Ludovicus

on another note I believe Fellenini did a film on a series of subterranean caverns in Rome that were basically mashed over...a myriad of beautiful mosaics and wall paintings etc...what a shame.. The film you're talking about is "Roma" or ,in English, "Fellini's Roma." Here's a description of that fantastic scene in which a subway construction crew accidentily runs into a perfectly preserved ancient Roman villa full of mosaics: "Fellini's film insists upon the continuity of past and present, the writing and continued significance of one within the other; signified directly by the underground tunnel which rapidly encounters the historical layers of the city built one atop the other. But this is seldom a melancholy or straightforwardly nostalgic film. In one of the film's most celebrated set pieces in which a construction crew uncovers a perfectly preserved ancient Roman home, we are given a tantalisingly brief glimpse of beautiful frescoes and statues whose stoic faces seem to be looking back at us, visages of a piece with those we encounter in contemporary Rome. But Fellini always insists on marking lived experience and the ravages of time, and once revealed to the pungent air of contemporary Rome the artefacts quickly take on the weathering and age that their 2000 year embalming has forestalled. This is a great image of what preoccupies Fellini's vision of Rome, essentially a city in which the past is both inaccessible and ever present, a history or legacy that is both quixotic and abundant through its signs of physical decay. One can see the layers of the past in many of the film's images but this is equally a 'vision' that one can smell and hear (the noise I discussed above is in fact multi-sensory)." http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/01/19/roma.html

Thank you. There's a scale model, at the museum, of an urban empire era villa reused as it would have appeared later in 1000AD. The entire first floor sunk out of sight and with the second floor now the first! The Crypta Balbi museum is a must-see for anyone visiting Rome who has an interest in the post classical history of the city. Northern Neil, I don't know how to put images in the gallery. Please feel free to do so yourself.

Yes, in Rome the Crypta Balbi is an excellent museum for the period we're discussing. It shows how a few everyday places of the classical city were reused from about 500 to 1000 AD. See the link below for some interesting images from the CB website: http://www.inklink.it/inklink/archivio.php...=57〈=en I've read some where, Archaeology Magazine?, that parts of the Forum of Trajan survived until the devastating earthquate of the ninth century. Also keep in mind that thousands of abandoned apartment houses (insulae) made of adobe/mud all dissolved thereby raising the ground level substantially. Classical era building were buried, at least to the first floor. In the actual museum there are display models that show you the Forum of 1000 AD populated with rural houses built of spolia (salvaged marble & bricks).

i will be angry if this is the last season of rome,great actors,great drama,great scenes, Hold your anger, Titus. As far as I can tell from my video rental store, HBO Rome First Season is doing exceedinly well. Remember that nowadays cable series often have a very successful second life as DVDs.

Was Saddam's execution an Iraqi government act or Shiite retribution? If it's the latter, it will only intensive the civil war going on in that sad country. Saddam was certainly guilty of more than just the deaths of Shiites. What about the Kurds he gassed and other Sunni's he murdered. Why no trial for these attrocities? This execution, to my mind, has all the signs of an ugly revenge move on the part of the Shiite led government. It's reported that the Shiite executioners shouted taunts and curses ar the condemned as the noose was tighened around his neck. Some "execution," more a lynching.

What a fascinating resource! Thanks Doc!

Great. Thanks. Somewhere along the line I missed the "ancient source list."

Are UNRV members familiar with this online resource "Maps of the Roman Empire" ? At least one map is interactive. Click on a province and you get the related resources. http://intranet.dalton.org/groups/rome/RMAPS.html

Click here for the illustrations (copied in medieval times) from a Roman document of the late 4th Century: http://www.redrampant.com/roma/lateshields.html

The so-called 'Notitia dignitatum' is a compilation of 78 lists, interspersed with 89 pictures, which was ultimately copied from an original compilation that was created, or last edited from its sources, between A.D. 395 and 425. Students of the administrative and military organisation of the Roman state in the late 4th century consider this document immensely valuable as an indispensable supplementary source for understanding many, often less detailed, references that are contained in other documents and inscriptions. But apart from its value as a supplementary source, the 'Notitia' preserves much information that is unavailable elsewhere. It indicates the titles and ranks of a considerable number of administrators and commanders who are unknown from other sources. It alone preserves lists of many of the estates and treasuries of the imperial private and public revenue and of factories and arsenals. It contains lists of the administrative departments or offices of the empire, both central and provincial, together with the titles of the more important members of the imperial civil service and of the palace secretariat. It also indicates the titles and ranks of both central and provincial commanders of the imperial military service, the names of units and types of units of the army and navy, and the place-names of their garrison sites, in lists whose comprehensive nature is unparalleled by any other known and extant written sources for the history of the Roman state. Above copied from the extensive website on this document (original codex lost) as it exists in various copies. See this website for much, much more: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~igmaier/notitia.htm

95% of the US have paid their taxes in blood?? LOL. How many US millionaires are dying in Iraq? Forget about US millionaires--how many sons and daughters of US members of Congress are fighting in Iraq? Four maybe? I don't know about the 95%, but I agree with Gaius that in the US we are now ruled by the worst people-- the neocons and theocons who have helped the wealthiest to escape their taxes and who brought war to Iraq based on a hill of lies. During WWII sacrifices were asked of and delivered by citizens of all classes. Here's one of Franklin Roosevelts's sons, thanks to Wikipedia: "Elliott Roosevelt was a bombadier in the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) during World War II. He flew a P-38 Lightning in the North African campaign of November 1942. As an Army photo reconnaissance pilot, he and the men in his unit also played a key role in the D-Day landings." From the Nation magazine: Franklin Roosevelt [said] during World War II, "I don't want to see a single war millionaire created in the United States as a result of this world disaster." What a different age we are in today.

