Tribunicus Potestus

I would have assumed that because of the in-breeding in the Ptolemy line she would be the one person in all of ancient history that would have the strongest claim to being lily "white". However there is the knowledge "it is a wise man who knows his father". And someone may have snuck in. I have seen estimates some with greater and some lesser numbers that hover around 10 percent of people are not in fact the child of the purported father. So we may never know the "race" of Cleopatra though I think it safe to conclude she was mostly if not completely Macedonian whatever that may have been at the time.

That was my first thought as well.

The simple expedient of breaking the phalanx into Swiss squares would have made it far more effective. I saw a video where modern Swiss military men in a reenactment were able to change face in seconds simply by lifting their pike turning in place and then lowering their pike. The square can quickly face 2, 3, or 4 directions as required. Squares in units can also be used to refuse a wing or to attack in echelon, wedge, or a reverse wedge as required. You can move in any direction without losing cohesion or exposing yourself to attack. If you want to get really fancy you can use hollow squares with missile units protected by the pike formation. Even the knight in full plate mail became extinct in the face of Swiss and German pike squares. The squares of Napoleon still retained their structure and with bayonets fixed were able to fend off cavalry.

Would this be the right area? My link The Civil engineer and architect's journal, Volume 22 By William Laxton speaks on the "Color and Fragrance of Saffron" at the temple and equates it to other coatings and colorings of ancient architecture.

Thank you for that clarification.

Nice post. I was just reading about Xanthippus the other day I don't think I have enough information to draw a conclusion. All the hypotheticals presented for his fate are plausible and have examples in the ancient world. J F Lazerby holds the rigged ship story to be implausible. But didn't Nero try something similar to rid himself of his mother? The practice it seems to me must have had some basis in fact.

Nice conjecture. You might also note that the name for the palace at Knossos was also called Labyrinth. I think you've got something. All myths have a grain of truth that morphs with time and the telling. "I caught a fish this big" becomes "He caught a fish thhhhisss big". It's human nature. Infidelity along transmission lines is also a phenomenon that humans are not immune to.

The site was located in 1869 by John Turtle Wood financed by the British Museum. Only a single column still exists I don't know if it smells like saffron but it looks white to me. My link

The Silk Route - Market to market or a continuous traversing of distances by perhaps a relay team of sorts? The problem I have of a solely market to market model is this. A market to market model would imply that in order for silk or opium or any other product to arrive in the west that vast amounts of the product arrived first in India. Of that product only what surpassed local demand would then trickle on to Persia. Then and only then would a superfluous amount of that fraction which had arrived from India now a much smaller fraction that could not be consumed locally make its way west. Sort of like an outlet store model transferring to another outlet store model. This would lead to reduced prices not exorbitant pricing. Is that what happened? It's economics 101. Comparison: In the outlet to outlet to outlet to... Each buyer would be aware he was buying surplus goods and would negotiate a mark down. This is not something invented by modern commerce it is natural. In the relay team model such as how illicit drugs come to market, each group purchases the goods marks it up and sells it to the next. The price then reflects this series of mark ups. Not only does the market-to-market model push prices continually downward it leads to a very unsteady market as only an unbroken series of surpluses provide goods at the far end. Any market on the way that is not saturated means the goods go no farther.

For a people who could compel others to taste their food for fear of poison, sending them on scary expeditions would not seem a problem. I do not suggest that they had to undertake it themselves proxies are just as good. When the Phoenicians circumnavigated Africa it was on orders from the pharaoh Necho II it was not something they did on a whim. The overland route to California was also a journey of great danger and uncertainty and was littered with the dead who failed, the route like the "silk road" was also loosely defined. It required months of brutal travel and could not succeed unless you caught the "window" just right. Too soon and no grazing for the animals, too late and and the snows closed the passes and you ended up like the "Donner party" who were forced to resort to cannibalism. The sea route had its own dangers with many perishing from disease acquired in Panama or robbed and killed by bandits in Panama. These well known risks did not prevent many thousands from trying. Even people from Europe, South America and China joined in the rush. This was not in the "cross in a day" age but in the mid nineteenth century. California was a land unknown to those who came and full of mystery and the intervening distances roved by "wild and fierce savages" cut by forbidding mountain ranges and desert but they came nonetheless. The impetus was the same as that for the "silk road" the desire for wealth i.e. gold. Furthermore many people have made journeys into the dangerous unknown. There are the Voortrekers of african fame, the polynesians of Tahiti, and the unfortunate Cherokee indians of the "Trail of Tears" who also travelled to new lands through wilderness and great hardships. So people have done it, can do it, and will do it.

