ASCLEPIADES

Salve.Amici Dionysius' Eastern origin is referred from the very beginning. Probably at first the East wasn't considered so decadent, as virtually any culture predating the Greeks was oriental to them. Dionysius' and Pentheus' common Phoenician ancestor Cadmus was considered not only to have founded Thebes, but also to have brought the alphabet and some other cultural improvements. Cadmus' name probably came from the Semitic root qdm, "the east". Dionysius himself was most frequently a positive influence than not. The oriental (Persian) xenophobia was probably a later development, after the Hellenic victory at the Medic Wars and specially the humiliation from the definitive Athenian surrender at the end of the Peloponnesian War, the latter just the year before the Bacchae first play. That's a quite interesting interpretation; anyway, Dionysius wasn't the only androgynous deity at Olympus (ie, Hermes or Athenea), and bisexuality was quite prevalent. His effeminacy came from long before Euripides. Androgynos is a well attested epithet in Dionysian cult "as one doing both active, male things and passive, female ones ." (Suidas ); another one is "Euast

Salve, Amici. It seems that at least from 683 BC to 594 BC (Solon Reforms), long before the Roman Consular system, the Athenian Archons fit the same basic model; a multiple executive power under annual service, even if they were always more than two (nine at the end). Even earlier (753 BC) the "perpetual archonship" (a kingship) was limited to 10 years. It's quite possible that at least for some time the Archons of other Hellenic polis were multiple too, but I haven't been able to confirm that. Bryaxis expertise is urgently needed.

That's EVERY imperialist and conqueror justification. It's clear some nazis really believed that the slaves' conquest by Germany was required for the evolution of those undermenschen. War has never been required for the transmission of civilization and advances. Actually, such transmission is far more efficient under peaceful conditions. Just check the European Union.

Herr Hitler couldn't have said it better. Anyway, I would really like to know your sources on this one.

The thumbs automutilation reports and the decimation of the legions tell us another story. Martial qualities have been always highly appreciated by any ruler class ... on any military class.

Let's check the sources. Here comes Caius Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico, Liber I, cp. XXIX: In castris Helvetiorum tabulae repertae sunt litteris Graecis confectae et ad Caesarem relatae, quibus in tabulis nominatim ratio confecta erat, qui numerus domo exisset eorum qui arma ferre possent, et item separatim, quot pueri, senes mulieresque. [Quarum omnium rerum] summa erat capitum Helvetiorum milium CCLXIII, Tulingorum milium XXXVI, Latobrigorum XIIII, Rauracorum XXIII, Boiorum XXXII; ex his qui arma ferre possent ad milia nonaginta duo. Summa omnium fuerunt ad milia CCCLXVIII. Eorum qui domum redierunt censu habito, ut Caesar imperaverat, repertus est numerus milium C et X. "In the camp of the Helvetii, lists were found, drawn up in Greek characters, and were brought to Caesar, in which an estimate had been drawn up, name by name, of the number which had gone forth from their country of those who were able to bear arms; and likewise the boys, the old men, and the women, separately. Of all which items the total was: Of the Helvetii [lit. of the heads of the Helvetii] 263,000 Of the Tulingi . . . . . . . . . . . 36,000 Of the Latobrigi .- . . . . . . . . . . 14,000 Of the Rauraci . . . . . . . . . . . 23,000 Of the Boii . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32,000 The sum of all amounted to . . . 368,000. Out of these, such as could bear arms, [amounted] to about 92,000. When the census of those who returned home was taken, as Caesar had commanded, the number was found to be 110,000". ... ie, 276,000 civilians (75%); 258,000 death (70%). Upper range for Hiroshima Little Boy's global killing was around 140,000 at the end of 1845, plus some thoudans of late fatalities. Of course modern technology let the carnage be far more efficient. That doesn't implies ancient warfare was any less "devastating".

