Klingan

Wasn't Greek fire a considerably later invention (see this thread, even thou it seems as if it's refering to Wiki, which I unlike)?

That octopus better stay far far away form me, it's clearly his fault that Germany lost and I'm not happy about it!

Haha, great review Ursus, I've got to read this one.

I believe that she's commonly rendered as a winged godess or in a chariot drawn by four horses, then again, she's not very common in ancient sculpture by some reason (but you might very well find her on red/black figure vessels).

Here's some news (through the Cyprus mail) on the excavations I participated in this spring. EXCAVATIONS of the late Bronze Age settlement at Dromolaxia Vizatzia (Hala Sultan Tekke) have unearthed a rich array of imported and local bronze and pottery artefacts. The finds at the ancient city which were carried out in May by the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, under the direction of Professor Peter M. Fischer, witness the central role Cyprus played during the Late Bronze Age, the Antiquities Department said in an announcement on Friday. The ancient city was inhabited during the Late Bronze Age, which dates roughly to 1600-1100 BC. The city was once as large as 25 hectares making it one of the largest ancient cities of the period on the island. This year's excavations exposed only 10m times 10m of the site, with nine rooms exposed so far. The city was built in two phases: one in the 13th/12th century BC and the other some hundreds years earlier. Read more here.

Considering all the inventive ways that people might devise for torturing others with stakes and crosses, I wouldn't be surprised if using nails were only one of several options. Gunnar Samuelsson is from Sweden

I think that we need to consider how common crucifixion really was, even thou I must admit that I cannot provide any useful number. I do believe, however, that we tend to overestimate how much it was practised. Anyway, my point is that there wouldn't be any real reason to go out looking for nails, unless they crucified a very large number of people on a daily basis.

No wonder. It's good that some people actually look at things from a sensible rather than sensational perspective.

I discussed this topic, thou only to a limited extent, in my magister thesis (Swedish version of a master). There are, as far as I know, no known chemical ways that the Roman used to clean their baths. We can however notice that most baths have a well developed sewer system and it seems probable that they either emptied the tank at the end of each day (or after some other period of time, depending on how much water they could use) or drained it continually. I prefer the later due to several reasons, these two being the most important: - We have evidence for water mills (yes, plural) at the baths of Carcalla - it is hard to see how they could use these without a steady flow of water, i.e continually draining. The Baths of Carcalla are of course rather exceptional, but I would argue that the water wills were the invention here, rather than the presumed continual refilling of the pools. - We also have strong evidence of reuse systems in Roman baths (the Stabiae thermae can be used as an example here), something that would be quite ineffective if the pools were refilled only at certain times. There is however some certain evidence that some baths was emptied more or less never - there's one on Sicily that only used rainwater for its supply and thus had a very limited supply. How the Romans dealt with their bathing water was probably, in the end, a question of how much resources that were available.

This is slightly off topic but I though that you might enjoy a passage from "[isis] the Ship of Wishes", while discussing the goddess and her festival. "what an enormous ship it was! A hundred and twenty ells in length, as the carpenter told us ; upwards of thirty ells in breadth, and from the deck to the bottom of the hold, where the pump stands, nine and twenty [55x14x13 m]. And what an astonishing mast! What a powerful yard it carried! What monstrous ropes that hold it fast on either side! Did you observe, how the stern rising insensibly in a curve, was ornamented at top with a golden goose? And how at the other end, the prow proportionately swelling forwards, had on the two sides the figure of the goddess Isis, from whom as its patroness the ship takes its name? To say nothing of the other decorations and appurtenances, the paintings, the purple flags, and especially the anchors and capstans and windlasses, and of the cabins disposed in the afterpart of the ship. All, in one word, all appeared to me admirable. The sailors, in such a surprising number, that they might be compared to an army, and the cargo, it was said, was so large, as to be sufficient provision for all the inhabitants of Attica [ca 300.000 inhabitants] for a whole year." Lucian - The Ship of Wishes 435-437 Translated by W. Tooke

Haha, I knew that this Cypriot wine would be an insufficient offering to the gods!

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday LW

Thank you very much guys, I had a great day:)

I did manage to find this inscription from Hadrianus time: Imp(eratori) / Caisari(!) / Traiano / Hadriano / Aug(usto) Iovi / Olym[p]io / conditori / col(oniae) (AE 1938, 0140) But since it's came from Thracia it's could be simply a spelling mistake rather than return to the conservative spelling form. That is very, very interesting. I can't imagine how they could misspell it like that by mistake. I wonder if they modelled the new monument on an older Claudian one and simply copied chunks of the text.

Thank you for the additional material Ted, I must say that I'm impressed simply by the fact that you take your time to become a member here and post in the topic. Anyway, do you have any written material about your discovery? I have studied aqueducts for 3 years (I was actually talking a walk/crawl through the aqueduct in Argos just days ago) or so and I would be interested to compare your data to some other sources (that is, if I have any time to spend on anything but my scholarship in Athens). Patrik

Thank you very much for sharing this link, it is very much appreciated.

Great fun, but remember that this model contain a lot of errors and that most of of the non monumental areas is just filled with insulae.

Actually a urban myth; Suetonius only wrote that Caligula planned to make Incitatus a consul. The story might actually be true, the passage can be interpreted as Gaius trying to show the senate that even his horse could do a better consul then the aristocrats. This has been discussed in older thread thou.

I'll see what I can do BH! The Turkish coast might be tricky thou. Anyway, I'm off the internet from now, until I get to Athens. Cya later!

Have a great day mate

We should be very cautious when dealing with Suetonius quotes such as this one. By the way, I voted "other" - sure Caligula wasn't completely sane, but I believe that most of his sick side is to be attribute to later authors, including Suetonius.

Silt, actually, or I at least think so. Piranesi obviously used a little bit of his fantasy when drawing- the vault is more elaborate on the drawing. Edit - should have used this one in Guess the ancient city...

Ah great catch Mal, I couldn't read the Italian (too difficult when I can't make out all the words). This is how the Via del Nazareno arch look today, I took it out of the equation as I didn't see the other arch on the etching.

It's a good idea but the arch of Claudius has been gone at least since the 9th century A.D. Edit: Assuming that you're referring to the British arch?