spittle

Would the way from Jerusalem to Rome have taken Pilate to '...the alps between Austria and Switzerland'? It seems to me that ships and short marches across Southern Europe would have been more probable than heading north to where the mountains make transport extremely difficult and dangerous. This opinion is based on maps and assuptions, maybe someone can correct me with evidence of the route and reasons for the detour?

In the 13th century the Venetians managed to manipulate an anti-Islamic Crusade against Constantinople, its main rival. lets forget that they were fellow Christians! To me this speaks volumes about the time and area. I know at least one Byzantine Bishop that converted to Rome after the fall and I assume this must have been part of a bigger 'brain drain' as the West cannibalised the talents of its fellow Christians and fallen rival. As Divi Filius states this process was well advanced already. The four horses of the Hippodrome had been in Venice since the above mentioned 'fourth crusade'.

In the documentary 'The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire', (The Julius Caesar episode) G J C said that Cato "Brushed his teeth with urine..." I hope this helps.

Well, let's just remember that prisoners are not typical of the general citizenry. Granted. Especially the convicts in a hellhole pen like Indiana's Terre haute! But the extreme sensitivity to all things racial, in America, is quite puzzling to me. Asking someone their racial make-up can be taken as a real insult over there. "I'm BLACK, you cracker, mother-f****r. Not mixed race" seems to be the attitude. Public Enemy said "Black Father, White Mother, Black Baby Black Mother, White Father, Black baby" and it seems to be true of America. No such thing as mixed race. Either white or black, no in-between. No acceptance of 'impurity'. Ijn the words of Halle Berry "You can kiss my black ass" She was raised by her mother, a white woman from Liverpool, England. Her absentee Father left nothing but his DNA but she classses herself as black. My ex-girlfriend had a very similar parentage and described herself as 'a coconut' Brown on the outside....

In the book Mr Nice by Howard Marx he describes the years he spent in Terre Haute penitentiary. he says that the hostility from the non whites dissippated the moment they realised he was foreign and not a white American. Is that relevant to this or have I got the wrong end of the stick? As for Britains position in the world... Geographically we are off the coast of mainland Europe but politically we would be mid Atlantic. We don't know whether we'are European or American in our world outlook.

The percentage of intolerant Muslims does seem high...but is this fact or media representation? I live in an area with a huge community of Muslims and have never heard anyone advocate jihad, beheadings or anything fanatical (but, in fairness, I must add that 3,of the 4, 7/7 bombers were from my area, so maybe I just don't know what would be said if I wasn't there, but I doubt it). But many other Religions have a percentage of followers that cross the line. The Westboro Baptist Church (picketing dead soldiers funerals with 'FAGGOT DIE' placards) springs to mind. To me its more scary that a huge swathe of the worlds only superpower believe the literal explanation of Genesis over Darwin. Ifeel lucky to live in a post-Christian country. Nice and secular.

In Moishe Dayan's autobiography is a chapter titled 'My Friend, The Enemy'. Its about the secret talks with moderate Arabs. Excellent book.

Many palestianians have to spend half their live's waiting at Isreali checkpoints to crossover to their jobs, their schools, even hospitals. One seriously ill man actually died waiting for the Isreali guards to allow him to pass through and get to the E.R! If you cannot see a mirror of German trreatment of Jews to this totally unbending treatment of Arabs.....THEY ARE REGARDED AS LESS THAN HUMAN. This type of repression has created more potential enemies of the state of isreal than any religious ideology. And since when was punishing the innocent with the guilty acceptable? I agree with the Isreali tactic of targeted assassination. I believe a 'big brother' style monitoring of their territory and borders is necessary to stop the fanatics BUT treating all palestinians as criminals is just plain wrong.

Does anyone think there is an actual solution to the problems of the region? A decade ago there seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel for Ireland but look now! I know Northern Ireland was a picnic compared to the middle east but still..... Suggestions of genocide/nuclear annihilation really aren't helpful.

A few months ago, on this site, someone posted a link to a 'youtube' article. It was an ex-congressman talking about the Pro-Isreali Lobby and the underhand methods and financial backing they had used to replace him when he refused to go along with certain foreign policy's. I'm sorry I can't be more specific. As for absentee ballots I must admit thats an assumption of mine BUT after seeing a host of WASP democrats and republicans, wearing skullcaps whilst addressing Floridian Jewish seniors about how "There is no greater friend to the US than the state if Israel...." It seems obvious to me that basic fairness from American politicians concerning Israel's warcrimes against palestinian civilians is along way off. On a more disturbing note I am noticing similarities between the Israeli's treatment of Arabs (walling them into ghetto's) to the Nazi's threatment of Polish Jews in the early occupation of Poland.

"The US is overwhelmingly on the side of Israel..." The Israeli lobby is the strongest lobby in American politics. Any American politician who criticises Israel finds a sudden rival with inexhaustable funds canpaigning against them. The last time the US seriously deviated from Israel was during the Suez crisis of the 50s. A large number of Israeli inhabitants have absentee ballot voting rights in US elections. Another strong reason for US politicians to keep Israel happy. I wonder how many Palestinians have the right to absentee voting in American elections?

