Nephele

Hi, GPM. You and your daughter may want to tune in to Blue Peter next Thursday (May 3rd). Author Caroline Lawrence will be on the show, and they'll also be airing a segment promoting the first television episode of "The Roman Mysteries" (the series is rumored to begin airing on May 8th). Even Caroline isn't certain as to when the series will begin, but that's the latest projected date. -- Nephele

To my friends in the U.K.: Have any of you been watching the television series titled Primeval and, if so, do you find it entertaining -- or not? How are the special effects? The reason I'm asking is that I've just gotten an update that the first season is now available on DVD, and I'm considering buying it. I absolutely love stuff like Jurassic Park (both the movies and the books), the BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs, and ITV's Prehistoric Park (Go, Nigel!), so I was thinking that this Primeval series might be fun. I see that Primeval was made by the same folks (Impossible Pictures Ltd) who did Walking with Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Park. But before I fork out

I imagine Bryaxis can tell us something about the map, but in the meantime, Augusta, try right-clicking on the map and select "Properties". Then paste the resulting URL into your browser window, deleting part of it from the right up to the first slash. The resulting directory contains a number of maps and interesting illustrations. Bryaxis, sounds like you had quite an enriching archaeology course this year. Thanks for sharing. -- Nephele

I shot the Invisible Pink Unicorn and had her for barbecue. The Flying Spaghetti Monster, however, I can dig, as he looks like Cthulhu. I

Northern Neil, do you mean

This is our humble goal. I briefly considered joining People for the Ethical Treatment of Mummies, but the fact that they are opposed to keeping mummies as pets just put me off them. -- Nephele

I'm doing my part to "Save the Mummies!" I participate in New York's Metropolitan Museum's "Adopt a Mummy" program, and my adopted mummy is named Muntuhotep. My monthly donation goes towards his supply of tannis leaves, as well as keeping his canopic jars tidy. -- Nephele

Have to say that I'm still smiling over the subtitle of this topic: "A Simple Poll". Any poll inviting the members of an Internet message board to declare their religious preferences -- or aversions -- is likely to get somewhat complicated. -- Nephele

The dancing slave girls have the day off today, so I asked The Augusta and Docoflove to join me in filling in for them. Except... We seem to have misplaced our heads. Oh dear, how careless of us... -- Nephele

Nephele arrives at the party of the noble Antiochus of Seleucia, bearing her gift -- a standard of the Teutoburg, as once requested by Antiochus some months ago. In addition, Nephele has resurrected and invited Publius Quinctilius Varus to the party, to give Antiochus a first-hand account of the battle which he fought (and lost) against the Germanic tribes. (But if the noble Antiochus wishes, I can always bring in the dancing slave girls later.) Birthday hails to you, Antiochus! May you have a cool day! -- Nephele

As promised, I've posted in the Gallery my pictures that I took today (April 21, 2007), in the new Greek and Roman Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. Unfortunately, Agrippa's Black Bedroom was too dark, and flash photography wasn't permitted. However, you can see a picture of the Black Bedroom frescoes on the Met's website here. What better way to celebrate the Parilia (birthday of Rome), than a trip to the Met to see the new Greek & Roman Wing? -- Nephele

Yes, absolutely agreed -- Jeremy Northam is a superb Thomas More in this series. So far, he seems to come across as a more convincing voice of conscience for Henry. As for Utopia, I actually quite liked it, although I'll admit that I read it when I was very young and at the time entranced with the concept of utopian societies and communal living (I actually toyed with the idea of spending a summer on a kibbutz). One thing I did then and still do find interesting in More's Utopia, was More's concept of winning a war -- which seemed to me to be delightfully Machiavellian for such a man as More. If I'm recalling correctly, More proposed that the invading nation first send agents into the enemy nation, and these agents would post notices throughout the enemy nation offering monetary awards for the leaders of said nation. The idea being that the people of the enemy nation would turn against their own leaders to make an easy buck, and thus the invading nation might have a bloodless victory. Am I remembering this bit from Utopia correctly? And, isn't this pretty much what the U.S. had hoped to accomplish, by initially putting a price on Osama bin Laden's head? -- Nephele

Hah, just give me your name and I'll find your personality in anagram: Northern Neil = Thinner Loner. Yes? No? Have we got a personality conflict here? -- Nephele

Of course that black bedroom of his suggests that Agrippa would make an excellent ancient Roman goth. Okay, through the magic of the Ars Magna, I anagrammatically transform... Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa into... P. Vampirius Scaripaganus And, since you asked for him, Augusta, he's your date for the night. You may bring him over to the Imaginary Party thread and do with him what you will. :whip: -- Nephele

Same here, as I've been watching it, too. It's an entertaining costume drama, and I like Sam Neill in the role of Cardinal Wolsey. -- Nephele

