Kosmo

I did not agree with everything The blade could be a scythe or a falx. If they are largely the same thing we can not tell them apart. We need a thorow analyisis for that and we can't make it ourself. Maybe dacian scythes were thicker than today's implements.

A communist will want to create the worker paradise on Earth. A nazi to bring white rule, a kamikaze the glory of Japan, a shia muslim will wait for Mahdi/Messia. All this have resons to preserve human life on Earth enen if for just some people. An islamic fundamentalist has none and wants none. Just 72 virigins once he is a martyr.

How do you want to create this Republic? Conquest like the romans did? And why would you want to unite Europe like this? We had it once. Let other people enjoy themselves with it. Make it in Jersey and fight the feudalistic oppressors from across the bridge in Brooksomething. Sorry about that, I could not help it.

I would rather go during the rule of Antoninus Pius. Nice and quiet and more monuments to see. If I had the money and speak latin and greek I would try to see what roman cuisine is and other epicurean endevours perfected by the romans. Then travel a lot around the empire. In the mean time I'll read many lost books. After I get bored I recruit some ships and soldiers and conquer Cuba

Very nice Diegis. On the lower left side of the picture there is something that looks like a recurved spearhead that it's much more similar with the Adamclisi picture then the long blade on top. Could it be that dacians had several recurved weapons? A short sword - sica, a long sword - falx and a pole weapon. If they are tools used for warfare or weapons that are improved versions of tools it's hard to tell.

@Diegis - While I'm in general agreement with what you say I have to point that the depiction of special falx units it's unsourced. @Meldavius - Dacia had good mining and good metalworking. Heaving iron weapons it's less surprising here then in any other European region. Burebista had many soldiers, maybe 80.000, and he won many wars with them. I'm sure that they had iron weapons to be that effective. Using the scythe as a weapon would make things cheaper. The peasants-soldiers need this tool for peace and war. In the Middle Ages romanian soldiers were peasants that often used their tools against the enemy and they used scythes and sickles. I doubt that iron was cheaper then. Sure scythes bend easily, but moldovian infantry used them to cut the feet of ottoman horses and I'm sure that if it will bend after hiting a helmet still the helmet will be in worse shape. The kind of army dacians had was one with no centralised supply so everyone fought with what he had. They had cavalry and archers, they had infantry with gladius and sica and maybe some of the peasants fought with their scythes named falx. @Decimus Caesar - Those billhooks look interesting but they cannot be 90 cm long. Indeed on Adamclisi the weapon looks like a pole weapon and the end looks like a billhook or sickle. But the blade in the image it's obviously a short one so it's not a falx (if a falx it's a long bladed weapon)

I now realise that I should have made a link to a smart article on International Herald Tribune but my testing of the influences of this year Central East European weather conditions on wine production made my forgot about it. Sorry about that, hot and dry weather made the wine strong... Anyway, the only good aussie wine I've heard off it's Foster's while Chile makes some really nice wine. The chemistry of wines it's usually unknown because producers don't want to confuse the public. That is why it's good to know the wines you like most. Consistency it's rare, but when I find a wine that I like and that it's the same wine every bottle...

@Melvadius- The images on the Adamclisi (Tropeum Traiani) are not believed to be depictions of the falx. Mainstream historians belive them to be depictions of sarmatian weapons. http://www.magazinistoric.itcnet.ro/?modul...amp;format=html in romanian "Monumentul triumfal de la Adamclisi este mai sarac

There are no naturally right and wrong, but any society works with common conceptions of right and wrong. If one does not respect that then he cames under pressure from the other to get in line. In the same time all societies have means to deal with people that broke the generally accepted rules and also have mechanisms for exclusion.

A small error - on 8 it's American Medical Association, not again the the sharks.

The low dollar will make european wines more expansive on the US market. Good time to stock on your favorites. It's also a good time for europeans to shop in the US.

The Palestinian problem it's just a PR thing for most arabs. What's new it's that from heroic it's becaming embarrasing and dangerous with the Hamas takeover in Gaza. It's such a problem because in the last century arabs had to choose beetwen nationalism at a state level, panarabism and panislamism. They have a bad case of identity confusion. Egypt had no reason to fight Israel other then to promote panarabism like Nasser did. Peace was needed when the arab union failed and the egyptians made their country a priority. As long as Egypt it's led by nationalists and not by panarabists or panislamists Israel it's safe. Israel position it's the best ever now, but the tide of radical islamism it's a growing danger.

This curved blade is the most famous dacian weapon. I've seen some years ago a Discovery Channel documentary about it that I found really surprising. The reason of my surprise is that I knew little about it and from this piece it looked really important leading to a change of roman armor. The only dacian weapon that I knew of was "sica" a short curved weapon. Still I could see the falx used in RTW. Despite this already popular information I found little hard evidence for this weapon. Archeologists claim that 2 weapons were found near Sarmizegetusa. I don't know were they are, but the National History Museum and the Military Museum have none and I foun no pictures of them (unsurprising). Beside literary sources some depictions are reported. One it's in a very bad shape. The others are on the Trajan's Column. I've looked at the pictures and I'm not convinced. See for yourself: images 66 and 67 here http://www.mnir.ro/ro/colectii/columna/lis...pisoade-07.html For me they could be the smaller sica There are some Trajan coins with the image of a falx that I did not found. The little arheological evidence it's strange because it's supposed to be not only a dacian weapon but also a weapon used by dacian units in roman army. By the way it's depicted the falx resambles closely the blade of an agricultural tool used for cutting grass. A tool that can be found everywhere even today named "coasă". You can find some images here: http://www.mereuta.com/blog/2006/02 but I'm sure you have seen it already http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/1600/146737hq2.jpg because it's a scythe. And sica looks a lot with a less curved sickle Romanian peasants in the Middle Ages fought usually with this tools as weapons and they were often effective. I think the fame of the falx it's overblown. Or maybe the last thing some roman soldiers have seen was a reaper.

