91–94 of 94 posts
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I do find it curious that not that much science came out of the Byzantine empire- Yes there was some, but (with my admittedly limited knowledge) it does seem to pale in comparison to the earlier stuff from Greece, Rome or even the Arab Caliphates with their scholars in Mathematics and Physics. It seems like it was intellectual, but didn't have a proportional output of science or art that has stood the test of time. F…
Well, Christianity is a big reason. It was so successful for so long in part because it aggressively repressed any ideologies which could have threatened its hegemony. Since the Church considered the ’scientific’ domain to be part of its curriculum, new science was generally a threat.
Constantinople had a reputation for having constant theological debates; writers mentioned how common townsfolk were debating the nature of Christ, etc.
Historically, looking back at them we see "unenlightened" folk -- perhaps the way future people, the ones who survive WW4, will look back at us and our debates about race and gender -- but at the time they were wildly well educated and highly versed in religion, politics, and philosophy.
And they did have science -- we have yet to fully understand Greek fire. Innovations in armor and horse breeding created the Cataphracts, based on Eurasian horsemen that the Byzantines routinely clashed with.
And, as the article points out, they smuggled silk and created a new industry from scratch. We scorn them for not being as advanced as we are 1000 years later but for a while Constantinople was, to quote Napoleon, "the city of the world's desire".
Byzantine history is so important to understand the modern world. It gives us the context for the orthodox/west divide; it gives us an example of a economic and intellectual superpower needing to live with the realities of barbarian neighbors, and being destroyed! It shows us great statecraft lasting a thousand years. It even shows us why generals and senior civil servants were eunuchs and how the next best thing was…
The author of this book was a guest on the History of Byzantium podcast. It's a great listen that picks up where the History of Rome left off.
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> It even shows us why generals and senior civil servants were eunuchs That was the case for "only" around a third to a half of the empire's existence. But by the 1000 ADs appointing eunuchs to high posts fell out of fashion with emperors appointing family members or leading in the field directly (unlike in Justinians day when emperors spent almost their entire reign being cloistered in the palace). Somewhere between…
In some sense, the final sack by the Ottomans imposed a certain modicum of order and peace to the Polis. And that's saying something.