Gaius Octavius

I believe that Attila's forces were being plagued with malaria.

Augusta, if you are interested in Zama, you might look at: Hannibal by T.A. Dodge. http://www.amazon.com/Hannibal-Theodore-Ay...TF8&s=books

Put a sock on it!

A short while back we had a thread on this which I may have started. Can't find it. I think that the conclusion was that the hand meant: "This far and no more!". I am pretty sure that if you look in Pertinax gallery, you will see that standard.

A short while back, on a small Caribbean island, they were a plurality and attempted to establish a Moslem theocracy.

In America, we have something called 'car washes'. One can even get the chariot waxed and vacuumed!

A subject for 'Academia'.

Throughout history invaders have always been the case - even the Indian tribes.

Perhaps I am not following these last few posts. Nonetheless, I feel that there has never been a democracy by the best of men for the benefit of the nation as a whole. Anywhere. To paraphrase Mark Twain (once again), the national government is the longest standing criminal enterprise in the nation. From the outset, the party system was, and is, a 'do and vote as you are told and you and yours will be taken care of'. Ever hear of a poor politician? The Supreme Court is 'packed' with party hacks who are paid off to 'toe the party line'. "Separate but equal!" Slavery! The president presides over a vast waste land of patronage. The incompetents in Iraq and those at the heads of departments and commissions (the realm of out of work politicos). Congressional legislation is 'crafted' by crafty schiesters doing their master's bidding to ensure that laws are properly obfuscated to benefit the 'better people' and business. Does any thinking person really believe that legislators (federal, state or local) or the president really write 'their' bills? I recall one legislator who 'read' the 29,000 page NAFTA bill in one month but could not read a 1,400 page national health care bill in a week. Sound familiar in re another thread? Women once could hold office but not vote. Where in the Constitution is there a sexual test - of any kind - provided for.,!? The government may turn machine guns on strikers but not on management. Certainly, neither democracy nor capitalism; rather, fascism. Leave freedom and democracy to the localities and the result is voting tests, slavery, etc. Leave it to the Federal government and it selects a president. The ignoranuses lead the ignoratti. It was thus in Rome; it is so in the U.S. and will ever be so - anywhere.

You are batting .500 here. Should get you into the Hall of Fame.

Do you really want to miss out on the New Golden Era to be promised for the umpteenth time? Alas, your suggestion may be democratic, but it could very easily lead to the Italian and French political morasses of post WWII days.

My Dearest Bear: :wub: Have you intimated that those poor souls who have the temerity to hold with your Mother :angel: make funerary arrangements as their Doom is sealed? The Wild Boar

I believe that you have completely misunderstood my prior post. To address (and not to debate) a point in your last paragraph above, a person has the moral 'right' to kill an assailant in the case of rape, if that transgressor does not desist. To go on about the Papal argument would seem to me to be redundant.

And now a nun has been murdered in Somalia by one of these practitioners of the religion of 'peace'. The West Irian massacres were and are a fantasy. That the Ecumenical Patriarch may not parade in clerical garb is a matter of religious freedom in Turkey. In Egypt, it is legal for a person to be prohibited from converting to Christianity. In Saudi Arabia, the sight of a Cross is legal. And, of course, in all other lands, the 'Religion of Peace' is illegal and thus prohibited. It is accepted that the '9/11' events and the other murders in Spain and Britain were a matter of freedom of religious expression. As Gaius is generally in error, he must now admit that his understanding of the word 'controversy' does not mean civilized polemics.

From the recesses of my faulty memory, I recall of a 'dux' being the civil head of a province (Egypt?)? It seems that at some point the order of precedence was reversed?

The Conquistadores were men of their age. When the indigenous peoples got their hands on the new comers, they acted in much the same fashion.

Some (myself not included, of course), might think that your Mother :angel: got it right.

If the alleged Roman and Bellamy salutes were pre-Nazi, why should they be "awful"?

When and why did the titles 'Count' and 'Duke' (Baron ?) come into usage in East and West? What titles (if any) did they replace?

WW, thanks. The article reminds me of another point of interest, "Counts and Dukes". I'll ask a question in a new topic.

Not all men (free or otherwise) act with reason. That is a privilege (rather than a right) of freemen. Not to be nihilistic, but who will define 'reason'? What is reasonable to A may be unreasonable to B. This is seen everyday in this world and indeed on this Forum.

Mussolini seem to have been something of a prophet. His views have come true today.

Perhaps in an attempt to prevent the already occurring attacks on churches and Christians. As for the secularists, perhaps they are intelligent enough to understand an argument and don't go around murdering people because they have a different view. In re the 'Brotherhood", perhaps the security of the Copts. As far as St. Thomas is concerned, it is not only ones privilege but his right to reject, in whole or in part, with or without cause, his theology.

Gaius rarely becomes exercised, therefor he needs no calming. He merely attempted to explain the term 'papal infallibility'. Of course, he.... Thomist theology uses reason to advance faith. I too feel that the papacy had absolutely no reason to apologize for historical facts. Those who twisted with malice and/or ignorance the essence of the Pope's speech, which in reality spoke for the Moslem religion, owe apologies.

This time my clemency will not prevail. The Papacy claims to be infallible with regard to 'Faith' and 'Morals'. To paraphrase yourself, read the Pope's ENTIRE speech as noted in Horatius above. Were your humble servant another, he might say: Don't you write infallibly?