Tribunicus Potestus

Agora is actually the "place of meeting" it would equate to the forum. It was pointed out to me when I was studying in Mexico that the Spaniards had used the same layout in every town in Mexico. It must have been passed on by the Romans. The layout is like this Government Palace on one side, Cathedral on another, and "los portales" the portals which are where the shops are. These things can all be seen in the Roman Forum. The markets, the temples, the Senate. To him it represented the three powers of the state. In that sense the title is metaphorical. The powers-that-be allowed Hypatia no escape. There was no room for knowledge or beauty in the new order only the ruthless quest for power and wealth.

Good points. Might I also suggest the cross cultural effects of bordering on China. Romans did not shy from borrowing ideas from outside if they were good. China was ahead of Rome in many respects and close contact would reflect this. Roman ideas would be bound to enter China as well. Also many chinese would be living in the Empire and romans in China. It's inevitable. Borders are always shades not fine lines. If you travel a lot you will see what I mean. In your book does china invent gunpowder? Close contact with Rome would accelerate this I would suspect. Rome would then get their hands on it in very short order. There would be all kinds of spies both sides of the border. Not to mention corruption both sides as well.

These are all fine books. I just bought two copies of the Matyszak book. One for me and one for my son's birthday. I hope he enjoys it as much as I have. It's a cross between the Marine field manual and a boy scout manual with a wry sense of humor. He wasn't in the scouts long but he did 5 years in the Corps. He made Centu... I mean Sergeant. My son doesn't read a lot of history but this is presented in a way that is both easy and fun. You may start chuckling at the humor but by the time you've finished you have learned a great deal about the legions. What did Mary Poppins say? "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down." I love this book and I love combining humor with history.

Herodotus, Linguistics and now genetics seem to agree, The Etruscans came from the east see here My link Lydia in Turkey. Some people think they are linked to what the Egyptians called the "Sea Peoples". I was looking at Etruscan artwork yesterday and was quite surprised to find several depictions of sub-saharan africans. One must assume that most of the artifacts that have come down to us only a fraction have been found. Of those that still exist they are only a fraction of those created. So there must have been quite a few s.s.a.'s in Etruria and this would certainly suggest an Egyptian connection. Seneca the younger wrote The difference between "us" and the Etruscans is "Where we believe lighting to be released as a result of the collision of clouds, they believe clouds collide so as to release lightning". "for as they attribute all to diety, they are led to believe not that things have meaning insofar as they occur, but rather that they occur because they must have a meaning." Sounds like egyptian thinking to me. I recall from sixth grade (incredible isn't it.) we had a guest who had returned from Sudan while in the Peace Corps about half the people in the village he taught at were muslim so girls were not allowed to attend even if they were non muslim. But he told us about his experience, he said the locals believed that Malaria was caused by eating bananas. He asked his supposedly educated guide if he believed it. "Of course not! Everyone knows mosquitos cause malaria. But if you eat bananas it will make your blood sweet and attract the attention of mosquitos."

LINK Sin semia, or was it all seeds and stems? Sorry, I couldn't resist.

However you spell it I spell it D.E.S.T.R.O.Y.E.D. Troy by Agamemnon and Tyre by Alexander.

I have to agree here. The romans were horrified when they saw the types of wounds created by long slashing swords. They shouldn't have been. Stabbing wounds if they are deep enough and in the torso are invariably fatal without modern intervention while slashing wounds even terrible ones can be survived. When Rapiers and Small Swords were developed in Europe the broad swords were abandoned. Their thrusting stabbing attacks and increased deadliness made it a no brainer. Only with cavalry did the dual purpose Saber survive.

