Bryaxis Hecatee

Thanks Medusa. I'll try to go there in the early evening, at the time most peoples go to supper...

Thanks all for this first round of advises. I've already bought the french Routard's Guide (+/- Lonely planet) and Michelin Green Guide (more cultural than the Routard, but less than a Blue guide would have been) and I'm currently going through their pages. I've also made sure that my copies of the Metro phone apps and of my phone's Garmin GPS maps are up to date for navigating the city. I'm mainly interested in ancient (=antiquity) and art nouveau/jugenstil art, but much less about DDR or underground places which, from what your sites show, has no special interest for me (especially as I've already visited WW2 command bunkers in the past). The Museuminsel is next to my hotel (or, rather, I chose an hotel on Booking.com that was next to the island) so those are definitively on my list. What I've also added to my list up to now : - Brohan Museum ( 1890 - 1940 art) - Schloss Charlottenburg - Reichstag - Film museum (mainly for Leni Rifenstahl) - Olympic stadium - Gemaldgalerie (Ancient painting - M-A and Renaissance masters) - Kunstgewerke museum (M-A to Jugenstil) - Deutsche Historische Museum - IIIrd Reich Air Ministry - Deutsche Techniek Museum Berlin - Spandau - Museum Dalhem - Potsdam : Sans-Soucis and other palaces As for food, I must say that I don't drink beer, only wine, and that I dont like sauerkraut nor Curry Thus I shall see what I'll eat, lucky for me I got nothing against kartoffels !

Hello everyone. End of the week I shall take the ICE high speed train to Berlin, a 7h long ride that will deliver me to the place of a full week of vacations... Yet I have taken my decision rather late and have no definitive plans outside of visiting the museums of the "museums island". Do you have any advises on things to do or to visit there ? Any practical advise en public transportations, taxi cheats, or good places to eat ? Of course any romano- and antiquity-centric advises that are most looked after, but don't hesitate to suggest anything (decent ) else

It looks like it might have been out for an exhibition in Orleans, but it seems back. It is known under the title "portrait of a priest of Sarapis" ("pr

Pff some are having fun here More seriously there is indeed a pagan demonology which is seen mainly in the curse tablets and magical papyrii. Hecate could be (and sometime was) seen more as a kind of demon than a godess. We also find various "powers" that are not gods in the cursing texts, mainly from the eastern world, and some calls to powerfull dead magiciens including Jesus (yes, the one of the christians). Amongst the demons, some are the one found in the jewish books or deformations of the names of ancient babylonian divinities. Thus one will find non-christian calls to Abrasax or Baalzebuth in the texts. I've never inquired in this kind of litterature despite having an introductory course on the topic during my studies, but I know there is ample bibliography on the topic. Of course one must also be careful not to mistake the philosophic Daimon with the demons (= bad surnatural creatures) even if on sees in the later magical formula that the mistake was done by some autors, including leading neo-platonician philosophers of the 3rd or 4th century AD.

I would also wonder at the level of skill in siege warfare of the punic armies. One of the strenght of the romans was that they build and kept a knowledge of artillery due to the amout of sieges they did. The Carthaginian were much less often besiegers, especially of fortified cities. We don't hear very often of battlefield artillery either, except ont the roman side. Thus it might very well be that a lack of engineers who knew how to build the things might have been a factor in Hannibal's decision. Because one has to remember that countrary to appearances, catapults and other sieges weapons are delicate things which can easily malfunction if not properly set up : siege towers that can't move due to weight or terrain, onager that dissemble due to an inability to stay cohesive after the "kick",... The metal fittings of more complex pieces like scorpio might also have required more time or ressources to make than could be spared by the besiegers too, who had to use what they had on hand as tools and ores to make pieces which would be subject to tremendous stress. Also the amount of ressources needed for a full blown siege might well have been rather high, as shown by the siege of Rhodos by Demetrios Poliorcete (and I don't speak only of the Helepole, the massive 40m/125 feet tall siege tower with it's iron cover...) : remember that the rhodian built the Colosseus in part with the scraps left behind...

