#look up the parthians :)

[falconfate]

Hello ranger’s apprentice fandom can we talk real quick about the stupidest thing Flanagan ever wrote

It’s about the bows. Yanno, the rangers’ Iconique™️ main weapon. That one. You know the one.

Flanagan. Flanagan why are your rangers using longbows.

“uh well recurve arrows drop faster” BUT DO THEY. FLANAGAN. DO THEY.

the answer is no they don’t. Compared to a MODERN, COMPOUND (aka cheating) bow, yes, but compared to a longbow? Y’know, what the rangers use in canon? Yeah no a recurve actually has a FLATTER trajectory. It drops LATER.

This from an article comparing the two:

“Both a longbow and a recurve bow, when equipped with the right arrow and broadhead combination, are capable of taking down big game animals. Afterall, hunters have been doing it for centuries with both types of bows.

However, generally speaking and all things equal, a recurve bow will offer more arrow speed, creating a flatter flight trajectory and retain more kinetic energy at impact.

The archers draw length, along with the weight of the arrow also affect speed and kinetic energy. However, the curved design of the limbs on a recurve adds to its output of force.”

It doesn’t actually mention ANY distance in range! And this is from a resource for bow hunting, which, presumably, WOULD CARE ABOUT THAT SORT OF THING!

Okay so that’s just. That’s just the first thing.

The MAIN thing is that even accounting for “hur dur recurves drop faster” LONGBOWS ARE STILL THE STUPID OPTION.

Longbows, particularly and especially ENGLISH longbows, are—as their name suggests—very long. English longbows in particular are often as tall or taller than their wielder even while strung, but especially when unstrung. An unstrung longbow is a very long and expensive stick, one that will GLADLY entangle itself in nearby trees, other people’s clothes, and any doorway you’re passing through.

And yes, there are shorter longbows, but at that point if you’re shortening your longbow, just get a goddamn recurve. And Flanagan makes a point to compare his rangers’ bows to the Very Long English Longbow.

Oh, do you know how the Very Long English Longbow was mostly historically militarily used? BY ON-FOOT ARCHER UNITS. Do you know what they’re TERRIBLE for? MOUNTED ARCHERY.

Trust me. Go look up right now “mounted archery longbow.” You’ll find MAYBE one or two pictures of some guy on a horse struggling with a big stick; mostly you will actually see either mounted archers with RECURVES, or comparisons of Roman longbow archers to Mongolian horse archers (which are neat, can’t lie, I love comparing archery styles like that).

Anyway. Why are longbows terrible for mounted archery? Because they’re so damn long. Think about it: imagine you’re on a horse. You’re straddling a beast that can think for itself and moves at your command, but ultimately independently of you; if you’re both well-trained enough, you’re barely paying attention to your horse except to give it commands. And you have a bow in your hands. If your target is close enough to you that you know, from years of shooting experience, you will need to actually angle your bow down to hit it because of your equine height advantage, guess what? If you have a longbow, YOU CAN’T! YOUR HORSE IS IN THE WAY BECAUSE YOUR BOW IS TOO LONG! Worse, it’s probably going to get in the general area of your horse’s shoulder or legs, aka moving parts, which WILL injure your horse AND your bow and leave you fresh out of both a getaway vehicle and a ranged weapon. It’s stupid. Don’t do it.

A recurve, on the other hand, is short. It was literally made for horse archers. You have SO much range of motion with a recurve on horseback; and if you’re REALLY good, you know how to give yourself even more, with techniques like Jamarkee, a Turkish technique where you LITERALLY CAN AIM BACKWARDS.

For your viewing enjoyment, Serena Lynn of Texas demonstrating Jamarkee:

Yes, that’s real! This type of draw style is INCREDIBLY versatile: you can shoot backwards on horseback, straight down from a parapet or sally port without exposing yourself as a target, or from low to the ground to keep stealthy without banging your bow against the ground. And, while I’m sure you could attempt it with a longbow, I wouldn’t recommend it: a recurve’s smaller size makes it far more maneuverable up and over your head to actually get it into position for a Jamarkee shot.

A recurve just makes so much more SENSE. It’s not a baby bow! It’s not the longbow’s lesser cousin! It’s a COMPLETELY different instrument made to be used in a completely different context! For the rangers of Araluen, who put soooo much stock in being stealthy and their strong bonds with their horses, a recurve is the perfect fit! It’s small and easily transportable, it’s more maneuverable in combat and especially on horseback, it offers more power than a longbow of the same draw weight—really, truly, the only advantage in this case that a longbow has over the recurve is that longbows are quicker and easier to make. But we KNOW the rangers don’t care about that, their KNIVES use a forging technique (folding) that takes several times as long as standard Araluen forging practices at the time!

Okay.

Okay I think I’m done. For now.

