Gaius Paulinus Maximus

I agree, If at all it is true then it's surely got to be at the hands of a vindictive landowner's idea of punishment and indeed humiliation, to maybe show the slaves who's boss and what will happen if they don't tow the line, I suppose it makes a change from a good thrashing, mix up the punishment a bit?? Again though it's just speculation, a source would certainly help to back up the statement.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAR!!! Hope you have a great day mate with plenty of but not too much of Great clip Aurelia, Burt and Ernie are legends!!!

Take a look at THIS site, it lists the genuine epitaphs of men who served in LEG II AVG, including Centurion Petronius Fortunatus Filius mention by Bryaxis. (edit) and Sylla. CENTURIO[M.]? Petronius Fortunatus filius Enlisted in Leg I Italica. Over four years held in succession the posts of Librarius, Tessararius, Optio & Signifer. Promoted to Centurion by vote of his comrades. Spent the next 46 years as Centurion with Leg VI Ferrata, I Minerva, X Gemina, II Augusta, III Augusta, III Galicia, XXX Ulpia, VI Victrix, III Cyrenaica, XV Apollinaris, II Parthica and I Adiutrix. During this time he was decorated with a mural crown along with torques and Phallerae. All recorded on his tombstone found at Lambaesis in North Africa. He died aged 80 years and lived in the late 1st/early 2nd Century. His tombstone also mentions a son who died aged 35, and who served as a Centurion with Leg XXII Primigiena and Leg II Augusta. (name-?)

This inscription is R.I.B. 490 from Deva (Chester); Roman-Britain.org indeed states he was from Commagene, but other sources claim he was a Syrian from Osroene. The Latin Original seems to be: D(is) M(anibus) | M(arcus) Aurelius Alexand(er) | praef(ectus) cast(rorum) leg(ionis) XX | [V(aleriae) V(ictricis)] nat(ione) Syrus Os[r(oenus) | vi]x(it) an(nos) LXXII [...] c[...|...]yces et S[ The English restoration (from Roman Britain: A Sourcebook by S. Ireland): "To the spirits of the departed, Marcus Aurelius Alexander, Camp prefect (Praefectus Castrorum) of the Legion XX Valeria Victrix, a Syrian from Osroene, lived 72 years..." It seems his serving time can't be inferred from this inscription. True, we can't determine his service time from the inscription, which is a shame because all we can do is speculate, but for someone to still be serving in the legions at the ripe old age of 72 yrs old is pretty astounding. Marcus Aurelius Alexander must obviously have put some serious time under his belt to reach the position of Camp prefect. Let's just say that he signed up at the same age as Titus Caldius who was 24yrs old, which I think is quite reasonable,that would give him time served in the legions of an incredible 48yrs!!! He could indeed have signed up 8yrs earlier at 16 and that would have given him a service time of 54yrs. Although we will never know I'd like to second NN and put Marcus's name forward for the most dedicated soldier!!

A stunning collection of frescoes that once adorned the walls of Ancient Roman buildings in Pompeii are set to go on show in Naples. The National Archaeological Museum is to open its completely revamped fresco section, which hosts 400 works of art, following a ten-year renovation project. Preserved by a hail of lava and ash from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79, the precious artwork lay untouched for centuries until excavations started in the 1700s. Over the next 150 years, hundreds of frescoes were removed from their original location and carried away, sometimes for profit, sometimes in a bid to protect the art. READ MORE........

Under the republic a citizen might be called upon to serve for twenty years in the infantry; when the legions became permanent the full period was generally exacted, and those who chose to remain after their time was completed, were termed veterani. Augustus, in the year B.C. 13, limited the period of service to twelve years for the praetorians, and sixteen for the legionaries, after which they were to be entitled to an honourable discharge (missio honesta), and to receive a bounty (praemium, commoda missionum); but not long afterwards, A.D. 5, it was found necessary to increase the period to sixteen years for the praetorians, and twenty for the legionaries. At this time it appears probable that the practice was first introduced of discharging the soldiers from the legion at the end of sixteen years, and keeping them together under a vexillum with peculiar privileges during the remaining four years of their service. Abuses, however, crept in, and many soldiers, instead of being pensioned off at the end of twenty years, were compelled to remain for a much longer period, and the discontent caused by such oppression gave rise to the formidable mutinies in Pannonia and Germany, which burst forth immediately after the accession of Tiberius. The soldiers then demanded that the original arrangement by Augustus should be restored, and that they should receive a full discharge and the bounty at the end of sixteen years; while, in order to calm their wrath, Germanicus proposed to put an end to the disorders of which they complained, and to carry honestly into effect the second arrangement according to which they were to serve in the legion for sixteen years, and then being embodied under a vexillum by themselves to be relieved of all irksome labours, and to be required only to face the enemy in the field (Dion Cass. LIV.25, LV.23; Suet. Octav. 49; Tacit. Ann. I.17, 36, the proposal contained in the last passage being in these words: missionem dari vicena stipendia meritis; exauctorari, qui senadena fecissent, ac retineri sub vexillo, ceterorum immunes nisi propulsandi hostis). The vexillarii or vexilla legionum, then, were those soldiers who, after having served in the legion for sixteen years, became exauctorari, but continued to serve in a company with that legion, under a vexillum of their own, until they received their full discharge. Hyginus states the number attached to each legion as usually about hand or six hundred. (courtesy of LacusCurtius)