You saw it too this saturday ?

The forum is far from military and such questions are always apreciated ! I'd say that it would not really matter. AD is indeed better known, as the older and more widely used form, but is 1) christian oriented 2) based upon a false assumption (since the Christ's birthdate was wrongly computed). If historical precision is of more interest to you then use Common Era (CE) and Before Common Era (BCE) without qualm. After all any reader nitpicking on that will do so only if he has nothing else to bicker about and we all know that readers always complain

He did succeed in military operations rather young, beside being very courageous (see the siege of mythilene) but he was schooled in the military art and came to a point where he could command military forces in his late thirties, during his praetorship, as was expected in the cursus honorum. Alexander, on the other had, immediately had control of rather large forces, first under his father's command and then as sole leader, something Caesar would'nt have before Spain and, especially, Gaul. One might say he came from lower officer class and rose to preminence, gaining his right to command in ways Frederick II never had to and also differently from G. Washington.

Well if I look to the current operations in both Irak and Afghanistan I see western armies also using a lot of private marchants for their logistic... But back to the ancients, and specificaly the romans : - while during the republic we see ad hoc efforts, we also see true wonders of logistics, as shown by the way piracy was handled by Pompey, a man who gave logistics a huge importance. Caesar, as shown both in Gaul and in Greece (and elswhere beside...) was much less carefull on this topic. Previous generals also show interest on the topic, but nothing really conclusive. In the imperial period, western warfare often required relatively little logistics due to the nature of the warfare, mainly guarison duty and squirmishes with sometimes larger operations. In the east on the other hand, a system of logistics was built to support the armies on long range warfare across very hostile natural environnement, as is often shown by that time's accounts, even as late as the 4th century (think of the logistics of Julian II's expedition). Possibilities for foraging were few in the northern and central syrian areas, and even less numerous in Irak... A whole network of strongpoints and fortress was built to provide both border coverage and staging grounds for the armies. Also while their was indeed no separate logistical corps, I think the praefectus fabrum and praefectus castrorum might very well have had a larger part in logistics than what you seem to think... The fact that the Notitia Dignitatum also provides us with record of weapons production centers does also tend to make me think a true logistical system existed at the time (late 4th century) that I would see more as a legacy of an earlier period than as a late empire innovation.

We know that ancient logistics were often more advanced than we usualy think, and this since very early times as shown by assyrian or egyptian accounts. In the classical greek world we see convoys, organized supply trains equiped with standardized equipement (Sparta, see Xenophon) and standing orders on logistics for mobilization of the citizen forces (Athens, see Thucydides). We also see logistics in the way the Athenian fleet's was maintained (arsenal accounts). One may suggest (and I did it in my MA thesis) that two different logistical systems did exist in ancient greece, one state run land based structure in the peloponnese and a privately organized, sea based, for the Athenian league. One element to explain the difference might be the availlability of coin in the two economies, which allowed Athens to care only for money, private initiative doing the rest (which could lead to disaster but does also explain a great deal of the peloponesian war) while Sparta's less advanced economy privileged using state ressources and state planning. Maximum daily consumption by soldiers is known for the period thanks to Thucydide's narration of the Sphacterie incident. Later operations like Cyrus attempt against his brother (Xenophon's 10 000) also show logistical preparations of an advanced level while Alexander's army seems to have been more based on the athenian model, although in larger parts land based. Roman era logistics shows that during the republic the effort was often had hoc and rather planned, although generals like Caesar could show huge mistakes in their logistics. Most of the logistic seems based on foraging and marchands, In the imperial era, trade would indeed play a large part but I think that the situation might have been different depending on the front the army found itself, for the eastern part of the realm was less favorable to private initiative providing supplies.

If you need advices on the "rather soon not to be one anymore" land do not hesitate to contact me.

We know live fish was sold in inland markets, an archeologist showing some years ago that the central round building found in many market places (macellum) was used for such sale, thus I'm not that surprised that they devised such systems.