#to be VERY clear. I Am Not An Actual Expert. #i AM however drawing from my own experience and research #and literally i can find Zero literature about recurve arrow flights dropping faster than longbows #all i could find was that recurve range is worse compared to compound bows #which. OBVIOUSLY. compound bows CHEAT. #(said lovingly. ish. if you use a compound more power to you but also It’s Doing All The Work For You.) #this article was literally all i could find from a couple hours’ search comparing recurves and longbows #anyway recurves are cool. flanagan why did you do recurves so dirty. #for that matter why are all your women blonde. #(i’m not including brotherband here sorry) #(but also why did it take a spinoff series for him to create a named female character that wasn’t a blonde) #(flanagan explain) #god these books have so many problems. truly this is my ‘i could fix him’ #thank you flanagan for getting me into this special interest. now Tell Me Why You Did It Wrong. #rangers apprentice #anyway if you REALLY want to read about some bangin historical horse archers #look up the parthians :) #specifically how they fucking Decimated an entire roman contingent :) #crassus getting absolutely demolished by mounted archer parthians is definitely my favorite bit of roman trivia

[worldhistoryfacts]

In ancient Parthia, we see elements of ancient Mesopotamian culture like this relief of the god Nergal. Nergal, a god of war and death, was worshipped for thousands of years in the region. He’s still showing up in the first couple of centuries CE in Parthia, on this relief from Hatra, a city in northern Iraq that became an important center of trade and culture under the Parthians:

Nergal came, over time, to be associated with Heracles, who had come to the region with the Greek culture brought by Alexander the Great. You can see Parthian depictions of Heracles here:

{Buy me a coffee} {WHF} {Medium} {Looking Through the Past}

#history #ancient #parthia #persia #greece #mesopotamia #myth

[inversionimpulse]

There used to be an idiom to the effect of "If you want to train a longbowman, start with his grandfather." As I have been told it by the historians I read, training someone to use bow and arrow effectively in a genuine combat situation was nearly impossible. Even Rome gave up on it and just hired archers from elsewhere. It turns out that in order to be an effective combat archer, you basically have to spend you entire life doing it in a way as integral to your life as eating and breathing. Places that don't have a longstanding tradition of hunting with bow and arrow don't produce combat archers.

This goes ten more times over for horseback archery. At some point or another, much of the planet had horsemanship and archery at the same time. There's a reason that only two or three of those places produced much in the way of horse archers.

So Link's ability to throw out Parthian Shots like it's nothing the second he has access to a bow and a horse (sometimes even without ever having so much as seen a bow or a horse before) is, depending on how you look at it, either very silly or extremely badass.

#legend of zelda #the legend of zelda #loz #ocarina of time #breath of the wild #majora's mask #tears of the kingdom #twilight princess #epona #zelda can do it too in twilight princess which might be even funnier. did the triforce of wisdom download a tutorial into her brain #or can she Just Do That #a queue in the dark beguiles me

[just-late-roman-republic-things]

Hi! This is a what if scenario but I would love to hear your thoughts. Do you think if Tiberius never divorced his first wife, he would live a happier life? Also if one of Julia’s sons were emperor instead?

Honestly, I think any change to the historical Tiberius' life has an 80% chance of improving it. His story is one trauma after another, combined with grief, being stuck with a job he hated, and what looks like depression, anxiety, and/or some sort of neurodivergence. It doesn't surprise me that he tried to retire several times, and I'm impressed that he didn't snap sooner.

Of course, that doesn't justify how many people he hurt when he did lash out. He ended up as a cruel, paranoid, and deeply lonely old man. But he didn't start out that way, and in any other position I think he would've been a better, and happier man.

From one of my previous posts:

Augustus: Good work killing the Germans, your next posting will be - Tiberius: I’d really rather just read books at the library in Rhodes. Augustus: Rhodes? What, are the Parthians plotting to invade again? Tiberius: No, I’m 36 and you’ve been making me fight court cases, corruption and wars since I was 17, you made me divorce the wife I still love and miss, my new wife’s adultery has made me a public laughingstock, I want to retire. Augustus: You know what you need? A new army in Syria. It’ll be great practice for when you’re emperor. Tiberius: How do I make it clearer that I do not like politics??? Augustus: I don’t understand the question.

I don't entirely blame Augustus, either. He does seem to have intended for one of Julia's sons to succeed him, and only settled on Tiberius after every other viable successor died young.* And all his meddling in his relatives' lives was supposed to ensure a stable succession, and prevent another civil war. (And it worked!) He probably thought he was doing what was right for the sake of the Roman people, but it came at a terrible cost.

(*I'm not counting Agrippa Postumus as viable; for whatever reason, Augustus disowned him.)

It's not hard to imagine a slightly luckier world. One where Marcellus succeeded Augustus, or Agrippa had lived longer, so Tiberius never got so burned out and never had to divorce Agrippina. Or where his brother Drusus, or Gaius or Lucius Caesar took over instead. Tiberius would've probably made a fine senior advisor.

But that's not the world he got. The very nature of autocracy put enormous pressure on the Julio-Claudian family and eventually tore them apart. Even for the people at the very top, I think autocracies are cruel and unfair.

#just roman asks #tiberius #octavian #alternate history #jlrrt essays

[brother-emperors]

So do you think Cassius' early experience with having to save who he could and survive Carrhea, hardened him in the same way that young Crassus was ? Is there some sort of constant cycle there ?

absolutely, it’s a whole trial by fire kind of deal, and everything in rome exists in repeating cycles. It’s all a circle, except for when it’s a mouth. and there’s actually a third one I would include in this set! in theory. to complete the narrative tragedy.

Crassus is in his thirties (like, late 20s when the ball gets rolling, but basically he’s in his 30s when things actually get going) when he rises to the occasion, cutting through bodies and paving the way for Sulla’s victories. This sets the stage for the next generation’s politics, the generation Cassius is a part of. It’s Sulla. Sulla haunts everything.

