Tobias

Not all the best sayings are necessarily ancient, old fellow

That family in South America is quite interesting. I honestly can't see them gaining very much in the way of a new Byzantine state, however. It was Basil II who was named "Bulgaroktonos", meaning "The Bulgar Slayer". He did marry his sister to the Ruler of Kiev, who was named Vladimir. As a consequence of his marriage, he was baptised as a christian, and went on to convert most of his people, the Rus, to christianity. He was not the Vlad the Impaler we have all come to know and love, however; Vladimir of Kiev was a fair while before that unpleasant fellow...

Come now sir, let us not be pedantic; they still wrote great works, and they were working towards the enlightenment. Also, many of their works are very well known (Dante's Divine Comedy to name but one), and are generally looked upon as being part of the renaissance.

Heheh, when i think of British, i think of John Cleese

Mine is most likely Dante Alighieri, the author of "la Divina Commedia", as another great, Giovanni Boccaccio, put it. The Divine Comedy is particularly interesting, although i have yet to read it in depth (to my shame). Dante tells of a journey in Holy Week, 1300, throughout the realms of the dead. He is guided through Hell (The first “cantiche” of the Divine Comedy, known as Inferno) and Purgatory (The second “cantiche”, Purgatorio) by the great poet, Virgil. He then embarks into Paradise (The third “cantiche”, Paradiso), guided by Dante's ideal of a perfect woman, named Beatrice, apparently a real woman he met in Florence. The entire journey is fraught with obstacles and amazing and terrible sights. The poem is truly epic, and even the merest flick-through of it is rather addictive.

I shall certainly do so; Perhaps not in the immediate future, because of an increasing load of schoolwork on my part, but eventually

This is one of my favourite sayings, and is also my personal quote in my posts. it is perhaps rather appropriate; "He wrapped himself in quotations - as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of emperors" - Rudyard Kipling I also like this one, written by Douglas Adams: "The answer to the great question of...life, the universe and everything: forty-two!" From "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

An Australian mixed-breed: My mother is Irish and German, and her family came to Australia in the late 1800's, and my father was a Scot on both his mother and father's sides, having migrated to Australia in the 1950's, and i'm apparently able to trace my ancestry back to William Wallace, although i didn't know he had any children. Perhaps i am merely of the same family as him, not a direct descendant

It was part of Justinian's grand plan to reunite the east and the west; but this small portion of Spain was the most of the old Western Empire they could retrieve, as they lacked the resources to conquer the Franks and the whole of Spain, as was seen by the fact that even this strip of land in Southern Spain could not be held for long.

This is a rather interesting option; it certainly may make for some more quality conversation, and hopefully for some better topics as well. Of course, i can't talk, having not started a topic for an age, but i hope this shall encourage people to raise the quality of their posts and topics, whilst hopefully not alienating people. Besides, it gives me all the more motivation to work hard to become a patrician

My old history teacher encouraged all of us to correct him if he was wrong; he says that it is good for a student to do so, as both the student and the teacher learn from it. Of course, he said there was limits, but suitably applied...

Hence my "interesting authority on history" description

That'd make a good source for writing about the Muslims then. I've been meaning to find a translated version and read it, as i like adding such random bits of information to my knowledge

G'day all I apologise if this subject has been covered before in advance. I was curious about how many Roman soldiers could read. After reading a book concerning Gaius Marius, it said that Marius once commented that writing was "a lettered version of learning to swim; it saves lives". So; does anyone have any opinions on whether it was a useful for Roman soldiers to be able to read, and around how many could read at any time?

Swimming eh? Now that is very interesting. I supposed that Roman marines and sailors would surely be able to swim, but i don't know too much about the land soldiers. That source from Vegetius was quite enlightening.

Hmm, sounds like an interesting authority on history, that lecturer. Was she supposed to be a very respected personage? If not, perhaps you could tell her a thing or two about history, Lost Warrior

Ha! My map arrived yesterday! I must say that i am seriously impressed with it; i could never have imagined how good it is on the spot even with pictures on this website. I would recommend anyone interested in Rome to buy this map.

Ah, that'd fit in with the context of the notes. Thanks for that mate!

G'day All Whilst reading through some notes today, I come across a reference to a 12th century poem called "Digenis Acritas", a Byzantine epic poem. Has anybody else come across this poem? What is it about?

The chap helped by Justinian was Athanagild. A Roman force protected by a naval contigent was sent from Gaul in 551 by Justinian. With this aid, Athanagild overcame his opponent, King Agila, near Seville in 554. Athanagild was then crowned King. Despite what he owed to them, Athanagild was reluctant to cede very much territory to the Romans. Eventually, he was forced to give up quite an amount of Hispania Baetica, apparently to an elderly Byzantine governor named Liberius, although this is debateable. Athanagild, apparently not learning his lesson, attempted to throw the Romans out of Iberia; however, he did not succeed, and soon invited the establishment of a Byzantine enclave in the south that would last for a further seventy years. It was apparent that the population of the area preferred the Byzantine Governor to the Visigothic King. Unfortunately, there is not in depth detail about this western outpost of Byzantine power. It's borders stretched to include the Straits of Gades and Nova Carthago, Corduba and Assionia, i believe.

Happy Birthday old fellow! May no new thing arise... lol, I have yet to say Happy Birthday to someone on this site on the actual day of their Birthday, but it's the thought that counts

Apart from the above, it most likely helped to boost the Byzantine's morale/ego in thinking that the empire once again spread from the Atlantic to the middle east, although all they possessed in that part of Europe was a portion of Southern Spain.

lol, i never did get around to replying to that fellow Arvioustus in that thread I can't say i have read any books devoted entirely to Belisarius, although my "History of the Byzantine Empire" did give a fair insight into his campaigns.

Hmm, i guess i'm lucky; my dad's a jack-of-all trades, and he says he can frame it for me when it arrives

You need to brush up on your Byzantine History old fellow; http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~wiseman/Roman/19Maps.html#623 The Avars raided the Balkans repeatedly, and Slav Settlers took advantage of this, migrating in their wake and settling in the Balkans.