Realm of Aether

"Libera me, Domine, de morte æterna."  Trans Woman. 26. NYC. Interested in everything you see below.

[layfmacun]

[chemicalheart-deactivated202009]

I’m obsessed with this comment

[viablejp]

[different-landscapes]

Chaozhou  ( by NKCHU )

[considerthishippie]

[ms-mandy-m]

[museum-of-artifacts]

Roman bronze mask coated with silver. The mask has a hinge at the top, it was meant to cover the entire face but could be held up for better vision or fresh air; 100 - 75 AD.

[sulphurousvisions]

[sabyaasachi]

[allthingseurope]

Lake District, England (by Tom ♠)

[seabois]

[pagewoman]

Hedgehog ✯

[superbnature]

Euthalia monina (male) by knpandit2003 https://ift.tt/2GUZctW

[lynnleev]

Photo by Les Arnott

[nordicsublime]

Greenhouses

[fujikomeanie]

[haectemporasunt]

Angel’s Egg

[andrusmagnus]

Mohave Ghost Centipede

[whencyclopedia]

FALL OF THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE:

TO many historians, the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century CE has always been viewed as the end of the ancient world and the onset of the Middle Ages, often improperly called the Dark Ages, despite Petrarch’s assertion. Since much of the west had already fallen by the middle of the 5th century CE, when a writer speaks of the fall of the empire, he or she generally refers to the fall of the city of Rome. Although historians generally agree on the year of the fall, 476 CE, they often disagree on its causes. English historian Edward Gibbon, who wrote in the late 18th century CE, points to the rise of Christianity and its effect on the Roman psyche while others believe the decline and fall were due, in part, to the influx of ‘barbarians’ from the north and west.

Whatever the cause, whether it was religion, external attack, or the internal decay of the city itself, the debate continues to the present day; however, one significant point must be established before a discussion of the roots of the fall can continue: the decline and fall were only in the west. The eastern half - that which would eventually be called the Byzantine Empire - would continue for several centuries, and, in many ways, it retained a unique Roman identity.

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[sodomyandunpleasantaccents]

The Eastern Roman Empire did not just survive for ‘several centuries’, it survived for a full millennium, with its capital Constantinople/New Rome falling to Turkish invaders on 29 May, 1453 after a 53 day siege. Even then the Byzantine daughter state of Trebizond continued on for seven more years, falling to the Turks in 1461. The citizens of the Eastern Empire considered themselves Romans right up to the end as did the invading Turks; Sultan Mehmed II their leader declared himself ‘Kayser-i Rum’, literally Caesar of Rome, or as we would say Roman Emperor. The Eastern Orthodox Christian community within the Ottoman Empire was referred to and governed as the ‘Rūm millet’ or Roman Nation through the dissolution of that empire in the early 20th century. Even today the few remaining Turkish citizens of Greek ethnicity are called ‘Rum’.