Cassius is most likely in his thirties, or enters into his thirties during Crassus’ Parthian invasion, and much like Crassus had to rise to the occasion against some pretty gnarly odds (in places), Cassius also had to rise to the occasion with even worse odds than Crassus ever had (talk about a narrative inheiritance! the book closes on Crassus and immediately looks to you to fill the space his body left), and pulled off several strategic miracles. Congrats on surviving the trial!

So

Carrhae is a traumatic disaster for Rome that haunts the subtext in a specific thread of expansionist Roman policy making, but more immediately, it fucks up the balance of power in Rome: Pompey and Caesar spin out into Civil War, Caesar stands triumphant. The dominoes continue to fall, Caesar is assassinated. Lucan’s focus on Crassus in his Pharsalia sort of nails Carrhae down as an event that has a definable Before/After in collective memory. etc.

This Sets The Stage For The Next Generation Of Roman Politics

Now, here’s the secret third one: Octavian is in his thirties when the culmination of his dynast war with Antony finally hits the climax at Actium, and this will set the stage for—

#This is actually half the reason the Cassius comic is going to be the sequel to Trikaranos #If I really wanted to commit to the theme there would be a third comic about the Octagon himself but I’m not doing that #ask tag #anyway. Cassius as a body substitute for Crassus or something. #I have a whole thing rattling around in my head about when plays cast an actor to play 2 characters #this is like if you had 2 guys playing the same role. or something #I got 3 hours of sleep last night can you tell

[katabay]

I am OBSESSED with Lucky's look. I wonder, what do you think in general about balancing historical Lucullus' known conservatism on the field to his grandiose money-spending when he goes back to Rome?

oh HO now this is a question! I've never been asked about balancing historical accounts, especially since, as a story teller, I'm prone to emphasizing the theatrical. but

hm.

part of me looks to his behavior and thinks it's a case of 'don't you just want to go apeshit?' being away from home for so long is exhausting, and lucullus loved his brother. part of me acknowledges that this is what a driving arm of an imperialist nation looks like: you go, you conquer, you display, only the scale of it feels unique.

I think it's a cage. there's a funny thing that happens with crassus, and it comes in two parts: his catastrophic failure at carrhae is unacceptable to rome. in death, he becomes a failed imperialist, and that signals danger from rome as a whole, so now there's a rush to doom the whole campaign. there are omens, it was bad from the start, doomed, a failure, etc. all in order to cover up, to explain, to write off roman failure.

but in dooming it all before it begins, it also absolves crassus of it by locking him in this room of gold. lucullus' displays of captured wealth from the east is listed as a trap that crassus falls into, that he wouldn't have planned a parthian invasion if it wasn't for lucullus' extravagance, so it's lucullus who damns him (and also crassus' own son)

Now my own opinion is that the harm Lucullus did his country through his influence upon others, was greater than the good he did her himself. For his trophies in Armenia, standing on the borders of Parthia, and Tigranocerta, and Nisibis, and the vast wealth brought to Rome from these cities, and the display in his triumph of the captured diadem of Tigranes, incited Crassus to his attack upon Asia; he thought that the Barbarians were spoil and booty, and nothing else.

Plutarch, Lucullus 36

to pull it off, though, the display of wealth has to match the magnitude of failure, so baby, it better be big, it better be fucking over the top, it better be a fucking spectacle. one narrative has to justify the doomed spectacle of the other.

uh. that's about all I got for trying to balance it out! I think I might have tipped it over into more dramatic territory though.

also if you're still reading, the specific turn of phrase 'failed imperialist,' regarding crassus is something I picked up from this text here, which is SUCH a good read, I'm obsessed with it. I can't stop calling him that, it's so sexy.

A Life in Pieces: Plutarch, Crassus 12.1–16.8, James T. Chulp (in Plutarch's Unexpected Silences)

#10/10 recommend. even if you don't know anything about the romans #i find texts on literary holes and absences to be extremely poetic and this text really delivers on it #ask tag

[yamayuandadu]

who was nergal syncrestised with in hatra? apparently it was the iranic god verethragna but verethragna himself was syncretised with heracles. is it possible that all three deities were syncretised with each other?

