GhostOfClayton

OK - mixture of right and wrong here. Firstly, France. Yes. Maladict is going senile. I doubt it - even if he lost 50% of his brain power, he'd still be a pretty sharp cookie. Maladict was there a long time ago. I can't comment. Undercroft/cellar associated with a forum. Very much so. Undercroft/cellar associated with an agora. No (the Greek masons thing wasn't really a hint).

You're right in that it certainly isn't an underground cistern or the subterranean part of an arena, though the words 'underground' and 'subterranean' are certainly true now. However, when this structure was built (by Greek masons) in the 1st Century BC, it's entirely possible that a little of the structure was visible from the surface (but not much, if any). Let's also discount the word 'Catacombe'. I don't recall there being evidence of any burials, and there was certainly no evidence of any religious use. Is it in Rome? Wrong country, I'm afraid.

Lovely, vibrant set and costumes. Thanks, Crispina.

Wrong type of structure, and wrong country, I'm afraid. A couple more guesses, and I'll give the first clue.

Curse my habit of not doing much internetting over the weekend! It has gone back up in price now! Could I ask you please, Linda. What sort of target age-range are you aiming at with this book? Incidently (not that it matters, but for information) our own 'Lanista' beat you to the title. http://www.amazon.com/Gladiatrix-ebook/dp/B004UND9J2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1352722350&sr=1-1&keywords=gladiatrix

Picture caption: This stuff about dressing up at Halloween? It's for the kids, isn't it? DocOfLove's recent blog entry got me thinking about Halloween, and just how much it has changed over the past dozen years or so (in the UK, at least). When I was a kid, my parents used to say, "it's Halloween tonight," make a silly ghost noise, and that was about all the notice anyone took. Then, a Charlie Brown cartoon was aired showing Charlie and the gang dressing up in diabolic costumes, and knocking on all the neighbourhood doors asking for sweets (actually, they asked for 'candy', but let's not split linguistic hairs). For the next, I don't know, dozen or so years, we were aware of what Trick or Treat meant, but it never happened here. I suppose it was about 15 years ago that the first knock on the OfClayton front door was answered to a street urchin dressed in what could imaginatively be described as a Halloween costume, demanding appeasement with menaces . . . and then it all went mad. Huge gangs of kids would roam the area with sacks, ready to egg the unwary householder who dared to question the 'tradition', or offer nothing more substantial than a Nuttal's Mintoe. There were even organised gangs who would fill a transit van full of teenagers with cheap masks, and drop them off at the end of a street, so they could go from door to door demanding cash. Now, I'm not saying these operations were run by gypsies . . . . but they were! Moving forward in time a very few years, and the party industry caught on. People love an excuse for fancy dress and partying, and if this was the alternative to staying in and not knowing how to react when a small vampire or zombie knocks at your door for the nth time, then you can see why people lapped it up. And if someone, somewhere is making a few extra quid selling costumes, you can bet your last mintoe that the supermarkets will want to put a stop to that by mass-marketing and undercutting any entrepreneurial little-guy right out of the ball park. And once the Supermarkets want you to buy something, it's as good as law that you do it. And so, once 'back to school' is safely out of the way, the supermarket shelves turn orange (who decided orange was the colour of Halloween?) with chocolate shaped like pumpkins and witches hats, for the next six weeks. Then comes the yet-to-be-fully-commercialised-but-you-can-bet-the-supermarkets-are-having-meetings-about-it Bonfire Night. Bonfire Night used to be the 5th November. As a kid, we used to trudge along to the local 'organised display', which consisted of a fire in the corner of a farmer's field, a few fireworks, mostly ground based, a jacket potato, a piece of parkin, and a big 'ooooo', when the final crescendo (a single rocket) was fired. This took place on the evening of the 5th of November, whatever the day of the week, and whatever the weather. Now, you'll find people burning Catholic effigies during not only the week of the 5th November, but also the Friday and Saturday nights of the weekends at either side. Do I sound like I don't like this state of affairs? Let me tell you that I do like it. Let me explain why. For the last half century or so, Christmas has been creeping insidiously further and further upwards through the calendar like rising damp. Like a weed, little tentacles of Christmas have been worming their way through December, and November, and were encroaching their way into October in the form of Christmas stuff appearing in shops here and there, a day or so earlier than the previous year. Then the next year, a few more shops surrender to the scarlet tendrils, in order to stay competitive. I remember my Dad saying one year, "Christmas cards! It's not even bloody December yet." But then, the polytheists came to the rescue. A sort of pagan barrier was erected at the bottom of October against which the inching Yuletide incursion could only struggle in vain, buoyed up as it was by the anti-Catholic Bonfire Night. The supermarkets only have room on their shelves for one or the other, and remember, they dictate your life for you, whether or not you naively believe the contrary. So, the Monotheist Christmas Holiday is locked in mortal combat with the Polytheist Halloween. Who will win? Tesco, that�s who. �Eyup mi duck As a header for this section of my blog, I�ve used a traditional greeting most often used in Nottinghamshire, and sometimes south Yorkshire. To explain. �Eyup is used more widely in the north of England as �Hello�. �Mi� is �my�, and �duck� is a term of endearment used towards children and ladies by men, towards children and men by ladies, and less so towards adults of the same sex. Education out of the way. Here�s why: There�s been another first at OfClayton Towers. Tom and Barbara who�s small-holding backs on to the east range at OfClayton Towers, keep (along with many other edible animals), some ducks. When the ducklings first arrived, in conversation with Tom & Barbara it emerged that neither Mrs ofClayton, nor myself, had ever eaten a duck egg. �Righto,� said Tom, �you can have the first ones . . . though they take a while before they start laying.� I have blogged in the past about Tom & Barbara�s neighbour The-Man-Who-Lives-At-The-End-Of-My-Garden (now, sadly, deceased), and about his encyclopaedic knowledge of country ways. His wise counsel concerning whether or not a duck is ready to lay, goes as follows: �If you can only get one finger up it, it isn�t ready to lay. If you can get two fingers up it, it is ready to lay.� Sage words, I�m sure you�ll agree. So, when one of the ducks was tested and found ready to lay, it heralded quite some excitement. Sure enough, yesterday morning, for the first time ever, I had a duck egg with toasted soldiers for my breakfast. I�m easily pleased.

