Ludovicus

I'd like to meet Livy: "We've done a poor job of preserving your history books. Can you fill in the gaps for us?"

I'm questioning the placing of "Today's Active Content" (which I use constantly) toward the bottom of the screen. On the other hand "Manage Ignored Users" (which I have never used) is conveniently at the top of the window.

Greco-Roman Siracusa in Sicily.

There's a remarkably well written, very short book on this period in Roman History. 428 AD: An Ordinary Year at the End of the Roman Empire , originally first published in Italian, gives the reader a picture of developments from around the empire. The author uses sources that are novel, from Armenia and further east. You get a good picture not so much of an Empire on its knees, but of one that still can craft strategies for dealing with crises. From Publishers Weekly Historian Traina, a professor at the University of Rouen, offers a series of snapshots of Roman history in a decidedly average year when the challenge was primarily to keep the grand imperial machinery running smoothly even as the empire's future was precarious. Although Traina's approach is wooden, he introduces a cast of people

I don't see "See most recent posts." I have a Macintosh computer running OS 10.5.8. The browser I'm using is Firefox 3.6.8. The site looks great on my iPod Touch. Even better with the app called I.P.Board. This is esp. important for iPhone users.

LONDON

I saw the movie last week. Why the title "Agora," if most of the action takes place away from the marketplace, "agora" in Greek? The title makes sense when you realize the open market place of ideas and religions of classical Alexandria no longer exists by the end of the film. The market place ends up in the control of one sect, the Christians, who by then have taken possession of the state (Eastern Empire). No more "agora." This will prove, in my opinion, to be detrimental to Christianity. A very thought provoking movie. Not a four star flick, but definitely worth the price of admission.

I certainly don't know my Ptolemies. My thanks to the above two posters.

Podcasts are archived audio and video media files that can be accessed gratis via an mp3 player, an iPod for one, or directly on a computer's Internet browser. I've found a number of high quality university lectures on Rome and the ancient world. Here's a sample from just one, Warrick University in the UK: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/classics/podcast/ The Roman Love Elergy Medicine and Classicism Sex in the Ancient World The First Emperor and the Queen of Inscriptions: Augustus in his own Words Epic Poetry from Homer to Virgil Numismatics Graeco-Arabic Studies If you have the iTunes browser, there are many more fine lectures on the classical world to be downloaded free from the iTunes University area of the iTunes store. A designated podcast area on UNRV?

At its height, the City of Rome numbered just over a million inhabitants. By the late 6th century C.E., the population was perhaps 30,000. According to Pope Gregory the Great, at one time after the Gothic Wars, the City was almost completely abandoned. What would it be like to live in an urban hull, with so many large imperial constructions falling to pieces? Here's a collection of photos of a major American city with rapid demographic plunge. The city population [of Detroit] dropped from its peak in 1950 with a population of 1,849,568 to 910,920 in 2009. Wikipedia. http://fiveprime.org/flickr_hvmnd.cgi?meth...earch_type=Tags

"Agora" is playing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where I went to see it yesterday. I'm not expert in late Roman Egypt, but I was puzzled by all the Egyptian architecture and art in the Library of Alexandria complex. Wasn't Alexandria founded as a Greek city? Otherwise, I found the scenic elements very well done and was enthralled by the satellite images of the delta and the fly-over photography of the city. The Library and city appear from the start a bit damaged and uncared for. I appreciated this realistic touch.

Very well put. Tho computer programs do a poor job translating most texts, technology can analyze many features of written language: word frequency, pattern analysis, morphology, etc.

Best of luck to scientists trying to decipher ancient languages. However, computers have been inadequate in producing reliable translations from one modern language to another modern language. If you are bilingual, try looking at one of your languages translated into the second by any of the online translating engines, such as Babelfish, etc. I tried translating a simple American greeting, "What's up?" into Spanish. The site <http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_txt> failed miserably. Another, "He broke her heart" was rendered, "He (literally) tore apart her heart." Babelfish failed to translate the idiomatic expression. If I sound a bit over vexed by the post it's because at my school the office staff believed they could get a way with using computer generated translations to communicate with parents. The final products were largely incomprehensible and, in some cases, very insulting. What a computer program will do with writing from a culture with whom we have no living contacts is not to be trusted.

Hey! Count me in, too.

Just as the concept of "Roman" changed over the centuries, the notion of who was a "barbarian" must have, too. Ideas of nationality, race, and ethnicity are elastic. They change according to the times.

Is it possible the Romans used a dispersant in the bathing tanks to deal with the floating scum? Bicarbonate of soda? They must have drained the tanks at the end of each day, refilling them with fresh water.

In her "The Fires of Vesuvius" Mary Beard remarks how dirty the baths must have been without a filtration system. Did the use of oil as a skin cleanser contribute to the problem of dirty bath water? Did the baths employ slaves to skim the water in an attempt to keep the pools clean?

I don't know if anyone has cover this discovery. Here's a link to a summary of some of the finds, listed as the Divjak Letters and the Dolbeau Sermons. The website seems to be run by the Augustinian Order or someone close to it. http://albertesmeralda.squarespace.com/jou...ak-letters.html By the way, the links in the article are dead. Here's a summary of one of the Augustine texts: We do not often find Augustine in so helpless a situation. In 422, he was stranded for weeks in the middle of a countryside where everyone spoke only Punic. He visited the village of Fussala, where the inhabitants pointed out to him the holes in the houses from which Antoninus had pillaged the stones in order to build a splendid new episcopal palace. He was finally left, sitting alone, one morning, in a village church after the entire congregation had walked out in disgust ... leaving him and his colleagues to wonder how, by what series of misjudgments ably exploited by an able rogue, they had brought

Oops! There are two San Apollinaris. San Apollinaris in Classis is outside the city center.

