too. Then I read I.F. Stone's The Trial of Socrates.

Emma Goldman, simply because of my admiration of this unique fearless incorruptible person. Damn..... I doubt very much if another of her stature will ever grace this planet. I would campaign by her side until I dropped dead of exhaustion ....gladly.

I can't say I'd campaign by her side, but I'd probably have urged her on. I certainly would like to have been able to meet and speak with her. Too bad there isn't an historical "Emma slept here" program. They'd have to install them in jail cells all over the country.

godfry

[Clutch Munny]

The Roman and Byzantine Near East.

Early and mid Byzantium.

Have you been to Turkey?


I think I recall a chatroom discussion 'tween you and me, on the aesthetic experience of standing in the Agia Sophia. Eh?

Let me also add: The Outremer Kingdom period.

[livius drusus]

I think I recall a chatroom discussion 'tween you and me, on the aesthetic experience of standing in the Agia Sophia. Eh?

Right you are, of course. For some reason, our discussion of Aachen was my foremost recollection of that chat. Naturally now that you've reminded me, I can't imagine how I could have forgotten the Turkish segment. :blush:

Let me also add: The Outremer Kingdom period.

Oh that's such a great one. Tyre is one of my favorite historical places, too, pretty much throughout its history.

[Clutch Munny]

Tyre is one of my favorite historical places, too, pretty much throughout its history.

Wish I could see the excavations! Last week I was re-reading an account of the siege and destruction of the city. For a handful of most old farts, them Hospitallers were serious badasses. In any numbers greater than one, they seem to have pretty much terrorized the Latins' enemies.

[godfry n. glad]

Let me also add: The Outremer Kingdom period.

Okay, guys... You hit one I don't recognize. Please enlighten....It encludes Tyre? One of the crusader kingdoms, perhaps?

Didn't Alexander also invade Tyre?



godfry

[livius drusus]

You got it, godfry. Outremer is the general name covering all the various crusader states. I can't seem to find anything much online, but this (http://crusades.boisestate.edu/Outremer/) rather shabby collection of articles for a class syllabus at least gives some idea.

Outremer (literally "across the sea") theoretically was the Kingdom of Jerusalem. All the other princes were the vassals of the King, but in reality both Antioch and Edessa were too far north. In many ways, the Kingdom was divided into two regions, the northerly of which was dominated by Antioch, the southerly by Jerusalem.

Tyre was one of those vassal states, and yup, Alexander definitely invaded it. He had to build a bridge to break it, but eventually he succeeded where the likes of Nebuchadnezzar had failed.