Dean Christakos« Coffee Flavored Coffee | Main | Today in Interesting Numbers »
May 12, 2005
Teachers with a sense of humor
As an amateur student of Byzantine History, I found this class project on the fall of Constantinople to be pretty amusing.
The project: Assume you are a representative of various European powers in the mid-15th century and defened yourselves against a lawsuit for damages due to loss of life and property (not to mention liberty!) from representatives of the Byzantine population, including relatives of the last imperial dynasty. They defendants get slapped with this letter from "Allworld Farmers Insurance":
You are hereby notified that Sophia Palaeologus, wife of Ivan III (grand prince of Moscow and Vladimir), and niece of the late Constantine XI Palaeologus, filed a claim as the beneficiary of Constantine XI Palaeologus, for collection of "life insurance" and "property" insurance for the loss of the Byzantine Empire.
I should also mention that the above page has a pretty good bibliography of links and articles related to late Byzantine history, including Emperor Constantine XI's heartbreaking final speech to his troops in 1453.
On a related note, here's an interesting article about the role of a huge volcanic eruption in influencing the foreboding omens that appeared during the last days of Constantinople. This article appears in, of all places, the magazine Saudi Aramco World, the official mouthpiece of Saudi Arabia's national oil company
Posted by Dean at May 12, 2005 6:20 PM