Ursus

I do believe AoS is right - they dug garbage pits outside the communities. As LW mentioned, most of the stuff degraded after 2000 years. The Roman garbage that survived are broken pottery shards and such.

Ok, I don't need any recipes for exotic dishes like stuffed pig's wombs. What did average Roman Joe eat? If one wasn't a wealthy patrician, I assume the meal consisted of bread, olive oil, locally grown fruits and vegetables, and beans. I assume meat wasn't in a plentiful supply unless one lived on a farm or went hunting/fishing. How prevalent were eggs? How widespread was cheese? Did they have yogurt? Did they drink anything besides watered-down wine?

I'm always up for a Guinness! St. Paddy's day is just a convenient excuse for one. You can keep the corned beef and cabbage, though. Thanks for the name. My grandmother's mother supposedly came off the boat from Ireland.

Interesting in that it seems to have functioned as a stopover on the way to the temple-spa of Bath.

In my neck of the woods, the snows are finally melting. The Robins have returned. And the air smells fresh. Hail the return of Spring.

Get a group picture on digital camera that can be uploaded to the site. Such a gathering must be committed to visual memory. Especially during the inebriation phase.

No anagrams found using my real name. Latin is not big on "j."

I have this book too, and reviewed it for the site. I think in the sum of things it gives a nice overview on how different sectors of civilization found their identity with Rome. By the way, docoflove, you should check out the two works I referenced at the end of the initial article to this thread. Colin Wells gives a nice treatment of the provinces.

Everitt pointed out three things that stuck with me: 1) Octavian was always a deliberate, long range thinker, but perhaps not the visionary genius of propaganda as many of his plans were ad hoc. 2) Octavian construed courage in different terms than his contemporaries. The old Roman trait of virtus, manly courage in the face of military foes, was lost on Octavian as he was useless in a fight. But he did at times risk his life by facing angry mobs and staring them down for their defiance. 3) Some people have downplayed the sincerity of Octavian's religious devotions, but he had always seemed to have been a devout (some might say superstitious) believer in the manner of Italian provincials.

Regardless of the alleged corruption and vice of Late Republic society, I simply feel the structure of a city-state government was ill suited to govern an empire spanning three continents. Since thoughtful evolution seemed to be impossible under the face of conservative opposition, it was left to a strong man to dictate change. Who the particular strong man would be was the only question. For the record it was not in fact Caesar who ended the Republic - if he had any great plans for the reorganization of the empire, they died with him on the Senate floor. It was his more cerebral successor who laid the socio-political framework for the governance of the empire.

1. What do you think about the concept of an alternative history ? It is a fun but ultimately useless exercise, best left to fiction authors and armchair enthusiasts than serious historians. 2. What do think about livy's precedent ? See above 3. what do you think about his analysis ? See above 4. Who would won the war ? Probably Alexander, but who cares? Why in the world would Alexander have gone West to sack a bunch of poor, hilltop villages in Italy when the riches of the Persian empire beckoned him? That's the problem I have with the whole concept. There was no good reason in the world for Alexander to conquer the Italians, and thus the entire speculation seems devoid of purpose.

Hail, Imperator. Your commanding presence is missed. We shall light incense to your genius this day.

I don't know what you mean by "wipe out Rome" but local religious leaders were often behind rebellions. The druids are often cited as a focal point of Celtic resistance to Romanization, who consequently had to be snuffed out. The Cicilian pirates who opposed Rome in conjunction with Mithradates may have practiced some version of the Mithraic cult. And when Cleopatra and Antony opposed Octavian, they claimed to be Isis and Osiris incarnate.

How ironic. I can't think of a greater den of sexual predators than legislative assemblies.

I found Jesus. He was behind the couch.

Congrats on being an INTP. You're in the same class of people as Pertinax and Pantagathus. I seem to get along well with that type. I am actually an INTJ.

Indeed. I forced them to take the MBTI. Speaking of which, Nephele, you need to take it: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp I'm going to guess you're an INTP.

I shared this test with my fellow supervisors at work. The fat chick took it, and when the results compared her to a hippo, she turned to me and said. "Jeremy, I don't like you anymore."

Imagine, if you will, sitting in a senior year college political science class. The professor, as a joke, asks some brain dead sorority girl which President formulated the Truman Doctrine. .... and she couldn't even guess .... :frusty: Anyway, I can't address your original question as I was never particularly interested in American history untill WWII and the Cold War. I do however believe there may be a reason for little mention of the war: during the World Wars, Germanic contributions to Western Civilization were downplayed in textbooks. On the flip side, the fact that the forces of the British Empire occupied our country and torched the executive mansion was probably not a politic thing when they were fighting in the trenches beside our troops.

I am pleased as well Posca yet lives. Perhaps he deserves his own series. Posca and Caesar: The Early Years.

So much I knew, but was looking for some details. I wonder if Adrian Goldsworthy covers the topic in _The Complete Roman Army_?

A secret language for Romanophiles, the way Klingon is for Trekkies!

I believe among the nobility training would have started at a very early age, since the chief duty of a tribal noble was to prove their worth through raid and conquest. But this would have been training in the sense of individual combat. I doubt they had the sort of regimented, group training of professional armies like Rome.

Ar, Matey! Where be the gold?

Counts (comes) commanded small detachments of the Dominate army, but exactly how big were these "small detachments?" How many men, for instance, were at the Saxon Shore forts who were commanded by a Count? Also, since Count was a mark of personal favor from the Dominus that carried over into civilian administration (e.g., Count of the Sacred Largesse), how many of these Counts were actually qualified military commanders rather than mere sycophants of the imperial court?