Gaius Paulinus Maximus

How dare you accuse the Lord of the Herbs of lying about his origins, I'm a fellow Brigantian and will back him up all the way! Just a warning Cecil...... Don't mess with the tribes of the north we're the most fearsome on the island!

Excellent posts Asclepiades. I'm also in favor of the theory that the Carthaginians were guilty of child sacrifice, the evidence presented in the "for" case seem far more conclusive than the evidence in the "against" case. Maybe the whole process of the sacrifice was exaggerated by the Romans in order to vilify the Carthaginians, but that does'nt hide the fact that it did actually happen anyway.

Excellent review Doc! I also liked the Sarah Harmon phD thingy you sneaked in at the bottom....... You just couldn't resist could you! , then again if I was clever enough to letters after my name I'd be shouting it from the rooftops too!

My wife's aunt emigrated to Toronto, Canada nearly forty years ago and speaks like a true Canadian that is until she comes back to Leeds and gets together with her sister and the rest of the family, within hours her Yorkshire accent starts to slowly return and by the time she's ready to go back to Toronto it's as if she's never been away. It's so funny to hear, first it's the odd word that changes and then eventually she could walk onto the set of Emmerdale (a soap opera set in the Yorkshire Dales) and not even look or sound out of place!

If I'm not mistaken the cat was actually the pet of his Egyptian ex slave/wife Bethedsa (I think that's her name??) who brought Bast with her from Egypt?? And as we know cats in Egypt were worshipped like gods, anyone found to be hurting or treating a cat badly was in a whole lot of trouble. I think that in his books Saylor often remarks how strange his Roman visitors thought it to see a cat living the life of luxury in a Roman household. EDIT:- It seems that Flavia and I are on the same wave length Oh and good to have you back Flav.

An excellent thread Augusta, it's something I've often wondered about myself. In Yorkshire alone there's quite a few different accents, I'm from Leeeds and obviously we speak the best English , but I can spot a Sheffield or a Barnsley accent straight away even though they only 30 miles down the road. I'll look forward to hearing some interesting explanations......I hope!

Is it Hadrian's missus, Sabina?

I've just watched a documentary about Carthage on Discovery Civilizations, a part of the show focused on the Carthaginians apparent use of child sacrifice. Accounts of child sacrifice in Carthage report that beginning at the founding of Carthage, mothers and fathers buried their children who had been sacrificed. The practice was apparently distasteful even to Carthaginians, and they began to buy children for the purpose of sacrifice or even to raise servant children instead of offering up their own. However, in times of crisis or calamity, like war, drought, or famine, their priests demanded the sacrifice of the children. Special ceremonies during extreme crisis saw up to 200 children of the most affluent and powerful families slain and tossed into the burning pyre. During the political crisis of 310 B.C., some 500 were killed. On a moonlit night, after the child was mercifully killed, the body was placed on the arms of a god like statue, the arms where angled towards a fire pit, and the body of the sacrificed child would then roll into the flames. The sound of flutes, lyres, and tambourines helped to drown out the cries of the parents. Later, the remains were collected and placed in special small urns. The urns were then buried in the Tophet. The Tophet was a sacred precinct of Carthage and it's translated in to "place of burning" or "roaster". Archaeologists have found thousands of these urns containing the remains of the sacrificed children. Some people believe that the idea of the Carthaginians sacrificing their children is credited to the Romans who simply made it up in order to vilify and discredit the people of Carthage just that little bit more. The child mortality rate in Carthage was very high, apparently every 4 out of 10 children died before their second birthday, so some historians believe that this place called the Tophet was in actual fact just a children's cemetery and not a place of sacrifice. The argument for both sides of the story was very believable, What do you guys think??

You are correct! (only in that it looks like him ... but it ain't him) Ha bloody Ha! For a second there I got all excited

Looks like old little boots himself Caligula?

C'mon Cecil, the G-man gives you a massive clue and you still fluff it!!

WoooHooo!!! Right then, who's this?

