Ask A Bulgarian

[Kyriakos]

I need the recipe… must control myself…

The two emperors, Basilios and Constantinos. They were brothers who jointly held the throne. The former earned himself the nickname of 'the Bulgar-slayer', the latter was an effeminate fop. I do think that, as you say, Kyriakos would at least approve of Basilios.

Likely. Unless that Constantinos at least looked somewhat good?

Don't know.

But is he the one who was on the throne in the 1040s (unlikely) and pretty much allowed the (hundredth) civil war to take place, with almost losing his head when Georgios Maniakes marched to Amphipolis with a serious army?

Maniakes won the battle (and the war pretty much) and was meaning to decapitate most of the nobles in Constantinople and install himself as the new emperor. He was a sort of 'The Mountain' (including gore), had conquered lands for the Empire in Sicily from the arabs, fighting alongside Harald of the Sagas (who afaik regarded Maniakes as a giant too). But he was so over-confident that he will just break everyone's skull that he charged alone in the end of the battle near Amphipolis, and so got wounded by arrows, died, and the civil war ended like that.
Of course, only 30 years later, there was a minor setback for the Empire, in Matzikert.

 

[Kyriakos]

Ahh. So the present-day Bulgarians are basically a fusion of the Slavic Slavs (Department of Redundancy Department) and the Turkic Bulgars.

And of course, who doesn't like some Game of Thrones-style skull-cup-drinking action?

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/krum.html

Naturally, Krum the Fearsome has been featured on Badass of the Week.

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/basil.html

But then, just to be fair to all parties involved, so was this guy, the Basileios Takhisis was referring to.

those links are very funny


"Running into battle carrying an icon of the Virgin Mary and a gigantic sword, Basil ran into the fray, defeated Phocas, massacred every noble who had supported the usurper, and then took his assembled army and personally marched it into the Middle East to beat the **** out of the Fatimids because, seriously, **** those guys. "

 

[LoneRebel]

those links are very funny


"Running into battle carrying an icon of the Virgin Mary and a gigantic sword, Basil ran into the fray, defeated Phocas, massacred every noble who had supported the usurper, and then took his assembled army and personally marched it into the Middle East to beat the **** out of the Fatimids because, seriously, **** those guys. "

Glad you liked it.

That website is FULL of that sort of thing. My weekly dose of excessively over-the-top retellings of history, chased down by a healthy amount of expletives.

 

[Takhisis]

Likely. Unless that Constantinos at least looked somewhat good?

Don't know.

But is he the one who was on the throne in the 1040s (unlikely) and pretty much allowed the (hundredth) civil war to take place, with almost losing his head when Georgios Maniakes marched to Amphipolis with a serious army?

Maniakes won the battle (and the war pretty much) and was meaning to decapitate most of the nobles in Constantinople and install himself as the new emperor. He was a sort of 'The Mountain' (including gore), had conquered lands for the Empire in Sicily from the arabs, fighting alongside Harald of the Sagas (who afaik regarded Maniakes as a giant too). But he was so over-confident that he will just break everyone's skull that he charged alone in the end of the battle near Amphipolis, and so got wounded by arrows, died, and the civil war ended like that.
Of course, only 30 years later, there was a minor setback for the Empire, in Matzikert.

Constantine Η΄, not Θ΄. The latter did have to put up with Maniakes' rebellion and later mayhem.

And yes, Manzikert would have been a relatively minor setback if the dynatoi and other aristocrats hadn't decided to try and have a civil war.

 

[cybrxkhan]

those links are very funny


"Running into battle carrying an icon of the Virgin Mary and a gigantic sword, Basil ran into the fray, defeated Phocas, massacred every noble who had supported the usurper, and then took his assembled army and personally marched it into the Middle East to beat the **** out of the Fatimids because, seriously, **** those guys. "

Badass of the week is a really great site. It's not PhD level research, and is generally geared towards a more general audience, but it's pretty good nevertheless. I've been following it for years now.

The guy also has an article on Anna Komnene, btw.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Constantine Η΄, not Θ΄. The latter did have to put up with Maniakes' rebellion and later mayhem.

And yes, Manzikert would have been a relatively minor setback if the dynatoi and other aristocrats hadn't decided to try and have a civil war.

Also, during the raging civil war, a large-scale revolt originating somewhere near Serbia and Macedonia (beggars can't be choosers) fighting for Bulgaria's independence started in 1080. And if it wasn't for some y traitor, we could actually have pulled it out.

