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Culture Critic

@Culture_Crit

Nov 27

The Great Pyramid is the oldest of the 7 Wonders of the World — and yet it's the only one still standing.

So what happened to the other six?

Here's what we know about them... (thread) 🧵

An "official" list of wonders was proposed by Greek writers like Antipater of Sidon over 2,000 years ago.

These lists survive to this day, and though they vary slightly, they tend to include the following seven...

The youngest is the Lighthouse of Alexandria, built around 280 BC.

Back then, Alexandria was a crucial trade port — the gateway to the Mediterranean. Its lighthouse was 400 feet tall, the world's second tallest structure after the Great Pyramid...

Read 18 tweets

Culture Critic

@Culture_Crit

Nov 26

At the end of the Roman Empire, inflation was out of control.

Huge state spending required endless money "printing" — until an entire bag of coins couldn't buy a sack of wheat.

Here's how inflation (and taxes) brought the empire to its knees... (thread) 🧵

Rome's monetary system required continual looting of silver and gold from conquered lands to supply its coinage.

But when the expansion of the empire stopped, wealth stopped flowing into the treasury...

To maintain territories and conquer new ones, a massive army was required.

By the mid 2nd century AD, half a million soldiers were on the payroll — 70% of the total budget.

Read 20 tweets

Culture Critic

@Culture_Crit

Nov 25

Why is this one of the most famous portraits in history?

Partly, because it isn't actually a portrait. The girl you're looking at isn't real — nor is her earring.

Look closely and you'll realize it's all an illusion... (thread) 🧵

The "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is often called "the Mona Lisa of the North", owing to its famed status and mysterious qualities.

But just who is the girl, and why is she so famous?

Dutch master Johannes Vermeer painted her 150 years after the Mona Lisa, but she's every bit as enigmatic.

Is she turning away or about to face us? What do her semi-open lips suggest she's about to say?

Read 18 tweets

Culture Critic

@Culture_Crit

Nov 20

America was founded to be the true successor of Ancient Rome.

But most don't know how deep the parallels run: from its grid plans to its constitution.

Here's why we still live in Rome — and why it won't collapse this time… (thread) 🧵

It's no secret the American Founders sought to emulate and perfect the Roman Republic.

They chose for their seal an eagle — Rome's symbol of wisdom and power — but one indigenous to North America.

They also made an important logo change: America's eagle clutches an olive branch.

The power of peace was central to the American ideal, as it was in Rome's founding myth (the olive branch extended by Aeneas in Virgil's Aeneid).

Read 21 tweets

Culture Critic

@Culture_Crit

Nov 18

C.S. Lewis, one of the 20th century's top intellectuals, considered himself too smart for Christianity.

So how, at age 32, did he suddenly become one of its greatest advocates?

He was struck by a strange feeling — and something Tolkien said to him late at night… (thread) 🧵

C.S. Lewis's conversion didn't begin suddenly. He first began to feel a deep longing, pointing him to seek out the most beautiful things in life: music, art, romance.

And yet, nothing he could find completely satisfied it...

He called this profound longing "joy", and intuited:

"If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world."

Read 19 tweets

Culture Critic

@Culture_Crit

Nov 14

To us, Ancient Greece is a distant culture of mystery and intrigue.

But the Greeks also lived in the ruins of a civilization they couldn't understand — or build themselves.

What Homer wrote about them will transform your understanding of history... (thread) 🧵

People living in Ancient Greece were amazed by the palatial ruins of their ancestors.

They couldn't understand how they were built, and assumed mythological beings had been involved.

Structures of massive, tightly-fit limestone blocks came to be known as "Cyclopean".

According to the Greeks, only the mythical, one-eyed giants (Cyclopes) could move stones that big...

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