Viggen

Jesus Christ has been portrayed as a mythical being by Bruno Bauer and others but this is absurd. Christianity could not have evolved and flourished had its founder not been a real figure. Early writers on Buddhism did not also consider Gotama Buddha as historical. Albert Schweitzer

Hello and welcome angeline, you need to have 3 approved posts to be able to edit your profile (we reduced it from 10 to 3), after that you can enjoy your freedom! cheers viggen

In the late summer of his seventh and final season (AD 83) the army of the Roman governor of Britain, Gnaeus Julius Agricola, defeated a larger Caledonian force at the battle of Mons Graupius. Agricola's son-in-law, the historian Tacitus, writing at the end of that century, was able to say(Histories 1,2),perdomita Britannia, 'Britain was conquered'. However, he goes on to state, 'statim omissa1', 'it was immediately lost'. No permanent Roman forts of first century - or any other date - have been found beyond the Mounth, where the Highlands reach the sea at Stonehaven (illus 3), though Roman camps are known (illus 1), while archaeological evidence suggests that by about 90 all installations on and north of the Forth-Clyde line had been abandoned (Hartley 1972,13; Hanson & Yeoman 1988,14). Tacitus may have been indulging in hyperbole - not all Britain was lost, only the northern part - but nevertheless the Romans had failed to complete the conquest of the island, and had even withdrawn from territory which they had overrun..... ....interesting paper from David J Breeze* http://archaeologyda...118_003_022.pdf

Marks on a clay tablet fragment found in Greece are the oldest known decipherable text in Europe, a new study says. Considered "magical or mysterious" in its time, the writing survives only because a trash heap caught fire some 3,500 years ago, according to researchers. Found in an olive grove in what's now the village of Iklaina (map), the tablet was created by a Greek-speaking Mycenaean scribe between 1450 and 1350 B.C., archaeologists say. The Mycenaeans

....we integrated today our forum with Facebook Connect which means you can now sign up wiht your facebook account. If you havent sign up yet http://www.unrv.com/...l&section=login regards viggen

The World of the Celts by Simon James Book Review by Ursus The World of the Celts by Simon James is a wonderful introduction to Celtic history and culture. The work is well written and richly illustrated. Perhaps best of all, it provides a balanced view point and avoids any grandiose exaggeration of the Celts and their place in history. Simon lets the evidence speak for itself; the Celts were not complete savages. It was their increasingly developed culture that made them worthy of Romanization in the first place.... ...read the full review of The World of the Celts by Simon James

...hypothetical but interesting to ponder..."If the Roman Empire had developed nuclear power, we would still be guarding their waste repositories."... News Times

Questioning Reputations: Essays on Nine Roman Republican Politicians by R.J. Evans reviewed by Bryaxis Hecatee In Questioning reputations: essays on nine republican politicians (2003) we find a book whose main goal is to invite us to re-evaluate what we know of nine iconic personalities of the first century B.C., three of them major actors of the period and six of them, analyzed in pairs, being considered as minor personages in our sources despite their undeniable importance in the events of the time. This is done by a close analysis of the ancient sources, each of which being searched for bias or hidden agendas that might make their historical authors distort the facts. First looking at specific aspects of the lives of Marius, Pompey and Caesar, R. J. Evans continues by comparing the lives of Saturninus and Glaucia, Drusus and Sulpicius and then Clodius and Milo... ...read the full review of Questioning Reputations: Essays on Nine Roman Republican Politicians by R. J. Evans

...after having a bit more time to browse through their catalogue, i am going to settle on this one The Visigoths from the Migration Period to the Seventh Century http://www.urpress.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=12743 ...cheers viggen

... i am seriously thinking of going, (its not far from where i am), are you going to be present at one of those days, maybe we can have a little chat with a nice latte macchiato p.s. my lady is always happy to get more glass stuff from Murano anyway

....i participated at the Facebook page from publishing house Boydell and Brewer and i won! I can now choose any paperback book of their selection, which one would you take? I am still deciding between After Empire - Towards an Ethnology of Europe's Barbarians http://www.boydellan...?idProduct=6680 and The Age of Sutton Hoo The Seventh Century in North-Western Europe http://www.boydellan...?idProduct=6687

Yeah Melvadius you are correct, Flavia Solva it must be... Hello Noricum, welcome at Unrv.com, glad you found us! If you are in Styria (depending where) maybe consider a day trip to Carinthia ,for australians that must be around the corner anyway Magdalensberg is a very nice place if you are into roman sites, http://www.unrv.com/roman-events/magdalensberg.php cheers viggen (the austrian) emperor

belated happy birthday!

