Share this page!

Byzantine Emporia Profile picture
Twitter logo
23 Nov, 4 tweets, 2 min read
"Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked."

For all their machinations, the Borgias and Medici looked like petty manipulators when a real army showed up.

There was only one serious power player in Renaissance Italy.... Image
...and that was (unfortunately) the Venetians.

No one else could withstand the combined powers of Europe, slip through the cracks in their alliances, and come out ahead.

Only the Ferrarese came remotely close, able to hold their own in extremely adverse circumstances and maintain their independence. Not least because they invested heavily in defenses and were great artillery innovators:
The Genoese had comparable international reach to Venice, but only when subordinate to a greater power:
byzantinemporia.com/genoa-2-casa-d…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Byzantine Emporia

Byzantine Emporia Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @byzantinemporia

Byzantine Emporia Profile picture
26 Nov
THANKSGIVING THREAD

The First Thanksgiving in 1621 celebrated both the Pilgrims’ survival & their friendship with the Wampanoag Indians.

One Mayflower passenger was especially close to the Indians, and was one of only two to have visited the New World before: Stephen Hopkins. Image
In 1609, Hopkins was on the fateful Sea Venture expedition to the newly-founded Jamestown colony in Virginia to provide supplies and deliver a new governor. They hit a bad storm (possibly a hurricane) en route and were shipwrecked on Bermuda. Image
All aboard were saved and the island had plenty of food. The governor took charge and set the men to work gathering food, building shelters, and constructing pinnaces to sail to Virginia, where the other ships of the expedition had safely arrived. Image
Read 23 tweets
Byzantine Emporia Profile picture
18 Jun
Elite overproduction is the single most important concept for understanding the most destructive upheavals in society: 3rd-c. Rome, 14th-c. Constantinople, 18th-c. France.

"Too many Chiefs, not enough Indians."
The Venetians understood this implicitly. As silly as their constitutional system was, they realized the biggest threat to their republic came from intra-elite civil war.
Another way of framing this:
Do individuals gain more from the increasing societal prosperity or from increasing their own social status?

Once it becomes the latter, the value of status symbols undergoes massive inflation.
Read 6 tweets
Byzantine Emporia Profile picture
19 Apr
A year after the Notre Dame fire, we still don’t know for sure what started it. An investigation has determined a likely cause, but there’s no direct evidence any which way.

Given what we do know, though, we still have to take the possibility of arson very seriously.

A thread.
The Notre Dame fire began around 6:18 on the evening of 15 April 2019, when a fire alarm went off in the cathedral. A Mass being held was briefly evacuated as a security guard was dispatched to check it out.

nytimes.com/interactive/20…
The guard went to the sacristy, where the fire monitor believed the origin to be, where he found nothing. It wasn’t until 6:43 that they realized their mistake: the alarm was actually coming from the cathedral attic. It took the guard another 5 minutes to climb the 300 steps.
Read 47 tweets
Byzantine Emporia Profile picture
8 Mar
Byzantium’s Eastern Frontier.

The most sophisticated defensive system of the Middle Ages. It broke the momentum of three centuries of Arab invasions and allowed the Byzantines to resume the offensive, reaching its greatest heights.

A thread.
Following the second Arab siege of Constantinople in 718, the border between Byzantium and the Caliphate stabilized along the Taurus and Anti-Taurus Mountains.

The Arabs continued to launch large-scale raids and would occasionally seize cities and fortresses.
How did the Byzantines handle this?

There are three basic types of frontier defense: linear, mobile, and defense in depth. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses, and each is best suited to particular circumstances.

The Byzantines used all three.
Read 32 tweets
Byzantine Emporia Profile picture
2 Feb
Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria. The most successful ruler of Bulgaria, who brought it to its greatest extent.

He did it largely by observing the Byzantines and beating them at their own game. Thread. ImageImage
Simeon was born the same year his father, Tsar Boris, converted Bulgaria to Christianity. Simeon was a younger son, intended for the priesthood, so he was sent to Constantinople as a youth to study theology—he was raised in the Church. Image
Boris retired to become a monk, leaving the throne to Vladimir, his first-born. The new tsar tried to return the empire to the old religion though, so Boris came out of retirement to remove Vladimir and crown Simeon instead. Image
Read 21 tweets
Byzantine Emporia Profile picture
21 Jan
Niccolò Machiavelli. His name is synonymous with cunning and clever schemes, the ultimate ruthless strategist.

But how clever was he? Image
One summer day, Machiavelli visited the famous mercenary captain Giovanni delle Bande Nere at his camp. Giovanni invited the writer to drill his company in the maneuver’s described in his book “The Art of War”.

Machiavelli enthusiastically took up the offer. Image
It was a disaster. Machiavelli got the troops completely turned about and couldn’t restore order.

Giovanni let the Florentine flounder for hours in the sweltering heat before stepping in and setting things straight. There was a lesson in this… Image
Read 22 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get email notifications when new thread is out from this Author!

Check out other threads from this Author!

Read all threads by @byzantinemporia