Kosmo

Is this roman? It sounds something like NRA will say...

RTW stands for the computer game Rome Total War. I mentioned this game because when a battle loads the screen shows a war related quote from an ancient writer (almost all Greeks and romans) and I learned all the quotes I mentioned from the game because I had seem them countless time while playing RTW, it's expansions packs and mods. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rome:_Total_War

My favorite would be from Ovidius - Fas est et ab hoste doceri (It is right to learn, even from the enemy) Timidi mater non flet (a coward's mother does not weep) is very true and has some unusually conflicting messages. Homer was not roman but his works were widely familiar to them and has one about our fascination with war - Men grow tired of sleep, love, singing and dancing sooner than war. PS - RTW FTW

Archaeologists have found evidence of a massacre linked to Iron Age warfare at a hill fort in Derbyshire. A burial site contained only women and children - the first segregated burial of this kind from Iron Age Britain. Nine skeletons were discovered in a section of ditch around the fort at Fin Cop in the Peak District. Scientists believe "perhaps hundreds more skeletons" could be buried in the ditch, only a small part of which has been excavated so far. Construction of the hill fort has been dated to some time between 440BC and 390BC, but it was destroyed before completion. The fort's stone wall was broken apart and the rubble used to fill the 400m perimeter ditch, where the skeletons were found. A second, outer wall and ditch had been started but not finished... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13082240

Maison Caree in Nimes.

This guess fits the geological interest clue best.

More on Pliny the Elder

on Gaius Plinius Secundus; I'm not sure about the last comment of Stephan Fry

Why? You can have in the house an area for live shows and play R:TW in the backyard with real soldiers!

Exterminate!

I should have done the biannual test in February, but I kept postponing.The problem is that Friday a women, talking on the mobile of course, crossed the road despite the fact it was red for her. I made a hard brake but the car behind me didn't, so now I have to fix my rear bumper. I am not going to do that check up very soon...

Those sheep look devilish. I think they enjoyed giving you trouble.

Creative Assembly recently released Shogun 2: Total War boasting about some new features that interested me like Campaign Multiplayer and improved AI. In truth, I don't plan to play this game despite the stellar reviews but rumor has it that the next game in the Total War series will be... drum roll... Rome 2: Total War.

Do you think they are Union soldiers? Usually confederates are a lighter gray but those uniforms do not look dark blue either.

That poem would make an amazing song.

Some of the Confederates look like Civil War veterans. There are also a couple of Ghostbusters to make sure that spirits don't disturb the meeting.

A more convincing case can be made that homophobia destroyed the Empire because was a symptom of the intolerant, totalitarian mindset that prevailed right before the Fall of the West an attitude that maybe made homosexuals, pagans, Jews and Christian heretics less interested, or even hostile, to the survival of the Empire at a critical moment.

Do you speak any other latin language? And why Portuguese?

Excellent definition! I don't like much Camelot. With wizards and magic is an heroic fantasy not even semi-historical. The worst part is the absence of eye candy. Costumes, decor and special effects look low budget and it was not really sexy despite some brief nudity. The guy who played M. Antonius in HBO Rome played a very similar role in the first 2 episodes.

The lengthy pilot was nice with beautiful costumes and decors. The subject allows for all the intrigue, sex & violence the producers want while remaining decently accurate, I hope, but I don't think accuracy is a goal. This show could fill the spot left empty by the ending of The Tudors not only because is the same historical period but it feels similar.

The arab invasion was preceded by the persian attack that devastated much of the empire including Syria and Egypt, that were later conquered by arabs, but also other regions were devastated in that war like Anatolia, the Balkans and even the islands of the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas, so the empire was much weaker then around 600 AD. Before the war Arabia was divided between areas of influence of Rome and Persia so even the islamic unification of the arab peninsula was possible only because of the conflict that distracted romans and sassanids alike while destroying other arab entities like the christian Ghassanids, allies and subjects of the romans. Persian weakness was also a factor, a strong Persia would have probably hindered an arab attack on romans. One advantage Arabs had was that their attack came from a surprising direction and romans had little defenses in southern Syria. Once Syria fell the main roman army had to defend Anatolia while the overland road to Egypt was cut and the small garrison there was left isolated. Another arab advantage was the religious fanaticism of their soldiers. Without islam it is very likely that christianty would have eventually dominated Arabia.

What you describe is an ambush but you name it guerrilla warfare. They are different things. Romans had some defeats in ambushes like Lake Trasimene and Teutoburg Forest. Guerrilla warfare was uncommon with Viriathus and his Lusitanians maybe the best example.

"For many years, scientists have thought that the first Americans came here from Asia 13,000 years ago, during the last ice age, probably by way of the Bering Strait. They were known as the Clovis people, after the town in New Mexico where their finely wrought spear points were first discovered in 1929. But in more recent years, archaeologists have found more and more traces of even earlier people with a less refined technology inhabiting North America and spreading as far south as Chile. And now clinching evidence in the mystery of the early peopling of America

This kind of comparisons are always ridiculous and this one even more then most. The technological gap is too big to make a comparison, but playing along I say that early Civil War armies were more like badly organized militias while during the principate romans had a high quality standing army.