Primus Pilus

While channel-surfing last evening, I stumbled across a German language movie that I have never heard of entitled "Downfall". It tells the story of the final days of Hitler and the fall of Berlin. I watched for approximately 20 minutes and was absolutely riveted by the acting and the visuals. I realized, since I had missed much of the film already, that I should stop watching so I could watch it from the beginning at some later date. It seems to be a powerful recreation of both Hitler and the people around him. I am wondering simply if anyone has seen it, and might suggest that those interested in WWII may be interested in it themselves. 'll know more once I watch it in it's entirety of course.

I would prefer to remain pre-"Byzantine", unless there is a public outcry. It would be a good idea. A note on this: Bibliographies, footnotes, etc. do not count toward the word count limit.

This has nothing to do with my accident today, but I just love "the Onion". And the story does have a winter theme. Radical Islamic Extremists Snowboard Into U.S. Embassy "In the name of Allah the Merciful, this rad ***** is off the hook, yo! Death to the great Satan!"

Received an email from Roger Layton, Communications Manager of the Library at BYU in Provo, Utah. Seems entirely appropriate for the archaeology forum. ...Members of your organization living in or traveling through the western United States during the next year might be interested in the exhibit of a bronze Roman military diploma in The Harold B. Lee Library on the campus of BYU in Provo, Utah. The exhibit is free and is open weekdays and Saturdays during library hours. A replica of the plates will be on hand for visitors to handle, and a video presentation will answer questions about the plates and their ancient use. For more information and images you can visit: BYUNews

Dear me, no, she was not attractive in the slightest. But yes it was a little red car of course.

Had your shoulder done something to deserve such punishment?

Some of this is entirely up to you... There is no preferred method of citation, only that it's inclusion will help to authenticate your information. This is indeed a historical essay (not fiction). A well presented topic "thesis" will likely carry more weight by virtue of originality than a rehashed simple biography would for example. However, a poorly written thesis style paper would not win simply by virtue of originality. It would be difficult to discredit a paper that excels in regurgitation of fact, as you call it, but does so in a compelling way. Keep in mind that there will be several judges with differing personal criteria. Am I vague and obscure enough? I hope so, because personally I would prefer entrants submit papers that suit their strengths rather than try to conform to a particular concept. I apologize if I am being confusing.

I hope Pertinax isn't reading this. He may freak out by the very thought of aspartame that cola immediately conjures up.

Egads man, I live in Detroit. That's blasphemy in these parts. Hell, those of us who haven't left town have to support the 17 people that still have jobs in the local auto industry. (He says mostly in jest, but yet there is a painful reality to the embellishment ) She was distracting. I temporarily forgot what I was doing there standing in a 2 foot snow bank on the side of a road in the freezing cold. And she was impressed by my manly brute strength when I tore off what remained of my bumper so that it wouldn't interfere with my rear wheel.

Yes indeed, probably a wise observation. I'll do that shortly.

This morning, while commuting in Michigan's first major snow storm of the year, a silly fool decided it would be a good idea to dart out from a dead stop in a turning lane, into oncoming traffic, while I was minding my own business and moving precariously along. Due to icy and snowy conditions, I was unable to stop in time to avoid rear ending her vehicle, but instead spun out of control. It actually would have been fun as there were no vehicles on either side of me, but after spinning 180 degrees my poor gas-guzzling Durango's rear end slid into the very same rear end of the person who caused the resulting crunch of metal and plastic. Nobody was hurt and she was clearly at fault so my insurance will cover the damage without any cost on my part... but of course there is the inconvenience. At least the sheriff's deputy who arrived on the scene to make the report was a ridiculously attractive young woman (which has no benefit to me other than a pleasant memory as I am quite happily married). But I digress... since the woman who caused the accident in the first place had forgotten her purse this morning (including license, proof of insurance and vehicle registration) the deputy was in no mood to cut her any slack. (which aids my cause in getting full insurance coverage without out of pocket costs.) Of course, I was about an hour and a half late for work, which means I was about an hour and 35 minutes late logging into UNRV.

Moonlapse has always been the more silent of the triumviri (as far as the site is concerned). He works "behind the scenes" and designed everything including our maps, handles the coding, security, etc. He generally tends to limit his conversational involvement to some of the more modern political/philosophical threads so if you don't spend much time in the arena, you may miss him. He has several projects that are or were in the works, but he recently started a new job that has severely limited his access time. Viggen is the guy who originally thought up the entire concept and recruited the other two. He handles the administrative duties and is probably best described as our "web guru". He's run into his own issues of late... was extremely busy at work (retail) during the holiday season and a fire in his home has left him sorting through the damage and dealing with insurance people, contractors, etc. (nobody was hurt) Hopefully, he should be settled back into the routine in the not too distance future.

Since the stated goal of the site (aside from being my own personal outlet for ancient history) is to inspire continued interest and education in the ancient world, we are just trying to provide small incentives here and there for that to actually happen. If our community grows in the process... all the better.

Use this thread to discuss or ask questions related to our Historical Writing Contest.

