Gaius Paulinus Maximus

When Julius Caesar arrived off the coast of Britain with his hundred-ship force in August, 55 b.c., he was greeted by a host of defenders poised to hurl spears down on his invading army from the towering Dover cliffs. Seeking a better landing site, he sailed on a strong afternoon current and landed his troops at a beach seven miles away, according to his own account. Caesar neglected to mention, however, whether he sailed southwest or northeast.................... http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/200811...pcOrnpsCeqyvtEF

Take a look HERE for a compilation of the top ten capital cities of the ancient world. What do you think???

Not guilty this time!!!!!

All the nations of antiquity were impressed with the firm belief, that the will of the gods and future events were revealed to men by certain signs, which were sent by the gods as marks of their favour to their sincere worshippers. Hence, the arguments of the Stoics that if there are gods,they care for men, and that if they care for men they must send them signs of their will. A crow

It's a shame we don't know anything more about Marcus, he sounds like an interesting character, who led an eventful and successful life. It seems he was quite close to Marcus Aurelius, serving as his adviser. I wonder if he get's a mention in any of M. Aurelius' many writings?

Your reminiscence reminds me of a near death experience I had when I was a young foolish 18yr old on holiday in Kavos on the Greek island of Corfu. One day my friends and I decided to hire some scooters for the day and go and explore the island, none of us had motorcycle licenses or any real experience on two wheels before but instantly turned into Barry Sheen as soon as we got on our clapped out old scooters. Off we set on our adventure dressed in a pair of shorts and flip flops and nothing else, well maybe a bit of factor 15 on our backs, we didn't want to burn did we!!!!! We were racing along the road when I spotted my gap to take the lead so I went for it, after narrowly squeezing past my rival I gained the lead only to be slowed down by a bus full of tourists, so in a moment of pure idiocy I decided to extend my lead by over-taking the bus just as it happened to be going round a fairly sharp bend and to my horror just as I was half way past the bus I spotted another bus coming in the opposite direction!!!!!! Aaargggggghh!!!!! I absolutely shit myself!! But I managed to keep the bike quite close to the first bus and squeeze through the gap and come out the other side in one piece......Just. Once clear of the bus I pulled over to the side of the road, got of the bike and gave myself a good few slaps about the face. After a few minutes my mates caught up and said that they couldn't believe how I managed to get out of that encounter with the buses un -scathed, obviously I played it cool, told them it was a piece of piss and that I had it under control, well I didn't want them to know that I was shaking like a shitting dog did I!!! Safe to say that I rode the bike very conservatively for the rest of the day, and I've never hired a bike while on holiday again. When I look back on it now though it makes me chuckle, I can still see the horrified faces of the bus drivers and passengers as a skinny young lad in a pair of shorts on a clap out old scooter (with his eye's closed most of the time) attempts to squeeze between their buses, I think it was something similar to this

I'm already planning on reviewing that one. But I've got my review copy coming from the publisher (hopefully, as they did promise). If not, I'm using you, Viggen, as back-up! -- Nephele For anyone else interested in this book, I have new information that the book's publication date has been pushed back, and now it's not due to be out before October of next year. -- Nephele BOOOOOOO, I had my eye on this one!!

Better late than never!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOON!!!! Hope you had a good one

Thanks for the heads up Maty, just ordered it on Amazon but it says it's temporarily out of stock........Whats going on!!!!!

What a great birthday present, Chelsea 5 Middlesborough 0. What more could a lady ask for!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUGUSTA!!! Have a great day with plenty of

Don't you dare diss our hedgehogs Neph!!!! I've got a pet hedgehog called Spike, I take him for walks everyday, throw sticks for him and everything. A man's best friend is not a dog.....It's an hedgehog!!!!!

A toy hedgehog, found in a child's grave at Stonehenge, is proof of what we have always known - children have always loved to play. The chalk figurine was probably a favourite possession of the three year old, and placed next to the child when they died in the late Bronze Age or early Iron Age, around 3,000 years ago. Archaeologists who discovered the grave, where the child was laying on his or her side, believe the toy - perhaps placed there by a doting father - is the earliest known depiction of a hedgehog in British history. http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article...Stonehenge.html

One of the earliest villas in Budapest is being excavated at B

There are some really realy sad people around, thats for sure! How could we possibly hav a good cartoon without these Dastardly Villains

Haha Augusta, I remember Tenko when I was young, my mum never used to shut up about it! I watched the first two series when they were on TV and immediately bought the Box sets when they came out, but have yet to watch them!!! It's a time thing!! I'll get round to it eventually.

