Gaius Paulinus Maximus

Smyrna ?

God said unto Moses, All Jew's shall have round noses, All except for Hairon, He shall have a square un'

As there was no real kind of diagnosis for these kind of illnesses in ancient times apart from " She's mad! " or " He's been cursed by the gods! " I expect that the people with these kind of problems would have probably been cared for at home by members of their own family either that or locked away from the outside world so as not to embarrass or bring shame on the family name, or maybe in some cases they would prefer to put them out of their misery, let them die an honourable death instead of just withering and wasting away.????

Augusta, give your boy a big pat on the back from me, you must be really proud. I just wish I'd have followed my interests a bit more instead of just chasing the pound signs **sighs!!** but oh well if I had then maybe I'd never have met my lovely wife and never had my beautiful girls, every cloud etc........ I'll just have to make sure that that I don't let my girls give up so easily and that I give them a proper nudge in the right direction. Congratulations

Hope it all goes well , if the VTC in the book is as interesting as the VTC who's writing it then I'm sure it'll be a rip roaring success! GPM

True Habana is like lightening but what about the reigning champs?? The OAP's of English rugby must surely retain their title......

I take my hat off to you PP, it's an excellent and invaluable piece of work. Well done

Here's something I found on the Archaeology website, it was found on an archaeological dive in the Black Sea.. Our amphora's were sealed with pine bark stoppers and a coat of resin. After 1,100 years, the resin still remains around the mouth of this amphora. Take a look at the full article. http://www.archaeology.org/online/features.../dispatch3.html

Sorry Nephele it was a genuine mistake but it's now been rectified.

Happy birthday Pan! Have a good one mate

Taken from Johnstons Private Life of the Romans. The making of the wine took place usually in September; the season varied with the soil and the climate. It was anticipated by a festival, the vīnālia rūstica, celebrated on the nineteenth of August. Precisely what the festival meant the Romans themselves did not fully understand, perhaps, but it was probably intended to secure a favorable season for the gathering of the grapes. The general process of making the wine differed little from that familiar to us in Bible stories and still practiced in modern times. After the grapes were gathered, they were first trodden with the bare feet and then pressed in the prēlum or torcular. The juice as it came from the press was called mustum (vīnum), "new (wine)," and was often drunk unfermented, as sweet cider is now. It could be kept sweet from vintage to vintage by being sealed in a jar smeared within and without with pitch and immersed for several weeks in cold water or buried in moist sand. It was also preserved by evaporation over a fire; when it was reduced one-half in this way, it became a grape jelly (dēfrutum) and was used as a basis for various beverages and for other purposes. Fermented wine (vīnum) was made by collecting the mustum in huge vat-like jars. One of these was large enough to hide a man and held a hundred gallons or more. These were covered with pitch within and without and partially buried in the ground in cellars or vaults (vīnāriae cellae), in which they remained permanently. After they were nearly filled with the mustum, they were left uncovered during the process of fermentation, which lasted under ordinary circumstances about nine days. They were often tightly sealed, and opened only when the wine required attention or was to be removed. The cheaper wines were used directly from the dōlia; but the choicer kinds were drawn off after a year into smaller jars (amphorae), clarified and even "doctored" in various ways, and finally stored in depositories often entirely distinct from the cellars. A favorite place was a room in the upper story of the house, where the wine was aged by the heat rising from a furnace or even by the smoke from the hearth. The amphorae were often marked with the name of the wine, and the names of the consuls for the year in which they were filled.

Under the Empire the ordinary qualities of wine were cheap enough to be sold at three or four cents a quart ;according to Horace the choicer kinds were very costly indeed, entirely beyond the reach of a man in his circumstances.

I'm also on -1 New Messages ??? C'mon Moon work your magic!

Speaking of lazy days, well it'll be more like lazy weeks for me. At 6am tomorrow morning I leave this rubbish British summer for two weeks in the glorious mediterranean sunshine.... (all inclusive as well.....mmmmmmmm free beer!!) Ahhhh bliss! On second thoughts, I've got two small children who find it almost impossible to sit still for more than a minute, so I'll probably come back more knackered than when I went! See you in two weeks!

OK, picture the scene.... The evening before battle..... Centurion : Salve! Optio. Optio :Salve! Centurion. Centurion : Are you looking forward to tomorrows battle? Optio : Certainly am sir! Centurion : Are all your weapons sharpened and polished and ready to inflict the utmost damage to those six foot tall axe wielding barbarians? Optio : Nah didn't bother sir, no point. Centurion : Why's that then! Optio : I'm just going to hit them with my stick sir! Sorry VTC, couldn't resist!

Like somebody mentioned earlier, When the s*** hits the fan and the battles almost lost and it's a matter of life or death, I'm pretty sure that the legionary would use anything he can get his hands on if it will help to prolong his life just that little bit longer, whether it be a rock, a big stick or god forbid the legionary standard. Just a thought but maybe the butt of the standard was sharp in order to make it easier for the standard bearer to stab into the ground when stood sometimes for hours on end awaiting the battle to commence ?? Like I said just a thought.

Hi LW, What does a rune reading involve, and what does it tell you about the person who you're reading for?

Sometimes a Civil War is required in order for a nation to evolve.

Thought as much ! Cheers Flavia.

In that case VTC's middle name must be sarcastic!

What a wimp--try ripping out your own bowels sometime! Haha no thanks, I'm quite happy with my bowels the way they are thank you very much! Ripping out your own bowels? Now that's got to tickle a bit! Which poor soul has chosen this form of suicide before?

I've just watched the last episode of The Roman Mysteries and there's a scene where the Emperor Titus is going to a temple to sacrifice to the god's, and the young detectives (aka Flavia & co) are secretly following him, one of them notices that there are no citizens around at all and Flavia says " It must be because of the curfew" Did they really have curfews in Rome ? Did Titus insist on it through fear of assasination ? Or have the producers of the show used their artistic license in order to save money by have less people on set I wonder ? Anybody got any thoughts on this ?

And what a slow and painful suicide it turned out to be...... This is certainly not how a great man deserved to die.

I'm pretty sure there was some ancient ritual that was performed before the Romans went into battle, it was some long drawn out procedure performed by the Pontifex Maximus ?? (I think). It's been discussed here on UNRV before but I can't seem to find it, I think it was MPC who brought it to our attention and I think he even posted a link describing the event......I think???? I'll keep looking.

Here's an illustration of a "Marius Mule" from JP Vieira who regularly post his great artwork on this site.