caldrail

Syrian religions, and there were all sorts of little and often weird cults, were something of a fashion in Rome. Noticeably however it was one thing for someone to take part in exotic rites, quite another to have the Roman head of state do likewise and even worse, do it openly in defiance of tradition. But then, the young lad was not doing what the elite of Rome thought he should be. By going off on a tangent, he was almost certain to meet a sticky end. Had he not been so obsessed and committed, and had he done more to please the elite diplomatically, all might have been different. There were two kinds of Caesar that didn't last long - those who tried without support, and those who didn't even bother to try.

Interesting point of view. I've thought of the Byzantines as a society held back by such baggage as etiquette and protocol. I am reminded of the issues with Turks that gave rise to the Crusades, set off by a letter of Alexius asking the west for assistance and getting a mass migration for their trouble. And what did our dynamic capable Byzantines do? Push them across the Bosphorus as soon as possible in the hope the problem would go away. This isn't an easy fit.

There is a logic to what you say, but anti-historic civilisation sentiment is not universal, and many institutions are as patriotic as anyone elses. It is part of human behaviour that valued items often have a 'proper place', and that it is deemed right to return them in spite of all other logic. It is also true that the logic of risk management means that people of another country must travel to view items of their ancient cultures, which in their place you might find frustrating or unacceptable. Further, whilst the situation might be stable now, isn't your argument going to place eggs in one basket by default? No museum is 100% safe. Similar arguments have been made regarding WW2 aircraft. Do you risk them in flight, or stuff them away safely in a museum? My own feeling is that aeroplanes were meant to fly and people should not be denied an opportunity to experience them in their proper context. Aircraft in museums are like stuffed birds. Dead. Static. Almost as if some inherent spirit has been painted out. The noise, smell, and sensations of movement might be mechanistic and in a way artificial, but there is something vital about it, something analogous to life. There are also the emotional attachments we make to older machines, especially those with historic significance. So I say where possible, fly them. Sooner or later the realities of costs and maintenance will mean that such aircraft can no longer be flown at all. A sad day that will be. But museums? It wouldn't be the first time that an aviation museum with priceless exhibits had burned down or been flattened in bad weather.

I agree. It adds to the possibilities but remains uncertain. However, if the pooh is found in context, such as coins relevant to the time and place, then the evidence grows stronger. I do find it amusing though that we're now reaching the level of sophistication in archaeology that we can trace an army's progress more than two thousand years ago by tracing where they went to the loo.

Pooh is becoming a valuable source of information on all ages, prehistoric to recent. I wonder if all those urine samples demanded by Police in regard to drink-driving will influence later researchers? What a load of drunkards we're going to look like

You would think the 2d platform game is old hat. It seems that mobile phone technology is currently going through the same development cycle that PC's did twenty years ago. Who knows? Maybe soon we can use our phone to simulate a 747 flight across the Atlantic. That'll while away the hours . I like the idea of cultural art in this game though. Whatever the limits of the format, it has atmosphere, clearly.

Some unexpected symbolism creeping into that video I notice. Otherwise it's modern Hollywood. Lots of BANG CRASH What the heck was that? BIG EXPLOSIONS WOW!!!!! The use of special effects has opened up creative visions in film making considerably. yet a lot of it is wasted on simply presenting an experience to the viewer rather than telling a story (The same issue was raised by Leonard Nimoy regarding the first Star Trek film. Lots of effects - where's the story?). But then, as filmmakers are well aware of, the American audience, their primary market, is easily impressed by fast movement and big explosions, and pretty well bored or indifferent to anything else. It's the same tendencies in fact that drove gladiatorial combat as an entertainment genre.

It could get more amazing still. There are consistent, if somewhat implausible, interpretations of central/south American myth that might suggest Viking explorers had travelled a great deal further. That would be extraordinary if found to be true. Nonetheless, reaching America cannot have been a walk in the park. A recent living history experiment had a replica Viking ship rowed by volunteers from Norway to Ireland. They suffered terribly from sea-sickness, arriving looking wet, miserable, and much the worse for having to make running repairs to their quite fragile vessel in Atlantic swell. The real Vikings must have been a hardy lot but I also believe their voyages were not as care free as history or popular image tends to suggest.

