#byzantine — Public Fediverse posts

ΝΟΥΜΜΟΣ: ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΟΣ ΠΙΣΤΟΣ ΕΝ ΧΡΙΣΤΩ…+SVPER ASPIDEM ET BASILISCVM AMBVLAVIT #SPQR #Byzantine
https://youtu.be/uu1XMaDY3Pk

14th century AD Varangian Guard in Byzantine service

14th century AD Varangian Guard in Byzantine service

https://piefed.social/c/historyart/p/1408465/14th-century-ad-varangian-guard-in-byzantine-service

Allegedly, #Prighozhin’s march on #Moscow has ended in a deal brokered by #Lukashenko, in which #Wagner Group forces will head to #Belarus and … become Lukashenko’s #Varangian Guard, or something? Assuming of course #Putin doesn’t wait for them to get strung out on the road and bomb them all to bits.

I can’t help but be struck by how antiquated all this feels. The Varangian Guard reference above is deliberate—the whole thing is #Byzantine in both the original and modern senses of that word. Shades of #Belisarius and #Justinian. Yes, I know I’m mixing up periods, and the analogy is inexact in all kinds of ways: history doesn’t repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes.

#Kings and #emperors and shifting personal loyalties, not cold-blooded calculation of national interests. It’s not the way #modern states make #war—even though #Ukraine may well be the first modern war of the twenty-first century, through future eyes. Something older, more visceral, rising from ancient slumber.

Hell of a time to be alive. I suppose that’s always true.

Allegedly, #Prighozhin’s march on #Moscow has ended in a deal brokered by #Lukashenko, in which #Wagner Group forces will head to #Belarus and … become Lukashenko’s #Varangian Guard, or something? Assuming of course #Putin doesn’t wait for them to get strung out on the road and bomb them all to bits.

I can’t help but be struck by how antiquated all this feels. The Varangian Guard reference above is deliberate—the whole thing is #Byzantine in both the original and modern senses of that word. Shades of #Belisarius and #Justinian. Yes, I know I’m mixing up periods, and the analogy is inexact in all kinds of ways: history doesn’t repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes.

#Kings and #emperors and shifting personal loyalties, not cold-blooded calculation of national interests. It’s not the way #modern states make #war—even though #Ukraine may well be the first modern war of the twenty-first century, through future eyes. Something older, more visceral, rising from ancient slumber.

Hell of a time to be alive. I suppose that’s always true.

Allegedly, #Prighozhin’s march on #Moscow has ended in a deal brokered by #Lukashenko, in which #Wagner Group forces will head to #Belarus and … become Lukashenko’s #Varangian Guard, or something? Assuming of course #Putin doesn’t wait for them to get strung out on the road and bomb them all to bits.

I can’t help but be struck by how antiquated all this feels. The Varangian Guard reference above is deliberate—the whole thing is #Byzantine in both the original and modern senses of that word. Shades of #Belisarius and #Justinian. Yes, I know I’m mixing up periods, and the analogy is inexact in all kinds of ways: history doesn’t repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes.

#Kings and #emperors and shifting personal loyalties, not cold-blooded calculation of national interests. It’s not the way #modern states make #war—even though #Ukraine may well be the first modern war of the twenty-first century, through future eyes. Something older, more visceral, rising from ancient slumber.

Hell of a time to be alive. I suppose that’s always true.

Allegedly, #Prighozhin’s march on #Moscow has ended in a deal brokered by #Lukashenko, in which #Wagner Group forces will head to #Belarus and … become Lukashenko’s #Varangian Guard, or something? Assuming of course #Putin doesn’t wait for them to get strung out on the road and bomb them all to bits.

I can’t help but be struck by how antiquated all this feels. The Varangian Guard reference above is deliberate—the whole thing is #Byzantine in both the original and modern senses of that word. Shades of #Belisarius and #Justinian. Yes, I know I’m mixing up periods, and the analogy is inexact in all kinds of ways: history doesn’t repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes.

#Kings and #emperors and shifting personal loyalties, not cold-blooded calculation of national interests. It’s not the way #modern states make #war—even though #Ukraine may well be the first modern war of the twenty-first century, through future eyes. Something older, more visceral, rising from ancient slumber.

Hell of a time to be alive. I suppose that’s always true.

@Renegade_GDI
1/

I am a fan of #Viking history, and learned a couple of years ago that the #Varangian #Rus' presence was not limited to being the #VarangianGuard of the #Byzantine emperor.

Apart from that, in my understanding #Sveinald #Ingvarsson's (Sviatoslav I, aka #Sviatoslav the Brave, Grand Prince of #Kiev*) fascinating...

@EU_ISS

@Renegade_GDI
1/

I am a fan of #Viking history, and learned a couple of years ago that the #Varangian #Rus' presence was not limited to being the #VarangianGuard of the #Byzantine emperor.

Apart from that, in my understanding #Sveinald #Ingvarsson's (Sviatoslav I, aka #Sviatoslav the Brave, Grand Prince of #Kiev*) fascinating...

@EU_ISS

@Renegade_GDI
1/

I am a fan of #Viking history, and learned a couple of years ago that the #Varangian #Rus' presence was not limited to being the #VarangianGuard of the #Byzantine emperor.

Apart from that, in my understanding #Sveinald #Ingvarsson's (Sviatoslav I, aka #Sviatoslav the Brave, Grand Prince of #Kiev*) fascinating...

@EU_ISS

@Renegade_GDI
1/

I am a fan of #Viking history, and learned a couple of years ago that the #Varangian #Rus' presence was not limited to being the #VarangianGuard of the #Byzantine emperor.

Apart from that, in my understanding #Sveinald #Ingvarsson's (Sviatoslav I, aka #Sviatoslav the Brave, Grand Prince of #Kiev*) fascinating...

@EU_ISS

@Renegade_GDI
1/

I am a fan of #Viking history, and learned a couple of years ago that the #Varangian #Rus' presence was not limited to being the #VarangianGuard of the #Byzantine emperor.

Apart from that, in my understanding #Sveinald #Ingvarsson's (Sviatoslav I, aka #Sviatoslav the Brave, Grand Prince of #Kiev*) fascinating...

@EU_ISS

#introduction time!

I enjoy #programming #languages esp. #clojure & #FunctionalProgramming in #lisp. I follow #zig and cyclically use #FactorLang #JLang #dart #ruby #TLAPlus. Also #LaTeX and am a wannabe #typography nerd.

I love #linguistics speak #russian & have studied #french #latin #greek #arabic and many more.

I spend hours a week singing in #byzantine #chant and making #piano & #woodwind #music

I'm a #husband #father & #orthodox #christian #priest but here focus on the above topics.