ASCLEPIADES

Again, you must be talking abourt the "Holy Roman Empire". The Empire around Constantinople was the same political entity. uninterrupted at least until 1204. I don't think anyone can argue that. If Hadrian were teleported to IX century Constantinople he would have to deal with the fact that the city of Rome was effectively ruled by the same Germanic barbarians he had fought against, even if it was technically still a possession of the Roman Empire centred at Constantinople. The Eastern half of Hadrianus

Thebes i believe had several boetarchs but i don't know their nature. We can find indeed many similarities with the Roman Republican system. The boeotarchs (Βοιοτάρκαι) were the executive power of the Boeotian League, one of the most successful of the many Hellenic poleis' confederacies; their number varied through time, mostly from fourteen to seven (eleven at the acme of the Peloponnesian War); each polis provided one boeotarch, annually elected (αίρετεΐζ) by their respective popular assembly (έκκλησΐα) except by Thebes which brought two, as it was almost always the most powerful member of the League. For the same reason, the chief commander at war (Boeotian Archon, άρχων έν κοινώ Βοιώτων) seems to have been most of the time one of the Theban boeotharcs (alternating with the other). The government of each individual polis was more or less uniformed among them, most of the time a rigid hereditary aristocratic oligarchy with some democratic elements. Each polis has its own eponym Archon (άρχων) and 2 or 3 Polemarchs (πολέμαρχος) (two in Thebes). The whole League had four senates or boules (Βουλή); I

Salve, LW From my previously posted link, it seems it was more of xenophobia than sexism (SIC): "...to the Roman mindset, which tended to think of trousers as the mark of the barbarian (a term which included Persians, along with the other barbarians we would normally think of)".

Salve, A3 Paenula, sagum, subpaenulae, fascia, udones, focale, & even trousers

I completely agree. This has caused more confusion than any other concept I can think of in Early Medieval history. The Roman empire could have been called something entirely different at various points, and on the basis of an equally profound set of changes as those brought about by the Heraclian dynasty. Salve, Amici. Here comes an extract from Kelley L Ross, Decadence, Rome and Romania: " "Oh!" you say, "You mean Byzantium! That's not the Roman Empire! That's some horrible medieval thing!" That certainly would have been news to Constantine, or to Zeno, or to Justinian (527-565), or even to Basil II in the 11th century (963-1025). "Byzantium," although the name of the original Greek city where Constantinople was founded, and often used for the City (as by Procopius), was not a word that was ever used to refer to the Empire, or to anything about it, by its rulers, its inhabitants, or even its enemies. The emperor was always of the "Romans," Rh

Current knowledge on the language(s)/dialect(s) spoken in classical Macedonia is extremely poor, partially because the country was subjected to a certain degree of Hellenization by the ruling Heraclid dynasty as early as the V century BC. Even so, Alexander III (the Great) was not understood by his Greek soldiers when he shouted an order in his native tongue. And his Greek commander Eumenes of Cardia needed a translator to address the soldiers of the Macedonian phalanx.

Salve, Amici. Strictly speaking, 50% of ANYTHING (any sample) is by definition under its Median (not its Average); consequently, the other 50% is over. Of course, Median and Average can be the same, for example under the paradigmatic Gaussian distribution.

This remains a matter of debate. The Athenians asserted this in classical times, more from a snobbish perspective I feel, and eighteenth century scholars continued this view, probably for similar reasons and motivated by a desire to 'agree' with the cultured Athenians. But as they were Indo Europeans who spoke and wrote Greek, worshipped Greek gods and built in classical style, what else could they have been? Salve, NN. As you said, it's a matter of debate. Greek and Macedonian were not the same lenguage; they were related, but it's difficult to say how closely. The ethnic and cultural situation was probably analogous. A good example of all this was the king Alexander I (he died c. 454 BC). He called himself himself Philhellenos ("friend of the Greeks"). That epithet itself implied he was not considered a Greek, even less his countrymen.

Under any kind of social contract, common people's loyalty is inevitably related to their government's ability to protect their interests and fulfil their requirements. Across all the last century of the Republic's history, their professional soldiers were expected to endlessly fight for the Senatorial class' wealth and glory without any security for them and their families after the end of their military service. In spite of the immense amounts of money that the conquests (specially on the East) brought to Rome, even the chance of having a piece of land was repeatedly denied to them. Being the cannon fodder, they didn't even have the chance to vote while they were on service out of the city. So when one of their commanders crossed the Rubicon, it's no surprise he was followed by many of them.