Roman History Books 79 & 80 (Cassius Dio) Roman History Book 5 (Herodian) Historia Augusta, Life of Elagabulus 1 & 2 (Anon)

The agency had booked me for a very early start at a warehouse an hours walk away. At that time of night the streets of Swindon are usually empty, perhaps just an occaisional drunken bellow from some unseen club-goer bumping into pavements, or more usually, a passing car taking less inebriated club-goers home. And so it was quiet. All of a sudden a white BMW blasted past me, almost out of nowhere. I have no idea what speed the driver was doing but it was seriously over the top. It was so fast, the engine so aggressively snarling, that the effect was startling. it actually felt like violence. I've never experienced that sensation before, and I'm well acquainted with fast cars. Later on I passed an industrial estate and experienced a bright flash. What the....? My first impression was that someone had taken a [photo in the night, but there was no-one about. How odd. No matter. Anyway I arrived at work and being sociable I began chatting to my boss about idiot BMW drivers attempting to break the land speed record in town streets. He interrupted me as I began and said "You're going to tell me about a bright light?" No I wasn't, but it turned out that his colleague had seen it too. The whole sky lit up for a moment./ Some of my fellow workers saw it as well, one describing it as 'Seriously weird'.. As we worked through the small hours of the morning there were some news report over the radio - always impossible to hear properly when lorries are reversing in and out of the premises and sweaty blokes pushing parcels of all sorts here and there. Eventually we found out that it was an atmospheric disturbance and nothing to worry about. Not the North Koreans then. Oh good. Foxenders Almost every night there's been life's little dramas played out among the fox population. Urban foxes are pests, certainly, but I can't help watching their activities with some casual interest. They all have names now. Ferdinand, the big male, is unusual in that he just isn't fazed by human beings - I've walked past him within feet before now.. He's potentially dangerous. Having kept a low profile since Christmas I had thought he was dead and gone, but no, I spotted him, glaring at me in the dark as he always does. Only the other night I incurred his displeasure by disturbing him as he was getting it orn with his chosen vixen, who ran off when I strode into view. Ferdinand stayed put and glared at me. Fuzzy always retreats in the direction of his set when he gets disturbed. He was injured and limping not so long ago - I haven't seen him since. Ferkles simply moves on and knows that once he's inside another persons garden, pursuit is unlikely. Flakey is well funny. Always going into a panic when disturbed and never knowing which way to turn. Then there's Frodo, with his distinctive black ring on his tail and a penchant for disappearing much sooner than most foxes who see you coming. Lately Frodo has found himself a girlfriend and he's become positively careless. You can actually see a dazed grin on his face. Bless. I have heard it said that foxes kill and eat cats. I don't believe that, or at least, consider it unusual. Reason being of course is that I see foxes and cats co-existing quite comfortably. The other night I disturbed one fox - Ferkles I think - and as it ran off to a safe distance it passed a cat sat on the pavement. The cat simply watched it run past and didn't stir. Didn't even tense up nervously like cats do if they perceive danger. A cat who knows foxes won't bother him.

Your point about travel with horses is well made. However, it is also true that in antiquity horsemen were capable of considerable distances. Modern horses are fussier than the ones the Huns used for instance. The value of the horse for long distance raiding in the late classical period is a matter of established history. we know they did. The Germans even raided long distances carrying an infantryman behind the rider. Now the speed they rode over long distance is another matter of course, but the Huns were well infamous for their ability to appear over the horizon and disappear afterward. The issue of four horses is a response to evidence. Techniques for handling certainly existed. It was standard practice for Romans to run four horse chariots over a seven lap race, and on occaision, for visual treats, they ran with many more. The ability to manoever must have existed because otherwise the team could not make the turns at each end. However, I'm not aware that manoever was as emphasised on the ancient battlefield in the same way that horse riders were described with. A horse and rider in battle was all about manoever. Descriptions have them galloping back and forth almost pointlessly, and indeed, the risk of tiring the horse was a tactical issue. Chariots were far less subtle or frivolous.

I don't know many civilian training aircraft that allow you to wear parachutes, thus 'bailing out' is a rare privilege and not one normally accorded trainees. Also, despite cockpits being generally uncomfortably cramped in light aircraft, they almost always allow forward/back seat adjustment and finding that you could not use the controls freely suggests you should have terminated the flight before it began. Free use of controls is part of the pre-flight procedure in every aeroplane.

Wikipedia offers info on Legio_X_Equestris (Sorry, but for some reason I can't cut and paste on this web page. Grrrrr.....) Freedmen were not citizens. They were second class members of the public, whilst classed as human in Roman law, were barred from public office. Claudius opened opportunities for them in governmental roles however, but this was later limited by Hadrian. There is a mention that they wore distinctive clothing - I don't know anything about that. Nonetheless some became seriously successful and wealthy (albeit sneered at). The problem with the late Republic is the warlords were powerful enough to begin seeing traditional cultural rights and restrictions as a means to an end, or perhaps as a pointless impediment to their plans. They were after all beginning to see the Roman Republic as a state that could be controlled, and indeed, Caesar had every intention of ruling absolutely.

