Primus Pilus

Excellent Paolo, glad we could recommend something that interested you. I was pretty confidant you wouldn't like I, Claudius though If you truly like the 'Ten Thousand", trust me, you will love 'Gates of Fire' by Stephen Pressfield. Ford has been accused of copying Pressfield's style by fans of Pressfield, but I think its only an issue because they have written about similar time periods and topics. Its been some time since I've read Gates of Fire, so I think I'll have ot dig into it over the holidays

While I think the Romans were more organized and disciplined, and faced a wider array of opponents, I don't have enough of an education regarding the Han military to provide a worthy opinion. (In fact most people on the net have only a passing knowledge of either, few would be considered experts on both). The time frame, commanders, terrain and makeup of the armies is also important to consider, logistics notwithstanding.

Actually nobody knows the true origin of Arthur... hence Arthurian legend. Who knows, perhaps the movie was right on. (LOL yeah right). As for Lucius Artorius Castus, however, he was very likely of direct Italian lineage. Rather than begin a lengthy discourse... this page by Linda Malcor provides an excellent resource on Castus.

Nobody questions that the Roman aristrocracy and higher level legionary officers would've been capable of the Greek language. The regular legionaries recruited from Italy would not likely have been exposed to a Greek education, however. I maintain that Legionaries and western auxilia recruited outside of eastern influence would have used Latin as the common tongue.

A very brief write-up on Seneca

Reaction to her work is mixed here. We talked about it a bit in one of these threads. I personally am I great fan at least of the first couple of books. They lost a bit of their lustre as they went on, but I read them all eagerly. She did a fantastic job of sticking to known historical facts, and explained any dissention in the form of footnotes as she went. The main reason for detraction for those who dislike her is that if they wanted to read history, they would read the actual sources, instead of what they perceived to be her dry style of fiction. Still though, the series is highly regarded by fiction fans and scholars alike.

Carthage and Gaul have always been the most compelling for me, simply because of the vastness of the campaigns. (Though the conquest of Carthage occured mostly away from their actual home) Of course, as an admirer of Caesar I'm partial to his personal literary achievement, and that may have a tiny impact on decision

There is a semi-resurgance of Latin from what I understand as Italians get re-acquainted with their Latin roots, but completely replacing a language with an older one seems unlikely at best.

Yes, and #3 means you drool and stutter

Glad we could help

Yes, unfortunately, career choices are limited in the range of the scope. There are, however, plenty of opportunities in that rather narrow profession.

I mean underrated in the sense that he is not a widely known name outside of those who study history. Whereas, in contrast, everyone regardless of their historical studies has at least heard of Caesar, Alexander, Hannibal, etc.

If not for Justinian's jealousy, Belisarius may very well have re-established a lasting reformation of the Empire in the west. Or maybe not, still, he definately gets a nod as one of hte most underated military historical figures.

Its a shame they have so many popups. Oh well. I'm close to you Ursus: Augustus, followed by Caesar. I wish they provided more details to how they calculate the relationship, but its an interesting little aside, just the same.

Without going into great depth, I would cast a vote for language and political/legal structure.

As well you should. Might as well give yourself as much notoriety as you can.

Excellent Ursus, you are the unrv resident reviewer

This write up is based on the Republican Legion about the time of the Punic Wars up until the Marius reforms, so it is after the era you are looking for. There were only some minor differences in unit formation, though the Legion still operated much more like a Greek phalanx.

Well, your question is pretty broad, but lets base it on the Augustan era. With 28 legions at approximately 5,000 men each, that's a rough guess of about 140,000 citizen legionaries. If the population of the empire at the time was around 50 million people, the % of full time citizen soldiers is obviously quite small. Unfortunately building an accurate count of auxiliary troops, slaves, non-citizens, etc. is terribly difficult. Here's a reference to an old post regarding population

I use the term 'Spain' to describe the general geographic location of the ancient province of Hispania. Spain is a take from the original latin name for the region as a whole. I convert it to English for the ease of the reader. I've done the same with most of the province sections, and throughout the generic Roman history section in order for the modern day reader to clearly understand what area of the world is being referred to. I've heard this before from visitors (especially regarding Macedonia), and I understand the pride one feels in their national or ethnic heritage. However, our purpose on UNRV.com is to provide a general history, which will hopefully inspire someone to continue further investigation on their own. I find it difficult to clearly illustrate a geographic location without converting some of it to modern place names. At some point we will hopefully have maps that can be inserted into various pages which will eliminate the need to describe geography in the modern sense; but until that time, I'm afraid we will have to live with the 'errors'.

Have no worries... Alexander will be a historical cluster f..k

It really is a shame. Take 'Gladiator' for instance. Is hollywood trying to tell us that the historical period of Commodus isn't worthy of a accurate movie? It's really quite frustrating.

Depended on the Emperor, really. Some titles were across the board, like Imperator and Augustus, which was a title, not just the name of the first emperor. The best examples are the legends on their coins, which in many cases list all the titles the emperor held: Divus for divine, Pontifex Maximus, etc. Others were ceremonial or hereditary names, such as Germanicus for Caligula. Felix for lucky was common and Antoninus was the first to carry Pius due to his devotion in getting Hadrian recognized as a god. Some carried the adopted name Caesar as well, and the word was used to define someone as heir to the throne, but its use in practice clearly defined imperial authority. The Emperor List will help a bit, but doesn't show all the imperial titles, just the emperors full names.

He attempted to besiege Spartacus near Rhegium in the toe of Italy. He built earthen siegeworks across that stretch of land to hem Spartacus in. As for whether or not it was seen as a good idea probably depended on who you asked. There was much pressure on Crassus to finish off this repulsive slave army so besieging him was probably seen as weak by some, but Crassus, and the majority of his command were smart enough to understand that Spartacus was dangerous, even in an open battle. There was also pressure on Crassus to finish off Spartacus before Pompey could return to Italy from Spain and take the glory and credit for himself. In that regard, it may have been seen as unwise to besiege Spartacus, not because it wasn't smart military planning, but because a siege took considerable time.

It was part of the song sung by Caesar's legions as they marched the triumph's in Rome in 47 BC. I've seen it translated numerous ways, including: 'Men of Rome, keep close your consorts, here's a bald adulterer." They all essentially say the same thing, though. Here is the song in the full context, though butchered to rhyme in English: Gaul was brought to shame by Caesar:By King Nicomedes, he. Here comes Caesar, wreathed in triumph For his Gallic victory! Nicomedes wears no laurels Though the greatest of the three. Home we bring our bald whoremonger; Romans, lock your wives away! All the bags of gold you lent him Went his Gallic tarts to pay. Basically, this was Caesar's adoring troops mocking him for the scandalous and rumored affair that he had had with King Nicomedes of Bythnia. Though never proven, Caesar's enemies took great delight in mocking him with it. But Caesar, probably in part because of this rumor from his youth, countered it by becoming a well known womanizer (not in a chauvinistic sense but as a seducer, especially of enemies wives and relatives). The song refers to both the rumor and Caesar's known behavior, and because it was his own men, Caesar apparantly did nothing to stop the song.