Recent content by MrGreyOwl

What's the situation of Dal Riata precisely? I'm surprised they still exist so long after losing their 'core' land in Argyle. What's their legitimacy now, and who are their partisans? And what the local Irish think of all of this?

My bet is that Rome would return to a Triumvirate/Quadrumvirate thing. Maybe they'll even made it official by having the number of Consuls increased to three or four, and lengthening the mandate. (Or not. The Roman elite could be harshly conservative at the time) However, it could lead to a...

Sorry everyone for this long, unplanned hiatus. Starting a new job, moving places, and some side projects ate all my free time in the last two months. I plan to resume soon, probably end of this month.

That's pretty much what happened to Japan. China made some serious efforts to modernise after the Opium War, but it has been hampered by the high degree of corruption of the Qing state. But I agree on Persia.

I couldn't say it better! Genghis Khan and his heirs radically changed history on three different continents, you can get more far reaching that.

If you're talking about ol' JC, let's recap how much history has deviated before his birth: -The Romans have lost control of the Near-East 30 years ago. -The Kingdom of Judea still exists, under the Hasmondean dynasty. -It's a protectorate of the Parthian empire. If Christianism is not...

It was already quite frequent, now it's going to see an increase in volume.

Part XVII: On Foreign Shores (Hibernia, 3 CE – 10 CE) From a mighty seed, two trees can grow. – Serra of Alesia Sitting at the edge of Europe, Hibernia had been settled since the stone age, but kept receiving newcomers. At the time of Carantia’s arrival, some of the local tribes were very...

Unless fighting with ranged weapons, the strength of a cavalryman is his momentum. Let's say you charge at an infantry regiment (an unprepared or distracted one, because charging at a compact square of spears is a death sentence). At the start, yes you're unstoppable, you're going to trample and...

Part XVI: The Heirs (Gaul, 2 BCE – 15 CE) No one knows what he can do until he tries. – Publius Syrus In all of history, the death of a hegemonic and undisputed leader is always a problem for the successor. He leaves behind boots too big to fill, and a bar set high, too high sometime to...

"Traditional" pagan religions lacked the structure and organization to spread outside their home culture. Most even lacked the concept of conversion. But a reformed pagan systems borrowing influences and philosophies from a defeated Christianism and/or Zoroastrianism may succeed: Mithraism, Sol...

Interlude 2: Gaul at the death of Vercingetorix The Arverni control has extended in the South with the subjugation of Aquitania and the acquisition of Volcaes territories. In the North, the Armorican confederation went defunct: with the slow decline of the Aulerci and no strong leadership...

Trieste. It was independent under UN mandate for 7 few years. Kurdistan. Trebizond. Quebec. And because I've a thing for island nations: Corsica, Sardinia (Corsica-Sardinia union?) Sicily, Crete, Okinawa, Hawaii

You can't compare ships built in the mid 19th Century to a monument from 400. Metallurgy and metal treatment had progressed a lot in the meantime. And the reason those ships are still around is more careful maintenance rather than the innate properties of their hulls.

I agree with others that the Antikythera mechanism could have been the vanguard of mechanical clocks and calculators, although you would need to preserve the knowledge that led to its creation rather than the object itself. Flexible Glass is bollocks. Even ancient authors agree to that. And for...