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Before diving into Chinese characters, mastering Pinyin is your first step. Pinyin, the Romanization system for Standard Mandarin, breaks down complex Chinese sounds into familiar Latin letters, making pronunciation more accessible. Tune in to this episode of Takeaway Chinese and explore Pinyin with Niuniu and Steve!
How were the Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula changed by Roman rule? In episode 8 you will learn everything about the Romanization of Hispania and the political history of Roman Hispania from 19 BC to 235 AD. SUPPORT NEW HISTORY OF SPAIN: Patreon: https://patreon.com/newhistoryspain Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/newhistoryspain PayPal: https://paypal.me/lahistoriaespana Bitcoin donation: bc1q64qs58s5c5kp5amhw5hn7vp9fvtekeq96sf4au Ethereum donation: 0xE3C423625953eCDAA8e57D34f5Ce027dd1902374 Join the DISCORD: https://discord.gg/jUvtdRKxUC Or follow the show for updates on Twitter/X: https://x.com/newhistoryspain OTHER SERVICES: My English to Spanish translation service: https://www.fiverr.com/s/Ke8yP4b Join my course to learn how to use AI in your academic research and writing: https://www.udemy.com/course/ai-for-scholars/?referralCode=22121D97D0B1CECE5ECC YOUTUBE CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/@newhistoryspain Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/new-history-of-spain/id1749528700 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7hstfgSYFfFPXhjps08IYi TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Hook 00:24 The Principate, the Political Regime of the Early Roman Empire 03:58 What is Romanization? 09:05 Consequences of Romanization 14:14 Causes of Romanization 21:58 Vespasian's Edict of Latin Rights 24:39 Trajan and Hadrian, the Roman Emperors from Hispania 27:51 The Roman Empire on the Defensive 31:51 The Verdict: The Unexceptional Romanization 32:56 Outro
Are you ready for some theological fun? Watch one of the greatest living Biblical scholars tell 450 day-drinking progressive Christians how cool the Biblical Paul was. This is a live podcast with John Dominic Crossan from Theology Beer Camp. It was a ton of fun and will give you a taste of what goes down at camp. If you want to hang with us this year in Denver, head over here and get your info. If you want some more time with Dom Crossan, then join our upcoming class on the Historical Jesus. John Dominic Crossan is an Irish-American biblical scholar with two-year post-doctoral diplomas in exegesis from Rome's Pontifical Biblical Institute and in archeology from Jerusalem's École Biblique. He has been a mendicant friar and a catholic priest, a Co-Chair of the Jesus Seminar, and a President of the Society of Biblical Literature. His focus, whether scholarly or popular, in books, videos, or lectures, is on the historical Jesus as the norm and criterion for the entire Christian Bible. His reconstructed Jesus incarnates nonviolent resistance to the Romanization of his Jewish homeland and future hope of a transformed world and transfigured earth. Crossan's method is to situate biblical texts within the reconstructed matrix of their own genre and purpose, their own time and place, and to hear them accurately for then before accepting or rejecting them for now. Dom's lecture from Theology Beer Camp, The Vision & Execution of Jesus The video version of our conversation JOIN the HISTORICAL JESUS class with Dom Crossan Follow the podcast, drop a review, send feedback/questions or become a member of the HBC Community. Previous Podcast Episodes with Dom & Tripp Christian Resurrection & Human Evolution The Cross & the Crisis of Civilization The Coming Kingdom & the Risen Christ The Parables of Jesus & the Parable of God How to think about Jesus like a Historian the Last Week of Jesus' Life Jesus, Paul, & Bible Questions Saving the Biblical Christmas Stories the most important discovery for understanding Jesus The Bible, Violence, & Our Future Resurrecting Easter on the First Christmas From Jesus' Parables to Parables of God Render Unto Caesar on God & Empire Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Join Fr. Len for a insightful multi-part series on Church History. To support the podcast financially, click here: https://stpiuscda.org/online-giving
The Romanization of Roman Britain
The life-threatening journey of Kang In-gu (Ha Jung-woo), a civilian businessman who has no choice but to cooperate with the secret operation of the National Intelligence Service to catch Jeon Yo-hwan (Hwang Jung-min), the Korean drug lord who has taken control of Suriname. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
Episode Notes Discussion of Christianity during the Roman Empire from the pre-Jesus conquest of Palestine by Pompey to the social commentary of Jesus to the radical Romanization of Paul to the Philosophical assimilation of Augustine's "City of God" with Platonic Philosophy. We even invent thought crimes, build a capital and destroy an Empire.
