Jump to content
UNRV Ancient Roman Empire Forums

ASCLEPIADES

Plebes
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    2,115

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by ASCLEPIADES

  1. ASCLEPIADES
    And just for the record: the explicit aim of the LHC is: "To smash protons moving at 99.999999% of the speed of light into each other and so recreate conditions a fraction of a second after the big bang". S Peter Davis and others have interpreted this statement as (SIC): "They assure us that they can stage a new Big Bang if they smash some protons together really, really fucking hard. In fact, they can make a million of them per second, which is 999,999 more than God managed". This is just ludicrous; "recreate conditions" implies verifying the physical variables (ie, temperature, pressure and any other that you may imagine) as they might have been "a fraction of a second after the big bang". The Big Bang itself would have been the initial expansion of a "gravitational singularity of infinite density" that would have contained all the known Universe (and presumably a lot of unknown energy and matter too) compressed into a single point. It has been estimated that such ongoing process may have taken so far some 13.7 billion years Needless to say, the reversal of such process (a "big crunch" if you like) is far far far beyond the capabilities of the LHC. BTW, here comes the LHC homepage
  2. ASCLEPIADES
    Salve, G aka G It might become a not so quick answer, as it is a highly disputed point.
  3. ASCLEPIADES
    This has happened before; from the Telegraph.co.uk (Sep 10, 2008): "Large Hadron Collider: 10 other dates when the world failed to end The Large Hadron Collider at CERN has been switched on and, counter to some doomsday predictions, the world is still turning. Here are 10 other dates in history when apocalyptic predictions failed to come to fruition: Oct 3 1533 - Michael Stifel in Lutheran Germany. Oct 22 1844 - US Millerites. 1914
  4. ASCLEPIADES
    Salve et felicem diem natalem, A!
  5. ASCLEPIADES
    Salve, A III Gratiam habeo for the advice.
  6. ASCLEPIADES
    Salve, A III quote name='Antiochus III' date='Aug 31 2008, 09:04 PM' post='88644'] My dad said there is no way this would have been used. Antiochus III the Great With all due respect, it seems your dad really knows what he's talking about.
  7. ASCLEPIADES
    Salve, Amici. Electric "eels" (Electrophorus electricus, actually a kind of Gymnotiforme or knifefish) live exclusively in Central and South American rivers, far way from the Roman area; the quotation of Lady N was on the electric rays (order Torpediniformes), probably Torpedo nobiliana. As other strongly electric fishes, both electric eels and rays can get electric organ discharges of up to 500 volts (with a current of up to 1 ampere), so they would possibly stunned but hardly killed any more or less healthy human adult. Lady N's quotation on Scribonius Largus' Compositiones Medicae was about the use of electric rays in the treatment of headache and gout (ie, pain), presumably mostly via placebo effect (ie, suggestion and allied phenomena), as most (if not all) the so-called "alternative medicines" do.
  8. ASCLEPIADES
    Salve, Amici. I couldn't resist from posting this Plinian pearl from Naturalis Historia Liber XXIX cp. VIII: Nulla praeterea lex, quae puniat inscitiam capitalem, nullum exemplum vindictae. Discunt periculis nostris et experimenta per mortes agunt, medicoque tantum hominem occidisse inpunitas summa est. Quin immo transit convitium et intemperantia culpatur, ultroque qui periere arguuntur. "And then besides, there is no law in existence whereby to punish the ignorance of physicians, no instance before us of capital punishment inflicted. It is at the expense of our perils that they learn, and they experimentalize by putting us to death, a physician being the only person that can kill another with sovereign impunity. Nay, even more than this, all the blame is thrown upon the sick man only; he is accused of disobedience forthwith, and it is the person who is dead and gone that is put upon his trial".
  9. ASCLEPIADES
    Quite unlikely, as CJ Caesar himself destroyed the bridges, no doubt preventing any German retaliation (ibid Liber IV cp. XIX): ...diebus omnino XVIII trans Rhenum consumptis, satis et ad laudem et ad utilitatem profectum arbitratus se in Galliam recepit pontemque rescidit. "...having spent altogether eighteen days beyond the Rhine, and thinking he had advanced far enough to serve both honor and interest, he returned into Gaul, and cut down the bridge".
  10. ASCLEPIADES
    Salve, Amici. We can't see the d%*? thing in England, so I don't know which one it is!! I got the smae trouble too. By the way, is this the Hannibal documentary by the BBC, the one that starred Alexander Ziddig as Hannibal? If it is then it's worth a watch. And Hulu answered: "Sorry, currently our video library can only be streamed from within the United States ".
  11. ASCLEPIADES
    Salve, GH Actually, CJ Caesar built at least two bridges over the Rhine in 55 & 53 BC (DCXCIX & DCCI AUC) according to (Commentarii de Bello Gallico, Liber IV cp. XVII-XVIII & Liber VI cp. IX) on almost the same spot. The spot, according to en.wikipedia.
  12. ASCLEPIADES
    Salve, M. Why Malaria? As far as I know, diarrhoea couldn't be attributed to it, and skin spots (purpura?) are not common. Sialorrhea ("mouth foaming") is quite unspecific and neither fever (malaria's hallmark) nor delirium (mental confusion) were reported. Besides, by the first century AD, Malaria was presumably as common in Italy as it was in Syria, so Germanicus' travel wouldn
  13. ASCLEPIADES
    Salve, Lady Docta It might be so, but I don't remember. Anyway, gratiam habeo for such nice link.
  14. ASCLEPIADES
    Salve, G et gratiam habeo for sharing you work with us.
  15. ASCLEPIADES
    Indeed it is! Good thing we didn't put any money on it, because it was really a surprise for me: " John McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate is a stunning surprise almost certain to recalibrate the race heading into the fall election"
  16. ASCLEPIADES
    Salve, Lady N Probably in modern English; maybe not so in decemviral (preclassical) Latin. Si membrum rup<s>it, ni cum eo pacit, talio esto.
  17. ASCLEPIADES
    Salve, V. First of all, gratiam habeo for such wonderful link; cracked.com seems really fascinating. Now, we're mixing here two quite different posts: Or a military uniform, BTW. The Milgram, Stamford prison, Bystander apathy, Good Samaritan and Asch Conformity Experiments were all well designed classical research which showed us that regarding mass psychology the "just-following-orders" Nazi and similar experience is closer to the rule than to the exception. On the other hand, I would consider the physical knowledge of SP Davies as questionable at best. Actually, many of the posted comments (eg, those from "Misery") handled far better the pertinent hard facts.
  18. ASCLEPIADES
    Salve, AIII I would say the first line of the II Law of the VIII table (your question)... "VIII.2. If one has maimed a limb and does not compromise with the injured person, let there be retaliation. ...was an introduction for the retaliation detailed by the subsequent lines regarding each specific maimed limb category: "If one has broken a bone of a freeman with his hand or with a cudgel, let him pay a penalty of three hundred coins. If he has broken the bone of a slave, let him have one hundred and fifty coins. If one is guilty of insult, the penalty shall be twenty-five coins".
  19. ASCLEPIADES
    Salve, Amici And the French Roman Law Library website strikes again. Gratiam habeo for such nice link, I.
  20. ASCLEPIADES
    Here comes Caius Suetonius tranquillus, Vita Caius, cp.I: Germanicus, C. Caesaris pater... annum agens aetatis quartum et tricensimum diuturno morbo Antiochiae obiit ... liuores, qui toto corpore erant, et spumas, quae per os fluebant... "Germanicus, father of Gaius Caesar... died of a lingering illness at Antioch, in the thirty-fourth year of his age... the dark spots which appeared all over his body and the froth which flowed from his mouth..." My first suspicion? Typhus. But there are of course hundreds of diseases that could have explained those symptoms.
  21. ASCLEPIADES
    Salve, Amici Many thanks for that, MPC. Would it work if I incorporated that into an inscribed stone, say on the rear retaining wall, or is the latin somewhat colloquial in its phrasing? I simply love this poet. Gaius Valerius Catullus, Carmen LVII: ad Gaium Iulium Caesarem (lines I-V): Everything is turning out well for those disgraceful Cinaedii* Caesar and Mamurra*** the pathicus** No wonder: the stains are equal for both of them, But one is from the city and the other is from Formia, And they are so ingrained that they cannot be washed out: * Cinaedus (plural form, Cinaedii) was a complicated insulting term referring to sexual immorality and a willingness to do anything for a little profit. **- Pathicus was another vulgar and insulting word that refered to sexually perverted individuals. *** Mamurra was a crony of Julius Caesar, depicted by CV Catullus in Carmen XXIX (line II) as impudicus et uorax et aleo: "shameless and a glutton and a gambler".
  22. ASCLEPIADES

