Primus Pilus

Gladiators had long been part of 'mob' factional infighting but it assuredly became more prominent in the turmoil of the late republic, including such factions as Clodius as Milo. Who better to use to control the streets when an 'army' isn't available, but men who are trained to fight. Indeed, while this may sound absurd, it was illegal for armed legionaries to occupy the city and using armed mobs as an alternative became an accepted way to circumvent the law but still accomplish the same goal. Gladiators remained a part of the inner circle of some emperors, but considering the Praetorians and the Emperors ultimate control over the legions, a need for them as an organized body of combatants faded with time. As for the general's staff. There were of course the standard appointments such as Tribune Laticlavius, the 5 tribuni augusticlavii the Praefectus and even the Primus Pilus but each Legate could 'bring along' various staff members that functioned in much the same way as a civilian patron-client relationship. To my knowledge there was no staff designation to signify the rank of a Legate that could correspond to the number of Lictors assigned to political magistrates. (Which I assume is what your trying to dig up?)

And Caesarion with Cleopatra... assuming that it truly was his son.

Looks like you're just getting your site up and running Xander, or is the forum just a new thing? I'll point attention immediately to this post on his forum as an indication that Xander is taking the uncleaned coin business seriously and trying to go about this the right way... Gold Found Scams

Not being a linguist, this is perhaps not an appropriate subject for me to comment on, but without the Phoenicians, the form of at least the western alphabet would be a completely different animal. Too much credit always seems to be given to the Greek 'alpha' and 'beta' understandably so, but the Phoenician influence is undeniable. Perhaps I'm simply repeating a 'known' ideal here, but considering that phoenician words and roots are found in such languages as the pre suggested Greek, Latin, Egyptian, Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew, etc., I'm hard pressed to ignore the influence even without formal study. Forgive my ignorance, but looking at the Phoenician originals I even see some startling similarities to Germanic runes. Considering the relatively young age of the runic languages I suppose that isn't surprising but it certainly attests to the influence of the original.

Eusebius is an important read, but one must simply understand that most everything is slanted in favor of Christianity and the church. Its no different than understanding the various biases of other authors in my opinion, but he does tend to over emphasize such things as persecutions and martyrdom, etc. He provided many works, perhaps the most well known being the 'Church History' (which is also the only one I've read). He goes into considerable detail on both secular and religious events but many are presented in such a way to help support his own beliefs. Unlike many secular predecessors, however, he is diligent in reporting sources, and for that he is much more akin to modern historians than many of his counterparts.

Most folks register and never post. Why they do this I cannot explain but its a common occurence on forums all over the internet. I'm sure there are some who come to read the archaeological news on a regular basis and registered out of convenience (so you can keep track of which topics you've already seen and such) but I cannot explain the vast majority. As for students who come by to ask questions... I can easily delete any post made where an obvious student is asking for answers to tests or homework (and I have deleted some), however doing so doesn't even give someone a chance to explain themselves. If it turns out they have no intention of interacting with our community then so be it. It won't kill us to read the occassional irritating and futureless post I suppose, but at least I didn't discourage them from the potential to study ancient history. Our growth has been fairly steady and has really picked up lately. Ignoring those relatively small bumps in the road just consider how many very active members have joined in the last two months or so. While growth brings better chances for abrasive personalities, it also brings the opportunity for deeper and livelier discussion.

This topic seems oddly familiar, but regardless I'll answer it the same way I vaguely remember doing so before... I'd meet Claudius because I'd like to read his lost work on the Etruscans. I just hope he doesn't drool on me.

Thread cleaned up... let's not go off on an unhappy tangent.

The Fall of Rome And the End of Civilization by Bryan Ward-Perkins The author addresses a simple question throughout this gem of a book, Why did Rome fall? Although only two hundred pages long, at the end of the book, I felt as if I had read the entire series of books on the fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon. The author is a scholar and has done an extraordinary amount of research and as he says in his preface, the book took an unconscionably long time to research, write and get published. I can certainly imagine that, as each sentence in this book is a mine of information and is backed by historical references, which are often scant, fragmentary or even non-existent for many years in those crucial centuries that led to the fall of the Empire from the 4th century AD to the end of the 5th... ...read the full review of The Fall of Rome And the End of Civilization by Bryan Ward-Perkins

Yes, I enjoyed it thoroughly and I rather enjoy the way the plot is being set up. The scorned lover influencing her reluctant son along with the other 'Republican' faction members. Truly why not? We all know that history of the time was dictated by men, and a women having too much influence would've reflected poorly on the events at hand, in their minds of course. Its entirely possible that Servilia was a major leader of such a plot and that her name was effectively stricken for purely class and social reasons.

