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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Galloglaich" data-source="post: 5019367" data-attributes="member: 77019">I agree with all of that... we are lucky to have Jack7 around here because his expertise in the Byzantines is so valuable to understanding such a wide swath of European History.  A continuous literate culture which lasted from Roman Imperial times through the Dark Ages and almost into the Renaissance... it's quite a resource.  These people wrote about everything that was going on around them, from the Visigoths and the Huns to the Vikings to the Crusaders, the Arabs and birth of Islam, the formation of the Venetian Republic (from a tiny Byzantine client-state) and the rise and fall of the Sassanids and the Khazars...  If you want to know anything about any of these folks, look to the Byzantine sources.Which is another good point Jack raised.  The various interpreted resources are great, but you really want to get a feel for a given period, read the Primary sources.  Herodotus for the Persian wars, Thucydides for the Peleponnesian Wars, Xenophon for the post- Hellenistic period, Julius Caesar for the late Roman Republic, Tacitus for the Imperial dealings with Germania and Britannia... the Icelandic sagas for the Vikings, Ana Comnena (Byzantine Princesss) for the 1st Crusade.   These are just a few I've read, surprisingly accessible and modern in their flow, easy reads.... but with that certain quality of mystery and archaic sense of wonder...  They really put you in these periods and make you feel them.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodotus" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodotus</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thucydides" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thucydides</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Comnena" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Comnena</a>The Byzantines actually wrote an Encyclopedia of the Classical world in the 11th Century, believe it or not:<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suda" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suda</a>I suspect there are many people on this forum who are very well informed on Medieval History etc., it's just been rare to link that to gaming.  So far Jack and I and a few others have kept this particular thread going, I suspect more and more people will chime in because the interest in Historically- and Mythologically- grounded RPG's is growing among a certain segment of gamers.G.</blockquote>

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