Primus Pilus

Actually, most Europeans think we Americans are quite prudish. Just ask our Austrian friend Viggen

I know we left a cross around here somewhere....

Commagene laid within northern Syria and southern Cappadocia. Since Syria and Cappadocia were annexed as provinces years before the final fall of Commagene, it would stand to reason that the Commagen Kings maintained independent client status for some time.

Start sending emails to archaeology professors at universities throughout Europe. Most professors are eager to help students who show interest and initiative.

I personally feel that the best way is to send me $500

A couple of ideas... History of Christianity There Is No Crime for Those Who Have Christ : Religious Violence in the Christian Roman Empire

It may be the only actual truth regarding Caesar's ultimate conquest. Consider that his initial goal was to spread Roman influence in Illyria, Pannonia and beyond. With the disposition of the legions prior to his moving towards Gaul, it seems logical to me that the Helvetti were indeed causing problems. Now with that said, I agree 100% that Caesar used this situation to further his own agenda, but I do believe that the Helvetti were initially problematic for Gallic allies.

By whose authority and what does this have to do with a comparison to Rome?

Welcome Stefan to Unrv.com

I think it seems a bit 'embellished' but consider Josephus motivations... Titus, one of Josephus' benefactors did it with 4 legions. By reporting the previous siege needed 11 legions (and then some) it increases the glory of Titus' accomplishment. While we may not be able to prove whether or not my suggestion has any merit, its still this sort of thing that makes reading the ancients such a chore sometimes. While the overall general history did come to pass, we just can never be quite sure of all the details.

In Chicago? If so, I need to make a trip. Hell it's a -2 minute flight... of course the way back takes 1 hour and 58 minutes Or the cheap way by car or train is around 5 hours as I recall.

Yeah, Ursus has repeatedly mentioned his discomfort with the legion forum, so we need to elect a replacement.

Unless he means changing post ranks to something non military?

An old one courtesy of the infamous Spartacus... Roman Punishments

As important as Octavian proved to be, without Caesar's will he would have been a rather insignificant blip on the historical radar. The legions followed him and the people immediately loved him because he was the 'son of a god'. Though he may have had some political acumen and risen to to some degree in the senate roles of his own merit, without that will, the afore-mentioned support simply would not have existed.

In 1748, architect and surveyor Giambattista Nolli completed a map of his hometown. The Pianta Grande di Roma ("Great Plan of Rome") was built from 12 minutely detailed copper plates, covered six by seven feet in its assembled state, and was so accurate that it continued to be used as the basis for government maps of the city until the 1970s. In 2005, a team at the University of Oregon brought the map online in order to "create and implement an innovative and highly interactive website and teaching tool for the study of the city of Rome."... Full article @ Christian Science Monitor

While Peter may seem a bit zealous in his support of the 'Caesar was Jesus' concept, I give him credit for attempting to lay out his reasoning. Simple dismissal of a concept on a forum where people hold many differing beliefs isn't exactly going to persuade anyone.

