caldrail

This strikes me as a little odd. Population did boom under the aegis of the Roman empire - as it would with any empire that provides some modicum of protection and support for its citizens - but surely that was while the empire was active. As conditions change, so does the population. After all, the medieval plagues reduced the population of Europe significantly - in what way does the modern world owe any population boom to the Romans? I just don't see it.

The cull against badgers and foxes has started. Poor things, but Bovine Tuberculosis causes too much expensive bother and our rural mammals have to find out the hard way, mostly because they have inherent communication difficulties in dealing with human beings. A bit like teenagers then. The work undertaken at the Old College site has sprawled out onto the pavement for some time now, meaning that the pavement is temporarily closed. That results in big plastic barriers and metal warning signs, which because I happen to live next to a pedestrian crossing means the signs are left outside my home. Until, that is, Saturday night, when inebriated teenagers collide with signs designed to be visible. Crash bang wallop, and the following morning the signs are laid out across the pavement until the end of the week.. Some idiot teenager decided that my reason for walking through a local park was to find homosexual partners, telling his companion (a male his age, I would point out) that I was better off looking in a certain part of Swindon. Actually I'm better off not looking at all seeing I don't do blokes, but then, I wasn't aware that homosexuals prowled Swindon's green spaces searching for quickie sex or maybe more. Thanks for the warning. Somewhat curious how you came to know that. "Need a bit o' help, mate?" shouted another idiot from a passing van as I approached a pedestrian crossing laden with a weeks shopping Not from a Drivers Mate. Heading for a certain part of Swindon? Have a nice day. And then there's that little pest who mutters threats every night, proclaiming my home is his, and that all my property is his too. No, they aren't. So shut up and go away you silly little boy. Get yourself a hobby, like stamp collecting or acne clearance. Alternatively, for something more adult, I'm reliably informed that exciting activity can be found in a certain part of Swindon. As much as farmers suffer the aggravation of badgers and foxes, we townies have to suffer the aggravations of teenage idiots. As far as I'm concerned the government are better off culling them. Confromtation of the Week "Don't look at me like I am an idiot!" The young man snapped at me. I'd taken too long to reply to his indignation that I'd been insisting on his turning down the volume of his music in the quiet zone of the local library. Although he was using headphones, the sheer volume meant that anyone within a five hundred yard radius could hear those tinny hisses and clicks. When I'm working against the clock in the frantic browse for gainful employment, the high pitched club anthem is distracting to the same degree as a naked blonde librarian telling me to come upstairs and get it big boy. Only more irritating. In fact he'd already called me an idiot in front of a librarian on duty fully clothed, and whilst he pretended to comply with the requests made by the librarian and also by a security guard at my behest, he'd pushed the volume back up again as soon as they'd gone. Mate... Calm down... "I am calm" He replied angrily, quickly switching to a menacing tone "I am always calm. You would not like me when I'm angry." I didn't much like him at all. I have no sympathy for defiant teenagers. However I was struggling not to burst into hysterics with his comic book machismo. I've heard more convincing dialogue in a Steven Seagal film.

Haven't you noticed that when anyone speculates about alternative history, the Roman Empire always makes it to the modern day? Polybius knew it wouldn't. He talks about sociology/politics in one of his books written around 150BC and states that all things come to an end. I agree with him. Nation states are analogies of natural life, or if you see it as I do, extensions of it in that biological entities cooperate to form a bigger entity in the same way our individual cells combine to make us what we are. Personally I think this sort of speculation is rather pointless - it doesn't really investigate history at all and merely provides a rationale for the desired end result, considering the case in isolation of external factors. In any event Rome still survives - many social customs derive from them and the Christian Church is unashamedly Roman sometimes.

