Gaius Octavius

I guess that I must be as thick as a plank, but I still don't get how the shield was held.

If my memory serves, a 'theory' is not a proven fact, but rather a supposition that explains something. Two conflicting theories explaining the same fact can exist at the same time. Or, more for the same matter. If nature abhors a vacuum, how come the universe is expanding and not contracting? My personal theory, is that the universe started at infinity and is now contracting! The Earth is the center of the Solar system!

I believe that during and after the Punic wars, the Roman ships had a 'corvus' and a bow ram and that in the Byzantine period they had 'Greek fire'. Marines aside, what other armaments did these ships carry? How differently were the marines armed from the infantry?

Nice work, as usual P. All that gear must cost a fortune. Who makes it?

Obviously, all y'all aren't fans of the 'Coast to Coast' radio program with George Norry. Aliens can do it! :1eye:

After the Punic Wars, I don't belive that much was heard about the navy in fleet actions. Not counting pirates, were there any battles aside from Actium?

F.C. Perhaps you have answered your uncertainty.

There's rioting in Indonesia, They're starving in Dafur, There are hurricanes in Louzeeanna, And Kanzas needs rain, The whole world is festering with unhappy souls, The neo-cons hate liberals, The liberals hate their goals, The president is in plenty of dutch, And I don't like anybody very much! -------------------------------------------------------- Thank you so very much Kingston Trio.

Good god, man! You want to go there to eat and see a bit of caberet? Go to Berlin! Although I am sure that Madame Pertinax won't let you take your 'purse' with you, you can at least oogle the Eyetalian babes. Get a hair cut in Naples first. Should ease the pain a bit.

Viggen, I meant that I was 'off topic', and that I was agreeing with you.

I guess that I'll have to wait for the book to find out what went on there. Rats! The Roman Kama Sutra!? Now, the Italian babe in the picture; Mamma mia! Che bellezza!

If that fragment is all there is, it is amazing how much was deduced from it.

Do it in a way that doesn't put your reader in your present position.

To whom shall the Brooklyn Museum return the bust of Alexander to? Who is 'sutton hoo'? As mentioned in the earlier thread, the Brits got the Elgin Marbles fair and square and probably saved them from destruction. The recent burglary is an every day occurence in Latin America now. 'Now' is a different thing from 'then'.

A little bit of revisionist history. Rome thought that it was a crock of carp, but berlusconi did as told. Same with London and Tony. Paris believed it??? Washington didn't believe it either. It was Pres. chinney's non-intelligence squad that produced this little bit of mental feculence.

Doesn't matter which way one makes the Sign of the Cross or if one bows or not.

A two man team operated the scorpio. There were two rachets(?). (I say rachets because there was a holding mechanism on the gears - my term.) One on either side, operated by each man. As Pertinax says, the winding gear was on a vertical plane. The bellybuster in the program was somewhat different than the one shown in P's picture. It seemed to be made mostly of metal. If my memory serves, it was Archimedes who invented the scorpio for use by the defenders of Syracusa when the Romans attacked. (Sorry that I can't be more specific here.) P, would you please explain the 'pigs head' or 'swine array' a little more. I am lost.

My point exactly. Still hasn't cleared up his actual intentions though. In order for you to get that, you would have to get between his ears or visit him in Hades.

It MAY be that the moderns are using it indiscriminately. If the ancients didn't use the term from the onset, it might be because they felt that their readers understood it without their saying so.

Ariminius: Goes to show you how smart he was.

Komrades: Geroge Washington never told a lie. :wub: george bushe never told the truth. In a way, doesn't Pres. chenny call to mind Aaron Burr? But Aaron was a better shot. Domina Claudia off to Maygne for a fortnight of fun and games with my out-laws. Delivered her off to her sister in Nu Joyzee. Had to go through the Holland tunnel twice. As you can see, I made it. Gassed up the chariot in that province and the attendant was highly agitated because it only took 5+ gallons @ 18 bucks. "Is that all?" "No, you Censored , put some in my pockets!" Bride marked and counted the various forms of booze, so I fixed Her. Got my own personal supply! That should keep me in a constant state of stupor and torpor. Things should get hopping on the Forum. How I would like to be a fly on the wall when charley mc arthy goes to it with his pal, Putin. My Word! Are the Germans getting a reprive? Angela and georgy. How becoming. :wub: And georgie sliced the roasted pig! And life forges on towards death, Gaius

Last night, I caught the tail end of a PBS program about the Romans and Brits going at it during the Boudiccan Rebellion. I'd always thought that the wedge was one 'slice' of a pie. It seems, rather, that it was a series of saw teeth and not necessarily one tooth. Paulinus, greatly out numbered, lined his cohorts up in a straight line in this saw tooth formation across the plain. The Iceni and allies, had wagons at their backs where their families came to watch the battle. The Iceni attacked and the Romans responded with their 'artillery', the scorpio or bellybuster. The Romans then marched forward, at a quick pace in the saw tooth formation, threw their pilum and continued into the Iceni. They marched through and over the Iceni who were hemmed in by their own rear ranks. They trampled to death any Iceni who fell under them. The benefit (to the Romans) of this formation was that the Romans were on the flanks of the Iceni throughout the battle field. The Romans stabbed at the Iceni in their fronts and at their sides. The Iceni retreated right into their own wagons. By this time the Roman cavalry was in action. Between these and the infantry and the fact that the Iceni were hemmed in by their wagons, a great slaughter of all the Iceni came about. A demonstration of the usage of the scorpio was shown. In design, it is nothing more than a highly mechanized bow, on a horizontal plane, with a rachet to load it. It seems that the bolt was not barbed and could easily pass through the Iceni shield and the warrior behind it. The 'bellybuster' could be fired three times a minute.

You have an excellent man in Sander. Did you hear the term from 'modern' writers or from ancient writers? That might be the answer to your problem.

Maybe from Ammianus Marcellinus(?)?

Well...for the record Saddam did pay out large sums of money to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers back in the day. True! $25,000 a boom. But he didn't 'run' them.