Julius Ratus

Lets ask our European members how wonderful immigration is.

I agree. Thucydides was a wonderful speech writer, eh?

The Emperor Claudius wrote two histories, one on the Etruscans and another on the Carthaginians. Both are lost and both are about cultures we know next to nothing about. By the way, I had heard that Claudius had a good reputation as a historian. Is this correct or just too much I CLAVDIVS?

I don't think that the sentient rats of the future will be supprised that at one time primates were more advanced than rodents!

You're kidding aren't you? I always took you for a Populare... Julius - the Julian clan. Ratus - the Rat. My power-animal.

I am pretty sure the Persians and the Selucids used scythed chariots. If I can find proof I will write back later, unless someone else beats me too it.

Greed is a nice quick explanation but it dosen't get anywhere near the roots of the problem. No everyone was having fun in the glorious republic. The Italians had to fight a brutal civil war to get citizenship, even though they often fought for Rome and were as responsilble for the republic's victories as Rome was. Many of the poor were loosing their land to the greedy plutocrats. At this point the people had two choices, go to the city and starve or stay in the country and starve. Now, when someone comes along, offers them a job, good pay, food, shelter, and land after retirement, they were saved. All they had to do was fight his battles for him and remain loyal. When the aristocrats, who made up the Senate and so therefore ruled the Republic had done everything in their power to make life miserable for the lower classes, there was no way people were going to put their lives on the line for the high falooting (how do you spell this word?) ideals of the senate. And when it comes to blows between the Senate and the man who gave them food clothing and a new life, it is little wonder that those men crossed the Rubicon with Caesar, or came to Marius' aide in his time of need. Even Pompey held the love of the people. People like Cato the Younger and the Optimates just did not deserve that kind of respect.

No one ever talks much about Roman Russia. By this I mean Chernon/Crimea/Krim. For all interested, here is the forum I would have joined if I had not found this one. www.roman-glory.com Unfortunately, my Russian still needs work. edit: Is the Marcus Porcius Cato on www.roman-glory.com the same as our beloved Cato here?

Longbow, Veteran's Day in the U.S. is Nov 11. I know nothing about Rememberance day. Sorry. All I know about Whiskey is that JD made me sick, but it could have been the greasy roast beef. The Laphroiag I tasted was nasty. The only time I can palate Whiskey is when it is mixed with Coke or Sour mix. Right now I am drunk on a bottle of Ruhr-Mosel White Wein, but since the post is about Whiskey I will not extoll the virtues of Bona Vina.

The Romans did quite well against the Selucid Chariots at Magnesia if I remember corectly.

I was nice to see Labienus finally get some screen time. After doing a paper on Late Republican cavalry I began to wonder why he is never in any books or movies about Caesar. I was disappointed that he didn't make it into ROME.

The only thing that ticks me off about the execution of Hussein, is that bin Laden, who actually did kill American civilians, is still free, while we hang Hussein and occupy Iraq. Iraq has nothing to do with 9-11 but Bush led the U.S. to invade Iraq because he supposedly had supported Al-Queida and was building WMD's. It is unseemly that America invades nations without provocation, but if you kill Americans and fly planes into our buildings you remain free.

Aurelianus --

Thanks for that, PP. Those articles were interesting. To any of you who watch HBO's ROME, I can see this being part of the next season.

The Augusta Thanks. Scared me so bad I defecated on my chair. Now my toga smells... Just so you all know, the Ladies on this forum know nothing about languishing. Before I came here, I spent most my time on a WWII forum. Out of two thousand or so members there were THREE women on the forum. I would say that this one is far more gender integrated. This is probably because ancient history is far more female friendly than WWII. Try finding a girl that can relate to the full complexities of Operation Bagration, or even know what happened at the Rzhev meat grinder. To stay up long nights with you and argue over which was better, the Grossdeutchland Panzergrenedierdivision or the 3-ya Gvardeyskiy Motostrelkoviy Divisia...Sorry

I saw the Graccus episode and the Caesar one tonight. I didn't stay up for the Nero one and didn't finish the Caesar one. I thought it was well done and far better than the HC ones. The only reason I didn't finish them was that I had a report to finish for tomorrow. All in all, I hope they do more of these. It was kind of like watching a movie, rather than a few repeat shots of reenactors followed by tedious comentary, followed by a million repeated commercials. Instead, this was a clean, straight narritive, cut up by a million repeated commercials. F'ing commercials...