Learning Chinese is intimidating: four tones, 3,000-odd characters or ideograms to carry on a basic conversation, a completely different orientation of words on the page … oh, and about a dozen languages classified as “Chinese” whose speakers wouldn't understand one another. Becoming literate in any Chinese language was even more difficult at the turn of the 20th century than it is now. Then, no standard pronunciation system existed to get you started on the road to learning one of them. The story of how Mandarin won out—and how its tens of thousands of ideograms survived threats of colonization, simplification, and Romanization—is the subject of Kingdom of Characters by Jing Tsu, a professor of East Asian languages and literature at Yale. She joins us on the podcast to discuss the rebels, novelists, engineers, librarians, and fringe reformers who made modern Mandarin what it is today.Go beyond the episode:Jing Tsu's Kingdom of CharactersSomething else that radically changed Chinese culture: modern artNot all languages survive encounters with the West: listen to our interview with Don Kulick about the death of TayapTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Learning Chinese is intimidating: four tones, 3,000-odd characters or ideograms to carry on a basic conversation, a completely different orientation of words on the page … oh, and about a dozen languages classified as “Chinese” whose speakers wouldn't understand one another. Becoming literate in any Chinese language was even more difficult at the turn of the 20th century than it is now. Then, no standard pronunciation system existed to get you started on the road to learning one of them. The story of how Mandarin won out—and how its tens of thousands of ideograms survived threats of colonization, simplification, and Romanization—is the subject of Kingdom of Characters by Jing Tsu, a professor of East Asian languages and literature at Yale. She joins us on the podcast to discuss the rebels, novelists, engineers, librarians, and fringe reformers who made modern Mandarin what it is today.Go beyond the episode:Jing Tsu's Kingdom of CharactersSomething else that radically changed Chinese culture: modern artNot all languages survive encounters with the West: listen to our interview with Don Kulick about the death of TayapTune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.Subscribe: iTunes • Feedburner • Stitcher • Google Play • AcastHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
learn how to transcribe Thai using the Latin alphabet
How do you fight off the greatest military machine the world had ever produced? How do you take back an empire? In his quest to win a better life for himself and the men he led, Sertorius shows what talented and determined people can do when they justly feel they have been wronged and have been given no recourse. He makes allies with unexpected leaders, he mentors those beneath him, and inspires thousands of people, time and again, to fight alongside him. In this third and final installment of the Life of Sertorius, we follow Sertorius' stunning and improbable rise to the leadership of a rival Roman state. Hunted by his enemies, he throws in his lot with pirates from Cilicia. When they abandon him, he battles against them in a proxy war in Mauretania (Morocco). The Lusitanians, a Spaniard tribe, invite him to be their leader. He persuades them to join him in a bold mission to restore Rome from Spain. He evades the great Metellus Pius, using guerrilla tactics, and sets about Romanizing the native peoples of Spain. The Senate sends in Pompey the Great. Sertorius schools him too. But the greatest challenge Sertorius faces is in sharing his power - in trusting other Romans who are not like him, who lack his vision, humility, and discipline.Sertorius' life provides many valuable lessons for leaders: lessons on strategy and tactics, the importance of preparation, surprise, speed, knowing your territory, but also the power of trustworthiness, empathy, and patience.A great Roman historian, a nobel laureate, Theodor Mommsen, called Sertorius, “one of the great men, perhaps the greatest of all Rome had produced, and one who in more fortunate circumstances could perhaps have become the regenerator of his country.”If you're looking for a way to sharpen your present by learning from the lives of famous leaders such as Sertorius, download and listen to this latest episode. On today's podcast: Guest Narrator! Dr. Anika Prather. https://drprather.com/ The Pirates of Cilicia Usurpers and the Giant's tomb in Morocco Guerilla Warfare, Roman style The Lusitanians and their role in the great Sertorian rebellion Diana, the Hunter goddess, and her divine “gift” Sertorius' famous opponents: Metellus Pius, Pompey the Great Spectacular military exploits at Lauro, Sucro, Saguntum, and more Beginning the Romanization of Spain A rival Senate, a rival State Sertorius' final achievement Links:https://ancientlifecoach.com/Sponsors The Paideia Institute - classical tours and classical language teaching www.paideiainstitute.org
In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Edward J. Watts, the author of "The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome: The History of a Dangerous Idea", to tell the stories of the people who built their political and literary careers around promises of Roman renewal, as well as those of the victims they blamed for causing Rome's decline. Professor Watts received his PhD in History from Yale University in 2002. His research interests center on the intellectual and religious history of the Roman Empire and the early Byzantine Empire. His first book, City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria (University of California Press, 2006), explains how the increasingly Christian upper class of the late antique world used a combination of economic and political pressures to neutralize pagan elements of the traditional educational system. City and School received the Outstanding Publication Award from the Classical Association of the Middle West and South in 2007. His second book, Riot in Alexandria: Historical Debate in Pagan and Christian Communities (University of California Press, 2010), uses Greek, Latin, Coptic, and Syriac sources to reconstruct an Alexandrian riot that erupted in 486 AD. Riot received a 2010 PROSE Award Honorable Mention in Classics and Ancient History. His third book, The Final Pagan Generation (University of California Press, 2015) offers a generational history of the men born in the 310s that traces the experience of living through the fourth century's dramatic religious and political changes. It was awarded the 2015 Phi Alpha Theta Best Subsequent Book Prize. His fourth book, Hypatia: The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher (Oxford University Press, 2017) recounts the life of an important female philosopher whose work redefined philosophy and whose death resonated as a symbol of dramatic religious and social change in the early fifth century. He is also the author of Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny (Basic Books, 2018). In addition to these five books, he has co-edited five other volumes (From the Theodosians to the Tetrarchs [Cambridge, 2010]; Shifting Cultural Frontiers in Late Antiquity [Ashgate, 2012]; Freedom of Speech and Self Censorship in Late Antiquity [a special issue of the Revue Belge published in 2014]; Late Antique Letter Collections: A Critical Introduction and Reference Guide [University of California Press, 2016], and the Blackwell Companion to Late Antique Literature [Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming]. He has also authored more than 40 articles on topics ranging from the Old Academy in the fourth century BC to the relationship between orality and textuality in the early Byzantine period. He is currently preparing a monograph tracing the Romanization and de-Romanization of the Mediterranean world between 96 and 850 AD (The Rise and Fall of the Roman Nation, [Oxford University Press, forthcoming]) and is co-authoring a volume introducing the historical and classroom uses of Roman imperial coins. Before coming to UCSD in 2012, Professor Watts taught for ten years at Indiana University. Professor Watts teaches courses on Byzantine History, Roman History, Late Antique Christianity and paganism, Roman numismatics, and the history of the Medieval Mediterranean. Dr. Watts was the director of the Center for Hellenic Studies from 2014-2016. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode, we discuss and learn about the Romanization of Hispania.
