Noldorin

2,317 reputation

825

bio	website	noldorin.com
	location	London, United Kingdom
	age	22
visits	member for	1 year, 7 months
	seen	May 10 at 14:02
stats	profile views	53

postgrad student of mathematics, graduate in theoretical physics, polymath in training, blogger of miscellany

based in London, UK

	2,317 reputation	bio	website	noldorin.com	visits	member for	1 year, 7 months
825 badges		location	London, United Kingdom		seen	May 10 at 14:02

summary answers questions tags badges favorites bounties reputation activity

325 Actions

suggestions reviews revisions comments badges posts accepts all

Dec 31	comment	What form of home address did Romans use? That is true. To be fair, street addresses were scarcely needed before the advent of industrialisation (in 19th century Britain). Road/street names existed long before though of course. Just not the numbers. And post codes are most likely a 20th C invention.
Dec 28	comment	What form of home address did Romans use? @MartinBeckett: Not that I know, no. Messengers would almost always be used, as was the most efficient means in the classical world. I just wanted to point out that literacy even among the lower classes of Ancient Rome was decent. Otherwise I agree with your answer.
Dec 28	comment	What form of home address did Romans use? That's not true re: literacy. Some well-educated slaves or freedmen could write even! As they would indeed be required to do as part of their master's assignments. If anywhere had a high literacy rate in Europe at this time, it was Rome (and later most of Italy as Roman citizenship and Romanisation was expanded). Alright, Greece may well have had a higher rate, but we're talking about Latin here. :-)
Dec 28	comment	What are the factors that caused the new world civilizations to be less technologically advanced than the old world? Diamond's popular book was bound to come up here. I don't want to dispute it right here, but it's worth noting that many historians and anthropologists disagree with his view, from a basis of oversimplification or just being plain wrong. i.e. Not widely accepted, although not without significant support.
Dec 28	comment	Why did Jews not immigrate to the Muslim world? @SigueSigueBen Well this is getting a bit touchy, so if you can concede that what you are writing is nothing more than opinion, then I happily do the same. After all, virtually all history is subjective to some degree. I'm not going to change my view that the Ottomans were nasty scoundrels, so yeah... And I can tell you're not a professional historian from your style of argument and wording. Sorry. :-)
Dec 27	comment	Why did Jews not immigrate to the Muslim world? @SigueSigueBen: Just recognise that that's your opinion. There's nothing particularly objective about it. While I agree Non-Muslims in Turkey today may not have extensive religious freedom, I think you do too much kindness to the Ottoman Turks, and not enough to Attaturk. Sorry, but my opinion is that the Ottomans behaved like barbarians for most of their history, and the huge number of forcible conversions speak in part for this. Can we please just agree to disagree in our opinions. Not even professional historians are in consensus here, so no need for us to be. ;)
Dec 27	comment	Why did Jews not immigrate to the Muslim world? @SigueSigueBen Well I agree there... although the Hebrew used by Middle Eastern Jews was a) archaic, b) heavily influenced by Arabic, c) in very minor usage.
Dec 27	comment	Why did Jews not immigrate to the Muslim world? @SigueSigueBen Sorry, but this is a purely subjective matter, and I must differ her. I personally think Attaturk is a good example of secularism and allowing religious freedom, but the Ottoman behaviour towards Christians and Jews, going back to the proto-Ottomans/Seljuks was pretty terrible.
Dec 27	comment	Why did Jews not immigrate to the Muslim world? Agreed. The majority of Jews, even Sephardic, probably felt very European culturally (second to the Jewish identity in most cases though), and generally felt more at home in Europe. Also, I might pose a guess that many Jews did not feel kindly towards Muslims due to their inhabitation of what they considered to be Ancient Israel and Judea. That's just a presumption though.
Dec 27	comment	Why did Jews not immigrate to the Muslim world? Is this really an answer? I don't see an answer in here.
Dec 27	comment	Who was the last US president who did not start a war? Yeah, but we all know it really comes down to the President in practice. :-P
Dec 27	comment	Why is national identity important? National identity is important for cultural and social reasons. I don't think there are any historical ones.
Dec 27	comment	What did the Catholic Church do to promote human rights of non-christians from 1500s to mid 1900s? Good question. In this (somewhat understandable) era of Church bashing, it's quite easy to gloss over the good things the Catholic Church did for the world. Especially in historically Protestant countries where there have been centuries of defamation against the Catholic church.
Dec 27	comment	What did the Catholic Church do to promote human rights of non-christians from 1500s to mid 1900s? On the other hand, the Catholic Church (in particular Jesuits) often promoted the fundamental rights of the indigenous populations of South America (e.g. the Guarani) against some very unscrupulous Spanish and Portuguese slave traders and general exploiters.
Dec 27	comment	Why did Jews not immigrate to the Muslim world? Also, of course Middle Eastern Jews spoke predominantly Arabic. Modern Hebrew is a constructed language that's been around little more than a 100 years. Also, Arabic was the lingua franca of the Middle East (and still is) for many centuries, so no surprise really.
Dec 27	comment	Why did Jews not immigrate to the Muslim world? @SigueSigueBen: Rubbish, the Turks were notorious for treating various minority groups (err, Armenian Christians stands out just a little?) terrible. The Janissaries descended from forcible converts to Islam, mainly Christians. Sure, they had some rights and autonomy depending on the era and Sultan in reign, but overall it is quite fair to say they weren't particularly kind to them (even in comparison with the Moors' treatment).
Dec 9	awarded	Nice Answer
Nov 20	comment	Did the Gallic army besieged in Alesia conduct itself well when expecting relief? Yes, this is quite possible. Unfortunately, native Gaulish sources are few and far-between to provide an insight into his mind -- since (correct me if I'm wrong about this one), the Gauls were for the most part illiterate before Roman rule. The ultimate problem is that Vercingetorix underestimated Julius Caesar, or indeed let his own ambition/greed get in the way. It's all subjective though... a little moot.
Nov 20	comment	Did the Gallic army besieged in Alesia conduct itself well when expecting relief? Actually, I'm afraid I have to +1 this answer. :-P I agree withe the main point here: the cutting off of resources and the Gaulish attempt to separate Caesar's forces was senile, and indeed employed, though I think it failed because Caesar was smart enough to see what was happening all the time.
Nov 20	comment	Did the Gallic army besieged in Alesia conduct itself well when expecting relief? Ah yes, I think you have a point there. Caesar did sort of take Gaul by storm here. Funnily enough, the Gauls had a history of practising guerilla warfare (for example when Hannibal crossed through Spain/southern France). I agree he may well have had more success using less "confrontational" tactics though.