ASCLEPIADES

Felicem diem natalem , I!

Salve, guys! This is a quotation from the remarkable astronomical site www.nineplanets.org: Days of the Week The seven-day system we use is based on the ancient astrological notion that the seven known celestial bodies influence what happens on Earth and that each of these celestial bodies controls the first hour of the day named after it. This system was brought into Hellenistic Egypt from Mesopotamia, where astrology had been practiced for millennia and where seven had always been a propitious number. In A.D. 321 the Emperor Constantine the Great grafted this astrological system onto the Roman calendar, made the first day of this new week a day of rest and worship for all, and imposed the following sequence and names to the days of the week. This new Roman system was adopted with modifications throughout most of western Europe: in the Germanic languages, such as Old English, the names of four of the Roman gods were converted into those of the corresponding Germanic gods: Celestial Body Latin Germanic god modern English modern Italian ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sun Solis Sunday domenica Moon Lunae Monday luned

Salve, Doc! You're right, the frehch word "Dimanche" comes from the Latin "dies dominica" , the day of the Lord. That's why it gets the "di" syllable at the begining and not at the end, as the other names of days of the week (vg, "Lundi" (Monday) = "Luna dies".

Salve, guys! Please be careful about all those fancy stories about poisoning in the Roman world. Romans simply hadn't the clinical knowledge to recognize the poisoning signs and symptoms, something very difficult even today. If someone got poisoned, they wouldn't have been able to notice it. Even a confession would have been unreliable, because of the widespread use of torture. What Suetonius said about the evidence of poisoning in Germanicus' corpse is a good example: "after he had been reduced to ashes his heart was found entire among his bones; and it is supposed to be a characteristic of that organ that when steeped in poison it cannot be destroyed by fire" (Caligula, 1).

Salve, PP. Do you know if there is any way we can access JSTOR from UNRV? I am not included in any of the options of the accessing window, so I can't get beyond it. Thanks in advance.

Non est, quod gratias agas.

Salve, guys! Only to quote Carl Sagan (quoted himself by Marcus Caelius, Member No.: 2281) : "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." Now, I see this stuff very much like UFO searching. These claims are clearly X-traordinary, as they may change a lot of our conceptions of Medieval History. And, as Callaecus was saying, the evidence is X-tremely weak, at best. Cheers and good luck.

Salve, C! That emperor was Otho.

Salve, guys and Ladies! ... AND THIS IS THE BASILICA OF THE SAME CITY.

Salve, K! What do you think? I was finally able.

Salve, K! Nowadays, "Happy Tree Friends" is a very successful children's TV cartoon. THIS IS A TYPICAL PIC. I'm sorry, but I wasn't able to post the pic because my image sharing service simply did not acceot it. Anyway, you should see this cartoon on TV or the Web. There is nothing like real-life action.

Salve, Lady N! Guess what... Darby, Lloyd-Jones and you agree. A quotation: "Almost ever since Plato and certainly since the beginning of the Christian era, the ethical thinking of the West has been dominated by the assumption that there is one answer to every ethical problem, that there can be no conflict between two moral considerations of equal power, that there are certain answers to the central problems of life." You can find this essay by Lloyd-Jones HERE. Cheers and good luck!

Salve, guys! A frequently quoted evidence of Caligula's madness is his delirious "victory over the Ocean" after beginning a fake campaign against the Germans (Suetonius, 45-47) (SEE HERE). Now, Jona Lendering resumes the evidence that there was indeed a real campaign of Caligula against the Chatti in 40 AD HERE.

Salve, guys! Science (from the Latin scientia, 'knowledge') is: 1.- A system of acquiring knowledge based on the scientific method, as well as; 2.- The organized body of knowledge gained through such research. Scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena and acquiring new knowledge, as well as for correcting and integrating previous knowledge. It is based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning, the collection of data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses. (These definitions come from en.wikipedia.org). These very basic definitions, mainly built with concepts from Newton and Popper, may be applied to some practices of the Classical Antiquity, like engineering (vg, SEE THIS PREVIOUS TOPIC). They certainly cannot be applied to any therapeutics before the XVII Century and only to a handful of diagnostic procedures before that time. Any Science is also practice. As any of today's branches of Science (vg, Physics or Biology), Medicine was only a practice before becoming a Science; after that, all ot them became (obviously) both practice and Science. I think that in the history of knowledge, any step is the continuation of previous steps and the base for future steps: prehistoric, Ancient Near East, Greek/Roman, Arab/Medieval and so on. The body of knowledge of Medicine (definition no, 2) is not an "invention" of anybody, the same way America wasn't an "invention" of Columbus (or Vikings, if you like). As with any Science, the knowledge is out there. You only have to find it.

Salve, guys! From BBC2, six months in advance: Merry Mithras! QUOTE: "Just a massive coincidence?"

Gratiam habeo, JPV.

'nuff said.

Salve, guys! The following link goes to an X-cellent previous UNRV thread about more or less the same topic but with the more conservative title Was Caligula Mad? I would highly recommend to check it out. It's an X-traordinary material.

Salve, guys! This coin has the images of Diva Claudia Augusta and her mother.

Salve, guys! Ough, I almost forget it! Someone may find interesting this related article. Egyptians ate lettuce to boost sex drive

Salve, guys! Good link, although a bit unspecific. It is not stated what are the new discoveries of Dr. Metcalfe and his team, as most of what is written there could come from traditional sources like the Papyri Edwin-Smith and Ebers, from the Middle Empire ( circa XVI Century BC), translated since the 1930's. For now, as an example of Dr. Metcalfe's research: Laxatives kept Pharaohs on the throne

Salve, C! The sad truth is that hardly anything in therapeutics before the XVII Century (at least) deserves the name of Science as we understand this concept today.

Salve, guys and Ladies! Com'on! Educated guesses will be wellcomed! Now, a panoramic view of the same city.

GRATIAM HABEO, LADY M. IOU 4ever.

Salve, guys and Ladies! This comes from the essay "Ancient Greek religion" by SIR HUGH LLOYD-JONES (OXFORD): "It was wise to pay all gods some honour, and to try not to offend any god; a god might take against a mortal, often for a trivial reason. In the Odyssey, Odysseus offends Poseidon, having in order to save the lives of himself and his men blinded his son, the monstrous Cyclops. In consequence he gets home to Ithaca only after having lost all his crew, and then has to fight for his life against his wife