Ah well. It took some Pechenegs, Russian mercenaries and exiles from Bulgaria living in Kiev Russia, so that in 1185, a revolt due to the high taxes pushed down from Issac II Angelos for his marriage with the Hungarian princess Bela to succeed and establish the Second Bulgarian Kingdom (not Empire). Which shows us two things: women start all things bad, and that the Issac II fellow sure wasn't an angel

 

[Takhisis]

It also shows that Taxatio is theft. *nods sanctimoniously*

*the idiom is 'pull it off'.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Ahh. So the present-day Bulgarians are basically a fusion of the Slavic Slavs (Department of Redundancy Department) and the Turkic Bulgars.

Until 1396, and the subsequent enslavement from the Ottomans, yes. Afterwards, however, it gets a bit of sketchy, ugly and for the most part - unresolved.

You see, once the entire Balkan peninsula found itself under the heel of the Ottomans, Bulgaria was in the centre of it. And since labels like Serbia, Wallachia and Byzantium suddenly disappeared, a massive cultural exchange began in the enslaved nations. This is quite apparent in things like culinary, and some traditions that the nations consider their own, are quite often foreign. For an example, the musaka (or cottage pie, more or less) is actually Greek (or, as some claim, Turkish).

In previous pages, someone mentioned Pomaks. I'm unsure whether I answered the question, but if I didn't - here I go. The Pomaks, in essence, are Bulgarians that adopted Islam, but speak Bulgarian. There's a slight difference between Bulgaro-Mohammedan and Pomaks, because the currently living Bulgaro-Mohammedan still speak an altered dialect of Turkish and Bulgarian, while Pomaks speak a dialect of Bulgarian (and a great deal of other Balkan languages). They're spread widely around the Balkan peninsula, in countries like Greece, Albania, Macedonia..

Unfortunately for current legislators, who are trying to use the "integrate" spell on Romani, their problems with different ethnicities most likely began during Ottoman period.

 

[Kyriakos]

'Musaka' definetely is not a greek term, anyway (very ugly for that, of course ) and i have to doubt that the actual food was originally prepared as a local dish either, cause it is way too filled with all sorts of fatty oils/bread/chopped meat and then more of the same (essentially it is the same thing iterated 20 times and then packed as an individual meal).

I guess it is likely central asian in origin.

 

[gay_Aleks]

It's possible that I slightly might have been confused by the "Greek Musaka" and kind of got to the conclusion it might've been invented in Greece or something.

 

[Takhisis]

Gypsies can't be integrated. Ever.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Gypsies can't be integrated. Ever.

Considering their Difficulty Roll is 99, while due to the Bureaucratic debuff, our dear legislators can roll only 1, I can see why.

 

[Squonk]

What do you think about John Tzimiskes?

 

[gay_Aleks]

He was kind of dumb. He walked into Veliki Preslav, took it, captured Boris II and proclaimed Bulgaria as annexed.

Unfortunately, in Sofia, a certain Boyar, named Samuil, didn't think the same way, and until Basileus II came in and barbarically blinded everyone who didn't escape during the battle of Klutch, he hold his ground. Sadly, once he got the news about the blinding, he subsequently received a heartattack..

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Did you know that "Tolni" means "Push" in Magyar? Your username is on many doors in Hungary.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Did you know that "Tolni" means "Push" in Magyar? Your username is on many doors in Hungary.

Haha, figured that one while playing a game. Someone told me in PM "Hey, your means "Push" in Hungarian".

 

[ywhtptgtfo]

Do you miss Thrace, Macedonia, and Dobruja?

 

[gay_Aleks]

Macedonia, no. You might find this view conflicting, and some very sane and friendly people would go ahead and call you a traitor and pick stones to throw at you, but I doubt we could theoretically support Macedonia. We're already doing a terrible job with Bulgaria, and Macedonia is just a whole lot worse version of Bulgaria, if that's possible. I also don't see any reason to gain it - you can't just say "national unification!111!" really loud and replace all reason. Does Macedonia have anything valuable? Well? It's a mountainous region, unsuited for farming, filled with self-delusioned fools, upon the end of the world will happen once they realise they're nothing but a false shell.

Technically, we did get Dobruja. We wanted northern Dobruja, not all of it, since we're realists and not that greedy. Besides, by this point, the amount of Bulgarians living there is waaaay too small - a century has passed since the Balkan wars, after which mass emigration from the above mentioned regions to Bulgaria began.

(Eastern) Thrace, is a whole lot mess altogether. There was a brief period after the WWI when we actually did indeed have it, unfortunately, the Great Powers decided not to leave it to us. Like in Dobruja, by now the number of Bulgarians is slimmer, for the same reasons.

So, no. Only blind nationalists with no sense of reality would think they will come back to us. And I can't be saddened for things out of reach.

 

[ywhtptgtfo]

How do you guys feel about receiving the short end of the stick from the Balkan Wars to end of WW2?

 

[Kyriakos]

How do you guys feel about receiving the short end of the stick from the Balkan Wars to end of WW2?

Bulgaria got more land as a result of ww2 than Greece did. So yeah..