Kosmo

And you understand anything from this "RSS feed"? It looks less redeable then the roman cursive...

The "byzantine" influence on bulgarians (turks that had been absorbed by slavs) was strong in all aspects especially after they were christened. From here it was spreaded to serbians, russians etc. The moravian ortodox were conquered by pagan hungarians that eventualy, after some ortodox attempts, became catholic. The romans did not absorbed anything of notice from the slavs and after conquering the First Bulgarian Tzarate tried to extinguish some aspects of their culture like the autonomus patriarch and the use of slavonic in the bulgarian church. When the seljuk turks conquered Anatolia from "byzantines" they called the area "Rum" from romans so the turkish state there was called the Rum sultanate ( meaning the sultanate from the lands of the romans). When the ottomans started to raise in the west of Rum they again called the lands of romans in the Balkans "Rumeli" and the name for the former lands of the Rum sultanate became Anadolu from the roman province (theme) Anatolikon. The crescent moon was the symbol of the city of Byzantium and from here was adopted by arabs. The ottomans had the usual muslim flag with the crescent moon on the green falg of the prophet, but after the conquest of Constantinopole Mehemet Fatih changed the coulour of the flag to the traditionally roman purple so today's flag of Turkey it's a roman-byzantine flag.

1 The tetrarhy worked if the second Augustus and the 2 Caesars obeyed the strong first Augustus but this worked only for Diocletian. 2 The money were in the East to start with. That is why Diocletian, Galerius, Constantine etc choose the East. Before Constaninople the main August resided in Nicomedia or Thessalonika also in the East. 3 By weak political institutions I also meant the imperial office that had huge authority but little legitimacy and stability. 4 I don't think that the expansion stopped because of absence of resources wasted on luxury. It had no place were to expand and it was already overstretched and faced by strong enemies. 5 The reforms were efficient in increasing the state budget at the expanse of local communities and allowed for a better larger army. 6 The fat cats proved efficient adminstrators during the heydays of the empire. What replaced them was a group of law class, uneducated military men favoured by emperors. 7 The rebellion was not initiated by Maxentius but by the unhappy population and praetorians that offered him the purple.

Having many parties it's not more democratic then having just 2. What is relevant it's the way in which people became top party officials, the so called self-replication of the political elite. By selecting candidates the people already on top pass their ideology and habits to the future weeding out those who are undesirable from their point of view. The highly competititve US system of nominations it's far more democratic then usual in the rest of the world where the candidates are chosen behind close doors (how did Gordon Brown became PM?). This US system allows for a suplimentary occasion for the electorate to express his will. Choosing the head of the executive it's also great.

EB just does not start. I'll have to reinstall RTW without BI but now I'm in the middle of a campaign with franks so it will have to wait. Also I want to put first the mod that allows to play the locked BI factions including the romano-british. My computer does not makes the recquirements for Medieval II and I'm not going to buy a new one just for this game.

Dividing the terittory meant also creating competing centers of power so strong rulers tended to reunite the empire after bloody struggles that exausted resources. Also meant fewer resources for the West that had serious military problems but was poorer. The tetrarhy did not prevent usurpers (Caracatus, Maxentius and even Constantine that was not appointed, only recongnised by Galerius) but ended with many conflicts beetwen strong emperors. The empire was stronger when united but this unity was difficult to keep because of weak political instititutions. I agree that the Augustine expansion (and that of Caesar) overextended the empire, but the decay of Rome was a result of the complete loss of power of the people and Senate of Rome. Thru Diolcetian's reformes, the number of provinces was greatly enlarged and new posts were created but senators were largely excluded from this new organisation and the cursus honorum was broken being replaced by the desires of the emperor. The army ruled alone and with impunity and I wonder if Maxentius rebellion was more then just an usurpation, but a political move to restore Rome and her institutions to previous leadership.

It looks funny and it tastes funny. I didn't liked it, but it's worth a try.

Usually, the civil wars were about the ambitions of pretenders, but in this case Rome stood up for her interests and her status. With Maxentius it was again the capital of an empire and had the benefits of this position.

