True Tolkien aficionados and art historians will find much to be annoyed about. But Στέλιος Καρέλλας on FB had AI render scenes from Lord the Rings as Byzantine mosaics, and I think it's glorious.
1. Gandalf VS Balrog
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1. What people call 'The Fall of the Roman Empire' - more on that soon - has been part of my core research for an awful long time. So let's take a closer look at a deeply deceiving take on one of our most intriguing sources for this period.
2. First: what do we mean with 'The Fall of the Roman Empire'? These days it's shorthand for the end of the Empire in its western provinces during the fifth century. After all, the Roman East continued for another millennium (wrongly and anachronistically called 'Byzantine')
3. The Roman West and East were not separate states. Even when there were multiple emperors with each their own court, staff, armies etc, constitutionally there was only a single empire. So we cannot even speak of 'the Fall of the Western Roman Empire' in the fifth century.
1. Now that even high profile media like The Guardian are jumping on the bandwagon of comparing the Wagner mutiny with Roman History, allow me to weigh in with some expertise on Warlordism. Here's an outline of how the latter contributed to the end of Rome's Empire in the West.
2. Ancient/Modern comparisons almost never work, even though they're fun to play and think with. Especially the 'fall of Rome' (more on that soon) has proven highly popular to explain major problems of our time. I've written about this in Dutch here:
3. Yet now and then Ancient Historians do look at concepts and theory of social sciences to see whether they can clarify our understanding of much earlier history. 'Warlordism' is a very good example of that, because it a significant area of study in Political Sciences.
1. On this day tomorrow in 408, the imperial commander Stilicho was executed. He's one of the most fascinating individuals of the Late Roman world, who de facto controlled the western court and government c. 395-408. A pivotal period in the so-called 'Fall of Rome' story. Thread.
2. First things first: plenty of textbooks and studies still refer to him as the 'Vandal', 'Half-Vandal', or - horresco referens - 'German' Stilicho. These labels are incorrect/partially correct/rubbish. Often unmentioned, but most important label of all: he's a Roman. Why?
3. It is true that his father was a 'Vandal', who had served as a cavalry officer under the Eastern Roman emperor Valens. But his mother was a Roman. Most importantly: he was born in the Empire, and spent his entire life and career there. No ties whatsoever to 'Barbaricum'.
1. If you're suffering from the heat today, please take a moment to remember Valens' soldiers at Adrianople on this day in 378. The eastern Roman army commanded by the emperor Valens suffered a terrible defeat against Gothic groups who'd 2 years earlier requested asylum. Thread.
2. We don't know exactly what drove tribes of Greutungi and Tervingi to request crossing the Danube in 376. A combination of inter-tribal wars and the first tidings of the Huns in the steppe lands north of the Black Sea, may have motivated their leaders to request reallocation.
3. It has to be firmly emphasized, however, that this not meant the mass migration of all Goths, and some tribes continued living in their home territories for generations to come. Indeed, the Gothic language was still attested in the Crimea well into the Early Modern era.
Ik sluit me hierbij aan. Wat overigens nog niet is opgemerkt in deze discussie: een prof kan zich misschien de luxe permitteren om live conferenties aan zich te laten passeren. Early career researchers niet. Wie academisch werkzaam wil blijven moet internationaal kijken.
2. De realiteit is dat de tijd quasi voorbij is dat men een traject student-PhD-postdoc-prof aan dezelfde universiteit (of zelfs het zelfde land!) kon afleggen. Je moet jezelf en je werk live kunnen kenbaar maken aan de wereld. Dat betekent uiteraard niet automatisch jobsucces...
3. Maar internationale confererenties zijn eerst en vooral een van de beste middelen on je eerste onderzoeksresultaten voor te leggen en meteen peer-review ter plekke te krijgen. Quasi al mijn publicaties zijn voortgegroeid uit conferentie papers. Bovendien is het een kans om...
1. In this week in 476, the insignificant boy-emperor Romulus ("Augustulus") was deposed by Odoacer, leader of the Italian field army. This event is claimed to be "the fall of the [western] Roman empire". Thread on one of the biggest #BadAncientHistory takes. Feel free to share.
2. First: why can't we call this the end of the Roman Empire? Well, there was still a Roman emperor in Constantinople, who ruled the entire Eastern Mediterranean and Southeastern Balkans. Since the end of the third century, Imperial rule had ceased being centered on Italy.
3. Multiple emperorship became the norm and for about a century there was not even a fixed capital. The "capital" was simply there were the emperor resided. It didn't matter whether this was Milan, Trier or Constantinople. To put it differently, long after 476 the Roman Empire...