Kosmo

Happy Birthday. I know it's late, but maybe you did not stop the celebrations yet...

Perhaps we should just have it deified? You want to deify a cake? No need for that, just give it to me! I'll worship him for half an hour...

Objection overruled! I always wanted to say that! Huns are OK, mongols are OK. If it does not have connection with Rome the topic goes to the History in Universum folder. Only ipothetic stuff goes to Arena where it's OK. So, a topic about Atilla it's welcomed, one about the relations between the mongols and Byzantium it's great, if it brings new data for what it's already there, but a "what if Ginghis fought Caesar" goes to Arena where it can continue, while "mongol invasion of China" goes to the folder for general history. It makes perfect sense to me. I hope...

If carthaginians destroyed their city themselves there was no reason for romans to do it. I think PP has a good point. Destroy the opposition while it's down because you don't know what will happen tomorrow. And of course the memories and propaganda of the two punic wars made them less nice towards a hated foe. Not that the romans were very kind towards other people. The fate of the rodhian allies after they were no longer needed it's telling of the way roman idealism influnced their foreign policy

Gots, in the Balkans or later in Spain and Italy, have german names and use german at least before they got romanised. Even if it is possible that the dacians formed a part of gothic population the elite was german speaking.

Insomnia?

Seneca's tragedies were not meant to by played, but readed.

Excelent. A juicy steak indeed. The history of greek presence in Dobrogea it's very interesting. Callatis resisted romanization much better not only because it was an allie of Rome, but Histria has been destroyed and abandoned for a while (probably after the attack made by Burebista) while Tomis was a small town in greek times (but during the empire evolved in the main center of Dobrogea), so resitance to romanization depended on the strenght of the locla community. Thank you AD!

I like the centaurs as I'm born in sagittarius. Reminds me of a roman officer fleeing parthians after Carrhae. He was told to wait as the journey it's dangerous because the moon it's in Scorpio, but he said that he fears more the Sagittarius then the Scorpio. They are a nice representation of the steppe horse archers.

There was no big difference between those who lived in England and those who came as vikings. They were both german speaking coming from Danemark and neighbouring areas and they could understand eachother. Their culture was similiar. The viking ships are seen as a development of saxon ones. As Tolkien proved in his analysis of "Beowulf" saxons in England were very interested about what happened in Jutland. It is all a part of a long germanic invasion that started after the romans left and ended when normands got a good grip on the country. I believe that Alfred the Great was a little blowned by jingoistic propaganda. The only difference beetwen saxons and vikings was that saxons had joined, not long ago and not fully, the catholic church. The line beetwen those people was much blurry than we imagine today. After all England did not existed yet when vikings first came and the land was divided between germanics (angli, jutes, saxons etc) post roman britons and migrators from Ireland. When vikings baptised there was no real identification possible.

Vikings created Normandy and that had a long influence on England and other places like South Italy or Antioch. The biggest thing for Britain was the inclusion in a trade network that was centred on the Baltic Sea. Not even french influence after Hastings changed that. This trading empire connected Groenland and Island to Byzantium and the islamic califate. York was an important place for this trade. Also they founded Dublin, Limerick and most other cities in Irland as they started the urbanization process, but I'm not sure if you will consider this a benefit for Britain.

Anna Commnena in the XI C AD was speaking about scythians and dacians refering to pecenegs and hungarians while John Cantacuzino's description of the 1348 Black Death it's similar with Thucydides description of the Plague of Pericle. Later writers followed established patterns. Orban, the hungarian builder of the great gun of Mehmet II, it's called a dacian in histories written after 1453. There is arheological evidence of a scandinavian culture established in Prussia that later migrated towards the Black Sea. And we know that the inhabitants of Souther Sweden called themselves goths until the Late Middle Ages as is proved by place names like Gotland, Goteborg etc. There is no later mention of getae so this name could have disapeared in to the notion of dacians or replaced by later names like carpi. For sure there was a confusion between gets and gots, but this was made on purpose by Jordanes and other goth historians. Also is true that the free dacians, succesors of getae, became assimilated in the goth groups and had the same material culture before disapearing from history. So, to some extent, the visigoths and ostrogoths were succesor of both goths and getae. It's not hard to see why some confusions were made. But claiming that goths did not exist or that dacians originated from Scandinavia is inaccurate. It is evident that goths spoke an East German language and getae spoke a thracian language similar with that of dacians and moesians, belonging to the north thracian group.

There are two theories: the Universe will expand forever and all stars will die and everything will be frozen or the expansion started by Big Bang will be reverted in a Big Crunch when all matter will be regrouped in one place. Anyway, this looks bad, but making plans for things that will happen billions of years away it's pointless. The near future it's more important. And for sure the "Co2 it's bad and you're gone pay for it" is and will be a part of our lifes.