My favorite bands at the moment are and , I've recently seen them both live and they were excellent. Also , and but to name a few.

Firstly, Ursus, why do you always have to lower the tone and get everyone naked?? and secondly if every one's gonna be starkers, where do I buy my bloody ticket!!!!! A naked ancient history conference!!!!! That certainly is the stuff dreams are made of!!!

The Roman Triumph, Res Gestae Divi Augusti, and Augusta: Roman Empress will be joining my ever growing list of "must reads"

An excellent essay WW, very well written. I look forward to reading part II. That is if you decide to post it.

That's a great song Doc, and BTW the song is called "Panic" I like it because Leeds (where I live) gets a good few mentions. This song is actually about Margaret Thatcher's Tory britain. The DJ is the the Prime Minister (Thatcher) and the disco is the (political) Party, the Tory( Conservative) Party. The Smiths were a great band it was just a shame they split up so soon. Have you heard any of Morrissey's new stuff? Personally I'm not that keen on it.

As interesting as this argument/discussion has been I think it's probably time to let it lie, I mean, do we even know who Valerian's father was? If we can't even trace his line to his own father, what chance have we got of chasing it all the way back to republican times? we can argue and argue till we're blue in the face but at the end of the day because the sources are so scarce for that period it really is a waste of time. On the other hand I would like to see the discussion on Argumuntum ex silentio and argumentum ed ignorantium continue, it's strangely quite interesting.

Sorry about that. Can't believe I missed Vigs post, but never mind eh? The link's that good it deserves posting twice!!!

For those intereted in the Late Roman / Early Byzantine era then HERE'S a collection of articles available to download for free. Enjoy!

THE DISCOVERY of two Roman structures in Otford could lead to a revaluation of their time in Britain. The last two weeks of an archeological project to excavate a site in the village drew to a close earlier this month with experts believing they may have unearthed two pottery kilns, each around 4m in diameter. Until now it had not been thought that the firing of pottery

If you don't mind me asking, Caldrail, What was your band called and what kind of music did you play?

As far as I can tell very little is known about Publius Licinius Valerianus' early life but it does appear that he was unusual for his time period in that he did actually come from an old Roman senatorial family but as to which branch, as far as I know I don't think that is known.

Nice review Caldrail, I'm just over half way through this book myself and have to agree with you that it is indeed extremely informative, not just about the Byzantine's but also about their enemies too. The workings of the Goths, Vandals, Persians etc are all very well explained and with the help of the many maps and pictures through out the book it makes following the story much more helpful. I think the problem with getting to know Belisarius is that we only really have Procopius to rely on and as Ian Hughes points out, because he was probably Belisarius' closet advisor and friend at the time of writing his Wars, most of the time his writing was very favourable to his general to say the least and he was clearly overly keen on exaggerating certain events to paint Belisarius in a much more favourable light. The thing I'm liking about the book at the moment is that Hughes doesn't go down the hero worshipping route that some biographers tend to, he makes no bones about pointing out Belisarius' failings in certain matters and makes it clear that although at times his generalship was excellent he did have the odd blip in his career too.

Sorry double post!

Well done mate, Keep the flag of the Britons flying high!!!

Did he still used to wears his pants under his armpits back in the 80's too?

There were certain conditions that had to be satisfied before a legal marriage could be contracted even by citizens. One of them being that both of the parties should be pūberēs; there could be no marriage between children. Although no precise age was fixed by law, it is probable that fourteen and twelve were the lowest limit for the man and the woman respectively. Wasn't Cornelia Cinna Minor only 13 yrs of age when she married the 18yr old Caesar?

what, isnt he normal then? Anyone who builds models all day long has got to be a bit weird, right?? Only joking mate!! I've got the utmost respect for people with this kind of talent, the patience and dedication required to produce something so impressively detailed is in my opinion truly outstanding.

WTF!!!!! You really need to get out more Falkor

WOW that's pretty damn impressive! I particularly enjoyed the quote from his wife '"She wishes she'd married a normal person"