Gaius Paulinus Maximus

Welcome to UNRV mikeal1917, Glad your enjoying the site but be warned it does become pretty addictive!!! and good luck with your schooling, hope it all works out.

If you take a look at the link I supplied in an earlier post(3) you'll find an answer to most of your questions. Not so sure about the pouring of wine into the ground though?

Here's an excellent example of dirty humour and innuendo from The Golden Ass by Apuleius....... ....The wine went to my head; but it also went to my thighs. I grew restive and like a fallen warrior displaying a wound, pulled off my nightshirt and gave Fotis visible proof of my impatience. 'Have pity on me,' I said, 'and come quickly to my rescue. As you see I'm well armed and ready for the merciless battle to which you challenged me, the sort of battle in which no herald can intervene to part the combatants. Since the first of Cupids sharp arrows lodged in my heart this morning, I have been standing to arms all day, and now my bow is strung so tight I'm afraid something will snap if the advance isn't sounded pretty soon........" Great stuff !!

I've just finished reading this book which I bought mainly due to the quality of this review. It's a very old copy, first published in 1951 with translation by Robert Graves. I just thought you'd be interested in the description Graves gives in his introduction about the changing title of the book....... ......"The original title of this book, The Transformations of Lucius Apuleius of Madaura, was early shortened to The Golden Ass because Apuleius had written it in the style of the professional story tellers who, as Pliny mentions in one of his letters, used to preface their street corner entertainments with : 'Give me a copper and I'll tell you a golden story.' So 'golden' conveys an indulgent smile rather than genuine appreciation.

The Golden Ass by Apuleius. After reading Ursus' excellent review a while back and other positive comments about this book I decided to buy it but never got round to reading it. It had been sat on my bookshelf for a good few months until a few days ago when although I really didn't think it would be my cup of tea I thought I'd give it a go and I'm glad I did, once I started I couldn't put it down. It's a great book, some of the scrapes that poor Lucius gets into are really funny, I found myself laughing out load on many occasions, I liked all the different short stories told in the book and the vulgarity at times is cringe worthy. A thoroughly enjoyable book.

I can see both sides to the argument but on the positive side I personally quite enjoyed the Emperor series because from the start I took it for what it was - a book of fiction and not a study on the life of Caesar. Being the dedicated romanophile that I am I already knew all about Caesar's life having read the many scholarly books dedicated to him and his achievements. I didn't read the 'Emperor' series to learn anything new about Caesar I read them to get lost in a Roman world of fast paced, exhilarating action and drama that was loosely based on one of my hero's. If you can bring yourself to see past the exaggerations and the slight twisting of the truth then it's a great read, if you can't then leave it alone. On the negative side I can see that it is giving a false impression and basically lying to people who are new comers to the Roman world, people could come away from these books thinking that's how it really happened when we know that it's clearly not. But reading these books could also inspire them to delve a little bit further into Roman history and find out for themselves just how exciting and fast paced the real thing was too.

This is an passage from Adrian Goldsworthy's Caesar....... "The colour of her hair and complexion are unknown. There is a tradition in some circles that she was black, but there is not a shred of evidence to support this. The Ptolemies were Macedonians, although there was some Greek and, through marriages to Seleucids, also a little Persian blood in their recorded family line. We do not know the identity of Cleopatra's grandmother. There is also a little doubt over her mother, although most accept that it was Auletes full sister, which would then increase the significance of the grandmother even further. The accepted conjecture is that the later was a concubine, which makes it possible that she was not of Macedonian stock, but perhaps an Egyptian or from even further afield. Therefore it is not absolutely impossible that there was some more specifically African blood in Cleopatra, but there is no actual evidence to support this. Equally, it is not absolutely impossible that she was a blonde, since some Macedonians had fair hair (which is again rather a subjective term), but equally none of our sources claim this. This uncertainty will continue to allow different people to imagine very different Cleopatra's."

Here's a pretty good map of Gaul. Click HERE for a comprehensive list of the Gallic tribes.

An interesting thought Caldrail, It's true that Vercingetorix doesn't appear on many Gaulish coins but I'd be interested to know if there were any other coins around with any other famous Gauls depicted on them, from what I've gathered the majority of Gaulish coins had pictures of the gods (mostly Greek) depicted on them such as Artemis, Apollo etc. So this could lead us to believe that for Vecingetorix to have the honour of his head put on a coin must mean that he was at least powerful enough and highly thought of by the people of Gaul to be bestowed with this honour which is usually reserved for the gods.

The tablinum was the large reception room of the house. It was situated between the atrium and the peristylium. The tablinum generally had no wall separating it from the atrium at all and little if any walls dividing it from the peristylium. It was only separated from the atrium by a curtain which could easily be drawn back and toward the peristylium it was separated by a wooden screen or wide doors. Hence if the doors/screens and curtains of the tablinum were all opened to increase ventilation during a hot day, one could see from the atrium through the tablinum into the peristylium. In the early days, the tablinum would have acted as the study of the head of the family, the paterfamilias. The corridor that you mention was known as the andron this was a passageway from the atrium through to the peristylium. http://www.roman-empire.net/society/soc-house.html

While we're on the subject of strategies why don't you try this Roman military strategy quiz How did you get on??

Thanks for the list MPC. I've read quite a few of the books on the list but I've never had the chance to read anything on Gaius Marius before so when I saw the link I instantly clicked on it with every intention of purchasing the book..........That is until I saw the price!!!

