Gaius Paulinus Maximus

True, when you look back over the writings of Tacitus and Suetonius, the one that stands out as portraying Livia as " the wicked stepmother" is probably Tacitus with comments like "But Livia was a real catastrophe, to the nation, as a mother and to the house of the Caesars as a stepmother." Tac ann 1.10. But he also left a poignant and concise comment in her obituary, he says "In the purity of her home life she was of the ancient type, http://' target="_blank">but was more gracious than was thought fitting in ladies of former days. An imperious mother and an amiable wife, she was a match for the diplomacy of her husband and the dissimulation of her son" Tac ann 5.1 Although Tacitus must have had a disgust for her power and influence as a woman and shows this in his writings, he must also have had a grudging respect for her as well to leave such a fitting obituary.

That's good to know Augusta, because one of my favorite pass times is grabbing hold of flapping bits of bandage on mummies then giving it a good yank so that the mummy spins round and round until all your left with is a pile of bandages and bones!

GPM quickly makes his way over to Pertinax who is hiding behind a curtain in fear of loosing his bowl of wolf's nipple chips to the rabid dogs, he whispers into Pertinax's ear who then produces a bag of mysterious looking herbs from beneath his toga, GPM takes the herbs and rushes off to sprinkle the herbs over the remaining food, in a matter of seconds the hound's of Actaeon begin sway, stagger and fall to the ground and in to a deep slumber. "Right!" says GPM as he grabs a hound by the tail and drags it towards the door, "let's clear this room and get back to the partying, Oh and Doc, take that ridiculous out fit off it does nothing for your figure! I much preferred the see through stola you had on before!"

I'm glad that this race of skeleton's has long since disappeared, I don't think I could have coped with that kind of fear!

Good point Caldrail. Ok then maybe not mindless idiots then just greedy get rich quick idiots!

Now that is SAD SAD SAD

Think I'd be something along the lines of a virs militaris or in other words a "career soldier", someone who'd spent his whole life in the army and worked his way to a respectable rank because of his time served and not because of a wealthy upbringing. Who knows? I might even enter the political arena when all this fighting is over and done with!!

Great find, but the Russel Crowe comparison is hype surely? Was Montanus legate of the Felix legion? No, just a retiarius favoured from the reign of Commodus, and there's no guarantee they had any dealings. Commodus seized the property which depicted this Montanus, who may have belonged to the original owner? Or was a favourite gladiator? Yeah I agree, the Russel Crowe comparison must surely have been used to get a bit more press coverage, but still an interesting find none the less,and thanks to Ludovicus for the link, It must have been pretty cool to have your very own Amphitheater in the grounds of your own Villa. You would have thought that after this find they would have put on at least a little bit more security to stop mindless idiots just strolling up and damaging over a thousand years worth of history wouldn't you?

Yet again an excellent article on the Principate Caldrail. Agrippina the younger must have been some woman, not only did she avoid being poisoned not once but three times by taking antidotes which she must surely have had on hand knowing of the threat to her life, or the other story of her taking small doses of poison in order to build a Resistance against it again is pretty impressive, but she also avoided being clubbed to death on a boat that had been purposely rigged to sink and then escaped by slipping over the side and I'm guessing swimming to safety in total darkness.......Wow what a woman. How old was Agrippina when she was performing these super human feats and can we truly believe that these events happened in the way that they've come down to us, I believe that the historian A Dawson in his book "whatever Happened To Lady Agrippina" has exposed the impossibilities in Tacitus' narrative on these particular events. What do you think?

Gaius, I know I'll hate myself within five minutes after posting this question but: does the novel have a happy ending? I ask because part of the subtitle is "...Rome's Last Stand." There are only about a dozen things in life that depress me and the fall of the Western Roman Empire is one of them. It's set in the final stages of the Empire so I guess you could say that it's heading towards a pretty miserable time but the book is mainly about the General and his personal battle to uphold everything he believes in at whatever the cost and not so much about the fall of the Empire as such. Maybe not a happy ending as in Maximus defeats the barbarians and they all run off with their tales between their legs because we know that never happened but in my opinion a good ending non the less....... better still read it and find out for yourself I don't think you'll be disappointed. The majority of his novels are all Greco/Roman based http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/m/valeri...ssimo-manfredi/

