You are a #Roman soldier born in province of Dalmatia (modern-day #Croatia). Most of your life you've spent on the Adriatic coast, in the warm Mediterranean climate. It is a paradise on Earth. And it is the heartland of the mighty #RomanEmpire.
Your life is about to change... /1
Then, your emperor, great #Hadrian, commands you and your unit to move. Not to the East, where you could still enjoy all benefits of civilization. Or to Africa, also a place to be.
No, Hadrian dispatches you to the ends of the known world. To the cold and hostile Brittania /2
Precisely, you and your unit are sent to man the furthermost part of the northern frontier. To the Hadrian wall, which is nearing its completion. In the following decade, you will guard this remote outpost against the barbarian threat. /3
This is more than a story. It is exactly what happened to the detachment of the Cohors IV Delmatarum from the #Dalmatian coast. Their destination was fort Mediobogdum, located on the western side of the Hardknott Pass in the county of Cumbria. /4
Built between 120 and 138 AD, the fort was briefly abandoned during the Antonine advance into Scotland during the mid-2nd century. It was reoccupied around 200 and continued in use until the last years of the 4th century. /5
One of the most remote and dramatically sited Roman forts in #Britain, the small, three-acre fort at Hardknott enjoyed command of the Eskdale Valley and the Roman road to Ravenglass. /6
And how do we know the story? Well, the Dalmatian soldiers left an inscription in the fort, which survived (in fragments) to the present day, a witness of a fascinating journey from ancient #history. /7
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If you visit the Venetian Arsenal, you can see an imposing statue of a lion.
The lion, made of white marble, stands some 3 m high. But this statue has a fascinating history and an even more fascinating secret
To start with, The Lion of Piraeus comes from Greece...
A thread 🧵
The ancient Lion of Piraeus, was originally sculpted ca. 360 BC. It was located in the Athens port city of Piraeus, until 1687, when it was brought to Venice.
However, if you look carefully, you can see another layer, giving insight into always wonderful #Byzantine Empire /1
Here is where things start to get interesting. Looking closely, you can see that the lion has scratches on his skin. If you look closer, the scratchings turn out to be runes!
Runes left by the Northmen in the Roman employ, the famed Varnagians, the emperor's bodyguards! /3
#OTD In 1204, Constantinople, the capital of the Roman Empire, fell to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade.
The Empire never recovered from such a blow.
But how did it come to this? What led to this unspeakable betrayal.
A thread 🧵
Following the chain of disasters at the end of the 11th century, the emperors of the Komnenian dynasty managed to restore the #RomanEmpire fortunes. It was not an easy task. To expel the Seljuks from Anatolia, emperor Alexios I had to ask for help from the West... /1
Alexios, who fought the Normans early in his reign, recognized the value of the western knights. A small number of well-trained and armoured cavalrymen could make a difference in fighting Seljuks, or so the emperor thought... /2
As a huge #Tolkien fan, I am amazed at how many artists brought his Middle Earth to life.
Alan Lee, Ted Nasmith, Marc Simonetti, and even the Queen of Denmark!
But my favourite is Denis Gordeev, a Russian who made Tolkien's characters and world truly medieval (and real).
Just look at the vibrant world and colourful costumes of the Gordeev medieval #LOTR characters. We should remember the Middle Ages were a far cry from Holywood's drab and grey world.
Filled with colours, like in this scene of Aragorn's coronation. A crown for the king! /1
Or look at the chaos of the Fall of Gondolin (Gordeev illustrated all Tolkien's books), with wrym employed as a sort of siege weapon while Turgon is wearing full battle regalia. Majestic, isn't it? /2
In 361 AD, following the sudden death of Constantius II, Julian became the sole emperor. Two years later, #OTD, Julian invaded the Sassanid Empire.
Instead of military glory, Julian got a tomb.
But why Julian invaded Persia at the first place?
A thread🧵
On March 5, 363 AD, a large Roman army, numbering around 60,000, left Antioch. This was the beginning of Julian's Persian campaign.
Sassanian Persia was Rome's main rival. The victory over ancient nemesis would bring Julian much-needed military triumph... /1
You may ask why. After all, Julian was already the sole master of the #RomanEmpire, right?
That's true, but Julian claimed the diadem by usurping the throne, and the Empire narrowly avoided the civil war only by the death of Julian's cousin - emperor Constantius II. /2
#OTD, 293 AD, emperors Diocletian and Maximian appointed their fellow generals Constantius Chlorus and Galerius as co-emperors.
So began the #Tetrarchy, a governing system of four rulers who all shared equal power over the Roman Empire.
A short-lived experiment.
A thread 🧵
The so-called Crisis of the Third Century paralysed the Roman Empire. As the internal and external pressure mounted, no less than 24 (!) emperors exchanged at the throne, while at least 60 (!) men tried to claim it
Those who managed to take the throne rarely kept it for long. /1
Or, to phrase it differently, to be the third-century emperor and die by natural death was a mission impossible. Most of the crowned heads, all of them military men, died a) on the battlefield or b) with a dagger in the back.
To tame a hopelessly disorganised Roman calendar, Julius Caesar added months, took them away, and, importantly, by adapting the Egyptian solar calendar, invented the #LeapYear.
He also caused the longest year in history.
And in the end, it changed our world.
A thread 🧵
By the first century BC, the Roman farmers were in utter confusion. The annual harvest celebrations, which happened in the Summer, kept arriving in the middle of Spring, many months before the harvest...
The problem was not the change in the climate but the calendar... /1
The Roman calendar had become so chaotic that crucial annual festivals bore increasingly little resemblance to what was going on in the real world.
Enter Julius Caesar, the man who was determined to reshape the Roman world.