Ok ok then Mr Picky I stand corrected! I'll change the 'all of Gaul' to 'some' of Gaul, and I should have mentioned the tribes that were allied to Rome like the Aedui, Bituriges and the Remi. But I did say Vercingetorix 'eventually' managed to unite Gaul which could mean that it happened towards the 'end' of the campaign. In the beginning Vercingetorix was expelled from his own tribe the Averni when he began raising an army to oppose Caesar but undeterred he continued to recruite more men until he had a force big enough to go back to his own tribe and take command and be proclaimed king by his warriors. He then proceeded to persuade the majority of the tribes in Gaul to join him and declare him their war leader.

To be fair to Caesar though, Augustus and Constantine had much a longer time at the top to be able to shape the republic/empire into how they thought it should have been. Caesar had his own idea's and ambitions for the future of Rome but unfortunately he was unable to fulfill them. As for the greatest Roman figure?? That's debatable, we will always argue the for's and against's of that question, but he is most certainly the greatest known Roman figure. I think that's something that we can all certainly agree on.

You've been a bit premature there PC, I hope that's not a regular occurrence in your life!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MPC. It's got to be one of the most appropriate birthdays ever, I don't think your parents could have picked a better date for you to be born on! ( that's if it's true!! ) Hope you enjoy your day.

Toronto and Montreal were two of the original six founding members of the NHL along with Boston, Detroit, Chicago and New york.

There's also a book by Robert Silverberg called Roma Eterna which is similar to the one's mentioned above.

Not much is really known about his early life, the Gauls didn't record their histories like the Romans did so we only have reports about Vercingetorix from the time he began to make himself known to the Romans. He was a young Avernian aristocrat, his father had been a big player throughout Gaul but was eventually killed by his own tribe when he tried to make himself their king. Vercingetorix eventually managed to do what his father couldn't and unite all of Gaul against Rome and the rest as they say is history!

Sundin is a damn good player but his team has been so bad the last few seasons, it's difficult to judge his current skill level fairly. In any case Nick Lidstrom, in my opinion, is not only the best Swede, but the best defenseman and among the best players in the league overall, but I am biased I suppose. I understand that he's not all that popular back in Sweden... something to do with a lack of international tournament success I guess. Peter Forsberg was probably the best player in the league overall a few years back, but injuries and age caught up with him. Zetterberg is rising fast. I suppose I'm a bit biased too, I've got family in Toronto so I've always been a big Leafs fan but your right they have been terrible for the past couple of seasons, Mats Sundin has been one of the few shining lights for us this season, it's looking like he's going to get his best points tally for nearly 10 years, so I think that goes a long way to showing how well he's been playing this season considering how crap the Leafs have been. We've got a couple of good young players coming through like Matt Stajan and Kyle Wellwood how will hopefully be able to fill the big swede's skates when he retires. Also Nik Antropov finally seems to be showing the kind of form that everyone 's been predicting of him since he first broke into the leafs team. I agree, Zetterberg been quality this year.

I've been playing football (soccer) from the moment I took my first steps and will continue to try and play until I take my final steps, it's by far the greatest game on earth! I play regularly at least twice a week and I also try to play tennis as much as possible. I'm also pretty damn good at the sport of drinking and falling over, in fact I could probably represent my country!! PP, Klingan, Surely Mats Sundin is the greatest Swedish player in the NHL at the moment?

Now this is fascinating and echoes something I brought up on another forum regarding modern funerals in England. The deceased is ALWAYS carried feet first into the church, feet first out of it... and laid feet first in the hearse. I have never received a satisfactory answer as to why this is - so I wonder if it is a tradition from our pagan/Roman past? The tradition is even present in the old saying (at least here in the North of England) of 'They'll have to carry me out feet first' - meaning that he would need to be dead before he would allow whatever... Can anyone come up with the reason for this? A reason I've come up with is that a coffin is always carried feet first, as a man always walks feet first. It is also a superstitious belief that the soul might be tempted to look back. Not sure how much truth is in this but I suppose it can be a pretty believe reason

Thanks Neph. From reading Smith's Dictionary it appears that Lustrations were performed as a way of receiving blessings from the god's for the crimes and wrong doings that the army had been guilty of during battles fought throughout that year. I suppose they just wanted to know that although it was a bad thing they'd been doing, they were still in the favour of the gods. From Smith's......... Lustrations were made in ancient Greece and at Rome also, by private individuals who had polluted themselves with any criminal action. Whole cities and states sometimes underwent purification to expiate the crime or crimes committed by a member of the community. The Romans performed lustrations on many occasions; that the Greeks did not think of them, and the object of most Roman lustrations was not to atone for the commission of the crime but to obtain the blessing of the gods upon the persons or things which were lustrated.

An example of a witty play on words.... When Caesar became Dictator many of his associates expected to pick up the properties of of the now defeated Pompeians for a snip of the true price but to their disapointment Caesar insisted that the pay the full price although where Servillia was concerned it was a different matter. Caesar clearly still had a strong affection for Servillia but around this time he was also rumoured to have had an affair with one of her daughter's, Tertia (Third) without this seeming to weaken their bond, some even say she arranged the liaison, and when Servillia went on to purchase some valuble estates at a fraction of their true price Cicero joked that "People did not realise how much of a bargain this really was, for there was a 'Third' taken off the price"