    ASCLEPIADES replied to Faustus's topic in Libri

    Salve, F
  23. ASCLEPIADES
    As usual, ad hoc Roman legislation can give us some idea of their attitudes. Here comes XII Tabularum Leges: I.3. If illness or old age is the hindrance, let the summoner (before the magistrate) provide a team. He need not provide a covered carriage with a pallet unless he chooses. IV.1. A dreadfully deformed child shall be quickly killed. V.7. If one is mad but has no guardian, the power over him and his money shall belong to his agnates and the members of his gens. VIII.2. If one has maimed a limb and does not compromise with the injured person, let there be retaliation. If one has broken a bone of a freeman with his hand or with a cudgel, let him pay a penalty of three hundred coins If he has broken the bone of a slave, let him have one hundred and fifty coins. If one is guilty of insult, the penalty shall be twenty-five coins.
  24. ASCLEPIADES
    Salve, S. Checking his titles on Amazon, I would say Mr. Stephen Dando-Collins has done both genres. Indeed, he wrote in Blood of the Caesars (pg. 218) "the man who masterminded the crime (against Germanicus) was none other than Lucius Annaeus Seneca, the same Seneca who became Nero's tutor". Nevertheless, I would prefer the more conservative approach of MT Griffin in Seneca: A Philosopher in Politics: "The evidence for Seneca's life before his exile in 41 is so slight, and the potential interest of these years, for social history as well as for biography, is so great that few writers on Seneca have resisted the temptation to eke out knowledge with imagination".
  25. ASCLEPIADES
    This article's title is misleading; Dr Kristin Aune seems to have mentioned that TV series in an almost incidental way and she didn't elaborate on the issue; her quoted reasons why women are not going to church are commonplace. If we check out the Scottish Census of 2001 regarding religious identity, I would think Dr. Aune grossly overstated Wiccam's contribution to British female desertion from the Christian Church. On the other hand, male may have something to worry about: "Dr Aune ... explained that figures from the English Church Census showed that among the teenage age group (15-19)
×
×
  • Create New...