Kosmo

I've downloaded it and I will read it in due time. Thank you.

"Eating meat worse for planet than driving, animal rights groups say Ever since "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore has been the darling of environmentalists, but that movie hardly endeared him to the animal rights folks. According to them, the most inconvenient truth of all is that raising animals for meat contributes more to global warming than all the sport utility vehicles combined. The biggest animal rights groups do not always overlap in their missions, but now they have coalesced around a message that eating meat is worse for the environment than driving. They and smaller groups have started advertising campaigns that try to equate vegetarianism with curbing greenhouse gases..." http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/29/business/climate.php This animal protection groups want caws and pigs to became extinct? There is no limit to pointless activism. Save the planet, kill a cow!

LOL I was wondering in which Roman city Batman was borned. Nice place. Too bad the turks want to destroy it. And no picture of the mosaics...

The spartans were excelent fighters that where either at war or training. This guys were a elite unit even among spartans, the best man Greece had to offer. Their equipment was excelent for defensive battle with heavy armor and shield and a strong spear to keep the enemy away. A head on charge against them was a dificult thing. A roman army relied more on numbers and on manouvers. So in such small numbers I think that they would end up worse then the spartans did. Romans never had real elite units. They rolled over the enemy with a mass of well trained man with excelent weapons. Of course, eve like this they would have been a difficult foe for the lighter Achmenid persian units forced to close in. The pilum shower would have been deadly and the gladius was efficient in crowded situations. Anyway, romans did not usually engaged the enemy with such small numbers. 2 manipule! Not even a cohort. If Rome was in the place of Sparta they would have had 60.000 fully equiped men defending a palisade and would have won the battle. Maybe Alexander's veteran argyraspides with their long spears could have been better.

Is there any ancient source to report forest fires this size?

The republican institutions lost power not to the emperor, but to the army and to the head of the army. Probably the citizens after the Civil Wars were much less interested by political rights then the plebs of the Republic and were not used and could not defend their rights manu militari. The profesionalization of the army it's the main factor of the fall of the Republic and of keeping the imperial institutions. I don't think that the emperors wer better administrators then the Republic. After all the conquest of the world was made by the Republic, so they could administer what they were able to conquer.

There are no good sites for Ancient Balkans that I know of.

What Civil Wars? The ones between Marius and Octavian? Rome recovered fully after that. Or the bloody ways of imperial succesion? Not the wars themselves were a problem, but the fact that they would endlessly repeat. They needed a Civil War to end the repetitive system, but their political thinking died at a certain point. Maybe between Marius and Octavian. They just kept changing people, but the system was the same. Disgusting. Almost like a democracy. Whaz so civil 'bout war anyway ? Sorry, I had to say it!

They were pirates and the design for roman libourne warship comes from them. They also fought a lot against Macedonia and Epirus. If they succeded raiding Macedonia they must have had something better then peltasts. Some heavier soldiers with spear, sword, shield, helmet and breastplate to hold the line were common in the Balkans for a long time. Cavalry man were common also (the cult of the Thracian Knight was spreaded along the lower Danube until christianity when it became absorbed in Saint George). Archery was also well spreaded. But with barbarians it's hard to establish units types. Everyone fought with what he had or liked and the units were based on political divisions (family, clan, tribe etc) rather then on centrally standardized equipment like Athens, Macedon or Rome had. I say this not for Illyrians, but for all barbarians, especially in the Balkans where they could see many types of armies from hoplite phalanxes to steppe horsearchers.

It is anglocentric. Got to love these victorian historians and their political corectness... The logic is flawless: if Britain it's the most important country (and those rebel cousins) then what influenced her it's the most important. It's hard to argue against this. I fully agree. This concept reminds me the historians who look in history for a decisive event or person. Tolstoy knew better.

Welcome TMP! Don't worry about the image of our country, no image it's correct.

Gaius Paulinus Maximus it's so subtile, but alas wrong. VTC's middle name is Tiberius.

Not really. Britons and vikings had the same culture while inca were in the bronze age. The huge difference allowed 180 spaniards to conquer the empire without losing a single man in the first stages. Anyway there were no inca around 1000 AD. They started 2 centuries later.

Alexander would have not needed to cross the Alps. A "west" campaign would have meant for a greek to get the large and rich cities of South Italy and Sicilia across the sea from Epirus on a well known sea route. With Tarentum and Syracusa in his grip Cartage would be the main foe. If that's solved, then a quick blow from South Italy to Rome was an easy job in terrain much better than A faced in other parts of the world.

