The Augusta

Excellent article, Nephele. I wonder if you could answer me a question? Did the praenomen Spurius imply illegitimacy in any way, rather as it is used in English baptismal registers of the 16-19th centuries?

Margaret married James IV of Scotland.

Well, yes - this is the other side of the coin, of course!

Another Chatti fan here! Although I do base some of my fervour on the legend of their tying enemy heads to their belts when fighting - which may, of course, be apocryphal! Any thoughts on this, Wot?

Brilliant!!! But then so's every part of that film!! Thanks for the comment about the report - I appreciate that very much. It's a long one but I didn't want to miss anything out!!! Absolutely brilliant report, AC! Fantastic. But I cannot let your wonderful Flavia continue to hide her light under a bushel. Her final comment on the whole 'Life of Brian' incident was mentioned later, when we remembered that the offended Christian lady had hurried past Augustus' chair clutching a half-eaten chocolate muffin. Flavia's wonderful comment on this was: 'Take up thy muffin and walk!' Gorgeous! I can't wait to do all this again....

An excellent idea, Caldrail! And this would help to defray costs for everyone too. I'm sure we'd all b e willing to chip in.

Nope. But is Bryaxis right to consider this is in the eastern empire, Maladict? It looks like some sort of tomb or mausoleum. (I'm only coming in to guess - as you know I'm useless at posting the damned things )

As Caldrail suggests though, In "Life of Augustus" Suetonius is quite clear with the description. Ah - now here we have it! He had the triumphs 'voted' to them. That does not mean they celebrated them. Hadn't Agrippa set the precedent that it was customary to refuse? Cf. Graves' translation: 'Augustus showed equal generosity in recognising military talent, by letting full triumphs be voted to more than thirty of his generals, and triumphal regalia to an even larger number.' It is an interesting point that Caldrail raises, however, for modern historians seem to be unanimous in stating that no Triumphs were celebrated during his reign apart from those by members of his family. Have the moderns misinterpreted Suetonius? Did the generals celebrate Triumphs after all? This has got me wondering now.... Well spotted, Caldrail! ETA: Our own UNRV article HERE seems to take this idea for granted too. Have we all been labouring under a misapprehension? Now I want to find out exactly where in our primary sources it says that he would not allow triumphs to be celebrated by non-related men. This is turning out to be quite a fascination for me.

OK, OK, the garden fresco from "Livia's House" in Rome depicts a fruit which might well be either citrons or lemons. I haven't seen it at first hand or in colour. If one decides they are lemons, then this would be the first definite evidence of lemons in the Med; if citrons, then it is evidence that citrons had reached central Italy by the time of Augustus. I have seen the fresco first hand. Of course it is hard to get a true picture due to fading of the colours etc., but I seem to remember that the fruits seemed a little 'round' for lemons? I'll have another look in October - providing the house has re-opened, of course.

Perhaps when Suetonius suggests that Augustus gave triumphs to 30 generals, perhaps he simply means the regalia and decoration, but not the full triumph? PP, this has always been my understanding. Or, as I commented before, the lesser 'ovatio' that came to replace the old Republican full 'triumph'. I'll do a bit of digging myself and see what I can come up with.

I guess we'll never know for sure, but my own personal view - and I stress it is personal - is that the two of them would have got along well enough, certainly during 'all that Marcellus business'. Interestingly enough, Syme holds a similar view that Livia and Agrippa may well have 'joined forces' during the events of 23 BC. Pure snobbery apart, I cannot see any political reason for them to loathe each other.

Thanks, Nephele. As to your question - no. I can't see any reason for Livia to have been opposed to a marriage at that stage. Remember that Graves' whole plot hangs on Livia wanting Tiberius to follow Augustus from Day One - which probably has no basis in fact.

Thank you for this, Gladius. It's a point I have tried to make over and over and over again! Spot on.

I've added my little Agrippa thingy. At least the ball is rolling, Caldrail.

Great article, Caldrail - but I am a bit confused about the above passage. I had always understood that full Triumphs under Augustus were only reserved for members of the Imperial family. Other generals were given the lesser Ovation or Triumphal ornaments. Have you found new evidence to the contrary?

By the late second/early third century AD when Dio Cassius was writing his Roman History, the reputation of Marcus Agrippa had survived untarnished for two hundred years. Indeed Dio goes so far as to call him the noblest man of his time, and his summing up of Agrippa

Ah - brilliant! Thanks for the link, Neil.

As my PC is now entering a semi-comatose state and has developed Cheyne-Stokes breathing, I am just posting to add my vote to what has been mentioned above. Dates and itinerary fine for me. Keep your fingers crossed for my PC in the meantime. Perhaps Nephele could sing it a charm to stop it surrendering to the death sleep..... Help!!

The Prologue....... Good old Lurcio and pretty Nauseus writing his odes..... Yep - 'Up, Pompeii' was gorgeous, silly fun and didn't even take itself seriously, let alone Roman history. You knew where you stood with it! Darling Frankie - he is much missed. I think it was meant to be a sort of pastiche of Plautus. I only saw a couple of episodes of Chelmsford - wasn't it in Latin with subtitles half the time? I would love to find it on DVD. There was a documentary on a Sky channel a few months ago called '50 years of Togas on TV' or something like that, in which all these lovely things were given an airing again.

My Lady: Take a peek here: http://www.soupsong.com/fcitrus.html Thanks for this, GO, but it still suggests that Rome did not know such fruits until Nero's reign, which is outside my 'period'.

Everyone eyes the Augusta nervously!

Hehe - I'll take you on any day, Drusus! I know the script - and that's NO exaggeration.

I take it that you are referring to Livia Julia - i.e. 'Livilla' and not Livia Drusilla? I thought Pat Quinn gave us a traditional Livilla. As to the real Livilla, I am totally convinced that she was besotted with Sejanus, but I have an open mind as to whether she helped to poison Drusus the Younger ('Castor' in the series). In fact I have still not made up my mind as to whether he was murdered at all.

They were certainly a colourful family! A brief outline of Cesare can be found here It's only the old Wikipedia but its a start.

Bryaxis, the map intrigues me. It appears to be an illustration of the deployment of triumviral forces prior to the Perusian War or thereabouts - with the Antonian generals up in Gaul and Salvidienus en route to Spain. Could I ask you where you obtained it?