The word 'Legion' means 'levy' and only acquires any sort of regimental air after the Reforms of Augustus. Before that, legion numbering was a matter of convenience and applied to the order of recruitment rather than any unit designation. You do seem to grasp this point I note. The requirement for citizen status is probably not that big an issue regarding troops raised locally. I wouldn't be surprised if warlords like Caesar simply had everyone swear an oath to satisfy the traditional requirement but then bear in mind slaves were not suitable as soldiers either, yet at times they were recruited, such as Augustus panicking after the Varian Disaster, when he demanded wealthy owners donate slaves to his levy (They ignored him, so he had some punished and took a number of slaves by order. These slaves had to be manumitted before they could serve, and were not equipped, billeted, or served alongside regular soldiers for fear of upsetting the legions)

Changes in the Praetorian Guard had happened before. They had been replaced wholesale with loyal soldiers by Severus when he marched into Rome for instance. Diocletian clearly didn't trust them. They were reduced in status and two loyal legions promoted to guard status, the Jovian and Herculians. The Praetorians persisted until Constantine eventually got rid of them altogether in favour of the Scholae Palatinae. As far as I'm aware, the term was only used after Constantine. Once the Scholae took the top slot, the Jovians and Herculians were no more than elite legions. The Praetorian Guard had traditionally been commanded by a Prefect, a role with close political ties and much sought after. Beware of Roman 'ranks'. I'm aware that most people routinely associate such titles with modern pyramidical organisation systems like our own armies, but there's evidence that the Romans used status a little bit differently from us. Constantine certainly served as a tribune - that's a senior military role classification, a sort of officer that could be assigned any major project within the legion - and in more than one office, but I don't see any mention of serving in the Praetorian Guard, although his father Constantius had been previously made a praetorian prefect by Maximius. I do however note that Constantine was serving in the court of Galerius as a military officer. The addition of 'First Order' had less to do with military promotion than acknowledging his status as a caesar's son and his record of military success. What makes the situation worse is that 'personal guard' were not always the Praetorians (Nero for instance had a unit of German guards rather then untrustworthy Praetorians). For a long time the Equites Singulares Augusti, an elite cavalry unit, had in fact been closer to the Caesars than the Praetorians. They had emerged at the time of Trajan and were later disbanded along with the Praetorians.

Actually the Goths had already looted Roman soldiery - they had won a victory against the Thracian garrison after the assassination plot by Lupicinius and Maximus failed and alerted the Gothic leaders to their situation. Perhaps you have over-estimated the scale of manufacture. It was all hand made, took plenty of man-hours to complete, and much of it was made in-house according to demand. There was no commercial production of armour from the Romans that I know of, and civilian manufacture only took place when the military found a need to supply beyond their normal capacity.

Lifestyle guides - the curse of sophisticated civilisation

It looks to me merely decorative. I made similar twists in metalwork classes as a youngster.

I once stumbled a book dated 1730 in a local second hand store. It's an odd experience coming across something like that.

The use of Roman numerals has little to do with tricking the public - it has more to do with legal and commercial tradition, and in any case, until recent decades it was assumed that the public knew a bit about latin and Roman numerals themselves.

Possibly. But by the time of Augustus, there were already some restrictions on volunterering for gladiatorial training. The rewards for success were undeniable since fighters kept a portion of their winnings - only fair since they were taking the risks. The reality is perhaps more illuminating. Newbie gladiators on the first professional fight had roughly one third chance of dying. This dropped to one in nine as they gained experience, value, and the option of becoming a trainer themselves. The average life expectancy of a gladiator was four years. They fought between once and three times a year usually. Volunteers agreed a term of service with a lanista, normally five years, but sometimes three or seven. For many, it was simply a way out of debt, albeit a risky one.

No, it isn't the same. Rome brought christianity together and adopted it as a cultural aspect. China is being colionised by the modern christianity which although not really any more united than in Roman times (Arguably less so) certainly sees China as virgin territory to exploit.

Context s very relevant, but then, the Roman games were something of a shock to the uninitiated. There's an account from the later imperial; period which decribes a young man at the games for the first time, at first horrified by what he sees, but gets caught up in the atmosphere and the exceitement of the crowd. The Romans were often very aware of their own failings. They were however unwilling to change if it meant giving up their chosen way of life.

I've thought about that. Most people at this point suggest a favourite book or two, but I don't really subscribe tothat way of doing things. I know this might not sound initially helpful, but focusing on one source is always prone to inviting bias into your knowledge - or at worst, complete nonsense. There is a certain satisfaction in piecing together a puzzle from various sources as long as you remain objective, because otherwise you tend to spend a lot of time rationalising between various accounts and again become a victim of bias. To begin with I guess that Osprey do a number of relevant volumes thatset the scene quite well. Most of my info doesn't actually come from dedicated volumes on late empire legions - it's gathered from various histories discussing the late empire as a whole - you can't go far in Roman hiostory without considering their military - they were after all a very martial minded nation state. Other than that keep reading. The clues will appear eventually.

It's about where this man was born. He was found dead in York, but was a foreigner by birth according to his DNA.