[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#11382) Fwd: byzantine nation

["Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos" <n.mavrogiannopoulos@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=11382 >

On Thursday 09 December 2004 08:22, Jason Short wrote:
> <URL: http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=11382 >
>
> Next question is how you came up with this flag.  The Byzantine Empire
> may have had a real flag...several of them actually, but yours doesn't
> look like one of them.
> See http://flagspot.net/flags/gr_byz.html
My flag is a part of the first flag shown in your site. The only problem
is that this also is a flag of the Paleologus dynasty at the final years
of the empire (so it has nothing to do with justinian or constantine).
It just looks more similar to early flags, that's why I've chosen this.

> According to my friend who is writing his master's thesis on the
> Byzantine navy:
> "They didn't [have a flag] (they used gonfalons not flags).  But they
just like romans, but it is a flag we have to draw :)

> did use the byzantine cross, ala medieval [total war, a video game], and
> the byzantine eagle.  I think the imperial eagle would be the most
> fitting.  All of the double headed eagles come from the byzantine eagle,
> which in turn comes from the roman eagle."
Yes but the double eagle was only introduced at the year of Michael 
Paleologous 700-800 years after Constantin. So I don't think it
is suitable. 

> He referred me to http://flagspot.net/flags/gr-ortho.html but said it
> should be (Roman) gold on a field of (imperial) purple (red was
> sometimes substituted for purple since purple was really expensive).
> Finally he say that the flag you have is a Paleologian cross not a
> Byzantine cross.
I really knew this flag as the flag used at the late days of the empire (also 
used by the greek church today), so I'd avoid using this flag. 
(the late days of the empire were not that glorious, and the empire's land
was really limited to constantinople and greece).
Does he have any information on whether this flag was used earlier than 
Michael Paleologus?

> The eagle might be too tricky (unless we can find a GPL/PD one), but a
> Byzantine cross on purple would be a good start.  He pointed me to these
> two links:
>   http://saintthomastheapostle.org/the_cross_explained.html
>   http://www.totalwar.com/community/bat1.htm
>   (note the gonfalons in the picture)
It is really the first time I hear about a byzantine cross, were these really 
used by the byzantine empire? Also the imperial colour was porphyr so purple 
seems quite unlikely for an imperial flag. It looks more like a church flag.
Do you have any more information about this?


I think I'll most probably also make the flag shown as
"Standard of Constantine the Great" in the first site you sent me.
What do you think?


> -jason

-- 
Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos