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The Emperor Heraclius is a great man. It’s a shame most people don’t know more about him. His campaigns against the Persians in the early 7th century were truly audacious. But, he also lived long enough to witness the loss of Syria and Egypt. If you haven’t, I would highly recommend A History of the Byzantine State and Society.
In any case, I was double-checking the marriage to his niece Martina because of some comments below, and came upon this interesting passage on Wikipedia:
Martina and Heraclius had at least 10 children, though the names and order of these children are questions for debate…
…
Of these at least two were handicapped, which was seen as punishment for the illegality of the marriage.
The coefficient of relatedness between uncles and nieces is 1/4. Twice as close as cousins, and the same as that between half-siblings. It isn’t entirely surprising that debilities would show up at this genetic distance, though two out of ten at that extreme might be a bit high.
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I imagine in this case it was the one God who punished the incest, but otherwise agreed. 😉
Emperor Heraclius’s campaign against Persia was counterproductive. He upset the balance of power, which the Arabs exploited.
That's sarcasm. For your information.
Hello,
what about the Pharaos? They always married
their sisters, didn’they?
Georg
Yep, he should have simply lain back and enjoyed it as Chosroes conquered 3/4s of the Byzantine Empire.
That’s sarcasm. For your information.
What is in human terms ‘grandfather-granddaughter’ is many dog breeders’ favorite inbreeding cross.
Possible reason why father-daughter is such a harmful mating.
Does this maybe apply to the father’s brother’s daughter sometimes?
It’s all fun and games until it isn’t, then it’s heresy. Monothelitism is no joke, man.
I was in a discussion recently regarding the Westermarck effect. I had taken it to be rather solidly established, but some sociologists now regard it as merely a hypothesis. Do you know much about the current state of science on that?
my estimation of the robustness of the westermarck effect just went up!
I had taken it to be rather solidly established, but some sociologists now regard it as merely a hypothesis.
my estimation of the robustness of the westermarck effect just went up!