Verona!! Don't miss the Arena. The ruins and museum of the Roman theater on the heights across the Adige River are well worth an afternoon. The views of the old city from there are stunning. Ravenna!! Brush up on your Late Roman Empire. San Vitale is not to be missed. You can visit many of the ancient churches easily since they are all in walking distance of each other. The only exception is San Apollinaris. The monument to Theodoric, too, is outside the small but incredibly rich carfree center.

These lectures, by Dr. Diana E E Kleiner , are in depth presentations from Yale University. Very worthwhile! http://academicearth.org/lectures/intro-roman-architecture 1. Introduction to Roman Architecture 2. The Founding of Rome and the Beginnings of Urbanism in Italy 3. Technology and Revolution in Roman Architecture 4. Civic, Commercial and Religious Buildings of Pompeii 5. Houses and Villas of Pompeii 6. Habitats at Herculaneum and Early Roman Interior Decoration 7. Painting Palaces and Villas in the First Century A.D. 8. Exploring Special Subjects on Pompeian Walls 9. Augustus Assembles Rome 10. Roman Tombs 11. Nero and His Architectural Legacy 12. The Colosseum and Contemporary Architecture in Rome 13. Imperial Palace on the Palatine Hill 14. Civic Architecture in Rome under Trajan 15. Hadrian's Pantheon and Tivoli Retreat 16. Roman Life in Ostia, the Port of Rome 17. The Baths of Caracalla 18. Roman North Africa: Timgad and Leptis Magna 19. Baroque Phenomenon in Roman Architecture 20. The Rebirth of Athens 21. Architecture of the Western Roman Empire 22. The Tetrarchic Renaissance 23. Rome of Constantine and a New Rome 24. Discovering the Roman Provinces and Designing a Roman City

I stumbled upon this hour long Yale lecture on "Nero and His Architectural Legacy." Very well done and beautifully viewable on the web, gratis! http://academicearth.org/lectures/neros-architectural-legacy

How did Christianity provide a more democratic theory of justice and social mobility? Democracy originated with the pagan Greeks long before Christianity, and I know one could argue that it wasn't true democracy as we know today because slaves were not part of the process, but the Christian West didn't do anything to eliminate slavery until the 19th century. As for upward mobility, the pagan Romans provided a system of laws that encouraged free enterprise, and a somewhat capitalistic or competitive outlook, though not as overwhelmingly capitalistic as was seen later in the 19th century with the Industrial Revolution. If anything Christianity's attitude of turning the other cheek and spirituality rather than materialism would be inconsistent with upward mobility. I will agree with your other point that they found a way to accommodate Plato (St Augustine of Hippo) and Aristotle (Thomas Aquinas), but that was after Julian. Many Greco-Roman scholars replaced their blief in the pagan gods with Greco-Roman philosophy (Epicurianism, Skepticism, Cynicism, and Stoicism) Stoicism is considered by many the basic philosophy of the pre-Christian ruling class in Rome. They didn't need a new religion for spiritual guidance. However the uneducated had little or no appreciation for their philosophy. Christianity began by converting the uneducated: " Come to us ye who are sinners, ye who are fools or children, ye who are miserable, and ye shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven. " Celsus I hope this will be helpful: The letters of Paul preach the equality of all before God. Let's look at how these words were put into action. The Christian community at Rome, as elsewhere, was organized into the communitas, which included believers from different social classes, including slaves. At the Christian re-enactment of the Last Supper all drank from the common cup of sacramental wine. Beyond its ritual life the community as a whole took into its care widows, orphans, and the poor. Already, in the third century the church of Rome maintained some eighteen hundred widows, orphans, and poor by its charity. The Latter Roman Empire, Cameron, Averil, pg. 126. This was radical wealth distribution. Wealthy Christians underwrote many charitable works, often draining their fortunes while increasing their status and respect in the ever widening community of believers. This radical mixing of social classes and wealth distribution distinguishes Christian Rome from its pagan ancestor. Granted, pagan Romans with money would fund public works, but I don't recall them housing and caring for the outcasts and the unfortunate. As the secular state began to fall apart, the Roman church took over many of its duties and influence, eventually even the distribution of the grain dole. Not only did Christian Romans continue classical studies, they clamored for schools of rhetoric. By the end of the 5th century Christian monks were setting up scriptoria to preserve classical texts, along with the Bible and stories of the martyrs. While the secular state was still very much alive in Julian's time, it would have been difficult to not notice the aggressive building campaign of churches, shrines, and welfare centers that Christian emperors financed in the 300's. St John's Lateran, St. Peter's, St Paul's Shrine Outside the Walls, and St. Mary Major on the Esquiline Hill. Outside Rome, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, among others. These Christian construction projects reflected very well on the power of the new religion. In regard to the elites of the Empire, Julian seems to have alienated potential pagan sympathizers with his return to the practice of animal sacrifices, really large ones. Once openly pagan, Julian took delight in experimenting with any and every cult, and especially in blood sacrifices, which Christiana particularly condemned. Even Ammianus remarks on his excesses, saying that he sacrificed so many animals that

By Julian's time Christianity was doing very well in most of the large population centers of the Empire. Paganism was withdrawing to the countryside. Anyone who could sniff out power, Senators and the like, would have known for a while that Christianity was ascending. It's ability to provide a more democratic theory of justice and offer social mobility made it the clear winner. Top it all off with the new religion's ability to accommodate Plato and Aristotle, among other classical thinkers. Besides, not many really believed in the old Roman gods any more.

From Bertrand Lan