Kosmo

You still have cheaper gasoline then around here. They can not be serious about CO2 emmision warming the planet and stopping nuclear energy in the same time. This is where Angela Merkel proved herself a pathetic politician. For heavy city traffic this is fairly decent While California and Nevada are "states" within the US, Germany and Poland are states within the EU and it's not the same thing. Germany it's placing her economy at the mercy of sometime hostile neighbours and will pay the price of her extremist green idealism.

AEropostale? AEG? This looks like a part of an object with an inscripted exterior side and an interior side conected to something with a bolt. If this is roman it will be a nice find. Usually roman artifacts are more then 1 m deep in the soil so I doubt that you can find something less then 30 cm (plow depth) from the ground level. Still you should give it to your local museum just in case it's something important regardless of the production time. They will know what to do with it and no matter the importance of the object they will be glad that you asked them.

After playing some tennis on scoria I've discovered that the roman way of bathing, rubbing the wet skin, it's good when you have a lot of dust on you. Our use of soap relies on chemicals to dissolve dirt while they simply removed it thru mechanical action. Their way was not very efficient especially with sweat so I'll still use soap

I have no ideea about a favorite but Romania's group it's a killer. It will be amazing if we go past that. So amazing that a retailer has an offer on LCD's that if Romania reach the final they give back the money. I've never seen before an offer that is a bet.

The US consumption of oil per capita it's twice that of France without a significant gap in lifestyle. How about driving smaller cars with more efficient engines and develop the efficiency of nuclear technologies that France has? Despite the price raise my 1.2 l engine car does not kill me with a 7l/100 km incity consumption. The high oil prices are here to stay because the increase in demand and the throwing off of other technlogies. For example Germany, the greatest EU consumtion country, does not allow more nuclear power plants while the costs of coal power plants are huge because of ecological restrictions. This only means that the energy it's produced, whatever the means, elsewhere in neighbouring countries like Poland or Cehia.

LOL you're really good at it! Thank you!

Offtopic Fulvia I love your signature Quid quid latine dictum sit, altum videtur - Anything said in Latin sounds profound

Thank you G.O.!

He expanded the empire up to the Danube. Thracians, illirians and celts from Noricum and Raetia that had contacts with Greeks and Romans and were rather civil as neighbours became subjects and the empire had far worse negihbours: germans, sarmatians, dacians. He (and Caesar, Caludius, Trajan) eliminated people that were usefull as buffer. The defensive frontier of Rome on the Alps was easier to defend that Agri Decumates and High Danube and could be defended by a italian levy while a further away border recquired proffesional soldiers. He wanted to conquer Germany but he failed. He also planned to attack Britain. He was an expansionst and that probably because of internal reasons = more glory.

Augustus it's not so great in my view. He overexpanded the empire, a move with disastrous efects. He also relied on professional soldiers inside and outside and that led to an increasingly expensive army that controlled Rome. His political system was weak and prone to problems.

You don't need that. We have descriptions of dog use in modern warfare and the difference should be small. They could chase amercian natives or slaves but coud not be used on a battlefield.

Maladict, I thought you knew an arheologist that has a whip, but looking at GO's link I realised that all kinds of people could have whips.

I doubt that many UNRV members believe that. How did you come to the 400 years number? It does not make sense regardless of the date of the fall.

Not entirely true. You want to tell us something?

Caldrail I've never heard of criminals punished to became gladiators. The sentence ad bestiam meant that they were to be killed by animals or generally in the arena not to fight gladiators like in HBO Rome. Sometimes one was given a knife while another one not. The dead one was replaced etc but this not proper gladiator fight.

And if you press the left buttons, those of political corectness and of guilt towards the "opressed" (blacks, women, enviroment, palestinians, cows etc) they will vote acording to their own interests.

"In fact, they have placed in their ships the best and most valuable of the possessions they have with them, in order to escape with them if they can. Since, then, they admit that they are weaker than we, and since they carry the prizes of victory in their ships, let us not allow them to sail anywhere else, but let us conquer them here on the spot and take all these treasures away from them" The speech of Augustus it's much better.

The testimony of the first cousin would be taken in account because he described a relevant conversation with the accused. That of the second cousin that described what the first cousin told him would not be accepted. It's strange, the prosecutor accused Sextus Rocius of murder while claiming that the victim had been on a proscription list. Why would he kill his father that was sentenced to death anyway? Killing a person that was condamned to death could be called murder? Those that killed the people from those lists were awarded not punished.

Birthday hails to you Faustus! Jeez, i'm so original! Have fun, preferably real fun not mowing the lawn

I had no ideea that Alfred the Great was a bad cook. The most important event was my birth. Without that happening I would not care at all about the others.

Temporary blindness was seen as an powerful omen sent by gods. This made the person somkind of a prophet. Even Nero claimed that he was temporarely blinded as a prophecy of the fire of 64. Prophecy was sometimes connected with blindness in the greco-roman world leading to the image of the blind prophet. Homer, the most revered writer of Antiquity, was blind. I think that they had nothing against blind people.

Edited for being offtopic.

Edited for being offtopic.

The change of view it's from traders and farmers to fishmongers.

So I'm an optimate? Regardless of Cicero's definitions Sulla was an optimate at least because he killed many populares, but also because of his political decisions.