Scaevola

Barbarian You scored 29% on Social Skills! You are not Roman, and you fight to remain free. You know that to lose to Rome's army is to become a slave. So, you fight all the harder to keep your family free, if starving, that you may never witness the crimes perpetrated against Boudiccea and her daughters. Humph....

A nice, low key, infinitely bribable and having strong guys at my back, tax farmer during the later Republic. I'd ride the direction the fair winds blew and unlike so many of my fellows I'd actually retire in five years or less to a large farm holding while building good local patronage. Yeah, either that or try to kill a tyrant, miss, and stick my hand into a fire like a traitor to impress people

My highly personalized, and subject to change with little notice, top ten films that I stop whatever I am doing and watch: Waterloo - with Rod Steiger and Christopher Plummer. I am a sucker for Napoleonics and with tens of thousands of extras, one of the best cavalry scenes filmed and sound to knock your socks off, what's not to love. The Red Tent - Peter Finch, Sean Connery, Claudia Cardinale Hardy Krüger, Eduard Martsevich in a joint Italian/Russian film. It's lightly based on events of an Artic expedition via airship in 1928 which crashed on the ice and the guilt felt by the main character General Nobile. It has some spectacular scenery and has a great exploration of leadership and the price it extracts if the leader either fails to be, or is too, human. The Lion in Winter - Kate Hepburn and Peter O'Toole star with Anthony Hopkins, John Castle, Nigel Terry and Timothy Dalton co-starring. With a line-up like that they could just be reading phonebooks and it'd be great. Now add the best dialouge ever written for a movie, 3 oscars, 11 other major awards and voila: you get a feel for how good this movie is. Unforgiven - The best western ever made and Clint at his best (and baddest) as we watch, quite literally, the effects of sins and anger not checked and never forgiven. Bladerunner - This film just immerses and mesmorizes me everytime I see it. It's a Ridley Scott masterpiece (which is why Kingdom of Heaven disappointed me, it never drew me in like Bladerunner). You really do walk away thinkinking you've just been in another world. Sidenote: The movie Soldier with Kurt Russell had an homage to Bladerunner. The main characters battle record included battles mentioned by the replicant Roy, and in the junk piles...one of them has the flying car. A Bridge Too Far - I go by my father's reaction to this movie. He was in Market-Garden with the 101st. He was unconfortable with the movie, but watched it. A little close to home for him but we had many a talk because of the film. The Duellists - with Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel. A beautiful movie set in the Napoleonic era with stunning scenery, great sword fights and solid acting. Also a Ridley Scott film. Very hypnotic and a great ending to the final duel. Star Wars - The original. Came out when I was 14 years old. There was a new cinema opening that year and I saw in a three week sucession Forbidden Planet, 2001: A Space Odyssey and then Star Wars. In the months that followed, I saw it 35 times. Still has a potent effect on me. Superman - The big blue boy scout has always been my favorite hero, and I still get chills as the big "S" warps on to the screen. Just a qirk I guess. Glory - I was familiar with the history of the 54th Mass. before the movie, and the American Civil War has always been a favorite study of mine (even did some re-enactments briefly, gotta get back into it someday). I find the scenes preparing for the assault on the fort very moving. Also, an aquaintance who was a technical advisor on that movie died before it came out, so I always think of him when watching it. Now there's a hole bunch of others that boil up and down this list, displacing some and being displaced, but right now this is my top ten.

Command and control has always been the hardest aspect to pull of effectively. In Roman times, that's why all the centurians were very important. They were the final link to the overall plan. If they lost control of their men, the formation would be endangered and the battle threatened. Below centurian, men were important to keep the myriad small battles that occur in a major battle under control, but the centurian was the buck stopping point for the overall tactical plan. The tribune, through horns, runners and standards kept contact with the centurians in order to win a battle. As far as the individual legionaires, they would be flexible enough to control up to nine feet of frontage in a very loose skirmish order to a bare three feet in heavy doubled formations. The important men were the ones on any corners. they only could rely on one neighbor for cover, everyone else had two in line. In order to keep their formation, Romans practiced to make it second nature to keep ranks and intervals. Scared men will clump together and make it hard to fight effectively. Room is the key to melee. They drilled to assume formation and act in a uniform manner, so even a paniced unit could see what their neighbors were executing and follow suit. And if a group was seperated, quickly adopting a defensive stance or a wedge to breakout would mean the difference between living and dying. No one wants to fight someone who looks like they know what they're doing. So after the charge there was order, control and a plan. But if it was lost or disjointed, well you got the great defeats.

