ASCLEPIADES

Try to the west.

Not exactly, but excellent! You're very close. See if you can be a little more specific.

Salve! Some clues: this baby is located at 138 meters above the sea level and it was built with granite blocks presumably by legionaries even if it is in a province where no legion was deployed during most of the principate It was probably finished by the time of Domitian or Traian. Today, it still gets vehicle traffic, and it is located near an international border.

Thank you, FG. Excellent link. I hope that your characters get to Volubilis without any problem.

THANK YOU, PERTINAX !!!

Nope. This is an extremely regular bridge: the difference in the height of each arch is of no more than eleven centimeters.

nvm. let me help you a bit with this. continue the thread. Thank you, M. IOU one. Another clue: this bridge has a length of 116 meters.

Cato's elder son was not Cato. Moreover, the Ameliae tended not to include the sort of entitled brats that were nurtured by the Cornelii, the Claudii, and the Julii. Were you thinking in the Scipio brothers (Africanus and Asiaticus)?

I consider that the jugurthine war and the fate of Juba II are perfect examples of the danger inherent to roman protection and of the long life of clientelar states EVEN when they challenged the roman rule.

Plainly stated, I don't believe there is such thing like a free lunch or peaceful roman expansion. I think that if we inquire enough in all of the aforementioned cases, we will find evidence of active persuasion, meaning that those annexations were made ultimately by the power of the gladius.

Quackery and fraud are indeed longstanding traditions all over the world, and "Rodica" is one of the crudest examples I have ever seen. It has nothing to do with any religion or the gipsy traditions, only with greediness and credulity.

"Clepsydra" has an almost poetic etymology: "water stealer", probably speculating about the impossibility of retrieving the gone time. The link uploaded by Klingan states the Egyptian origin of the clepsydra, invented by one Ammenemmes during the reign of pharaoh Amenophis I of the XVIII dynasty circa XVI century BC, presumably the only inventor recorded by name from that Civilization. The clepsydra on the picture uploaded by MPC is a design of Ctesibius, an inventor from Alexandria commonly described as Greek but, as you can see, with an unimpeacheable Egyptian name. All of this makes me wonder how many of the cultural manifestations that we commonly attribute to Greece or Rome might actually come from their predecessors.

Sorry, this mess is all my fault. I was just unable to upload the picture (by the way, I'm still not able to do it). I edited those blank posts the best I could. If someone can delete them or, even better, upload the picture of the bridge, I would be very grateful. One more time, an apology for all this trouble.

OK, maybe it is good time for a hint. The river under this bridge runs from south to north.

Let me say again that this is a really good question--Why would the fellow who erected an official residence for the tribunes not be a former tribune himself? Strangely, no one has addressed this question before (at least not that I can find). Best I can tell, after his quaestorship, Cato had one of two offices for which he could run: the tribuneship and the plebeian aedileship. I know of no evidence suggesting that either route was a shorter path to a praetorship, but at least in Cato's case, his aedileship was extraordinarily successful, so much so that he was permitted to run for a praetorship immediately (i.e., without the customary delay between offices). This dispensation appears to rest on the two main achievements of his aedileship: the restoration of the Plebeian Games (again, supporting the idea that he was proud of his plebeian status) and his vigorous re-organization of what passed for a police force in Rome. One is tempted to infer that Cato chose the plebeian aedileship in order to restore the Plebeian Games, but of course that's impossible to know. I'll keep an eye out for a better answer, but that's the best I've got for now. (BTW, in researching the answer to this question, I was surprised by how sympathetic Mommsen was to this Cato.) Thank you, MPC. This is something more to think about.

The Gasden Purchase from Mexico by the Pierce administration in 1854 was certainly a "peaceful expansion" of the United States, but it was clearly made under the threat of military intervention. Could it be that the peaceful expansion over Pergamum, Bythinia, Cyrenaica, Cyprus and others was analogous?

My condolences.

My pleasure.

Salve, MPC. Why do you think Cato was never a Tribune of the Plebs? I would like to know your opinion.

Thank you, MPC. That was enlightening.

Is it possible that monotheism is simply an overdeveloped patron deity?

Salve! Very impressive, congratulations! My favorite is still the Seleucid one (what an elephant!).

If both Cimbri and Jews knew firsthand that after the defeat their alternatives would be death or enslavement (literally), it was no surprise they migth have preferred the first alternative. There was much more at stake than mere dignity.

Here is some information and pictures of flags of Wurttemburg Infantry. I still haven't been able to find a good link for the cavalry of that kingdom.

Thank you, K