T/S: The Roman Empire vs. The Aztec Empire

obv Gibbon would have a more comprehensive answer.

the roman empire did extend into present-day Scotland - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonine_Wall - but they were never able to fully conquer the Picts

uh aztecs didn't chew coca compadre

that was the incas

The Romans may not have harvested human sacrifices from among their conquered neighbors, but they did practice mass crucifixion when the mood struck them. About a push, I'd say.

I'm sad all the pictures in this thread are gone

^^^

nobody in the early part of this thread seemed to know much about the Aztecs huh

someone on ilx recently recommended this book series and it's like lots of maps and maybe one of them was maps of the roman empire? does anyone have any idea what i'm talking about?

it was a caek thing but i can't find it; maybe ask on caek's corner?

Penguin atlases by Colin McEvedy.

https://www.amazon.com/New-Penguin-Atlas-Ancient-History/dp/0140513485

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jul/04/why-roman-concrete-still-stands-strong-while-modern-version-decays
So it turns of sea-water is the secret missing ingredient to Roman concrete.

Roman concrete combined volcanic ash, lime, volcanic rock and seawater. That final ingredient, it turns out, is key. The unusual combination of ingredients actually gets stronger as new minerals form over millennia.

miss the romans, don't get the aztecs. mayans seem more agreeable.

Roman concrete sounds amazing.
The dark ages really were terrible huh

The day I went to B+Q and said: I don't want any of this modern shit, I want some Roman concrete mix and I'll take a few drums of seawater.

for the base of your Tzompantli.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/07/archaeologists-uncover-tenochtitlans-legendary-tower-of-skulls/

Good topic of conversation at the BBQ: "Well this tower of skulls was a nightmare to put together, but I haven't been burgled since I put it up and pretty much all the thugs in the neighbourhood daren't even look at me askance these days"

happy 570th to the fall of the eastern roman empire

Is that according to the Julian calendar or the Gregorian?

sorry for the eastern roman empire but i'm built different

I listened to an interview with Charles Mann on 1491 15 years on last night. He talked about a few books as he went along including one on the Triple Alliance from Nahuatl sources or maybe more the fall of the Triple Alliance. Part of the point being Aztec was an externally imposed name which its population wouldn't have used.
I haven't had a chance to find the section of the podcast I was listening to. I was mobile at the time walking back from somewhere which is why I didn't make a note at the time.
But am interested in finding out what the book was. I think Mann was also talking about slavery in pre contact South Americabut think it was a different author.

FRom what I'm seeing the book may be Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest Matthew Restall
it was definitely him that wrote it. I found the section of the podcast again though McCann doesn't mention a book I think.
He also mentions a couple of other books The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America
by Andrés Reséndez and one by a female author which I need to find again also looking at slavery. Managed to note the names down as I was walking around town this time.

I just transformed Charles C Mann into he name McCann for some reason. Argh, drained after a hot day out

looking at comment earlier in the thread, apparently Rome did consider invading Ireland but thought it was a step to far for their budget. They did se up trade with the population though, a talk I attended just before the pandemic mentioned a semi permanent Roman representative set up within a port in Ireland that people were trading from. Also the amount of what would be Irish people who joined the Roman army also that the beginning of the adoption of the Latin alphabet may date back to that instead of it being centuries later as I'd imagined.

also I'm just listening to an interview with Matthew Restall
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1818zjhD9wEV4u1iqcwBYV?si=75eee58ff7624090

Tacitus, and subsequently historians like Gibbon, claimed that the only reason Agricola didn't try to conquer Ireland was that the emperor Domitian didn't want him getting any more kudos

Is there an equivalent history of the Aztecs as there is for the Roman Empire (Gibbon)?

now there's a thread idea

xp Probably several since it was a thing of prestige for the Spanish. THere are certainly accounts from supporting players of the era. But as with a lot of things those who wrote the history didn't have the most objective perspective.
So writers like Restall and Mann and others are having to reexamine sources. Restall is looking at Nahuatl sources which seems interesting. I saw a couple of webinars a couple of years ago where people were looking at new technology that could search written texts from the era so better collate statistics etc. & that was with a heavy focus on mesoamerican texts from this era and slightly later. Would have more universal usage, not heard about it in a while so assuming its still developing.

Spanish accounts of the time are likely to be pretty racist . Counterting initial astonishment at how advanced the societies they encountered were. Also trying to make themselves more central to action, while i've just heard Restall talking about there being about 500 Spanish and thousands of native troops who already had there own agendas. Also could change from ally to non ally dependent on their own agendas. I just read teh book On Savage Shores talking about native americans visiting the old world which was at least partially at their own will as ambassadors etc and people trying to curry favour with the Spanish

I think the Aztec or Mexica empire or the triple alliance was not likely to be held in as much prestige as Rome was in its aftermath. Population were like brown which doesn't make Europeans flock to memorialise it. At least not in the early modern age, I assume taht is improving now since there are a number of books looking at the history of how the situation came about, I think they are less interested in valorising it in a similar way. Trying to be more objective than trying to make it look so much like a beacon of civilisation, historians are having to deal with ideas like human sacrifice and widespread slavery etc as part of teh picture. But it is being written and reexamined etc.

I also think the Spanish burned a load of the texts taht had been written since they must be devil driven since they represented the wrong religion. Shame, would be good to get more of their own perspective. Can't have burnt everything if people like Restall and Andrés Reséndez are able to go back and use papers as resources. THink I do need to look more into what has survived.

It is a crazy fact to me that the descendants of Moctezuma Xocoyotzin, emperor of the Aztecs at the time of Cortes, still exist as a noble family with the hereditary title of "duke of Moctezuma de Tultengo"... in Spain, not Mexico... since the latter abolished its aristocracy. pic.twitter.com/bCk7qC3DIG

— Tristan S. Rapp (@Hieraaetus) June 4, 2023