GhostOfClayton

In that case, I'll enjoy a Spiced Dahl Soup instead. Delicious! While I'm enjoying that, I'll let you enjoy the next Ancient City. This will go really quickly - it's just an excuse to show you this wonderful photo: As a clue - Crispina is probably best placed among you to get this one.

OK - then if it isn't Heraklea Lynkestis, I will eat my hat!

Apologies for the late arrival of this one - As often happens, I stumbled across it in the scedules just a few minutes before it aired 'Gladiator: The True Story' Country: UK Channel: Channel 5 Date: Sunday, 15th AugustTime: 2100 Episodes: 1 Link: Not available at the moment Although it was in the usual 'History Channel' style, this was a lovely programme. It was really a pgramme of two halves. Firstly, gladitorial combat was covered, with some interesting experimental archaeology. Secondly, the story of Commodus was covered. It will be on Demand 5 for UK readers. I did record it, so if anyone is particularly interested, let me know and i'll get a copy to you.

. . . and if you're buying it from Amazon, don't forget to use the UNRV link. Which hopefully someone feeling more motivated than me may provide on this thread.

. . . and out of interest more than for any constructive reason, have a look at the "Bread and Circuses" episode of Star Trek: The Original Series (second season). Gene Roddenberry must have loved alternative histories, as more Star Trek episodes than seemed to involve them than would be the case by chance alone.

Hmm - I'm going to guess that the gegraphical characteristic is that Serbia is landlocked. The only other landlocked Balkan State is Macedonia (assuming we're not counting Hungary as a Balkan State), so my guess to the country os Macedonia. Is the answer we're looking for Ohrid?

I'm quite surprised you haven't got a response from this one yet. Apart from this one, which is just saying that it's out of my league!

Those who haven't bothered with Torchwood because it's a Dr Who spin-off should probably give it a try (if they're both sci-fi fans and quite broadminded). It is much more adult/dark/gritty/edgy than Dr Who.

Here are my guesses for some more: Presumably you rent out the arena, too? Pay for someone to put up publicity. Would you get money back from the snack sellers? Presumably they pay for permission to sell their wares in the arena. You may have to provide additional equipment if the gladiators are doing a battle reenactment (chariots, horses, etc.) Presumably you hire the Bestiarius and animals from the same outfit.

Well, there seems to be very little in the way of clues in either the masonry, the biology, or the geography. It looks European, so let's start there.

I'm very jealous, Caldrail. I'd love to have a go at flying.

Thanks for the invaluable input, Ummidia. I have added / corrected those you mentioned, so far with exception of Colchester Castle

I'll have a look how to best highlight the criteria whilst remaining within Wikipedia guidelines - otherwise the Wikipolice will come down on me a darn site faster than Her Majesty's police came down on the looters! Thanks for the info on the Trimontium Museum. Being an exclusively Roman museum, I have included it, and also created a new line for Roman Museums.

That may change next week!

As Lanista mentioned, the main difference between the Centurion and his infantry would be experience - he got the same training. The equestrian classes (tribunes, etc) would be more likely to have had one-on-one training in swordplay as part of their all-round family education.

. . . and by the way. If anyone is interested in helping me out doing something similar for other countries, I'd love the opportunity.

It's good feedback, Melvadius, and thanks very much for it. I thought long and hard about the museums without really coming up with any satisfactory reasoning - hopefully we'll get more opinions. You noticed I excluded Tullie House (I admit to never having heard of Corinium Museum), but did include Carvoran. This was because Tullie is a mixed museum with a significant (and permenantly displayed) Roman collection, and Carvoran is exclusively Roman. The British Museum was perhaps the one that guided my rationale most. Its Roman collections probably outnumber and outclass any other museum in the country, but I would hesitate to call it a Roman Visitor Site. And where are lines drawn as you move down the scale? I must admit to know knowing of any paid Roman visitor site in Scotland, so any information you have wuld be gratefully received. My knowlege of Caerwent, Caerleon and Wales is also sketchy.

The murmillo fought mano-a-mano using the legionary scutum and gladius. He would be the man to look at. In theory, his fighting stile (one on one gladitorial) should have been at odds with his equipment, which was designed for the close order, push-with-scutum-stab-with-gladius fighting from behind the shield wall. Perhaps the key question is 'How much actual training (and I'm talking post-Marius, now) would an infantry soldier have in single combat?' Probably not much, if any. Any training time not close-order drilling would no doubt be deemed as time wasted by the man with the vine stick who was motivated to keep them all in a line when the going got shouty.

I've just created a new template on Wikipedia called 'Roman Visitor Sites in the UK'. You can find it at this URL. The criteria I've posed for inclusion (shown on the discussion page) are: 1. The site must be located within the UK 2. The site must have significant Roman remains, artefacts or recreations on display. 3. The site must either charge admission, or have facilities for visitors (e.g. visitor centre, gift shop) over and above access facilities (car park, etc) Museums could be considered for inclusion if they are almost exclusively Roman in theme, especially if occupying a Roman site. So, the question is, can you think of any more, and do you agree with the criteria? I'm aware I still need to set up categories.