First things first, I must admit I've been really enjoying the recent wave of very focused questions. It's actually easier to answer these than vague ones like "why was Inanna important". The worship of Nergal in Hatra is a complex topic because the city arose very late, there's only evidence of settlement from the final centuries of the first millennium BCE. Lucinda Dirven in her study of the matter basically characterized the local Nergal as "a Herakles-figure (...) worshipped in Hatra under the name of Nergal" rather than as outright the same deity Shulgi built a temple for in Kutha. She notes most of the art of the god follows Greco-Roman Heracles iconography, and anything resembling the classic Mesopotamian Nergal is uncommon. Ted Kaizer in his slightly earlier article questioned identifying the Heracles figure with Nergal altogether, though Dirven considers this too extreme. So, in other words, we have a deity who seemingly was called Nergal (multiple inscriptions confirm that directly), had Nergal's traditional roles tied to war, death and punishment, but looked enough like Herakles for this to be a very murky matter. And there are peculiarities which are strictly local, such as the association of dogs which is exclusive to the Parthian period and has no real precedent in Mesopotamia (medicine goddesses were associated with dogs, and Marduk has four attack dogs in his court, but Nergal has nothing like that at any earlier point in time). I think Dirven's "Nergal-Herakles" label is warranted and explains the situation best. Association between Nergal and Heracles was not limited to Hatra, and pops up in a few other cities in Hellenistic times; Heracles was associated with various fully divine foreign figures though, so it should not be surprising (see ex. the case of Sandas from Tarsus as another example) An additional problem is that some of the Herakles figures are actually inscribed with the name Gad, but that's a whole other can of worms, and here this might simply be a designation of the god as the tutelary deity of specific families, not a reference to Gad understood as an independent deity. As for the Iranian side: one of the best attested epithets of "Nergal-Herakles" in Hatra, Dahashpata ("lord of the guards" or "executioner"), seems to originate in an Iranian language. The connection to dogs might be borrowed from an Iranian milieu too, though more from the general perception of these animals as guardians of the dead etc. rather than from their link to a specific figure. I see no reference to Verethragna in Dirven's paper, and Shenkar's Intangible Spirits and Graven Images doesn't mention any connection between him and Nergal either - it just mentions that he was identified with Heracles in Commagene, Mesene and presumably in various locations in Armenia, but that even this was not universal because they're two different deities in Kushan sources which probably reflect a preexisting Iranian tradition. To sum up, I cannot really give you a straightforward answer. The god worshiped in Hatra definitely combined Mesopotamian, Greek and Iranian elements. However, even though Nergal, Heracles and Verethragna definitely show some similarities in terms of character, and Heracles could be viewed as analogous to both of them in different contexts, but I can't find any evidence that they were regarded as a three-way set of equivalents the way, say, Enlil, Dagan and Kumarbi were understood as in in the second millennium BCE. The closest point of connection between Verethragna and Nergal is the fact both of them corresponded to the same planet, as pointed out in Encyclopedia Iranica, but I am unable to find any recent source arguing this was anything like the Tishtrya-Nabu situation. In the light of the recently proven lack of any real connection between Anahita and Ishtar beyond sharing the same planetary symbol I'd be very cautious with similar claims about other supposed pairs.

#mesopotamian miscellanea

[defeateddetectives]

had the year end fic review meme brewing in the drafts and forgot all about it until now so for my own reference and posterity's sake: 2k23 edition (while its still uh january!)

apparently i used to do this every year for a while and then had several years of writerly drought so here's manifesting more words for the years ahead!! as with previous years, using metrics from ao3

Total number of completed stories: 8

Total word count: ~8k or so

Fandoms written in: drrr!! (gasp), project k, jjk, natsume yuujinchou (really truly bar revival 2k23 or die trying!!!!!)

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted? the last few years had totally sapped me creatively so the bar was on the floor. more than expected by that metric even if much less than i had relative to years before that.

What's your own favorite story of the year? kirigami probably! i guess the good thing about doing this a month into the new year is i dont have to mysteriously redact the yuletide reveal anymore :)

Did you take any writing risks this year? i posted drrr!! fic after ages and that wasnt bb gangsters-centric! and tried my hand at jjk characters' voices (posted only a tip of that iceberg) which was ~adventurous even though i still dont rly have a handle on em! birthright was a risk bc it was a total shot in the dark about a dynamic we havent even seen play out yet??? (more matoba siblings lore when, ms. midorikawaaaa)

Do you have any fanfic or ofic goals for the New Year? just telling myself to keep writing, dont overthink it, and remember everything you write will generally sound awkward and clunky after reading it for the 100th time without stepping away

My best story of this year: i never have an objective measure on this so my fave(s) are typically the best to me

My most popular story of this year: parthian shot & saccades are tied at this moment by ao3 kudos science if we're going by that!

Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: nothing stands out over the year

Most fun story to write: a few come to mind. though it was a v tiny memefill, i had a lot of fun with where the hours bend and it came very easily! fun fact: i was in the vicinity of houjicha cheesecake at the time and it subliminally crept into the fic which i only realized much later :')

more beautiful than night was also written amidst a self-indulgent single-sitting whirlwind with so much love and really felt like going back to basics because 2nd person mkiz nonsense is my brain's default state of being apparently <3

kirigami was wildly fun in a very different way like a puzzle i needed to crack and couldnt step away from until i did

Story with the single sexiest moment: mayhaps natori shuuichi ready to throw down at his first appearance in kirgami :D while maybe not what most people would call sexy, the entire dynamic and vibe throughout (anguished repressed bidirectional longing and all) was very sexy To Me!

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: wound up contemplating izaya and celty's absolutely bonkers dynamic via zero sum game in a way i dont think i had before

Hardest story to write: kirigami bc of the mental gymnastics of remixing that original vol 28 canon arc that is an absolute masterpiece in storytelling in its own right. i was very intimidated about doing it justice and as a gift-fic as well! the months leading up to yuletide were also bananas overall so, all things considered, it's a miracle that it came through on time!!

parthian shot also comes to mind bc the current canonverse exorcists dynamic, as delicious as it is, feels so frail and tenuous and i find myself wanting to handle it with the utmost care and respect when trying to show it

Biggest Disappointment: the stories i invested a lot in, i wound up fairly happy with! [endless number of ancient wips glare at me in disappointment]

Biggest Surprise: bar revival 2k23 in its entirety tbh :') also probably the extent to which i fell into jjk/stsg hell but i guess you cant really tell from the finished works for better or worse!!!

#memetime #for reference #year end fic review

[vahvah]

Well, I think the situation around the perception of iranian history and greek history in fandom is quite similar.

