spittle

Season 3 comes out in early May over here in the UK. I can't wait! Enjoy your day.

According to an announcer on radio 2 (0625, feb 14th) "St Valentine was a Roman martyr who was executed in around 270 AD, under the rule of Claudius (?....Claudius, in 270?). The actual saint was beaten with sticks and beheaded, an aspect of St Valentine that will be unlikely to appear on any cards....yabba yabba yabba" Can anyone shed some light on this subject. The radio said very little and much of it seemed incorrect.

I own Pompeii:The Last Day and Coloseum. They are only available on BBC America but very inexpensive. Both episodes are on the same disc but its much cheaper to buy the one titled POMPEII than the one titled Coluseum, despite both containing exactly the same material. I'll be recording the other progreammes onto disc so if any of you Americans can direct me how to download them to a place where you can recieve them I'll gladly oblige.

I, for one, cannot imagine anything more romantic than a full day of the relentless violence, foul language and human degredation that is Deadwood. Its good television!

Actually, Jordan, the opposite. Vorenus was saying that Marius, tjhe Gracchi and Cincinnatus were bad but Antony was worse. I wish I could find the original thread. I wondered if Cinna had been meant but had some convincing responses to eliminate the possibility.

My point is that Cincinnatus had nothing in common with perceptions of the Gracchi or Marius whereas Saturninus did.

On an episode of season 1 Vorenus says, of Mark Antony: "He negotiates with a whore and a dwarf at his side. The Gracchi, Marius or Cincinnatus would not disgrace themselves so..." (Words to that effect). We could never figure out why the script writers had included the use of Cincinnatus, as he was a heroic character. Could it be a mistake in that Saturninus would better fit the discription?

I am a huge fan of almost all HBO productions. I own all 6 series of The Soprano's, both series of Deadwood and The Wire (with Series 3 of both pre-ordered) and I have also pre-ordered series 1 of Oz (released today on region 2 -05/02/07). Band of Brothers was amazing and I watch my boxset many times, despite it belittleing the rest of the worlds participation in favour of giving sole credit to the US of A. Although I have not bought Curb Your Enthusiasm I enjoyed watching it on TV very much and, as you probably have guessed, I thought Rome was fantastic. It was the thing that interested me in the subject and I have bought The Caesars, I,Claudius and a boatload of other DVDs and books as a result. But Six Feet Under is everything bad in modern comedy. Are we supposed to pretend that we are so knowledgable as a culture that we can see the funny side of bereavement as shown in the most disrespectful way possible? I hate it!

I hope this is not turning into yet another Islamaphobic rant from the usual suspects. Can't we all agree that Christans AND Muslims committed atrocities against each other and neither group deserves total blame or blamelessness?

Isn't that a contradiction in terms, MPC ? I thought there were no political parties in Rome and temporary alliances were made on the basis of individual ambitions and issues.

When in the name of Dis is it coming to British TV????

No. The Jains swept before them with brooms to avoid stepping on insects. Thats how devoted they are to a live and let live lifestyle. fascinating people. The farsi's 'worship' fires burning atop columns. that was the only evidence I saw of their existence there but I was reliably informed of their habitation in the area.

There is a colony of farsi's (or Zoroastrians) in Bombay. Freddy Mercury was born one in Zanzibar off East Africa. Before Xmas someone wrote a post that chronicled the similarities between the birth/life/last supper of Christ and the story of Ahura Mazda. Unbelievable! Three wise men. 12 Disciples. Resurrection..... If someone knows how to find old threads it could help???

I have just recieved the prize I won on this forum, Pompey the Great by Robin Seager. From the 20 pages I have already read I can state that it is full of facts without being dry. A real treat.

Augusta (Gail), from the titbits I have picked up the Roman attitude to animals varied greatly with the species. Every year a festival was held where Geese were seated on purple cussions and treated as the guests of honour whilst watching the crucifixion of dogs (bastards!). It dated back to a sack of Rome when the dogs failed to sound an alarm (bark) but the geese squarked (or whatever geese do) to warn the inhabitants. Another thing that sticks in my mind is the sympathy the crowd showed for the first elephants to be sacrificed in the arena. A complete surprise to the organisers as the crowds normally enjoyed their cruelty to be excessive. The parrot scenes on Rome are wrong as every bird shown is a new world species but maybe the attitude towards them as pets is correct? It would take a strange person not to enjoy a parrot BUT someone who enjoyed crucifying dogs is as strange as it gets in my book.

