Relatively homogenous is itself definitely relative. Even after the Arab defeats, Byzantium held pockets of Italy, the Illyrian coast, non-Greek Balkan ...
1501
stevesnyder63
Feb 18, 2002 5:37 pm
Check this URL out -- you may want to bookmark it:<br><br><a href=http://www.roman-emperors.org/battles.htm...
1502
stevesnyder63
Feb 18, 2002 5:39 pm
Actually, a fair amount of the army at Chalons was Celto-Roman. And, a fair portion of the "barbarians" had been federates for at least one full generation....
1503
uwrk
Feb 18, 2002 5:45 pm
Adrianople occurred in 378, prior to the division of the Empire and inception of an essentially new Greek empire. It was only from that point on that its ...
1504
uwrk
Feb 18, 2002 5:48 pm
All states have occasional traitors. But Byzantium enjoyed more support than the West....
1505
paulrevere1985
Feb 18, 2002 5:58 pm
It would seem to me, that an exploratory military campaign would be more of a probe into unknown territory. Its main function being, searching out resources, ...
1506
stevesnyder63
Feb 18, 2002 6:03 pm
If what you posit below is the case, that patrotism, or some ancient version of 19th century ideas of elan vital or Schopenhauerian "will" was the key ...
1507
stevesnyder63
Feb 18, 2002 6:04 pm
Do you have historical documentation of the high level of Byzantine patriotism?...
1508
khakiberetman
Feb 18, 2002 6:14 pm
It is correct that the Muslims were kept at bay in the 8th century, along the Taurus Range, a natural mountain barrier that had served the earlier united Roman...
1509
khakiberetman
Feb 18, 2002 6:16 pm
I wasn't thinking of Spengler, but perhaps you can explain this idea some more/ I think it is a valid proposal... Why isn't it rational?...
1510
richard_roper
Feb 18, 2002 11:26 pm
Badon is usually dated around 517, Camlamm around 537-39. So it does apprear a resistance by a pro-Roman party continued till then. There is also the ...
1511
gauiscaecilius
Feb 19, 2002 12:41 pm
I think that the model of Rome as a corperation is a valid one if applied to the late Republic and this includes a faid amount of coporate backstabbing. that...
1512
uwrk
Feb 19, 2002 4:37 pm
True, "ethnic purity" is not a prerequisite for patriotism-America is a far better example than Switzerland-but in the absence of an effective common...
1513
uwrk
Feb 19, 2002 4:50 pm
The Byzantine army eclipsed that of the Western Empire in size and strength long before the time of Justinian. Most of the western(barbarian) army actually ...
1514
uwrk
Feb 19, 2002 4:54 pm
It makes no rational sense to suppose that Rome(or Classical civilization)just "grew old and died." A civilization is not a single organism....
1515
uwrk
Feb 19, 2002 4:57 pm
I don't think "pro-Roman party" is an apt characterization so long after the disappearance of Roman authority in the West. Roman relics may be better....
1516
stevesnyder63
Feb 19, 2002 6:16 pm
Justinian still looked to "barbarians" for most of his cavalry. Rome itself had done that since the time of Julius Caesar....
1517
khakiberetman
Feb 19, 2002 9:23 pm
I don't know if you missed post 1508 in which I discussed the structure of the Byzantine army, and its obligatory multi-ethnic composition. as has been said ...
1518
khakiberetman
Feb 19, 2002 9:28 pm
A civilisation is indeed not a single organism, but it is a creation of people and reflects their personalities. When I suggest that the "Roman order" aged to...
1519
stevesnyder63
Feb 19, 2002 9:38 pm
Khaki, I made the same point as you did about the Roman cavalry being German since Caesar's day....
1521
gauiscaecilius
Feb 20, 2002 12:40 pm
On the 18th March 2002 the imperial rome club will have been in operation for a year. It would be nice to to celebrate that fact in some way and Since we are...
1522
gauiscaecilius
Feb 20, 2002 12:56 pm
Mostly when faced by the name Brutus we tend to think about Marcus Junius Brutus that 'noblest Roman of them all' however the name belonmgs to a very old ...
1523
uwrk
Feb 20, 2002 4:39 pm
Yet the bulk of the Roman army was composed of Italians or Romanized provincials until the fourth and fifth centuries, when barbarians, often under their own ...
1524
uwrk
Feb 20, 2002 4:59 pm
But what about the bulk of the Byzantine army? Romans long had German bodyguards and foreign numeri but they were secondary to the Italian core of the army. ...
1525
stevesnyder63
Feb 20, 2002 5:01 pm
You just don't want to give up or modify your view, do you? I have no problems seeing "patriotism," or something akin to it, as **part** of the difference...
1526
uwrk
Feb 20, 2002 5:05 pm
It certainly seems the most important factor to me. Any more specific counterarguments?...
1527
stevesnyder63
Feb 20, 2002 5:32 pm
I think I, and other members of this group, have offered a number of counterarguments to your claims about "Greek purity," as well as to your claims against...
1528
uwrk
Feb 20, 2002 6:07 pm
But I addressed those counterarguments e.g. the unwillingnes of the rich in the West to pay taxes, and the extreme scarcity of anyone other than untrustworthy ...
1529
khakiberetman
Feb 20, 2002 6:48 pm
The "Greek" character of the Byzantine Empire, in particular, was underscored by westerners who competed with it, both in religion and in politics. That was ...
1530
stevesnyder63
Feb 20, 2002 8:08 pm
Well, I in general don't like reducing comparisons of major changes, whether history, philosophy or whatever, to single causes. I don't see the world as...
