User:Bigdaddy1204
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The Epic Barnstar | |
| for your work on Byzantine history. Tom Harrison Talk 02:42, 27 May 2006 (UTC) |
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Bigdaddy1204
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Contents |
[edit] Intro
My name is Elliott Holley. I am a student of Ancient History at King's College University in London. I live in Greenwich, London in term time and in Oxfordshire during the rest of the year
I was born in Caerphilly in Wales on 12 April 1987. My interests include music ranging from Pink Floyd to Oasis and from the Beatles to Eminem, and even Turkish classical music. I am also into cycling (I once rode 100 miles in a day), but the interest most relevant to Wikipedia is of course History, in particular Ancient and Medieval History.
As for my contributions to wikipedia, I have written these in the section below, but will say here that my biggest contributions were to Byzantine Empire (I have written over 9,000 words for this article); and Manuel I Komnenos (on whom I wrote a featured article (more on this later)).
Apart from these interests, I spend my time with friends, go down the local pub and get out in the sun when I can. I really enjoyed summer this year - holidays in Spain and especially Istanbul were memorable experiences. Getting my first job, I worked for Salter's steamers, a passenger boat company operating on the Thames. I worked behind the bar, serving drinks, issued tickets and collected fares, worked the ropes, and sometimes drove the boats too!
[edit] My contributions
Recently I have joined the middle ages task force of the military history project, and my work includes:
the creation of three new pages on medieval battles:
- The Battle of Levounion,
- The Battle of Sirmium, and
- The Battle of Beroia
I have also created four new pages on Byzantine history; these are
- The Komnenian army
- The Komnenian restoration
- Byzantine civilisation in the twelfth century
- Reasons for the fall of the Byzantine Empire
I have also worked on Byzantine army, adding some new sections and images, and I have worked on History of Athens.
After a trip to Istanbul in June, I did a lot of work on Constantinople. I am also currently working to improve the article on John II Komnenos, and apart from the things I have mentioned there are various smaller edits and contributions to other pages, mostly on medieval history, such as the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
However, perhaps my biggest contributions so far have been to the articles Byzantine Empire and Manuel I Komnenos.
Begining late last year, I began a major project to improve the article on Manuel Komnenos (at the time the article was still called Manuel Comnenus). After a complete re-write, massive expansion, peer-review and featured article candidacy, I managed with editing help from others to get the article promoted to Featured Article status, and the article appeared on the Wikipedia main page on 16th May 2006. My thanks to everyone who helped me with their comments and suggestions during the review stages! :)
My other really big project has been ongoing improvements to the Byzantine Empire article. I have written over 9,000 words for this article, consisting of a number of new sections and complete re-writes of several old ones:
New sections:
- 8 Crisis and fragmentation
- 9 Komnenoi and the crusaders
- 9.1 Alexios I Komnenos
- 9.2 First Crusade
- 9.3 Slow recovery
- 9.4 John's restoration of the empire
- 9.5 Manuel I Komnenos
- 10 The Komnenian army
- 11 Twelfth century 'Renaissance'
- 11.1 Economic expansion
- 11.2 Artistic revival
- 12 Decline and disintegration
- 12.1 Death of Manuel Komnenos
- 12.2 Collapse under the Angeloi
- 15 Why did the empire fall?
- 15.1 The arrival of the Seljuks
- 15.2 The structure of the military
Re-written sections:
- 12.3 The Fourth Crusade
- 13 The fall of the Byzantine Empire
- 14.1 Economy
I have also created seven new maps and added them to the article (the ones created by me have my name at the bottom left corner, and the ones by other users have those user's names on them). Other work done on this article by myself includes the addition of four new images, which consist of mosaics, paintings and coinage, and also contributions to the section on 'Economy', and also numerous edits to the Byzantine Empire infobox, which lists important events of the empire's history.
[edit] The changing face of the Byzantine Empire
Here are some of the new maps I have created for use in the Byzantine Empire article.
[edit] Roman York
Below is posted a presentation on Roman York that I recently gave during a lecture on the Ancient City at King's College University (not particularly relevant, but it takes up some space!):
(The ancient city of York has been inhabited right through Roman, Saxon, Viking and Norman times to the present day. York is located in northern England, at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss.)