Let's be honest, for most people there is only Ancient Greece (by which they mean the history of the classical greek city-states + hellenistic period + roman period, we are not particularly touching on the dark ages and bronze age Mycenaean Greece, not to mention earlier times), which they - following the manga/anime canon - separate from modern Greece. And there is modern Greece, which, in general, began its independent existence in the first half of the nineteenth century, when a small piece of territory in the southern Balkans gained independence and was called “Hellas”. At best, they have ottoman rule as a kind of “preparatory period” when the canonical Iraklis grew up, did not understand anything and did not really decide anything. And at the same time, modern Greece is the son of Ancient Greece, who loves to be nostalgic about his cool mother, who did something great there more than two thousand years ago. Cool, yeah.

Likewise, for most people there is "ancient Persia" (before the conquest of the Islamic Caliphate in the 7th and 8th centuries AD) and "modern Iran", which they count from the Islamization of the Iranian plateau. In the manga canon, we have a character called "Persia", who people unthinkingly identify with the Achaemenid state, the Parthian Arsacid state, and the Sassanid state. In fanon, he (“Persia”) actively interacts (at war) with Rome, interacts with China and India in much rarer cases, and the mangaka also mentioned that he has descendants, one of which is “modern” Iran, yes. And, of course, there is an incredible amount of time devoted to the Achaemenid period (but not the greco-persian Wars, which shocked me when researching the fandom). Cool, yeah.

But you know what's surprising? None of this makes any sense.

If we take Greece... no, we take greek culture, we will understand that it has continuously developed, without gaps, from the time of the classical polis until the present moment, BUT, if you really want to find a watershed, then this is late antiquity. Why? Because in late antiquity, the pagan hellenes, living in their separate city-states as citizens, became christian rhomeans, subjects of the vast Eastern Roman Empire (which in fact is still perceived as a Republic). The roman "imperial" identity replaced the greek polis identity - although the greek language still dominated in the East, especially after the Avar conquest of the Balkans, when the Empire lost the latin-speaking provinces. The perception of “hellenic” identity was very complex, it experienced a revival, especially in the 13th century, when the roman/latin identity began to be associated with the germans/italians/franks, enemies of the Eastern Empire, but this is if we are talking about intellectuals - the people considered themselves rhomeans. And guess what? The conquest of Constantinople in 1453 did not change anything! There was no break or fracture! The Church of Constantinople continued to be the guardian of this identity even in the absence of christian imperial power! And the people who started the Greek Revolution in the 19th century did not strive to create a small national state, no, in their eyes ALL of Anatolia and the Balkans were the historical lands of the Eastern Roman Empire, which they considered their country. The fascination with ancient pagan Greece is something that was brought from the West, which despised “Byzantium”.

And if you look at Iran, the real boundary between "ancient" and "modern" history is the conquest of Alexander the Great. Because - this will amaze many - but until the second half of the 19th century in Iran itself they knew nothing about the ancient history of the country! The first historical event preserved in chronicles and art, say, the "Shahnameh" of Ferdowsi, is the conquest of Alexander, which has nothing to do with the real one (I will only say that Alexander is considered a descendant of the iranian royal dynasty there). In Iran, they knew almost nothing about the greco-persian wars, about the Seleucids, about the parthian Arsacids and the roman-parthian wars! The real history in Iranian perception began only with the Sassanids, who were at enmity with “Rum” - but, first of all, not with Western, decrepit Rome, but with Eastern Rome! It was “Byzantium” that was “Rome” for the Iranians and for the entire Middle East until the 19th century, while the Western “latins” were the “franks”. Moreover, I want to note that the complete forgetting of the history of the country before Alexander in Iran began even under the Sassanids - largely because ancient persian was a cuneiform language, and cuneiform was forgotten (as for the iranian epic, its oldest part is eastern iranian in origin, western iranian, persian, it becomes only from the time of Ardashir the First). But the arab conquest and adoption of islam did not have such consequences! And when the revival of iranian culture and the new persian language began in the 9th-10th centuries A.D., it was a revival, albeit rethought, of Sassanian identity.

In short, while it makes sense to separate Ancient Greece from "Byzantium", it makes no sense to separate "Byzantium" from modern Greece. And the history of modern Iran begins with the Sassanids, not Islamization.

#hetalia meta #hetalia #aph #hws #aph greece #hws greece #aph byzantine empire #hws byzantine empire #aph persia #hws persia #aph iran #hws iran

[senzacaponecoda]

tempted to make a clang that's like

Parthia hosting a row of embassies between the Chinese and Roman empires. For whatever reason the Chinese and Roman families mix and a mix of 1st century Latin, late Old Chinese/Early Middle Chinese, and late Parthian

Syntax would be SVO

Cultures would supply vocabulary appropriate to their source, e.g. ? < *sɨ for silk from MC, or slɨ from OC; ? < *ɔɫeʊ̃ˑfor olive oil from Latin, ? < something like *muɾɣ for chicken from Parthian

Political and work related vocabulary might lean IE while household vocabulary might lean Sinitic if just to provide a semantic guideline for vocabulary. Initially the populations would be trilingual but overtime the pidgin would pick up Parthian phonetics, filling out a lot of the common vocabulary, and I guess I'm just imagining that the Romans and the Parthians would already have something of a common diplomatic pidgin to work out of due to Graeco-Persian relations and Sinitic is left out of that, but, idk, maybe the diplomats have a lot of daughters to marry off.

