Gaius Paulinus Maximus

I maybe wrong but I think it's located in Museum of Roman Civilization (Museo della Civilt Romana), located in the Roman suburb of EUR (Exposizione Universale di Roma). Which I believe is quite a long way from the city centre.

Isn't she the latest Bond girl? I'm a big fan of Dominic West though, I think he's really good in "The Wire"

Welcome to UNRV Medusa, I'm sure you'll enjoy it around here. Good luck with Ludus Nemesis, it looks like good fun. GPM

Wow that's a tough choice, the only tough decisions I have to make these days is what to have in my sandwiches, ham or chicken???!! But in all seriousness mate only you can make that decision, do whats best for you in the long run either way it sounds like the next few years are gonna be pretty hard going for you.. Good luck in your decision!

It appears that there may be a seperate film being made that follows Rosemary Suttcliff's story a bit more closely than Centurion does. http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?showto...amp;#entry93533

It seems that some of the experts working on the map have come to the conclusion that rather than serving as an actual map of Rome it was actually just an elaborate decorative showpiece. They argue that in fact there was probably two Forma Urbis Romae, that the other one was an actual cadastral record of Rome which was written on papyrus and stored in the records house and was easily accessible and regularly updated and the one made of marble's sole purpose was to decorate the room that stored the cadastral records of the city. Pretty amazing really, the lengths the Romans would go to just to decorate a wall.

Until I'd looked through Klingan excellent pictures from Rome I was completely unaware of the existence of the Forma Urbis Romae otherwise known as the Severan marble plan of Rome. This fascinating piece of Roman history is a crucial resource for studying the ancient city of Rome. Enormous in size (18.10 x 13 meters ca. 60 x 43 feet) and astonishingly detailed, it contains irreplaceable information about the city in the early 3rd c. CE--its famous monuments and its lesser-known neighborhoods, its major streets and its back alleys, its commercial infrastructure and its religious life. The Plan also tells us about ancient Roman ideas of the city, ideologies of representation, and mapping and surveying. The more we know about the Marble Plan, the more we know about imperial Rome. Unfortunately, only 10-15% of the Plan survives--and in 1,186 pieces. Starting in the 4th c. CE, this map suffered the same fate as many other public monuments in the city of Rome. Many of the slabs onto which it was carved were simply stripped from the wall of the Templum Pacis on which it was mounted and used in the construction of new buildings, or burnt in kilns to make lime. Even after the Plan's rediscovery in the 16th c. CE, pieces of it were used as construction material and lost. Meanwhile, the surviving fragments are difficult to work with--many are large and very heavy; others are so small that their carved surfaces don't provide much identifiable information; finally, 1,186 is simply a very large number of pieces of marble to spread out and work with. All this means that the work of identifying and interpreting pieces of the Plan has been painstaking and slow, and has focused on the most identifiable public monuments rather than on the urban fabric as a whole. It also means that this immensely important monument is little known outside the community of specialists who work on Roman topography. Take a LOOK at the best jigsaw I've ever seen.

After a bit of thought and reading up, I'd have to plump for the Batavians for the simple reason that they fought successfully alongside the Romans for many years and even provided a contingent for the emperors Horse Guard. There has also been numerous alters and tombstones found along Hadrian's wall. "They furnished nothing to the Empire but men and arms" Tacitus. Tacitus described the Batavians as the bravest of the tribes of the area, hardened in the Germanic wars, with cohorts under their own commanders transferred to Britannia. They retained the honour of the ancient association with the Romans, not required to pay tribute or taxes and used by the Romans only for war. Well-regarded for their skills in horsemanship and swimming, for men and horses could cross the Rhine without losing formation, according to Tacitus. Dio Cassius describes this surprise tactic employed by Aulus Plautius against the "barbarians"-the British Celts- at the battle of the River Medway in 43AD The barbarians thought that Romans would not be able to cross it without a bridge, and consequently bivouacked in rather careless fashion on the opposite bank; but he sent across a detachment of Germanic tribesmen, who were accustomed to swim easily in full armour across the most turbulent streams. [...] Thence the Britons retired to the river Thames at a point near where it empties into the ocean and at flood-tide forms a lake. This they easily crossed because they knew where the firm ground and the easy passages in this region were to be found; but the Romans in attempting to follow them were not so successful. However, the Germans swam across again and some others got over by a bridge a little way up-stream, after which they assailed the barbarians from several sides at once and cut down many of them. (Cassius Dio, Roman History, Book 60:20)

I think this just goes to show how much Gaius was truly hated at the end, that even his closest advisors and guard would play a helping hand in ending the young emperors life at 28 years of age.