I have been reading a copy of The Roman Army from Caesar to Trajan, an Osprey book by Michael Simkins and illustrated by Ron Embleton. I was looking at the map on p. 7, for all of you who have the book. The map is of Legionary disposition, circa 80 AD (833 AUC ). Anyway, I was wondering if the Legio X Fretensis, stationed in Jerusalem, was the beloved 10th Legion of Caesar. Likewise, is the XIII Gemina, stationed in Poetovio, the 13th from HBO's ROME? Thanks

Best Job -- Varangian Gurad. I know this is Byzantine, but it has all of the perks of a Praetorian Guard, but you get a cool axe and any unit known as 'The Emperor's Wine-Bags' is obviously having a blast. Otherwise, I would e a Praetorian. Worst Job -- On of Tiberius' boy toys

Kosmos -- Where did you get this from? This is not a challenge but I have never heard that Egypt was not the principal source of grain for Rome. I knew that Sicily was important early on, and that Carthage/NW Africa was important late in the Empire for the West.

Of course I did not suggest that you and Cato were at war, only that you were pursuing policy by other means... edit: I forgot a word

Mr. Nagelfar lists Stockholm as his native city and so I assume he speaks Sweedish. If someone can find a rock with runes on it that says "Viking" in refernce to themselves, than I would say that without doubt that they called themselves Vikings. Otherwise, are there any existing Old English manuscripts, contemporary of course, that call the Norsemen Vikings? If not, then the opinion of a modern Sweedish speaker is the most authoritative.

Symbols only become "bad" when someone gets offended. Many people don't see anything wrong with the Hammer and Sickle, even though both Mao and Stalin killed more civilians than Hitler did. As far as percentages of a population goes, no one in modern history can beat Pol Pot. Despite these evil fellows the Hammer and Sickle are often seen as fashionable. I don't see why the Nazi's are always considered to have a monopoly on evil. They were bad, but they weren't alone. I dare someone to name one country in The Second World War that came out without any atrocites under their belts. Maybe Greece.

I have only felt The Augusta's anger at Cicero once, while translating a particularly hard passage in Latin class, then I translated some Livy and found my self longing for dear Tully. As far as Cicero the author goes, his Latin is impecable, even though his gerunds and dependant clauses are extravagant sometimes. Now I shall attempt to step into the Ciceronian War between The Augusta and Cato. I will side with Cicero for a very un-Catonian reason. By surrendering early and playing the middle man he benefitted the Divine Julius in his work. I very much admire Caesar for carrying on with Marius' policies in freeing the lower classes from the abuse of the Aristocrats. Like Marius, Cicero made himself and he had no shiny name to fall back on like Scipio and Brutus had. Everything that Cicero was, he made for himself. He was the last great Novus Homo. As for the assassins of Caesar, for once I agree with Dante. The reason the devil has three mouths is so he can chew on Judas, Brutus, and Cassius simultaneously.

Primus Pilus -- Don't apologise. By bringing up Antoninus and looking at what made his reign great we are able try and figure out what makes an emperor great. I quess that the main point of this thread is to determine what it is that makes an emperor great. M. Porcius Cato -- Do you have an emperor that you feel is important and any reasons that you think this way? What are the criteria you would use to judge your favorite emperor? edit: spelling

The Hellenes were, in my opinion, the fathers of western civilization. They influenced most European civilizations in one way or another. They influenced the Macedonians who would conquer much of the known world. They influenced the Romans who would in turn influence Europe for a long time after the fall of their own empire. Through the Byzantines they influenced the Slavs and the Motherland. The Greeks gave us the vowel. While the Phoenicians "invented" the alphabet, it was the Greeks who spread it into this part of the world. Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Russia all use alphabets based closely on the Greek one and even the one I amusing now I based to some extent on Greek. Their philosophy influenced many modern religions, science, and many laws. My two denarii