Primus Pilus

Thank you Joe.. an excellent treaty on the coins of Caligula. As a very limited collector of ancient coins, I find it interesting that Claudius seems to be getting the blame for the reduction of of his predeccesors coinage, while silver coins of Claudius are seemingly almost as rare (perhaps I'm misinterpreting). Nero must certainly take the blame for the reduction in Claudian silver (as we know that despite Suetonius' biography, Claudius maintained at least some level of credibility among following emperors... ie Vespasian built a temple to honor the cult of Claudius), so can't we simply blame Nero for the reduction in Caligula's coins as well. Though as you point out, there seems to be a rarity in portrait coinage for Caligula regardless of coinage type. Forgive my musing, its late and this simply came to mind as I was reading, whether its directly 'on topic' or not... Welcome to the forum, btw

As a writer, I feel that writing (spelling, grammer, etc.) is very important. I am quite bothered by the lack of respect given our own languages. Alas, perhaps I'm a dinosaur. PS. I am not saying I don't make mistakes (far from it), but I generally try to express myself correctly.

The Catholic church purged classical rights, traditions and rituals and replaced it with their own hyporcritical moral code

Sticking with the Roman theme mine would be: 'Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire' Though its not so much a terrible falsehood as it is a misnomer or bastardization.

A body found in a peat bog in northern Germany, first thought to be a murder victim, turned out to be a sensational archeological find: the 2,700 year old mummified corpse of a teenage girl. At first the police thought the body of a teenage girl they were alerted to was evidence in an unsolved murder case. But upon closer examination, it turned out the suspected victim of foul play found a peat bog in the town of Uchte, Lower Saxony, was actually slightly older than first thought, some 2,700 years older... From DW World

A world-class archaeological exhibition opened this week in Calabria, in the toe of Italy. Its subject is Magna Graecia, or Greater Greece - the name given to parts of southern Italy colonised by the ancient Greeks 2,500 years ago. The migrations of modern Europe are nothing new. But for the ancient Greeks, southern Italy was their America... From the BBC

I mean this is the best possible manner, truly. Before talking a novel you may want to work on that grammar, sentence structure and spelling. I am not making fun, its intended as constructive. I understand your young age and admire your zeal, but to accomplish some goals there must be other achievements along the path.

Btw, are there any particular re-enactment groups making an appearance?

Hey, who said you can post... get back in there and work on those web modifications!

While 'Wales' was generally quiet after the conquests of Agricola (from the perspective of written evidence) I've always believed that legionary presence was essential to keep the peace. Just consider the disproportionate number of forts in Wales vs. the lack of them in the Romanized southeast. Roman Britain.org

Judas and Jesus

I think the discussion of the concept of honor is a very worthy one, but surely you can see how this post is laden with sterotype, and frankly comes off as racist. Lets keep it clean please. More nationalism in this case than racism.. but agreed... but I really think a light hearted jest just got us a bit carried away. Shall we get back to the thread topic. I do like German beer though, alas

These are imperial legions... requests of this nature went from a provincial governor/legatus to the emperor and/or his court. It depends on what they needed, and where they were. Under most circumstances, as already suggested, auxilia would be raised locally, but there are cases of major movements... such as the Sarmations to Britain under Aurelius. A legionary cohort could not be raised without the order of the emperor. Vexillations (detachments) of legions were commonly transfered in various places throughout the empire depending on need. Vegetius provides an excellent starting point into many of these issues. Portus Ritupiae (near modern Richborough, near Dover) would still have been the major British port circa AD 60. The likely transport route from the continent to Britain was probably Gesoriacum (modern Boulogne, France) to Ritupiae. (This is the route we know that Plautius used for the invasion in AD 43) That all depends on who, what, why and how... I'm sure some liberties can be taken with this. This site Roman Britain.org is an invaluable resource on Roman Britain. You may have to do a bit of research, but you should be able to find some actual auxilia and or legionary units that may have been arriving about the time period you are looking for.

Also, as we don't have editors, other than eachother, its very likely that there will be periodic spelling errors, etc. on various pages. As always, please continue to point them out. If you've ever written anything you know how easily mistakes blend in when its your own work.

The emperor pages (anything currently after Nero) were painstakingly compiled by Viggen, whose first language is German. Sometimes everything doesn't quite translate perfectly so I try to edit, but apparantly missed that page Thanks Trajen.

Thanks to wonderful research already prepared by Jona Lendering over at Livius.org.. Caesar's Legions prepared to go east were II, III, IIII, XXVII, XXXV, XXXVI, XXXVII (At this point Caesar's long term veteran legions had been settled... Legions VI - XIV)

Perfectly reasonable... it is a wonderful resource.

Many more maps are on the agenda, its just a time consuming process. I was thinking of doing a chart though, at any rate.

Yes, we had to choose a 'cut-off' point, and the fall of the west was as good as any. Yes I agree that the Byzantines/Romanions are an extension of the west in many ways (despite some cultural differences) but it still marks a very distinctive turn of events in western history.

There are actually several threads devoted to similar discussions. (Regarding ancient generals) Have a look around in the Legion forum.

The 'blind' gladiators were the Andabatae... My own rather limited page on Gladiator types

Which Africans? Phoenicians/Carthaginians, Numidians, Berbers, etc? Might help someone who is in the 'know' on these things.

Good luck with the event.

Trajan's Column. Its a non stop legacy to Rome and its legions.

LOL, I haven't had any problems yet... I do all my state park reservations online these days