To say I was gutted would be an understatement, I'd been trying to contact him recently but to no avail, now I know why. REST IN PEACE CECIL!

Was it??? Although the tribes were moderately stable political entities, Gaul as a whole tended to be politically-divided, there being virtually no unity among the various tribes. Only during particularly trying times, such as the invasion of Caesar, could the Gauls unite under a single leader like Vercingetorix. Even then, however, the faction lines were clear. (wiki) Caesar didn't just build the bridge to cross the river he built it to show and to warn the Germans just what they were up against, to show the professionalism, speed and superior technical ability that the Romans possessed. It was not about crossing the River it was about impressing and frightening the Germans. OK, in theory the Germans were at peace with Rome, but they were make bigger and more daring raids into Gaul and onto the tribes that Caesar had promised to protect. OK, avenging ?? maybe not entirely. He went to Alexandria in pursuit of Pompey, to end the Civil War once and for all. But I don't doubt for a second that when he was presented with the head of Pompey he was not sickened by the sight, after all Pompey was a great Roman and ex son in law, and to be murdered in this way by "barbarians" was totally disrespectful and would surely of made any Roman swear revenge. What happened after was not entirely related to what happened to Pompey but it DID happen and Caesar DID come away with another victory. not for just him but for Rome as well. Caesar was a master of propaganda and used it to further his career and reputation, there weren't many Romans who didn't use these "standards"

Romania's got a couple of teams in the UEFA Champions League this year like Steaua Bucherest and CFR Cluj who beat the mighty Roma 2-1 last night so Romanian football can't be all that bad......... can it???? BTW Kosmo, which team do you support?

Pompey was in his own right an excellent general, the way he destroyed the pirate threat was a master class in organization and in my opinion was one of the greatest military/ naval victories of the late republic. But that I think was the highlight of his career, He was taught a severe lesson on numerous occasions by Sertorius and if it wouldn't have been for the help of Mettellus Pius then he would have been totally defeated and embarrassed. And again in the Mithridatic Wars somebody else did all the hard work i.e. Lucullus, and then Pompey came in and claimed all the glory for himself. Again IMO Pompey lived off a reputation that preceeded him and when he came up against Caesar he got seriously found out! Yes I do think Caesar did everything he claimed he did, OK, maybe he exaggerated with his numbers but you can't deny his achievements, Was he captured by pirates, ransomed and then did he return and hunt them down and crucify them?.......Yes. Did he pacify Gaul?......Yes. Did he build a bridge across the Rhine force the Germans into a peace treaty?.......Yes. Did he defeat Pompey in the Civil War?........Yes. Did he go to Alexandria, avenge Pompey's death and defeat the Alexandrians?...........yes. etc etc etc. Whatever anyone's opinions of Gaius Julius Caesar wether good or bad, you can not possibly argue against his achievements and with his Generalship.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEPH!!!!!!! It's been a pleasure to know you these past couple of years.

Here's a few sites that might interest you. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roma..._Militaria.html http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/romanarmy.html http://www.fectio.org.uk/articles/draco.htm http://www.roman-empire.net/army/leg-standards.html

Good to hear from you mate. Nuclear engineer eh? You're not aiming for much are you! Good luck with your studies A of S and try to pop in when ever you can.

yeah, nice job from England, unlike the stupid austrians who did the same then the Romanians, loosing against Lithuania lol... Yeah what went on there Vig???? I can't believe after the performance against France you go and get beat by bloody Lithuania!!! But as for England....WOW!!! What a performance. Croatia haven't lost a competative match at home in 14 years! and then we go and do that to them. As Jimmy Greaves once said "Football, it's a funny old game" But it's the same old story here in England now as far as the press go, we've gone from no hopers to odds on favorites to win the world cup now, it's really annoying, one minute they slagging them off saying they're over paid pre madonna's and the next minute they calling for them all to be knighted!!! Anyway! Great result and maybe Capello does know what he's doing after all????