Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
For a millennium, rivalries between and among Byzantine noble families propelled public life, with the kind of bloody factional maneuvering that makes the Tudors look like the Waltons in comparison.
Though political power was usually a male privilege in Byzantium, a striking feature of the Byzantine tales is the prominence of women as political... See more
Though political power was usually a male privilege in Byzantium, a striking feature of the Byzantine tales is the prominence of women as political... See more
Edmund White • The Misunderstood Byzantine Princess and Her Magnum Opus
"There was a city, an army, and a double wall within,
But, in truth, nothing is weaker than mortal man."
John Geometres or Kyriotes (Ιωάννης Γεωμέτρης ή Κυριώτης) was a Byzantine soldier, monk and poet of the 10th century. Fought under the orders of Nikephoros Phokas, Tzimiskes, and Basil the Bulgar-slayer... See more
In Alexander the Great's "fan club" surely basileus John V Palaiologos (r.1341 to 1391) would have a leading role...
Manuel II Palaiologos, with his unique eloquence and rhetoric skills left us a detailed and many times touching funeral oration on his brother Theodoros, despot of Moreas. In a part of it, Manuel does not... See more
"That wisdom springs from our . and that it blossomed first among us before being transmitted to others . . . is said truly."
Emperor Ioannis III Doukas Vatatzes (b. Didymoteicho - 1193 AD) was not the first basileus that had to deal with Western claims on the Roman imperial idea, but a letter from Pope Gregory IX in... See more
It is said that when Pausanias came to him and complained of his treatment, Alexander answered him by quoting the line from the Medea of Euripides, in which she declares that she will be revenged upon “The guardian, and the bridegroom, and the bride,” alluding to Attalus, Philip, and Kleopatra.
Plutarch • Parallel Lives: Complete
This is the letter written by the Roman Emperor John VII to the English King Henry IV to ask him for assistance against the Turks in which he praises English troops for their aid in defending the city
Translated into English for (I think) the first time by @Polyhistor13 https://t.co/4sD0BIHqSQ
She accompanied the Emperor on most of his campaigns despite fourteen pregnancies over a period of nineteen years.
Anne Davison • THE MUGHAL EMPIRE ('In Brief' Books for Busy People Book 7)
That's how a basileus Laskaris deals with a Seljuk sultan...'Take this man!' - "λάβετε τουτονί!"
The city of Antioch-on-Maeander found itself under siege by the Seljuk army, led by their sultan Kay-Khusraw I, in June 1211.
Theodore I Komnenos Laskaris had no alternative but to engage in... See more
Αστείες δικαιολογίες για την 4η Σταυροφορία: "Μα οι Βυζαντινοί έσφαξαν τους Λατίνους εμπόρους το 1182".
Ναι, διότι ο Βενετός δόγης Ερρίκος Δάνδολος επιτέθηκε στο Βυζάντιο για να εκδικηθεί τον θάνατο των... Γενοβέζοι εμπόρων, των χειρότερων εχθρών του; https://t.co/ygFmaBiuRS