A podcast with a brief history of Portugal. In this second episode we will explore the Roman invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, the creations of Lusitania and Galécia. The history of Portugal as a European nation it dates back to the Low Middle Ages, when the Portucalense county became autonomous from the kingdom of Leão. However, the history of human presence in the territory corresponding to Portugal began much earlier. Prehistory records the first hominids about 500,000 years ago. The territory was visited by several peoples: Phoenicians who founded trading posts, later replaced by Carthaginians. Celtic peoples settled and mixed in with the natives. In the 3rd century BC, it was inhabited by several peoples, when the Roman invasion of the Iberian Peninsula took place. Romanization left lasting marks on language, law, and religion. With the decline of the Roman Empire, it was occupied by Germanic peoples and later by Muslims (Moors and some Arabs), while Christians retreated to the north, in Asturias. In 1139, during the Christian reconquest, the Kingdom of Portugal was founded from the Portucalense county, born between the rivers Minho and Douro. The stabilization of its borders in 1297 made Portugal the European country with the oldest borders. As a pioneer in maritime exploration in the Age of Discovery, the kingdom of Portugal expanded its territories between the 15th and 16th centuries, establishing the first global empire in history, with possessions in Africa, South America, Asia and Oceania. In 1580 a succession crisis resulted in the Iberian Union with Spain. With no autonomy to defend its overseas possessions in the face of the Dutch offensive, the kingdom lost much of its wealth and status. In 1640 independence was restored under the new dynasty of Bragança. The 1755 earthquake in Lisbon destroyed much of the city. Its reconstruction took several years and the new architecture can be seen in the terreiro do paço. The Spanish and French invasions resulted in political and economic instability. In 1820 a revolt had the first Portuguese constitution approved, initiating the constitutional monarchy which faced the loss of the largest colony, Brazil. At the end of the century, Portugal lost its status in the so-called partition of Africa. A revolution in 1910 deposed the monarchy, but the first Portuguese republic failed to settle the problems of a country immersed in social conflict, corruption and clashes with the Church. A coup d'état in 1926 gave way to a dictatorship. From 1961 onwards, it waged a colonial war that lasted until 1974, when a military revolt overthrew the government. The following year, Portugal declared the independence of all its possessions in Africa. After a turbulent revolutionary period, it entered the path of a pluralist democracy. The 1976 constitution defines Portugal as a semi-presidential republic. From 1986 onwards, it reinforced its modernization and insertion into the European space with its accession to the European Economic Community (EEC). --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/manuel-francisco-velez/message
A podcast with a brief history of Portugal In this first episode we will explore what we can find of the peoples that lived before the roman conquest. The history of Portugal as a European nation it dates back to the Low Middle Ages, when the Portucalense county became autonomous from the kingdom of Leão. However, the history of human presence in the territory corresponding to Portugal began much earlier. Prehistory records the first hominids about 500,000 years ago. The territory was visited by several peoples: Phoenicians who founded trading posts, later replaced by Carthaginians. Celtic peoples settled and mixed in with the natives. In the 3rd century BC, it was inhabited by several peoples, when the Roman invasion of the Iberian Peninsula took place. Romanization left lasting marks on language, law, and religion. With the decline of the Roman Empire, it was occupied by Germanic peoples and later by Muslims (Moors and some Arabs), while Christians retreated to the north, in Asturias. In 1139, during the Christian reconquest, the Kingdom of Portugal was founded from the Portucalense county, born between the rivers Minho and Douro. The stabilization of its borders in 1297 made Portugal the European country with the oldest borders. As a pioneer in maritime exploration in the Age of Discovery, the kingdom of Portugal expanded its territories between the 15th and 16th centuries, establishing the first global empire in history, with possessions in Africa, South America, Asia and Oceania. In 1580 a succession crisis resulted in the Iberian Union with Spain. With no autonomy to defend its overseas possessions in the face of the Dutch offensive, the kingdom lost much of its wealth and status. In 1640 independence was restored under the new dynasty of Bragança. The 1755 earthquake in Lisbon destroyed much of the city. Its reconstruction took several years and the new architecture can be seen in the terreiro do paço. The Spanish and French invasions resulted in political and economic instability. In 1820 a revolt had the first Portuguese constitution approved, initiating the constitutional monarchy which faced the loss of the largest colony, Brazil. At the end of the century, Portugal lost its status in the so-called partition of Africa. A revolution in 1910 deposed the monarchy, but the first Portuguese republic failed to settle the problems of a country immersed in social conflict, corruption and clashes with the Church. A coup d'état in 1926 gave way to a dictatorship. From 1961 onwards, it waged a colonial war that lasted until 1974, when a military revolt overthrew the government. The following year, Portugal declared the independence of all its possessions in Africa. After a turbulent revolutionary period, it entered the path of a pluralist democracy. The 1976 constitution defines Portugal as a semi-presidential republic. From 1986 onwards, it reinforced its modernization and insertion into the European space with its accession to the European Economic Community (EEC). --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/manuel-francisco-velez/message
From the banks of the river Tevere to the shores of Puglia, in 500 years Rome defeats its adversaries one by one, Etruscans, Gauls, Samnites, Greeks, and conquers Italy.More about VITOR at www.vitoritalytours.com
learn how to transcribe Hebrew using the Latin alphabet
Korea24 – 2020.02.02. (Tuesday)/////News Briefing: South Korea released the 2020 defense white paper on Tuesday, discussing not only South Korea’s current defense capabilities, but also the military status of North Korea. It noted that North Korea has expanded its ballistic missile units, strengthened special forces with modernized equipment and reinforced exercises to attack strategic targets. (Robert Koehler)/////In-Depth News Analysis: Almost two week’s after US President Joe Bident’s inauguration, the phone call between Biden and South Korean President Moon Jae-in has happened. Professor Park Won-gon from Handong Global University gives his insight on what this delayed phone call could mean, and how the Biden administration is expected to handle North Korea’s denuclearization issue, as well as pending bilateral issues with Seoul./////Korea Trending with Lee Ju-young: Notorious child sex offender Cho Doo-soon qualifies for welfare benefits(조두순 복지급여), the KBO announces its 2021 regular-season schedule(프로야구 정규시즌 일정 발표), and K-pop soloist Kang Daniel teases his comeback on February 16(강다니엘 컴백)./////Touch Base in Seoul: Photographer Rami Hyun discusses his work with soldiers and veterans, more recently with Korean War Veterans. He talks about the importance of capturing the veterans' pride and honor through his portraits so they can be passed on to future generations./////Morning Edition Preview with Mark Wilson-Choi: Mark shares a piece from the Korea Herald that talks about the official Romanization of the modern art master 이중섭 as "Lee Jung-seop."