The roman legal system was not interested in res private. The solution to the problems lies not in laws, like today, but in the desires of the interested parties. Roman law was practical rather then idealistic. I think that even the concept of illegitimate child would surprise them. The husband was legally presumed to be the father of the child (like today) and, unlike today, he could not really contest that in court. But he can have the child killed and the wife banished or killed. Why go to court when there are a 1000 more honorable solutions? Adoptions were common and the adopted child enjoyed the legal rights of the biological ones. If a father recognised a child it was his, regardless if he was married with someone else or not married at all. This inflenced only the authorityof the father over the child. Also the exact legal status of those involved it's highly relevant. The marriage of the adulteress can be "cum manum" that will give extensive rights to the husband or "sine manum" that will keep rights over her to her father. She could even be emancipated before marriage so a divorce wil make her very independent. The money aspect it's also important. The husband can be indiferrent to her infidelity if hecan keep control of her dowry. The situations are endless and romans knew that too well to create specific rules for everything.

Israel it's a nice place once you get used with all those police checks. I was there in 2002 during the Second Intifada and I remeber seeing from Mount Carmel the israeli aviation hitting Hezbollah in South Lebanon. The expensive life there it's worse then the fear of attacks The price of a shower there it's a good lesson about the need to save water.

The palestinians voted en masse for Hamas. The so called palestinian authorities don't represent anybody and are despised by everybody. How binding will be their peace agreement?

I like better the goth looks in the second picture than the cheap gloss in the first. Actually it's disgusting. Probably police used less Photoshop than the competition photograph. This drunken riot could have happened even if she won the contest.

I was talking about the first link. There the author speaks insane things about the roman-arab alliance against the visighots and roman revolts against the franks. Also the way he sees the church and the conflict beetwen the nascent orthodox and catholic churches it's wrong. The pope was more often then not at odds with the emperor after Justinian and that had little to do with franks. Fedor you gave us too much homework. If you want I will go more in depth when I have time both to read and comment but you asked genius or insane and for me the first piece it's insane. PS Byzantines were romans!

No, I'm thinking at "usus" that was not uncommon during the Republic and that is very old.

Your a misogynistic homphobe racist, hence part of the majority It's a difference beetwen feeling threatend because your surounded by strange Foreigners (like GO and G-Men talking) and fearing a real, but unlikely, danger (like wondering if someone you see parying at the mosque will blow your cosy Sharm e Shaik hotel). You can recognise that for some people your a target while realizing that your one of the many, so the danger it's statistically insignificant. Strangeness can be dangerous like that english teacher found out in Sudan. When you have different conceptions and one it's agresive (like many muslims are today) this can lead to threats, real or percieved. If the point of thread was to show that we have islam bashing I disagree. In the last decade many, if not most, muslims showed they endorse a view of islam that is dangerous to us. Remember the ambassadors of most muslim countries protesting the danish cartoons or the pope comments? What the Coran says it's irrelevant and open to endless discussion, what it's relevant it's what muslims believe and while there are many interpretations and views it's obvious that many share views that are in conflict with our ideeas. The West should stop idealizing islam and see it as it is practiced today from Nigeria to Kosovo and Phillipines.

Roman marriage was less formal then ours. That means concubinage was a way of creating a marriage. So, if they are not married by living togheter they can became married, especially if they are lower class. Married or not the woman it's under paternal or husband authority and so it's her child. So, the solution it's simple, it happens what the person that has authority over the woman desires to.

Greeks despised eunuchs. This was a asiatic custom, mainly from Caucasus, and was badly seen thruout most european history being asociated with Persia. It was spreaded during hellenistic, roman and, especially byzantine times (like Narses), but not in Classical Greece. The main use of eunuchs was house servants (because they could guard women faithfully) and later in public offices (because was presumed that having no children they will be less likely to abuse office or rebel) I never heard any mention of eunuchs in Classical Greece. In China they were used a lot for those reasons and sometimes enjoyed a lot of power.

Insane. I did not read all but it's insane.

Those guys are crazy!!! Hillarious!

What's a Republic? What's an Empire? Remember that we coined this concepts starting from roman institutions, but we did not preserved their meaning. A change so radical was made that we should use new words for the institutions themselves. Of course, Augustus brought a change in the distribution of power and it was a revolutionary change, visible for even the most uninvolved commmoner. But, from that moment, Rome was dominated by the army in a way that eliminated all other significant institutions. The army was the one power holder. Even the country with the most rabid modern dictator has a decent constitution and decent laws. But they don't mean nothing because he can do what ever he pleases unchecked. The same was true about Rome. It's irelevant what powers the Emperor had legally when he could simply kill his opponents. And everybody knew that and behaved accordingly.