I think you and I will get on, Metro99! I have read the Scott series and couldn't wait to get to the parts that deal with her half-brother who goes off to join the auxiliary cavalry. Hehe - and in the final novel - the history is well-known, so there's no spoiiler alert here - the final battle had me shouting for joy 'The Romans are winning! The Romans are winning!' And I'm English... I should be ashamed of myself - but I'm not! Haha Augusta you're not on your own there The half brother Ban/Valerius I think?? Quickly became my favorite character too and there was no point cheering the Britons on anyway because like you say we all know the outcome anyway! Still an entertaining book though.

Also..... How could I forget! "The Eagle In The Snow" by Wallace Breem, It's the best book that I've read on Roman fiction and it's also the book I stole my name from http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eagle-Snow-Wallace...1319&sr=8-1

Now your talking!!!!

The reason why Germanus was not chosen was probably down to the influence of Theodora, Justinian's wife, Germanus had the military ability that should have guaranteed him a great career under Justinian but because of Theodora's prejudice against him he never really reached the military heights he should have. In my opinion Theodora was the driving force behind Justinian. I agree. Belisarius was also fortunate in that his wife was a great friend of Theodora. I wonder if he married her on purpose..... Quite possibly, Belisarius was a very intelligent man, he obviously new which side his bread was buttered on , I find it quite interesting that two of the greatest men of their time, Belisarius and Justinian had strong willed, intelligent, calculating and often manipulating women in Antonina and Theodora behind them helping and influencing their every decision, sometimes for the good of their husbands and sometimes for the good of themselves. Maybe that's the secret to a long and successful life!!

Hi Metro, welcome to UNRV Have you read any of Conn Igulden's work? His work is far from historically accurate as I'm sure many of the other forum members will waste no time in pointing out but as far as story telling goes I thought the 'Emperor' series was a pretty enjoyable read (as long as you realize that it is fiction and was wrote to entertain not to educate). what about Manda Scott's 'Boudica' series? or Valerio Massimo Manfredi's work? Both write good historical fiction loosely based on Fact.

A very warm welcome Sonic, (after the hedgehog??) Like I said in the Belisarius thread I'm looking forward to reading your book, but I fear it will be a long time coming now that you've discovered our little forum..... It can become quite addictive! Good luck with the book. GPM

The reason why Germanus was not chosen was probably down to the influence of Theodora, Justinian's wife, Germanus had the military ability that should have guaranteed him a great career under Justinian but because of Theodora's prejudice against him he never really reached the military heights he should have. In my opinion Theodora was the driving force behind Justinian.

Sorry you are right it is Arausio and I'm clearly an idiot Finally after weeks of trying to get a go on this thread I get my big moment and then proceed to balls it up Pantagathus your up next!

Raise your glasses to the Doc Well done!!!!!

Well done Doc, I've never actually met you but I can honestly say that I'm chuffed to bits for you and in a stange way...proud of you as well. Well done! You deserve a very very good drink!!!

I take my hat off to the guy's of yester year... Once a man always a man .........Grrrrrrrrrrrrr

Happy birthday Ursus Have a good one !!!!!!!!!!

Sorry to shock you all but you are wrong...... it isn't Arausio- France

It is very old fashioned and takes everything that Procopius writes in his 'Histories' as true, and makes no attempt at either analyzing or evaluating either Procopius as a historian or Belisarius as a general. In short, it's just hero worship. That said, it's one of the few books available and is fairly cheap. I own a second-hand copy. To anybody interested, I am currently writing a book on Belisarius and, hopefully, it should be out either later this year or sometime in the new year. I'm not claiming that it will be brilliant, I'm just saying it will be there!! Well since I posted that comment I've bought and read that book and thought it was a very good biography of Belisarius, I know that Procopius could exaggerate the truth a bit, but I would be very interested in seeing your different interpretation of Belisarius and particularly your sources, bearing in mind that in that era the only reputable source you have are Procopius and the Greek historian Agathias which are both pretty favorable to Belisarius on the whole. Please let me know about the release date of your new book, I'll be very interested in reading it.

How about this then.