That film was more or less a remake of a film starring Christopher Plummer and Alec Guiness. (Can't remember the title - something like 'Fall Of the Roman Empire'), so there was little new about it either (apart from lots of special effects that if I were honest did the job quite well)

As I understand it, the definition on Wikipedia is a bit exaggerated. Lares were not gods/deities per se, but spirits or ghosts, the word 'familiares' suggesting ancestral spirit. The Romans did venerate ancestors - it was common practice in wealthier families to keep a shrine with death masks of former family members - but households might also have a deity to which the household was dedicated. Notice that unlike christianity, there is no clear division between mortal and divine, even in the period before Caesars got a bit above themselves. A man may be mundane by birt - he might accumlate via his deeds, his virtus, status and power that would eventually rival the residents of Olympus (though in reality this usually happened after they were dead and the Senate had deified them as an honour - notice also the right of the Senate to designate a man as a god)

I'm not sure why the concept should suprise anyone. The Romans by habit set up administrative regions in provinces based on tribal focus. That later tribes emerged with the same boundaries would therefore seem perfectly reasonable.

There is a mention somewhere of an expedition southward. They found nothing but desertt and some 'cavemen' with whom they fought.

Roman soldiers experienced fear just the same as any other army. There are accounts of them fleeing or expressing fear. Libianus for instance tells us that "Roman soldiers bear any trial except look a Persian in the face" Caesar recalls how he ranged behind the line in Gaul, forcing men back into formation. One standard bearer was stopped and handed the standard to Caesar before running off. Another threatened Caesar with the sharp end of the pole and ran off with the standard. Plutarch tells us that at one battle, MArius fell asleep under a tree before it began and his somewhat concerned officers were only able to wake him as Roman soldiers were starting to flee the battlefield. There are others if you look for them.

Domitian had cancelled the campaign to conquer Caledonia fearing that a successful general with a victorious army behind him might get ambitious (Agricola realised the danger he was in because of Domitians paranoia). The Romans then set up a border control zone, usually referred to as The Stanegate, which Hadrian then upgraded to his famous wall. Antininus Pius authorised a campaign to extend Roman influence to establish his martial credibility - it was very import fopr a Roman leader to show he was willing to go to war - but the impetus for the campiagn may not have been his alone. However, the establishment of the Antonine Wall was merely to defend and secure the territory wrested from the Picts. It may not have been intended to remain permanent, and inded, a withdrawal to former frontiers was soon ordered. Bear in mind however that the region occupied up to the Antonine Wall was the same region patrolled and secured by Roman forces, with a few forts established in 'wild country' as 'forward Operating BAses' in modern parlance - which means they were based north of the wall to prevent attacks from forming. As far as I'm aware, after tghe Antonine Wall was built, there were no further forts established north of that, thus the Antonine Wall may well have been considered vulnerable or even untenable as a permanent defense.

