The History Thread!

[Ceraziefish]

To celebrate my new decision to probably be a history major, I'm creating this thread.

Herein we will discuss our favorite periods of history, favorite books, and anything interesting and relating to history.

To kick things off, I'm going to raise the question "When was the fall of the Roman Empire?"

It's not as straightforward as it looks. I know Darkon knows the answer I agree with, but there's at least four different dates I know of.

SMOKE CRACK AND STUDY HISTORY.

P.S. for some reason I find U.S. history boring as hell, even though I love nearly all other history. I don't get it.

[Samurai Drifter]

History is metal.

I know that this isn't relevant to your question, but it's bugging me. Which Roman emperor was it that pretended to be retarded so that the senate would murder his father in an attempt to gain power and control him, but was actually a genuis who ruled for years afterwards? I can't remember his name, but he was awesome.

[Gundampilotspaz]

P.S. for some reason I find U.S. history boring as hell, even though I love nearly all other history. I don't get it.

o.O

US History is so awesome.

It's starts off with a REVOLUTION

You should love REVOLUTIONS

[Makil]

I'm not really fond of US history either. But I totally want to minor in History at my school.

[Ceraziefish]

o.O

US History is so awesome.

It's starts off with a REVOLUTION

You should love REVOLUTIONS

I dunno, it's not that I don't find U.S. history boring so much as I find U.S. history class boring.

Basically I've just never been interested in it enough to look much into it. I'm sure if I did I'd get more into it. But I find all kinds of other cultures more interesting.

So, it's not so much that I don't like U.S. history, it's more that I like nearly all other history more.

Since Darkon sent me a link to the Histories, I'm reading that right now. I think I may look through the library tomorrow and see if I can't find some Babylonian history books.

And, of course, next quarter I'm going to be writing a giant research paper on medieval Russia. I haven't settled on a topic yet but I'm thinking of writing about Ivan IV (the Terrible).

[Samurai Drifter]

Which Roman emperor was it? Tell me or die!

[Ceraziefish]

Which Roman emperor was it? Tell me or die!

I don't know much about Roman history, unfortunately.

I know lots of weird stuff from lots of places, but I have no real specialization (yet). I know more than most people probably do about Medieval to Enlightenment Russia, though.

[Pamuya]

P.S. for some reason I find U.S. history boring as hell, even though I love nearly all other history. I don't get it.

i know i dont get it either >OOO

i just liek the indians and stuff tho....i love dancing with wolves and stuff (for the story for the story!!!!!)

oh, and i really like hindu mythology and stuff like that. lots of weird shit man, love it.

[Davy]

yeah, US Hist is awesome. People ate each other during the Great Depression :dry:

[Chris]

P.S. for some reason I find U.S. history boring as hell, even though I love nearly all other history. I don't get it.

Cause US history does suck. Look at China, Egypt, Greece, Italy, ect. ect. I'm almost angry that my school doesn't offer a world history course or something.

[winterlong]

The reason that some of you hate US history is probably the same reason that I hate Canadian history. It's boring, you live there, you are making history, so to speak. I wish that I could take an interest in my own country's past, but I just don't think that I ever will. It's like learning a new language. A lot of people in North America are illiterate, or just terrible at English, yet some of those people can pick up other languages easily, or have much more of an interest in speaking something different.

[Chris]

Well its the same in a way, Canada and the US were both British territories, and don't have long pasts.

[darkon]

Best topic ever.

The fall of the Roman Empire? There really is no true date where you can say "this was the end of the Roman Empire". But for all intents and purpose, the West at least fell in 476 A.D. when Romulus Augustulus was deposed by Odoacer who was German, and not Roman. The Empire itself in the West had more or less collapsed by the time Odoacer arrived, but it was still ruled, weakly, by Romans. In fact, Roman influence didn't extend outside of Italy. But once the Ostrogoths took over Rome, Odoacer ruled a kingdom covering the entire Italian peninsula, and modern-day Switzerland, Austria, some of Hungary, and Croatia. Meanwhile the Eastern Roman Empire, Byzantium, lasted until 1453.

[Die]

History was kind of boring, IMO. Just a bunch of rulers ruling things and pushing people down, everywhere. I do like the occasional historical story, though. But it's rare that anything special happens.

