I was tought history of communists so plebeian were always depicted as oppressed. Well. “So, repeat after me: the patrician/plebeian distinction is not particularly meaningful in the Middle Republic. There are rich plebeian families in the Middle Republic who are… Read More »Collections: How to Roman Republic 101, Part I: SPQR
In 21st century we are back to roman camps. “I don’t know that US Army planners aimed to reconstruct a modernized version of the Roman playing-card fort, but the concerns of force protection for an army on the move (and… Read More »Collections: Fortification, Part V: The Age of Industrial Firepower
Gunpowder helped state formation in Europe. “The impacts of the sudden apparent obsolescence of European castles were considerable. The period from 1450 to 1550 sees a remarkable degree of state-consolidation in Europe (broadly construed) castles, and the power they gave… Read More »Collections: Fortification, Part IV: French Guns and Italian Lines
Castles are just fortified houses. “In short, home defenses respond to local conditions aiming not for absolute security, but for a balance of security and cost: in safe places, home owners ‘consume’ that security by investing less heavily in it,… Read More »Collections: Fortification, Part III: Castling
Battles purpose was to prevent siege. “the battle is, in this equation, a ‘second order’ concern: merely an event which enables (or prohibits) a siege. As we’ll see, sieges are quite unpleasant things, so if a defender can not have… Read More »Collections: Fortification, Part I: The Besieger’s Playbook
Do we even know what religion is? “This difference between a term that refers despite error and one that refers to nothing is the difference between a bad map of a real country and a map of Atlantis. Only the… Read More »The word ‘religion’ resists definition but remains necessary
One of the best TED talks still.
Monarchies last, but dynasties don’t. “Consider the Targaryen dynasty. They lasted 283 years on the Iron Throne, with 17 rules, for an average of 17 years of reign per ruler. That is incredibly implausible, even with fire-breathing dragons. Consider the… Read More »Westeros is Poorly Designed
Systems of justice vary. “the structure of this system is a system of dispute resolution, to which written law was later appended. But the system is designed for dispute resolution, its purpose is to avoid the feud as much if… Read More »Collections: How to Polis 101, Part IIc: The Courts
And many people died building it (as most shit in the history).