As a licensed counselor with eleven years within the service community, Abi Ray, LMFTA seeks to encourage and equip individuals in their personal, professional, and relational lives. In 2017, she launched Legacy Magazine as a tangible way to empower service families and the communities that champion them. This past summer, she co-founded Legacy Kids Magazine as a way to offer a similar outlet for military children to understand their own feelings and uplift others along the way. Most days you can find her unwinding with her husband and two daughters or immersing herself in literature on professional development, family enrichment, and trauma-informed care. Connect with Abi on Instagram @abi.ray. Learn more about Legacy Magazine at https://www.legacymagazine.org/ (https://www.legacymagazine.org/). Connect Instagram @legacymag or Facebook @LegacyMag2017 -- We're now accepting guests for 2021! Apply today https://forms.gle/sDY5nPkEMu665FXn6 (https://forms.gle/sDY5nPkEMu665FXn6) Read what's new with our show: https://mailchi.mp/d055f621b02a/holdingdownthefort-6544365 (https://mailchi.mp/d055f621b02a/holdingdownthefort-6544365) Say updated! Subscribe to our newsletter http://eepurl.com/gTTOdT (http://eepurl.com/gTTOdT) Visit our website https://www.holdingdownthefortpodcast.com/ (https://www.holdingdownthefortpodcast.com/) Sponsored by US VetWealth, FREE PDF download for our latest book http://veteranwealthsecrets.com/ (http://veteranwealthsecrets.com/) Connect with our co-hosts Jen Amos jen@holdingdownthefortpodcast.com and Jenny Lynne Stroup https://jennylynnestroup.com/ (https://jennylynnestroup.com/) or jennylynnestroup379@gmail.com November 2020, Jen Amos and Holding Down the Fort Podcast was awarded “Media Professional of the Year” at The Rosie Network Entrepreneur Awards! Check out her acceptance speech at https://fb.watch/1Es0LLlGu7/ (https://fb.watch/1Es0LLlGu7/) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Enjoy our show? Kindly leave us a review on Apple Podcasts https://apple.co/30SJ7NW (https://apple.co/30SJ7NW) Podchaser https://bit.ly/3dnCacY (https://bit.ly/3dnCacY) Or a LinkedIn Recommendation for Jen https://bit.ly/3jNobzB (https://bit.ly/3jNobzB) Support this podcast
learn how to transcribe Cantonese using the Latin alphabet
learn how to transcribe Hindi using the Latin alphabet
Thai transcript & Romanization & English translation : http://youtoocanlearnthai.com/?p=247 ** New book! "Improve your Thai alphabet writing" by Khru Nan Available on Amazon as paperback and ebook : http://getbook.at/thaialphabet ** Thailand t-shirts designed by Khru Nan Amazon .com : https://amzn.to/3kQNv8E Amazon UK : https://amzn.to/3h39Opd ** See a complete list of products. Your purchase is a way to keep the podcast going. Thank you! http://youtoocanlearnthai.com/?page_id=33 ** Timestamp [02:20] Interview with Khun Wasabi [04:31] Sentence-by-sentence translation [10:03] Sentence explanation [45:28] Summary [48:30] The interview, read by Nan
An old but beautifully coherent and thoughtful book. We here about the Franks, Romanization and an oversexed Childreic and this is only Chapter 1 MP4 recording MP3 recording Your browser does not support the audio element.
learn about the different types of Korean romanization
learn how to transcribe Japanese using the Latin alphabet
In this episode I am responding to a question I got from a listener on Cantonese pronunciations. I will be talking a bit about the different Cantonese romanization systems as well as some suggestions when pronouncing words. For written materials: http://www.theartofhongkongesebyadummy.com/tips-for-pronunciation-romanization-systems
We continue our exploration of ideology (specifically monotheism) with a discussion of Christianity and its Romanization.
Welcome to Week 13 of the Wise Not Withered Character Showcase! I am recording from my kitchen table today, for a change of scenery. It's a little windy outside, so you may hear the gentle tinkling of the wind chimes right outside my front door throughout this episode. This week features the last PAIR of women: our fire and water twins, Feu and Sui. Their supernatural story about parallel worlds and elemental powers was written by Jessie Jing, with gorgeous illustrations by Marah Ali.A lot of the Wise Not Withered stories are set in reality, or at least a realistic world. Something really special about Feu and Sui's story is that there are actually two worlds: the living world of Earth, and the parallel spirit world of Etern. Jessie will talk more about this later in the episode.In terms of plot, the Fire and Water Twins' story was perhaps the most bare-boned idea I had at the beginning. I just knew that I wanted there to be twins that had fire and water powers. That idea sparked from the plethora of natural disasters that have been happening in the United States: raging fires in the west (where I live), and devastating hurricanes in the east. I thought about how it would be great if someone could take all the water from the other side of the country and bring it here to the west coast. I started to imagine two middle-aged women floating high in the sky, bringing all the water over there to over here. And that's really all the thoughts I had about these characters!Jessie brought such a depth to the twins, coming up with their names and the idea of being cast into parallel worlds. I'm amazed at just how broad Jessie's creative spectrum extends: she is arguably one of the most multi-talented artists on the team so far, not only excelling in writing but also dancing and choreography. I was so happy to hear back from her.The story of Feu and Sui is definitely fit for a video game: it starts with a narrator named Vide, inviting the reader/player to learn about the twins and help reunite them, to bring balance to the world. Here's an excerpt from the beginning of the story:"They need to be reunited in order for the world to be in balance once again...Hello, my name is Vide. I am the answer to all that is unknown, which shall be revealed soon. What we will need to do first, however, is reunite the twins in order for the world to be in balance once again. Will you help me?I will tell you the story of Feu and Sui, and you can be the judge of whether or not you will help me in this journey of reuniting the twins..."Jessie and I collaborated on the rest of the story, bringing her ideas of Feu and Sui's past and rooting them into current-timeline scenarios. The ending is purposefully left open-ended, which I will read at the end of the episode.—The illustrator I found for these characters was Marah Ali from Jordan, whom I discovered through Behance. I was really drawn to the realistic details and colors she used for the portraits she had on her page. She was such a joy to work with!Both of the artists involved in the creation of these characters' story and illustrations got involved in the Podcast this time, so without further ado, here is the illustrator, Marah!"Hi, my name is Marah Ali. I'm a studio artist and animator from Jordan. The projects that I'm most proud of are probably two animated music videos that I've done for a local band that I'm a huge fan of. My experience with Wise Not Withered was extremely nice. I had so much fun drawing the fire and water twins. The story was extremely creative, extremely beautiful—I was blown away when I first read it. I got so excited. I tried to make the characters as magical and beautiful as they were in the story. I was also happy that I was given enough creative space to work with my own style. Juliana was such a sweetheart. Illustration by Marah AliI also joined Wise Not Withered because the concept of empowering middle-aged women is extremely important, yet we're always saying on TV, how we should empower young women, and children. We don't talk much about empowering middle-aged women, though it's extremely important. I think that most middle-aged women that I know of are superheroes to me. So I would love if my art might empower any of them. Make them more confident, or might put a smile on their