Primus Pilus

Please do, every little bit of information adds something to the site. The more traffic we get, the more people may show up here and join the conversation.

Thanks longbow and welcome to our forum. There is no real evidence that Legio VIIII Hispana was 'lost' in Scotland. It did serve in Britain up until the time of Hadrain, however. Some historians argue that a lost battle may have forced Hadrian's decision to build the wall, but the legion continued to exist at least in some form. If there was such a battle, the ninth very likely would've been involved. Vexillations (sub units) served in Germania during Hadrian's reign, and also served farther east. It may have been completely wiped out during the Jewish revolts of the 130's or along the Danube during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. There is evidence of officers names in the 9th, after the building of Hadrian's Wall, that didn't serve in the military at all prior to that assignment. This certainly suggests that the ninth continued to exist for at least a few more years. My personal opinion is that Legio VIIII Hispana very likely was involved in a battle somewhere in Caledonia, prior to the building of the wall. The battle likely went badly and many were killed, but it seems quite clear that the entire legion wasn't wiped out. Of course the possibility exists, that some subunits were serving other parts of Britain and only those available actually went into Scotland for this particular campaign. This could explain why they didn't completely fall from history, but I tend to think if it really was a massacre as suggested, that the Romans would've disbanded the entire legion.

Welcome Praetorian, glad to have you and hope you add to our discussion here. Centurion, sorry, but I think I missed your earlier post. Here is the Galatia article

Why what?

I think the relationship between Roman provinces and modern economic standing have little to do with one another. Germany, in an overall sense had less cultural influence from Rome than any other and yet it is far away the strongest economic country of Europe. The middle ages tore away any sense of Roman impact on these places (from a purely economic standpoint, culturally the effects are quite evident throughout the west). Certainly trade routes and even the location of certain resources may have been known due to Roman exploitation, but trade routes generally take the easiest route possible. I would agree, however, in comparing the continent of Africa (in areas where there was little Roman, or later arab contact) the countries developed at a far slower rate. The infrastructure left by Rome in Europe certainly played a part in the west's continued advancement, but not necessarily on a single individual country more than any other. In my opinion of course.

It sort of depends on what you want to know.

Yes, thanks Julian. I just commented on that in another thread. At first I thought there was little we could do, but the spammer has been banned. Unfortunately, we can't stop future spammers until after the fact, but at least we can do something.

If it was found in France, that makes a Greek Theatre mask unlikely. However, there were certainly Greek actors throughout the Empire at any given time, so carbon dating would also help. I'm also leaning towards Celtic.

Yes, what part of the world. Be as specific as possible.

Guess what showed up today after nearly 5 months in 'transit'. The Roman Empire maps originally intended for Jugurtha in Belgium were finally returned to sender. I think its safe to say that it was a good idea to re-send them. The Tube is completely flat, and appears as if it went through some strange Belgian customs washing machine. Maybe they dropped it in the Atlantic Ocean on the way over

I've never said Aurelius wasn't full hypocrisy, and agree that his style wasn't all that exciting. I only enjoyed it for the nature of historical perspective that it provided. The hypocrisy also appealed to me in a way. Reading this man's thoughts, while being fully aware of some contradictory actions was entertaining to me. Perhaps you can enlighten me about philosophy, as I've never been fascinated by it. The little bit of philosophy I've read, generally seems like obvious observations. I've never understood the profound effect of reading something like, "It is the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it." Certainly there is truth in it, but perhaps as I live by my own, and completely unwritten philosophy, I pay no heed to the 'natural' rules recorded by others. I suppose I may someday try to read more, but as there are a million more historically related books I'd like to get to, I probably never will.

I must admit that I've never been much of a philosophy guy. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Marcus Aurelius' meditations, but took little from it other than other than its historical perspective.

Welcome Centurion, interesting enough, I just finished a write up on Galatia.

While not really an 'archaeology' story, Michael Grant, and his lifetime of historical work, deserves its own mention. His work has been and will continue to be a great source of information for the continued development of UNRV.com, and his readable and engaging style has been an inspiration fueling the fire of my personal ancient history passion. Thank you Michael Grant.

Professor Michael Grant, who died on Monday aged 89, was a don at Cambridge, Professor of Humanity (Latin) at Edinburgh, and vice-chancellor at the Universities of Khartoum and Queen's, Belfast, but was best known as a prolific populariser of ancient history who published nearly 50 books on the Greeks, Romans and early Christianity. Grant was always a lucid and erudite writer, who took the view that a study of the classical world was both "infinitely worth studying in its own right, without any consideration of modern analogies" and also that "without Latin, people are handicapped because they do not understand their past, and cannot therefore effectively plan their futures". This attitude did nothing to impede his range, nor his appeal to the ordinary reader as well as the academic professional. As well as scholarly publications on the coinage of Rome (he was a distinguished numismatist), he produced biographies of Julius Caesar, Nero, Herod, Cleopatra, Jesus, St Peter and St Paul; accounts of the literature, history, art, mythology and social life of Greece and Rome; and found time to examine the Middle Ages and ancient Israel.... Full article @ The Telegraph

You share that trait in part with Viggen

It's not the importance of the over-hype, but whether or not some of it actually happened. For instance, Nero is often heavily labelled as a great persecutor. Well he was, that's true, but it wasn't just a direct assault on Christians, but on counter-culture groups all over. Same thing with Domitian. He is often labelled as one of the worst christian persecutors, but it simply lacks historical evidence. I talked about that a bit in this thread.

Hiya Jazz, We technically went live in early 2003, if I remember right. Things really started to get going in the early summer of 2003 though. Our forum is fairly active, but unfortunately its limited to a few regular posters. Once in a while someone drops by to ask a questions, but we definately need more regular contributors. Still, we understand it takes a long time to build something like this, so we're patient, and happy for those folks who do drop by.

I'm interested in most everything, but I answered history, politics and people, since that's technically what inspired me in the first place.

I'm no expert on tattooes, but I do know it was practiced by the Romans. I don't believe that legionaries were required to have any sort of identifying mark, however. SPQR also seems unauthentic for 180 AD, as the legions didn't serve the senate, but the emperor and empire itself.

I agree with Ursus, it was more a reflection of the social atmosphere at the time than as a result of 'persecutions'. The persecutions are over-hyped in their importance anyway.

Indeed. Welcome Rand

I may be mixing him up with Peter Connolly.

LOL, actually I never noticed the thread. Sorry about that. Yes I am well aware of the context error, though. The name wasn't my concept, and its never really bothered me... so I'll just leave it at that

I'm not really aware of any web resources on that subject, but Adrian Goldsworthy, a premier military historian, has written several books that may be of interest.