The more things change, the more they stay the same, right?
More seriously, it’s one of the reasons I adore Rome so much - many of the records and systems depict something that feels modern, asking the same fundamental questions and getting into the same arguments, as we do today.
And it’s always hilarious that bureaucracy is timeless.
Yeah, exactly! Nothing else comes close. The medieval and early-modern periods are just very different (and non-civilisational, I guess?), and then modern industrial civilisation grows up on top of it before the old is fully gone everywhere. If you want eerie parallels, you do Rome.
The history of unrelated civilisations on other continents seems inaccessible in English, or in the case of the Americas just poorly preserved in general, thanks to said early-modern Europeans.
Stuff on other continents seems inaccessible in English, or in the case of the Americas just poorly preserved in general, thanks to said early-modern Europeans.
God, what the Spanish did to Mesoamerican codices will forever haunt me as a student of history. Just pure barbarism, literal book-burning.
Wow, that’s a hell of a quote. That’s a sentiment that rankles people today.
The more things change, the more they stay the same, right?
More seriously, it’s one of the reasons I adore Rome so much - many of the records and systems depict something that feels modern, asking the same fundamental questions and getting into the same arguments, as we do today.
And it’s always hilarious that bureaucracy is timeless.
Ever seen the scene of The Place that Sends You Mad in Asterix?
Yeah, exactly! Nothing else comes close. The medieval and early-modern periods are just very different (and non-civilisational, I guess?), and then modern industrial civilisation grows up on top of it before the old is fully gone everywhere. If you want eerie parallels, you do Rome.
The history of unrelated civilisations on other continents seems inaccessible in English, or in the case of the Americas just poorly preserved in general, thanks to said early-modern Europeans.
God, what the Spanish did to Mesoamerican codices will forever haunt me as a student of history. Just pure barbarism, literal book-burning.