Some interesting facts about the classical era

Okay, so I'm bored tonight. No-one is talking anywhere on discord, and rather than shove Netflix on I thought I'd cure my boredom with bashing out another thoughtful post. I like to think. Perhaps this will be my downfall one day, hah.

Did you know that early European settling has a lot to do with the way we live our modern lives? Yes, and it's actually structurally integrated so even if you think I'm talking crazy you'd be dead wrong. Okay, here we go.

Let's start off with slavery. When someone tells you it was the British, or another country in the late middle ages that outlawed slavery then you'd be dead wrong. Slavery was actually outlawed in late Roman era around the time they conquered the British Isles. It happened when their gladiators rose up and freed all the slaves and descended on the city of Rome. It was actually the only war the Romans had that shook them to the core. After that, slaves were given more and more freedoms until they earned wages and were eventually freed -- since then slavery has always been, and always will be a dirty word. That's why when the Portuguese set up slave routes between them and the Americas they had to be silent about it. That is until they started being bombed out of the water.

Another interesting one for me was that Jew concentration camps weren't a thing specific to Nazi Germany; yes, the first ever recorded Jew concentration camp was in Greece, again, over 2000 years ago. Xenophobia isn't a new human phenomenon borne in the 21st century, no, there has been genocide's and xenophobia long before Hitler was a twinkle in his great great great great (etc) Granddads eye.

Did you know that Egypt was the largest exporter of grain? Yup, globalism was a thing in the classical era too -- of course not to the extent that we have it now, but they certainly traded large exports of goods on huge ships all over. And France was the largest exporter of fine wines. Seems like they've always held that winning cup! We all love a good french wine!

The Romans feared the dead, and this is why we have zombie thrillers. Dead like, previous humans with zero brain function come to storm the streets and hallways of your home. This was actually an old Roman fear, and they used to leave out offerings, and if famine or drought got too bad (but very, very rarely) they would sacrifice livestock, and even humans. Ever heard the phrase don't talk ill of the dead? Or that you're discouraged from talking bad about a dead family member? Yep, it's an old Roman fear passed down through hundreds of generations of children.

Interestingly, I have read that the Greeks had theorised splitting the atom. I know it's hard to envisage these people apart from anything but ancient goat herders but they were far more advanced than you can believe. Before the dark ages the Greek & Romans had built their first combustion engine and had already found atomic science and had theorised splitting the atom. Crazy, huh?

They charted the skies, conquered science and mathematics and were well on their way to becoming an advanced civilization. 

I know, you're asking now what happened? Well there was a huge religious shift. Over the span of hundred years there was a virtuous crusade of people finding "the spear of John the Baptist" and "the ark of the covenant" and other crazy allegations -- but after a while Rome realised that they were moving away from any sort of scientific progress, and in a leap of faith dug out the old Greek texts. Long story short they realised that they couldn't understand them anymore, and rather than admit their failure (sounds like most governments) they instead outlawed science. Boom. Thus the dark ages.

But let's not forget Africa's contribution. If it weren't for Africa we wouldn't have chemistry. I know it was common back in the dark ages to think of any outsiders as barbarians and well beneath them, which of course was an Ancient Roman trait, those guys were incredibly arrogant. But actually African chemistry was super far advanced. Those guys have brought to the table some wondrous advancements in chemistry, and although I'm no chemist, I understand our knowledge is down to those guys.

So when you think of your country as better and smarter than anyone else - remember, we all bring something to the table! :)