If civil war or foreign threat required it, would you take up arms in a 'just war'?

[Fizzzzle]

7 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

The Bronze Age Collapse is such a fascinating period that we have so very little information about!

If I could observe time from a distance, that's where I'd be most curious to look. All we know for sure is that all of Western government fell like a row of dominos and Egypt was conquered by an unknown foreign invader, then for a couple hundred years, people apparently didn't think it writing things down was very important. That makes sense. People didn't write for funsies, it was used for important tasks. If civilization has broken down to the point where everyone is back to a local barter system, why write?

 

However, when classical society re-emerged, the world had changed considerably. The Minoans were seemingly gone completely. Greece had a new language and writing system (iirc we still don't understand linear B? I haven't kept up with that), and we'll never know what that 2-300 years or whatever was like. Maybe it was their version of "bottle caps and bullets," maybe things were actually better for the average person with the people once again having ownership of the means of production.... We'll never know.

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

2 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

If I could observe time from a distance, that's where I'd be most curious to look. All we know for sure is that all of Western government fell like a row of dominos and Egypt was conquered by an unknown foreign invader, then for a couple hundred years, people apparently didn't think it writing things down was very important. That makes sense. People didn't write for funsies, it was used for important tasks. If civilization has broken down to the point where everyone is back to a local barter system, why write?

 

However, when classical society re-emerged, the world had changed considerably. The Minoans were seemingly gone completely. Greece had a new language and writing system (iirc we still don't understand linear B? I haven't kept up with that), and we'll never know what that 2-300 years or whatever was like. Maybe it was their version of "bottle caps and bullets," maybe things were actually better for the average person with the people once again having ownership of the means of production.... We'll never know.

 

 

Just a couple of corrections:

- Egypt did manage to avoid being conquered, but the significant military expenditures incurred to defeat the Sea Peoples and other invaders severely weakened the state economically.

- Most Linear B writing can be deciphered though some features/symbols remain unclear.  It's Linear A which remains largely undeciphered though it appears that progress is being made:

Minoan Language Linear A Linked to Linear B in Groundbreaking New Research

GREEKREPORTER.COM

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The ancient Minoan language known as "Linear A," long untranslated, may finally be deciphered with the help of the internet.

 

[Fizzzzle]

13 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

Just a couple of corrections:

- Egypt did manage to avoid being conquered, but the significant military expenditures incurred to defeat the Sea Peoples and other invaders severely weakened the state economically.

- Most Linear B writing can be deciphered though some features/symbols remain unclear.  It's Linear A which remains largely undeciphered though it appears that progress is being made:

Minoan Language Linear A Linked to Linear B in Groundbreaking New Research

GREEKREPORTER.COM

---

The ancient Minoan language known as "Linear A," long untranslated, may finally be deciphered with the help of the internet.

 

Aaahh. Thanks, I mixed up my linear alphabets.

 

I haven't brushed up on my bronze age history in quite some time, though I'm beginning to dig back into it after reading about the failed siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib in 701 BC obviously post-bronze age, but pretty soon after the re-emergence) and how, like... If Sennacherib hadn't given up on the siege and actually taken the city (which they could have if they stuck it out), that means Judaism must likely dies, and with that, so does all Abrahamic religion. How does all of Western civilization change?

 

Perhaps it doesn't. One of the things that made Judaism stand out from other religions of the time is that they didn't need temples, and they didn't need public spectacle. You can take the Jew out of the ghetto, but you can't take the... Jew out of the Jew? That being said, Judaism did likely die in most of the places conquered by the Assyrians. Jerusalem is where it was still allowed to flourish.

 

Sorry, totally off-topic, and also typed on my phone, so probably doesn't even make sense.