Thanks, G O. You understood. Ostrogosky's book is quite expensive (on Amazon) so I'll order it from my library.

Constantine the Great is credited with the creation of Constantinople but when he was named Emperor he was one of 2 Western Emperors (Maxentius being the other) and 2 Eastern Emperors. What cities were considered the 'Rome/s' of the east? If Constantinople had never existed do you believe that the barbarians would have stood less chance against a Roman civilisation that could not exist away from Rome (in the minds of its people) or do you think that the sack of Rome would have been an absolute finish to all things civilised in the Roman sense?

Cncerning Maxcentius Palatine Hill stash, i heard it on the car radio whilst driving home from work 6.15am Monday 29th, Jan.

MPC. This is a bit of a tangent but, I hope, relevent with regard to intellectual/philosophical matters. Many portrayals of the ancients show them as having an unbending faith in matters of religion, as though they had never even questioned the possibility that God/s did not exist. When looking into this area just a little closer I see that Greek 'thinkers' were questioning the existence of God centuries earlier. The characters at the center of Roman history were (for the most part) highly educated and familiar with these same Greek philosophies. This makes me think that individuals such as Caesar, Augustus....would have had a public persona (thanking God and being humble) but a private intellect that questioned the whole idea of religion/an afterlife...etc. The differences are best witnessed in The Caesars (where Sejanus and Tiberius openly admit that they do not believe in Gods, whilst in private conversation) compared to I, Claudius (where Tiberius is seen making sacrifices to Augustus the God). I would expect that mankind has changed little in some respects. The idea that a man would break a sacred vow in order to save his life is not surprising but, when talking of the ancients, we sometimes believe that a mans word was somehow more honest. That he was more likely to die for a cause or principle back then than he would be now. Looking back to a golden age that never was?

...first SILVER coinage... Was this the First coinage or the first coinage made from silver? It seems probable that early Roman coinage was either Greek or imitation Greek. Where did the first Greek coins take influence from? What civilisation was the first to use coinage?

Although Biographies are probably the easiest omissions to think of, due to powerful individuals capturing the imagination, it may be an event or series of events such as a war that you believe really deserves to have a full book dedicated to explaining it. Maybe even an aspect of Roman life/politics/religion....whatever, that you feel has been neglected. I'll start the ball rolling by saying that I would love biographies of Sejanus and Tigellinus. Perhaps a volume dealing with leaders of the Praetorian Guard? Gaius Octavian planted the seed of anotrher idea in another thread. The 'Post Roman' (Byzantine) experience of Islamic Expansion.... In fact anything to waken people up to the idea that the Romans did not 'end' with the Fall of Rome. Any works that demonstrate that for the following 8 centuries the Romans were alive and well but living further east, in Byzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul (upto 1458, I believe?). Idea's welcome.

I was reading that Romes last Pagan Emoeror, Maxcentius (sp?) buried a horde of treasure on the Palatine Hill with the intention of reclaiming it after defeating Constantine in their upcoming battle. This was 312AD and everyone who knew where the treasure was hidden died so it was left undisrupted until a few weeks ago when archaeologist's had the good fortune to unearth it. Among the priceless antiquities were 'IMPERIAL STANDARDS'. What are these? It is an ambition of mine to see an 'EAGLE' or 'LEGIONARY STANDARD' but, unfortunately, I have been informed that not a single one is known to have survived. Maybe deep in the ground, undisturbed for the best part of two millenia, there is one just waiting for someone to find it but there is no museum I can go to to examine such an item. Very sad!

Quote fron another thread (Legionary wages). "The Denarii was 4.5g of almost pure silver WHEN INTRODUCED but was lowered to just over 4g during the Julio-Claudian period, decreasing, again, to 3.8g under Nero...." When was it introduced? If anyone could provide or direct me to a brief explanation of the origins and history of Roman coinage I would be very appreciative.

In English 'My child/My son' may not be literal BUT is this the case in latin or Greek?

Kosmo. I was reading that Bulgaria (close to you in Romania) has closed 600 of its 3000 schools due to a flu epidemic. its thought that the extremely mild winter has failed to kill off the bugs. Ursus. I wish I had your confidence that this was just part of the cycle. The statistics show a steady increase in temperature that will melt the ice caps.