[FaultyClockwork]

P.S. for some reason I find U.S. history boring as hell, even though I love nearly all other history. I don't get it.

I'm studying US History right now and I've come to realize this country has always been full of blood thirsty, insensitive douchebags. I've stopped pledging allegiance to the flag.

[Samurai Drifter]

Best topic ever.

The fall of the Roman Empire? There really is no true date where you can say "this was the end of the Roman Empire". But for all intents and purpose, the West at least fell in 476 A.D. when Romulus Augustulus was deposed by Odoacer who was German, and not Roman. The Empire itself in the West had more or less collapsed by the time Odoacer arrived, but it was still ruled, weakly, by Romans. In fact, Roman influence didn't extend outside of Italy. But once the Ostrogoths took over Rome, Odoacer ruled a kingdom covering the entire Italian peninsula, and modern-day Switzerland, Austria, some of Hungary, and Croatia. Meanwhile the Eastern Roman Empire, Byzantium, lasted until 1453.

Dorkon! You must know! Refer to the second post in the thread.

[Die]

I'm studying US History right now and I've come to realize this country has always been full of blood thirsty, insensitive douchebags. I've stopped pledging allegiance to the flag.

What country wasn't? Seriously.

[FaultyClockwork]

Good point but everyone here tries to paint us as the best country in the world and crap like that and no way in Hell am I going to pledge my allegiance to a piece of cloth representing a country I really don't like nor care about all that much.

But yes, one of the reasons I hate Nationalism is because there really aren't that many countries that haven't done dumb shit and it's one of the few things that can cause rational people to do irrational things (ex: religion).

[Die]

I absolutely agree, man. I made it my life's work to show how fucked up absolutely everyone in the world is.

At the same time though, I'll cheer for Japan at sports games. You've gotta support someone.

[FaultyClockwork]

I support Canada. I think Canada is kinda badass. I wanna live there.

[Ceraziefish]

Good point but everyone here tries to paint us as the best country in the world and crap like that and no way in Hell am I going to pledge my allegiance to a piece of cloth representing a country I really don't like nor care about all that much.

But yes, one of the reasons I hate Nationalism is because there really aren't that many countries that haven't done dumb shit and it's one of the few things that can cause rational people to do irrational things (ex: religion).

I have similar thoughts.

Darkon, what do you think about the Russian Empire and/or the Ottoman Empire trying to claim the heritage of the Eastern Roman Empire? The Russian Empire because they were Orthodox, the Ottoman Empire because they captured Constantinople.

I was reading about the Battle of Borodino the other day, that's some crazy shit. Classic example of winning the battle and losing the war really, really hard.

[Chris]

I absolutely agree, man. I made it my life's work to show how fucked up absolutely everyone in the world is.

Look at the positves. You're giving an extremely general view of the world.

Good point but everyone here tries to paint us as the best country in the world and crap like that and no way in Hell am I going to pledge my allegiance to a piece of cloth representing a country I really don't like nor care about all that much.

And I love how almost every subject we study in history I hear, "This was a dark time in American history." I don't necessarily pledge my allegiance to the flag, but I still care about the country. I mean if tomarrow we were invaded, I think I'd care.

[Ceraziefish]

Look at the positves. You're giving an extremely general view of the world.

And I love how almost every subject we study in history I hear, "This was a dark time in American history." I don't necessarily pledge my allegiance to the flag, but I still care about the country. I mean if tomarrow we were invaded, I think I'd care.

I dunno. If the East Coast was invaded I think I'd react quite similarly to if a foreign country was invaded.

That is to say, very displeased and unhappy, and sure it's going to screw me over... But there would be a big difference between enemy soldiers landing in Massachusetts and enemy soldiers landing in Oregon. To me, anyway.

[darkon]

I don't necessarily agree that there was a successor to Rome. But if I had a choice I'd say Russia did more to keep the heritage of Eastern Rome (Because of being Orthodox) alive more than the Ottomans did.

SD, as for your question. I've never heard of that in my entire life. It could be one of those many urban legends that people spread about history.

[Chris]

I'm not sure if I understand. Either way, it's still an invasion...