Kosmo

What a game Barca made last night! Clearly a great team with beautiful game.

I have this feature. It sends me email whenever I get a PM.

The Late Republic/Civil Wars/Julio-Claudian period it's starting to bore me. It was interesting for some time but it is only a part of roman history and it's getting the lion share of topics. I find now 250-650 AD much more interesting.

It's like an arms race. If one has a Smart and the others Hummers in case of a crash...

Maybe the saxon was killed by that bolt.

Meroe?

As a sociopath with a sense of honor, I thought it only fair to warn everyone I might go postal someday. We could make a Sociopath Club!

Sorry I meant Bologna system not Lisbon. My wife is in the first generation on this shorter Ph.D and people that started earlier then her may finish later. She is ending the first year and the next one she may go for a 8 months scholarship abroad. I can't wait

was that a clue? It is true, but also a clue

This sounds a bit like the EU model after the Lisbon Treaty. 3 year university, 2 years master, 3 years Ph.D. Penelope

Yes. Antalya it's named after Attalos II, the king of Pergamon. That building it's the Gate of Hadrian, emperor who had a bythnian lover, Antinous. The turkish flag, seen everywhere in Turkey, it's made of the crescent moon, the symbol of Byzantium, over a purple background. Your turn Maladict.

This should have been a multiple choice poll so I could answer "yes, definitely!"

I have spent a vacation in this city.

No. The symbol of Byzantium can be seen in many places and is connected with the symbol of the powerful.

No. But close. The one who made that building loved Bythnia.

Do you mean the actress that played Atia in the 'Rome' series ? But in a supporting role and with clothes on, I don't know .... Formosus Yes, Atia from "Rome". She is already scheming and maybe in future episodes she may lose some cloth. She is, shockingly, Sister Clarisse (no longer a Clarissime) in a school named Athena Academy but her view on the official polytheism is... no, I'm not going to tell you

"You are the Sociopath! As a result of your cold, calculating rationality, your introversion (and ability to keep quiet), your brutality, and your arrogance, you would make a very cunning serial killer. You are confident and capable of social interaction, but you prefer the silence of dead bodies to the loud, twittering nitwits you normally encounter in your daily life. You care very little for the feelings of others, possibly because you are not a very emotional person. You are also very calculating and intelligent, making you a perfect criminal mastermind. Also, you are a very arrogant person, tending to see yourself as better than others, providing you with a strong ability to perceive others as weak little animals, so tiny and small. You take great pleasure in the misery of others, and there is nothing sweeter to you than the sweet glory of using someone else's shattered failure to project yourself to success. Except sugar. That just may be sweeter. In short, your personality defect is the fact that you could easily be a sociopath, because you are calculating, unemotional, brutal, and arrogant. To put it less negatively: 1. You are more RATIONAL than intuitive. 2. You are more INTROVERTED than extroverted. 3. You are more BRUTAL than gentle. 4. You are more ARROGANT than humble. Compatibility: Your exact opposite is the Hippie. Other personalities you would probably get along with are the Spiteful Loner, the Smartass, and the Capitalist Pig." This test is highly accurate!

The city is named after a ruler.

You forgot the most important part! Evolutionists never tried to prove that Gods do not exist but to find out how the life and humans appeared and evolved. Some people believe that what those scientists say contradicts what the Gods told them. This confusions will last until the Gods decide to update their sayings or people stop believing in fairy tales. Don't hold your breath it will take a while as I think that true-believers have an evolutionary advantage over evolutionists.

Ok. Let's start again from what you said, crystal clear, above. Auschwitz was not primarily a labor camp but an extermination one. Romans did not engage in mass killing of slaves. The victims of the Holocaust could do nothing to defend their lives, a roman slave had value for the owner and was not so eagerly disposed of, so if he did his job he could expect to live and even to gain his freedom. Laws, customs and morality provided the basis for master-slave relations and a brake for abuse. At Auschwitz innocent people were killed while some of the roman slaves were criminals, others were enemies that have attacked Rome or rebels. For these people slavery was a punishment as today all states imprison criminals and in some states criminals are convicted to force labor. Other slaves were exposed babies that would have died a terrible death if not taken in slavery. People sold themselves in slavery to avoid worse things a proof that sometimes being free was not a better option while others refused to be freed. Most slaves could hope to gain their freedom and not a few became extremely rich and powerful in the process, things that the victims of the Holocaust could not hope for. The slaves of commoners were part of the family and their status not far below to that of the wife and the children. The slaves of rich people often lived in large hierarchical group usually led by other slaves or freedman. Many slaves were running businesses for their master and received a payment for it, had their own property and family. The slave that a merchant from Syria sends on a ship to Rome with goods and returns with the money it's not a desperado but a person who believes he can gain better with his master then fleeing with the money. On the other hand we can see categories of free man that did not do very well like provincials displaced from their land by roman colonies or the poor peasants that by the Late Empire were tied to the land, paid large taxes in money, goods and work to the state and landlords, suffered abuses from officials and the army and were targeted by barbarian raids. Did slaves suffer? Sure. But, some did more, others less. Some their entire life some for sometime. Some even had a chance to a better life after slavery. Where the slave the only ones to suffer? Life was always very hard for most people. The bored elite that was eating exotic fish in Baiae had just a few people. For most of the others life was harder. And sometimes everybody suffered like in the period between 400 and 650 AD when the once prosperous regions of a great Empire were now reduced one by one to ruin and depopulation.

Sylla you say that the Jews at Auschwitz that you mentioned in your first post were only doing forced labor, possibly they lived better then roman slaves and slavery it's a worse crime then exterminating people. Interesting but dangerous opinions as Holocaust denial it's a crime in some places more bent on political correctness then you. For your courage in defending free speech I give you a roman salute!

It is BattleStar Galactica. The only sci-fi movie/series that I ever liked despite being a fan of SF books. This new pilot has Atia of the Julii in a supporting role and with clothes on her!

I've just seen the new BSG prequel movie/pilot Caprica and it's fracking great. Much, much better that whatever Star Track ever had to offer.

Thank you!

If we are judging from the moral point of view of modernity we can issue a general condemnation of slavery. If we are trying to understand the past (and the present) then we must look at that almost infinite diversity of this social issue.