History channel - Engineering an Empire - Greek Byzantium 3/5

[HolyknightVader999]

"Any Christian who doesn't see it his way" as in poor Pope Vigilius.......

[DukeLongfellow]

Lol! "That is now modern Yugoslavia." A bit behind the times, are we?

[Dodo251]

@DukeLongfellow I wanted to post the exact same comment. Unbelievable that there are people who think Yugoslavia still exists.

[neiji412]

My favorite Byzantine Emperor 

[gotch09]

I don't understand the difference between the Ottoman Empire and the Byzantium Empire. Can any one explain to me what the difference is?

[lanebatts26]

@gotch09

the ottoman empire was the invading force that replaces the byzantines. byzantines were christian and the turks were not. the byzantines moved from rome to make constantinople thier new capital.

[prooijtje]

@lanebatts26 it is not that easy, the elite of the ottoman army were christians and half of the people in the byzantine empire were Muslims (srr for my grammar, i am Dutch)

[HolyknightVader999]

@prooijtje Not really. Most of those Muslims joined the Orthodox Church in exchange for Iconoclasm, the elite of the ottoman army were NOT Christians, but boys converted from Christianity and joined to Islam.

[Apoth3cary]

@gotch09 Ok, the Ottoman Empire is a Turkish Empire, the Byzantine Empire is our name for the Eastern Roman Empire, which was a Greek speaking Empire(except at the very beginning). The Ottomans ended the Byzantines when they took Constantinople, or Istanbul as you might know it.

[gotch09]

@Apoth3cary Thanks for greatly helping me with my question. Slowly but surely, I'm learning. I find history a fascinating subject.

[Apoth3cary]

@gotch09 The best way to learn a broad picture of history is Wikipedia. Type in Byzantine Empire, or Ottoman Empire, and you get a detailed summary, with maps and pictures sometimes to help you understand. Wikipedia is not 100% accurate, but its good, but to be qualified to truly understand, books are necessary. I have read many books on Roman/Byzantine History, the crusades, Armenian genocide, World War II, World War I, Alexander the Great, other Greek history too. Just start at wikipedia tho

[KINGKENNYTHEHOLY]

@Apoth3cary Actually the romans always speaked both greek and latin,Julius Ceasar is said to have uttered his frase "you too Brutus?" in greek in real life..so the byzantine empire was really the Roman empire..cause when the western empire fell,Odeacer swore alliiegance to Zeno the Emperor in Constantinople,so 476 was just treated as an internal imperial strife really..its just a modern convention to keep history straight in our heads that we label the empire "byzantine" to distinguish periods.

[Apoth3cary]

@KINGKENNYTHEHOLY Well by 700AD no one spoke Latin in the Byzantine Empire, and yes the Byzantine Empire is the Roman Empire, as if you read The Alexiad by Anna Komnena, they refer to themselves simply as the Roman Empire. However, despite its political Roman nature, culturally it was a very Greek state. But I definitely know that we made up the term Byzantine Empire

[KINGKENNYTHEHOLY]

@Apoth3cary Youre right of course..its just one of those arbitrary labels we make up to keep history straight in our heads..fascinating topic though.

[Danorowski]

@KINGKENNYTHEHOLY Haha that's funny because Julius Caesar never said "You too, Brutus?" in real life. It was pure, Shakespearean fiction. He might have said something similar, but just not that exact quote.

[KINGKENNYTHEHOLY]

@Danorowski no,my point was that greek was as prominent as latin by the time of Caesar ..it would be difficult to establish the validity of any quote with any cartainty ...*I dont see what would be funny..unless your trying to be needlessly pedantic

[KINGKENNYTHEHOLY]

@KINGKENNYTHEHOLY certainty* 

[Danorowski]

@KINGKENNYTHEHOLY Yea, it was needlessly pedantic, the haha in the beginning, not even a big deal, besides, that Shakespearean quote sounds cooler than what probably Caesar did grumble under his nose.

[lovellespice]

@gotch09 one of them has an army of inbred skunks fighting for them..

[gotch09]

@lovellespice Thanks for clarifying that. I thought it was a navy of inbred raccoons.

[lovellespice]

@gotch09 that too..

[gotch09]

@lovellespice I guess that thundering horde of angry, hungry squirrels played into the story too, didn't they??????????????

[KINGKENNYTHEHOLY]

@gotch09 lol thats witty..

[gotch09]

@KINGKENNYTHEHOLY Thanks. My sense of humor has carried me through a lot of rough patches in like.

[Grrrrreekman]

These documentaries are a joke.They don't even scratch the surface of history!The "stasi of Nika" was against the Christian mujaheddin that was Justinian who closed all philosophical schools (universities), terminated all religious tolerance and banned the Greco-roman religion and philosophy.He brought the beginning of the end of Ancient civilization.

[lovellespice]

@Grrrrreekman Justinian also happened to abolish slavery.. such a bad bad man..

[Danorowski]

@Grrrrreekman These documentaries are supposed to scratch the surface of the subject. They describe everything like to someone who never heard of such a thing as the Roman Empire, because it's people who are not generally interested in history that watch these documentaries. Besides, it's about engineering achievements of Byzantium, not religious turmoils.

[BrandenTheBear123]

Instresting :)

[anonwebserfer]

the trivels boggles of fortune and emperor point of view ,perspective