Recent content by Skokie

Of course! It's a value judgment. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely adore Christian/Byzantine art. I love all the great art styles from history, on a fundamental level. But I often wonder if, given the knowledge and exposure to classical technique, they wouldn't have used perspective and a...

They needed to have a "renaissance," though, after the crisis of the 3rd century, when Greco-Roman art became more simplistic and stylized. I heard once that this could be blamed on a whole generation of artisans who died or gave up their craft in the civil wars/economic depression without...

They did. It's just that few survived. They had a mastery of naturalism and perspective very similar to the Renaissance. Here are some examples.

I think Zoroastrianism was one of the first "revisionist" religion that literally demonized an existing pantheon. The deva become "devils," gods to be rejected, not paid worship, and regarded as evil. A similar thing happened later with Christianity. The old gods of the Mediterranean and...

Colombia is still a très regionalist country. Were it not for advances in transportation and telecommunications, it could easily have become several republics. You could slice it up many ways. –The Pacific region of the country (el Chocó) could have been a freed black/brown republic, like...

I favor Canada as part of the US. :) Anyone have any links to maps showing that?

But It was popular. Epicureanism was one of the four major philosophy schools in the classical world. They taught atomism.

Have the Moors conquer Western and Central Europe? The Catholics can exist as refugees in Byzantium.

The closest thing I can think of is Iconoclasm. Praise Minerva, they lost.

Well I doubt they'd gain entry in significant numbers--certainly not all the ones who would go on to found PA. Perhaps "PA" is founded in NY or Maryland or something.

What happens to the Quakers? Delaware is the gateway to PA.

How so? The bloody Greeks were called Romans until like last Tuesday. Well, they did it once. So there.

I wonder if Rome could have recovered and then attained the stability and cultural cohesion of a China, that all of Europe and much of the Med could be simply have been known as "Rome" or "Romania" or something.

A penchant for tea and curry instead of couscous and tagines?

Divine Providence was on the side of Union.