Ask them about the digestive organs of the Leviathan that ate Iona (and Pinocchio) and about the size and life support systems of Noah's Ark. Their answers should be fun.

Pick romans and greeks, they are rather similar and well documented, including on this site. The Egyptian part it's the most difficult because it has many distinct stages over 2 millenia and we know little about institutions in the conquered lands. Athens had several types of institutions from tyrany to democracy. You need to pick a certain time frame for each of them (or a year for all of them) That should be easy. This is tricky because you have to analize a lenghty procces. The list of laws of the Republic it's a must see. A good secundary source will save you time in interpreting the changes. Good luck.

I always thought of rock concerts and parties as close to the cult of Dionysos. Nietzche had some fine things to say about Apollo and Dionysos. Anyway, great work Ursus.

Yes. The possesion was transfered from Titius to Sticius. Julianus was the owner, but Sticius had possesion.

This it's more about guilds then labour unions. They were professional organizations rather then workers associations.

War was brutal then, twisting a gladius in someone's stomach will cause a lot of pain and a slow death, a good example what will happen if the ugly foe will put that spear into you and is brutal today with air attacks and mortar fire, but I think that today's war it's more stressfull because of the lenght of time someone is in danger. You march for a couple of weeks then the battle lasts several hours and that is often the end of it. Maybe another battle over other 2 weeks then you go home or camp for winter. At Stalingrad you were in battle, more or less intense, day and night, in snow and sun for 6 months. No time to recover. Maybe the upbringing in the country was also an added advantage. You cut animals since young so you get used with the blood. Maybe, selfdefence it's better felt when you kill someone that tries to kill you in a direct manner. Still I don't think that all romans were killing machines. Some of the early monks were living as crazy people on the streets of the cities of the already christian Empire. They behaved like crazy for choice, to express their devotion. So, we might conclude that also were other real mentally ill people living on the streets.

Christianity is a roman phenomenon and I can't imagine a roman empire without christianity. We know how would the roman empire look by 1000 AD. Something like Byzantium under a absolute emperor, but richer (no barbarian invasion) and much larger. Still, with a christian religion and not clasical. So, no Colliseum in the space age. BTW I agree with Caldrail. Evolution it's driven by competition. The roman empire would have been stagnant like China was in RL. If you have peace and stability you don't need inovation. Modern world it's the result of the intense competition of post roman europe. Politically divided, but culturaly connected by roman heritage (christianity, language, laws etc.)

"CYRENE, Libya: Here in this remote eastern region of Libya whose bleak hills resemble a lunar landscape, the Green Mountain Sustainable Development Area is the latest in a spate of Libyan projects that form a sort of global coming-out party for a country that for decades was a pariah. Over the weekend, fleets of white Mercedes vans ferried hundreds of guests along newly paved roads for a lamb dinner among the ruins and signing ceremony, presided over by Saif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, the son of President Muammar el-Qaddafi, on Monday. In an area where many people are illiterate, newly erected signs in crisp white and blue say "Airport" in Arabic and English. Development is definitely coming to town. A group of wealthy Libyans and a bevy of consultants are planning to create a carbon neutral green development zone in Cyrene, an area the size of Wales centered on ancient Greek ruins..." http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/10/news/libya.php

I wonder if roman soldiers suffered from combat stress disorders. Chopping an enemy whith a short sword might upset a weaker mind. Or maybe they were better prepared for this kind of activity.

In any place in the world if you ask enough people you're going to get some stupid answers. Then just edit the correct majority so everybody looks stupid and the viewer can fell great about his wisdom. Some times, under pressure, I discover that I forget all I've got to say despite careful preparation and I have to relax and pull myself toghether. And I'm not teen or shy. For my wife a map looks like an abstract painting while I love maps since I was a child. Sure US it's a big country and hard to miss, but still I believe that this error does not say anything about the wits of this girl or US education.

Slave trade existed in West Africa before the Portuguese. Actually the portuguese, in the begining, just integrated in this slave trade by selling slaves from Angola to the west african slave traders that sold them north to the arab world. Even at the height of the trade the bussines of capturing, transporting, feeding the slaves and supplying the ships was in the hends of an african elite. With the exception of some portuguese raiding in Angola all african slaves were made slaves by other africans. On the african East coast europeans played almost no role. Here arabs from Oman held Zanzibar and the coastal ports and engaged in slave raiding and traiding. See Livingstone and Stanley. Mehmet Ali's Egipt conquered Sudan to capture non muslim slaves. This led to the depopulation of some areas like Eastern Ciad. In many parts of Africa the colonialist, imperialist powers faced resistance from native slave traders and owners.

Thank you A. This is very interesting. It seems that Ophellas marched thru the desert (probably on the coast) and the trip was two month long. There is no mention of carthaginian resistance but for sure was something between Leptis and Carthage. No camels at this time. Probably he had some ships with supplies. I would love to know more about this expedition.