Campania was a fertile and urbanised area thanks to greek and etruscan colonisation. The presence of etruscans in early Rome can be explained as a strong point on a Tibrus crossing for the etruscan road that connected the etruscan cities in Tuscany and Campania. The gladiatorial games originating in Campania it's no surprise as that area had many influnces: greek, etruscan, latin, samnite etc

Where do you propose to get the garum from? Are the aliens going to bestow time travel on us as well? I have 5 lifetimes to worry about that because I have to pay at the end. Anyway, I don't believe that inteligent life exists. You humans are flattering yourself!

Since it's a birthady week I'm not late for wishing you many happy returns.

Wonder how the wine taste it's like with seawater in it. Maybe they put just a vary small part. If it's half seawater... Salted drinks are still used to induce vomiting when one drinks to much alchool.

The best proof that vikings never met incas it's the fact that the inca existed for another 5 centuries

I understand that thru this reforms a mix between hoplite and peltasts was made. The soldier would have a peltast shield and a very long spear. The soldiers in your excelent illustration look from classical Greece to me.

"The Myth of Transsaharan Trade during the Roman Era", an article by John T. Swanson (available on JStore), strongly opposes any transsaharian trade. He claims that a limited trade in some gems called carbunacle was carried between the Garamantes of Fezzan and roman Tripolitania. As Fezzan it's in Northern Sahara we could not speak of Transsaharian trade. I agree with it as there is almost no evidence of mediterranean objects, art or technology South of Sahara before muslims arrival. And this puts in question also the famous theory of carthaginian trade on the african West coast. This does not means that that human contact was broken. The way the excelent article above tells the story it's convincing with the mention that most roman objects and other evidence presented are from Sahara and not the regions South of it.

Doc, you really like school, it's a good thing your working in one. I admire your dedication and I confess that it is far beyond my capabilities. Congratulations.

From Aghatocles Ulpius to the magnificent general Marcus Larconius Ralla, imperator. Dear sir, I hope the 3 slave girls that brought you this letter and the wine barrels are to your liking and they will be usefull at keeping you warm in the cold north. If not, send them back, and I will give you some boys worthy of Alexander. I'm happy to announce you that our fearless leader had appointed me to a great office that will help a lot my wine trade. He had even given me a guard of honour and begged me to take quickly the important task he entrusted me. But my thoughts are at you, the great rising star of our hopes. The war plan that was made it's audacious and the enemy will be crashed between the steel jaws of our legions. But what if something goes wrong? What if a bridge breaks or a scout looses his way in the dark forests? Your army, the strongest arm of our trap, will not be on the field when the others fight the barbarians. The roman legions of the other commanders will be doomed and the plebs will blame the maker of the plans as all taverns, markets and bath houses will soon know this mistake. And once you gather the reminants of the defeated roman armies you will be the only one left with an army. A great opportunity if you want to make your name rise above ALL the others like a sun that makes the stars fade away. Rome needs your brave arm as her arm and your head as... I will order a bronze equestrian statue of you to have and to keep in my gardens. Maybe soon, after your victory over the despicable foe, this statue will be crowned with flowers in the Forum of Rome. The wine warehouse that was given as a gift to me by our temporary ruler, it's a huge one, full with great old wine. The pretorians will love it. And they will love the money that the traders of Ostia can gather for them. A loan, of course, with a good interest, given to a brave person in need. And from my adventures I still have some barbarian bronze trinckets that can by covered, by my skilled craftsman, with a thin layer of gold to make them worthy of a glorious triumph over the barbarians. You can have the honors, I want the tax money. To Marcus Larconius Ralla Gallicus from his humble servant Aghatocles Ulpius.

O, divine keeper of the sacred chickens here my story about the greatest power in the world: THE POWER OF WINE I was a young lad working in the vineyards of Histria, in the far away places where the mighty Danube, that us greeks call Istrios, meets the Black Sea, otherwise known as Pontus Euxinus. In this troubled regions of your mighty empire the barbarians, that are called dacians or getae, raid often making many mischiefs and the greatest of this vile deeds was when they captured me and taken me to the dark lands north of Danube. Only the gift that Dionyssos, a god that was born in this thracian lands, helped me and I was put to work in the vineyards on the barbarian king. Thay make lots of wine, but not a very good one as their skill it

The legions and many commoners from the East. Some rebels even claimed to be Nero and gathered a large crowed. A Feuchtwanger book it's about one of this colorful characters. Der falsche Nero (The Pretender), 1936 -- about Terentius Maximus, the "False Nero" Maybe even the plebs of Rome liked him.