Q & A

Here is a question. Yeah, and I wanted to remind everyone that uh you can rewatch this lecture and all our previous lectures on our website. I'm not sure we have a slide for that.

(1:32:09) centerplace.ca [snorts] And now yes, what are your questions and comments? Oh, well, she has first and then we'll centerplace spelled the Canadian way, uh r e uh place.ca. And the and all the lectures are on there. Yes, go ahead. Oh, cuz when uh when I was in school, I had to write an essay and it was on um how did Zoroastrianism influence the Abrahamic reli- Oh, wow.

Audience Question: How did Zoroastrianism influence the Abrahamic religions?

(1:32:44) religions or something. Yeah. And uh and I'm in my it was like my second year but first year course, so first year course requires like basic info and I was going on and on and on into the very details. I was like going back and tracking Yeah. is them and and um like Christianity and Judaism and like Zoroastrianism and I was going on into the history and Yeah.

(1:33:16) all this other stuff not even not even having to do with religion anymore. Yeah. And you could go on. You can go on. That's a huge topic. How did Zoroastrianism impact the Abrahamic religions? So yeah, like you say, we could have a whole course on that. And actually we have a lecture on Zoroastrianism on June 26th. So yeah, so you're you're probably going to want to come to that since that's on your topic.

Audience Comment: Impact of Spice Trade and Venice

(1:33:40) So yes, let's my friend here. Major one point I rarely hear mentioned is the fact that uh all the spices came from India. And spices back then was like petrol is today, oil. Yeah. And uh states like Venice got exclusive rights to sell that in Europe. Right. So they had a vested interest in seeing Byzantium fall. Yes. And I rarely hear that mentioned.

(1:34:04) That's a very important point. Matter of fact, when Portugal found a route to India uh the Venetians actually supplied ships to the Muslims against the Portuguese. Yeah. didn't want to lose that trade. Yeah, it was a huge yeah, that I mean pretty much that was the end of Venice when when the when when the when the when the route went around.

(1:34:23) So yeah, so one of the things that's true here and like you say there's so many details here, but one of the things that's that's that is has happened by the time we get to the uh Fourth Crusade and the Byz- Byzantium falls is um because the Western mercantile um republics, Venice, Genoa, Amalfi, Pisa, because those republics had taken over all the trade routes um the Byzantines actually barely um got any revenue or any any profits out of the spice trade that were going through Constantinople.

(1:34:56) So even though Constantinople um had uh you know, in some ways dominated that trade route because of the location, they didn't have any power over it because the the uh the merchants were all out of their control and they all had already won rights like for example to be either to be tax free or to um have uh let's say court cases settled in their own law courts, you know, in their own special suburbs.

(1:35:19) So the Genoese had their own entire district of of of um of uh Constantinople. And so because like you say, the the Venetians um were trying to dominate that trade and they were trying to actually put the Genoese out of business uh it behooved them to try to just conquer the territory so that they would have total control over it.

(1:35:40) Although ultimately uh because Venice wasn't able to run the thing um it ultimately was sort of a doomed thing to try to create a Latin Empire there. But like you say, that was a huge factor not only in terms of the motivation of the Venetians, but also in terms of the incapacity of the empire to resist anymore. Valerie.

Audience Question: Ecumenical Patriarch's Vestments

(1:36:02) Um I just noticed the Eastern uh uh I guess I Archbishop What is he? Ecumenical Patriarch. Ecumenical Patriarch. He's got icons on his hat. Oh, yeah. Really making a He does. really making a point there. Yeah, and he's also got the double-headed eagle, which is the symbol of the Roman Empire, right? So he's got the There it is.

(1:36:28) The Eastern Roman Empire, right? That's a lot, huh? [laughter] All right. Well, very good, guys. Thank you so much uh for joining us for this one. It was a lot of details and I left out 10 times more details than I could put in, but anyway, appreciate it. Appreciate it. Great discussion. Thanks.