ASCLEPIADES

Salve, guys! Methinks it's interesting to correlate the failure of this Lepidus with the subsequent success of both of his sons (specially the futur triumvir) under the Caesarian auspice.

Salve, D! An apology. My posting was confusing, to say the less. Here, I was talking about the first article (the NG link at the head of this topic) "The Toltec, a pre-Aztec civilization that thrived from the 10th to 12th centuries, had not been previously thought to have sacrificed children... "This new discovery at Tula pushes back the evidence for a relationship between child sacrifice and the [appeasement] of the rain god Tlaloc at least 300 years," she said." Concerning the second article (my link), as far as I can understand it, I totally agree with your explanation.

Salve, P! Thank you for that nice link. It appears that using hair tricks to appear taller is a perpetual fashion.

Salve, guys! Methinks we have two outstanding points in this report. First of all, it appears that the Turkish people's desires have been stated even beyond the Turkish Army best opinion. Turkey has never had a high democratic profile (you could go ask Armenians, Kurds, Greeks, Cypriots and Turks themselves). Any point up in their democratic thermometer should be good news for everyone. The EU may be an exception, as they would have few arguments for the rejection of the Turkish candidacy. The other point is the Islamic integration of the Turkish parliament. Seeing it as bad news for the World (non-Islamic World, I suppose), would be probably premature, as it would appear to equate "Islamic" to "terrorism", a conception that the Islamic terrorists would certainly applaud. Only time will tell (not so much time, I hope).

Salve, JP! I have a dumb question for you. How much different would this Phalangist be from his Seleucid or Macedonian contemporary counterparts? Thanks in advance.

Salve, H! I think that any "what if" scenario is risky at best and doubtly useful. The IVth Crusade was probably the main isolated factor that contributed to the demise of the Empire and was one of the turning points in History. Had it never occurred, ANYTHING could have been possible, even the survival of the Empire to our days. Who knows?

Do you know if there's anything about that on the net Caldrail? No, I've no idea. If I still have the issue hanging around somewhere I'll definitely dig out the info. The upshot is that bipedalism is primarily useful for speed. . Salve, guys! In this typical LIST, the ostrich is the only one bipedal among the 20 speedest land animals. National Geographic has a lot in bipedalism studies; I posted a link before in this thread. Here is a very good link in COMPARATIVE BIPEDALISM; one of its main conclusions is: "Another unifying trait in bipedalism is the two general ways in which it has developed. In the case of thecodonts, lizards, and the non-primate mammals, bipedalism evolved for its advantages to speed in either escaping prey or pursuing predators. In the case of primates and birds, bipedalism evolved because the forelimbs were highly specialized for other purposes".

Salve, guys! Methinks this is clearly a far better option for your lawn than the Germanic gnomes.

Salve, guys! MODERN BOXING IS CERTAINLY SO GREEK, ROMAN AND ANTIQUE THAT IT HURTS! From where I am, dementia pugilistica ("punch drunk") should be more than enough to BAN BOXING.

Salve, guys! In the way P puts it, I doubt any of the Roman politicians of the late Republic had "ideology" beyond their own profit. Anyway, I think we simply don't know enough of this Lepidus to talk about his ideologies. As far as I can tell, he was the main leader of the Popular "party" (if such a thing could exist then) between Marius and Caesar. Being the death of Sulla unexpected (and happening during his consulship), he tried to benefit himself from the resultant confussion. It wasn't a bad bet. Unfortunately for him, he was unable to get in terms with the main political players specially Pompey and Catulus.