"On the 25th July AD306 , Constantine was proclaimed emperor of Rome by his troops in the city of York. Crowned Augustus, for the next eighteen years, he would face a long series of battles and wars that would eventually bring him leadership of the whole Roman Empire. But as he stood before his troops on that fateful day, Constantine knew that York, and even Britannia itself, were under threat. The Picts to the north, and the Saxons to the east, were growing more confident all the time and had designs on the province for themselves. Before leaving, Constantine carried out reconstruction in Britain which allowed a period of peace and prosperity till c. 342AD.
We don’t know much about any settlement here before the Romans came, but the area had a Celtic name: Eburacon. According to Herman Ramm in his book Roman York from AD71 the native name translates as meaning 'the place where the yew trees grow'. From this we get the Roman name for the city, ‘Eboracum’. Founded as a fortress in AD 71 during the reign of Roman Emperor Vespasian, Eboracum housed the 9th Legion and later the 6th Legion. It soon had a civilian population and boasted fine public and military buildings. Eboracum quickly became one of the most important cities of Roman Britain and, after 211, it was the capital of the province of Britannia Inferior (Lower Britain).
For almost four hundred years the Romans kept a strong military presence in Eboracum, to help control the Celtic British tribes (especially the restless Brigantes to the west) and to provide reinforcements for Hadrian's Wall to the north. The Romans built the first stone walls around Eboracum, so it could be defended.
[edit] How do we know?
A lot of what we know about the city comes from archaeology. Excavations by the York Archaeological Trust have revealed barrack blocks, streets, bath houses and an elaborate system of drains and sewers. In the civilian areas, public and private buildings have been discovered. These include town houses with mosaic floors, and bath houses and temples. We have also uncovered river revetments which were built to accommodate Roman ships bringing in goods from the rest of the empire.
Substantial Roman remains were discovered under the medieval Cathedral and a re-erected Roman column now stands on Deangate. Outside the city walls are the remains of large Roman cemeteries. Most of the fortress lies 6 m below modern ground level and is covered by later buildings, but the modern streets are based on the fortress plan: Petergate and Stonegate are two of the most important. The original fortress had an earthen rampart faced with turf; it was later strengthened by Julius Agricola, who constructed a clay rampart faced with turf which had wooden interval towers. Under Trajan three British fortresses were rebuilt in stone; the rebuilding of York can be dated to 107-8 by an inscription found in King's Square and now in the Yorkshire Museum. Constantine was not the only important visitor to York - in the early 3rd century the emperor Septimus Severus made Eboracum his headquarters, and died there in A.D. 211. He strengthened the defences of the fortress with a stone wall 1.8 m thick, and the barrack blocks within the fortress were also rebuilt in stone. There was another rebuilding at the end of the 4th c. by Constantius I, father of Constantine, who also died here. The towers were replaced by powerful projecting bastions.
[edit] The End of Roman York
By the time of the Roman withdrawal from Britain in 410AD the defences had became neglected and the protective ditch was used by squatters. Without Roman protection, the days of Roman civilisation in Britain were numbered. Soon the Angles, Saxons and Jutes overran much of the old province, and the Saxons renamed the city Eoferwic. A legend tells that King Arthur recaptured the city for a time from the invaders, but even Arthur could not stem the Saxon tide for long. The Saxons seem to have settled into Roman York without changing the city overmuch. They used the Roman grid pattern of streets and refortified the walls. But little remains of Saxon York, because their wooden buildings have not survived. York enjoyed prosperity and a prominent place in the Anglo-Saxon world, but by 800AD the tides of fortune were about to turn again with the appearance of a fierce new invader, the Vikings."
[edit] Barnstars
|
The Epic Barnstar | |
| For your incredible work on Byzantine Empire related topics. Byzantine Empire was the first Wikipedia article I ever read --Bizwhiz 00:48, 13 September 2006 (UTC) |
[edit] Sources:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0006&query=head%3D%23831 www.wikipedia.org www.bbc.co.uk http://www.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/secrets/roman.htm http://www.viking.no/e/england/york/eboracum.htm http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/Y/YorkE1ng.asp http://www.britainexpress.com/cities/york/viking.htm
[edit] Comparison