Brute You are 20% Rational, 20% Extroverted, 90% Brutal, and 80% Arrogant

How is the entire religion evil? How are all Muslims evil? I can't find any proof for either of those points, unless you use people like Jack Chick as sources. Argument not proven, thus invalid until more evidence presented and not refuted.

"John. There's no one in the world as gentle...nor half as terrible." "I'll never have another day like this, will I?" "Where this lands, bury us close... and leave us." - Robin in Robin and Mariam. "We're jungle animals, Henri. And the dark is all around us. You can see the reflections of their eyes..." "And they can see ours." - Eleanor and Henri in The Lion in Winter "I hope we never die!" "Do you think there's any chance of it?!!" - Eleanor and Henri again. " No, Mr. Bond! I expect you to die!" - Goldfinger. "All those moments will be lost, in time....like tears, in the rain." - Roy in Bladerunner.

No to the constant extremed. You'll treat the thing you're doing with familiar contempt and then really hurt yourself. Yes, you luck is limited by how much you think you're pressing your luck. ("Am I pressing my luck with this? WHAM!!...urg....*thud*) Mad acts? Climbing up and into a fifth story room to surprise a girlfriend, shooting bottle rockets at police helicopters, blowing up a small concrete blockhouse with homemade explosives as debris shot past us while running away from too short a fuse (and reading the local papers blaming it on a "freak sonic boom")...nah, never did anything mad. Don't get too extreme now-a-days, can't let my son see a bad example . Just wait till retirement though.

What's so fun about this? I may not be getting it, but it seem to be a very left handed attempt at tracing invasions through genetic or racial typing? Also, the website you linked to shows it weakness in the bibliography. It didn't list enough publication information, but the closest it did come to proper citation shows the source materials to be dated fairly old (eldest in the 1890s, most recent the 1930s). You may wish to be careful here, the sources on this type of material (especially from that time period) has some severe problems with political agendas.

I like the guest room idea, with strict moderating. That way school aged people might be encouraged to post questions.

I think that a guest should be allowed to post a question or comment in the " Roman Empire " Forum -and only the "Roman Empire" Forum - without registration. It should be made clear in the Guidelines that much stricter moderating will take place in that forum and abusers will face rapid IP banning. This would create more of a hassle for you and Ursus, but I think that it is vital to have a place for unregistered guests to ask questions. It will help the traffic flow to this site (if that is what you want) and possibly interest some people to the point of becoming members. Plus, it it does blow up into a monster, you can always shut down guests and make them register again. I'm throwing this up for public comment. Anyone?

Ack! Apples and Oranges, Apples and Oranges! When you try to compare Napoleon and Scipio, IMHO. I will agree though that the modern reader will find Scipio underrated and glossed over. Maybe because of the modern love affair with Hannibal (oh! poor, doomed, brilliant Hannibal- thanklessly serving a decaying nation that killed him ). Scipio had the great ability to pull out of his men the trust necessary to execute a battle plan that puts them into momentary mortal danger while ensuring the defeat of the enemy. Who wants to die so his side will win? Not many, unless a leader like Scipio to inspire them. Combined with a genuine military bend of mind, and a first class intellect, and you've got a legendary general. Plus, looking at a bust of the man, you get the impression of just a normal guy. He must have had a hell of a personal charisma.

Hmmm. Unit cohesion being of prime importance, (keep ranks ,etc) I would have thought that while in the fighting the centurion avoid fighting. But in muscle powered fighting, most of the killing is done at arm's length- hard to avoid. Okay, if I am going to definitely be fighting...I sure wouldn't wear point catchers like those circular decorations. Maybe it's the visual that overrides the practical aspect. Thanks for answering.

Yes they are awards for valour. Looks like a set of seven. There was just some initial confusion about the awards and when they were usually worn. Looking at the picture, though, the concentric circle raised disc looks like a spear point catcher. That's something to avoid. The lion's head would be suitable deflection, but I don't know if I would wear both. Then again, centurians weren't expected to join in the fighting very often, right? - I'm not sure on this point.

Silentium- I imagine your life is being affected by John Paul II death much more than those of us not in Rome. Any comments on the security, traffic, people, etc.? I'm curious because my wife and I were in Rome when the World Trade Centers were attacked and we got to see all the gentlemen in blue or black appear (by the busload) carrying automatic weapons. Oh, and I'm in the middle of Ohio, USA.