faces when they see middle-aged women with super powers.I also would love to be a storyteller with my art. So telling stories with my own art. So that's one of the reasons that I joined Wise Not Withered. It was a very, very awesome experience."And here is the writer, Jessie!"Hi! My name is Jessie, and I am currently living in London. I am Malaysian Chinese, and I am a dancer and writer. I largely within the contemporary dance scene, and currently studying my master's in choreography. So I'm an all-around creative!I work a lot with writing and text as well, for my dance projects, and vice versa. With writing, I like to work with flow and movement, so both sides of my artist identity informs the other. I'm actually publishing a book, so the launch date is the 28th of February. It's a poetry collection I've written nearly three years back. It's called Manuscripts of the Mind. Publishing with the Ghost and Ribbon, which is an independent publisher. So a little plug there!It's interesting, with this [story]. One of my biggest influences in narratives and story telling is actually Harry Potter. Even Lord of the Rings, although reading-wise, when I was younger I was much more affinitised with Harry Potter. I loved the magical world that it created. I read a lot of Jacqueline Morrison's books as well, and Roald Dahl. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda... These are books that I hold dear in my heart. So I think naturally, when it came to this project... To write about the twins, Feu and Sui, I naturally gravitated toward creating a world. Creating, really opening the imagination, and going really supernatural, with magical abilities.It's also quite a theme that goes across my projects, where I like to create a narrative, create a different space and world for whoever's reading—or watching, if it's for my dance projects.So Feu and Sui are twins. They are elemental twins basically, fire and water. The name Feu is French for fire, and Sui is the Romanization of the Cantonese pronunciation of water. I really like to play with language! It talks about them being in... General background is that they're long-lost twins. Not in the sense that they're lost in one single world, but actually parallel worlds. Sui is in a world "Etern", like a supernatural world, and it's parallel to the Earth that we live in. For Feu, she has supernatural abilities that she is kind of aware of but not, but she's much more in the sort of normalcy of Earth. The story jumps off that point.They're separated from birth. Basically there's a long, deeper story to it. But in the womb, what happened was Feu was the surviving twin, and Sui unfortunately wasn't. But she never truly disappeared, but went into the parallel world of Etern. The story would eventually lead to their meeting, and it would cast the world off balance should their meeting not happen. So yeah, it's quite a dramatic story! (laughs) This is where we start.Obviously, Feu and Sui individually can... Well more Sui, because Sui is aware of her elemental powers. They can manipulate their elements: Feu is for fire, and Sui is for water. And this is the overarching storyline of the story.So like I mentioned, I am very into the whole creation of a different world, hence why Etern is introduced. Should this be a longer extended project, Etern would come into play a lot more. My love for creating worlds and narratives really influenced this creation of a different supernatural, elemental world, and the parallelism of the worlds in this universe. Illustration by Marah AliIn terms of culture... A theme that happens a lot throughout my projects is that I love to play with the notion of duality. Hence the parallelism of the worlds, in that what we see is never what we really... It's not always the only truth. There are many different truths and also many different existences. I wouldn't pinpoint it to a particular culture, but definitely there's this sort of belief of dual or multiple realities. Maybe it's much more science, in that sense? There are many different influences. But definitely my interest in creating a magical, different world is the biggest influence.I joined the Wise Not Withered project because I really liked what it stands for. The notion that you know, middle-aged and above, senior-aged women are very under-represented across the board, whether it's commercially or even day-to-day in jobs. There is this culture of casting elders aside, perhaps they are not aesthetically fitting to the demands of the commercial society. I feel that is not true: there is so much that the senior ages can offer. Their wisdom, their power, their strengths are so underrated. This is a big reason as to why I joined. And also because I was raised by my mom, she's a single mother. She obviously will grow older as well. As a younger generation, I hope to carry her legacy as a wise, older woman. So beautiful in her heart, inside and out, and pass that on, really.I would say to a fellow woman... It's been on my mind always, but especially lately, because I've been working in collaborative projects and we've had lots of chats... To stand strong and be confident for other women, and your fellow artists. And to be proud of them... It's so satisfying. It makes you feel so wholesome, as both a person and an artist. I feel the world can get very competitive at times, and we cannot let this culture of competitiveness make us lose our very innate empathetic and supportive nature.Thank you for having me! I really enjoyed this experience in Wise Not Withered, really really enjoyed this experience. I hope to you know, see more artists and writers all across disciplines come together for such projects. And thank you Juliana. Such a great initiative. I really hope for the best for this initiative to go further and further in the future. Thank you!"—And here is how the story ends:"This is where you come back in, friend. Feu has fallen and now is precariously treading on the thin line between the living Earth and Etern. On Earth, one can be alive with land-dwelling beings, and feel the warmth of the sun on human skin, complete with human emotions. In Etern, there is no warmth but that which lies within your spirit. Elemental powers are active and heightened in Etern.Now, dear friend, two options lie at this fork in the road. What shall Feu and Sui do?1) Feu blacks out, her lungs filling with water. Sui gently touches her hand, and Feu begins to glow red. Just as the life force returns to Feu’s motionless body, Sui is catapulted out of the water and onto the pier. Her first time out of the water, Sui stays on the ground for a few seconds, crouching down and feeling the sturdy wooden logs of the pier beneath her toes and fingertips. She glances down at the water below, then tilts her head up toward the clouds and the brilliant sun, whose cascading rays nearly bring Sui to tears.“My sister... Where am I? Is this the place where you have lived all this time? I must find you, and bring you back... To Earth.”This route would follow Sui on Earth and Feu in Etern, and their adventure in trying to get Feu back onto Earth. 2) Sui catches Feu, and quickly breathes a flurry of bubbles that flutter across Feu’s face, magically clearing the water out and repelling it from her lips and nostrils. Feu opens her eyes, and the two women stare at each other. Without a word, they embrace, their elemental hair burning and flowing together in an intricate dance. They separate and look at one another once more. Feu marvels at her sister’s electric blue hair, slivers of silver shining like the moonlight and stars. Sui admires her sister’s fiery smoke and ember red and grey hair, dancing like flames even though they are underwater.This route would follow Feu and Sui both in Etern, and their adventure in trying to get both of them back onto Earth.The choice is yours, dear friend. Go with your gut feeling, and choose the path that speaks to you."—Stay tuned for more Wise Not Withered Character Showcases, releasing nearly every Sunday, sometimes Monday, until mid-2020!