Click here to view some of the earliest examples of the Italian language in chronological order. http://www.steppa.net/html/scrivere/storia/origini.htm

I don't think that we think of ourselves as an empire. We certainly don't think of ourselves as the suzerain of Havana or the world. We simply have a proto-moron running the show now; and he has failed at all his masters have him instructed on. I don't think that any American wants to run the show anywhere Perhaps if we thought of ourselves here in the US as being led by the nose by politicians with imperial agendas we'd be better prepared to defend ourselves from their distasterous policies. In 2002, the US had troops in 156 countries, bases in 63. We have a torture prision on Cuba soil that Cubans have no power to regulate or close. Maybe we need to think more deeply here in the US on the idea of empire. Maybe we need to remember that in order to become an independent nation we had to defeat the British imperial stranglehold on us.

As most people of Western heritage I have in Rome quite a parent: murderous, proud, scientific, democratic, imperial, litterate, parasitic, forward thinking, industrious, decadent, inventive, pagan, Christian, benevolent, and cruel. Despite all, she's my parent. If I am to know anything about myself I will have to study her.

It's not hard to imagine that there was a "stagnum" or lake that was created before the Colisseum was built. When you're in Rome you walk down from the Equiline Hill to reach the Colisseum. It's in a valley.

The menorah appears in the booty scene on one of the inner walls of Titus's arch. Go here for a nice image of the spoils relief: http://www.jg-regensburg.de/graphics/arch-...s-jerusalem.jpg

I don't think there's a complicated answer to your question. Abbreviations such as SC, PP, SPQR, and more were part of the culture of a literate Roman. We use abbreviations all the time: USA, IRS, USPS, etc. in the US of A. The Romans weren't the only civilization without periods and commas. If you understand the language, you don't need punctuation to comprehend most of what you're reading. Besides, the custom of silent reading was not in fashion in Rome. Your voice would have helped you understand when one complete thought ended and the next began. Marble is expensive. Why waste it on blank spaces? Most people were illiterate. Those who could read had no trouble understanding the messages on public monuments.

It would be fascinating to see the loot from Herod's Temple in Jerusalem. It's pictured on the Arch of Titus, inside the arch. It's rumored to have been kept in Rome until the city was sacked by the Vandals (?), may have been lost at sea on the way to Vandal Africa.

The Anici was an ancient Roman family that survived at least into the 7th century. St. Gregory the Great was a member of this family. He appropriated some of their properties on the Caelian Hill for religious purposes.

Very interesting article, tho I couldn't find the curse in the original Latin. Anyone have a link to it? Might be interesting in regard to classical vs. vulgar vocabulary and syntax.

For Civil War buffs: Don't miss "Lincoln at Gettysburg by Gary Wills. "The March," just out by E. L. Doctorow is excellent, too. It treats Sherman's march to the sea from the perspective of newly freed slaves, ruined plantation owners, free southern whites, and Boston Brahmin Union generals. This book just might win Doctorow a nobel in literature. It reminds me of the remarkable Ken Burn's series, the technique of giving the reader/listener the words of those affected.

Perhaps the more relevant and louder "now" comes from another group polled earlier this year in February--US troops. "An overwhelming majority of 72% of American troops serving in Iraq think the U.S. should exit the country within the next year, and more than one in four say the troops should leave immediately, a new Le Moyne College/Zogby International survey shows." Click here for the Zogby/Le Moyne College results: http://www.zogby.com/NEWS/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1075 I don't have a wife. My boyfriend and I don't have any problems scheduling our kisses.

I quote from the summary of the poll from the World Public Opinion Organization (WPO) website found here. The Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland conducted the poll for the WPO in September of this year. http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/art...50&lb=hmpg2 "A new WPO poll of the Iraqi public finds that seven in ten Iraqis want U.S.-led forces to commit to withdraw within a year. An overwhelming majority believes that the U.S. military presence in Iraq is provoking more conflict than it is preventing and there is growing confidence in the Iraqi army. If the United States made a commitment to withdraw, a majority believes that this would strengthen the Iraqi government. Support for attacks on U.S.-led forces has grown to a majority position

Why should the US stay when a recent University of Maryland poll revealed that 71% of all Iraqis want the US out now and that 61% support insurgent attacks on US military? From the University of Maryland website on the polling: http://www.publicpolicy.umd.edu/news/PIPA.htm

For those interested in the layout of Rome's cityscape after the empire's collapse there is an excellent new museum, Cripta Balbi. Here is the link for the English version of the homepage where you'll find intriguing depictions of the area of the Cripta Balbi (not an underground crypt, but originally a ground level construction) thru to the Middle Ages. http://www.inklink.it/inklink/archivio.php...=57〈=en "The Crypta Balbi complex now forms part of the National Museum of Rome. The purpose of the exhibition is to present the history of an area of the city from the Roman period to the present. Tracing the stratigraphy and the architectural remains makes it possible to see the changes occurring in this important part of the city."