Ursus

I thought it was supposed to be the statue of Pompeii before which he famously fell.

It was the daughter of Senator Cimba, the Senator to strike the first blow at Caesar. Don't know if it was supposed to be Livia. Didn't catch her name. I was distracted by how she looked .... I really dislike the portrayel of Augustus. I can almost forgive this so-called plot of turning Caesar into the ancient world's Lenin. But I just can't picture Augustus as a naive, idiotic little boy who is more apt at bedding Senator's daughters than in assessing the current political situation. Still, I love the look of it all, I think they captured the feel of Rome. I like the fact that Roman paganism wasn't completely sneered at. I'm not going to complain too much about mindless fight scenes, because they're cool. All in all, it's not bad for network TV. But like PP said I have higher hopes for BBC-HBO.

Pros: *Breathtaking scenery and production values *Lots of kick butt fight scenes *I like how they inserted a few aspects of Roman religion into it * As a personal note, I liked the Senator's daughter -- yummy. Cons: *Characterizations seem a bit off to me - Octavian was not a naive idiot * Plot holes - Caesar rules the entire empire but can only find one guy to be his precious bodyguard? * The female narrarator gets on my nerves Bottom Line: Major suspension of disbelief is required, but is still quite fun.

Thank you. :-) I find the dragon pretty cool ...

They seemed to think the soul of a person lived in the head, and possibly that by severing and keeping these heads they could control the spirit within.

I've had a very bad few days and am looking forward to losing myself into this. Hopefully it will be worthwhile. If not I still have high expectations from the HBO-BBC production coming out later in the year.

Excellent review.

Sounds good. :-)

Having just reread Goldsworthy, it seems there was one critical failure in the empire. Goldsworthy mentions that the quest for honor and glory is what motivated the Republican generals to all their great exploits. In the Empire that scheme of advancement was largely nullified, as the Princeps did not allow his subordinates to win sufficient glory to become rivals. It's one of the reasons why the empire stopped expanding. Now that I think about it, this is probably one of the critical faults of the empire. The quest for honor and glory which had produced such great men from the republic was stifled by the nature of the principate. If the empire had found constructive ways to encourage the ancient honor scheme .... Hmmm, I need to ponder this.

Indeed he does. I like his writing style. SImple but informative. Goldworthy makes the point the most successful commanders were the ones who most visibly rewarded the troops for success or punished for failure. Everything in Roman society revolved around perceptions of honor and glory ... I really dig it.

*sigh* This forum is to discuss ancient history, specifically Roman history. We try to keep an informal though still somewhat scholarly atmosphere around here. We give a little latitude for off topic posts on the "after hours" board, which is a place to relax for the regulars who otherwise engage in meaningful discussion elsewhere in the site. However, lately there has been a rash of posts which have crossed the even lax standards of the site. Particularly on this forum. We aren't blaming any one person. But in the sum of things there has been an upsurge in the types of posts we find irrelevant, or perhaps even annoying, relative to the purpose of this site. We've tried dealing with this through humor and good natured criticism. It doesn't seem to be working. We therefore have decided certain posts will be simply locked and removed without warning at the discretion of the moderators. That is how its going to be from now on throughout the site. On a personal note ....... I'm sorry if some mental condition like dyslexia is the real reason behind your spelling skills. But I strongly suggest trying to cope with it and the here and now, so that when you graduate in six years you can start the real world with as firm a footing as possible. I have some mental baggage as well ... depression and anxiety run in my family, among other things ... but as I've discovered most people really don't care all that much. The world keeps turning an still expects you to turn with it. So if I can offer you the tough love that someone should have offered me a long time ago, learn to deal with it as best you can. Don't let yourself fall into a rut. I speak from experience here. In other words, deal with it.

I was a misunderstood genius as well. For years I plotted and schemed and prepared for the day I would take my revenge against the world. Everything was in place for the moment I would unleash my fiendishly sinister plan to destroy humanity. But I was defeated at the last moment by the dashing hero, his comical sidekick, and his beautiful but wily love interest. I think my problem was in hiring morons for henchmen. You would think an evil genius would surround himself with equally capable comrades. But morons are just so much cheaper to hire. Alas, the bumbling fools proved incapable of defeating the hero. I've learned my lesson. You get what you pay for. Now I bide my time as a customer service agent until the day I can regather my forces and start afresh.

I freely admit I often run posts to this board through a spell check. Spelling can be a lax habit of mine, especially after a bad day of spending hours in front of my work computer. Sometimes that is what I need to do, so that is exactly what I do. The goal of communication, after all, is to be understood. You can have profound ideas, but if you fail to communicate them effectively then your ideas are lost in confusion. Anyone who takes the time to read a communication deserves to have something not completely cluttered with typos and bad grammar. I figure if my posts are too infested with mistakes people will simply start to skip my posts and consider them not worth their time to read. That is what every writer, casual or serious, needs to assume. If I am having a bad day and don't have the time to puzzle together a badly written post, I'll simply skip it. And if I get into a habit of skipping someone's posts I may very well ignore them altogether after a point.

