Nephele

then it could be the proper name is pilanus. maybe, Caldrail, can help verify it in his Latin dictionary. I'm not Caldrail, nor do I claim to be any sort of expert on Roman warfare. However, I do have a copy of Lewis & Short's massive (2,019 pages in very small print!) Latin dictionary. According to Lewis & Short, pilum (plural, pila) refers to the weapon, whereas pilanus refers to the soldier who uses the pilum. Also according to Lewis & Short, pilanus is merely another word for triarius, "one of the soldiers forming the third rank in battle: pilani pilis pugnantes..." My Latin is rusty, but I'm reading that phrase as: "the pilani fight with pila." Since Lewis & Short state that the pilanus is essentially the same as the triarius, then it would appear that the triarii would have used pila. -- Nephele

Hi, Glaberus! The way this works is, you scramble your actual name -- not your screen name -- and I "find" your Roman name hidden among the letters of your actual name. I haven't read any of Robert Harris' novels, but I'll consider your recommendation! And, again, welcome to UNRV! -- Nephele

Wasn't that Julia, talking to Antonia? While stuffing her face with figs. And then Antonia, in exasperation, says to Julia something like: "Not another fig, Julia!" To which Julia (between mouthfuls) replies: "(mmph, munch) Figs are good for you!" I don't remember seeing Octavia anywhere else except for the scene with young Nero, when Octavia stands up for Nero after Britannicus offends him. I see you got your screen name changed okay, Octavia! The new name looks good on you! -- Nephele

...For more advanced intelligent life out there in space to find, and wonder: What the fook? -- Nephele

Gets MY vote! I would definitely enjoy reading these! Are you going to put them in your blog for the site? Because then you could have them collected all in one place. I really enjoy reading members' blogs. Just this morning I was enjoying one of Pertinax's regular, herbal pharmacology entries. -- Nephele

I bet you would love the medieval herb garden in the Bonnefont cloister at NYC's Cloisters Museum. I may pay the Cloisters a visit this weekend, as that was my favorite hangout as a kid when I would play hooky from school. If I go, I'll take some photos in the garden for you Pertinax. Any herbs in particular that you would like pics of for your collection? -- Nephele

I would LOVE to take this course, but the timing is bad for me right now and I know I wouldn't be able to keep up with the course assignments. I hope Maty will be conducting the course again sometime. After reading the description, I am so envious of anyone who'll be signing up for this -- whether at the discount price or full price. Flavia, I knew you were going to sign up for this -- how exciting! Wish I could be taking it with you! -- Nephele

It's terrible, and it appears that the fires may have been deliberately started. I heard today from my dear friend Pavlos who lives in Athens and I was relieved to hear that he and his family are okay. But they were just on holiday and Pavlos tells me that most of the beautiful places they visited just last week, including Olympia and the ancient forests of Ilia, are now reduced to ashes. Pavlos was driving past burning trees, cars, and animals on his return home yesterday. He says that what's happening in Greece is their equivalent of the U.S.'s 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina disasters. -- Nephele

My Latin teacher, too, told us it was kai-sar. Which was fine with me, because at that early age in my life I might not otherwise have made the connection with the German word kaiser as readily. What did bug me, though, was my Latin teacher's insistence on pronounding "salve" as "sal-way" and "vale" as "wal-lay". It may have been technically correct, but pronouncing that "v" as a "w" always sounded like baby talk, to me. Plus, saying "wal-lay" at the end of every class as we were leaving made me feel like... well, a wally. Haven't seen The Last Legion yet. Will probably wait for the DVD. Some of you saw this online? Yikes, I don't think I could sit in front of my computer that long, to watch an entire movie online! Can you pause it to take bathroom breaks? -- Nephele

As promised, Flavia, I stopped in the New York Public Library today to get those synthesis illustrations for you. The first book -- Altmann's Romischen Grabaltare -- was in a special collection and they would only allow me to use my digital camera to photograph the plate. I'm afraid my picture may not be very clear. The second book -- volume IV of Daremberg and Saglio's Dictionnaire des Antiquit