Ooh - I've just remembered. Oh well . . . next time, maybe?

Oops. Sorry everyone. Thanks to AA for reminding me . . I feel suitable berated. Another apology, I've completely forgotten which ancient city I had in mind. So here's a sneaky one to be going on with. Hopefully, I'll remember what the original was during one of my less memory-impaired moments. By the way - I've no idea who the guy in red is. It's not my photo. Crypt2.bmp

I certainly can't answer your question, Iolo. I've never had an eduction in Latin. But I'll await an answer from one of the cognoscenti with bated breath. I've been trying to pick up a little Latin via inscriptions, the internet, etc., and pronunciation is the main issue when you're only reading. Needless to say, none of my colleagues or family are Latin speakers. Curse my comprehensive eductation.

Nice Blog, Doc. I'm inspired to blog something about Halloween myself. Watch this space to see if I ever get round to it. And congratulations to the Giants.

Can I use this 'chat' facility on my iPhone?

Ok. You talked me into it. I'll put it on my amazon wish list and give it a go.

Of course, Political history and military history become more and more the same thing the further back in time you go.

Thanks, Ammianus. A headsup about your 2013 events on this forum would certainly be appreciated.

Do report back please, Crispina.

Soldiers are conditioned to be able to commit violent acts without flinching, and there will always be some in any army that become desensitised as a result. Combine this with anti-enemy propoganda that tends to be a theme in any war, and the same individuals are now seeing 'enemies' as less than human. The two situations combined will inevitably lead to cruelty and even these war crimes that still persist. I was quite shocked to see the British squaddies beating up the Iraqi behind the fence. I was mostly shocked by the voice of the guy videoing the incident (also a squaddie) confidently predicting

Thanks for those. Maybe the contributors to this forum could do more 'on the spot' short video documentaries? I may do some for Hadrian's Wall next season, though the locations will be far less exotic.

Not only is this a severe miscarriage of justice, it is a genuine concern. It all boils down to the Scientists' understandable reluctance to 'Cry Wolf'. After all, we're not dealing with absolutes where earthquakes are concerned. At best we're dealing with statistical likelihoods. So, having seen that verdict, imagine the scientists monitoring Vesuvius, which is mostly accepted as a dormant volcano as opposed to an exitnct one, and looms over one of the most populated areas of Italy. Their threshold for warning of impeding doom has now been lowered significantly. They're far more likely to shout "get out of here, she's going to blow" than "let's just sit tight, it'll be OK, I'm sure". I don't even know what the plan would be in the event of an imminent eruption of Vesuvius (I doubt there is one), but it's now far more likely to come into play. Also, the Judge and Jury were all local people. Surely that can't be fair, can it?

I don't think that there can be any doubt about the existence of some kind of relationship between the two, as is eluded to in several ancient texts, but whether love was involved or not is a completely different matter. At that time and in that strata of society, marriages, sexual relationships, etc. were more about political manoeuvring, and love was a happy bonus, if it turned out to be the case. Caesar would have been interested in reinforcing a dominant position of Rome over Egypt, and his own position in the Roman elite. Cleo's motivation would be to secure a good relationship with Rome (via the right Roman) and security of her dynasty and populace.

Interesting thread. Thanks for reactivating it. My view is that the actual draw of the sword isn't too important for the post-Marius infantryman. If all went to plan, it would be drawn, in hand, and ready long before any engagement took place. Therefore, the side it was carried on would be the more significant than the side it was drawn from.

Just how common were Cavalry charges? Has TV (and films) given us a skewed impression. We know that Roman cavalry were employed on the wings to keep an enemy together whilst facing the Roman shield wall, and for chasing down feeling enemies afterwards. Did this totally eveolve into the all out cavalry charge, or were cavalry employed more pratically. Events like that depicted in The Charge of the Light Brigade seem to have a differnt reason for the charge than those desribed by the OP.

Dawkins is a trifle severe for my tastes - his non-belief often has a fervour worthy of the Taliban. Greta Christina (author of 'Why Are You Atheists So Angry?: 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless') is a little more balanced, and has a very accessible blog. Much of it deals with her day-to-day life, but her thoughts on religion are interesting, well considered, and can be quite profound.

Likes Ice Hockey

Can I recomend a read for anyone interested? The Technicolor Time Machine by Harry Harrison. It's not a refernce work, but a 1967 slightly comic, science fiction story. I loved it. It didn't take itself too seriously.

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