History Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread VIII

[Arakhor]

I do recall reading that Serbia may have originally meant something to do with servants or slaves.

 

[sophie]

non serviam means "I shall not serve," although serviam can also be parsed as a subjunctive construction so it could be something like "let me not serve," or something else entirely depending on the context of other surrounding clauses.

Also - you guys know wiktionary and etymonline exist and answers to these questions can be found out in like 15 seconds, right? Per etymonline, Serbia comes from Srb, which is probably a Slavic or southern Slavic root meaning "man".

 

[Arakhor]

Well, so does Wikipedia, but honouring the social contract is more fun sometimes.

 

[Kyriakos]

Well, so does Wikipedia, but honouring the social contract is more fun sometimes.

Omsk, how bulgar of you. Are you a boatman?

 

[Arakhor]

Not unless I Charon like this.

 

[Kyriakos]

I can't defeat you at your own crooked game ^^

 

[Arakhor]

You're just an old Styx-in-the-mud!

 

[sophie]

Kyiv'er imagine me making such Volga puns? I did Danzig so.

 

[Absolution]

I found those illustrations in an article named Virtual Persepolis.
They claim to be a virtual reconstruction of the era.
I assume they are not more than fan arts, but I am still interested how much of that could be real.

What details in those pictures couldn't have existed in real Mesopotamia?
Which of those actually describe a real atmosphere/design/architecture?
Here are some examples -

Persepolis:

Gates of Babylon:

 

[Gen.Mannerheim]

I respect the first picture for having plenty of color in their rendition. Its amazing to me how colorless many people portray the ancient world. While this is a gross oversimplification, the artistic and archaeological information we have all support that most of the ancients lived in a rather vibrant world.

For example:

 

[Buster's Uncle]

I would assume on that statue of Augustus pictured painted, the breastplate would have at least a gold background, and his skin painted an attempt at fleshtone...

 

[Arakhor]

I would assume on that statue of Augustus pictured painted, the breastplate would have at least a gold background, and his skin painted an attempt at fleshtone...

That paint job does look rather odd, I agree.

 

[Gen.Mannerheim]

I would assume on that statue of Augustus pictured painted, the breastplate would have at least a gold background, and his skin painted an attempt at fleshtone...

Statues of divine or semi-divine subjects often used ivory or white paint to give their skin a bleached/pale look. It would make sense that an image of the Emperor would also be given this appearance.

I'm not sure why, but I assumed ancient cities would be much more crowded.

The slow movement of people and goods within a city would highly encourage dense living conditions, something only strengthened by the high cost of building and the intrinsic crampness of city walls.

Cities should be shown bustling with people, but I feel like most artists aim is more about presenting the architecture or spacing of the buildings than the accuracy of the streets.

You also rarely see people bringing in agricultural goods or trade goods in these kind of paintings either.

 

[sophie]

Statues of divine or semi-divine subjects often used ivory or white paint to give their skin a bleached/pale look. It would make sense that an image of the Emperor would also be given this appearance.



Cities should be shown bustling with people, but I feel like most artists aim is more about presenting the architecture or spacing of the buildings than the accuracy of the streets.

You also rarely see people bringing in agricultural goods or trade goods in these kind of paintings either.

You also rarely see them littered with detritus and human excrement.

 

[Traitorfish]

I'm not sure why, but I assumed ancient cities would be much more crowded.

The slow movement of people and goods within a city would highly encourage dense living conditions, something only strengthened by the high cost of building and the intrinsic crampness of city walls.

These are both locations of public rituals, religious or secular (and that's not a hard line in this context), so they'd probably reserve at least the option of clearing out a bit of space.

 

[Traitorfish]

Why do we call it the "Yellow River" and not the "Huanghe"?

The Yangtze, I understand, has been called a dozen things by Europeans, none of them quite right, but usually an attempt to replicate the Chinese. So why is the Yellow River, which has been translated more-or-less accurately, not known by its Chinese name?

 

[Lohrenswald]

Lot's of people call it Huanghe

 

[Cutlass]

Why do we call it the "Yellow River" and not the "Huanghe"?

The Yangtze, I understand, has been called a dozen things by Europeans, none of them quite right, but usually an attempt to replicate the Chinese. So why is the Yellow River, which has been translated more-or-less accurately, not known by its Chinese name?

Names tend to stick. Once a name becomes established, no matter how wrong it may be, the effort needed to correct it is often prohibitive.

 

[Ajidica]

Why do we call it the "Yellow River" and not the "Huanghe"?

The Yangtze, I understand, has been called a dozen things by Europeans, none of them quite right, but usually an attempt to replicate the Chinese. So why is the Yellow River, which has been translated more-or-less accurately, not known by its Chinese name?

I would guess because attempts to transliterate Chinese names into Latin characters/English was (and is) a hot mess.
Plus, do you really want to imagine some Victorian Empire Builder whose xenophobia is matched only by his stupendous facial hair trying to pronounce Chinese words?

 

[Lexicus]

Why do we call it the "Yellow River" and not the "Huanghe"?

The Yangtze, I understand, has been called a dozen things by Europeans, none of them quite right, but usually an attempt to replicate the Chinese. So why is the Yellow River, which has been translated more-or-less accurately, not known by its Chinese name?

I've always sort of wondered this too.