Oh, and steamed up some artichokes for later. Mmm... My absolute favorite vegetable. Especially the hearts. Somehow, the artichoke hearts that you buy in the can or jar never taste as good as the fresh cooked ones that you carve out for yourself. Do you stuff your 'chokes with parsley? For myself, I prefer them plain. GPM, I'm too late to wish you bon voyage, but I'll be thinking of you (enviously!) as you enjoy your Mediterranean sunshine! -- Nephele

I reckon not. The word "cuckolded" means that a man has been married to an unfaithful wife -- one who has carnal knowledge outside of marriage with another man while her husband is completely unaware of what's going on. The term is derived from the Old French word cucualt, which is the word for "cuckoo" with a pejorative suffix -- the cuckoo being a bird that illicitly lays its egg in another bird's nest. Considering that Cato's wife acquiesced to Cato's request that she become divorced from him in order to marry someone else, and certainly with Cato's full knowledge and approval, hardly implies that Cato was "cuckolded". Cato's first wife may have cuckolded him, but Marcia appears to have been an insanely faithful wife to have agreed to all this. In fact, there's nothing in this entire account even to suggest that Marcia was polyamorous. If anything, she may not have been at all happy with marrying Hortensius, but was merely playing the role of an obedient Roman matron. I truly think Cato had reason enough to find Caesar distasteful, and that Caesar's opinion of Cato's personal affairs would have mattered least to Cato. -- Nephele

According to the "Fasti in Popular Culture" entry on Wikipedia: In the HBO television series "Rome", a priest is shown updating a fasti at the beginning of each episode to indicate the amount of time that has lapsed since the previous episode. I'm not certain if there ever was an actual wall calendar (with cubby holes for priests to insert stones or markers) as portrayed in HBO's Rome, although I've read of numerous frescoes of Roman wall calendars having been found. Maybe somebody here has information as to whether or not such a public calendar (as portrayed in the HBO Rome series) existed. There is an option on the HBO Rome DVD sets -- labeled "All Roads Lead to Rome" -- which attempts to explain Roman culture in the form of subtitles on screen as one watches the series. I know the calendar in question isn't discussed in the second season DVD set, because I've watched it recently. It may be discussed in the first season DVD set, and I just don't remember it. -- Nephele

Many thanks for that link, MPC! And to think we were just talking about L. Marcius Philippus privately, and here it was that his daughter married your namesake (of which I had not been aware until you'd mentioned "Cato's father-in-law" in that discussion). I see from this article that, before giving Marcia to Hortensius, Cato first showed his father-in-law, Philippus, the courtesy of asking his consent to the divorce and marriage. I suppose it might have been laughable to the Romans back then if someone might have suggested asking for the wife's consent in the matter, too? Trust Caesar to make a snide comment about Cato's possible motive for taking Marcia back (after Hortensius died, thus leaving Marcia a rich widow), and add a touch of soap opera-like melodrama to the whole affair. I was pleased to read in Hattie L. Gordon's account that, this time, Marcia appeared to have had a choice in the matter as to whom she would be married (or, re-married). -- Nephele

Aw, shucks. According to WorldCat, both books can be found in a number of university libraries' special collections -- and it appears that Altmann's book is in the Art & Architecture special collection at New York Public Library. I'll be at NYPL on Saturday, and have a look for you. Daremburg and Saglio's book I can probably access via a nearby university. If I can get permission to scan the illustrations, I'll send them to you. I'm curious to see this synthesis, too! -- Nephele

Docoflove's name anagrams into: "A Harsh Roman". Is she a strict teacher or a pussycat? Does the oracle of the anagram speak truly? -- Nephele

