Viggen

Fascinating paper from the Department of Economics (Oxford University) with plenty of graphs... The paper compares the standard of living of labourers in the Roman Empire in 301 AD with the standard of living of labourers in Europe and Asia from the middle ages to the industrial revolution. Roman data are drawn from Diocletian's Price Edict. The real wage of Roman workers was like that of their counterparts in the lagging parts of Europe and much of Asia in the middle of the eighteenth century. Roman workers earned just enough to buy a minimal subsistence consumption basket. Real wages were considerably higher in the advanced parts of Europe in the eighteenth century, as they had been in Europe generally following the Black Death in 1348-9. . Conclusion: The real wage evidence supports a guardedly optimistic view of Roman living standards. Certainly, the Roman worker in Diocletian's time was doing about as well as most workers in eighteenth century Europe or Asia. One lesson that price history teaches, however, is that real wages fluctuated in the past. Indeed, Roman performance looks unimpressive in comparison with fifteenth century Europe when real wages were so high. In addition, generalizations are confounded by variation across space with workers in booming parts of the continent earningmuch more than their counterparts in more placid provinces. One suspects that the same wastrue of the Roman Empire. The next step in the research agenda should, therefore, be to useactual wages and prices (rather than legal maxima) to measure real wages in the Roman periodand to do this for different regions of the empire and different time periods. That investigationmight reveal as much variation as we observe in the early modern world and lead to a morecomplex assessment of Roman living standards. http://www.economics...df/paper363.pdf

...i think you once said, that you havent been in eastern europe that much, so i am guessing it is somewhere in eastern europe?

..this is a sentence from an interview by J. Rufus Fears the David Ross Boyd professor of Classics at the University of Oklahoma on an interivew about democracy (regarding the current Egypt crisis) .... the Romans learned from history. They knew they would go the way of all great empires and what mattered was the legacy that they left behind. ...did they know? via NPR

looking at google maps to have a look around the Great Pyramids, a strange big structure nearby struck my eyes, you can see it here http://maps.google.d...29.8665,31.2063 according to this site http://egyptphoto.nc...%20el-mudir.htm it is called Gisr el-Mudir "The Great Square" The enclosure wall seems to have been completed and no trace of a structure has been found inside the walls, which rules out the possibility of a pyramid and so its purpose is still unknown. Pottery recovered from the rubble fill of the enclosure walls dates the structure to Dynasty II, predating Djoser's complex by several years.... ...Recent findings at Khasekhemwy's Abydos tomb have strengthened the belief that the king was Djoser's immediate predecessor - a seal impression on the tomb doorway suggests that Djoser buried Khasekhemwy. It is therefore not unreasonable to suggest Khasekhemwy was the builder of Gisr el-Mudir, which Djoser then copied and developed into his Step Pyramid complex. If this is the case, then Khasekhemwy and not Djoser should be heralded as the builder of Egypt's first stone monument. ...what do you think was the purpose of this structure?

...actually that was from a plane and about a kilometer away, i know this is a two year old thread, but i just stumbled about this high resolution video and i had to share... http://www.uncontact...g/brazilfootage p.s. is that Gillian Anderson (Scully from Xfiles) speaking?

Two part article on the subject... A Roman Legion Lost in China Part I In 53 BC, 10,000 ravaged, beaten and humiliated soldiers of a once proud and seemingly undefeatable Roman army was marched under the yoke into the mists of time, never to be heard of again......or were they? A Roman Legion Lost in China Part II n the last instalment we set the scene and introduce the players. Now it is time for us to delve ever deeper into the mystery and enter the murky world where science and legend may walk hand in hand once more. Welcome to the 2nd and final act of a lost Roman legion in China...

A Roman Legion Lost in China?

