1 - Survival (Part 3) Early Byzantine Art Early Byzantine Art As you know, Rome was the capitol of the Roman Empire until the era of Constantine. In 324, Constantine moved the capital from Rome to the Greek City of Byzantium and renamed it Constantinople. Things were fine for awhile, but by the 5th century of the common era, things began to change.The West was under attack by the barbarians and ultimately fell apart. The cities that were part of the Roman empire declined in population or simply died. Many cities in France, Algeria, Syria, etc. simply disappeared. Around 527, Justinian came to the throne in the East — the part of the Roman empire that had its capitol at Byzantium. The center scene here is the Adventus — Justinian is on horseback, with a barbarian begging for mercy. This is standard Roman imperial imagery — but juxtaposed with Christian imagery. Justinian did not see himself as presiding over a period of decline. At the time of Justinian’s reign, Constantinople was a large city of about 1.5 million people.
Beyond the Bubble...Standford History site. 1 - Survival (Part 1) A Weak Sun Possibly Brought Down The Tang Dynasty & Mayan Civilization Tomorrow’s issue of Science hosts lots of interesting papers, one of which is titled, “A Test of Climate, Sun, and Culture Relationships from an 1810-Year Chinese Cave Record,” and reports on the analysis of a 1.2-meter-long stalagmite from Wanxiang Cave in northern China. The analysis tells us that the rock holds records of waning Asian monsoon rains around 1,100 years ago. The dry spell was due to weakening of the sun, possibly from a sunspot, and this climate change is thought to have been what brought down the Tang dynasty. Map of Wanxiang Cave, China Stalagmites are calcium carbonate mounds which form from dripping groundwater. Comparing this result to Chinese historical records of rainfall, the authors matched the chemical analysis to the written record. P. Rate this: i 1 Votes Like this: Like Loading...
Veterans and White Supremacy by Kathleen Belew Kathleen Belew, a postdoctoral fellow in history at Northwestern University, is at work on a book on Vietnam veterans and the radical right. WHEN Frazier Glenn Miller shot and killed three peoplein Overland Park, Kan., on Sunday, he did so as a soldier of the white power movement: a groundswell that united Klansmen, neo-Nazis and other fringe elements after the Vietnam War, crested with the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995, and remains a diminished but potent threat today. Mr. Miller, the 73-year-old man charged in the killings, had been outspokenabout his hatred of Jews, blacks, Communists and immigrants, but it would be a mistake to dismiss him as a crazed outlier. You can’t predict whether any one person will commit violence, but it would be hard to think of someone more befitting of law enforcement scrutiny than Mr. Before his 1979 discharge for distributing racist literature, Mr. Continue reading the main stor
11 Colorful Phrases From Ancient Roman Graffiti When the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were suddenly consumed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E., many of their buildings were so intimately preserved that modern archaeologists can even read the graffiti scribbled onto their ancient walls. See if any of these remind you of a twenty-first century bathroom. 1. "Phileros is a eunuch." 2. “ Lucius Pinxit .” " Lucius wrote this." 3. “Apollinaris, doctor to the emperor Titus, had a good crap here.” 4. “Oppius, you’re a clown, a thief, and a cheap crook.” 5. “We have wet the bed. 6. “Virgula to Teritus: You are a nasty boy.” 7. "Epaphra, you are bald." 8. “If only similar swindling would dupe you, innkeeper: you sell water, and drink the undiluted wine yourself.” 9. “The petty thieves request the election of Vatia as adele.” 10. “Celadus makes the girls moan.” 11. “I wonder, O wall, that you have not yet collapsed, so many writers’ clichés do you bear.”
Ian Morris: Why the West Rules -- For Now Bio Stewart Brand Stewart Brand is co-founder and president of The Long Now Foundation and co-founder of Global Business Network. He created and edited the Whole Earth Catalog (National Book Award), and co-founded the Hackers Conference and The WELL. Ian Morris Ian Morris is interested in understanding why the west has dominated the earth for the last few centuries. Alexander Rose As the director of the Long Now Foundation, Alexander Rose has facilitated projects such as the 10,000 Year Clock with Danny Hillis, the Rosetta Project, Long Bets, Seminars About Long Term Thinking, Long Server and others. Hired as the first employee of the foundation in February of 1997, Rose has been an artist in residence at Silicon Graphics Inc., a project manager for Shamrock Communications, and a founding partner of Inertia Labs. To download this program become a Front Row member.