Alas, there are new military mutinies. In the end most of Justinian's supporters abandon him. He and his son are killed. The year is AD 711. This is the end of the Heraclian dynasty, and the end of our political history.
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Will conclude with some imperial portraits. Here's Constantine IV, from a mosaic in the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare (Ravenna).pic.twitter.com/aFOo43PS5c
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And here's the fantastic Justinian II, from the same basilica.pic.twitter.com/tmk1TxBmKX
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Indeed they minted solidi with the image of Leontius. Here he is having a beard:pic.twitter.com/njCyoCr4D0
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Next thred will be about Monophysites. Why anyone care, were they just eastern 'nationalists,' did they overlap with the Green football hooligans, what about the theology tho, etc After then I promise we get to conspiracies.
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Replying to @eugyppius1
Peter Heather’s Rome Resurgent (mediocre) claims that Greek Fire was used during the time of Anastasius I. No citation so far as I can tell though. Just wrong?
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Replying to @Serenitynow418
There are sporadic attestations in the ancient world for the tactical use of naphtha (a petroleum substance), during sieges and so forth. Greek Fire (the crusaders' term for it, actually) as a particularly naval weapon, consisting of some kind of pump/flamethrower apparatus ...
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Replying to @eugyppius1 @Serenitynow418
... mounted on Byzantine ships, is first attested in AD 671, in the great naval battles against the Arab fleets. I'd need to look into what exactly Heather's talking about, but I'd guess he just means some earlier use of naphtha.
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Thing rang a distant bell so I looked it up. John Malala, Chronographa Book XVI is the source. It's a bit elliptical. A philosopher named Proclus tells Marinus to obtain "red sulphur" and grind it up. It can then be shot at anything, and the sunlight will set it on fire.
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Replying to @eugyppius1 @Serenitynow418
Marinus meets Vitalians ships at the entrance to the Golden Horn, they shoot the powder at them, all the ships burn and sink. An earlier pyrotechnic stunt of some kind I guess, but not really the system of Greek fire as it was invented in the later 7th c.
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Replying to @eugyppius1 @Serenitynow418
Chronographia*, John Malalas*, what a plague of typos.
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