Ursus

In the East, a council (concilium) of leading provincial citizens advised the local governor - or sent embassies to the Senate and Emperor when they wanted to bypass the local governor. They also organized the imperial ruler cult under paganism, and under Christianity included bishops. In the West, the newly urbanized centers had governments similar to what the Republican government of Rome had been when Rome was a mere city-state, not an empire. A class of people were known as decuriones or curiales, or municipal advisors, the local landed elite. The town senate was known as the ordo. Duoviri iuridicundo were the two senior magistrates. Aediles maintained public buildings and entertainment. Quaestores were the financial officers. The censitor was the record keeper. These positions were elected at first but seem to have become increasingly hereditary.

Sucks to be you, dear.

What does the day mean to me? A day off work .... with pay!

But how did it all begin, Pan? ;-)

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

It worked, it worked, it worked!

What are your favorite books or documentaries to recommend on Ancient Greece?

As you can see I voted for Athens ... but really, what do we know about Ancient Greece besides Athens and Sparta? We don't have nearly as much information on the other city-states. Corinth was rich in trade and had a large temple to Aphrodite staffed by sacred prostitutes - perhaps not such a bad place to live, particularly if you want to get away from stuffy Athenian intellectualism.

Can we not have our cookies and eat them too?

Yes, home computer keeps logging me out at random. Work computer doesn't allow me access at all. In Cato's words, irritating.

I'm going to ignore for a moment analysis of tactical achievements on the battlefield. I think the central question is whether or not can we see the chain of subsequent history unfolding without the man in question. 1) Was there another agent that could have united Greece, thus ending the Classical Age of the polis and beginning the Hellenistic era of larger land masses ruled by god-kings? 2) If Alexander had not brought token measures of Hellenism to the Orient, could Rome have conquered and maintained what became its Eastern half? 3) Would Roman culture have developed as it did without the incorporation of a Hellenistic East standing in Alexander's shadow? 4) Would Christianity have developed as it did, if at all, without aforementioned Hellenistic East subsumed into Rome? 5) In the sum of things, how would Western Culture be different? Everything is speculation, but it's hard for me to envision history as we know it without Alexander. And from that perspective, as a mover and shaker of world events, Alexander might be called "great" whether you agree with his actions or not. Those of us who appreciate the "great man" theory of history may simply appreciate in Alexander a man who sought glory and won. The amoral pagan in me finds comparisons to recent totalitarian leaders beside the point. To go down in history, whether in fame or infamy, might be argued by some to be better than dying unknown and forgotten to the ages.

Too bad there are no Ancient Celts around today to chop his head off in vengeance.

I think I agree with the general consensus that the majesty and dignity was there, but for whatever reason or fault Caesar's trademark flamboyance was not. Also, Hinds has too much hair to play Caesar.

I have also been recommended a work along those lines called _Who Killed Homer?_ though I've never read it. In my college, the common core was a compromise. So many units of both Western Humanities and Multicultural studies were required, which is perhaps the most reasonable course.

Can this be added to the welcome/FAQ section?

I ordered it as well. Probably won't be as popular as Goldsworthy's Caesar but I am sure a fair number of UNRV regulars will become versed with it.

The Lemures were the harmful spirits of the dead, but I don't recall seeing them in connection with blood sucking or other vampire like activity. They were merely discontented ghosts that had to be warded off.

From what I've read of the site, period clothing is optional. I'll do more research. Maybe I can find alternative gatherings as well.

I enjoyed it. It was a quick read relative to its length. Nothing especially new, but perhaps that is better than spinning some fanciful outlandish theory just to gain notice.

The "classics" had been almost dead in Western, or at least American, culture for a while. I think part of the resurgence is that people were getting tired of the post-colonial, multi-cultural atmosphere that pervades Western intellectualism, and wanted to get back to their own heritage. Nonetheless, the fact that the methods of post-colonial studies can still be applied to the Classics means there has been no end of academic treatises on Rome in recent years.

You meant Nerva? I thought you were trying to spell "Nero." Well, that places everything in a different light! And no, I wouldn't know any surveys of that time frame, sorry.

Cunliffe says the Galatians eventually adopted the material culture of their Balkan neighbors, thus in terms of physical items produced and consumed they would have been different from the Gauls. However, they showed the same mentalty. An aristocratic warrior elite presided over the commoners, and demonstrated their might and status by launching raids on neighbors or selling their services as mercenaries. Their "government" worked thus: the three tribes were divided into four parts called tetrarchies. Each tetrarchy had a supreme magistrate (tetrarch), two subordinate commanders, a warlord, and a judge. The Gauls had a similar method where civil power was invested in a supreme magistrate, the military headed by an elected warlord, and tribal law invested in a separate judicial class - in their case, the infamous Druids. In matters religious, the Galatians adopted many of the local cults already in the area. But they gave it a Celtic twist - like executing prisoners of war in the name of the gods. It is not known if they had a Druid caste. All in all they behaved much like other groups defined as Celts.

Colin Wells _The Roman Empire_ covers from Augustus to roughly the Severans. Not quite what you are looking for, but it's the best thing I could think of. It's a good book in its own right.

The myth of the Vampire is, as far as I understand, a product of Slavic folklore, not Greco-Roman mythology. If you consider Byzantium and its Slavic provinces "Roman" I suppose that is a connection, albeit a very weak one.

I have not read Holland's _Godfather_. I will check it out. I have read some "academic" works on Augustus, the type of which you said you weren't particularly inclined to. And then I've read very simple bios, like Werner Eck's _Augustus_. I'm trying to find a nice middle ground between the academic and the too simple. Everitt seems to be along those lines, but I'll check out Holland as well! EDIT: one of the reviews on Amazon for _Godfather_ scared me off. It said Holland's work is nothing but entertaining fluff that tries to draw too many paralells betwen Augustus and Bush. Not something on which I will waste money and time.