The Mediterraneans were the most racist people in history. However, the P.C. racism of the West prevents us from seeing hate against Northern Europeans as racism. The book the Gallic Wars boasts how the Romans killed over one million Gallic men, women, and children, because they were culture-less, sub-humans. But since the Celts were lighter than the Romans, this was not genocide. Greek, Persian, Egyptian slaves would normally made into household slaves, because they were as dark as Romans, whereas most Northern Europeans were used up in the games or in the mines where they were lucky (or unlucky) to live three years. Roman racism helped Herman to defeat Rome. The Mediterraneans had so little respect for the "blond beast" that they danced right into an ambush. Every Roman account cites: Roman failure, bad omens, rain, etc. Everything, but the fact these "poop in the wood savages" had out smarted Romans. The Gallic Wars claims the Germans were not human enough to have even a religion nor believe in any God. The book Germania was like the Uncle Tom's Cabin of Rome. Germania was a very radical book that rejected the popular Mediterranean idea that the Northern people had no culture, no values, no human feelings, no morals, etc. In our P.C. world, we are always told racism is something light people do to dark people. Therefore, we cannot see the dark Mediterraneans hating, enslaving, and killing the lighter Northern Europeans as racism. This is a problem of our culture. When the Romans were robbing, enslaving, and murdering the Slavs, Germans, Celts, etc., both sides were aware that it was because of their race. Wyatt Kaldenberg Sorry Wyatt but I must disagree. Seems to me that your attempting to fit the ancient world into a more modern view of popular design. To call the Romans racist based on the slaughter of their enemies is failing to understand the fundamental differences between ancient and modern cultures. I will not deny that the Latin Romans were not thrilled with the idea of Italian inclusion into the citizenship roles, nor were they pleased with the same thing for the Gallic Celts or Celt-Iberians, and so on. I agree that the Romans harbored a form of racism (certainly viewing themselves as superior to all others) however, labelling the Romans as hateful only based on race would be failing to understand the fundamental structure of Roman society... the patron/client relationship, the value of citizenship and overall wealth and social standing were at the core of the Roman value system. While I do not personally deny that race played a role, its this social fabric that was FAR more important to a Roman. Did Caesar conquer Gaul because he hated Celts? Perhaps, who's to know for sure, but more importantly it provided Caesar the military glory he sought and it met with popular approval because of the great fear of the Celts based on a history of warfare between the cultures. In fact, Caesar is quite complimentary throughout the Gallic Wars. Of course we can view this as Caesar propping up the Gauls as a way to boost the greatness of his victory and therefore his own dignitas, but true racism does not generally allow for such complimentary behavior. Did the Romans hate the Celts... an argument can easily be made based on bloodshed, but their conquest was not a simple matter of racism alone. It was an event steeped in hundreds of years of a reciprocal adverserial relationship. The Celts didn't much care for the Romans long before Rome had the power to do anything about it, does that not make them racist as well? Were the Cimbri and Teutons racist when they massacred Romans that stood in their migratory path? In my opinion political correctness only comes into play when we used modern notions of 'Empire = Bad' in order to revise the history of the world. Using PC notions related to history is as wrong as using it in a modern context.

I added this quick reference chart for anyone who may need help following things.. HBO Rome Episode Guide

They are certainly using creative license to get 'our two heros' involved in the integral part of the story, but I still think its somewhat credible. We might think that the Egyptian Queen would not sully herself with a lowborn soldier, but how do we really know. Though I'm sure Cleopatra would have 'people' around her to provide that sort of ummm, distraction, if she needed it, so I guess the notion could be a bit silly. At any rate it didn't bother me all that much. The boy ends up dead in less than a generation anyway I did enjoy seeing Caesar finally acting somewhat with a take charge 'I AM CAESAR' kind of attitude. The exchanges between he, Ptolemy and the Egyptian advisors was well done. Along with the scene between Antony, Cicero and Brutus (even if it was a bit too, how can I say this... contrived perhaps?) this episode provided some excellent political intrigue. As for skipping a week... it seems to me that they are just trying to get as many people to get on board from the beginning as possible. It might be unorthodox for HBO (I wouldn't know, this is the only HBO series I've ever watched) but skipping a week is certainly nothing abnormal for non-cable television network series'.

I rather enjoyed the first two books in the Camulod Chronicles by Jack Whyte

Helvetia was not a 'province' it was just a name of a geographic region based on the tribal inhabitants.

Well to give Pompey credit, he had the civil war won at Dyrrhachium, he just didn't finish the job. He was much closer to defeating Caesar than Vercingetorix ever was.

In the Republican era, legions (and its X, by the way) were far less likely to be reinforced and stayed together from recruitment to retirement. We generally hear of Caesar's legions operating at less than full strength, simply because they were recruited together, fought and died together, and retired together. Casualties were generally not replaced. We know that Caesar's XIVth was reconstituted after it suffered greatly in Gaul but for the most part the legions only received light reinforcement. It was important to maintain the legions in this manner so that retirement eligibility, spoil sharing benefits, etc. could all be determined. It was only with the imperial era that legions became permanent (which did include some of Caesar's late recruits) and 'salaries' virtually replaced payment via spoils. With this method, Rome kept track of its soldiers as individuals rather than entire armies. What an administrative nightmare that must have created...

Without Paul of Tarsus, I believe that Christianity fades away into the oblivion of time and spiritual competition. He is single handedly most responsible (even moreso than the Christ) for spreading its concepts to a far ranging audience. It was his tireless efforts that established the bulk of doctrine that we now associate with the core beliefs of the faith.