Kosmo

The higher authorities were interested in some record keeping at legion level because they provided the pay and the supplies. I'm sure that they did not want to pay more.

You made a convincing case. Could it be that the romans educated their soldiers?

That will be Metallica's Death Magnetic especially Cyanide http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qiqnpDT7OQ and Avril Lavigne - My happy ending http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c17f6jQulcY

It is hard for me to believe that roman soldiers were often in a place where the centurion could not shout at them so he needed to write them letters.

Nice!

The article below http://www.cepr.org/meets/wkcn/1/1658/papers/Felice.pdf has at page 15 a table that gives a rate of illiteracy for Southern Italy in the year 1871 of 84.10%. Unlike their roman ancestors they had access to cheap paper, much cheaper books, a well organized church and a state that actively promoted mass education. It is true that romans had a higher level of literacy then most pre-roman or post-roman populations, but I am convinced that it was a fairly low percentage of the population, somewhere below 10%.

Now even the beers are chinese [hic!] As the romans said, it's all about the quantity not the quality. Gimme a bucket of Beck's [hic]

You caught me... Did racism end or just the positions were changed like in Rhodesia? Western media would never dare to criticize saint Mandela (another communist saint, they had many), but for me the hero was de Klerk that gave up the power to terrorists (even if the terrorists had a point). The trend is visible since some time and it will be a surprise for me to go the other way (democracy and human rights are after all inventions of white colonialist imperialists) but South Africa it's a large, rich, sophisticated and diverse country that could make a surprise. Do you like Ces

We know that in some periods and places illiteracy was widespread while, Formosius, you did not give any reason why romans were different. We still had modern populations where what we say it's equally truth (and had more advantages) with 90% illiteracy. My answer it's because the vast and silent majority was rural population. More accurately they were peasants and their mothers did not know how to write. Probably they did not know anybody who could write and a book was more expensive then themselves and their family.

Interesting. While climate and environmental change clearly effects human populations the main political problems in that period in Scotland were, I believe, more connected with the previous English Civil Wars and even further away in time with the Reformation.

I doubt the part about the SWAT trucks. Brides in early teens and even younger are fairly common in Islam, India and other cultures including gypsies.

The fact that these things are hidden it's more disturbing then what that guy it's doing to the goat. The museums cheat by showing a false image of roman art.

Very nice! That goat sculpture was really a surprise for me. I had no idea that romans had art like that.

For sure reality was more colorful, noisy and smelly then how we can imagine it. At Gaugamela the size of the battlefield and the clouds of dust would make observation hard, at Phillipi telling who is on who's side would be difficult. But still, my experience showed me that dramatic events will give goose bumps without any background music or different angles. It's the adrenaline...

In the early days of Rome those visitors would have needed the protection of a roman host but in 1st century BC there was no need for such. Witchcraft was, at least in theory, punishable by death. A foreign religious practice would not be seen as black magic. Given the religious variety in Rome it would be important the purpose of the act rather then the way the act it's carried. Roman official religion was based on sacrifices (often animal but even human in a couple of occasions) and divination so it would look like witchcraft for us. If those guys were caught after writing a curse on a lead sheet they have a problem.

a romantic dog-stake lit dinner. Forget the candles... These dogs are good for a discotheque.

A nice piece about Cleopatra http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/opinion/22schiff.html?em

Pink was then "a diva" not "a rock star" like today. The only time when I liked Enrique Iglesias was that video when Mickey Rourke was beating him. Throw all of them to the lions!

Well Formosus in my part of the world, beautiful Central and Eastern Europe, we NEVER have this kind of problems Just a week ago what started as political problems after elections in the Republic of Moldova turned in to violent protests with an ethnic flavor, then in a "brotherly" diplomatic conflict between Moldova and Romania and a stalinist political purge in Moldova that left several people dead and hundreds beaten in detention and now it's heading toward becoming another battleground between the West and Russia. The ideological problem is the question if moldovians are romanians, but in reality it's mostly politics.

The most important parts of graeco-roman Alexandria are believed to be under the sea as a result of an earthquake in the Middle Ages. Anyway Hawass FTW http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/18/world/mi...zahi&st=cse

These flemish/valonian stings from the capital of the European Union and NATO are funny. Welcome to all newcomers!

In antiquity history was one of the arts not a science. It's purpose was to thrill not to create a realistic picture. Today, the "science" of history it's used to victimize yourself in a ridiculous competition of Who Suffered Most. 99% of what historians write it's crap, especially because of ideological bias but sometimes this crap it's the law.

Were the accent will be: feminism or anticlericalism? This movie sounds interesting.

If not for the plague maybe the Empire could have taken the cost of expansion and became larger and stronger. The parts of Italy that the empire held gave birth to the Papal State, Amalfi, Venice etc. Not always in the advantage of Constantinople but still decisive for the worlds history. The roman past was more fresh in Italy then in other parts of the West, but there is no guarantee that Italy would have fared better in the long run. A "what if" history when Justinian did not smash the goths would have still witness an unavoidable war with the growing power of the East, internal strife that had already begun, religious conflicts between the arian germans and the catholic majority, pressure from longobards and other barbarians and frankish interventions. All this problems were already there and the small effectives of romans used in Italy show a considerable goth weakness. I don't believe in the idyllic (and panegyric) image of Ostrogoth Italy.

1. Prosecution. No country wants somali pirates in their penal system so only a few were prosecuted, mostly in Kenya. 2. The fleets deployed there can not control ships so the pirates have the initiative. If these legal problems are resolved an old fashion blockade would keep pirate mother-ships from operating in blue waters.