No, he is also mentioned in other texts from the same period (see below). It is certainly not bad scholarship, you simply need to know how antique text corpora works (and the bible is, religious or not, an antique collection of texts) and under what circumstances the text in question was produced. Religious texts are as useful for historical studies as the "real" ancient annals and histories are. I would guess that The Bible and Herodotes histories contain about the same amount of facts. Not to mention the early history of Rome in Livy. Anyway, on Jesus and Christianity; there are actually many and surprisingly early references to the Christians - only a couple of decades after his death - in the Roman literature (too many to be listed here) although references to Jesus himself are rare. He is, however, mentioned in Josephus history of the Jews: "Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrim of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, [or, some of his companions]" Josephus - Antiquities of the Jews XX. 9. This event is said to have taken place under the rule of Herod Agrippa I, i.e. 37-44 AD, not long after Jesus death. And on the brother thing, take a look at the dead sea scrolls for more information on Jesus brothers (e.g Thomas). It is, in the end, quite inconceivable that a small cult would spring out of nowhere in the 30's-50's AD by inventing a characters life, describe it in several gospels and tie them to historical events and characters. Then add that the main character, i.e. Jesus, would also be mentioned in other texts - and we know for a fact that there were several Messiahs in Judea during the period, so the though of one of them actually becoming famous is not far fetched. It would have been, had Christianity been a cult invented by the ruler, possible that Jesus was fictional, but it wasn't. Christianity came from "middle-class" Jews with no major influence and no aim but to spread the faith, there are no indications of the Apostels getting rich so to speak (getting killed under horrible circumstances seems to have been likelier). And they were not trying to create a uniting religion for the empire (as some later emperors), they had no such interests. Josephus was relying on second hand information from the christian cult itself. He was not a christian. We don't know how he got that information. Where do you get the idea that christianity was popular among middle class jews? If you read the letters of Paul you get the impression that jews were not drinking the cool-aide and that was why he turned to the greeks. Romans of the period speak of the religion as largely attracting plebeians and slaves. Why were greeks drawn to it? That is a good question. If you are going to dissect the bible you need to separate the old testament and new. Jewish scholarship regarding the old will no doubt be the more reliable. You will need to separate the Pentateuch which is the Torah from the other books. The new testament was assembled by the Imperial church (which later divided into the Catholic and Orthodox churches) so they will give the best interpretations of that. It only confuses the texts when they are lumped together. Good for religions but bad for historians. On the subject at hand I find Genesis as the most interesting. The bronze age myths are a glimpse into the minds of those times. They are allegories and not historical per se. Cain and Able seem to me to represent the inevitable clash between farmers and free rangers that has its parallel in the american west. Like many myths it tries to explain a mystery, "why are the farmers so short compared to the shepherds and cattlemen?" They would not have known that diet, meat and dairy vs. grain and legumes plays a major role in size. Therefore it must have been God. Abraham and Isaac, why don't we sacrifice humans like the Phoenicians? I think this points to the time that jews broke off from their fellow Phoenicians and abandoned human sacrifice. Again "it was God". Poor Eve, women always get the blame. With the retreat of the last ice age north africa and the middle east have gotten drier and harsher what was once "a garden of Eden" now looks like dried out husk. "Why do people speak so many languages? and "Wow, that Ziggurat is a really big building why did they build it?" The Tower of Babel gives us a two-fer.

You are arguing semantics. The "overland routes" to california were ad hoc and followed many variants, there were no roads. The statement that "Romans never met Chinese at trading stations" is based on what? What we don't know? Records that have reached us from Rome are far from comprehensive. We are still making discoveries every day. If a Roman merchant or tax collector met a chinese how would he differentiate one from all the other foreigners he met? People today who have no excuse confuse Asians and Africans and Europeans. They confuse Sikh with Muslim, or even Armenians with Muslims. I was called "English dog" by a drunk in France. People here confuse Australians with English, Scots and Irish. I have seen latin americans get angry with armenians for refusing to speak spanish they find it hard to believe when I tell them they are from asia and don't speak spanish they are not being rude. And who can tell a canadian from and american? Merchants don't care where you are from just that you pay. If a market exists merchants will find a way to exploit it.

I would like to see those arguments. Nonsense, Marco Polo rode a horse to China and back. Roman Legionnaires appear to have ended up in China after their capture at the battle of Carrhae. When the Mongols reached eastern Europe they were asking for the location of Rome. Rome was aware of China and China was aware of Rome. Certainly sea routes were preferable they were much quicker but people will still have used the land routes. During the american gold rush most people sensibly came by ship. Either crossing overland at Panama or across Nicaragua up river by ship and crossing overland a distance of 10 miles on the Vanderbildt route. Or circumnavigating South America by sail ship. None the less many people came overland some pushing their belongings in wheel barrows. These people were no more advanced than the people of the old world in ancient times. If we didn't have the records of the overland journeys but only the ship travels some might conclude that passage over the Rockies, Sierra Nevadas, and the great desert would make an overland passage impossible. But since I am here because an irish-american ancestor came overland from Iowa and married another one of my ancestors a german-american who took the Nicaragua route from New York I think that is good evidence of the land route. The land route to California was across land that was savage this would not have been the case for those crossing between asia and europe. The gold rush route sprang up over night, the spice route had many thousands of years to develop.

Vandal rule ended in 534, the western Empire had already deteriorated to the extent that they were not much help. The eastern Empire had their own problems. You had christians who were antagonistic toward everything about classical civilization which was pagan and therefore not to be trusted. So you had christian vs. pagan. With the Arian Heresy you had Catholics vs. Arians or christian vs. christian. When the Vandals arrived they persecuted the Catholics so you had pagan vs. christian all over again. Then when the arabs swept in you had muslim vs. christian. Then you had the wars over Islam which led to muslim vs. muslim. All these religious battles must certainly played a factor in the suppression of development in north africa. Every time they would have tried to get up they were knocked down again.

For the same reasons that I don't believe in aliens coming to earth, I believe contacts with the ancients inevitable. Numbers, resources, distances and time. Resources - They had them in abundance. Numbers - We don't have exact numbers but there must have been tens of thousands of vessels in and around the Mediterranean at any given time. Distances - Not a physical barrier when using the trade winds. Time - There have been boats in the Mediterranean for over 10,000 years. Humans did not cover the earth by being unwilling to explore. Cassandra's curse is a prominent feature of humanity. Curiosity drives us.

