Viggen

Amid the devastation and danger of civil war, Syrian archaeologists and activists are risking their lives in the battle against looting. The ancient city of Dura-Europos sits on a bluff above the Tigris River a few miles from Syria's border with Iraq, its mud-brick walls facing a bleak expanse of desert. Just a year ago the city's precise grid of streets—laid down by Greek and Roman residents 2,000 years ago—was largely intact. Temples, houses, and a substantial Roman outpost were preserved for centuries by the desert sands. "It stood out for its remarkable preservation," says Simon James, an archaeologist at the U.K.'s University of Leicester who spent years studying the site's Roman garrison. "Until now." (See before and after pictures of archaeological site looting.) Satellite images of the site released by the U.S. State Department in June show a shocking picture of devastation. In the past year, as fighting continued to rage between the government of President Bashar al Assad's troops and rebels—including the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria—the site has been ravaged by industrial-scale looting... read the full article at National Geographic

The foundation of the human population explosion, commonly attributed to a sudden surge in industrialisation and public health during the 18th and 19th centuries, was actually laid as far back as 2,000 years ago, suggests an extended model of detailed demographic and archaeological data. The Public Library of Science One (PLOS ONE) recently published the analytical framework developed by Aaron Stutz, an associate professor of anthropology at Emory University’s Oxford College. “The industrial revolution and public health improvements were proximate reasons that more people lived longer,” Stutz says. “If you dig further in the past, however, the data suggest that a critical threshold of political and economic organisation set the stage 1,500 to 2,000 years ago, around the start of the Common Era. The resulting political-economic balance was the tipping point for economies of scale: It created a range of opportunities enabling more people to get resources, form successful families, and generate enough capital to transfer to the next generation.” Population dynamics have been a hot topic since 1798, when English scholar Thomas Robert Malthus published his controversial essay that population booms in times of plenty will inevitably be checked by famine and disease. “The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man,” he wrote. The so-called Malthusian Catastrophe theory was penned just prior to the global census size reaching one billion. full article at Past Horizons

File Name: De Amicitia, Scipio's Dream - Marcus Tullius Cicero File Submitter: Viggen File Submitted: 04 Sep 2014 File Category: Free Classic Works in PDF Cicero's essay On Friendship (Laelius de amicitia) is of interest as much for the light it sheds on Roman society as for its embodiment of ancient philosophical views on the subjects of friendship. The Dream of Scipio was excerpted in late antiquity from Cicero's De Republica, a dialogue in six books which now only survives in fragmentary form. In the excerpt, which probably formed the conclusion to the dialogue, Cicero describes his vision of the cosmos and the rewards of immortality that the good statesman can expect after death. This work is particularly important for its influence on later literature in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.Both dialogues are examples of the best Ciceronian prose. Click here to download this file

Hi Eric and welcome to UNRV... I fear Onasander meant what he wrote, he has sometimes, lets say somewhat different views than most here

Hello Axel, or should i say Mr. Iulius Caesar and welcome to UNRV

...the full version of Constantine the Coins speak is now available in pdf at or download section! thanks Victor Clark for the permission to upload your paper! http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=11

File Name: CONSTANTINE THE GREAT: THE COINS SPEAK File Submitter: Viggen File Submitted: 04 Sep 2014 File Category: Scientific Papers This paper will look at bronze coins of Constantine the Great, in conjunction with the primary and secondary sources, in an attempt to glean a fuller picture of the past and explore some of the debates that occur in the field of Roman numismatics. A thesis submitted to the college of graduates studies in candidacy for the degree of master of arts department of history by Victor Clark Click here to download this file

currently i watch.. ...just started with first episode of "House of Cards" and i enjoyed it... ...after three episodes of "The Knick", i am already a huge fan of this series ...The last Ship is not really a groundbreaking event but i must admit i do enjoy it. ...and i cant wait for the next season of (Mad Men, Game of Thrones and Walking Dead)

Steinacher is a very interesting author/scholar. His work on Vandals is one of the best in German language... and as you mentioned you know a bit german, I found a bit of the book in pdf for you (and everyone else) 359-402_Anfange_Bayerns-libre.pdf

There is a very interesting article (book chapter) by historian Roland Steinacher in "Die Anfänge Bayerns" where he writes about the formation of identities in early medieval communities. The chapter is quite long and contains many good and interesting points. For example on pp. 85 Steinacher discussed the questoin of "how Roman were Franks, Alamanns, Goths and Vandals". Steinacher stresses the point that these Germanic groups formed in exact correspondents to Roman provinces. Thus, the Franks formed opposite the Germania inferior, the Alamanni opposite the upper Germanic province, the Vandals opposite the Pannonian provinces and the Goths opposite the Black Sea provinces. Steinacher states that this is no coincidence and suggests that these names were useful categories from the Roman perspective. Thus, when Romans refered to Franks, anybody knew that they meant barbarians boardering the lower Rhine frontier and so on. In this interpretation, it is clear why Roman authors speak of the gens Gothicae as a collective term, that included both Germanic and non-Germanic groups. Thus, Sarmatians, Bastarni, Carpi, Alani, Huns, Rugi, and others were all called Gothi by the Romans. At times Romans used an even broader classification, calling all eastern barbarians Scythians and all western barbarians Celts. Clearly, such categorising by the Romans was not deliberate or planned, but developed naturally out of the need to name groups that were perceived in a geographical contexts. While the names are Germanic they were probably not used by the Germanic and non-Germanic groups in the same way as the Romans did. However, at the end the Roman persistent use of the terms prevailed, which led to the formation or at least our perception of such large tribal confederations as Franci, Alamanni, Gothi and Vandali. ...this is an excerpt from a Germanic reading group post... found it highly interesting especially for late antiquity experts like sonic