Approximately two years ago, UNRV hosted our first modest writing competition. At the time, as the site and the community were a rather fledgling operation, we decided to entertain a very basic creative (fictional) writing contest. We received several excellent entries (the winners) and were pleased with the overall results. However, for reasons now long since forgotten, we never returned to the writing contest and have instead focused on various book giveaways. While these may have helped build our community, we can't be sure that they have truly inspired the advancement of historical study or of this site/forum in particular. Thanks to a generous and completely unexpected donation to our prize pool along with a suggested course of action, it seems the time is right to revisit this original concept. However, as my own rather modest attempts at writing forms the basis of the site's origination, this contest will focus on historical essay writing rather than fiction. Without further adieu... This will be an exercise in historical essay writing (not Fiction). Submissions and subjects are almost entirely open to the personal preference of the writer (to allow each to follow his/her own strengths in subject matter). However submissions must follow one of three general and broad categories: Politics/Government/People (Republic, Principate, Dominate all acceptable) General Society (art, architecture, language, daily life, social customs, religion) Roman Military (individual legions, wars, battles...) Prizes The first place winner will receive his/her choice of a US$75 gift certificate from Amazon.com (or .co.uk) or a gift card from VCoins.com Ancient Coin Dealers. Second and third place winners will each receive a US$25 gift certificate from the same establishments. Essay length should be between 1,000 and 3,500 words and is entirely up to the discretion of the writer. Length will only be a factor for determining a winner in how that length relates to the quality of the particular document submitted. It will not be an independent criteria for judgment. Judgment of the competition winners will be based upon general quality of the submission (spelling, grammar, style, etc.), the overall concept of the essay and it's accuracy (footnote documentation or particular source references should be provided where warranted and lack thereof may affect the ultimate "score" of the essay). Additional emphasis will be placed upon article originality and the writer's ability to express their own individual conclusions or observations based upon the research they've done. Judging will be provided by a panel of our Site administrators, moderators and the Patricii member group (excluding any of these groups who wishes to submit an entry). Dates of Entry All essays must be received by midnight eastern standard time (GMT -5) on the Ides of March (March 15), 2007. Judging will begin immediately thereafter and prize winners announced shortly thereafter. Eligibility Participants must be registered members of this UNRV.com forum (you may register at any time) and entries should be limited to 1 per person. Where to submit All entries should be submitted in one of 2 possible ways: Email the entry to Primuspilus@unrv.com either as an attached MS Word .DOC file or as a paste directly into the email body... Or send the document to Chris Heaton (Primus Pilus) via this forum's instant message system (included as an option within that link). Publication All submissions can and likely will be published permanently on UNRV.com for public consumption. The writer retains original copyright ownership but grants UNRV.com the right to publish by virtue of the submission. A very special thanks goes to our own Gaius Octavius for providing the inspiration to revisit this concept. Comments, questions or general discussion of this contest should be directed HERE.

Please do post a link to the original story to give credit where credit is due.

I am hardly an expert, but this translates as originally posted. Seems we have little to go on with Cicero's actual choice of words anyway. There are any number of variations of the word numero that could have been used to simply mean count. He could have used abacus or calculus (the small pebbles used for counting) or some other mathematics term (Cicero was clearly educated enough to be aware of the various methods) but yet he chose the word finger. Seems we could easily take him at face value, but yet I am still left wondering if he was just being humorous or deferent to the math skills of his friend. Still we know that Romans kept meticulous books on such things and interest rates and how they functioned, when payments were made, etc. was largely a standardized process. I'm skimming through Jean Andreau's "Banking and Business in the Roman World" (especially chapter 9 on interest) but it doesn't mention specifics on how an individual would do or refer to the actual math. I'm still skimming through, but this work is a complete analysis of Roman "banking" rather than an indexed dictionary of terminology and functions. Alas.

[quote name='Julia C

[quote name='Julia C

By the by... my comment on Jefferson's children was intended exactly as stated. Jefferson's extra-marital relations and resulting offspring have little bearing on anything other than to those who may have direct lineage. What I find strange is that anyone other than those potential descendants would care in the slightest what Jefferson was or wasn't doing. I suppose Pantagathus summed up my feelings quite well.

That's entirely possible. After all, accountants are often referred to as bean-counters... but how many actually count beans? Bean-counting is actually a rather negative connotation meaning that an accountant is too busy counting to notice the bigger financial picture. Perhaps Cicero was just using a common figure of speech when the method of calculation really had little to do with Atticus' actual fingers? Augusta now has me wondering if perhaps the word for finger (digitus) was mistranslated or improperly understood in relation to its original context. Perhaps another word was used rather than digitus or perhaps using one's fingers had simply become a form of slang to substitute for more proper mathematics terminology. If I could find the original Latin it would help but I have had no luck finding Ad Atticum in the original. If the word Cicero used is digitus or the proper derivative thereof, than its unlikely I could prove that Cicero was using a form of slang, so I suppose I am left only with a suspicion anyway.

Indeed... I don't quite get the fascination with Jefferson's children, but since some people care, I figured I'd post the story.

DNA tests carried out on two British men have shed light on a mystery surrounding the ancestry of Thomas Jefferson, America's third president. In the 1990s, DNA was taken from male relatives of Jefferson to see if he fathered a son with one of his slaves... BBC