Flo's History

The Celtic peoples were a large and diverse ethnic group that covered most of Europe for a good chunk of the Iron Age, until other groups like the Romans overthrew their dominance. Within the Celtic culture existed many groups with their own variations of the greater Celtic identity, one such group being the Gaels of Ireland and Scotland. Due to its antiquity, the origins of the Gaels and most of their history remain shrouded in mystery, even by Celtic standards. Although we can trace some of their history by putting together the pieces we have. Regarding their origins, and when the Gaels evolved from their Celtic foundations, two main schools of thought exist . One suggests that the Gaels actually came from a much older group of people called the Bell Beakers, who moved to the British Isles from mainland Europe and are one of the foundations of the later Celts. However, many also debate that the Gaels are not that ancient, and that even by 1000 BC, long after the disappearance of t...

Heavy cavalry was, for a very long time, the dominant force on the battlefield. Many of such units have reached legendary status, like the noble French knights, whose effectiveness tended to be heavily hampered by their extreme arrogance, or the Polish Winged Hussars and their renowned charge at the Battle of Vienna. Their era of dominance in warfare would be ended with the development of pike-and-shot warfare, obsoleting the unit while lighter mounted units endured for a bit longer. And while heavily armored cavalry has become a symbol of the medieval period, just like crossbows and the feudal system, it finds its roots in more ancient times. Before the knights, there were the Cataphracts, a unit that finds its roots in ancient Persia, and was kept by its successor nations all the way to the Eastern Roman Empire. Cataphracts were straightforward: a rider covered in the heaviest armor of their time, riding a horse protected by fish-scaled armor. Even their name doesn’t deal in subtlety...

  As I mentioned in my post on Rome’s economy, trade is a vital aspect of a healthy society. As civilizations developed and advanced, so did the trading routes, becoming more complex and farther reaching. Today, we will talk about one of the first transcontinental trade networks on the planet, the Silk Road, connecting the far east of Asia to Europe.   Everything started during the days of the Han dynasty, when Emperor Wu was searching for ways to end the threat of the Nomadic nation of  Xiongnu  in modern day Mongolia. As such, he sent an emissary , named  Zhang Qian, to central Asia for potential allies. Zhang, despite traversing the territories of his enemies, made it to his destination and successfully  made contact with  the local Yuezhi and  Dayuan  people, but was quickly attracted by something else: horses. Now, the Hans were no strangers to these animals, as they themselves fielded cavalry and chariot units in significant quantity. H...

  The Roman Empire is one of the greatest and longest-ruling polities in history, beginning in 509 B.C. with the establishment of the Roman Republic and ending with the fall of Constantinople in 1453 A.D. It achieved dominance of the Mediterranean, and later survival in Anatolia, through a combination of factors, one of which was a robust economy. However, recent scholars have shifted this view, with more people arguing that the empire’s economy was far more fragile than it appeared. So, what is the  real answer  to that question?   What Rome Did Well   Let’s  be clear: Romans were not inept at managing their economy; in fact, they had many practices that made it  relatively robust  for its time. You cannot  establish  and maintain an empire as large as theirs for so long in the ancient world while being backward in finances. That said, this answer is not  very interesting  on its own, so  let’s  delve into how the Ro...