The problem for ancients coming to the new world is not technical. Anything that doesn't sink will reach the west following the trade winds. An african fishing boat accidentally arrived by accident in the recent past. A european car was modified to be sea worthy and came over. Yachts and small boats make the crossing all the time. The problem is purely psychological. Fear of the unknown and motivation "why go". Answer these two and all arguments against ancient contact lose power. I thought I had the answer but it had a large gaping and obvious hole. So I am back to square one. The "they sailed only by day" argument belies the evidence of the Great Pharos at Alexandria. No one would build a stupendous light house if they were not already a common and proven concept. I hate this, I feel like the blinded Polyphemus what I seek is just outside my grasp. Arrghhhh! I know the proof is there but I can't lay my hands on it. "Who did this to you?" "No man." "If no man did it then it must have been a god and we can't fight the gods." Arghhh!

I spoke once with a woman who was managing one of the larger casinos in Las Vegas who was Romanian. Somehow my son came up and when I told her that I had named him Trajan she said "Trajan is the father of our country". I would like to learn more of about Dacia. I have neighbors who are from Romania. When my cousin came to visit from Mexico City we were shown books at their home and he was stunned that he could read Romanian.

The Armenians have a long and interesting history. One time allies of Rome, Byzantium and the Crusaders. The first nation to adopt christianity, to have a christian king (not necessarily an endorsement but interesting). Crassus refused to accept the advice of the Armenian king and suffered the consequences at Carraeh.

The parthians are also of interest to me. But so are all the cultures mentioned here.

Explanation of what I mean in the last statement. A gathering in of influences rather than a spreading out. The greatness of Greece was as much drawn from the outside as inside greece. Macedon, Sicily, Persia, Egypt, Turkey and the Islands. Rome from Etruria, Greece, Egypt, Spain, Near east, north africa, the Celts. The ground was fertile metaphorically speaking. Greece and Rome were firsts among equals not suddenly appearing out of thin air. In North America the advances spread from the Yucatan with the Olmecs, to the Mayans, Toltecs and then to Central Mexico with the Aztecs and then northward. It's all wrong the arrows only go in one direction outwards from a point rather than a naturally evolving coalescence. No wonder kooks come up with aliens as an explanation. It doesn't add up.

Art is an imitative practice just as science it is built on the shoulders of giants it doesn't spring from the ground or grow on trees. The wheel problem troubles me as well. Although the wheel is found as a childs toy. No iron but there is copper and gold work. Human Sacrifice in particular child sacrifice. Agriculture Writing The use of zero Ceramics Myths involving a white god and his return across the sea from the east metal work monumental architecture including pyramids monumental art Word similarities - Balam Baal Quetz alcoatl Khilletz baal ball game black features on Olmec Heads Location at west end of the Trade Winds. These things suddenly arise and spread outwards maize which was developed in Mexico had spread to the area of Massachusetts by the time the Puritans arrived. In Europe advances were gathered inward by the great civilizations rather than spread out from a single point.

I can't do Thursdays, though - that's when I do the Morrisons shopping. Right, Thursday leave then. Anyone else?

Last night I saw this view of the Toltec Figures for the first time. My link I had only ever seen the famous view. I was struck by what I saw in the foreground. Compare this column to a greek column shown here. My link There is the use of male female coupling in both. That is curious enough but look at the design along the upper edge of the column. How can that be anything but a greek style interpretation of waves such as is found on greek ceramics? There are a lot of questions but I guess I'll have to wait until carthaginian coins are found in the New World for proof. If only the library at Carthage would have been spared. With Alexander destroying Tyre and Scipio Carthage I can't find any good Punic architecture. If the carthaginians played a ball game like the Mesoamericans that would clinch it. I'm giving up on the problem of Carthaginians coming to the New World it's giving me a headache there are too many weird theories out there and similarities between the Carthaginians and pre-columbia are too tempting but not conclusive.

Here is Herodotus describing the Carthaginian circumnavigation of Africa two hundred years before Erastothenes measured the earth My link

Simple it was made there. The selling of religious artifacts to the gullible was common. Nails from the cross, pieces of the cross and the ark, fingers, feet, and other bones of one saint or another. Pilgrims were always traveling to the holy land. Someone once remarked that enough pieces of the Cross had been sold to make up many crosses. The shroud probably originated there but was a medieval fake.

The protein argument was advanced for Aztec cannibalism some years ago. The argument goes something like this. The Aztec diet was based primarily on beans and corn (maize for you brits) since beans and corn have different growing seasons and both are needed for a complete protein droughts and famines would have created a massive problem for a city of a million. Game animals had been largely wiped out and they had no cattle or pigs. Try feeding a million on game animals. The prime meat sources were dogs and snakes. That in itself produces a dilemma since they require meat themselves. The mexican painter Diego Rivera participated in a pseudo scientific experiment in which a human cadaver was consumed. Human flesh has been compared to pork in taste. Which would explain why the preparation of Carnitas matches aztec cooking of human. I'm getting hungry here! For those who like barbecue that was how they prepared dog.

I have always wondered if the spanish word for ship 'barco' and word for boat 'barca' derive from the family name of Barca as in Hannibal. Southern Spain was governed by the Barca family at one time.