GhostOfClayton

For completeness' sake, the outfit who staged the reencatment were called 'Britannia'. They specialise in late Roman to 6th Century AD reenactment, so the gladitorial stuff is only part of their work. They have an interesting looking kit guide. Anyway, it's all on their website.

In the context of a German writer writing about a monetary unit, 'pf' almost certainly refers to 'Pfennig', the pre-Euro 'penny' (1/100 of a Deutschmark). Obviously, that has limited meaning in the context of ancient Rome, though he could be converting for the benefit of the reader. If true, 20pf sounds very cheap. I doubt anyone had a book transcribed en masse on the off chance of selling the transcriptions. Though no doubt it happened on a small scale if the author was certain of selling a number, or to distribute among certain (say) libraries or other users. Anyone wanting a copy of an existing book would have paid scribes to make that copy for them. There would have been agencies, probably consisting of an owner and a number of Greek (or other educated) slaves, to do the actual transcription.

I don't recall the year ever being mentioned in a Falco novel (help me out here, Crispina!) I think the nearest clue was 'during the time Vespasian was Emperor'. Though Wikipedia states "Falco was born on 20 or 21 March 41 AD" and references the first novel 'The Silver Pigs'. I don't recall it being mentioned, and no longer have the book.

Happy birthday, Nephele. Can't believe you're 5 already. How the years have flown!

This is an excellent find, Ursus. I'm new to Ptolomy, but when I recently started to look at what he'd done with Britian, it blew me away that he was using a Lat / Long system (proabaly of his own making) as early as the second century. And to find he was using fixed refernce points to tie maps together (to help with errors caused by the curvature of the Earth) underlines the man's genius. It's interesting to see the map. Although it's a copy, it's clear the original was aligned North upwards. North must have gained it's cardinal significance to early cartographers like Ptolomy purely because of the earth's axis of rotation, the Pole Star, and the presence of Rome (and maybe Greece) on the relevant hemisphere. This was before the introduction of the magnetic compass for navigation, remember. Lovely topic!

I think there are just textual references to images.

Understandably, they're keeping the location vague, which is a shame. Knowing the exact spot on the map would really help to understand the context of the settlement. 40 miles pushes you right up to the Cornish border. In fact, if you draw a circle across the peninsula at 40 miles from Exeter, you pretty much match the Cornwall/Devon boundary. If the spot was nearer Plymouth (on the boundary at the south coast), who's to say the road wasn't an extension of the Fosse Way to Plymouth Harbour? Now that would be exciting. However, I can't help but think Melvadius is more likely to be on the money with mineral extraction.

Thanks to Roman-timetable (Simon) for supplying a copy of the book for review. I intend to have it read and reviewed for UNRV by mid October.

The town in Devon. 30 miles west of Exeter - do we know where exactly? It had a road running through it - speculation was that it ran from Exeter, but where to?

I don't believe in all that astrology nonsence . . . But we Geminis are all like that!

Thanks DoL (and you were so enthusustic you thanked me twice!) Good reporting is easy when you have an exciting subject to go at. Hope you make it back across the pond soon. As to bare-chested gladiatrixes - maybe they did do a bout or two 'au naturel', and I didn't post the photos because this is a family website? Hmmm. . . . OK . . . they didn't!

Tullie House @TullieHouse Carlisle Carlisle's finest museum with a changing exhibitions and events programme throughout the year. Stunning Roman, Reivers and Pre-Raphaelite galleries

Segedunum Roman Fort @SegedunumFort Wallsend, Tyne & Wear Segedunum is once again the gateway to Hadrian's Wall! Once home to 600 Roman soliders, it's the ideal place to explore Roman life. Tweets by Geoff & Vanessa

Country: UK Date: Saturday 1 October 2011 Place: Arbeia Roman Fort and Museum, South Shields Event: "Meet the Romans". Link: Arbeia Roman Fort and Museum

Come on, Macerinus - we need a clue!

Somewhat belated, but Mrs OfClayton and myself went to see it, and we laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed . . . . etc.

Dalmatia somewhere?

If anyone's been interested in this event, but couldn't make it, I blogged about it here, and posted all my photos here.

Rumour has it that this episode of "National Treasures Live", had a short article from Housesteads. However, I'm not currently on a computer attached to a UK server, so can't see it. Anybody confirm it?

I didn't realise you had a novel, Cinzia. Was that me just being slow on the uptake, or have you been modest?