At the Charity life went on in a sort of organised chaos. You turned up, sat through a prayer meeting, then got told what your duties were for the day. I suppose I was lucky as I often got scheduled to work as a drivers mate on the company van, collecting and delivering secondhand furniture. A relaxing sort of job. Mostly. Okay, the driver was a bit highly stressed, often losing his temper, and of course the drawback to collecting and delivering furniture is that bulky objects are often heavy and don't always coveniently fit through the gaps provided. I had an advantage of course. Unlike many of the unemployed layabouts drafted to work at the Charity, I've long experience of getting musical equipment in and out of gigs, of long days and nights spent in a van, and even some casual multi-drop delivery work. I also had long experience of helping my father move furniture around the house. Not sure why it was ever necessary, but it gave him something to organise and so I got on with it. So it turned out to be something of a busman's holiday. The weather was glorious, we all had a good laugh in the van (except when the driver got annoyed at somebody), and trundled around the local area visiting houses we never knew existed, meeting all sorts of strange new life and new civilisations, going where vans have never been before. Sometimes you stopped by a huge expensive house to pick up donated odds and ends. All smiles and hearty farewells. Sometimes you delivered to the less salubrious hovels in town, places that haven't been cleaned since 1972, that stink of curry powder, urine, or other strange substances. Sometimes you had to take the door off to get the goods inside. Sometimes you had to disassemble the goods to get them through the door. Failure was never an option. It meant going back to base to face a manager who'd received an angry phone cal about wasted money. It's a funny thing. Life. I trained as an engineer, learned to be a musician, studied various categores of academic knowledge, became a private pilot in two countries, and yet despite all of that I still end up moving furniture around. Struggle Of The Week My fight for sanity in the jobsearching business goes on. Firstly there's Mrs Claims Advisor, who has been programmed by some secret organisation to repeat the same conversation over and over. "I don't why you're not getting anywhere. You're jobsearching is a high enough standard..." Think we might have covered this last week. And the week before that. "Why do you think you're not getting anywhere?" And this week too. So I patiently trot out the same reasons why finding gainful employment has so far eluded me. I'm not being dishonest or looking for excuses, but the reason she wants me to admit to is... Ummmh.... Errrr..... Actually I do know what she wants me to say but she's wrong. Completely. All she wants is for me to be exactly the same as every other claimant who comes before her. Variety, or indeed any form of individuality, is a difficult concept for a claims advisor. The other aspect of my fight for truth, justice, and the employable way us the Job Agency. I might have mentioned them earlier. Never in any sphere of human endeavour has a bureaucracy accumulated siuch a mammoth collection of self serving small minded pedantic pen pushers. Take this example. I look for work on an internet website. Usually you just select the vacancy that interests you, click on a few choices, add a little bit of supportive text, or perhaps answer a stuid question or two, then click on 'Apply'. You sit back and wait for the rejection in anything between two minutes and two months. Easy. However some agencies think applicants should be given more opoortunity to waste time and effort in applying for work, so they disable this easy option and get you to make a phone call instead, in which they tell you that they have a vacncy exactly the same as they advertised and could you please come and see them in their office? So why not just suggest that on the website and save me the bother of paying for a phone call? It gets worse. I asked for the name of the person the advert specified as the contact, which in this case turned out not be a person, but the agency itself. Eventually this confusion was ironed out. Who says I don't have communication skills? Then the lady said "All we have is this furniture warehouse vacancy. It will involve some heavy lifting...Is that what you want to do?" You know what? It was my childhood dream to lift heavy objects. I studied heavy weights at school, and got myself an O Level in Applied Lifting followed by a Degree in Industrial Physics. Ten years appprenticeship as a Manual Load Handler, followed by a fifteen year career of shoving and pushing. I also lift weights for a hobby. No. I'm joking. My CV doesn't say that, and neither did I. In fact I could barely resist laughing as I told her that lifting heavy objects wasn't exactly a career of choice but if it pays the bills.... You could hear her disappointment over the phone. Is she serious?

Stone seats must have been cold 'oop north' on t'Roman frontier...

That merely indicates when the coin was struck, not used. Oh well.

I got drafted. There's no other word for it. David Cameron's Big Society means that I have social responsibility and thus I must accept that occupational contribution, voluntary work, workfare, or whatever you want to call it, is now feature of being unemployed. So I reported to the charity organisation as ordered, only unlike National Serice of previous generations, I didn't bring a sitcase and toothbrush. Not everyone who volunteers gets through basic training. A few listless youngsters faded away over the first few days. The professional malingerer Mr J was there, immedioately claiming that he suffered from this ailment or that, what cruel world world it was, that voluntary work was too lowly for him, or whatever excuse he could think of. And once again, he stomped out in moral outrage, going back to his laid back llifestyle while I and others roisk life and limb in the secondhand furniture trade. The charity I was ordered to volunteer for was a sort of furniture warehouse combined with a cafe. The sort of place whee you can drp in, enjoy a coffee, exchange a bit of banter, and buy some secondhand furniture. The furniture gets donated by all sorts of people, rich or poor, so that people without money can purchase stuff other people don't want. My first day was in the workshop, sanding down neglected garden table and chairs, and then to varnish them. Not with any old creosote mind you, thinned down yacht varnish. Only the best for the financially challenged. Of course it was pointless arguing. The workshop leader was an old craftsman who didn't talk to anyone else and got disgruntled by everyone elses lack of craftmanship. Like mine, as it transpires. So I spent the day mindlessly daubing the table and chairs with none-too-cheap varnish and getting suburnt. Aside from the lack of olive green clothes and some african american sergeant in a slouch hat yelling ayt me to do yet more press ups, the oppressive heat of our flaming July, I might as well as gotten off a bus at Biloxi in the deep south of the USA. All for Queen and country. I'm in the Charity now. Opinion Of The Week I happened to be watching the news channel Al Jazeerah the other day and along came a report about a film festival somewhere out there in the world. There's a strong theme of war films apparently, with no punches barred, covering some controversial subjects. It inspired an interview with someone who spouted this little nugget of ridiculous wisdom... The purpose of art is to force us to face our most painful truths What? That most of us are either talentless or gifted con merchants? Art exists as a form of expression. We can express anything. Romanticism, entertainment, drama, political beliefs, religious sentiment, or simply a statement of ego. If you want to comunicate pain, so be it. Personally I like my landscapes, or those pictures that invoke moods and dreams. I already know the truth of it - that I prefer the escapism, the suggestion that I'm glimpsing a time and place I canot otherwise experience.. But getting back to the point, what do we want to see in a war film? I note that the nastiness of war is becoming the prevalent theme. Camaraderie, heroism - these aren't forbidden subjects but it seems as if they're deeply unfashionable. Why is the world film industry suddenly getting so moral and determined to express political controversy? Is it because there are important messages to be said, or is it because people are bored with commercial stereotype movies, or is the constant barrage of media broadcasts politicising our view of human conflict and the injustices it generates? News reports don't change the world into a better place, so I seriously doubt art is going to. However seriously some artists want to be taken.

