ASCLEPIADES

quote] I just don't see the logical progression from one document to the other. Salve, MC! I totally agree.

It depends. Another way of looking at it is that he's a prisoner of war. Slavery's been abolished, but the taking of prisoners of war hasn't. Salve! Nope, slavery was still there and was going to stay for some centuries. I believe that in the Roman Empire, "slave" and "prisoner of war" were almost synonymous. It is well known, but always amazing, how an image tells more than a thousand words. It is no surprise that people like the Cimbri and the Jews preferred suicide to slavery.

Nope, that is an assumption that has not been made, at least by TS, GO or me. "Change" is not synonymous of "softening" (or "hardening", by the way). In fact, I think you are probably considering the Gauls as an homogenous population; they weren't. All those tribes had in common were that they spoke one of a family of languages ( which could have been as dissimilar as German and English today) and that they inhabited the area between the rivers Po and Rhine. The Senones of Brennus (Adriatic coast, IV century BC) had probably no much more in common with the Nervii that fought against Caesar.

Salve! HERE you can find a very basic recipe for "Mole Negro" (Black Mole), typical from Oaxaca, Mexico. Of the 28 ingredients, 18 were at least partially unavailable to mesoamerican peoples (Pecans come from North America, all the others from the Old World); any chocolate bar, Mexican or elsewhere, has sugar, fat and milk, equally unavailable.

Salve! Do you know, besides christianism, which other religions were persecuted by the Roman Empire? I think that was the case for the Manicheans, some oriental cults, the druidism and maybe judaism.

Salve, guys! I think that TS has a valid point, the same as GO. The degree of "softening " of a nation is totally subjective and unmeasurable, and the argument itself is circular and self-justified; if a nation was defeated, it was "soft" and vice versa. Generally speaking, more organized ("civilized") nations tend to have better armies; "generally", because there are plenty of other factors that could affect their military abilities.

You're really good at math, RG. Thanks a lot for sharing it.

Salve, V! An interesting link. I suppose the next step would be the validation of this "Nebo-Sarsekim", as he can always be a homonym. Anyway, I think a lot of us admited that "the Biblical story is not altogether invented" for a long time before reading this article.

Some religious statements are clearly more offensive than others. Look at the three different prayers used: 1: "Almighty and everlasting God, you do not refuse your mercy even to the faithless Jews; hear the prayers which we offer for the blindness of that people so that they may acknowledge the light of your truth, which is Christ, and be delivered from their darkness." 2: "Almighty and eternal God, long ago you gave your promise to Abraham and his posterity. Listen to your church as we pray that the people you first made your own may arrive at the fullness of redemption." 3: "Almighty and everlasting God, you do not refuse your mercy even to the Jews; hear the prayers which we offer for the blindness of that people so that they may acknowledge the light of your truth, which is Christ, and be delivered from their darkness." Obviously #2 is less offensive than #1 and #3. As an atheist, I find them all silly at best, but at least #2 hasn't the scent of Auschwitz floating about it. Salve! Sorry. I am certainly no catholic and I hate the pope. But those are my own private opinions and I don't talk about them because I understand some people migth differ. I only comment here about them because I don't want any misunderstanding. In fact, I suppose that my point has been stated. The only thing I don't want to do here is to offend anyone. If that was the case, my sincere appologies. Addendum: look for the meaning of "agnostic" in theology.

You're welcome & no I don't know of one, I guess the few of us who like the subject enough will just have to post more in the Hellenic folder here at UNRV! Salve! For the purpose of this analysis, people like Galen would have been considered Greek, Roman, both or none?

Salve, guys! Do you know if there was any significant relation between Rome and any of both sides during these wars?

Salve! I suppose I have a reasonable knowledge of nowadays Mexican traditional cuisine, and I think that most of it would require Old World's ingredients not available before 1492.

I suppose that a good agnostic statement would be that you can never make any religious statement without hurting someone's sensibility. Then, this is going to be my only statement for now.

Amen.

Is the price of the maps affected by the recent Euro up-fluctuation?

Salve, UA! I totally support your Rhetoric's (not rhetorical) proposal. I would want to hear other opinions about other aspects of the whole concept of Greek/Roman education.

Another clue: this baby was part of the approximately 230 km long via publicae (state road) from Olisipo to Emerita.

Salve, K! Thank you for your kind observations. I think that we totally agree.

Salve, PP! You already observed that the information about Mesopotamia, Osrhoene and Armenia is still lacking. In addition to that, my only question is if there weren't any client kingdoms in the West (at least in Britannia).

Salve, UA! HERE is an anterior thread,something to begin with.

Very fine thread, Ursus. Indeed giggles. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to open the link (not enough bandwidth, I suppose), not to see the figures in this thread (they are blank posts to me). I wonder if any other member is in the same situation.

Apparently like a lot of empires, Rome's own account of its conquest of the World was perpetual self-defense. My point is that most (if not all) of Rome's military involvements were ultimately aggressive in nature.

X-cellent work, X-traordinary document. Congratulations, PP.

Felix sit natalis dies.