Salve, Flavia. If you've got Martial expert Professor Kathleen Coleman as a consultant, then I don't know how much additional information this article I found for you might provide, as the author, Professor Ethel Hampson Brewster of Swarthmore College, states that she used Martial as her chief source. But I'll e-mail it to you anyway. It was published in the Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association in 1918, and titled, "The Synthesis of the Romans". Briefly, Professor Brewster seems to be of the opinion that the synthesis consisted of a "set" of multicolored garments that were all worn at the same time -- a "composite costume" that was "a cross between the historic seven veils and Joseph's single garb of many colors." She theorized that the synthesis... As for an illustration of the synthesis... Professor Brewster points to the ungirded tunics that appear in reliefs and pictures of triclinia, suggesting that "it may well be that some of those 'ungirded tunics' really represent syntheses." Anyway, check your e-mail for the article I'm sending you. -- Nephele

Ah, thanks for clearing up the scarlet/purple question, GPM! I'd noticed, too, that in a lot of the movies one sees what appears to be dark red stripes instead of purple, and I'd always wondered if the reason they used red instead of purple might have been because it showed up better on screen. Flavia, thanks for that illustration -- yes, those stripes look dark red to me, too! -- Nephele

Were the stripes on tunics purple or scarlet, Nephele? I always thought the narrow equestrian and broad patrician stripes were red. Or were scarlet and purple (both expensive) interchangeable? This has always niggled at me... Flavia Hi, Flavia. According to Professor William Sterns Davis (A Day in Old Rome) the stripes were purple. I just now double-checked with some 'net sources. LacusCurtius also states that the stripes were purple. This site also provides illustrations, as well as additional information on the laticlavia and angusticlavia. Reference source cited is William Smith's A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (John Murray, London, 1875). -- Nephele

I don't have an image of a circa 5th century CE toga, but I think I can answer how it may have differed from earlier styles. The style of the Roman toga changed over the centuries so that, by the 4th century C.E., the classical toga had pretty much been replaced by the toga contabulata, a shorter version of the classical toga that folded in a band across the wearer's chest. Examples of this toga can be seen in museum statues sculpted in the later centuries. I'm not certain as to exactly when the toga disappeared from Roman history, but I believe the reason why the style gradually changed over time and eventually disappeared was due to the garment being too unwieldy for anything other than ceremonial use. And ancient Roman ceremony was becoming less a part of Roman life as the Middle Ages progressed -- particularly with the growing influence of the medieval Catholic Church. -- Nephele

So, VTC... You want to see what Roman name can be found from your existing screen name? The possibilities are almost endless -- for anagrams as well as blanagrams. Instead I'll Roman heavy-metalize your screen name: Vibius Tiberius Costa = Tibircius Beastivous *Nephele places a silver spiked collar around the neck of Tibircius Beastivous, and hopes to see him play his guitar in the warm-up band at the Flavian Amphitheater.* -- Nephele

VTC, you're right that only emperors (mainly on state occasions), or extremely high-ranking Roman officials (when presiding over public games) might wear a completely purple toga, called the toga picta. In addition to being completely purple, the toga picta would be embroidered with gold. However, a toga with purple stripes embroidered on the hem (called the toga praetexta) was commonly worn by citizen boys who had not yet officially reached manhood, and by the curule magistrates -- which would include not only emperors, but also dictators, masters of the horse, consuls, praetors, censors, and curule aediles. Purple striping might also appear on a citizen's tunic to indicate his rank, provided the wearer was of suitable rank. An Equestrian, for example, could sport a narrow, lengthwise stripe of purple, called an angusticlavia, on both front and back of his tunic. A Patrician or Senator would sport a somewhat broader purple stripe down his tunic, called a laticlavia. Their toga would be draped so as to conspicuously reveal the tunic's purple striping. The toga itself, even without distinguishing purple stripes, was forbidden to all but Roman citizens. However women prostitutes were known to wear togae, and I'm not certain if all of these might have been citizens. -- Nephele

You can go as many times as you like. Just let me know -- is this one male or female? -- Nephele

She looks like she's prepared to kick some serious Gaulish heinie. You go, puella! -- Nephele

I believe they used signet rings, generally with a carved semi-precious gemstone -- an intaglio -- that bore a symbol or picture from mythology and that was recognizable as representing the signet bearer. This they would press into wax or some other substance, and the resulting impression would stand as their "signature". -- Nephele