Phonology like

p t tS k <p t č k>

b d dZ g <b d j g>

f s S x <f s š x>

z Z R <z ž ǧ>

m n J N <m n ny ng>

w l j r <v l y r>

i ɨ u <i ë u>

e ə o <e ä o>

a <a>

Length matters, somewhat controlled by syllable weight though.

Stress would to land on the last syllable.

consonant clusters would be simplified by epenthesis. Syllables want to be CV > VC, CVC > CVV >>> others, basically. Whether to infix or prefix the epenthetic vowel would be according to sonority; əndar <ntar but tərē < trej

A glottal stop would be semi-phonemic, starting V initial words and responsible for seemingly short final syllables, mostly from Xan.

Latīnə short non-low vowels would generally be represented by the central vowels due to mismatches.

Morphology generally Parthian

Nouns would only show inflection in the plural. The developing split ergativity of Middle Persian and Parthian would be suppressed for SVO, but -ān still only being an oblique plural lends towards generalizing a long vowel nominative from Latin. Though the Latin by this point is already pretty fairly leveled case-wise, so it might actually just come from an accusative. Final s from Latin would generally be lost, which would imply a merger of neuter and feminine nouns, so generalized from -ā, which has the benefit of looking like the oblique plural -ān inherited from Persian.

Verbs would be leveled to just a stem, which functions as a participle, and an infinitive, the stem suffixed in an. These would be combined periphrastically with forms of budan and estadan for passive, past, and perfective stems.

The four short romans took the women as wives

pay? čahār twanC rōmānōs capere pay? zan čīyōn uxores

pe čahār tuan rōmānōh kap pe zan čīğōn ɨksəre

Pe čahār-ā tuan-ā rōmān-ā kap ašt pe zanān čē-ğōn ëksär-ān

the women had been taken

Pe zanā kap eštad bud ašt

DEF woman-PL take PERF PASS PAST

I am taking it/will take the silk

Ängō kapan pe sëlū.

idk

#conlang

[teatitty]

Known places in Magi and what they’re based on because I have no life and I’m bored as fuck

Aktia: No official basis is given for this country but Sinbad does state it’s known for it’s pearls so possibly it could be Bahrain, an island country in the Persian Gulf, which is famous for its pearling industry

Artemyra: Ancient Greece. The clothing and jewellery is the biggest giveaway but this is also a kingdom known for its warrior women, like the amazonians, and the word “Artemyra” itself probably comes from “Artemis”

Balbadd: India and the one I’ve talked about the most. Everything in Balbadd from the architecture to the attire to the trade and fishing is based on India’s culture and Balbadd in canon is noted for being a very imported trade area and for being unique in how multicultural it is

Heliohapt: Probably the most obvious of the series outside of Reim, this is Ancient Egypt. There’s absolutely no way you could mistake this for anything else they literally have a big ass pyramid with an eye of horus on it lmao

Imuchakk: While it’s never been officially stated, comparisons have been made between the Imuchakk and Shaman King’s portrayal of the Ainu, from the naming schemes to the clothing and affiliation to the cold

Kina: Ancient Japan. It’s located to the east of Kou, their current king is called Yamato Takeruhiko, who has a tattoo of an oni on his back, uses a katana, wears japanese armour etc

Kou: Imperial China! The royal family of Kou is literally called the Imperial Family, the naming schemes are all Chinese, absolutely everything about this place screams China if I tried to list everything we’d be here forever

Magnostadt: Unknown. Magnostadt’s name is a combination of latin (magnus) and german (stadt) but previously the kingdom was called Musta’sim, which is arabic. The term “goi” is also used for people who are non-magicians which is, ya know, very obviously meant to be the jewish “goy” [and yes in the actual magnostadt arc this is INCREDIBLY problematic given the villain of the arc is designed to have a big nose and warts all over his face etc but we won’t get into that] so it’s. Ehhhh kinda hard to pinpoint this one. It’s a mishmash of things

Parthevia: Ancient Persia! The name of this country comes from the persian “parthava” which means “parthian” as in “Parthian Empire.” This is where Sinbad, Ja’far and Drakon are from

Reim: Rome. This place is literally introduced as having a huge coliseum and being known for its gladiators, and their founder was Remus. Can’t get more obvious than that

Sasan: This is another weird one because while most of the citizens have Greek names [Spartos, Darius etc] the place itself is based on the Sasanian Empire, which was the longest lived persian-imperial dynasty, and the empire itself was named after the House of Sasan. I genuinely had to look this one up because I thought for sure it was straight Greece based on the names but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sindria: Indian Subcontinent and various others. This place is incredibly multicultural but in short: sindria derives from the sanskrit “sindhu” which is a name for the indus river, physically the country looks like the greek island of Nisyros, the palace of Sindria is loosely based on the Süleymaniye Mosque in Turkey and they have a festival called Mahrajan after King Mahrajan, a character in Sinbad the Sailor from 1001 Nights

#magi: the labyrinth of magic

[queenie-arts]

After the horrendous design of the dendro archon was leaked, it was only a matter of time until I took things into my own hands and redesigned her. Left is my design, right is whatever monstrosity mihoyo made.

I decided to go ahead and not make her an adult, because so many amazing artists have already done that for her. Instead I wanted to keep her the same age while making a design that's not. Western fairy child. 

