Sunday, November 14, 2010
The Great Schism
Me: Pope Leo IX (PLIX), you were right in the midst of the great schism weren't you?
PLIX: Yes, I was. I argued withe the Byzantines Patriarch about whether to use Greek or Latin in our domains.
Me: Well that's pretty dramatic. Tell me exactly what happened in the great schism.
PLIX: Essentially it divided Feudal Christianity, into Greek(Eastern) and Latin(Western) Christianity. The helped show the differences between the tow empires. (Byzantine and Roman)
Me: Well thank you for addressing that, and with those words this megathon marathon interview has concluded.
Columbus Leaves Spain
Me: Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492
Columbus: I know, how studly am I
Me: Rumor has it when you first discovered the Americas, you thought you were on the the Eastern shores of China, Is that True?
Columbus: Yes, but don't forget we had know record of anything being over there.
Me: Do you take full credit for discovering the Americas?
Columbus: Well, in essence I was leading the ship wasn't I, and had I been like Xheng He or the vikings and not mentioned anythings about my findings or had I not colonized the region, there would be no America.
Me: When you colonized the "New World" did you have any idea it would grow into the superpower it is today?
Columbus: Your territory offered really good resources so I noticed the potential.
Charlemagne
Me: Charlemagne, 50 military campaigns, 50 military victories. On paper the perfect general. You were even able to make Michael Hart's list of the 100 most influential people ever in the world qt number 97.
Charlemagne: I was very pleased to make the list however I would've hope to have been placed higher up.
Me: You created the Holy Roman Empire when converted to Christianity, do you believe this empire truly was similar to Rome?
Charlemagne: Unfortunately it never reached the height I had hoped it would. After reinstalling the idea of education I truly believed that it would jump start the process to recovering the Roman Empire.
Me: Well, at least you tried. Do you personally consider your self the greatest general of all time?
Charlemagne: Well I never lost a battle if that helps at all.
Me: It does, Thank you for being here.
Crusades
Me: Pope Urban II (PUII), if I am correct you are the one who sent the the Crusades?
PUII: Yes, that would be me.
Me: When you sent out the Crusades, what were you hoping to achieve.
PUII: Well I was hoping to gain control of the Holy Land from the Muslims. But what I was most pleased with was that the Crusades brought back "Knowledge".
Me: Define "Knowledge"
PUII: The Crusades brought back knowledge of the political' and economical culture of the Holy Land in the east. This helped spark our economy into becoming much more active and involved after a relative dry span.
Me: Well I'm happy to see that there was plenty of success involved with the Crusades,
Magna Carta
Me: So, King john of England, you were the one who signed the Magna Carta Eh?
John: Unfortunately yes, not many people are to fond of it.
Me: Well is there any bright side to the Magna Carta for you?
John: the Magna Carta was created because I had been punishing my citizens unfairly and unjustly. Then, I had lost control of rebellion of my citizens and they captured me and forced me to sign this document in which I must give all m Citizens a set of rights.
Me: Well the set of rights you signed is still used to today and you are also responsible for the creation of parliament which leads to the creation of the legislative branch in the united states of America.
John: However, all these things take power away from me and put it in the hands of the people which implies that I abused my power.
Me: Its kind of true.
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Battle of Tours
Me: So Charles "The Hammer" Martel, do you like your nickname?
Charles: Yeah, its pretty cool.
Me: So you led your army against the Arabian army in the Battle of Tours, right?
Charles: Yes I did, and what people don't seem to realize about that battle is the importance of it. That battle had a huge influence on stopping the Arabian advance on Gaul, and long term kept the Muslim Empire from expanding all the way through Europe.
Me: Later on, after your death, many historians praised you as the champion of Christianity because, like you said before, you kept Islam from spreading to Europe. How do you feel about that?
Charles: I frankly feel like I deserve that praise because like I stated before, this was a huge battle in terms of importance and in terms of deaths.
Me: Well thank you for coming in it was a true pleasure.
William the Conquerer
Me: William, you were the first Norman king of England, You were the king of Normandy, aand you were a great general. What more is there to say about you?
William: We could discuss the story of how it all happened?
Me: And how exactly did it happen?
William: Well when Edward the Confessor died without an heir to the throne there were three of us who claimed a right to the British throne, me, Harold Godswinson, and Harald III of Norway. I however was the only one of us with a good reason.
Me: And what might that reason be?