So it appears then that the acepted date as in August is from transcription errors over the centuries, whereas Cassius Dio dates it late in the year - consistent with archaeology.

More to come...

You find me in a very reflective mood. It's time to blog again. Not sure why, I guess it's one of those strange inponderables of life. So.... Where to begin?.... The Simpsons has an intro sketch featuring a gag with Bart daubing his lines on a school blackboard before escaping on skateboard, followed by the family gathering to watch tv in novel and amusing variety. Family Guy has the Broadway musical intro. South Park has South Parkesque imagery to tempt the senses and attract those with short attention spans. The Rushey Platt Villa (This blog) has... Well.... this paragraph of text to welcome you to the all new 2014 summer season. Feel cheated? My cliff hanger ending in the previous post was that I had to go back to work. It's true, I did. My claims advsor believed that going on another 'crappy course' (her words, not mine) wasn't going to do any good, so maybe having to earn my benefits might. So she sent me to a local charity to work as a volunteer on a Mandatory Work Placement. Whether I liked it or not. Weather Or Not What is going on? This is supposed to be August. Here in Britain this is the time for country walks along leafy lanes, sitting in deckchairs waiting to scramble some Spitfires, watching a group of men undergo a strange pagan ritual called Cricket, and arguing with the neighbours about loud parties. July pretty much met those criteria for a British summer. The days were long and hot, I got sunburnt in the line of duty as an enlisted charity volunteer, and there were a couple of tiffs with neighbours concerning their desire to get into the mood for a night out clubbing. It seems they bought one of those new fangled soundbar devices that improve bass response that make music and television not just bearable, but an experience to be shared with the whole street. We've had a flaming July, now meet the Arctic August. Temperatures fell to as little as one degree Centigrade last night. One degree? A smidgin above freezing? Somebody got their calculations wrong about Global Warning I think. Bring back the Industrial Revolution - it was the only thing keeping Britain warm in summer and me in gainful employment Gone But Not Forgotten Of course it hasn't all been fun and sun. My mother departed her mortal coil a few weeks ago. To be fair, she was pretty certain to go sooner or later, what with age, infirmity, and that sense that her anchor to the mundane world was slipping. At least she went with some dignity. I must of course spare some thought for the execution of an american journalist. I never saw the video on YouTube (not my kind of fun saturday night viewing if I were honest) but the circumstances don't suprise me. Islamic State have little or nothing to do with Islam - it's all about rule by violence and fear, which if I'm not mistaken isn't what the Quran suggests its readers should do. They are the natural evolution of the radical behaviour that extremists have been nurturing for a long time. As we suffered the outbreak of international terrorism sponsored by political nihilsim two or three decades ago, now we face the outbreak of international violence sponsored by religious nihilism. It is sadly part of the human experience. Every so often a group emerges under a leader determined to build power by becomiing the Junkyard Dog, the King of the Hill. Not so much Islamic State, more like Islamic Nazis. Reminisence Of The Week Okay, I admit it, just occaisionally during July we had the odd shower or two, sometimes a bit thunderous. By good fortune and the foresight to believe the weather girls on telelvision I avoided the downpours. In fact, the onnly serious rain that caught me was on the day of my mothers funeral. She had the last laugh after all Yet despite the doom and gloom of enviromental disasters, wars, inadvertant shooting down of passenger jets, the loss of family, and the occaisional drenching, there is always something about life to bring back the smile. A few nights ago the BBC reached into the archives and pulled out Kate Bush, the waif like singer with flowing dances and high pitched vocals responsible for Wuthering Heights. I'd forgotten what an impact that woman had made on popular music. Listening to the old favourites once again brought back many happy memories of my younger days. I am of course envious of her talent, her ability to express herself musically. For me musical expression is so much more difficult, so many ideas I'm just not able to breathe life into. It all came so naturally to her. An interview with comedian Steve Coogan told how she came to see his show which lampooned her work, and was polite enough to remark that it was good to hear all those old songs again. She's right. It was.