Love it!

Over the August Bank Holiday, Wroxeter Roman City were holding a Gladiatorial Re-enactment event. Ever since the villa was built for the excellent �Rome Wasn�t Built in a Day�, I�ve been promising myself a re-visit, so Mrs. OfClayton and myself (recent English Heritage members) decided to take the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. How glad we were that we did! Despite a tiny bit of early drizzle, the weather cheered up leaving a dry afternoon for the fighting. I�d managed to squeeze in the audio tour in the morning, leaving the afternoon free to watch the games and visit the villa. A good crowd had built up by the time we reach the roped off area that was to act as the arena, and we found the best spot left was in that area of the onlookers that had been asked to support Londinium (in red) as opposed to the local boys from Viroconium (Wroxeter�s Roman name � playing in yellow). The head gladiator from Londinium took on the role as Master of Ceremonies. After a brief explanation of Gladiatorial Combat, and a word about his �troupe�, he taught the crowd how to appeal for clemency, and how to demand execution. He then introduced the Emperor Domitian and his party, the other gladiators, the Summa Rudis (referee), and finally the arena helpers (they had a Latin name, but it escapes me). However, just as the MC was about to announce the start of proceedings, there was a heckle from the crowd: �GET ON WITH IT�. The Gladiator was startled. Domitian�s Praetorian Guard rushed over. There was an angry exchange between him and the heckler; �ARE YOU AN ENGLISH HERITAGE MEMBER?� was heard, and �DO YOU WANNA MAKE SOMETHING OF IT?�. This resulted in the heckler climbing over the outer rope, and coming to the inner rope, eyeball-to-eyeball with the Praetorian Guard. We now saw he was a rough-looking youth, mouthing off at the Gladiator MC. The Praetorian finally snapped, dragged him over the inner rope, and to the floor, where him and MC Spartacus proceeded to give the youth a bloody good kicking, before dragging him over to Domitian to be �judged�. For the twin crimes of incitement to riot, and letting his English Heritage membership lapse, the youth (who by now had had the epithet �Chavicus� bestowed upon him) was sentenced to fight in the arena as a Damnatio. He was dragged away, still mouthing abuse. Back to the action. which kicked off with various one-on-one Gladiatorial combat (for those keeping score, Londinium were two up at the end of these). This was followed by a couple of runaway slaves having a go at each other. All were masterfully choreographed (plenty of Spartacus-style shield jumping), with some suitably gory make up, and concluded with one of the combatants getting their throats cut (resulting in a good spray of blood). The climax of the one-on-one combats was the bout between the two Gladiatrixes (Gladiatrices?) who were predictably known as "Amazon" and "Achillia". This was followed by a reenactment of the Battle of Philippi (though it was really just a gladiatorial two-on-two). Following the victory of the reds (Mark Anthony and Octavian), they subsequently went mano-a-mano with each other (reenacting the Battle of Actium, apparently). The result went the way of the historical record, and the �Mark Anthony� ended up with his throat cut. To end with, joy of joys, who should be lead trembling into the arena, but Chavicus. All defiance gone, he now just looked like a pathetic, knock-kneed and gangly adolescent in a tunic. He was given a spear (spiculum?), and faced his gladiatorial adversary, a sturdy looking fighter in a leather cuirass. At this point, he promptly wet himself, a yellow stream running down from his tunic between his legs. The effects team were to be applauded. To cut a long story short, Chavicus didn�t put up much of a fight, before ending up on his back. The gladiator promptly gouged his eyes out with a sword, and paraded them before the baying crowd. Domitian indicated that his time was up, and the now blinded and whimpering Chavicus had his throat cut, blood sprayed, and the crowd laughed themselves hoarse. Let that stand as a warning to any others with lapsed English Heritage membership! And yes, like every man in the place, I did consider signing up for gladiatorial reenactment. The swords . . . the glory . . . what a life! Sadly, there is now a damp smell coming from the guest wing at OfClayton Towers, and I can�t locate the source, so my life and resources for the near future will probably be used up in getting that sorted out. �Plumbituri te salutant!� PS There are many more photos of the day on the gallery.

I meant: We seem to be missing the Roman period set detective fiction of Lyndsey Davis which has been discussed extensively elsewhere on the excellent UNRV including here and several times previously in the 'What's the last book you have read' thread. Though your version is also correct.

You missed out the word 'excellent', Melvadius!