ASCLEPIADES

Salve, G As any translation, it would greatly depend on your overall context. Eg, it would be quite different the way you use each word within each sentence (ie, as adjective, adverb, noun or verb). (Not to talk about ALL the declination alternatives). I think it would be far better if you may post all the pertinent text, as far as it is not too extense.

Salve, G In fact there are; eg, regarding the discs and half moon shapes: "...The signa of the legions were in the main essentials similar to one another. The pole was a lace with a point at the lower end for fixing into the ground and a cross-piece of wood a little above this point to prevent the pole sinking too deep into the ground; sometimes, too, the pole had a handle. The pole was plated with silver. Towards the top of the pole was a transverse bar with ribands,... Along this transverse bar there appears to have been placed a plate containing the name of the legion, cohort, and maniple to which the signum belonged. Below the transverse bar came a series of discs, probably of silver (Caius Plinius Secundus Maior. Naturalis Historia Liber XXXIII cp. LVIII), like the phalerae... There were military orders given to the maniple or century;... This accounts for the fact that the number of discs varies, sometimes being as many as seven, sometimes only two... These discs could be taken off the pole; and poles without them were called incompta signa, and appeared as such at military funerals. Ornare signa seems to have been the expression used for putting these discs on the pole, though in this passage it is said of the eagle, not of the signa properly so called. Below these discs, generally acting as a support, was a crescent moon, which was probably a kind of amulet to avoid ill-luck ... Above the transverse box was sometimes a corona aurea, sometimes a small shield--both probably kinds of orders, though one cannot feel at all sure in the case of the latter--sometimes a small vexillum, which was certainly an order ... sometimes an upstretched hand, the token of fidelity. Again beasts, especially the capricorn, are sometimes found below the discs..." Please check out more in the quite extensive article on "SIGNA MILITARIA" from the William Smith's A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities HERE.

So far, I have found no evidence of any substantial increase in the slaves' price.

Salve, M Nowadays, the same as in classical times, folk medicine is basically folklore. As explained in a previous post, vinegar is fundamentally acetic acid (a weak acid; pKa = 4.8) in aqueous solution (typically 5% to 18% by mass); it has well established antimicrobial properties, but mainly in the context of food preparation, because it is only slightly effective at inhibiting the growth of only some pathogenic bacteria at concentrations that can cause skin irritation and toxic effects on skin cells; even if it is useful in the treatment of some ear infections and jellyfish stings, it is not recommended because modern chemical disinfectants are far more effective for the former and hot-water immersion for the latter. Quenching thirst by anything different than water is presumably mostly a placebo effect; and of course, the main constituent of both vinegar and beer is water. The urge for water (thirst) is mediated not by the stomach but by osmotic and pressure receptors in your cardiovascular and central nervous system. There's a nice review on the therapeutic properties of vinegar done by Dr CS Johnston & CA Gaar from the Department of Nutrition of the Arizona State University in the Medscape General Medicine journal, vol. 8, number 2, pg. 61 (May 2006).

Salve, Ch After all this thread, it's clear the use of posca by the soldiers is well attested, and not only by Plinius; eg, here comes Spatianus, Historiae Augustae, Vita Adrianus, cp. X, sec. II: pacisque magis quam belli cupidus militem, quasi bellum immineret, exercuit tolerantiae documentis eum imbuens, ipse quoque inter manipula vitam militarem magistrans, cibis etiam castrensibus in propatulo libenter utens, hoc est larido caseo et posca, exemplo Scipionis Aemiliani et Metelli et auctoris sui Traiani. "Though more desirous of peace than of war, he (HADRIAN) kept the soldiers in training just as if war were imminent, inspired them by proofs of his own powers of endurance, actually led a soldier's life among the maniples, and, after the example of Scipio Aemilianus, Metellus, and his own adoptive father Trajan, cheerfully ate out of doors such camp-fare as bacon, cheese and vinegar". Even so, I found no evidence in classical sources regarding your quoted details on the mixture proportion ("1 drop of viniger in every 10 drops of water") or administration ("they would drink every 1000 steps of so"); who knows, all these may be urban myths. Vinegar is basically a diluted solution of acetic acid (CH3 - COOH) with some variable additional components ( ie, polyphenolic compounds, amino acids, mineral salts, nonvolatile organic acids and even vitamins); there's no physiological basis for the purported "keeping the water in the body" action.

Salve, TG and welcome to UNRV. With a minimum of respect, you can offend no one; even so, please be aware this is not a biblical or religious discussion forum; religion is discussed as any other issue regarding ancient Rome and its world. Please feel free to check on the welcome messages and ask the admins anything you like related the dynamics of UNRV. If you scroll up a little, you will find in this same thread the post of Primus Pilus (an admin, BTW) answering the original question, where he mentions the posca (vinegar mixed with water) a common drink of the lower orders among the Romans, including slaves and soldiers on service. Now, the kindness explanation doesn't work for the Christian theologians, mostly because this passage is considered an important sign of Jesus' divinity, as the fulfilment of a biblical prophecy contained in Psalm 69:20-22, where it's evident the use of vinegar is an additional affliction and mockery, as it is also the offering of "gall for my food". (Please check out the post #8 in this same thread). That's why the Latin translations of the four gospels (ie, the Vulgate) don't use the word posca (the drink) but aceto (vinegar) for these passages.

BTW, regarding slave prices, their analysis is analogous to nowadays car prices.