Diocletian had created 4 new capitals and Rome started to lose her position in the empire. When the new Augustus of the West, Severus from Milan, wanted to tax the city and to dissolve the reminants of the Pretorian Guard the city rebelled and Maxentius, son of the former Augustus of the West Maximin, was procleimed emperor. The emperor had the support of the army and of the city against Severus and Galerius, but was defeated by Constantine I at the Milvian Bridge. Could this events be seen as the moment when Rome from the head of the empire became the subject of the empire? Until the fall of the West Rome was unhappy with Roman rule?

What is quite interesting about the Romanian language is that it still has some scant traces of pre-Latin Daco-Getae in it. Take, for example, some of the country's river names: although adapted to Latin, I am told that they still sound quite Thracian (e.g. Marisius, Alutus, Ordessus, Crisius, Rhabon, Donaris, Pyrhetus, Ararus, Napenis). Also the names of ten plants with healing powers (apparently) still maintain the Thracian names. The existence of daco-getic reminents in romanian vocabulary it is open to debate as we know almost nothing of dacian-getic-moesian. Linguists searched common terms using albanian as a comparison, but albanian (actually there are 2 languages and several dialects) it's considered a mix of illyrian and thracian so it's hard to establish parallels and a later (medieval) influence from albanian it is possible. The continued use of river names it is seen as one of the proofs for romanian continuity in Dacia.

His name should be Pompey the Pretty Good!

In his biography "Constantine and the christian empire" C.M. Odahl makes a pretty convincing case that he was openly a christian from the Milvian bridge onwords. The great churches he built in Rome and Jerusalem and the absence of any new temple in his new christian capital make this highly possible. When he entered Rome he had christian symbols on flag (labarum) and he made not sacrifices to the gods on the Capitoline hill.

I don't like the attitude behind this absurd defences of a language. There were times when anybody of notice in Europe spoke french like Frederick the Great or the russian aristocracy, but those times are gone. I love french despite forgetting most of that language because I had no use for it. All europeans should keep there languages but should also know english. I had some hillarious moments in Spain when the waiter was explaining the menu by making muuuuh like a cow. Unfortunately even the words that represent animal sounds are different. Of course, if he said spanish "vaca" would have been almost like in romanian (they pronunce "baca" while in romanian it's with "v") but it was much funnier that way. He took a bow and made horns while emitting a loud "muuuuh" in the middle of the restaurant

Dollars are losing much of their international appeal facing a stable euro.

Mostly I drink tea made from the tea plant, not fruits or other plants except roiboos, without lemon or milk but with sugar or sweetener. I love wines especially the red ones, not to dry and not to sweet. I drink blonde beer (but often gives me a headache) and various alchools: whiskey, rum, tequila and my favorite Metaxa brandy. Vodka I drink only with juice preferably pineapple. I don't like gin and martinies I drink only if made with a sweet vermouth like Riccadonna.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/14/europe/spain.php The picture of the new spanish defence ministry, a pregnant women, it's worth a million words.

A low currency increases exports while decreasing imports and also reduces budget deficit. The only problem is that will reduce purchase power so shrink consumption but this is less of the problem for the dollar that has so many economies tied to it.

I've heard that locusts are crispy. They should go well with beer.

Nice summary, but are you going mainstream now? BTW saxons did not conquer Gaul. It is possible that they settled along her NW coast and there are claims that the flamish are a reminent of them, but the majority opinion it's that the flemish are a mix of franks and local celto-germans.

Nice review, I like the opinions of this proffesor. "Rome, having become mistress of the Western Mediterranean, was drawn into the power vacuum of the Eastern Mediterranean caused by the disintegration of the Ptolemaic regime." - this is a strange assesement, the Ptolemies were never that influential in the areas of imediat interest for Rome.

What do you do? I hope something legal

I thought Caesar was Super Homo!

I thought romans did not separate words and did not have coma (,) Late april's fool?

I think it was the other way around. A serf became free after living as a freeman for a year and a day. The germanic invaders were not a united group and fought each other and other groups so no wonder there anglii slaves on the continent. Also, all societies had mechanism that produced slaves like debtness or justice penalties.

TMI = "Too Much Information". As in: "Dude, I don't need to hear about your physical relationship with your mother's best friend. That's too much information." Generally subjects of a deeply personal and biological nature tend to be TMI. -- Nephele Thank you! I understand now. Well, if it was less menstruation it was less PMS so I guess most guys on this board will want that time machine too