If history is deprived of the Truth, we are left with nothing but an idle, unprofitable tale
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 …
Although commonly dismissed as merely a language convention, nomenclature is in actuality a subject of paramount importance in the study of history. It shapes the medium through which we interact with the primordial crucible of the past, and hence determines how we perceive the events, concepts, polities, and figures that comprises the discipline of history. …
Continue reading Roman Nomenclature: Don’t Call Them Emperors
It is with great shame that I now admit that for the longest time I had thought my hometown of Barium to be the jewel of the world, a city unrivalled in its architectural splendour and cultural brilliance. My fellow citizens all took pride in the beauty of our city, and I was prone to …
Historical Context Saint Eirene of Athens was the first and last female emperor to rule the Roman Empire both in name and in actuality. Her images appeared on coins bearing masculine imperial titles, and her policies on both religious and geopolitical affairs shaped the Roman world for many years after her passing. And yet, although …
“Here is the man whose coming you so often hear prophesied, here he is, Caesar Augustus, son of the Deified, the man who will bring back the golden years to the fields of Latium once ruled over by Saturn, and extend Rome’s empire beyond the Indians and the Garamantes to a land beyond the stars, …
Continue reading Alternative History: Antony and Cleopatra Part 1
Veni Vidi Veritatem 