In my opinion the concept of hero is a mistaken concept, because heroes are so only thanks to the look other have on them. Thus there may only be what is usualy described "great men", who do either more good or more evil in their life (evil being understood as pain, suffering, violence to others, not any religious concept from the so-called books religions). If one looks at Caesar one see a man who has indeed caused much strife, be it through political actions (supporting Clodius is an example), military conquest, or any other way. All the wealth he acquired and then poured onto the roman society had been taken from millions of peoples whose lives he shattered in Gaul. This makes for a strong "evil" case. But on the other hand while he did not accomplish stability, he forged the conditions for Octavius' rise, and also undertook a great many reforms not only of policies but of whole fundamental concepts of a society, including the most fundamental one, the concept of time. He also gave a blueprint to Octavius for reforms he planned but had no time to achieve and which were put in place during the first decades of Octavius' rise to absolute power, including colonization schemes. Also his actions provided for the usage of Latin in the Western Empire, a language that would allow civilisation to communicate from area to area without troubles thanks to shared speech. By providing what was to become France with the structure he began to build and which was later completed and enlarged by Aggripa, he allowed civilisation to enlarge enough to survive the dark ages. As such he is at least as much as Augustus the father of the western civilisation and source of a lot of good. With our current knowledge I'd thus put Caesar amongst the greater "good" men of history and thus have him closer to "hero" than to "villain".

To my everlasting shame I never went there despite the fact it's less than 100km from my home... (but I rarely go to Flanders I must say). I might go there next week-end then and bring back some pictures and, why not, a museum review...

Might well be a mistake I made, I'll check with my pictures of the explanations given in the museum (I took them last year during a trip in the area), thanks for the warning ! As for Naples museum, I've not yet tagged every bust I saw there, so check the galleries (they are 2) on the Naples museum to see if a good picture of that bust is not amongst the lot...

With the colours and the background of the picture I would not be surprized if your mysterious picture came from the Napoli National Archeology Museum. You may also want to take a look at the Brescia gilded bronze Probus (cf. https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/view?uname=bryaxis&subjectids=k0_R9V--NsuBDXLpnvFW96_58PBMeNzRAqaC6YSoBnw# )

I'm just back from a week end in the south of France, Montpellier to be precise, and managed to schedule a tour of nearby N

From memory, macedonian soldiers of Alexander were conscripts supplemented by mercenaries, not volunteers like in the roman imperial period. sure they got paid, but it was a more a model of logistics than a way to give them an income (which came from plundering, ransoms and eventual gifts). Of course some units ended up being professionnal soldiers by the end of Alexanders campaigns and kept fighting for years under the diadochoi, but even then they only made part of the armies involved.

Whah ! The McDo commercial is pure dutch from the Netherlands, with quite a strong accent ! Even someone able to understand dutch (especially the flemish version) has a hard time with that one !

Well could you please write here what latin was given in the article ? We could use some tools to try identifying it or look inside it for details. For example if they are names we can take a look into prosopographical books for example, or look at what informations are given in the imperial title...

Hi, Do you have any scholarly reference for the inscription ? In any case you must know that it might very well be that we don't know the name of the governor of the province (the city would probably have other kind of magistrates, and more than one, to lead itself). But the reference to the Emperor might very well provide you with a much more precise datation because the inscriptions usually give us the complete title of the emperors, including the number of "tribunitian power" and/or consulate he has already achieved, with provides us with a date precise to the year or the half year. So without the text of the inscription and/or scholarly reference to it (be it Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum or an Ann

The horsemen came from two teams, a belgian (Malagne, http://www.malagne.be/fr/arch_militaire.asp, 2 horses) and a german one (Time trotter, http://www.timetrotter.de/, 4 horses). While the first is from a more scientific team, the second is from a more commercial team of re-enactors. Anyway, pleased to have made your day

Well you've done very well finding it that way ! The church is currently being restaured, it's an intersting building that makes me think of Marseille's two main churches (in fact I choose it after it appeared while looking at ancient remains at Marseilles)

Bravo Maladict, the spirit of the pontifying austrian in your profile must have shown you that the church behind was the one dedicated to St Augustine in his algerian hometown of Hippo Regius, also known as Hippone, B