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Animavore wrote:270. Ireland was free and independent of England and untarnished be Christianity.
Macdoc wrote:I think you should check your time frame. Michelangelo was born in 1475, and Da Vinci Date of birth: April 15, 1452 and the Little Ice Age was devastating.
Matt_B wrote:Obviously there are some wars, famines and natural disasters in various parts of Europe during the late 15th century, but on the whole it's a relatively stable period of population growth.
The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60% of Europe's total population. In total, the plague may have reduced the world population from an estimated 450 million down to 350–375 million in the 14th century. It took 200 years for the world population to recover to its previous level.
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According to Biraben, the plague was present somewhere in Europe in every year between 1346 and 1671. The Second Pandemic was particularly widespread in the following years: 1360–1363; 1374; 1400; 1438–1439; 1456–1457; 1464–1466; 1481–1485; 1500–1503; 1518–1531; 1544–1548; 1563–1566; 1573–1588; 1596–1599; 1602–1611; 1623–1640; 1644–1654; and 1664–1667
Matt_B wrote:I'll go for 1460 because I don't subscribe to the view that civilization collapsed utterly along with the Roman Empire.
Matt_B wrote: Indeed, it's only the Western half that collapsed with the East continuing to thrive both culturally and economically with the West catching up and overtaking it once more well before the 15th Century.
Matt_B wrote:
Heck, it's slap bang in the middle of the Renaissance. You'd be a contemporary of Da Vinci, Bosch, Michelangelo, Copernicus and Paracelsus to name but five. OK, so you're most likely not going to rub shoulders with them and eke out a meagre existence as a peasant instead, but even that's probably a bit better than the slavery that was the norm for most of the Roman Empire.
but even that's probably a bit better than the slavery that was the norm for most of the Roman Empire.
Matt_B wrote:...there's the widespread myth of the dark ages...
In the age of the soldier-emperors, between the assassination of Alexander Severus, the last of the Severans, in 235 A.D. and the beginning of Diocletian’s reign in 284, at least sixteen men bore the title of emperor: Maximinus (r. 235–38 A.D.), Gordian I and II, Pupienus and Balbinus (r. 238 A.D.), Gordian III (r. 238–44 A.D.), Philip the Arab (r. 244–49 A.D.), the Illyrian Decius (r. 249–51 A.D.), Trebonianus Gallus (r. 251–53 A.D.), Aemilianus (r. 253 A.D.), Valerian (r. 253–60 A.D.), Gallienus (r. 253–68 A.D.), Claudius Gothicus (r. 268–70 A.D.), Aurelian (r. 270–75 A.D.), Tacitus (r. 275–76 A.D.), Probus (r. 276–82 A.D.), Carus (r. 282–83 A.D.), Carinus (r. 283–84 A.D.), and Numerianus (r. 283–84 A.D.). Most were fierce military men and none could hold the reins of power without the support of the army. Almost all, having taken power upon the murder of the preceding emperor, came to a premature and violent end. Social life declined in Roman towns and instead flourished among the country aristocracy, whose secure lifestyle in large fortified estates foreshadowed medieval feudalism.
Hermit wrote:Matt_B wrote:...there's the widespread myth of the dark ages...
It's not a myth. Have a look at the size of Charlemagne's empire. He owned most of western Europe and controlled huge swathes to the east of it as well.
He was Europe's most powerful man by far. Way more powerful than the Pope, even. And he managed that without ever being able to read or write a word to his dying day.
Here's his signature:
Well, the diamond shape formed by four straight lines in the middle is.
I put it to you that if an illiterate man can keep most of Europe under his thumb for 14 years until he died, aged 71, the dark ages were really dark.
Mirrorless wrote:Roman Britain was stable at the time, prosperous and if you were a Roman citizen your lot was pretty good. A villa somewhere around Oxfordshire would have been nice.
Macdoc wrote:I'd certainly enjoy a small villa near Bath ...lovely area, amazing baths,
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