Maladict

Maty, Coarelli's book has been translated to English.

Jasper fans?

The Archaeology of Greece (or Ancient Greece) by Biers is one of the standard introductions to sites and artifacts (pottery and sculpture). Not much in the way of events and rulers, you'll need a history book for that.

I doubt you can pin that invention on a specific day. And in any case it had been around for over a decade by that time.

Impressive work, though because of atrociously slow loading I've only been able to see the terrain and monuments layers. I get the impression that the selection of monuments was made to limit the more conjectural buildings, although a few seem to have slipped through. Also, some buildings have interiors while others haven't. Is there a rationale behind this?

He released a new album not too long ago iirc.

Bad form

University libraries are usually accessible to 'outsiders' as well. At the very least you should be able to make photocopies.

It is. Any decent university library should have a copy.

Matthews, John F. (1985) Western Aristocracies and Imperial Court A.D. 364-425

More than once I've had my morning coffee come out of my nose while reading his jokes and other verbal abuse. It saddens me I won't get to know more, but at least some of it has been preserved here.

That's an interesting but controversial issue. "Elements" is an undefined term here and some of them may certainly have survived up to here and now, but that's quite far from the survival of a culture. Even if Augustine might still have read some punic books by the early fifth century, such laguage seems to have been effectively dead (no new native speakers) from a couple of generations after Punic War III. What would we be rightly able to call a "punic culture" under the Roman empire? Controversial it may be, and I used 'elements' deliberately as a vague term. But there are lots of Punic inscriptions covering most of the imperial period, though a fair number are written using the Latin alphabet. There certainly isn't as clean a break as you are suggesting. Here is a summary of a recent thesis on the subject. Interestingly, the African limes you mention seems to have provided many of these Punic inscriptions.

Indeed. Carthage might have been destroyed, but Punic culture wasn't. Elements of it survive well into the empire, and in some places right up to the Arab conquest.

Depends on your definition of 'newly' I guess. If we're talking 2008, then the house of Augustus would be the most important I guess. The excavations on the Pincio might still be visible, and there are small excavations in preparation for the new metro line, though they are usually fenced off and will not be prepared for public visits for obvious reasons. Last I heard Nero's palace was closed indefinately once more, but in Rome that could mean anything really.

Very interesting, thank you.

That's good to hear, thanks much for the heads-up. I really will take a good look at it as soon as I can find the time. Do you know by any chance what the relation between domus and insula is or (even better) their numbers as included in the project? I would be very interested to know what data were used to determine it. This is another thing lacking in the plastico, too many palaces, not enough 'common' homes.

Do you have any information on the third inscription?

As for the topic, haven't had a chance to take a look myself but the previews look great. Too bad it's based on a piece of fascist propaganda.

There's no spyware in Google Earth. Must be a false positive.

Last thing I read is that the Vatican gave permission to open the tomb. Then it all went quiet....suspiciously quiet

Shouldn't be too much of a problem, no, although there would have been a marble facing inbetween. Apparently the old rostra was demolished by Caesar to be replaced by a new version, but it wasn't completed before 42 BC. So at the time of the Cicero episode there would have been at best a partially finished rostra.

I approve of this. A practical solution to almost any problem.

No trouble at all, glad you found a way to solve it. But now I'm wondering about what you said, the actual rams being the bits that projected from the rostra. It would mean a large part of the rams would have been buried in the masonry and not have left any substantial traces as the rostra is still sporting its tufa facade mostly intact. Putting it onto the facade would create even more problems, needing some kind of framework to connect it to the tufa as well as substantial support. A metal beam driven into the rostra might do it, though. The only contemporary image I can find shows the rams attached sideways (barring mismatched perspective), which would certainly be an easier way of supporting the weight. Questions, questions.

Wouldn't that make it too heavy? It's hard to tell from the image, but it might well be hollow. The parts that connect to the prow are more plate-like in any case, and actually show puncture marks were it was nailed to the timber.