Maty

Rome did not rip off anyone's culture. So there. I'm going to argue that this is because from around 800 BC there was NO Greek or Roman culture. There was a single culture common to all the peoples of the Mediterranean seaboard and which each society adapted from, selectively adopted or abandoned parts of as their societies changed. We know that Greeks and Etruscans influenced Rome from the very beginning, but at the same time the Greeks and Etruscans were swapping ideas between themselves and nicking them off 'barbarians'. In a society where writers, merchants, craftsmen and aristocrats were constantly cross-fertilizing each society with ideas from the other, it's very hard to say a particular idea 'belongs' to a single nationality. It might be something thought up by a Greek in discussion with a Persian, developed by an Etruscan, and put into use by the Romans. As an analogy, how many aspects of Western culture can we say are American, English or other European? Each nation has its own quirks, but when seen by an outsider with a genuinely different culture - say Arabic or Japanese - I'm guessing we seem pretty much alike.

Eye Colour: Chances are that, being from central Italy, this would be brown. Hair Colour: This would almost certainly be black. Skin colour: 'Olive' complexion common to many people of mediterranean origin. Not necessarily so. This is extrapolating from the appearance of many southern Italians of today. (And there are many blond Italians even now.) The contemporary 'Mediterranean' complexion comes from the dominant gene on the south side of the sea. These got about a lot less in antiquity, and if the original Italians came from the north (as is quite possible) then they might have had typical European colouration. A number of Romans are described as 'blond', and since they were familiar with Gauls, the Romans knew what blond means. Sulla himself is explicitly said by Plutarch to have had grey eyes and golden hair,and he was a thoroughbred Roman. Likewise names like Ahenobarbus (bronze beard) suggest a non-Mediterranean appearance. Both Caesar and Pompey are described as having 'fair' complexions (in Caesar's case making a striking contrast with his dark eyes). Just to make things worse for you, many busts now bearing the names of famous Romans were given them by romanticising Victorian archaeologists. On the bright side - there are a set of coins in the bourgos catalogue which may well be images of Scipio Africanus. How near they are to life is anyone's guess. In the wildwinds catalogue (which I find generally reliable) you can find examples here http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/spain/carthago_nova/i.html

Okaaay ... Let's start by pointing out that the term 'black' has been warped by racial perceptions to the point where it is meaningless for rigorous debate. In the modern US we have 'black' people who can 'pass' for 'white' - a concept which would have dropped a few jaws in ancient Rome. Secondly the assumption that 'African equals black' is even more flawed than the assumption that 'European equals white'. Africa has and has always had a number of races who are not 'black' unless we define 'black' as 'not Asian or Caucasian'. When we look at the peoples of ancient North Africa, be they Moors, Lybians, northern Egyptians or Numidians these might be 'black' (for a given definition of 'black') by they were neither black-skinned nor Negroid. In fact, as far as we know they were pretty much the colour and race of most North African people today. Negroid peoples (to the best of my knowledge - I'm not an ethnologist) expanded out of central Africa in historical times. They only reached the Cape after Europeans did, and going South they did not have the Sahara in the way. Therefore the only black (as in dark-skinned) peoples that Romans regularly encountered would have been from the far south of Egypt and Ethiopia. We know that these people came to Rome, often as slaves. There is an account of Nero making an all-Ethiopian group fight in the arena. Given the Roman approach to freeing slaves it is a fair bet that there were free black people in the Roman empire, and even a lot of black people depending on how we define 'black'. If in good health these people could easily have joined the legions. That the Romans felt no need to comment on the fact reflects better on their racial tolerance than some modern discussions do of ours.

Serendipitously, Yale have just sent me a copy of Cassons 'Libraries of the ancient world' as a reward for some work I did in August. (So why is it taking ABE two months to send a book I paid for in July? But I digress ...) Anyway, a quick flip though this book suggests that it is highly relevant to the current discussion - for example this text quoted on p.131. 'Deios came to us and showed us the six parchment codices. We did not take any, but we collated eight others for which I gave 100 drachmas on account.' This is 2nd century AD so inflation was about 10% from Martial's time.

Let us sadistically crush that hope. Hygieia has been around since the time of Hesiod and so predates Hyginus by some time. She is the daughter of Asclepius and the goddess of (preventive) health while daddy concentrates on cures. There's also Salus, the Roman counterpart, but not quite the same thing.

During the First World War many front line surgeons still used Roman manuals on battlefield surgery for things like amputations.

If you have access to JSTOR look for an article in Classical world 79 called Book prices and Roman literacy by John J Phillips. You will also find in Martial's Epigrams a line where he remarks that his books are available from a gent called Atrectus at the bargain price of 5 denarii a volume.

Ah yes ... thanks for the link to the baby burials thread. I missed the update with the brothel hypothesis which seems very plausible. I'm still wondering why the Devon town is meant to change history, though. Haven't they found entire Roman-style towns beyond the limes in Germany? I guess we'll have to wait until the programme reveals all.

Just the fact that 'cynic' comes from the Greek word for 'dog' should tell us something about the attitude. This is the basis of the emperor Vespasian's response when he was insulted by the cynic Demetrius. Instead of taking offence Vespasian simply murmured 'Bad dog!' and walked on.

Do let us exiles outside the UK know how this one turns out. I'm especially interested in the town in Devon that 'turns history on its head'. (History has a head?) The 97 babies would be - at a guess - a plague burial. Do we have a date for them?

Here's a link to the description on my web page http://www.matyszakbooks.com/newtitle.htm It seems Pen & Sword underestimated the demand from presales, so they are having some difficulty in getting the book to Amazon. I'll give a shout when it is publicly available. Actually I'm amazed at the amount of interest in this book. I wrote it because Petillius Ceralis has always been a favourite of mine - rather like Flashman in a toga. I also wanted to look at generalship in the first century, using Cerialis as a case study. I'm pleased that Pen & Sword indulged me, and it looks like paying off for them as well.

