Primus Pilus

Forgive my belated reply, but thank you for your very kind words regarding our little corner of cyberspace. You are a most welcome member of our community. You know I really ought to pay more attention to these blogs.

I can't find where anyone says this. Tacitus' account is unfortunately lost. You may be thinking of the supposed hatred of his relation to Agrippa. Suetonius wrote that Caligula claimed that his mother was born in incest rather than allow an association with Agrippa. What doesn't quite hold water though is the clear archaeological fact that Caligula minted several coins in commemoration of Agrippa. one sample another It wasn't used in an official capacity as such.. For instance, the name isn't found on coins or statues or various inscriptions (though many of his are lost). For that matter though, as you pointed out, praenomen are generally not found in such circumstances either. However, I think it's fair to say that the name Caligula would not have been insulting to the emperor himself. After all it was truly a term endearment given to him by the legions and an emperors bond with the army was as important as any relationship in the imperial court. It (along with the obvious cognomen of Germanicus) was a constant reminder of his affiliation to the great man and general that was so beloved by the people.

Without question, though such trade was often not direct but rather through various mutually known third party tribes. Roman standardized coinage was often a commodity unto itself in foreign cultures. It's existence outside normal Roman spheres does not necessarily indicate direct contact but was probably more common to be transacted through these third parties. Consider that Roman merchants would have had to transverse the whole of barbarian Gaul before even arranging for cross channel contact. Trade from a Roman perspective would've been far more efficient with Gallic merchants who already had direct contact with Britain. Included in that Gallic to Britannic trade could've been the occasional payment of Roman coinage that had already been paid to Gallic merchants.

Did anyone think to check for damage to the wrists and ankles?

Experts are excited about a rare coin unearthed by an amateur treasure hunter which could change the accepted ancient history of Britain. The silver denarius which dates back to the Roman Republic

Archaeologists, scholars dispute Jesus documentary @ CNN

This all seems like a growing plot. The frumentarii are watching.

For all of Tiberius' quirks, whether they be right, wrong, proven or unproven, like Ursus, I believe the biggest "fault" is that he seemingly rejected his Roman duty of leadership. I don't think there is any question that he has been wrongly vilified by ancient sources on several aspects (the murder of Germanicus, various debauchery, etc.), but the revision of his character is not my concern. Tiberius proved himself a moderately effective general and administrator when he applied himself to his duty of leadership. It's his relative disinterest or delegation of supreme power to Sejanus that should be looked upon with disdain.

Purely my own speculation, there has been no suggestion of my premise within the show itself. I was thinking into the distant future.

As I surmised in one of the episode threads, I believe it is intended to foreshadow the coming of Jesus. Consider the incident of Jesus confronting the moneylenders in the temple as a comparison. While I think the plot line is strange, and a bit nonsensical when we consider Timon's abrupt behavior change, I do think its intriguing for the possibility of a 3rd season... and beyond.

I think the study of history is just a natural affinity for some. As far as I can remember it's always just been there. I think the first time I realized it may have been after watching movies like Ben Hur and Spartacus as a child.

I've always been partial to Tacitus. His style makes for a wonderful read while he is among the best of the ancient historians for attempting to validate his work. Certainly his opinion comes through, and his bias can be understood in "The Agricola", but I don't believe any of his fellow historians were as interested in accuracy as he was. Tacitus, Annals Book 1 I love Cassius Dio's style as well, but prefer his later work from a historical perspective simply because he often doesn't corroborate the works of earlier historians. (See theilians thread on Cicero's hands as one small example.) I believe that Appian is under rated and under appreciated for his work on the civil war era. Despite Livy's rather difficult style from a pure reading perspective, without him we are left even more clueless about the earliest eras of Roman history. He is indispensable. As for pure entertainment, one might immediately think of Suetonius, which is clearly understandable. However, I rather like to read passages from Pliny (the elder) for a humanizing effect on history.

Welcome to the forum BK, even though your avatar frightens me just a little bit

The sad part in reading the interview is that it sounds like he actually believes that quote.

As for your question on Pompey and the effect of his command on piracy... the ease of his success against the pirates was due to the campaigns of Licinius Lucullus and of Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus. They had done much already to curb the pirate bases of Cilicia and surrounding territories and left largely only mop-up duties for Pompey in this particular aspect of the campaign. After Pompey, Rome controlled all the major ports of the Mediterranean, east and west, and unfettered piracy as anything more than a nominal threat was a thing of the past. Certainly it still ocurred and may have even worked in concert with Rome for more unscrupulous operations, but the notion of pirate cities/nations as independent powers ceased to exist.

