[Alex Murphy]

Readers interested in the soundness of money — a problem that has been around as long as there has been money, it seems — will take note of the lasting value that the Byzantine gold coin, known as the “bezant” in the West, famously retained among traders for centuries. This reputation for value remained even after a devaluation in the 11th century. In the 6th century, a Byzantine merchant noted that “there is another mark of power among the Romans, which God has given them, I mean that every nation conducts its commerce with their nomisma [gold coin], which is acceptable in every place from one end of the earth to the other … In no other nations does such a thing exist.”

Byzantium / Hagia Sophia ping!

[Nikas777]

Along with the coin - a merchant speaking only Greek (Greeks at this point called themselves Romans as a political identification as we call ourselves Americans) could travel from Britain to India speaking only Greek and he would have found someone who could understand him.

[Forward the Light Brigade]

Give Hagia Sophia back to the Orthodox Church! Let it be what it was built to be—a house of God and a center of Orthodox Belief!