The pictures just keep getting better Klingan, nice work mate I especially like the picture of the Mithraeum, even in your picture it still has an air of mystery about it, but to have experienced it when it was still an underground temple would surely have been exhilarating and terrifying all at the same time. P.S. glad your still in one piece after this weeks terrible disaster.

That should be interesting!!! Why do you have to read it?

They did a thing similar to that at Liverpool Street Station in England a while back, it was used as a mobile phone advert.

The Roman archaeological heritage of the south east comes under the spotlight in a talk in Chichester on Friday April 17 2009 at Westgate Leisure, Chichester. John Smith, curator of Bignor Roman Villa, will highlight the similarities and differences between two of Britain's most well-known Roman Villas and one whose history has been lost in the mists of time. Organised by Chichester District Museum, the talk will focus on Bignor, Rockbourne and the mysterious Minchington Villas, each of which has a fascinating if somewhat mysterious tale to tell. http://www.culture24.org.uk/history/archae...eology/art67495

Would love to but it might get me kicked off the board for foul and abusive language!!!!!

I can see both sides to the argument. The documentaries and 3D virtual tours we can get on TV and on the Internet these days are brilliant. You can see sites that you might never actually get the chance to visit as well as being educated on the history of it all in the comfort of your armchair with chips n dips and a beer by your side. But for me there's nothing better than seeing these sites with your own eyes, wandering around at your own leisure seeing everything first hand and thinking "maybe Julius Caesar or the emperor Hadrian stood in this exact spot???" OK you might not get the spectacular aerial shot (unless you hire an helicopter!! But I think this can be a bit pricey!) or the 3D image of what it looked like in it's full glory. But who care's? Your there, it's real, you can touch it! This can not be beaten!

Very nice article Aurelia. Bravo!!!

Where ? Anywhere thats not at Old Trafford!!!

I've seen better!!

I'm not sure why you included this: because it was the only one available in English? It's very dated and merely retells the story as related by Procopius. There was no attempt at a detailed analysis and because of this Mahon simply repeated all of Procopius' mistakes, such as the conflation of two of Belisarius' early battles into one. Recommended for the traditional, starry-eyed view of Belisarius, not as an attempt to tell his story in full. If only there was a more up to date book out there, telling the true story of Belisarius.............. Oh hold on a sec....... Ahhh now I remember!!! Don't worry sonic I'm already on it!!

Great find Neil, I've been aware of this guy for a while, he's got a pretty good site showing off some of his other work. It's called Ancientvine.Com Also take a look at guy's work, it's also very good.

I know there's a few members on this site who are the proud owners (me included) of the excellent book on Hadrian's Wall by Breeze and Dobson which is now over 30yrs old. HERE'S an interview with one of the authors, David Breeze, who take a fresh look at the emperor

An extremely impressive list, it's certainly a feather in UNRV's cap. Everybody involved give yourselves a great big pat on the back!!!

Have a great time Doc and have as much fun as humanly possible!!!

The pictures so far have been fantastic, they look even better on your blog page, nice work If you do find the time though, please do continue to post them in the UNRV gallery as well, your pics have been a great addition so far.

I'm not sure whether this was the case during the time of Vespasian but during the reign of Diocletian and his reforms it appears that since money had become almost worthless, the new system he had come up with was based on collecting taxes in the form of actual goods and services, but regularized into a budget so that the state knew exactly what it needed and taxpayers knew exactly how much they had to pay. It was a very clever and a very fair way of collecting the taxes that empire needed but without impoverishing the less wealthy along the way. So in theory instead of saying we want 'X' amount from every landholder regardless of the size of the property, they took a massive census of every landowner and then worked out the size of the payment accordingly. "Fields were measured out clod by clod, vines and trees were counted, every kind of animal was registered, and note taken of every member of the population." Lactantius.