Hugh Murray, With the victory of Constantine, Rome turned its back on its religious and to some extent, its cultural past, - the opposition to the joys of the Coliseum, for example. In the 500s, with the codification of Roman Law under Justinian, it is clear that pagans and Jews were to be 2nd class citizens of the new empire. Homosexuality, which was prevalent in the Greek and even Roman worlds, brought with it in addition to the death penalty imposed around 320 with Constantine. Under Justinian, there would still be the death penalty, but torture would precede that. There was no immediate end of all Roman culture, and the Library of Alexandria continued to inspire thought freely, but the trend was away from free inquiry, into religious issues, the beginning of the closed mindedness we associate with the Middle Ages. When the Roman Empire (or if you prefer Byzantine) defeated the Seleucids the victors took away the statue of the long haired Adonis, to show the old faith of the Mid-East was conquered.. When Islam came on the scene, That empire was no longer what it had been, no longer the Roman Empire; it was now one new an empire with a new culture and a new religion. It's clash with Islam was a war of one new religious group with another new one.
Jews were already 2ned class citizens in Christian Europe,, so they might adopt more easily to the 2nd class status of Islam. And while Christians and Muslims continued to war against each other in the Med. Sea, Jews who had relatives in both Christian Europe and now also in Islam's N Africa could be come what Pirenne called, JEWV and merchant were interchangable words by the time of Charlemagne.
Islam conquered because the traditional values of Greco-Rome, and possible of the Mid East, had been overthrown already by another new religion. So the struggle became a battle between the 2 newbies.
Jews were already 2ned class citizens in Christian Europe,, so they might adopt more easily to the 2nd class status of Islam. And while Christians and Muslims continued to war against each other in the Med. Sea, Jews who had relatives in both Christian Europe and now also in Islam's N Africa could be come what Pirenne called, JEWV and merchant were interchangable words by the time of Charlemagne.
Islam conquered because the traditional values of Greco-Rome, and possible of the Mid East, had been overthrown already by another new religion. So the struggle became a battle between the 2 newbies.
Much of the post on rain etc., is interesting, but sometimes it is hard to believe the the tv weather man for one week, much less for over 600 years. Interesting with a grain of salt.
His point about change in sexual population under Islam - a man can have 4 wives, so 25% had no woman! He says, makes them more warlike, determined t capture a wife. All those men without women!? Greek armies, lovers. Alexander may have fu**ed the wife of Darius, and his own wife, but his great love was his fellow warrior. The Sacred Band of Thebes, a group of male lovers, etc. Even the Roman general Julius Caesr was teased by his troops. Much later a Prot. leader in France declared Paris is worth a mass, became Roman Catholic, and king of France. Caesar becane quite friendly with the king of Pergamen?, who when he died, willed his kingdom to the Roman Republic. Perhaps Caesar reasond, a kingdom is worth my ass. Of course he also had a wife, fu**ed Cleopatra, etc. Many swung both ways, and slaves had no choice.
Even if Mohammad declared death for homos, Certainly, in time, The Janissaries', sons of Christians, take around age 14 to become slaves of the Sultan, would eventually form the best fighting units in Islam. They had new names, could not marry or have a family, so I suspect it esd s gay group. The Christians had the death penalty for homos until the French Revolution, when Justinian's legal work was revised, and in France Jews, homos, and Protestants won equal rights. And where Napoleon's army swept in, so did his liberation of the oppressed. Was it only under Islam that the army was a sourse of homo activity. Well, a King of France decided it was also true of Knights Templar, and sought to confiscate all their properties as a consequence. Proof- the Templar symbol of a knight riding a horse, but a young man riding the same horse at his back. Whether the charges were true or false, several kings used the charges to confiscate Templar properties. Others also say, twas the beginning of the Masons.
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