There were probably some early engagements between the Romans and the Greek colonies of southern Italy (Magna Graecia) to be sure (Capua, Neapolis, Tarentum), Salve, Amici. The earlier I was able to identify was at CDXXVII AUC (327 BC) against Palaeopolis and Neapolis within the Ist Sammite War (T. Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, Liber VIII, Cp. XXIII-XXV): That was in Latin sources; now I found some earlier evidence in a Greek source. Here comes Mestrius Olutarchus, De Mulierum Virtutibus, cp. XXI: "Aristodemus the despot (of Cumae)... advanced to the highest offices, being admired by his fellow-citizens, and he was sent to bring aid to the Romans fwhen they were besieged by the Etruscans who would restore Tarquinius Superbus to his kingdom. In this campaign, which lasted a long time..."

Salve, Amici. Just for the record: For many reference works (ie, wikipedia), today would be the 2071st anniversary of the Neronian Great Fire. Strictly speaking, that's a miscalculation; we must wait until tomorrow. Here comes Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Annales, Liber XV, cp. XLI: fuere qui adnotarent XIIII Kal. Sextiles principium incendii huius ortum, quo et Seneones captam urbem inflammaverint. "Some persons observed that the beginning of this conflagration was on the 14th day before the Sextilis' Kaleandas (19th of July), the day on which the Senones captured and fired Rome". This confusion is explained by the way the Romans counted their days; it was backwards and doubly inclusive (including both the day from which they started as well as that of the moon phase -Kalends- to which they were counting down), as they didn't use here the concept of zero. Therefore, August 1 was Kaleandas Sextilis; July 31 was Prairie Kaleandas Sextilis (literally "the day before Kalends Sextilis" or "two days before KS"); July 30 was "three days before Kalendas Sextilis" and so on. July 19 was "XIIII (14) days before Kalends Sextilis".

Regarding the private and public life of any candidate within any democratic contest under any free-speech regime, there's hardly anything really "off-limits", at least since Aristophanes and probably from long before. We may not always like its consequences, but I simply can't imagine any better alternative than free speech. "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter". Thomas Jefferson, 1787.

Salve, Amici. Sorry if I wasn't clear. When I said "authors" I was not talking about the cartoon's authors, but the authors of the quoted Obama's media adjectives ("Muslim", "terrorist", "racist"). Free speech is still prevalent in the US; I don't think any joke on any candidate has been censured. From where I am, for better or for worse, both candidates are quite liberal. And the average intelligence of the American people (of any party) has been clearly enough to keep the democracy running.

Salve, P. I'd argue one motivation doesn't exclude the other. We're talking here about Roman Republican Senators managing huge amounts of money; economic motivations can never be overstated.

I'm basically optimist; one of the few analogies that I can found between the United States and the Imperial Rome is that, most often than not, both have had extremely efficient political and administrative systems, so even mediocre rulers would have a hard time interfering with their right course. Then, the national outcome is not so dependent on the head status as it is in other countries.

DID THEY OR DIDN

Personally, I think the "muslim", "terrorist", "racist" and related adjectives on Senator Obama are so dumb that they can't benefit his opponents at all. In fact, such arguments can backfire on their authors, as implying they have no better argument for not voting for him.

The economic argument here is that if we destroy our competitors, we will get more money.

Salve, K. Gratiam habeo for that reference. Regarding my previouly provided link, we agree. BTW, Japan aside, everywhere in the Old world is "west" to China.

Wiser words were hardly ever said on this issue.

Virtually all Hellenic poleis would have agreed, certainly not the Macedonians. For better or for worse, it seems a citizen Army was an option no more at the late Republic; well differentiated soldiers and peasants mainly because: - Citizen soldiers couldn't care for their lands and houses while they were on remote provincial duty. - Conversely, half-time training was presumably not enough for facing some newcomers, like the Germans.

Salve, Amici. You can additionally check on the British Museum Hadrian's exposition introductory video page.

They didn't have to. Nero had already made the space Salve C; you're misinformed. Nero actually rebuilt the city, as any other Emperor after any of so many conflagrations. Subsequent Emperors required additional space. BTW, check on Hadrianus' Imperial Villa video