The Roman Guide to Slave Management by Jerry Toner Book Review by Philip Matyszak This book is a quirky introduction to slavery in the Roman world, allegedly written by the Roman slave owner Marcus Sidonius Falx, with 'commentary' by the author Jerry Toner. The idea is to describe slavery from the viewpoint of a Roman slave owner, with the author stepping in at the end of each chapter to recommend further reading, discuss source material and occasionally to disassociate himself from Sidonius Falx's awe-inspiring lack of political correctness... ...continue to the full review of The Roman Guide to Slave Management by Jerry Toner

38.000 years old.... An engraving found at a cave in Gibraltar may be the most compelling evidence yet for Neanderthal art. The pattern, which bears a passing resemblance to the grid for a game of noughts and crosses, was inscribed on a rock at the back of Gorham's Cave. full article at the BBC

The Roman Peasant Project seeks to uncover the lived experience of the peasantry in the Roman period: their diet, economic activities, and social networks. We exploit a combination of field survey, geophysical exploration and targeted, rescue-style excavation, and place these results alongside evidence gleaned from historical, zoo-archaeological, archaeo-botanical and geological sources. via Penn Museum Blog

Roman Guide to Slave Management sounds intriguing... ...lucky us Maty has done a review for us!

The “Dark Ages” in what is now Western Europe sometimes conjure images of a very low-tech society — replete with outright barbarism and boiling vats of gruel. But the early Middle Ages (or “Dark Ages”) — a longtime historical pejorative — were actually a time of great technological progress, medieval scholars now say. A scarcity of written records has given rise to the misconception that the early Middle Ages — roughly correlating with the end of the Roman Empire Empire in the West (around 476 A.D.) to about 1000 A.D. — were unrelentingly primitive, says Benjamin Hudson, a professor of history and medieval studies at Penn State University. Yet in many ways medievalists were centuries ahead of their time; intrinsically-linked to their landscape and intent on looking for alternative means to harness the power of nature. Part of the Dark Ages’ image problems, says Hudson, is tied to the nature of scientific development, which in the case of technology was incremental.... ...full article at Forbes

Done!

Ben Kane, Russ Whitfield and Anthony Riches walked from Capua to the Forum in Rome in late April 2014, raising money for MSF - Médecins Sans Frontières and Combat Stress. And just to make it a bit more interesting, they decided to take a four man film crew with them to Italy, to ensure that every last little bit of blood, sweat and bad language is captured for posterity... and now the film has a narratow and not just anyone but Sir Ian McKellen! Congrats to Ben, Anthony and Russ!

If you are a registered member on our forum you have now the opportunity not only to download old works in pdf but also from now on samples of new novels. (in future we want to even have them in full, but thats for another day) We start today with Thomas A Timmes` Legio XVII: Roman Legion at War. Thanks to the author Thomas A. Timmes. Enjoy the first 15% of his novel.

File Name: Legio XVII: Roman Legion at War File Submitter: Viggen File Submitted: 29 Aug 2014 File Category: Historic Novels Legio XVII: Roman Legion at War [15% pdf sample] by Thomas A Timmes Historical fiction, written by a 28 year U.S. Army veteran, follows Rome’s Legio XVII from its creation to final battle and puts you in the minds of Praetor Manius Tullus and his Centurions as they plan and fight their way across Northern Italy and Austria. Praetor Tullus, a survivor of Cannae, recruits, trains and leads Legio XVII on a 30-month independent expedition to face battle-hardened Gallic and Germanic tribes. Meanwhile, in southern Italy, 23 Roman Legions battle Hannibal in a desperate struggle for the survival of Rome. Click here to download this file

...just for info; Ursus reviewed that book a while back (i linked it in your comment)

Built the house around the map! ...and thanks for the kind words!

Legio II Augusta, the dedicated not for profit reenactment group, need to raise £3000 so that they can replace their worn out van. Please help if you can - this crew are amazing, and if you've ever been to a reenactment event in the UK, it's likely that they were part of it. No van = no events for them. You can donate at Crowndfunder! http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/roman-living-history/

...another page has been added, including three images... http://www.unrv.com/academia/constantine-the-coin-speaks5.php more to follow...