If history is deprived of the Truth, we are left with nothing but an idle, unprofitable tale
What follows is the second part of my interpretation of 长恨歌 (the song of everlasting regret) by 白居易. See part 1 here: https://venividiveritas.com/2023/05/09/the-song-of-everlasting-regret-part-1/ 九重城阙烟尘生，千乘万骑西南行。 Above the forbidden city loomed the smoke of war. Southwest the host travelled, a thousand horses, ten thousand men. 翠华摇摇行复止，西出都门百余里。 The emperor's jade crown swayed and turned, the fire of rebellion …
What follows is a personal interpretation and translation of the famed Chinese poem 长恨歌，or The Song of Everlasting Regret, by the poet 白居易. Written in the ninth century, it depicts the tragic love story between an emperor and his concubine and is renowned for its literary flourish and narrative flow. This article covers the first …
The Ancient World can be construed as a narrative of singularities, with globe-spanning empires founded upon the fabled bounties of the Fertile Crescent dominating the story. The advent of agricultural technology and the arrival of the Roman Climate Optimum had endowed the men and women of the Oecumene with the incentives to coalesce into three …
Continue reading French Revolution Part 3: The World of 1700s
Part 1: https://venividiveritas.com/2023/01/24/queen-of-cities-a-fictional-tour-of-constantinople-in-540-ad/ Part 2: https://venividiveritas.com/2023/02/22/the-queen-of-cities-part-2-house-of-god/ Without Ecritius’s presence, I was naked and alone in the grand halls of Imperator Caesar Justinianus Augustus. The courtiers, each of them garbed in silk so fine I could see the pale hue of their skin, were as sullen and silent as mosaic saints as they led me past …
Continue reading The Queen of Cities Part 3: The House of Man
The study of history is distinguished from that of natural sciences and mathematics by two key differences: The basis of knowledge and evidence upon which the discipline of history is constructed is by nature polluted by political and ecclesiastical agendas, prejudices, biases, and unreliable sources. This churning sea of lies and rumours is the unknowable …
Every society can be likened to a swirling whirlpool of conflicting interests: a volatile amalgamation of disparate constituencies operating under a largely uniform set of values which are defined as ideology, faith, morality, or tradition. Each interest group is a current of its own, driven by a distinct set of demands and agendas, thus it …
Continue reading French Revolution Part 2: The Political Theory of Revolution
The eighteenth century was a time of grave change for the men and women of Western Europe. Their ancestors had descended upon the fertile soil of Gaul, Britannia, Germania, Hispania, and Italia as barbarian hordes overrunning the fraying borders of the Roman Empire in search of a better life: a life free from the relentless …
Continue reading French Revolution Part 1: Setting the Stage
Part 1: https://venividiveritas.com/2023/01/24/queen-of-cities-a-fictional-tour-of-constantinople-in-540-ad/ The visages of sages past observed in hushed reverence as I was led through the monastery by Ecritius, their faces immortalised in melancholic mosaic. Golden incense holders and candelabras glittered as the candle flames swayed, contorting like the lithesome frames of Oriental dancers. Either side of me, monks garbed in unassuming raiments …
Continue reading The Queen of Cities Part 2: The House of God
Antony and Cleopatra Part 2: Roman Politics When Romulus slew Remus, offering the blood of a king and a brother to the gods, he did so out of neither envy or hatred, but of piety. In the ancient world, when festivals commenced, oxen were sacrificed. On the eve of battles, goats and chickens were gutted …
Continue reading Alternative History: Antony and Cleopatra Part 2
Historical Context The 620s AD were the darkest days in the history of the Roman Empire. The western provinces had long been lost to the Germanic barbarians who had transformed former imperial holdings into arenas for ambitious warlords. On the Danube frontier, the Avar Khaganate had overrun the Balkans, sacking cities and defiling citizens all …
Veni Vidi Veritatem 