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Day: October 19, 2016
How was 1360 Byzantium a shadow of its former self?
The Byzantine navy had already been dissolved in the 1320s; Venice and Genoa ruled the waves. The crown jewels were pawned off in 1343, never to be redeemed. Byzantium had been wracked by civil war for decades; and the civil wars were being fought on behalf of the factions by Serbs and Turks. Gallipoli was […]
Do other countries have an Uncle Sam figure?
Besides the Positive personification of Greece, Athena, there’s also the negative personification of Greece, Ψωροκώσταινα Psorokostena, “Kostas’ Mangy Wife”. In fact the cartoonist Bost (Chrysanthos Mentis Bostantzoglou) in the ’60s drew Psorokostena as a Mangy Athena: Although the contemporary blog Psorokostena has adopted a homelier figure: The story of the historical Kostas’ Mangy Wife is […]