You may be very interested in adding your thoughts to this thread... The Lex Gabinia, Security Politics in the Ancient World

Paulinus was either an earlier Consul Suffectus or he was simply the product of an era where war (Britain, Armenia/Parthia) and politics predicated extraordinary measures. This article (Some comments on the Fasti during the reign of Nero) suggests that a Suetonius Paulinus was a suffect consul after AD 41. Several fasti reproductions list AD 66 as Paulinus' second consulship. Considering that he was a legatus legionis in Mauretania in AD 42, it does make chronological sense. As for extraordinary circumstances in the reign of Nero... a couple of short examples: Tacitus says this in Annals 14.28: This refers to roughly around the year AD 60. It doesn't mention Paulinus of course, but does give the impression that Nero was not opposed to alternative methods of appointment. Suetonius says also in Life of Nero 15 Unfortunately, there is no biography of Suetonius Paulinus, nor is there much information other than the accounts of the Boudiccan affair by the usual suspects. Interestingly though, while researching I realized that Nero's advisor Seneca was married to a Pompeia Paulina. She was the daughter of Pompeius Paulinus, a governor of Germania during Nero's reign. I have no idea if there was any family relation between Suetonius Paulinus and Pompeius Paulinus, but if there was I'm sure it was distant.

I suppose it's entirely possible though unlikely considering the absence of earlier confirmation. However Dio does have a certain flair in expressing the brutality of Antony and his wife. (I love Dio's work, though I can generally do without the long winded monologues he conjured up.)

Forgive a bit of a tangent away from the history of the events and a general commentary on the historians in question. The written word is always influenced in some small part by politics and sentiments of an era. The ancients were no different in this regard, and may have been much more susceptible in certain cases due to the lack of professional historical study as we understand it today. The writing of history was not considered to be an exact science, and in addition to the presentation of the past, it could also be an influential tool. It's not a waste of time in the slightest and what you've done in this analysis is really answer your own question. Yes, we can trust the basic idea presented, but we often have to try to decipher the actual truth from embellishment for effect, symbolism for political safety, and outright falsehoods to drive an agenda. Notice that the story of Cicero's death doesn't really change, only the details and dramatics. In many cases the writers listed use the previous authors as resources in their own accounts. Compare the death of Caesar to the death of Cicero. The base account of who, why, when and where is largely the same throughout the sources, but there are several differences in the details based perhaps on the author's agenda, or the simple idea that he trusted one source over another. The late republic was as volatile a topic to the ancient sources as it remains today. Each had a different perspective or used a source with differing perspectives. It's not fair to discount the truth of any particular source because it differs from others, but it is fair to compare and evaluate all the evidence to find a reasonable concept of what the complete truth may be, just as you've done with your analysis. Consider this simple modern analogy. There will be literally thousands of books written about GW Bush, the Iraq War, Terrorism etc. Each will have it's own agenda or perspective from support to condemnation and everything in between including even possible objectivity. In 2,000 years, historians will struggle to find the real truth when in actuality, each may have been telling the truth as they knew it. Perhaps all are wrong, perhaps all are right, or perhaps truth lies somewhere in a middle commonality. For me, it's part of what makes studying history so much fun.

Gladiatorial games, the bloodiest of ancient Rome's traditions, were probably held in the heart of genteel Cheshire, archaeologists say. Experts have unearthed evidence in the remains of Chester Amphitheatre which suggests gladiators appeared there. It was previously thought the arena was only used for ceremonial activities. But archaeologists have found a stone block with iron fastening, suggesting that victims - human or animal - were chained up for gladiatorial spectacles. BBC

Yahoo Picture Slide Show

A Spanish scientific team found one of the world's oldest cities, thought to be about 5,500 years old, in Syria. The discovery, based on pottery fragments and other ceramics found at the site, was announced in Madrid by two of the scientists in charge of the investigation, Ignacio Marquez of Spain's CSIC scientific research council and Juan Luis Moreno of the Universidad de La Coru

To everyone: Some of you may or may not have noticed that our forum (as are all such forums) is constantly targeted by spam accounts in order to post links to various targeted websites. Some of these are harmless but irritating attempts at free advertising. However, some may post links to "adult" content or other less desirable targets. In any case, please do ignore these posts/threads if you should happen to see them. Don't bother replying (they are generally just automated 'bots' anyway) or following the links. They have been and will continue to be purged from the forum as quickly as they appear. A NOTE ON EMAIL ACCOUNTS AND FORUM REGISTRATION Because certain email providers are highly susceptible to spam accounts, we have had to and will continue to ban these particular email accounts for new registrations. I will not list the email providers that have been banned here, nor will I discuss it (as several are legitimate and major providers that just happen to be overly targeted by spammers due to free access and wide availability). However, as some of these are major providers, potential new members of the UNRV forum may find that they cannot complete site registration using their very legitimate email account. If you are having problems registering a new forum account or changing existing accounts, please contact me directly via email... primuspilus@unrv.com. We can manually work around the ban. (And please, no spam )

A grouping of granite blocks along a grassy Amazon hilltop may be the vestiges of a centuries-old astronomical observatory

Archaeologists on Tuesday unveiled the tombs of a pharaonic butler and scribe that have been buried for more than 3,000 years -- proof, one says, that Egypt's sands still have secrets to reveal. Although archaeologists have been exploring Egypt intensively for more than 150 years, some estimate only one-third of what lies underground in Saqqara, site of the country's most ancient pyramid, has been uncovered... CNN