William: Well Edward had promised the the thrown while he was in exile in Normandy. Continuing on, we all fought for the throne and I was able to get the british throne by beating Herald Godswinson in the Battle of Hastings. From there I maintained power by setting up the Doomsday Book, this allowed me to tax citizens by knowing exactly what they have, and also I setup the Executive Branch of Government.
Me: So we can thank you for taxes right?
William: Exactly
Rome Sacked/Falls to Barbarians
Me: Alaric, when you first became king of the barbarian Visagoths, did you ever even dream about taking down Rome?
Alaric: No, we originally only hoped to take of small parts of the Roman Empire but as we were able to advance easily, the ideas and hopes became much greater. Slowly, we began to chip away at Rome seizing control of the outskirts and then moving inward. Eventually, we were able to reach Rome and put a siege on it. The surrounding of Rome had proved to be much easier than I had imagined, and starving the city to death was even simpler. Eventually we sacked the city and delivered the final blow by doing that. Rome was left crippled when we departed.
Me: When you left Rome, the Roman Empire had literally collapsed, did you think that the entire empire would actually ever fall the way it did?
Alaric: well we did destroy the heart of Roman civilization so in essence, yes.
Constantine the Great
Me: Constantine, you single handedly took all the cultural influence and power from the heart of rome and moved it to your city Constantinople in the Byzantine Empire. How did You do it?
Constantine: Well I figured if had built a city so grand and perfect as Constantinople the many people would come. Also the city had a nearly perfect location in which every trade ship would have to pass by the city.
Me: You also had a major influence on the popularity of Christianity, how do you explain that?
Constantine: Well as you know I was a supporter of the art of religion and simply stated that it would be legal to worship Christianity in my empire. After that my city had become much more popular and the religion really had a major influence in the success of the Byzantine Empire.
Me: Well, thank you for coming in today I know we all really appreciate it. One more thing, you commanded one of the largest armies in history, was it the most powerful?
Constantine: You can't be a great emperor with out being a good general.
Julius Caesar
Me: So Julius, rumor has it that your a rock star in Rome.
Julius: Yeah I'm pretty awesome.
Me: Do you believe it was unfair for your senate to assassinate you?
Julius: No, I had made significant contributions to achieve the levels of success Rome had achieved. I personally believed I deserved to be at this level of power.
Me: What contributions are you referring to?
Julius: Well my conquering of Gaul greatly enhanced the size of our borders. I also defeated much of Spain to gain additional land. Lastly, I did the most unimaginable thing by crossing the Rubicon River and over throwing the Roman Republic to impose my own Dictatorship. These moves clearly deserved a long life and the privilege of being a dictator.
Me: Are you happy with what Rome had become in the years after your death?
Julius: I'm extremely proud of what I setup. Rome grew to become one of the most valuable Empires in the history of mankind. It also had many engineering breakthroughs such as aqueducts, the colosseum, and Arches.
Me: Well you should be very proud of yourself and your successors.
Julius: I am proud of all of them except for the last one.
Alexander The Great
Me: So Alexander, how does feel to be arguably the greatest general of all time?
Alexander: I'm not going to lie, its a real self-esteem booster. However, after all the hard work I had put in I would've hoped to be up there.
Me: You came up with so many great ideas and inventions to win battles, where was your inspiration behind all of this?
Alexander: I would have to credit my mentor, Aristotle, for much of it. He was able to teach me a way to view things different than many others. Such as the siege tower, with out that I never could've conquered persia the way I had.
Me: Tell me about your conquest of Egypt.
Alexander: Egypt was by far my favorite place out of all the empires I had seen. As you know I liked to improve my own culture by taking pieces from the other areas that I had defeated. However, Egypt's culture seemed nearly perfect in my eyes. I felt honored to be the leader and one of their g-ds.
Me: If you hadn't died so young, do you believe you could have taken over thee world?
Alexander: Isn't that question rhetorical?
The Golden Age of Greece
Me: Pericles you were the leader of Greece during its golden age right?
Pericles: Why yes I was.
Me: When you first took charge of Athens, did you ever think the city could reach the levels of success that it had reached?
Pericles: Well, I had expected to be able to defeat the Persians in many of those battles. However, when i first started had definitely not expected the city-state of Athens and the state of Greece to evolve into the cultural stand point that it had be come. The Parthenon i believe is a good example of the power of the arts created. The parthenon still to this day attracts visitors from all over the world.
Me: One last thing Pericles, did you believe that your legacy would go down a being one the greatest rulers history?
Pericles: I had confidence that my naval expeditions were going put me up there, but you never really know.
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