Yeah, same here. I had to guess one (and got that right) but darn it... I need to do some revision badly... No matter, I passed year 10. Woo-hoo! And people said I was wasting my time reading about Romans... Pfah!...

Such an offer in Roman terms would result in an official adoption, a common practicce among Romans where people took on favourite protoeges among their own family. In fact, if there were no senior males in the boys family, then he becomes the official head of the family as soon as he's considered 'of age'. This is of course why the Romans had a ceremony to mark such an occaision, although the eldest male retained authority and in fact even adult males were obliged to observe their 'child' status until the old man passed away, a constant source of frustration in Roman society, even after receiving their toga virilis. A Roman could be an adult, but not a patron until his patron was no more.

Historians habitually divide Roman history into Republican and Imperial periods. Such is the pervasiveness of that categorisation that many simply see the Empire as replacing the Republic when Augustus became Rome's first official emperor. Is that image correct? Not really. Most people have the popular image of a Roman Emperor as some sort of absolute ruler, limitless authority and power, as well as a propensity towward decadence and mental illness. Is that image correct? Not really. The only identifiable absolute ruler after the reign of the kings was Julius Caesar. He was made Dictator, then Dictator for ten years, then Dictator for life, by popular consent. The post of Dictator in Republican times gave a nominated person full ruling powers for six months or until the need had passed. Note the temporary aspect. After getting rid of their monarchy, the Romans decided they would never risk such tyranny again by allowing sole authority. Julius Caesar was unusual in that, whilst publicly refusing to be crowned, accepted the powers of an absolute monarch nonetheless. Popular or not, it got him killed, because while he ruled, no-one else could, even though he did not dismiss the Senate. In fact, Caesar's relations with the Senate do not suggest that he contemplated scrapping the machinery of the Republic. He consulted it constantly on the minutest details of public business. Naturally he was in a position to exercise a great deal of patronage. Introduction (Jane F Gardner) - The Conquest of Gaul (Julius Caesar) From Augustus onward, those getting the top job in Rome were not given such sole authority, and quite often in the earlier part of the imperial period there is a tug of war between Caesar and Senate for power and influence. Those Caesars that let the Senate make decisions generally got treated respectfully. Those that pushed the Senate aside often came to a sticky end. Augustus got a rough ride early on as senators jeered him for not letting them make decisions, but he won their admiration over time. Augustus means "The Revered One". Also, rather than than using the word 'birth', we should perhaps speak of emergence, since the features of the Augustan monarchy that were adopted by its successors took shape gradually, bit by bit, within the Republican institutional edifice. For the Principate was not created ex nihilo, but put slowly into position using existing forms, and following no preconceived plan but, rather, added to and modified according to circumstance... A History of Rome (Le Glay, Voisin, & Le Bohec) There was no clear cut job description for the role of Caesar.. Powers, honours, and status were accorded by the state, not the job, although obviously it was likely that a Caesar was considered a very important person. For instance a ruler might be given the power of Imperium "Military command" (The word Imperator is where we derive the title of Emperor from)., but not all Caesars got that honour. Gordian III was the last to receive it. Didius Julianus stood no chance of getting such an honour from the Senate. Likewise Caesars might receive Consulships or Tribunician powers, or other rights and responsibilities, normally agreed among the Senate. In his Acts and on his coins he (Augustus) stressed that he was the Liberator who had saved the lives of citizens, that he had held no post 'contrary to ancestral tradition', that he had 'transferred the state from his own control to the free will of the Senate and the Romanie', and to those traditional components of the Roman state, the S.P.Q.R., there are many honorific references on his coins. It may seem suprising that in spite of their vigilant Republicanism many members of the Italian governing class were satisfied by what seems to us a fiction. Yet the Romans, although their intense anxiety to preserve everything good in the past made them instinctively averse to open changes, had a fairly impressive record for modifying their institutions when this was necessary. The World Of Rome (Michael Grant) That said, as time wore on the influence of the Senate waned, although such bodies weres still being convened after the last Roman Emperor in the west.. Gradually then the role of Caesar migrated from "Chief Executive Advisor", as Augustus played it, to something more resembling a monarch of old with all the trappings of court and ceremony. (Adapted from content I posted on www.historum.com)