Salve, Amici. At the still named Quintilis of DCCIX AUC / 45 BC, while celebrating his birthday during the aftermath of the final campaign of the Civil War at Spain, the sole Consul and Master of Rome could well have thought "at last". If he still remembered his younger days as junior conspirator, he may have guessed what happened with those old chaps from the failed coup d'etat 18 years ago, a dozen or so fellow Senators, some of them of the highest rank. As far as I know, here comes their ourcome (and upermost position): Lucius Sergius Catilina ---------------- Died in combat ---------- Patrician -------- Praetor Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura ----- Summarily executed ---- Patrician -------- Consul Publius Autronius ---------------------- Judged - Exiled to Epirus ------------------- Consul-----Cicero declared against him Lucius Cassius Longinus -------------- Condemned in Absence (?) ---------------- Praetor Gaius Cethegus ----------------------- Summarily executed ----------------------- Quaestor (young) Publius Cornelius Sulla ---------------- Absolved ------------------ Patrician ------- Consul --- Defended by Cicero Servius Cornelius Sulla --------------- Judged & condemned. Survived? --- Patrician Lucius Vargunteius -------------------- Judged - ? Quintus Annius ------------------------- ? Marcus Porcius Laeca ----------------- Judged - ? Lucius Calpurnius Bestia -------------- Absolved -- Defended by Cicero ---------- Tribune of Plebs, Aedilship candidate Quintus Curius ------------------------- Survived? ------------------------------------ Praetor I'm open for corrections.

There's some evidence that Tyro (Carthage's motherland) had sometime a dual rule too. Here come TF Josephus, Adversus Apionem, Liber I, cp. XXI: "I will now add the records of the Phoenicians... "Nabuchodonosor besieged Tyre for thirteen years in the days of Ithobal, their king; after him reigned Baal, ten years; after him were judges appointed, who judged the people: Ecnibalus, the son of Baslacus, two months; Chelbes, the son of Abdeus, ten months; Abbar, the high priest, three months; Mitgonus and Gerastratus, the sons of Abdelemus, were judges six years; ."

Salve, Amici. You know what? I think Klingan is completely right. Radiocarbon techniques are exclusively for organic material, simply because what you're actually dating is the death of the living source of such material (ie, the active Carbon uptaking from the environment). Here comes en.Wikipedia. "After plants die or they are consumed by other organisms (for example, by humans or other animals) the 14C fraction of this organic material declines at a fixed exponential rate due to the radioactive decay of 14C. Comparing the remaining 14C fraction of a sample to that expected from atmospheric 14C allows the age of the sample to be estimated". This article seems to be the original source of this note (in Italian). "Nuove analisi al radiocarbonio eseguite sulla Lupa Capitolina" are indeed mentioned ; "termoluminescenza" (thermoluminescence) is mentioned too, clearly not an equivalent method. There's of course possible that the explanation is just some confusion, like quoting radiocarbon for other radioisotope dating methods. Anyhow, I think we should be patient and cautious regarding this information. Here comes an editorial note by Daniel Cressey on the blog page from the prestigious British scientific journal Nature, July 10, 2008 The strange case of the young wolf. It

Salve, Amici: We can follow this argument ad infinitum, but the general idea won't change unless some new evidence is presented. NO RATIONALE: Virtually any hard fact points the Neronian administration was quite prudent. Not only the fire destroyed great portions of Nero's direct property, but great expenses had to be made for the global city reconstruction (not just for the Domus aureus' works). Nero might have been a maniac, not a retarded. Why on Earth would he waste his precious money in such a stupid way? NO REASON TO DOUBT THE FIRE'S ORIGIN WAS AN ACCIDENT: Only difference of the Great Fire relative to the myriad conflagrations that occurred all over Rome and its Empire is that it was... great, as judged by the chroniclers. Naturally, you can equally blame Christian fanatics, Zealot terrorists, Persian spies, Radical Senators, any of the multiple Nero's victims relatives, slaves or freedmen... or just any number of unintentional mishaps in a fire-prone metropolis. ARSONISM WAS A COMMONPLACE DIFAMATORY GOSSIP AMONG HOSTILE CLASSICAL HISTORIANS: Without additional proof, such accusation is equally doubtful when it's made against Aulus Vitellius and many other ancient rulers. No one can prove Nero (or any other contemporary at Rome) didn't start the fire. Anyhow, I must conclude Nero is far beyond any onus probandi (Burden of proof) allegation. Nero

Salve, O Excuse me, but I can't follow the argumentation: If he wanted to rename the city and build some huge`palaces, then he required to set Rome on fire? That makes no sense to me. Even being an evident megalomaniac, Nero was not anomalous in his architectural taste; most Emperors tend to build bigger constructions that their predecessors; ie, Nero's constructions were modest by Hadrian standards, and so was the latter relative to his succesors. That was not just self-satisfaction; it was propaganda too, showing the World in general and the Roman people in particular how great each individual semi-divine Emperor was. Technological improvements may have had a role too. As far as I know, no Emperor required to burned the city for building their progressively bigger projects.

Salve, I. You're a quite gifted photographer. Your corrections are still basically compatible with my previous interpretation, including TA(axa)T(io) instead of TXT. Last lines remain more or less the same to me; I think the name of the Tribune/Prefect was Q(uintus) RUF(us or -inus) CLE(mens or -ment). Most probably his Legion of adscription would have been IV Scythica; other candidates can be VI Ferrata and III Gallica, less likely X Fretensis.

The historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus and Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus Minor were good examples.

Salve, DC. Articles 104 to 110 of this Code are primarily concerned with what we may call consumer protection and liquor licensing. It's clear both were a real concern at early XVIII century BC Babylon:: "104. If a merchant give an agent corn, wool, oil, or any other goods to transport, the agent shall give a receipt for the amount, and compensate the merchant therefore. Then he shall obtain a receipt form the merchant for the money that he gives the merchant. 105. If the agent is careless, and does not take a receipt for the money which he gave the merchant, he can not consider the unreceipted money as his own. 106. If the agent accept money from the merchant, but have a quarrel with the merchant (denying the receipt), then shall the merchant swear before God and witnesses that he has given this money to the agent, and the agent shall pay him three times the sum. 107. If the merchant cheat the agent, in that as the latter has returned to him all that had been given him, but the merchant denies the receipt of what had been returned to him, then shall this agent convict the merchant before God and the judges, and if he still deny receiving what the agent had given him shall pay six times the sum to the agent. ............. 109. If conspirators meet in the house of a tavern-keeper, and these conspirators are not captured and delivered to the court, the tavern-keeper shall be put to death. 110. If a "sister of a god" (nun) open a tavern, or enter a tavern to drink, then shall this woman be burned to death". Within this context, I would suppose that art. 108 feminine side is better explained by linguistics than by sexism; ie, tavern-keepers were probably always or almost always women (like nowadays nurses), so the noun turned its grammatical gender in accordance.

Salve,DC. Actually, that's a fine description of "300". It piqued more my interest for Frank Miller's work in comics (ie, Batman's "Dark Night Returns", Daredevil's "Born Again") than "Sin City".

FROM THE PREVIOUS POST: Now, the progression of Roman conquests led to the developement of the colonatus system, a direct antecedent for medieval Feudalism; ibid, pg. 151: "It was an old custom in Italy to send out colonies for the purpose of securing new conquests. The Romans, ac

A detailed explanation of medieval law is far beyond the scope of both my knowledge and this thread. Basically, a wholly developed Feudal system is characterized by a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations among the warrior nobility, revolving around the three key concepts of lords (exercising administrative and judicial functions cutomarily performed by centralized governments in exchange for their protective obligations), vassals (under military and financial obligations for their lords), and fiefs, its fundamental land tenure mechanism; the lord's grant in return for a form of allegiance. (From Enciclopaedia Britannica and en.Wikipedia) The British soccage is a good example. "Wholly developed" is virtually equivalent to Low Middle Ages western Europe. Now, Roman republican land tenure was explicitely not feudal. No similarity with the soccage system at all. The Senate and latter the Emperors were always extremely reluctant in granting lands; in fact, that was one of the main mechanisms for the Repubic's Civil Wars and ulterior demise. Conquered territories were Ager Publicus, Common Land. Here comes Oskar Seyffert, Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, pg. 17-18: "The Romans made a practice, upon every new acquisition of land, of adding a part of it, usually a third, to the domain. So far as this land was under culture, por

Salve, Amici.

Salve, V. Gonorrhea or Chlamydia, if you ask me. Anyway, it was probably a cleaver way of discouraging sexual abuse.

Salve et gratiam habeo, C. I would never been able to put it in such eloquent terms.

Salve, Amici. Sorry... ... I couldn't resist.

Salve, H Well, the Latin Pseudo-Empire was there at Constantinople for a full half century, and its feudal remnants up to the Turkish conquest. You only have to check on their titles to verify that they became as westerly feudal as it can get. The Palaiologoi and other residual Roman states couldn

No.

Empires are a group of external territories ruled from the dominant member. That doesn't mean conquest is always the reason for this grouping. That is an Oxymoron. Peaceful conquest (ie, by bullying) is still conquest. That has been widely discussed in another thread. No evidence has been so far presented of anything remotely like that currently happening. Check it out. Social Darwinism? Anyway, that analogy is fallacious; the "maturing" of a state (Imperial or not), whatever you may mean, is not biological. Your source on this one? Certainly not Christian or Jewish; I don't think even our Roman Quisling "Titus Flavius" Josephus had ever stated something like that. BTW, Persian socio-economical system would have been considered "semi-feudal" at best. The mere existence of a "non-destructive" conquest a quite controversial issue. Anyway, as far as I know, "sometimes" implies "more than 99%" at best.