I would submit as a hypothetical based on my knowledge of Merchants and their desire to maximize their profits that a least a few attempts would have been made to find a direct route that would bypass the middle men i.e. India and Persia. Whether by sea or land at least a few would have tried to see if it was feasible. Even in our present age businesses often do things that governments are unaware of and that rarely make it to desks of historians. Even if our records of the ancients were not just the tip-of-the-iceberg which they are, many such events would not have reached us. Had Marco Polo not published his book we would not have learned of his travels. Merchants trying to bypass their middlemen especially when it was proven to be not worth the effort would have kept mum so as not to poison the well. Also why would they wish to discourage their competitors from wasting money on such an expedition if they already knew it to be cost prohibitive? Better if after you have wasted your own money on such an expedition to let your competitor waste his own money. You would also not wish to advertise your discovery that such a venture turned out to be unprofitable so as not to appear foolish for having tried it.

I don't see that there is any disagreement here. Is it fair to say that there was on-going trade between the east and west and that it's extent like much of ancient history has been lost and is therefore up for conjecture? That the use of the term silk-route is really a generalized direction of travel east to west and west to east? That there were difficulties to passage but none that are insuperable such that they would make it impossible? That knowledge of the east existed in the west and knowledge of the west likewise existed in the east?

!. We can assume he didn't go by ship? Three years is about right for horse and foot but a little slow by sea. 2. The argument then is not that there was no trade overland by a "silk route" but that there was no continuos route or road? Who thought there was? 3. I see that when you use more ancient sources we seem to converge. I liked your comments. Good stuff. 4. Many if not most of the americans coming overland were illiterate ( I know this from direct personal research.) hence not as knowledgeable as many Patricians of Rome. 5. The last is my unclear statement. What I was attempting to say in my humble way was that the lands between Rome and China had been occupied for thousands of years and that people living in those lands had contact and trade with their neighbors so that if someone cared to and had sufficient inducements he could have travelled the distance overland. I have no problem with the bucket brigade concept. But if goods could travel from kingdom to kingdom what would stop a person from doing the same?

Sorry I got carried away.

I think this is telling in the question of did the ancients understand the nature of the moon vis a vis the sun. My link Aristotle discussed the shadow of the earth on the moon and deduced the earth was spherical. He therefore knew it to be the earths shadow. Therefore it had to be the suns light. You're never gonna get rich by underestimating the ancients.

Could it be something as prosaic as a priest or king getting blood in his eyes. After that he might turn away before the sacrifice and if anyone complained he had the story of Perseus to justify his actions? Isn't that how high heels, fake moles, shaved heads on Samurai, powdered wigs and faces came into being? Taking a fault and elevating it to a virtue.

Thank you for those links. I re-watched the making of Agora documentary last night and was struck by the Romaness of the crew. They came from so many different groups that it seemed right that they should do a movie about an Empire that was a melting pot of cultures.

I don't think one can dismiss Herodotus out of hand. Nor take others at face value. Even the greatest fool can speak the truth, while a scholar with credentials reaching the sky can be wrong. Each statement must be weighed on its own merit with an open mind. At least that is my philosophy. If it makes sense within the context of my experience I'll hear it out, no one is given a get out of jail card nor is anyone assumed to be wrong. Herodotus will always be closer to people who originated the stories than we will.

This is a great mystery. Not only would it be useful to see the interior but a flat projection of the holes would be handy too. I have only 3 possibilities so far none very strong. Perhaps it was rolled with strings for dispersing seeds? Could it be a primitive planetarium for kids showing stars with a lamp inside? Maybe it was used as a rough and ready cage to hold a small animal or bird? Wait, I have a fourth, used in the middle of a stream to catch fish?

Did one of Crassus' descendents come forward offering to buy it on the cheap?

But temple prostitutes were a feature of many pagan temples. Or so I was told once by a bishop.

I discovered something new from his book. The romans had pattern welded swords. I knew the vikings had them, and I have long suspected the technique reached Japan upon a viking boat. The timing is right. But now the roman swords open all sorts of possibilities. Hmmm....

It's a small world.

Rebuilt by the destroyers, how does that compare? We have the Matterhorn here in Santa Ana not to mention a castle and an Africa Safari!!! In Vegas there is a pyramid, an Eiffel Tower, Caesars Palace and the Venetian Canals. Not the same really.

Removed by TP as not on topic.