Rameses the Great

I said in my post that it was a pan-semitic activity... Baal (Northwest Semitic/Phoenician) = Bel (Eastern Semitic/Babylonian) = Bēlu (Akkadian) and it means "Lord" or "Master". Most likely 'he' was the sun or a solar deity. The Babylonian & Assyrian Marduk was also conflated with Bel/Baal. As for a Greco-Roman source I would certainly say check Flavius Josephus first. Ok, thanks!

Was this only a Phoenician/Carthaginian practice or were their others in the region who did partake in these events? Whenver it states a chil sacrifice it says 'Baalim' if this is the case it was probably most common among the Phoenicians unless others other than the Phoenicians used Baalim as their God. I'm wandering if there are any Grek or Roman sources.

I know there are theories as to if the Carthaginians did use tiphot rites but was this not brought over from its homeland Phoenicia? The Bible makes mention of children being sacrificed to the God 'Baalim' if this is so then I'm guessing this was from the Phoenicians and Assyrians. Does anyone have more information on this?

I have taken a keen interest with Hapsburg Austria and its assertion as a European power. I love to read about the Austro-Ottoman Wars, and Austrian involvement in wars. You certainly have a lot to be proud of Viggen!

Before posting I do a similar thing like Nephele I just make sure I copy it and if it is posted I check and if not I just start over and paste it. I like the new look but were are those dang on smilies?

Up until the early 1800s, the Egyptians sought to control Sudan for its gold mines. Interesting read, thanks Pantagathus.

I second that. R.I.P.

According to the article, the Ottomans ordered massive amounts of ammunition and weapons from Western countries. By the time warfare changed during the late 1800s, the Ottomans could no longer depend on their specialty hand to hand combat. This probably led to having to finally modernize the army. Also in the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877 the Russians made so many mistake it may not have been such a closely contested war had logistics been better to the Russians. Nonetheless an interesting read Kosmo, thank you.

If you don't want to go up the Spanish steps you don't have to, just take the Spanish elevator not a car.

Any European nation, Austria and Russia in particular, could've easily taken the Ottoman Empire in the late stages of its empire. They didn't adopt the use of the iron clads, their canons were bulky and not fit for open field battle as their European counterparts, and were to detatched from Europe to modernize. Nations started to break away and nations that did modernize their army, such as Muhammed Ali Pahsa modernizing his army, were at the gates of Constantinople and had not the European powers intervened there would not have been an Ottoman Empire. As Russia set to invade to Ottomans, Britain, France, and Austria had to help the Ottomans in order for them not conquer the Ottomans and grow to strong. The only reason the Ottoman Empire didn't die out before the 1900s is because of European intervention in the matter.

Can we please not categorize all Chrisitians like this please? Some nut in Venezuela claims he's the anti-Christ give me a break.

LOL Xena, brings me back to the days of terrible television.

I wouldn't be surprised though. Whether it is truth or not, it certainly is believable. The Byzantines did have an awful lot of influence. Are we talking about the Kievan Rus period?

I know this is old but I always find it funny. enjoy.

Look who's back! Great to see you back in comission.

Are you sure that's Pittburgh you visited?

I prosrastinate and can't multi-task...oh the burdens of being a male.

I really don't understand why other Middle East empires at the time were reluctant to employ firearms into their army. The Sufavids and Mameluks, although the Mameluks did use artillery in their encounters with the Ottomans, refused to employ it on a large scale througout the army. The Ottoman however, saw this as a great oppurtunity and used it to their advantage setting up a large and powerful empire. Had the Mameluks or Sufavids used firearms perhaps the history of the Ottoman Empire may have been different. Who's to say they could have become the imperialist powers of the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Crimea instead of the Ottomans? A sliding door moment in history I suppose.

In British schools they can't talk about the Holocaust for fear of 'angering' Muslim students. The EU stands for European Unconcious.

Is this change only to be instituted in Austria or all of the Germanic speaking countries?

I thought the Mediterranean had their own way of making fish. Cooking dried fish is something that is usually found deep in Africa. I can only speak of the Middle East but how we do it is we usually bread the fish and cook it in oil. Perhaps you should check Food Network's homepage.

I believe some type of racism had existed throughout every civilization in some way. The Egyptians believed they were the perfect race not to dark, like Ethiopians, and not to light, like Semites. The Persians, although did not use slavery to much, believed other cultures were below them such as the Greeks. The Greeks believed anyone who wasn't a Hellenic was a 'barbarian' albeit not racist in our modern sense but certainly nationalistic. I wouldn't say that the Romans were the first to start ancient racism because it had existed well before they arrived on the scene. Whether they took it to a whole new level is very debatable.

I, for once in my life, agree with MPC. The Romans held stereotypical views. In gladitiorial fights, they believed Africans and northern barbarians were brutes who used strength to win. They thought people from the East: Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, etc. would use some type of magic from the gods. They believed Greeks, and other Balkan peoples, were intellects and would use their minds to win battles. They designated some peoples to be slaves such as Slavs and other barbarians. They did however know when there was a superior method to doing things and did borrow ideas from other cultures so they didn't think of others completely inferior.

You get those jokes to? Don't worry he usually goes off for a long while and comes back. I sent him a pm before saying I wondered where he was and I missed him and he hadn't been on the forum for three straight months. It's ok if you're a little bit concerned but this is not the first time he's done this. Give it a bit more time, I'm confident he'll show up.

Russell Peters. I'd post a couple of vids but they've been taken out of Youtube. He's still an absolute legend though. I was able to salvage his best ones though: Russell Peters - Asians Russell Peters Outsourced - English Accent (For our English members) Russell Peters, Beating the kids