Michigan is listed in the middle of the pack, but with the way the auto industry is going, the state is in serious trouble. Jobs are being outsourced overseas on a massive scale and I believe we currently have the highest unemployment in the country... so I'm surprised to see it listed in the middle.

There are plenty of reputable dealers selling on Ebay. I personally only buy from those who have listed stores at www.vcoins.com or from ancientauctionhouse.

Commodus was the self implied repersonification of Hercules... among other things. Hamilcar was correct in his description of Elagabalus

I'm not sure where that information came from but there are classic language programs in schools and universities all over the United States and the world.

No, I'm afraid they don't exist in any great detail. The consul list (at least that of the Republican era) survives largely thanks to the compilation by Marcus Terentius Varro. Additionally, because Romans tracked their history according to the year of 'Consul XYZ' holes can be filled and verifications made against Varro's somewhat flawed list.

Archaeologists believe they have located the grave of 16th-century astronomer and solar-system proponent Nicolaus Copernicus in a Polish church, one of the scientists announced Thursday. Copernicus, who died in 1543 at 70 after challenging the ancient belief that the sun revolved around the earth, was buried at the Roman Catholic cathedral in the city of Frombork, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of the capital, Warsaw... Full article @ MSNBC

Based on your selection, you might like Porcupine Tree. Brilliant progressive rock.

I readily admit that I'm not nearly as familiar with the poets and satirists as I should be, but as I recall, Juvenal's works largely corroborate the histories of Tacitus and to a lesser extent Suetonius. He was one of the few 'non-historians' that I enjoyed reading as he left virtually no target left untouched. Was he a jaded, miserable man? Perhaps, and I suppose that can taint his satires for historical value, but we openly recognize the biases of the 'historians' and still accept basic truths within their works.

While doing some research on Trajan's Dacian campaigns, I stumbled across these organizations... Earthwatch apparantly sponsors many archaeological digs Archaeology Volunteer Links is a site with a collection of links to related resources.

Dio Cassius' Roman History would probably be your best bet, even though its not strictly a 'biographical' account. Tacitus' Annals ends with Nero and the largely bogus Historia Augusta only begins with Hadrian.

Dio Cassius wrote: Dio Cassius obviously accredits the entire thing to Arnuphis and certainly not the Christians. Not much is known about this Arnuphis outside of this passage however. Some Christian scholars believe that the stoic Marcus would never have associated with a 'magician' and that he couldn't have been his companion and discredit his involvement simply based on this. They would have us believe that the thunderstorm which took place during the battle was attributed to the legion being made up purely of Christians and that it was their prayers which brought the lightning upon the barbarians. Later Christian writers (Eusebius) are largely responsible for having this event altered from one of Pagan descent (like many others) into a Christian one. A legion of christian soldiers in the reign of Aurelius seems entirely implausible, and according to the 'Antonine Column, the thundering legion was already accredited to Jupiter. Yet others report that the story of the creation of the "Thundering Legion" is wrong on both counts and that there is evidence of a Legion with that title since the time of Augustus... and that this particular legion used a lightning bolt as its scutum symbol. I believe there is some research that indicates that a contingent of 'Christian legionaries' were present in Aurelius' wars against the Marcomanni and the Quadi, but I don't have any ready access to that information off hand, and would doubt that it was an entire legion of 5,000 men at this point in history.

Indeed, hence the question. No matter I suppose as everyone gets a chance eventually. I just hope this thread hasn't been too much of a spoiler for our Brit and other European visitors.

And it was disgraceful to return home without your shield, if you survived. The shield was more important in the phalanx system than the man carrying it. If you lost your shield, you could no longer fill in the shield wall and therefore left your fellow soldiers exposed.

Well I certainly hope it meets with resounding approval from across the pond. Anything to help motivate additional seasons would be welcomed indeed. I wonder why such a long delay between airing in the US and the UK anyway.

We're just giving him guidance... not ready made answers that he can cut & paste.