Salve, Amici Actually, this book's original name is kind of a misnomer, because the Greek term ἀναβάσεως (Anabasis) refers to an expedition from a coastline into the interior of a country (ie, what we may call the prologue of Xenophon's book). So we should probably call it καταβάσεως (Katabasis), ie. an expedition from the interior to the coast of a country. From its very end, here comes a list of the "street gangs" that the Hellenes had to fought in their way back home (Book VII, cp. VIII, sec. XXV-XXVI): "The governors of all the King's territories that we traversed were as follows: Artimas of Lydia, Artacamas of Phrygia, Mithradates of Lycaonia and Cappadocia, Syennesis of Cilicia, Dernes of Phoenicia and Arabia, Belesys of Syria and Assyria, Rhoparas of Babylon, Arbacas of Media, Tiribazus of the Phasians and Hesperites; then the Carduchians, Chalybians, Chaldaeans, Macronians, Colchians, Mossynoecians, Coetians, and Tibarenians, who were independent; and then Corylas governor of Paphlagonia, Pharnabazus of the Bithynians, and Seuthes of the Thracians in Europe. The length of the entire journey, upward and downward, was two hundred and fifteen stages, one thousand, one hundred and fifty parasangs, or thirty-four thousand, two hundred and fifty-five stadia; and the length in time, upward and downward, a year and three months".

Or because they were a investment that was expected to last for a long time to pay off. We are saying the same things with different words; their slaves could only have been an investment if they were profitable. We can expect no less from the always prudent and sometimes stingy MT Varro.

I would say no. In the end a roman slave was a slave and nothing else. They were property. All societies that allow slaves have different ways to handle them. Persian slaves were highly trusted, but we all know that many of them had to become eunuchs to earn that trust. In Athens they had a slave police force.

Salve, SF I love that Caldrail and may need to pinch it, do you know where it came from by any achance? SF

Felicem diem natalem, Lady N

Salve, LSG As Maty rightly pointed at the beginning of this thread, some (in fact, most) of the legionaries depicted in Trajan's column are actually clean-shaven.

Salve, K Here comes Caius Plinius Secundus Maior, Naturalis Historia, Liber XXVIII, cp. LI, sec. CXCI: prodest et sapo, Galliarum hoc inventum rutilandis capillis. fit ex sebo et cinere, optimus fagino et caprino, duobus modis, spissus ac liquidus, uterque apud Germanos maiore in usu viris quam feminis. "Soap, too, is very useful for this purpose, an invention of the Gauls for giving a reddish tint to the hair. This substance is prepared from tallow and ashes, the best ashes for the purpose being those of the beech and yoke-elm: there are two kinds of it, the hard soap and the liquid, both of them much used by the people of Germany, the men, in particular, more than the women".

Indeed; please hold your breath a little longer. The first high-energy collisions (the purported universal doom) are expected to take place after 6-8 weeks (ie, next November).

Salve, LW It seems this and many other related urban myths were developed by Richard Simonton (1915-1979), aka Doug Malloy, Hollywood entrepreneur and body piercing promoter, at least since the publication of his pamphlet

Salve, AIII The vast majority of what you may read here, at Livius.org and at similar sites is based on primary, secondary and tertiary sources actually written in physical books (paperware, if you like). Most of the sources given to you for your Roman games paper by Ingsoc, Ludovicus and Lady N are a good example (BTW, I'm still expecting to read your post here at UNRV on such paper; I also hope you were able to read my related commentary now in Tartarus). Another example: all what has been commented in this thread on Caesar's bridge came from the Commentarii de Bello Gallico. I think the easiest solution for you most of the time would be quoting the physical books themselves.

Salve, N and welcome to UNRV ALWAYS A NICE PLACE TO BEGIN WITH Are you kidding? Why would anyone ever post if we have any fear for the critique of our uneducated findings?

Salve, SF Since the Classical studies of Moses I Finley, the criteria for defining a true slave society (as opposed to a just "slave-owning" society) is more economic than demographic: "the economic and political elite depended primarily on slave labor for basic production" (Slavery in classical antiquity [1968], pg. 310). Finley considered the five primary examples of slave societies were the United States, the Caribbean, Brazil, ancient Greece (especially Athens) and Ancient Rome (especially Italy), the latter basically from the III century BC up to the Diocletian era.

Salve, K Here comes Aelius Spartianus in the Historia Augusta, De Vita Hadriani Aelii, cp. XXVI, sec. I: Statura fuit procerus, forma comptus, flexo ad pectinem capillo, promissa barba, ut vulnera, quae in facie naturalia erant "He was tall of stature and elegant in appearance; his hair was curled on a comb, and he wore a full beard to cover up the natural blemishes on his face".

Salve, Amici. Methinks you might be interested in reading "Empire" by Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt. Written in the 1990s, it attempts to define the concept of Empire and draws some interesting links between the Roman, and Globalisation/UN/Nato style conglomerates, rather than individual nation states. "History is, in its essentials, the science of change. It knows and it teaches that it is impossible to find two events that are ever exactly alike, because the conditions from which they spring are never identical." Marc LB Bloch (1886

Salve, Amici DC, I'm looking forward to hearing those results, too! I echo your congratulations to the folks at CERN. Basically, what the CERN guys have achieved until now is a billionaire inversion in the biggest investigation project ever: "billions of dollars: five, maybe ten