Most people don’t have a clue. I remember mentionning the word byzantine at the dinner table when I was a teenager and was told “you play too many games and read too many books, this is reality, there’s no such thing as a byzantine”.
When I showed them the wikipedia page about it, “it’s not because it’s on the internet that it’s true”. Yet here we are, in 2024, where they are glued to facebook believing some of the wildest things.
Yeah, I’ve noticed there’s this weird cross-section of people who ask “do you believe everything you heard on the internet?” about some pretty established facts, and blindly believing Fox News.
It’s a logical fallacy, aka a debate trick for stupid people. Appeal to authority (something can’t be true unless it’s said by someone with the authority to be right) plus a claim that source doesn’t have the authority to be right. Another version of this is when someone acts like citations are proof (or a lack of citations is a disproof).
To expand on that it was during the enlightenment in the early renaissance where people had a boner over the Roman Empire but still thought the medieval Roman Empire (Byzantine) to not be cool. So they came up with a new name for it. A declining empire that had a massive beauracracy, spoke Greek and had the wrong brand of Christianity (Orthodox) is not nice enough to create a glorious image like the Pax Romana did.
This of course made a lot of people upset in the then Ottoman empire since they identified as Romans but were not counted as Romans according to western people. Think “You’re not Romans with a glorious history, you’re Byzantines” even though they clearly were.
For extra fun the Byzantine/Roman distinction is also unfair.
Eastern Rome always spoke Greek, even at 200AD.
Orthodox and Catholic were the same pre-schism.
During the decline of the Western Empire the capital was moving a lot anyway so “based in Rome” was soon outdated.
During the decline Italy was just another province anyway so “based in Italy” was soon outdated.
They were literally the same thing except one half managed to fuck their shit up while getting invaded by hordes of tribes at the same time.
Humans are pretty racist by default until they realise that everybody is actually also a human being. “Barbarian” is just a different word for “sub-human” that was used back then. Nowadays we use racial/ethnic/religious/housing status or whatever negative term that’s out of the person’s control to justify instead.
Too much treachery. Maybe if they stopped assassinating their rulers and managed their funds better by continuing to properly fund their military and continuing to pay off the tribes they could’ve lasted a bit longer.
It’s so wild that they survived the Year of the 4 (and 5 and 6) Emperors when you think about it. The entire empire nearly collapses in the third century and what do they do to the man responsible for restoring it? They assassinate him. Or if it’s not the emperor then it’s the head of the military who had been responsible for holding off multiple tribes, negotiating with them and attempting to keep the city of Rome from being ransacked (unsuccessfully). And then you assassinate the emperor responsible and then the new emperor decides to provoke the biggest tribe of them all.
Of course, instead of the Republic reforming you got a thousand years of warlords calling themselves kings, but that’s how it goes when people listen to Popes.
Most people don’t have a clue. I remember mentionning the word byzantine at the dinner table when I was a teenager and was told “you play too many games and read too many books, this is reality, there’s no such thing as a byzantine”.
When I showed them the wikipedia page about it, “it’s not because it’s on the internet that it’s true”. Yet here we are, in 2024, where they are glued to facebook believing some of the wildest things.
Well clearly the Earth is flat because here’s a picture of some water reflecting off a puddle, and that totally proves it apparently.
Yeah, I’ve noticed there’s this weird cross-section of people who ask “do you believe everything you heard on the internet?” about some pretty established facts, and blindly believing Fox News.
It’s a logical fallacy, aka a debate trick for stupid people. Appeal to authority (something can’t be true unless it’s said by someone with the authority to be right) plus a claim that source doesn’t have the authority to be right. Another version of this is when someone acts like citations are proof (or a lack of citations is a disproof).
I mean, there was no such thing as a byzantine. That’s a name we came up with in the modern era to help distinguish between “roman” empires.
To expand on that it was during the enlightenment in the early renaissance where people had a boner over the Roman Empire but still thought the medieval Roman Empire (Byzantine) to not be cool. So they came up with a new name for it. A declining empire that had a massive beauracracy, spoke Greek and had the wrong brand of Christianity (Orthodox) is not nice enough to create a glorious image like the Pax Romana did.
This of course made a lot of people upset in the then Ottoman empire since they identified as Romans but were not counted as Romans according to western people. Think “You’re not Romans with a glorious history, you’re Byzantines” even though they clearly were.
For extra fun the Byzantine/Roman distinction is also unfair.
Fuck their shit up by inventing systemic racism
Humans are pretty racist by default until they realise that everybody is actually also a human being. “Barbarian” is just a different word for “sub-human” that was used back then. Nowadays we use racial/ethnic/religious/housing status or whatever negative term that’s out of the person’s control to justify instead.
What’s fun to me is that Barbarian literally means hairy, referring to cultures that didn’t wear beards as superior
Oh it’s cute you think the Roman’s invented that.
Also very curious considering that racism as we would recognize it doesn’t have its seeds planted until the 15th century AD.
Too much treachery. Maybe if they stopped assassinating their rulers and managed their funds better by continuing to properly fund their military and continuing to pay off the tribes they could’ve lasted a bit longer.
It’s so wild that they survived the Year of the 4 (and 5 and 6) Emperors when you think about it. The entire empire nearly collapses in the third century and what do they do to the man responsible for restoring it? They assassinate him. Or if it’s not the emperor then it’s the head of the military who had been responsible for holding off multiple tribes, negotiating with them and attempting to keep the city of Rome from being ransacked (unsuccessfully). And then you assassinate the emperor responsible and then the new emperor decides to provoke the biggest tribe of them all.
Maybe it was a good thing that the Roman Empire collapsed. I just wish it had happened before empowering a cult.
It was. There are no good empires.
Of course, instead of the Republic reforming you got a thousand years of warlords calling themselves kings, but that’s how it goes when people listen to Popes.