...in my series of "what people are looking at Google", my todays freak search phrase is "Weapon worn on belt",it never has been in the Top 20 search phrases, i couldnt find it even in the Top 40, and yesterday all of a sudden hundreds of people are looking for "weapon worn on belt", there are of course two things that could have caused this, first, all of a sudden (crossword, TV show, news report) people are searching for this, or people have always searched for this in numbers but for some google algorythmic reason we got promoted for this search phrase by google yesterday. I can see us on the first page for "weapon worn on belt" and it goes to our Legionary Equipment Page. cheers viggen

...wow he starts with german may i be a little grammar nazi and correct it to "Willkommen in meinem Blog. Sitzen Sie alle bequem, Also" did you learn german in school? cheers viggen

lots of high resolution pics at Third Age... ...just click on them and they become really big

Below are the newest releases for January and February.... Teutoburg Forest AD 9: The destruction of Varus and his legions (Campaign) [Paperback] The Birth of Classical Europe: A History from Troy to Augustine The Lusitanian War: Viriathus the Iberian Against Rome [Hardcover] Hannibal: The Military Biography of Rome's Greatest Enemy [Hardcover] Clodia Metelli: The Tribune's Sister (Women in Antiquity) [Paperback] The Oxford Handbook of Social Relations in the Roman World (Oxford Handbooks in Classics and Ancient History) [Hardcover] Seneca: Oedipus [Hardcover] Livia, Empress of Rome: A Biography [Hardcover] The Art of Forgetting: Disgrace and Oblivion in Roman Political Culture (Studies in the History of Greece and Rome) [Paperback] The Wars of the Romans: A Critical Edition and Translation of De Armis Cicero as Evidence: A Historian's Companion [Paperback] The Frome Hoard [Paperback] Augustus, First Roman Emperor: Power, Propaganda and the Politics of Survival Travel and Geography in the Roman Empire [Paperback] Free at Last!: The Impact of Freed Slaves on the Roman Empire [Hardcover] The Victor's Crown: Greek and Roman Sport from Homer to Byzantium [Hardcover]

....yes indeed its Pula in Istria!

...here some book reviews we did on military over the last 7 years... The Roman Soldier by G. R. Watson Caesar: A History of the Art of War by T. A. Dodge The Roman Army At War by A. Goldsworthy The Complete Roman Army by Adrian Goldsworthy The Late Roman Army by Pat Southern and Karen R. Dixon Greek & Roman Warfare by John Drogo Montagu The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History by Pat Southern Legionary: The Roman Soldier's Manual by Philip Matyszak

...first review of The Eagle by NY Press Tatum and Bell suggest junior league versions of Boorman

Arles it is not, however a little hint, the place in question was romanized a bit earlier then the gallic town of Arles...

...thanks, yeah i thought i saw it before but wasn`t sure.. in any case, this one should be fairly easy, i just like that place so much, i have to show hehe ...

...that could be the Sumela Monestary near Trabzon (Turkey) http://en.wikipedia....ross_Valley.JPG

The Planning of Roman Roads and Walls in Northern Britain by John Poulter What you get inside this book is much more than what it says on the cover; it contains a detailed investigation into the probable directions of planning and building of Dere Street, the major Roman road on the Eastern side of the Roman frontier, plus Hadrian

...here an interview with Kevin Macdonald.... Jordan Hoffman: What qualities of the Roman epic did you want to bring into The Eagle? Kevin Macdonald: I think what

Hi Jauchart, are you refering to "comitatus"? The most significant aspect of the Germanic social structure was the comitatus, a term invented by the Roman historian Tacitus. The comitatus was a retinue of warriors that attached itself to a lord or king voluntarily. Through oaths of loyalty, the comitatus protected militarily the lord or king who, in his turn, granted individuals the protection of the comitatus and rewarded them with wealth. The Germanic tribal economy was more or less identical to most tribal economies

This extraordinary permanent large-scale excavation site is in a quiet residential area close to the River Tyne and the North Sea. South Shields Roman Fort is the site of a roman military and civilian settlement and lies within the UNESCO Hadrian

...is that location in Gallia?

...i just placed the Colossus of Rhodes at my neck of the woods and i must say, very very impressive, funt tool this page... http://www.howbigreally.com/dimension/ancient_worlds cheers viggen

On Friday, January 28, 2011, when the protest marches began in Cairo, I heard that a curfew had been issued that started at 6.00pm on Friday evening until 7.00am on Saturday morning. Unfortunately, on that day the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, was not well guarded. About a thousand people began to jump over the wall on the eastern side of the museum into the courtyard. On the western side of the museum, we recently finished something I was very proud of, a beautiful gift shop, restaurant and cafeteria. The people entered the gift shop and stole all the jewellery and escaped; they thought the shop was the museum, thank God! ...via a very useful site with the latest information on the for us relevant situation... http://egyptology.bl...trickle-in.html cheers viggen