It was certainly a fun one to write. I think the printers were caught out by how many pre-publication orders there were, so there's now a delay in stocks reaching Amazon. Who would have thought Petillius Cerialis had so many fans?

Another book worth reading on the topic is Meijer's 'Chariot Racing in the Roman Empire'. It's a bit disorganized, but puts the major points across well. As to what extent campaigning politicians used the circus (as opposed to the arena) the answer is 'not much', unless you count the emperor as a campaigning politician. What happened in the circus was of considerable importance to the Caesars - which is why all of them from the dictator Julius onward, invested heavily in larger and better racetracks.

Excellent. I've been using Dio online for some time despite having a leather-bound set in the bookcase at my elbow. With this on my iPad I should get the best of both worlds.

Try Keith Richardson's 'Daggers in the forum'. It's a 1976 book, but still an excellent summary of the brothers and their times.

You might like to look at Robert Silverberg's Roma Eterna which is a collection of stories starting in AUC 1203 which describes how the Roman Empire survived the barbarian onslaught and made the breakthrough into the industrial era and beyond. There's some intriguing ideas in the book

It's out of my league as well, but I'll hazard a try for others to improve upon. As Latin has no word for politics I'll go for Public affairs 'Res publicae' as usual 'ut usitas'. Perhaps a classicist can correct me!

The issue was that until then the Romans did not have their laws down in writing, so the patrician class could pretty well make things up to suit themselves. As the plebeian class became more powerful they agitated for a written legal code. They sent a delegation to Greece where Solon had recently done the same thing, and the XII tables were the end result.

At this period (if we are talking Late Republic), at least in Rome, there are no real arenas. You can stage something at the Circus Maximus, or set up a temporary affair in the forum or Campus Martius, but there are not that many venues to rent. It's a fascinating question whether the Beastiarus supplied the animals for a hunt. Cicero's letter to Caelius Rufus (ad fam 90) suggests that Rufus was proactive in getting the beasts himself, or at least nagging Cicero to supply them. "About the panthers, the usual hunters are doing their best on my instructions .... Whatever comes to hand will be yours, but what that amounts to I simply do not know."(And note that Cicero adds that he is supplying the beasts at his own expense.)

When you are talking of 'the politics of the day' we'd need to know what day that is. Expenses varied considerably during the life of the Roman empire and republic, as did the type of entertainments on offer. By the second century games were classified by how much they cost, and anyone throwing a multi-million HS extravaganza without consulting the emperor would not only not be consul, he would not be alive. Let's assume we are talking about the Roman Republic c. 60 BC. Assume these games are ostensibly in memory of the candidate's dead father (who could have died a decade before). You'll need Wild beasts - Ostriches, panthers, elephants, bears, and boars are all good options. You'll also have to hire the 'hunters' who fight them. You might be able to get prisoners from the local assizes but you might have to buy them too. You'll also need acrobats, musicians and dancers for between larger events. Then there's arena officials to hire, and the cost of sportulae, gifts flung into the crowd. You might also need to bribe the aediles to let you hold the event in the first place. Gladiators depend on whether you get a good deal from a local gladiator school, and how many pairs you want to field. It helps if some barbarian nation has lost a war to Rome recently, as you can stage mass fights. The major cost will be the animals and any gladiators who die in combat - you break em you buy em, so a real cheapskate might consider fights with blunt weapons only.

And a belated happy birthday from me too (my excuse is I'm on the other side of the world, and the last to find out about these things). Glad that it was a good one!

I've been looking at this one for a while. First of all, it seems that there is no mention of any aspect of the deity called 'Peduix', or indeed any example of this word apart from this one coin. Further checking shows that this coin is exclusive to a single issue from the mint at Emisa, and we get a clue from the fact that the coin actually says 'Fopuna Pediux'. The same problem with 'R' is even clearer on the obverse where 'Salvator' is written SLVP instead of SLVR Therefore my guess is that what we have here is a (probably) non-Latinate individual making a pig's ear of the coin blanks, which are supposed to read what the other coin issues with this theme actually say - Fortuna Redux. i.e. 'The good times are [brought] back'. The cornucopia signals the good times, and the rudder and wheel signify the lady is restored by land and sea.

FORUM ALLIENI a city of Gallia Cisalpina, mentioned only by Tacitus (Tac. Hist. 3.6) during the civil wars of Vitellius and Vespasian, A.D. 69, but in a manner that affords little clue to its position, except that it was situated on some river, the passage of which it was important to defend. Cluver was inclined to place it at Ferrara, on the Po; others have fixed on Legnago, on the Adige, between Mantua and Padua, which is certainly the more probable site, and agrees better with the movements of the campaign. (Cluver, Ital. p. 155; Orell. ad Tac. l.c.) Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) The map itself looks like a medieval reconstruction of the area between Vicenza and Modena as it was in Roman times. Hope this helps.

There seems to be an increasing availability of hard-to-find books, due to the fact that print-on-demand has now become more common. I used to feel rather smug about having tracked down a copy of Cheeseman's Roman Auxilia, but colleagues have remarked that these days it is much more available. Just today I was buying for a copy of Hornblower's commentary on Thucydides, and the bookseller said that it would take an extra ten days because he had to print it. (It still cost $97, but at least because ancient history is my job as well as my hobby I can claim tax relief on it.) Now I just need to track down Annotations on the Institutes of Gaius ...

That would be the divine Vesta Curry of Florida USA (1875 - 1961), wife of Amos L. Curry? (Thanks to ancestry.com)