These paper, credit, or trust based payment systems had two important advantages. First, gold and silver were heavy and carrying them reduced the volume of goods a merchant could transport. Second, gold and silver were easily stolen during long journeys over dangerous lands.
During a journey a merchant could only transport a limited amount of good while still having enough money to trade. The paper, credit, trust based systems helped fix these problems.
ike Baghdad, medieval monks preserved classical texts like Plato, Virgil, and Cicero.
So much of the information we know about Latin literature came from here and places like Baghdad.
The Maya didn't die out; there are well over six million living in the same region today. They just seem to have changed their way of life, and become much less urban and centralized.
Its incredible to me how they adapted to the rainfall dropping and changed their lifestyle to suit it without having to migrate!
But in 999, King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway threatened to cut Iceland off from the Viking trade routes, so the Icelanders threw their idols over the Godafoss (“Waterfall of the Gods”) and converted.
Im shocked at how quick they were to cut ties with King Olaf after he threatened them.
In August 410, Alaric's forces took the city and looted Rome for three days. Although this did not end the empire, it was a great symbolic defeat.
Its shocking to see how the Huns migration ultimately lead to the looting of Rome.
Constantinople, as it came to be called (it's now Istanbul), also controlled important trade routes and was close to important military rivals such as the Sasanian Empire in Persia.
It was such an important position being close to their enemies and being on trade routes.
the Romans were initially happy to allow their christian subjects to practice their religion and considered their god to be just another of the multitude of divinities worshipped by people in their empire. The christians, however, had inherited the monotheism of the "Old Testament", and some refused to compromise or even pretend to honor Roman gods they considered illegitimate.
This seems like a point of conflict thats going to grow later.
So, while Plato had hated the "mob rule" that had led to the conviction of Socrates, his definition of who might be a member of a "mob" may have been a bit narrow. Plato had been born into an ancient aristocratic Athenian family; ironically one of his ancestors on his mother's side was Solon, who had helped create Athenian "democracy" two centuries earlier.
The definitions were of their "mob rule" based on who perceived it.
y the middle of the 4th century, they had begun migrating westward, displacing other nomads such as the Alans and the Goths; who then moved westward and pushed Germanic tribes into Roman territory.
The Huns through their migration had caused a conflict between the Goths and Rome.
Han Wu (156-87 BCE) was the seventh emperor of the Han dynasty, who ascended the throne at age fourteen and ruled for 54 years. Emperor Wu inherited a land threatened by aggressive neighbors such as the Xiongnu (Huns), but led the empire through its rapidest period of territorial growth.
Im so surprised that Han Wu took over when there was conflict at age 14 and still led them to the best period of growth.
The Silk Road was not a single highway, but a series of overland routes that connected China with the Mediterranean, Europe, and Africa. Although east-west trade had existed since the Bronze Age, Han Wu's conquest of the Xiongnu and reorganization of the economy provided a more stable route as well as products that would be valued in the West.
The Silk Road used to get things like spices from India all the way to England.
Roman concrete, which was able even to set underwater, was so durable that concrete domes such as the 71-foot Temple of Mercury at Baiae, built in the 1st century BCE, are still standing.
Its so shocking how they found that out so long ago but isstill so useful is todays time.
At eighteen, Alexander led cavalry at the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BCE), which cemented Macedonian control over Greec
It shocking to me how at 18 he lead a cavalry and at 20 he took the throne.
a man who is generally considered the first "scientific historian". Thucydides claimed to be impartial and wrote his narrative based on both his own experiences and evidence he had gathered. Unlike his contemporaries and previous historians, he did not attribute actions or motivations to the interference of the gods.
He stayed with the facts of the war and used evidence he had gathered.