I had heard Jones series was more about American foreign policy than about ancient cultures (i.e., how a supposedly advanced superpower is culturally inferior to civilizations with whom it is at war). ...i watched it and that this was apparently about American foreign policy never crossed my mind, i think some americans tend to be oversensitive and selfabsorbed, you know not everything on this planet is about the US of A... Why? Including the Greeks in his "barbarian" musings is preposterous. The Greeks invented the word "barbarian," and among all their subject peoples, the Roman held classical Greek culture in high esteem. He does explain that the Greek invented the word "barbarian" but also stressed the point that Romans had little use for the inventive Greek, one point he was raising was "name me one famous Roman mathematician", it just wasn`t the Roman thing to do, the Greeks at the time invented such crazy good stuff its amazing, all the Romans did with it was belittle it or made use of it for amusement, like freak gadgets... ...in anycase, as always, first watch it yourself and than judge, hear say is never a good thing, there is a reason why in hear say is dismissed in american court of law... cheers viggen... p.s. if you want a copy from Amazon i stick you one if you make a review... cheers viggen

...yeah good boy, always shop around, always haggle always nag, make everyone crazy till they give stuff away for free just to get rid of you, well thats what i try most of the time hehe

caldrail you crack me up, you know we should get together and make your blog entries here into a book, i promise you, i make you rich... cheers for now viggen

...to combine the need to learn portuguese with making my blog more active, i will keep this as a diary of my progress, (well we will see about that progress part)... ....as it happens Transparent Language gave away free downloadable language course in exchange of writing about the experience, so here i am busy downloading a 330 MB file, its a bit slow for my liking (just under 200kb/s) but hey, its a free download. There is also an option to download an Ipod version, (dont have one, so skip that). All in all i am rather excited, i should have started learning portuguese long ago... I keep you up to date... p.s. they even have a Latin course available....

welcome back!

hehe i liked that one, especially as i have been there many times, (and even wrote about it) http://www.unrv.com/roman-events/magdalensberg.php fascinating place, one of the few roman places that only existed around 100 years, the temple building you see there in the photo gallery was not even completed, within months all of a sudden the whole city just moved downhill, leaving all behind... cheers viggen

I was wondering why we get so many visitors from the Economist today and after checking it out, someone in the comment section posted to us, it was about the exciting topic if Brazilians are Latins or not... a pissed off Eduardo posts; Obama does a trip by America. Brazil is not part of Latin America because we are not Latins (=Hispanics). The continent does not end at the border of Mexico / USA. Indeed this is perhaps the largest territorial extension in America. This is so obvious that in Chile he will discourse to Latin America. While in Brazil he made already a speech TO BRAZIL. In Chile he will make a speech to Latin America (and to Latins), not to Brazil.The U.S. began to see the REAL Brazil, not the Brazil as a caricature of Latin, which British/English press always distorted the Brazilians. wabash sphinx replies with our link;It's advisable to check your facts before holding forth on a subject you have little grasp of:

I think we should reward our bloggers, how about an Amazon Kindle or a NOOk? Come up with how the competition should work, who should get the first prize, the one with the most blog entries not going to happen, (sorry caldrail, than there wouldnt be a contest to begin with, you are just too productive ) ...so any ideas ???

...all i can say is on my very personal level the EU rocks, ...my girlfriend is from another EU country, so she could move here and get a job without any problems ...i am 10 km away from Italy and 15 km away from Slovenia, i never ever want to have the days back when i needed for both of those countries a passport and two currenices (Tolar/before Dinar and Lira).... ...as far as my little world is concerned the EU is the best thing ever... cheers chris