Rape my wife and steel my hubcaps!!!! Thats a perfect way of describing the paranoia of being a white minority. Which is an unusual situation for, I'm sure, most of us white guys/gals.

Is it true that TITUS means big... and PULLO means small?

I have also experienced the 'outsider' feeling whilst among Muslims BUT I found that Pakistani's are really bad for this whilst Bangladeshi's and Indian Muslims are as welcoming as can be....And with the Pakistani's it is only the younger, (ironically) more westernised one's that seem so close knit and clique like. At one point I attempted to learn Urdu (the second language in Yorkshire, Northern England) but I was met with resistance, at best, and pure rudeness by many. Fortunateley HINDI is virtually the same spoken language (different written script) and a few Indian guys were a great help. Indians and Bangladeshi Muslims I know also report that Pakistani youths are very unfriendly and even violent towards them. I have heard them described as 'racist', which I found confusing at first (one Asian Muslim calling another Asian Muslim a racist!) but I now understand and agree. Pakistani's have failed to integrate into British society anywhere near as well as other Muslims (Indian, Ugandan Asians expelled by Idi Amin - one of Britains most prosperous minorities or, to a lesser extent, Bangladeshi's. Pakistani's also have one of the lowest earnings, academic qualifications or life expectancies of British migrant groups. And crime is endemic in the area's they congregate in. So I believe its a National rather than Religious set of factors that cause this.

I recently searched for a book that simply told the story of the beginnings of the Islamic faith and detailed the larger events, such as the events leading to the Sunny/Shi'ia schism. I'm not religious, or even spiritual, I just wanted to read about the factors, events and characters that helped make one of the worlds major faths. So I go to Amazon, click on books and type 'Islam' into the search panel, then 'go'. Every single book that I was shown was either an 'expose of ' or 'myth of Islamic tolerance' etc, etc. EVERY TITLE ADVERTISED WAS NEGATIVE! To me this speaks volumes. I welcome comments and suggestions. I'm not looking for attempts to convert me I simply hope to learn how this major religion progressed from a select few in Arabia to a huge geogrphical block.

I'll try listening to the pronounciation on the film. Abanader (Pilate's 2nd in command, I believe) and Caesar have both surprized me with their pronounciation. It seems the German 'Kaiser' is phonetically spot on.

I would imagine that the death of Tiberius and his replacement by Gaius was a plus for Pilate. Wasn't Gaius easy going for the first months of his imperium? Or is there more to this? Such as the Syrian governor (and Pilate's rival) being close to the new Emperor? Or something like that?

That answers everything. The language expert wanted Greek and Hebrew included (as well as Good Latin, bad Latin and Aramaic) but director Gibson thought his objectives were achieved without them. Personally I would have liked the film to be as close to the actual reality as possible. They had to reconstruct the Aramaic because they knew far more about earlier and later use of this particular language than at that specific time (due to little surviving evidence). It seems to me that if that degree of accuracy was attempted then including the other locally used tongues would have been appropriate. Like I always say "If I can enjoy a film that used three languages I do not understand I'd probably enjoy it if it used five".

I am about to pour holy water into my monitor to save all your blaspheming souls. If it ruins my computer then you'll all burn in hell!!!!!

Pontius Pilate was summoned back to Rome to explain the chaos of his province to his Emperor ...but he never arrived. Does anyone know any theories on what actually happened to him?

I have just bought 'The Passion of the Christ' special edition. In one of the doc's they tell us that they used Aramaic for the Jews, Correct Latin for Pilate (and the governing class of Roman) and Vulgar Latin for the common soldier because '....the average soldier would have come from the provinces and probably never seen Rome or even Italy...' So where would these guys have come from?

Were there similar 'for the sins of their Fathers' punishments during the Republic or did the fate of these innocent children belong purely to Principate era type thinking?

Can we return to this part of the thread? In I, Claudius and The Caesars the children of Sejanus were strangled and, as it was illegal to execute a virgin, the young daughter was 'violated' first. What do the primary sources have to comment about this?

There is also a a lot of COMPLETE HBO series boxsets coming out including: Rome. Series 1 & 2 (Complete) Deadwood. Series 1, 2 & 3 (Complete) Soprano's. Series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 6 part 2 (AKA Series 7!) (Complete0 I have bought these individually but I am still tempted to buy the complete, entire boxsets. Capitalism! Frank Zappa was spot on when he said "Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff". It really is that simple! On a more important note HBO has been supplying virtually all my 'class A' viewing for the last decade. Now all my favourites are at an end!!!!! Please GOD I hope they have works in progress to replace them. I already feel a detox starting.... THE WIRE, Season 4 comes out in March 08. So there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

On this note, Spittle - I don't know if you have seen the suit of armour in the Tower of London that belonged to Henry? Although it is undoubtedly wide, it is not that long! Perhaps he wasn't so tall after all I remember being quite taken aback by it. They have it placed astride a horse and I was struck by how 'squat' it looks. OK. I must find out just how tall Henry VIII was. I was under the impression he was well over 6ft BUT I cannot remember why I think this so it could be wrong. Nice washing instructions, G-Man!