Look forward to it. Agrippa's "black bedroom" looks stunning, and I can't wait until my next trip to NYC to see it in person. I just now rang up the Met and found out that photographs will be allowed for the new exhibits. I shall definitely take a mess of photos tomorrow! I imagine that Northern Neil will want to see pictures of the Black Bedroom for modeling inspiration. -- Nephele

Yep! I posted about this a few weeks ago in the thread about a possible NYC UNRV Meet-up, including the write-up from the Met website. The Met's cubiculum from Boscoreale had been closed for years, and that was always one of my favorite exhibits at the Met. But now, now only is it restored, moved to this new wing and again open, the Met now has another cubiculum -- Agrippa's "Black Bedroom". I'm going tomorrow to the exhibit! I'll take pictures (if they let me) and post them in the Gallery. -- Nephele

That's a great way to get your dog's attention, you know. He'd be sitting alertly in front of you, wagging his tail and hoping you toss him an ovary. Only, it's cooler if you instead balance your ovary on your dog's nose and say: "Not yet... Noooot yet... Okay, NOW!" And then, you can always get inspiration from this, for a fun Bait 'n' Switch Ovary Game with your dog. -- Nephele

From the article: "The Iranian government has not shown much concern for ancient Persian sites, unlike the country's more recent Islamic monuments." In NYC there are quite a number of Iranian immigrants who insist on identifying themselves as "Persians" -- not "Iranians". They don't do so out of fear of anti-Iranian sentiment over here. They proudly identify themselves as Persians because of their political dissent with their country of origin, and also because they no longer ethnically identify with the nation Iran as it exists today. So, I'm not at all surprised that the present government of Iran is planning to destroy these ancient Persian sites, while going out of their way to preserve the more recent Islamic monuments. This all sounds more politically motivated, to me, than economically motivated. -- Nephele

Ooo, if we do that, then I've got dibs on Roman naming practices during the Principate! And, yes, the style of Roman personal names did change during that era, with cognomina starting to be used more as praenomina by men. -- Nephele

I know. That's why I quoted that particular line in my first posting in this thread. The feeling of betrayal may be overshadowed by bitterness and a struggle against fear and guilt (as you wrote), but perhaps you might never have had that bitterness, fear, and guilt if you hadn't initially felt betrayed in some way. I can't speak from personal experience, but I think I've maybe vicariously experienced this through my friends. And, because I love my friends, the pain doesn't hurt any less. Perhaps it hurts just as much, because I do have a hard love for my friends. -- Nephele

Oracus, one of your noble ancestors was Quintus Ancharius, "a senator, and of praetorian rank." Another notable Ancharius in your family tree was a Tribune of the plebs "in the consulship of Caesar and Bibulus." Being a member of the Ancharii, your name is, naturally, Ancharia. You were given the cognomen of "Modesta" by your family in recognition of your modest beauty. Your full Roman name is... Ancharia Modesta (aasmdcrnmhaeota -m +i) Welcome to the UNRV Board! -- Nephele

Yes you did. I saved what you posted, but I'm not going to repeat it here. Both Pantagathus and Pertinax were absolutely right to delete it. (And you Mods may want to delete this, too, and that's okay with me. But justice demanded that I speak up.) -- Nephele

It certainly is! Nephele is having so much fun at Doc's party, that she wonders for a moment whether it might be ungracious of her to push Doc into the impluvium again. Attempting to control her perverse sense of amusement, Nephele turns her attention on two late arrivals -- that dashing Equestrian from the north of Britannia, R. Cornelius Hadrianus (a.k.a. Northern 'Neilius) and that terrifyingly delicious gladiator, Caldrail. But wait! There's a problem here. Wherever these two go, they leave a trail of biscuit crumbs and shattered pottery in their wake. They're a regular pair of tauri in a china shop, muses Nephele. Well, we can fix that! They just need something upon which to focus... Now, where's that "present" that Pantagathus brought? Mmm... Paaaan... taaaa... gaaaathus... Nephele smiles to herself and licks her lips as she thinks-- (Uh, heheh, pardon. Back to the story.) Ah! There it is! Nephele claps her hands, and orders her present of the twin dancing girls to entertain: Of course, now poor 'Neilius and Caldrail think they're seeing double, as they stagger, hypnotized, across the atrium toward the Geminae, still hopelessly trailing biscuit crumbs and shattered pottery in their wake. Ah, well. I tried. -- Nephele

"Hey god there's nothing left for me to hide / I lost my ignorance, security and pride / I'm all alone in a world you must despise / Hey god I believed your promises, your promises and lies." Having always been godless, I've been spared that feeling of betrayal that a lot of my friends experienced. Terrible Lie is mint NIN, although the surrealism in Romanek and Reznor's music video The Perfect Drug is more my style. -- Nephele