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naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   2940 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 6, 2022

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Thanks. Not sure how I keep forgetting that exists.

At this point, most readers will have lost patience. With those whose curiosity surpasses their skepticism...

Someone's channeling his inner Moldbug.

we shall now argue that Imperial Rome is actually, for a large part, a fictitious mirror image of Constantinople, a fantasy that started emerging in the eleventh century in the context of the cultural war waged by the papacy against the Byzantine empire, and solidified in the fifteenth century, in the context of the plunder of Byzantine culture that is known as the Renaissance.

Ah.

Overall, I was not terribly impressed with the article. The author is correct to note that historical sources are rife with opportunities for fakery or, at least, a game of telephone. He then fails to apply that skepticism to his own pet theory. Perhaps that is a moot point, since he prefers citing the absence of evidence rather than evidence of absence.

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