Salve, RG! "Turkey PM vows to preserve secularism By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA Associated Press Writer ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkey's prime minister pledged to work toward national unity and fight terrorism after the Islamic-rooted ruling party won parliamentary elections by a wide margin.Although the ruling party's success has been touted as proof that Islam and democracy can coexist, the new government is likely to face persistent tension over the role of Islam in society. State-run Anatolia news agency was projecting that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party would win 340 of the 550 seats, as votes in all but six of more than 158,000 ballot boxes across the country were counted. Erdogan, a devout Muslim, pledged to safeguard the country's secular traditions and do whatever the government deems necessary to fight separatist Kurdish rebels. "We will never make concessions over the values of people, the basic principles of our republic. This is our promise. We will embrace Turkey as a whole without discriminating," he said at a rally in the capital, Ankara. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso congratulated Erdogan's victory. "This comes at an important moment for the people of Turkey as the country moves forward with political and economic reforms," Barroso said in a statement. The EU chief said that Erdogan "has given his personal commitment to the sustained movement towards" the EU. The 27-nation bloc, while divided over whether Turkey should one day join the club, continues to spur Ankara to continue reforms to keep on track its membership bid. Ruling party supporters clapped, danced and waved flags depicting the party symbol, a light bulb, outside the party's office in Istanbul. In Ankara, hundreds whooped as they watched election results on a big TV screen set up outside party headquarters. "We are very happy," university student Reyhan Aksoy said. "God willing, great days await us." The election was called early to defuse a showdown with the military-backed, secular establishment, which contended that Erdogan and his allies were plotting to scrap Turkey's secular traditions despite their openness to the West. Erdogan raised concern with his efforts as prime minister to make adultery a crime and appoint former Islamists to key positions. Critics also were troubled by his calls for the lifting of restrictions on the wearing of Islamic headscarves. The government will have to decide how to deal with violence by Kurdish rebels seeking autonomy. NATO member Turkey is considering whether to stage an offensive into northern Iraq against separatist Kurdish rebels who rest, train and resupply at bases there. Erdogan has warned the incursion could happen if security talks with Iraq and the U.S. fail. He has invited Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to visit Turkey. "In our struggle against separatist terrorists, we are determined to take every step at the right time," Erdogan said of the conflict with the Kurds. The commander of Iraq-based Kurdish rebels told The Associated Press in an interview that he believes Turkey will quickly follow the elections with a long-anticipated offensive against his remote mountain bases. Murat Karayilan, the leader of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, warned that his fighters were prepared for battle, but denied Ankara's charges that his group was using Iraqi soil to launch attacks against Turkish forces across the border. He was speaking on Friday. Turkey has made big strides after the economic and political chaos of past decades, but some feared the vote could deepen divisions in the mostly Muslim nation of 70 million. The country has an emboldened class of devout Muslims, led by a ruling party willing to pursue Western-style reforms to strengthen the economy and join the European Union. Under Erdogan inflation has dropped, foreign investment has increased, and the economy has grown at an annual average of 7 percent. The success of the ruling party signaled continuity in economic reforms and in Turkey's troubled efforts to join the European Union. "We will press ahead with reforms and the economic development that we have been following so far," Erdogan said in his victory speech. One of Parliament's first jobs will be to elect a president. The post is largely ceremonial, but the incumbent has the power to veto legislative bills and government appointments. In May, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul abandoned his presidential bid after opponents said Gul's election would remove the last obstacle to an Islamic takeover of government and the military - instigator of past coups - threatened to intervene to safeguard secularism. Though the ruling party emerged from the vote with a smaller majority than in 2002 elections, its officials expressed surprise with how well they did given the current atmosphere of tension with the secularists. Two secular parties, the Republican People's Party and the Nationalist Action Party, won 112 seats and 71 seats, respectively, Anatolia said. Politicians backed by a Kurdish party that seeks more rights for the ethnic minority returned to Turkey's Parliament for the first time in more than a decade. The Democratic Society Party, or DTP, won 24 seats in the 550-seat Parliament, according to CNN-Turk television. The party's candidates ran as independents to circumvent a 10 percent vote threshold required to win representation in Parliament. The Kurdish politicians were expected to regroup under the party banner when the new Parliament convenes. According to project results, 50 female lawmakers are expected to enter the Parliament, bringing the share of woman lawmakers in the Parliament to an all-time high of almost 10 percent, the Milliyet newspaper said. Fourteen parties and 700 independent candidates competed for a total of 42.5 million eligible voters. Voting is compulsory in Turkey, though fines for failing to vote are rarely imposed, and 2002 election turnout was 79 percent. Turnout was more than 80 percent, and voting was largely peaceful, election officials said. Associated Press writers Selcan Hacaoglu and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, and C. Onur Ant in Istanbul, contributed to this report."

Salve, guys and Ladies! HERE, IN THIS LINK is an X-traordinary review of human sacrifices in Mesoamerica; unfortunately, it's in Spanish. Apparently the main point of this article is that this is the first archaeological evidence of human sacrifice among the Toltec culture, hardly surprising because there is a lot of literary and graphical evidence.

Salve, guys and Ladies! GRAPHICAL HINT: these are the headquarters of the Army in the same city. Good luck!

Salve, AC! Felicem diem natalem!

Salve, E! I'm curious: what is the definition of Celtic for you? Your answer would be much more useful if you can give some of the references (I would prefer it online) that might sustain your claims. Other way, we would be playing the "Nazi game": any "people" would be what we want them to be. Thanks in advance.

Gratiam habeo, GPM

Salve,E! Nope and nope. Brytthon were celtic. Picts no.

Salve, guys! GPM, the pic of the eclipse in Side was really wonderful! Gratiam Habeo. My turn. Same cry for help with the uploading of the picture following THIS LINK. Good luck.

Salve, H! After reading this thread, I think that the Angel(o)i actually weren't that bad. They were worse.

Salve, JPV! Another job well done; I really like your art.

Salve, E! As long as I know, the Picts weren't Celtic.

Salve, guys! Thank you for your answers. The Aristotelian text was particularly enlightening. Gratiam habeo, MPC. Do you know if there is any evidence of some kind of mutual influence of the Roman and Carthaginian political systems before the Punic Wars? I think they simply seem too similar to be mere coincidence. Thanks in advance.

Salve, E! Excellent research, nice quotation. I think Diodorus Siculus wrote it in his Book V, Chapter II.

Salve, H. This Lepidus was the father of the Triumvir, first an oppressive praetor of Sicily (81 BC), then partisan of Sulla in the war against Marius (where he enriched considerably); but afterwards he was a leader of the popular party and run against Sulla for the consulship in 79 BC, wining with the support of Pompey. After Sulla's death, Lepidus tried unsuccessfully to prevent his burial in the Campus Martius and proposed several laws against Sulla's Constitution, provoking great agitation at Rome and the opposition of the other consul (QL Catulus). Sent by the Senate to Gaul to prevent their confrontation, Lepidus allied with M Brutus for the rebellion (this topic title) and marched to Rome; but after being declared a public enemy by the Senate, he and Brutus were easily defeated by Pompey and Catulus in the Campus Martius; Lepidus and Brutus died a little later (A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, By various writers, Ed. by William Smith, entry no. 13 of Lepidus article, pg. 764-765). I think that the power struggle after Sulla's death is one of the most fascinating and neglected periods of the history of the Late Republic.