It was official policy and legally enforcable in the first two centuries AD -that Legionsaries were not allowed to marry. Some did, on the quiet, and of course since the sons of legionaries were considered prime recruits, it was generally overlooked, especially after ad100 when legions tended to be posted to one station for a long time. Also tolerance improved with time. I've seen estimates of 60% of soldiers marrying during service (unspecific to period or region), and it appears that from around the reign of Claudius onward the reality of soldiers marrying was quietly tolerated by senior Romans and the laws concerned not normally enforced. It is true that perhaps a larger proprtion of legionaries lived with partners rather than actually married, which rendered their children illegitimate and illegible to inherit citizenship from their father - which I gather was sometimes ignored as well so 'bastard' children might well get recruited into regular legions anyway, irrespective of tradition and law. By the late empire all bets were largely off of course.

Recently I 've seen a tin plated bucket found in a saxon grave in Britain, which was Byzantibne in origin, decorated with greek text (telling the lady owner to take care of her purchase), and in particular, a gladiatorial motif, showing a leopard and a gladiator in combat. The fighter is depicted with a sword, a round shield, and is naked. Now ordinarily I would simply class that as an image of a bestiarius and so forth, but the details of this image are a little odd. Is this evidence that some forms of gladiatorial combat continued past the ban of the lat 4th century? Is this how bestarii of the late empire fought? Or is this a picture celebrating a times gone by (which itself would be unsual for the Romans, they normally depcited life as they saw it)? I confess I'm intrigued. Thoughts, anyone?

It will be back shortly with the block buster opening to the new season.

It depends. If the boy is well connected and popular, perhaps somebody in the settlement would honour him as such. There might be local native customs to consider. However, it's just as likely that the young man would be considered so by necessity and that no coming-of-age ceremony would take place, bearing in mind that such ceremonies are usually (and were so to the Romans), family orientated. He would have to be freeborn for the ceremony to pass with common approval. However, the toga virilis merely celebrates the entitlement of a male to be considered an adult and is honourary - it confers no actual status, and for older men a plain toga is exactly the same. It depends. Her family would be obliged to ensure she was taken care of, and she might well re-marry after a brief period of mourning, as would be expected. She would of course be entitled to the inheritance from her dead husbands will, circumstances allowing. Please note... Lex Iulia de Maritandis Ordinibus (18 BC) – marrying-age celibates and young widows that would not marry were barred from receiving inheritances and from attending public games http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_laws Interesting point. I suspect that we cannot simply divide Roman practises into pagan and christian so neatly. Christianity was never a unified movement in Roman times, not even after the Council of Nicaea in 325 designed to achieve solidarity, and the observance of ritual was partially then down to which sect the worshipper belonged. There would be certain practises, like burial, that were either one or the other. Traditional customs may well have persisted - after all, many of the christian rituals concerning weddings we practise today - An exchange of rings, cutting the cake, carrying a bride across the threshold, and confetti - are actually pagan Roman customs inherited from their republican era.

Talent not required. This isn't a competition or submission for literary awards. Write, share, and enjoy.

Thank you, but lets see other people add their own efforts. How about Aurelia? I'm sure there's a story or two we can all share with forum members