 If you take offence at the fact that I redesigned her or am “disrespecting” the original, See Yourself Out.

Design notes under the cut because I have a mini essay here

Kusanali’s name (via leakers), “Nahida'' is likely derived from “Nahid”, a derivative from the Zoroastrian goddess Anahita. However, the title “Kusanali” itself is of buddhist origin, from the Jataka Tales specifically. Keeping both these names in mind, I wanted to make a design that referenced both Anahita and the Buddhist influence on Nahida.

The first step was figuring out how much influence buddhism had on the persian empire and it was.. not a lot. Only the eastern part of the empire was influenced to some small degree. I then narrowed down the time of spread to when the Parthian empire was a major power.

With an empire spreading all the way from modern day Iran to Pakistan, it should be obvious that the cultures it covered are all not the same, and this isn’t even getting into how diverse the ethinic groups are. We do not randomly mash the most “aesthetic” cultures together here sir.

I was using the buddhist hotspot city of Gandhara (marked roughly with the white X) as a point of reference for where to take design inspiration from.

Since Parthia was too far north from Gandhara, it would have been less influenced by buddhism. A friend stepped in and helped narrow down prominent regions that Parthia was allied with, and they finally located the one that was closest to Gandhara (circled in white).

The Sistan and Baluchistan region is populated by the Baloch people of Afghanistan + Pakistan, with clothes having a very distinct embroidery style. I referenced the basic silhouette of the clothes and jewelry from them but took some liberties with the embroidery itself.

The pattern I made for the dress was made using a peepal/bodhi leaf as base. The bodhi tree is symbolic of Buddha’s enlightenment. You can also see the leaf’s shape in her necklace and headpiece as well.

The other buddhist elements I used were how sculptors drew the lotus the buddha sits on with her slippers, and her earrings. To my knowledge, plain hoops are not a commonly used style, but I wanted to draw parallels to how the buddha’s ears are shaped in sculptures.

Anahita’s influence is more apparent in my colour choices. This extract describes how she looks;

She is regularly depicted as a beautiful woman in a white gown embroidered with gold, wearing golden earrings with a gold necklace around her throat and a golden crown. She carries the barsom twigs of life in one hand (representing the bounty of the earth and, so, fertility) and drives a chariot drawn by four horses of wind, rain, cloud, and sleet.

Hence the gold jewelery and white base clothes. No this is not a Saraswati reference because the two goddesses are Not The Same.

Finally her henna, when I looked up barsom, I found this Zoroastrian ritual tool by the same name that holds the barsom/barsam/myrrh twigs. I referenced the crescent shape of the tool in Nahida’s henna, and looked at other henna designs in order to create it.

#genshin impact #genshin impact sumeru #sumeru #genshin Kusanali #oc: Nahida #yes this is my child now #genshin

[worldhistoryfacts]

The Parthians seemed to love making little reclining figures. Again, these are an example of cultural blending in the empire. Greeks often made similar figurines, so perhaps this is where the Parthians got the idea. The trope shows up again and again, for example in this image of a man in patterned trousers on a patterned couch:

Though Greek reclining figures were usually male, the Parthians also made a lot of female figures, almost always nude, that show the influence of Greek sculptural techniques:

You can see the cutest -- or creepiest -- reclining figure here:

{Buy me a coffee} {WHF} {Medium} {Looking Through the Past}

#history #ancient #parthia #greece #scupture

[losthistoryblog]

Revisit: Greco Bactrian Empire

My second ever post on the account was about the Greco-Bactrian empire (scroll to read it)

But the reason I'm bringing it up again after two months is because I visited a museum recently with featured an exhibit on coins in ancient India

and look what came along

As you can see, they're kind of similar to coins of the Mughal era, the square ones Eucratides I and Hippostraus I which is an interesting parallel. I'm certainly considering writing about the Scythians and Parthians as well since I kinda skipped over them.

Anyways yes, I have a few more pictures from a few other exhibits from the museum (which I could discuss )

#history #archaeology #india #greece

[just-late-roman-republic-things]

Tired: What if Caesar hadn’t been assassinated?

Wired: What if Caesar had survived the stabbing attempt?

It'll be tough: the stabbing probably didn't take more than a couple minutes, and there weren't any troops nearby to intervene. But suppose Antony is faster in this timeline, and luckier, and manages to flip Decimus Brutus' gladiators to his side before storming the building. Most or all of the assassins get killed in the fighting. Caesar's wounded, but as long as Gaius Servilius Casca hasn't struck the blow in his ribs yet, the injuries are non-lethal.

The Parthian campaign will be delayed, perhaps called off entirely as Caesar recovers. This...is not actually good for Caesar, who's been growing more unpopular in the last year. The Senate resents him, and it's now clear that his policy of "leniency" is not going to reconcile the Caesarians and Pompeians, nor keep him safe. The Roman people are upset that he still hasn't reinstated free elections now that the civil war is over. Even his officers and soldiers are pissed, mostly because they feel he hasn't been rewarding them appropriately. Caesar inflicted a real cost on himself by not proscribing his enemies and giving their property to his men.

(You might ask, "But weren't the people furious when Caesar died?" Well, a subset of them were; we don't know if they reflected most Romans' views. Caesar's popularity among the general public seems to have been declining. I suspect that many people were unhappy with his rule but didn't want him to outright die, due to fear of more instability.)