Kiramager News The 44th Super Sentai “Mashin Sentai Kirameiger!" has been announced. The official Romanization of the team name is Kiramager, so I'll be using that from here on out. Thanks to @SpecialForm12 translating and posting all this information on twitter
In today's episode we discuss what Varus did in the 3 years that he was a governor of Germania. As governor he figures that if this is suppose to be a province of the empire then Germany needs to get to it! Varus decides to launch an aggressive campaign of Romanization within the province. A process that takes decades Varus was trying to fit within a few years and was causing the region to turn against the Roman Empire. Within all of this turmoil steps Arminius who spends the next few years building a network of co-conspirators and allies to eliminate Rome's influence within the province. However will he be able to set up his conspiracy without Varus finding out? Will anyone join him? Tune in and find out! |
Lei, Lei, what do you say? Actually, quite a lot of fun and interesting stuff about WeChat! I know almost zero about this insanely huge part of the world so I tend to ask Lei about it often. And well, being a data-dork my questions tend to be around apps and tech and such. So Lei was good enough to sit down and be recorded and do some explainers on the topic. Basic point is WeChat is humongous. Imagine if you rolled Instagram, What’s App, Facebook all in to one and then added payments. Yep. But we talked a bit about other Chinese apps too. Was fun. Reading WeChat hits one billion monthly users - are you one of them? - BBC News Pinduoduo: China’s hottest online shopping startup | South China Morning Post – South China Morning Post What Is Pinyin? – TutorMing Mandarin Learning Tips Blog “Pinyin is the Romanization of the Chinese characters based on their pronunciation. In Mandarin Chinese, the phrase “Pin Yin” literally translates into “spell sound.” In other words, spelling out Chinese phrases with letters from the English alphabet.”
Caesar launches a civil war, then Octavian and Mark Antony launch another, and finally Octavian turns on Mark Antony. All the while the Roman wars leave Gaul in relative peace as the country heals. Octavian becomes the first Roman Emperor 'Augustus' and inaugurates a program of Romanization on the Gauls, starting with the resettling of veterans and the building of massive new cities.
In our final episode of the season, we wrap up our theme of Empires of Faith. We start out with some shout outs and then present a brief timeline of the Roman and Byzantine Empire. We discuss the Romanization of Christianity and the Christianization of the Roman Empire. We talk about Constantine with the imperial...
This is episode 8 called Hispania: Principate and Romanization and in this episode you will learn: SHOW NOTES - What does Romanization mean - What aspects Romanization involved - Which were the key elements or causes for the Romanization of Hispania - The internal elements that explain this process of acculturation - Which were the different phases of Romanization and why wasn't the process geographically homogenous - Which were the key economic sectors of Hispania during the Principate - A discussion on the importance of the policies of colonization of Julius Caesar and Emperor Augustus, as well as the Edict of Latinization of Vespasian - Why did Vespasian issue the Edict of Latinization and what consequences did that have - The reign of two Hispano-Roman Emperors: Trajan and Hadrian - The decadence of the Roman Empire with the Antonine Plague under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus - The Severan dynasty and how the Crisis of the Third Century started
Former host and Game Design Roundtable co-founder Jon Shafer stops in to talk about At the Gates. Jon’s been hard at work adding features, taking out features, and polishing the game. Progress moves ever forward as the game becomes the game that Jon set out to make.---------------------------------Contact Information Dirk Knemeyer - @DKnemeyer, www.artana.com, Dirk@Knemeyer.com David Heron - @DavidVHeron Jon Shafer - www.atthegatesgame.com, @jonshaferdesign, jonshaferondesign.com, jon.shafer@conifergames.com------------------------------------------------------------Episode Outline 0:01:58 - Making changes in development 0:06:56 - Clans 0:11:57 - Developing the clan mechanic 0:14:36 - Other changes to the game’s original design 0:19:44 - Storytelling 0:22:57 - Diplomacy 0:26:46 - Romanization 0:36:08 - Test groups 0:39:51 - Food and player pressure
The Roman Empire emerges following the death of Julius Caesar. Emperor Claudius sets his sights on Britain, and the native Celtic culture becomes Romanized. We look at the evolution of Latin words related to law, money and social classes.
After some discussion of one little New York Times article that quoted William(!), we move along to talking about designing your sound system and romanization, though it’s mostly about romanization. After that, we break a pattern and for the first time feature a natlang rather than a conlang — going from a grammar that just... Read more »
The Bangkok Podcast | Conversations on Life in Thailand's Buzzing Capital
In the second of our ongoing Thai language series, we continue talking to 'Thai Language Jedi' Rikker Dockum about the complexities of the Thai language. In this episode, we jump onto the much-discussed tone system of Thai, and why foreigners have such a hard time wrapping their head around it while our Thai friends are wondering what the big deal is. Greg and Tony also each share a story or two about how the tones and Romanization aspect of Thai have gotten them into hot water a few times.
Professor Kleiner explores the architecture of the western provinces of the Roman Empire, focusing on sites in what are now North Italy, France, Spain, and Croatia. Her major objective is to characterize "Romanization," the way in which the Romans provide amenities to their new colonies while, at the same time, transforming them into miniature versions of the city of Rome. Professor Kleiner discusses the urban design of two Augustan towns before proceeding to an investigation of a variety of such established Roman building types as theaters, temples, and aqueducts. The well-preserved Theater at Orange and Maison Carrée at Nîmes, and the unparalleled aqueducts at Nîmes and Segovia are highlighted. The lecture concludes with an overview of imperial and private arches and tombs in the western provinces, among them the controversial three-bayed arch at Orange. The Trophy of Augustus at La Turbie serves as a touchstone for the Roman West, as it commemorates Augustus' subjugation of the Alpine tribes, clearing the way for Rome to create new cities with a distinctive Roman stamp.
Professor Kleiner explores the architecture of the western provinces of the Roman Empire, focusing on sites in what are now North Italy, France, Spain, and Croatia. Her major objective is to characterize "Romanization," the way in which the Romans provide amenities to their new colonies while, at the same time, transforming them into miniature versions of the city of Rome. Professor Kleiner discusses the urban design of two Augustan towns before proceeding to an investigation of a variety of such established Roman building types as theaters, temples, and aqueducts. The well-preserved Theater at Orange and Maison Carrée at Nîmes, and the unparalleled aqueducts at Nîmes and Segovia are highlighted. The lecture concludes with an overview of imperial and private arches and tombs in the western provinces, among them the controversial three-bayed arch at Orange. The Trophy of Augustus at La Turbie serves as a touchstone for the Roman West, as it commemorates Augustus' subjugation of the Alpine tribes, clearing the way for Rome to create new cities with a distinctive Roman stamp.
This 84th Episode of CS is titled Lost & is a brief review of The Church in the East.I encourage you to go back and listen again to episode 72 – Meanwhile Back in the East, which conveyed a lot of detail about the Eastern Church & how it fared under the Mongols and Muslim Expansion in the Middle Ages.Until that time, Christianity was widespread across a good part of the Middle East, Mesopotamia, Persia, & across Central Asia – reaching all the way to China. The reaction of Muslim rulers to the incipient Mongol affiliation with Christianity meant a systemic persecution of believers in Muslim lands, especially in Egypt, where Christians were regarded as a 5th Column. Then, when the Mongols embraced Islam, entire regions of Christians were eradicated.Still, even with these deprivations, Christianity continued to live on in vast portions of across the East.Let me insert a verbal footnote at this point. Much of what follows comes form the work of Philip Jenkins, whose book The Lost History of Christianity is a stellar review of the Church of the East. I heartily recommend it to all you hardcore history fans.Consider this . . .The news recently reported the attacks by ISIS on Assyrian Christians in Northern Iraq. This is a reprise of 1933, when Muslim forces in the new nation of Iraq launched assaults on Nestorian & Assyrians, in what had once been the Christian heartland of northern Mesopotamia. But now, government-sponsored militias cleansed most of the area of its Assyrian population, killing thousands, and eliminating dozens of villages.Although the atrocities weren't new, the arrival of modern media meant they reached the attention of the world, raising demands for Western intervention.These anti-Christian purges were shocked many & elicited a new legal vocabulary. Within months, the Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin referred to the Assyrians & Christian Armenians before them, to argue for a new legal category called crimes of barbarity, meaning “acts of extermination directed against the ethnic, religious or social collectivities whatever the motive; be it political or religious.” In 1943, Lemkin expanded this idea and coined a new word for such abhorrent behavior—Genocide.Yes = The modern concept of genocide as a horror calling for international sanctions has its roots in successful movements to eradicate Middle Eastern Christians.I mention this less than century old genocidal campaign against Assyrian Christians because we may tend to assume the Middle East has ALWAYS been dominated by Islam, or at least, it has since the 7th C. What we ought to understand instead is that it was only in the last Century that the Middle East wasn't understood as a home to a significant popular of Christians. Take ANY Middle Eastern person out of the 18th C and plant them in the Middle East of today and they would be stunned by the paucity of Christian presence.Until a century ago, the Middle East was a bewildering quilt of religious diversity in which Christians were a familiar part of the social and cultural landscape. Particularly startling for our time traveler would be modern-day Turkey as a Muslim land.Historically speaking, until very recently, Christians were as familiar a part of the Middle Eastern scene as Jews are in the United States, or Muslims are in Western Europe. At the dawn of the 20th C, Christians of the Middle East were about 11% of the population while American Jews are only about 2%!The destruction of the Middle Eastern Christian community is an historic transformation of the region.The decline of Christianity in the Near East occurred in two distinct phases.The first occurred during the Middle Ages and largely as a result of the Crusades. But even then, Christians suffered more or less regionally. The Syriac Church was virtually annihilated while the Egyptian Copts held their own. Reduced to a minority status, they entrenched & proved durable.But the second phase of hostility against Christians began about a century ago with the advent of a new & virulent form of Islamism. Now Christians are being systematically eradicated; either by aggressive assimilation or outright persecution. The 20th C saw the emergence of a form of Islam intolerant of any other faith.The Ottoman Turks began as a rather small power in Asia Minor. After the Mongol invasions destroyed the Seljuks, the Ottomans used the wars that followed to create a power base in Asia Minor. They gradually spread over what had been the Christian Byzantine Empire. By the time they took Constantinople, the Ottoman Empire included the Balkans, and by 1500 they controlled the Black Sea. By 1520 they ruled most of the Muslim world west of Persia, as far as Algiers, and became the main enemy for European Christians. Their European conquests advanced rapidly through the 16th C under such Selim I & Suleiman the Magnificent. In 1526, the Turks conquered Hungary, destroying what was at that time a major European power. Turkish advances weren't reversed until the their loss at Vienna in 1683.Selim I took the title of caliph, and took his role as head of Islam seriously. He ordered the confiscation of all churches, many of which were razed, and Ottoman authorities forced thousands of conversions. A century later, the sultan Ibrahim planned the total extermination of Christians. From the 15th C onward, the pressure to convert to Islam was massive. Throughout Christian territories held vassal by the Turks was levied the “tribute of children” by which Christian families had to give a number of their sons to be raised by the state as slaves, or as elite soldiers, called Janissaries. These janissaries became some of the most feared warriors in the Sultan's army against the Europeans.Ottoman warfare was extremely destructive because it drew on methods stemming from the Turkish heritage of Central Asia. Ottoman forces massacred entire Christian populations, targeting clergy and leaders. In 1480, the Turks destroyed the Italian city of Otranto, killing 12,000 and executing priests by sawing them in half. The destruction of Nicosia in Cyprus in 1570 was a crucial loss to Europe. Accounts of Ottoman warfare and punishment include such gruesome techniques as impaling, crucifixion, and flaying. When a Christian leader in Wallachia, named Vlad decided to use these very same tactics against the Turks, it gave rise to the legend of Dracula.From the 15th thru the 19th Cs, the Turks ruled over a large Christian population on European soil. They called Christians rayah, “the herd,” and treated them as animals to be sheared and exploited. A Bosnian Muslim song says >> “The rayah is like the grass; Mow it as much as you will till it springs up anew.”Though pressure to convert was strong, Christianity survived, and managed to recover in a few places like Greece & Bulgaria. But the Eastern Orthodox Church now followed the way of their earlier cousins, the Nestorian and Jacobite Churches & passed under Muslim rule.As the Near East fell under the control of Islamic states, Western European nations had an ever-greater incentive to find alternative trade routes. This they did by exploiting the seas. Well into the 15th C, explorers dreamed of linking up with the fabled Prester John, and renewing the alliance against Islam. In the mid–15th C, the Portuguese explored the Atlantic & shores of Africa. By the 17th C, Europeans were well on their way to global domination. Rising economic power led to urbanization, and the share of the world's population living in Europe and in European overseas colonies grew dramatically. Demographic expansion vastly increased the relative power