A few decades of post-modern thought might actually be doing more to "deconstruct" certain values than 1700 years of institutionalized Christianity. Who knows. It remains to be seen. Honestly the most ardent supporters of the death penalty I know tend to be religious conservatives (forgive thine enemy - unless he really offends you, then feel free to fry him!). The most ardent opponents of the death penalty I know are secular liberals with a post-modern bend (there are no universal absolutes, and yet the death penalty is still somehow *always* wrong!). Sorry if that comes out a little more cynical than it should have. Anyway, I have a toe somewhere in that weird twilight world of pagan anachronism. I don't go out looking for trouble, but if someone truly harmed someone or something I care about I'd be after hard veangeance. I don't quite share this "enlightened" view of forgiveness or no absolutes but universal peace. If someone murdered or raped my loved ones I'd be asking the State if I could be the one to throw the switch to the electric chair. Because that's just the kind of guy I am. *cue melodramatic music*

Roman citizens still had to pay some type of tax. In the early third century Caracalla made all freeborn male adults citizens ... his reasons for doing so to expand the tax base directed at citizens.

The solstices and equinoxes figure prominently in more modern, New Age interpretations of paganism. Neopaganism as it's called. As far as historical paganism, the solstices and equinoxes were probably important in the Mithraic cult. Anyway, I shall celebrate by sitting on my porch, reading a book and enjoying the outdoors while the sun lasts. :-)

Not a beach person. Too much sun. Too much sand. Too crowded. For everyone who looks good half naked, there are ten people who don't ... I like parks and woods, but I live in a rustic area so I have that all the time. If I go on vacation I usually want to go some place cultural, or educational.

Yes. Invest now. You must start investing now. I'm getting up there in years (28) and have only recently started a 401(k). That's years of compound interest I have lost that I can never regain. Don't do what I did and spend your post high school years trying to find yourself, or some other maudlin nonsense. Don't spend years trying to find god(s) or philosophy or the meaning of life or whatever. Throw that stuff away. You have to start woking, saving and investing now. Don't be like me and be a late comer, continually kicking yoursef in the butt for wasting the best years of your life. If I could travel the country talking with high school students and raising social awareness about this, I would. But if I can save one person right here and now, it will be worth it. Start investing now. A diversified investment portfolio will be your best friend in life.

Many indo-european cultures had some version of it, thought it became increasingly rare by classical times. The Proto-Indo-European creation myth, according to some theories anyway, begins when the first man sacrifices his twin and from the remains creates the rest of mankind. Human sacrifice usually involves 1) propitiating the gods in extreme circumstances when animals, crops or material objects won't suffice (The Romans buried two couples alive as a sacrifice during the war with Hannibal) 2) reading the entrails for divination, a common practice for sacrificed animals and birds 3) slaughtering criminals and war prisoners as an act of vengeance (the Germans famously did this with captured Roman legionaries from Varus' failed expedition) I'm sure the Celts performed human sacrifice for one or all of those reasons. But the evidence for it by the first century becomes much rarer.

That's a great question. Most of the modern people I have met who have shouted the loudest about their alleged honor seem to have precious little of it. There is the Greek word of arete ... which means excellence, honor, virtue and a lot of other things .... it's the sense of accomplishment and right-standing in the community that come's from living up to one's potential and being good at something. Achilles and his warrior arete, for instance ... I've always liked this word myself and everything it implies. I find it still relevant to the modern world. Not riding around in chariots fighting Trojans, but being great at something and having the admiration of your peers and influence in your community.

I think the Irish, who are Celtic, are an honorable society because they make great beer like Guinness. So you see, everything ties together.

The Western economy is rather post-industrial these days anyway, with much of the manufacturing lost to countries in the beginning stages of capitalism. Most of us work in service sector jobs and may change professions several times in a lifetime. That sort of dynamic fluidity may not lend itself well to guilds. The Romans had corporations and stock markets too, after a fashion. They aren't modern inventions. For that matter when corporations and international trade started re-developing in the 1400s and 1500s it was considered by many a substantial improvement over the stagnation of medieval society. It was an investment in something other than war and religion. The liberals of the time were an emerging capitalist class fighting against the reactionary forces of the landed aristocrats and the church. A lot of people today frown on international corporate capitalism, but it seems to me whatever its faults it was more productive and liberating than what it replaced. Outside of America most religious conservatives - like fundamentalist Muslims, for instance - are opposed to international capitalism precisely because it doesn't allow for the type of fuedalist theocracy they want to build. It's why they crash planes into office buildings. Personally I'll take the corporations because they don't tell me what god to worship or what kind of sex I can't have.

And minor religions are often a reflection of fringe elements of society, which can be even worse. I say that as a Pagan. ;-)

Constantine? Theodosius? Oh, never mind.

Um, what?