If Caesar can't invade Parthia, and thus regain popularity with the people and plunder for his loyalists, his regime starts looking a lot weaker. And the fact that the assassination attempt happened will signal to other dissidents that they aren't alone. It's only a matter of time before someone takes a shot at him again.

If Caesar's willing to swallow his pride, he may finally resort to proscriptions. It's the most effective way to remove threats, silence the grumbling populace, and reward his loyalists at the same time. Though cruel, it's best way to keep himself safe.

But Caesar doesn't do "safe." His entire career, from flouting the Senate to crossing the Rubicon to nearly getting himself killed many times, has been "high risk, high reward." Hell, he'd dismissed his bodyguard some months before the Ides. And Caesar likes to think of himself as merciful, even if he was a lot less so at Munda and Thapsus. He refused to proscribe during the civil war, and almost never killed men from senatorial families outside of battle.

So I don't think Caesar would proscribe. More likely, I think he'd execute any surviving conspirators, arrange investigations of any new conspiracies, and reinstate his bodyguard. And I think he'd try to dream up a brilliant new scheme to quell people's anger with his regime. I can't imagine what, but he's great at improvising. Maybe he'll shoot the moon and create the principate early!

But I wouldn't bet on it. Caesar's at his weakest when he's injured, and now the illusion of his untouchability has been shattered. Arrows, poison, a disgruntled officer, an "accident" or infection, a senator who isn't afraid to die - there's so many ways to take him out, and so many people with a motive. And you better act fast, before he passes some new law that upends your life, or leaves Rome again.

Frankly, I doubt he'll survive the end of 44. And from there I think Octavian and Antony will butt heads over the inheritance of Caesar's legacy again. It might play out similarly to our timeline, or not. Pretty much anything could've happened. But this post is getting awful long already...

That's all just my opinion. Other ideas are welcome!

#for a REALLY fun time try stabbing caesar as he walks out of the catilinarian debate in 63. it very nearly happened! #either lethally or nonlethally. things would be SO different. i don't even know where to start... #ides of march #alternate history #jlrrt essays #julius caesar

[dailyunsolvedmysteries]

The Mystery of the Baghdad Battery

To the uninitiated, the Ancient Battery of Baghdad looks like a clay jar, albeit an unusual one with an iron rod protruding from its top.  To its discoverer, Wilhelm König, the function of the ancient artefact was obvious. It was an ancient Parthian battery. One created centuries before any other known examples.

The Baghdad Battery is actually a nested trio of artefacts. There is the small clay pot which, when found, measured 14cm in height, but would have been taller when it was complete. Its top, broken off, is believed to have been sealed with asphalt. Inside this was a copper cylinder, the second object, which in turn encased the third, an iron rod. The rod would have protruded through the jar’s stopper.

Was the Baghdad Battery a battery?

The core of the Baghdad Battery mystery is whether the artefacts in question made up a battery cell. König, who first posited this theory, did not have any ancient writings on which to base it. To this day, no such records have been found.

So, what led him to the Parthian battery conclusion? He might have noted that the artefact had the two metals with different electro potentials. This together with an electrolyte are the main components required to make a battery. In support of this, there is evidence that an ionic solution – an electrolyte – might have been present in the jar. Tests on the corrosion on the item indicates that it probably once contained something like vinegar or wine.

Whatever the case, it is true that the Baghdad Battery as described can conduct electricity with the addition of such a solution. Around a volt or so of it. Had there been wires involved, the voltage could have been much higher.

In the event that the Baghdad artefact was in fact a battery, there are different ideas as to what it was used for.

What Could the Baghdad Battery have Powered?

Various uses have been proposed for the Baghdad Battery. Several civilisations have long used forms of electricity in medicine. For example, the Greeks found that placing electric fish on feet helped in pain relief.

One suggestion has been that the battery was embedded inside statues of idols, so as to “buzz” followers. A sort of religious magic trick. This was actually tried out on a 2005 documentary.

For his part, König believed the battery was used in gilding, the process of coating one metal with another. It’s known that such practices were happening at the time in jewellery making and other activities, but using more primitive methods. He theorised that the battery was developed to allow for the much easier process of electroplating. Critics of this theory point to the fact that there is no evidence of this process at the time or after it. Meanwhile, there is plenty of evidence of other gilding methods, especially mercury residue from its use in the process.

One of the main flaws of König’s theory relates to the potency of the Baghdad Battery itself. As it was, it could only produce around a volt of energy. Such low amperage simply couldn’t power very much. Certainly it couldn’t be used for gilding. As for wires increasing the power, none have been found and there is no evidence of ancient wiring knowledge. What’s more, one would need to constantly refill the electrolyte, which would have been incredibly difficult given the apparent asphalt stopper. This would have made it inconvenient. However, the death knell of the theory, say critics, is the lack of any mention of such a device, either at the time or after. Surely such an advancement would have been noted. And, even if not, why was it not used by others or since?

If not a Battery, then what? The Scroll Jar Theory

Many believe the vessels of the Baghdad Battery once acted as storage for sacred scrolls. Not only are they visually similar to other examples of such containers at nearby sites such as Tigris, but it was found in a place that contained many such jars. According to this hypothesis, the iron rod would have had the scroll wrapped around it, which was then placed inside the copper tube. König even cited such scroll jars in his paper as being common at digs.

#Baghdad Battery #myths #creepy #facts #history #science