Eastern Rome source material

[Deuce Traveler]

Oh and the last of the Roman Empire was Trebizond in 1461. Empire of Trebizond - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm a history major and studied and love this stuff.

 

[Monkey King]

I love this thread! Another possible source of material would be the Dumbarton Oaks Online publications about Byzantium, including pilgrimages, art, siegecraft, etc.

They might be a little TOO crunchy though, as they are written for academic purposes by professional researchers.

 

[Brennin Magalus]

Wayne Peacock's Palaestra is a good resource if you are looking for a distinctly Byzantine, as opposed to Eastern Roman, setting.

 

[DanChops]

Other than the obvious sites (Jerusalem, Olive Mount, pyramids, Petra) any one know of any good sightseeing areas from the 400ish AD I could include from the east?

While its prime was a few hundred years before the Byzantine period, Palmyra (Tadmoor) is a pretty cool place. Located in the Syrian desert between the Roman and Sassanid Empires, it had been a center of trade. However, by the Byzantine era it had already declined in importance.

If you include Petra, don't forget the Nabatean's second-largest city, Mada'in Salah, located a few hundred miles away in present-day Saudi Arabia.

The Dead Sea strikes me as being full of potential D&D goodness.

The Library of Alexandria serves well as an arch-typical wizard's library.

Mount Olympus and Mount Ararat are both cool D&D locations.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Dan, good call on the Dead Sea. I mean... it's called the Dead Sea for crying out loud. How much more DnD goodness could you ask for?

 

[Evilhalfling]

I also found this work of genius:

4e Decline of Rome

37 pages of background materials, 2 pages of house rules. At least the three developed adventures.

I have stolen liberally from it for my campaign, even if its 3.5e and set later.

 

[xanth_ih]

Stumbled on this gem with the after going through previous post.

The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon

Good index, and not too dry.

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

Great thread! It's for a much later period, but the Byzantium 1200 website is really cool.

Cheers


Richard