>>"There exists another history, more absurd [ridicule] than the history of Rome since the time of Tacitus: it is the history of Byzantium. This worthless collection contains nothing but declamations and miracles. It is a disgrace to the human mind."
he can't keep getting away with this
>>1204384
Fucking hell Voltaire. Say about the Heretical Germanic Confederation what you will but don't touch the true Romans.
>>1204973
Justinian, for all the praise he gets for conquering shit, basically destroyed what made the Roman Empire great. The Roman Empire allowed the philosophies of the Greeks to spread across Europe and influence it. The Byzantines maintained the old Greek philosophy, until this guy decided to shut down the big revival movement for the philosophy by ending the Neoplatonic Academy. The philosophical ideas of the time period only returned to Europe when Islamic texts were translated, and a lot of those texts were made in Persia in the first place because of this movement.
Of that Byzantine empire, the universal verdict of history is that it constitutes, without a single exception, the most thoroughly base and despicable form that civilization has yet assumed. There has been no other enduring civilization so absolutely destitute of all forms and elements of greatness, and none to which the epithet "mean" may be so emphatically applied...The history of the empire is a monotonous story of the intrigues of priests, eunuchs, and women, of poisonings, of conspiracies, of uniform ingratitude.
>>1204992
Not to mention that his "conquest" of Italy only resulted in a devastated Italian peninsula who would soon fall back into the hands of barbarians once he realized he couldn't afford keeping it under control.
Western Rome truly died with the Gothic wars I'd say.
>>1205006
>Of that Byzantine empire, the universal verdict of history is that it constitutes, without a single exception, the most thoroughly base and despicable form that civilization has yet assumed.
Care to elaborate?
>>1204384
is it even possible to read this smuglord's version of history in English? The >HRE quote is plastered all over the Internet, but never the rest of the essay in a language spoken by actual historians
>>1204992
You're conflating the spread of Mediterranean-Hellenistic culture across Europe with what made Rome great, when in fact it was a consequence of Rome's greatness. The key to Rome being great was the ability of aristocrats in Rome to raise big, well-supplied, and well-drilled armies and kick the shit out of barbarians until they agreed to pay taxes forever. When aristocrats outside of Rome began to be able to do this too, Rome itself began to recede from prominence, but the imperial system it had fostered persisted. When aristocrats entirely outside the imperial system began to be able to do this, however, the imperial system began to contract and fragment until it withered away in most of western Europe and was no longer pre-eminent compared to the successor states of the western empire. But this wasn't Justinian's fault so much as the fault of Phocas, the Sassanids, and the Arabs.
>>1205078
I think Rome's ability to conquer barbarians and make states and such was fantastic, and I'm glad such an idea was maintained even among germanic kingdoms.
But the thing is, such ideas were mastered everywhere gradually. Persian empires ruled over fairly large areas too, and they were not schooled by Romans on how to do it. If anything, give some credit to the Achaemenid Empire for that.
The ideas spread throughout the Roman Empire is really what made it so great, It had the cultural effect of Alexander's empire, except since it didn't fracture apart the effect was prolonged over a long period of time. The ability to conquer and maintain a large area just happened to facilitate that.
>>1204973
>Justinian
>Great
He basically went full retard and tried conquering lands while expanding the boarders to the point where they were undefendable.What made the byzantine empire last for so long was their policy of defending what land they already had when the empire split, and bribing barabrians/foes to persuade them from not attacking, while introducing the theme system,which proved vital for maintaining their boarders.
When Justinian died he left an empire with empty coffers and a fuckhuge boarder that it couldn't possible defend.
>>1204384
>2016
>listening to an antisemite
bad goy, bad bad goy!