Leaving aside the particular selection of Sulla, the assignment of many offices were by lot, including the assignment of praetors to their various jurisdictions. The rationale should be pretty obvious--once 11* praetors were chosen, deciding who does what would have consumed enormous and precious time in argument, with little gain for anyone. Thus, it was in everyone's individual interest to have the offices assigned by lot, and it would have also been in their individual self-interest to ensure that the lot was not fixed. If this principled argument isn't enough to convince you, there's also the historical observation that the lot as often fell to unpopular, incompetent magistrates as to popular, competent ones. Thus, given how some of the lots fell out (the Fates could be cruel to Rome too), it appears that the Romans really did take the lot seriously and avoided fixing it. *needs fact check The command of the Mithridatic War would have been the top prize so to speak in the lot for who got which assignment and the fact that Sulla actually got it goes a long way to backing up the reason he gave himself the extra cognomen "Felix" (latin for "lucky" or "successful".)

Matidia, the niece of Trajan.

There's something missing from that picture but I just can't put my finger on it?? I can see the veg but where's the meat??

I think you'll find that this is already included in Nephele's Guide. C'mon Asclepiades, open your eyes!!!

Haha great stuff Nephele. Now I'm certain which is my favorite God......Bacchus, n. A convenient deity invented by the ancients as an excuse for getting drunk. Well at least on week ends anyway!

Yes his appointment was legal via a plebiscite. I'm not so sure that it was truly legal, the law was passed after the legal justituim (cessation of business) of the senate, so by rights it should have been null and void, but it was later passed by use of force. The Leges Sulpiciae was the law that allowed Gaius Marius, a private citizen at the time, to take control of the Mithridatic War. This 'new' law was dreamed up by Publius Sulpicius Rufus who because of massive debts was in the very wealthy Marius' pocket, the majority of the senate were dead set against it but through intimidation and fear for their lives they passed the law enabling Marius to assume control. From Plutarch, Life of Sulla, 8 When Sulla regained control of Rome he wasted no time in annulling the recently passed laws of Sulpicius. See 98-80 Marius & The Order of Sulla http://www.unrv.com/government/legal-insti...-chronology.php

Glad the digs are OK Doc! I bet when you next come home from work you'll be met by a scene of feline carnage, your little cute, butter wouldn't melt pussycat will have invited all the other moggies in the neighborhood round for a house warming party, there'll be empty tins of tuna littering the apartment, open cartons of milk spilt all over the kitchen floor, cats sparked out all over the furniture and I bet there'll even be some big tom cat trying to impress the the new p**** in town by swinging round on the ceiling fan!!! And just when your about to lose it and start kicking the cats out she'll look at you with "those eyes" as if to say "don't you want me to make any new friends??" And there you are, now your screwed, before you know it your lovely new apartment is the new hang out for all local waifs and strays! So don't say I didn't warn you!

I read this book a while ago and it was a pretty entertaining read. It tells the story of the creation of the "Tenth" and follows them through their many battles under numerous commanders. The book contains some good maps at the front and like Skarr mentions some 30+ pages of Appendix and glossary at the back of the book which are quite informative on their own. I've just dug the book out from my bookcase, here's a piece from the book....... I believe Dando-Collins has also written a book about Nero's 14th legion as well but I haven't got round to reading that one yet.

I've just order the Augustus DVD thats been discussed in another thread, although it had pretty mixed......ok then poor reviews I thought I'd get it anyway and make up my own mind. Anyway as I was looking at the page I noticed another DVD for sale called Nero, I also noticed that it's from the from the same producers who did Augustus. Has anyone see it and is it worth wasting anymore of my hard earned cash on??

I'm pretty much like Ursus in the sense that I never had the opportunity to learn latin at school and that I just don't have enough time on my hands now to sit down and learn latin properly, I have tried but I think that to do it justice you need to dedicate a lot of time and effort to it. I've read the Cambridge Latin Course Book and Amo, Amas, Amat by Harry Mount, which I think was reviewed by Pertinax quite a while back, they both helped me to understand latin a lot more but if someone were to put a sheet of latin text in front of me and then ask me to translate it, I'd probably just stand there scratching my head like Stan Laurel!

Mmmmmmmm gee let me think??????

Haha nice one Nephele, you certainly deserve your new title of Nomina Domina. Frutex (blockhead) I've got a few friends who would suit that name perfectly! Also a very warm welcome to Crispina, what a strange but nice post to open your account with.

Congratulations Nephele! Don't let it go to your head now that your one of the big hitters around here! And don't forget your friends still scratching around at the bottom of the Cursus Honorum! You should definitely blanagram yourself a new name befitting your totally deserved position as the leading lady of UNRV. Well Done!