New in PJ Media:
There was a book a few years ago entitled “How the Irish Saved Civilization,” explaining how Irish monks preserved ancient manuscripts that became the basis for much of Western thought. To give credit where credit is due, however, it must also be acknowledged that when the classic works of ancient Greek thought that form the basis of Western philosophy, political thought, and even literature had vanished almost completely from Western Europe, they were brought there not just from Ireland, but from a place that many assume had vanished from the earth long before: the Roman Empire.
If schoolchildren today pause from their lessons in Critical Race Theory and gender fantasies to learn anything about history at all, they likely learn that the Roman Empire, which at its height comprised much of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, fell in the year 476 AD, when the Gothic chieftain Odoacer deposed the figurehead child emperor Romulus Augustulus. In fact, however, Odoacer immediately pledged his fealty to the Roman Emperor Zeno in Constantinople.
Two Roman emperors? Yes. Zeno was just as much emperor of the Romans as Romulus. The empire had in the third century been considered too large to be governed by one man, and so two capitals were established, Rome and Constantinople (“New Rome”), with two emperors. The empire centered in Constantinople considered itself, and was thought of by the world, as the Roman Empire just as much as the empire centered in Rome. It only came to be called the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire after it had fallen altogether; throughout its lifetime, its people thought of themselves solely as Romans
That lifetime was a long one. The Roman Empire in Constantinople lasted until 1453, when it finally succumbed to the Islamic jihadis who had been trying to destroy it for nearly eight hundred years. Besides bringing Plato and Socrates and others West, that is a second way in which the Romans (that is, the Byzantines, but if you’re confused on this point, go back and read the previous paragraph again) saved civilization. If they had not stood as a bulwark between Western Europe and Islam for all those centuries, the jihadis would certainly have swept over all of Europe, and the civilization that gave the world ideas that are now widely considered to be universal truths, such as the dignity of the human person, the equality of rights of all people before the law, the freedom of speech and more, would never have arisen.
There is more. Read the rest here. Get Empire of God: How the Byzantines Saved Civilization here.
Rick Olsha says
It proves again that AM ISRAEL CHAI !!!!!
GreekEmpress says
Can’t wait to get this book!
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I finished the chapter on the Arabs, but it was unclear on one thing: where did the Arab invasions begin? From other things that have appeared in the “Did Muhammad exist?” and likely to be there in the next book about Muhammad, it’s clear that Mecca and Medina didn’t exist in the timeframe in question. So where & how exactly did the Arab invasion/revolt start?
My theory is that it started in Damascus. After all, it’s inconceivable that in those days when the only way to travel was using camels, that a ragtag army from Medina would have trounced a Syrian army at Yarmouk. What’s more likely to have happened is the revolt starting in Damascus by some Arab chieftains there, who decided to take advantage of the Perso-Roman war by revolting, and claiming the Byzantine lands for themselves. It’s also that the Umayyads originated in Damascus, not in Medina or Petra or anywhere else, were fresh when they defeated a Byzantine army at Yarmouk, and quickly overran Jordan and Palestine (as the Romans called it). The Byzantines were cut off from Egypt & Carthage, which were next to fall once the Arabs consolidated power in the Levant, while invading Iran
Will post more about other things in the book as I go along. I did find the chapter on Justin and Justinian I fascinating: didn’t realize that they were 2 separate rulers
Nancy. Albert says
As soon as I saw the photograph, the memory of touring the Sophia Hagia sprang up. Most of the Christian art on the walls was destroyed, but not all the way to the top. I surmised that the Muslims were too stupid to have ladders.
Also, those big green circular Islamic symbols are nothing but cloth on plywood, which is an affront to the amazing unprecedented architecture.