76
votes
Accepted
How did the ancient Greeks synchronize time?
In the particular case of Eratosthenes measuring the radius of the earth, it was done by observing the length of shadows at midday on the summer solstice, in cities that were north-south aligned (to ...
- 3,205
24
votes
Accepted
What is the history of the university asylum law?
This goes back to Frederick Barbarossa. He granted the university the so called scholar's privilege the privilegium scholasticum or authentica habita in 1150s. Full universities had to be granted ...
- 80.8k
20
votes
Why did nationalism in all of Europe surge in the 19th century?
Who protects your daily security? Who does your loyalty belong to?
Initially (in the middle ages), the answer was your local nobleman, and, through him, via the duke and/or kind, to the Holy Roman ...
- 26.9k
19
votes
Accepted
Are there any writings by blinded and/or exiled Byzantine emperors?
John VI Kantakouzenos
John VI Kantakouzenos, who reigned from 31 March 1347 to 10 December 1354, is the emperor who comes closest to meeting your criteria. He was deposed by his co-emperor John V ...
- 108k
17
votes
Accepted
When was the Ottoman mosque within the Parthenon demolished?
There were actually two mosques built within the Parthenon, the first was mostly destroyed when the explosion took place in 1687. The second mosque, which you are referring to is discussed in The ...
- 38.7k
17
votes
Why did Latin take root so deeply in Italy, Gaul, and the Iberian Peninsula, but not Greece or beyond?
Suspect it was because Greek already had well established literacy whereas other regions you name were much less literate. The Latin alphabet was based on the Etruscan alphabet which was in turn based ...
- 3,183
16
votes
How did the ancient Greeks synchronize time?
To add to the answer of PhillS: there was essentially no method of exact time synchronization in two remote places before 17th century. The method of observation at noon
at two places only works UNDER ...
- 38.5k
15
votes
Why did Latin take root so deeply in Italy, Gaul, and the Iberian Peninsula, but not Greece or beyond?
Greek states were very much culturally superior to Rome at the time of conquest.
This was recognized even by the Romans themselves. A well-educated Roman had to read and speak Greek. There was ...
- 38.5k
14
votes
Accepted
What did Nikolas Mystikos call his countrymen in official correspondence?
Just a hint, according to Greek wikipedia entry (which cites this book), the Patriarch wrote Ῥωμαῖοι - Rhōmaîoi in the letter.:
Οι δύο δυνάμεις ολόκληρου του σύμπαντος, η δύναμη των Σαρακηνών και
...
- 270
12
votes
Why didn't the European Christians take back Constantinopole?
There was no "good" time for Europeans to take back Constantinople. As late as 1683, the Ottomans had the upper hand, besieging Vienna. Up to that point, Europe was more concerned about defending ...
- 104k
11
votes
Why were Muslims in Western Thrace and Christians in Constantinople excluded from the population exchange?
Not a full answer, but I expect it to be useful until a better one shows up.
Most of Greeks expelled from Turkey weren't expelled after the exchange was accorded but they were already in Greece (...
- 3,649
10
votes
Accepted
How was Herodotus able to get accounts of the Battle of Thermopylae?
Firstly, your assertion that:
> It is said he recorded the last words of the Spartans "stranger go tell Sparta we lie here obedient to her laws "
is incorrect.
That is actually the wording of an ...
- 77.4k
10
votes
Accepted
Is Makarios III's harsh quote on Turkish Cypriots accurate?
The exact quote or close variants of it never show up with a proper source attribution. That is usually a sign that those typing these words cannot name one. And I tend to dismiss all of these cases ...
- 80.8k
10
votes
Accepted
Was possession of a radio forbidden in Greece in 1930s?
At this link we find the following document:
This is a document from June 4, 1931, from the "Ministry of Transport". It gives "temporary permission" to an individual citizen to ...
9
votes
Accepted
Is it true that many great ancient warriors were vegan?
So officially, would carry wheat and barley but they ate whatever they could find,
Armies back then were principally fed with wheat, the soldiers would have likely ate plain whole wheat bread ...
- 2,333
9
votes
Are modern Greeks related to the ancient Greeks?
A study published in the August, 2017 issue of Nature claims to have established a link between the modern Greek population and the Mycenaeans based on DNA analysis from ancient remains.
From the ...
- 251
9
votes
When did the Greeks stop calling themselves "Roman"?
Simpler answer: the Roman Empire centered in Constantinople was always the Roman Empire and the Greek-speaking Roman Christians continued to refer to themselves as Romans even during Ottoman rule (and ...
- 117
8
votes
Accepted
Why did not UK assist Greece in 1919 war?
Is the question: "Why did the Great Britain not assist Greek expansionism in the Aegean (specifically Asia Minor/Anatolia) at the expense of the Turks?"
Well Jon Custer's comment that war-weariness ...
- 3,175
8
votes
Accepted
Why was religion used as the basis of Turkey-Greece population exchange instead of language, ethnicity, etc.?
Ataturk was not the architect of this exchange. The idea of protecting minorities in former Ottoman Empire came from the western Allies - according to the wiki article on the Lausanne Conference, ...
- 8,875
7
votes
What happened to those ethnic Greeks who converted to Islam during the Ottoman empire?
They melted in with the local population. In Turkey there's no such notion of pure race. I'm from a village located within the Black Sea region of Turkey. We have bazaar which are in ruins today left ...
- 201
7
votes
What is the history of the university asylum law?
Why do universities prefer to have their own police force?
I can address this a little bit in the United States context.
As you noted, the rise of campus police forces came after campus protests in ...
- 171
6
votes
What happened to Muslim spouses who converted to Christianity during the 1923 Graeco-Turkish population exchange?
Officially, If you were a Muslim in Greece, you could be exempt from compulsory deportation if you were:
part of the ethnic Albanian community
a resident of Thrace
The Greek government had placed no ...
- 3,935
6
votes
What happened to those ethnic Greeks who converted to Islam during the Ottoman empire?
Although many of the Muslims in Greece were deported to Turkey, some ended up in other places.
In Crete, most of the Muslims were Greeks who had converted. There was a massacre by Greek nationalists ...
- 61
6
votes
Are modern Greeks related to the ancient Greeks?
There is an interesting map that shows the distribution of DNA among several countries of Europe.
This map shows that some haplogrupes are related to greek population (E3b and J2), actually, both ...
- 4,901
6
votes
Are there any other "Delphic Temple"-like sites in the world?
There is another ancient Greek religious site which meets the criteria of what you're describing. The Ploutonion at Hierapolis, a temple dedicate to Pluto/Hades, was build upon the entrance to a cave ...
- 739
6
votes
Accepted
Is the Tokai Maru the ship that rescued many refugees from the 'Smyrna catastrophe' in 1922 or is it named Tokei Maru instead?
No. If there was this ship, then the name of the ship in question was Tokei Maru.
The reason for, and meaning of, "if" is illuminated in the first quote below: there it says that numerous ...
- 80.8k
5
votes
Accepted
How did NATO handle the military coups and juntas in Greece, Turkey and Portugal?
NATO stayed out of the way; and they "consulted"
Article 4
The Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of
them, the territorial integrity, political independence or ...
- 3,519
5
votes
What is the likely ethnic origin of the Minoans?
An analysis of DNA evidence, published in Nature back in 2013, suggested that the Minoans were a local European civilisation. A few reports since have refined the details, but the main conclusion ...
- 77.4k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible