ISIS Behead Palmyra Archaeologist Khaled al-Assad And Hang His Body From Ruins

[Valmy]

They decided Jesuits were ok eh?

[grumbler]

There were quite a few opposed to the Jews I believe. Even as far as throwing them out.

Which Jewish diaspora was opposed by force, or even discouraged?

The Norwegian 1814 constitution stated that "Jews and Jesuits are not welcome". It was changed in the 1830s after public pressure.

Okay.  That's modern, by my definition.  Not that there was a Jewish diaspora to Norway in the early 19th Century to be opposed or discouraged.

[Queequeg]

This is bollocks. Mass migrations are a constant feature throughout history. Actually trying to prevent it is a relatively new phenomenon.

I'm wracking my brains trying to think of a historical mass migration that was not contested militarily.  Typically it has been synonymous with invasion.

It's debated how much of the Slavic migrations were contested.  In a lot of areas they weren't.  They were famous for relatively rapid integration of "native" populations, and in Central Europe most of the Germans had already left. 

[Valmy]

So what? Central Europe was just sitting there unoccupied?

Did the Huns murder everybody there? Was it the plague of Justinian? That must have been a weird era.

[Queequeg]

It wasn't populated densely enough to maintain complex social organizations and the Slavs had a history of relationship with and integrating Germanic and other peoples.  There's substantial material evidence that this included Celts, Sarmatians, a lot of Oghur Turkic types and various Balkan peoples of various degrees of Romanization.  The modern day Czech Republic is the homeland of the Celtic peoples, and modern SW Ukraine has some very Veltic placenames, including Halych-Galicia. 

[Valmy]

Maybe. It is just hard to imagine Europe as this sparsely populated wilderness where there be dragons.

[Queequeg]

We're not talking about a long-term thing.  The areas would have been relatively sparsely populated for a short period of time, and the Slavs weren't, like, totally unfamiliar with Germans, nor the Germans with the Slavs.  The frontiers were broken, Germans had for hundreds of years heard and seen a Roman Empire that was vastly wealthier and nicer than their native lands and they could be Kings or Thanes in Carthage or Catalonia rather than eating gruel in a hall in modern Silesia or Bohemia. Not much of a choice.   

[Valmy]

So instead the Slavs got to eat gruel. Always getting the short end of the stick.

Thanks Spellus that was interesting.

[Queequeg]

Depopulation is a real thing.  One of the reasons the god-damn Arabs managed to conquer the Sassanid and most of the Byzantine Empire was the Justinian Plague and the fact that the Sassands and the Byzantines had just finished what was effectively the first world war, as it was fought on three continents.  The Arabs were already employed as caravan masters and mercs by all sides so they already had knowledge of all the relevant terrain, and frequently some Arab clans had already moved in to the Sassanid or Byzantine realms.  This is the exact same period, too, not a coincidence. 

[Valmy]

Depopulation is a real thing.  One of the reasons the god-damn Arabs managed to conquer the Sassanid and most of the Byzantine Empire was the Justinian Plague and the fact that the Sassands and the Byzantines had just finished what was effectively the first world war, as it was fought on three continents.  The Arabs were already employed as caravan masters and mercs by all sides so they already had knowledge of all the relevant terrain, and frequently some Arab clans had already moved in to the Sassanid or Byzantine realms.  This is the exact same period, too, not a coincidence. 

Yeah I know. The Slavs broke the Danube border at the same time because God was never finished tormenting the poor Byzantines.

[Queequeg]

*Until I finish my time machine and give Basil I gunpowder and the printing press and I am rewarded with becoming Captain of Sicily.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

*Until I finish my time machine and give Basil I gunpowder and the printing press and I am rewarded with becoming Captain of Sicily.

Isn't going to happen I'm afraid or you'd have done so already. Hope you're not too disappointed.

[Valmy]

You don't understand. There is an alternative universe out there where the Byzantines reign supreme and the Spellus dynasty rules for a 1000 years from a golden palace in Palermo.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

You don't understand. There is an alternative universe out there where the Byzantines reign supreme and the Spellus dynasty rules for a 1000 years from a golden palace in Palermo.

I took the alternate universe into account, but as it doesn't help us much though it irrelevant. Future science might change that of course, or not.

[Queequeg]

You don't understand. There is an alternative universe out there where the Byzantines reign supreme and the Spellus dynasty rules for a 1000 years from a golden palace in Palermo.

Panormos is mine.