P.Clodius

You have a lot of studying to do!

I stand corrected. Substitute Cyprus for Crete. The rest I standby.

He was actually smart about it, he did it on the 'downlow' to use a modern euphemism. Bibulus, Cato's son in law if I remember correctly was seen handing out bribes on Cato's behalf. And there was Cato's rejection of the attempt to overturn the legislation enacted by Clodius, a political enemy and something Cato would normally have been in favor of. Clodius had proposed Cato's governorship of Crete and therefore if his legislation was overturned Cato would have had to return all the money he'd leeched off the Cretans. The man was a sham with a loud mouth, and wanted nothing more than to preserve the elitism of the senate, and therefore become rich. He was corrupt, he was a drunk, and was a politician of the worst kind, the roman equivalant of Tom Delay!

And romans tended to be small in stature anyway due to diet. Not a heavy meat based diet.

This picture isn't all that good but it gives you an idea.

It was Augustus who got the eagles back. After Actium he went to Egypt to sort that out, once he'd done this Parthian abassadors approached him on his overland trip back to Italy, a low key non aggression pact was signed and the eagles handed back. This is depicted on Augustus' lorica musculata on the Prima Porta statue