of European Christianity.Expanding commercial horizons brought Europe's churches into contact with the tattered shreds of the ancient Eastern Christian groups. Tensions between European and non-European churches were of ancient origin. As early as 1300, Catholic missions in China had met sharp opposition from Nestorians, who naturally saw the newcomers making inroads on their ancient territories. Now, however, the Latin powers were far stronger than before, and better able to enforce their will. During the great period of Spanish and Portuguese empire building from the mid-16th to 17th C, the leading edge of Christian expansion was the Roman Catholic Church, fortified by the militancy of the Counter-Reformation. As Catholic clergy and missionaries roamed the world, they found the remnants of many ancient churches, which they determined to bring under papal control.So long-standing was the separation of Western and Eastern churches that the 2 sides never stood much chance of an alliance. As Christianity fell to such dire straits outside Europe, Catholics dismissed foreign traditions as marginal or even unchristian. After the fall of Constantinople, Pope Pius II wrote to the victorious sultan, effectively denying that the non-Catholic churches were Christian in any worthwhile sense: they were “all tainted with error, despite their worship of Christ.” He more or less explicitly asserted the identity of Christianity with the Catholic tradition and, even more, with Europe itself.As Western Christians traveled the world, many were skeptical about the credentials of other churches. In 1723, a French Jesuit reported that “the Copts in Egypt are a strange people far removed from the kingdom of God…although they say they are Christians they are such only in name and appearance. Indeed many of them are so odd that outside of their physical form scarcely anything human can be detected in them.”Latins were troubled by the pretensions of these threadbare Christians, who nevertheless claimed such grand titles. In 1550, a Portuguese traveler reported that the 40,000 Christians along the Indian coast owed their allegiance to a head in “Babylon,” someone they called the “catholicos.” Bafflingly, they had not so much as heard of a pope at Rome. Some years later, envoys dispatched by the Vatican were appalled to discover India's Nestorians called “the Patriarch of Babylon the universal pastor and head of the Catholic Church,” a title that in their view belonged exclusively to the Roman pontiff.For the first time, many Asian and African churches now found themselves under a European-based regime, and were forced to adjust their patterns of organization and worship accordingly.Around the world, we see similar attempts at harmonization. From the 1550s, factions in the Nestorian church sought Roman support, and much of the church accepted Roman rule under a new patriarch of the Chaldeans. Like other Eastern churches, the Catholic Chaldeans retained many of their customs and their own liturgy, but this compromise was not enough to draw in other Nestorians who maintained their existence as a separate church. The Jacobites split on similar lines, with an independent church remaining apart from the Catholic Syrians.The most controversial moment in this process of assimilation occurred in 1599, when Catholic authorities in southern India sought to absorb the ancient Syriac-founded churches of the region, the Thomas Christians. The main activist was Aleixo de Menezes, archbishop of the Portuguese colony of Goa, who maneuvered the Indian church into a union with Rome at a Synod in Diamper. In Indian Christian memory, de Menezes remains a villainous symbol of European imperialism, who began the speedy Romanization of the church, enforced by Goa's notoriously active inquisition. The synod ordered the burning of books teaching Nestorian errors as well as texts teaching practices Europeans deemed superstitious. A substantial body of Syriac and Nestorian tradition perished. Many local Christians reacted against the new policy by forming separate churches, and in later years the Thomas Christians were deeply fragmented.Yet despite this double pressure from Muslims and Catholics, Eastern Christian communities survived. At its height, the Ottoman Empire encompassed the Middle East, the Balkans, and North Africa, & in Europe included millions of subject Christians. Even in 1900, Muslims made up a little less than half the empire's overall population.This survival seems amazing when we think of the accumulated military catastrophes and defeats between 1300 and 1600, and the tyranny of sultans like Selim I. Yet for all these horrors, the Ottomans also found it in their interest to maintain a stable imperial order. After Sultan Mehmet II took Constantinople, he formally invested the new patriarch with his cross and staff, just as the Christian emperors had done previously. Christian numbers stabilized as the Ottomans granted them official status under a system dating back to the ancient Persians. They had their own patriarch who was both religious and civil head. This system endured into the 1920s.Within limits, Christians often flourished, to the puzzlement of western Europeans, who could not understand the distinctive Ottoman mix of tolerance and persecution. Particularly baffling was the extensive use the empire made of non-Muslims, who were in so many other ways denied the most basic rights. Sultans regularly used Christians and former Christians as administrators, partly because such outsiders would be wholly dependent on the ruler's pleasure: eight of the nine grand viziers of Suleiman the Magnificent were of Christian origin.Making their life under the new order more acceptable, Christians actively proved their loyalty. Above all, Orthodox believers were not likely to work with foreign Catholic powers to subvert Turkish rule. The Orthodox found the Muslims no more obnoxious than the Catholic nations, whose activities in recent centuries had left horrendous memories. Apart from the Latin sack of Constantinople in 1204, later Catholic invaders like the Venetians had been almost as tyrannical to their Orthodox subjects as were the Turks. Even in the last days of the empire, a Byzantine official famously declared, “Better the Sultan's turban than the Cardinal's hat!” Matters deteriorated further when the Orthodox saw how Catholics treated members of their own church in eastern Europe.By far the worst sufferers from the carnage of the 14th C were the old Eastern Syriac churches, precisely because they had once been so powerful and had posed a real danger to Muslim supremacy. Neither Jacobites nor Nestorians ever recovered from the time of Timur. If we combine all the different branches of these churches, we find barely half a million faithful by the early 20th C, scattered from Cyprus and Syria to Persia. This implosion led to a steep decline in morale and ambition. Instead of trying to convert the whole of Asia as they had originally envisioned and seemed within their grasp, the Syrian churches survived as inward-looking quasi-tribal bodies. Succession to the Nestorian patriarchate became hereditary, passing from uncle to nephew. Intellectual activity declined to nothing, at least in comparison with its glorious past. Most clergy were illiterate, and the church texts that do survive are imbued with superstition and folk magic.Well …That brings us now back to Europe and the monumental shift the Western Church had been moving toward for some time, as we've tracked over 8 episodes in our series, The Long Road to Reform.We'll pick it up there in our next episode.