Ok you ignorant fucks

Ok you ignorant fucks
I'm a drunk fucking asshole who paid money to learn about history and shit

Ask questions about Rome, Greece, the world or anything.
I spent too much money on this shit. So I'm gonna give it to you for free.

Where did Greek letters come from?

Egypt through Semitic tribes to the Phoenicians to the Greeks

The alphabet, surprisingly, has only been invented a few times.
An alphabet is a series of coded sounds.
Like "A" means "Aaah" in the mouth.
That is actually rare in languages
Like, the Chinese at the same time at written language that had each symbol be word, not a sound
So you had to learn all the words of a language to know what it meant

But with an alphabet, you only had to learn the parts to learn what words it meant

Cool

bump

when was the roman calendar created

Very early.

It's been said a few times that the Romans were "Warrior Lawyers"
And it's true
They loved fighting, but they loved law more.

With law, dates become important.
Like, "Gaius promised be 10 bushels of apples by the last day of September", then the month and date becomes important.

The Romans believed strongly in this shit and they had many days to specify when shit happened.

The 12 Tables were ancient laws. Laws that existed before history. We don't know all the 12 Tables because they have been lost to time.
Some of the surviving tables concerned themselves with how to deal with fruit from trees that grew over another plot of land and had their fruit fall unto that land.
Romans were warrior lawyers.

But the fact remains. The Romans cared a great deal about time. For it affected the law, and they cared even more about that.

Julius Caesar changed the calendar when he had control
He was Pontifex Maximus.
The Pope, in our language

It wasn't perfect. The calendar still wasn't in synch with the Sun's passage.
It would be 1500 years before that happened and we get the modern calendar

But for the Romans, it was good.

I have more to say about time, but the post is running out.

I heard recently any rent from some guy on r9k that women were the actual cause of the fall of the Roman Empire. While I find this ridiculous, is there anything to suggest that Roman culture was breaking down due to a a lack of oversight of their females? At least in terms of what they found to be culturally appropriate?

Feel free to skip this question if it's too esoteric, it just got me thinking the other day

The first written language/civilization was Aramaic, Aramaic people then migrated to Egypt.

There is some truth to this
The British asshole, Gibbon, with his massive swollen balls, place the blame on Christianity
But Christianity was spread by women the poor.
Christianity was the religion of the down trodden
Proper Roman gentlemen had no interest in a religion that said "The poor will be great in death"
Fuck that, I want to be great in life.

But women and slaves who had no chance loved it

Gibbon said that Christianity ruined the Romans. And Christianity was spread by women.
So yeah, that's partially true.

But, in my opinion, it's a half-truth.
Christianity did take hold and it did ruin any chance at a true republic. Christianity destroyed fully the idea of a Greek style republic, but I don't think it destroyed the Empire

The few women that had power, the Julias around the Severine times and just before the Crisis of the 3rd Century, they did OK.

Honestly, if you look at Roman history, you learn that women are as smart and as conniving as men.
Even society doesn't support them, they find a way.

It's like how the Nazis described Jews.
They always find a way

bumpin

Why can't we make concrete like the Romans?

Interesting. Cant really blame em, Christ was the new hotness, with his beard and talk of saving the prostitutes. Total chad in those lost 18 years

We can.
Far past like they could

Modern concrete is 10x what the Romans could do

The Romans were brilliant for their time for just basic concrete
But they went beyond for aquatic concrete
They used their volcanic shit to learn how to set concrete underwater
That tech wasn't developed till the 19th century

They did it and that's why they had the aqueducts in Gaul

It's sad that the Empire fell and the civil servants who replaced the algaed up pipe parts were dead

Rome was practically a Renaissance city with it's plumbing

Which type of government would you prefer to be enacted in today's world with your historical knowledge?

He was a Chad
He was saying "All your poor women and slaves, you can be happy forever in my religion"
Who wants to worship Zeus and all the apotheosistic Emperors if you're just gonna end up being a slave?

Jesus was ye olde Bernie Sanders

Could I get a rundown of the crusades?

Make it a quick rundown

The Greeks said that the Roman government was perfect
You had the people elect officials and the officials made decisions for them
The Greeks thought that it was a prefect mix between true democracy and monarchy.

The people in the know get elevated.

But they were wrong. It was either the elite giving one of their own to power, or a demagogue getting the ignorant masses to elevate them

I didn't study the Crusades much
But from my understanding it was pretty much a fusion of religious fervour and population expansion
Better send them off to die in the Holy Land

The later Crusades, particularly the ones organized by Venice were about power.
Why did Venice sack Constantinople? Because they were a competing power

It's all about the dollar yo
Even the poor Crusades
It's about making sure the serfs don't have enough power to overtake the lords

Huh, okay then. Thanks OP.

There is a popular saying about how "Past is prologue"

And it's true
You look at how people in the past did things, and you can see how people now do things

Think about it.
Maybe war isn't about defeating enemies
Maybe it's about securing financial shit

bump

Whatever nigger doing the bump, I thank you

Ask something, will you though

Would you like to comment on current events and whether they have historic parallels? I mean things like state of politics in the US, various wars around the world, rise of rival great powers, mass migrations, etc. Any predictions?

bump

This is a common question
Like >OMG is Trump literally Julius Caesar?

No, he's not. He's not even Marius. He's not even a Gracchus brother

But there still is parallels

Like the big thing in the Roman republic is that slaves from the Greek wars destroyed the native Italian farmers.

Does that sound familiar? Cheap foreign labour overtaking home workers?

Yeah, it does

The elder Gracchus apparently took a trip through Italy and saw empty field after empty field
And when he came home he was all about changing.
The Senate killed him for it

It's not Trump who is a Roman replacement. It's Bernie Sanders.

Right now, the people want a change. They want prosperity.
They elected Trump to do it

Guess what? He won't
He can't

There will be a comeuppance sooner rather than later for that type of promises.

If I were to compare, I'd say that we're in the Gracchi era.
Far before Marius and Sulla, farther before Caesar and Pompey

But we're still at that time
When the common people are afraid and worried and taken out of their jobs by cheap labour

Trump is a shit Gracchus.
The Senate (i.e. the powers that be) killed that real Gracchus for his intervention in the way things are.
That type thing will happen

The Roman Republic fell because the common person needed more and the Populares gave it to them
Trump tried to use that power and he won, for now
But in time, it will turn against him
That power remains
And it scares the fuck out of me how it will be used post-Trump

Anything on Italians and fascism?

Modern Italian fascism was a joke
It was Il Duce using the need of the people for his own goals
And while Hitler was less than an optimal ruler (i.e. betraying Russia and trying to invade them while dealing with England/America)
Mussolini was even more retarded

The bottom line is that people like strong rulers
That's no surprise
The Italians wanted a leader. Ein Fuhrer for their future. It was a good thought. They were tired of Europe's dismissal.

But you need results
Mussolini didn't deliver
He abused the people's need for his own progression.