I sort of agree that the UK police should take a firmer approach, but am quite worried that it can be a fine line between armed reaction to rioting looters and armed reaction to rioting freedom fighters (like they're doing in Syria). The UK police have worked really hard to lose their reputation for heavy-handed policing over the last 20-30 years, and the balance is difficult tio strike, in that context. We need to be SO careful we don't condemn the likes of Assad and Gaddafi and for doing stuff that we start doing.

Although there's nothing you've said there that I can disagree with at all, I do feel a little uneasy when The Eagle is reviewed poorly. It's like an errant child. It started life well (as a book), but got into some bad company in the movie business, and went off the rails. I still love it, though, despite all its faults. I would make a terrible parent!

Mrs OfClayton and myself would like to take this opportunity to announce to you all a happy event. Yes, there has been a joyous new arrival at OfClayton Towers. I'll tell you the story. . . In the UK, we're undergoing the big 'digital switchover'. One by one, the old analogue channels are stopping broadcasting, leaving us with only the digital channels. The telly at ofClayton Towers is very, very old, and unsurprisingly has no digital tuner in it. I have been waiting many years for it to break down, and it stubbornly refused. This left me with two options. (a) Spend anout �25 on a little box that you plug into the back of the existing antique telly and continue with business as usual, or ( spend all the money I've managed to squirrel away for the last God knows how long, on a big, new telly. Needless to say, I didn't mention option (a) to Mrs OfClayton, assuring her that without a 42" LED TV, the winter nights would be long and quiet as we listened to the clock tick away the hours at OfClayton Towers! So, last week, we took delivery of a Panasonic 106cm LED Smart TV. What a miracle of modern technology. It has an ethernet port to connect it to the World Wide Web. With this, it can play BBC iPlayer, stream movies, play YouTube, pause and rewind live TV, and there's even an app I can install on my iPod that will allow me to control it using that. And all this before they start broadcasting High Definition TV signals - I have HD to look forward to from next week. I could wax lyrical for pages and pages about it, but I won't! To cut a long story short I love as I would my own child! Probably more! So, the OfClayton family fortune has all but been wiped out, and now I find out that all I had to do was lob a Molotov cocktail at a local emporium, thus distracting the constabulary whist I helped myself from Dixons. So that would've been one big telly for the price of half a litre of unleaded and a match! C'est la vie! For the literal-minded who may read this, that was a joke. I'm not a light-fingered ne'er-do-well in real life. Though I did once pick up a catalogue in Marks & Spencers, only to get it home to find I should have paid a quid for it. The shame! Who's Anagram? Anyway, that bit was all very self indulgent, and of little interest to anyone outside of . . . well . . . me, really! I can see that we've had only very few comments on the blogs of late, so in order to spice things up a bit, I'm going to talk about something very dear to many of your hearts, and which is bound to be controversial: 'Torchwood: Miracle Day'. Caption Competition So, Captain Jack is back, and he's cut his finger a little bit! It's feeling a little sore! This may sound like trivia to the uninitiated, but those who have already grown to know and love Torchwood will know how serious this turn of events actually is. More newsworthy than the current storyline of no-one dying, no matter how horribly mutilated their bodies are (and believe me, some of them are sickeningly badly mutilated!), is the move of Torchwood from good old Auntie Beeb to good old Uncle Sam. Yes, the series is now funded by, and to some extent written by, the Americans - in the guise of the Starz network. So, it's good-bye to the Valleys, and hello to LA. But, is this a good thing or a bad thing? I've seen US reviewers bemoaning the loss of glamourous Cardiff locations for the mundane LA locations, and UK reviewers pretty much taking the opposite stance. Personnally, I think it's been a little slow in getting to the point. The action and story line is drip fed to the viewer, as if a punchy three episode plot has been stretched out to fill 10 hours of air time. It's only a few episodes in, so it's unfair of me to judge . . . but I will anyway. I still like it very much (and can't wait to watch it in HD!) But what do you think . . . come on . . let's have some healthy debate / vicious arguments. Get commenting.

Thracia? (My God, but that UNRV Roman Empire Map is useful!)

Dalmatia?

OK. I can now report back on my trip. On the way down, I stopped in at the much overlooked Lunt Roman Fort, near Coventry. Other than the gateway and a long stretch of turf fortification, they also have a granary (which houses the excellent museum), and their USP, the Gyrus. The two chaps that ran the place were great guys, and clearly experts - I tried to interest them in UNRV. Maybe they'll join. It was then over to the Isle of Wight (Vectis). For a number of Roman visits, the first and best of which was Brading Roman Villa. This, on its own, is worth the trip over from the mainland. A large number of well-preserved mosaic floors (including the famous Medusa mosaic), well presented and explained. Whilst on the island, but not worth a special trip, is Newport Roman Villa. As far as archeological sites are concerned, this is overshadowed by its bigger cousin at Brading, but should not be overlooked. Although small, it is well presented with some interesting finds, and a number of mosaic floors. A very likeable little museum which, due to housing covering much of the site, is not likely to grow any time soon. That's almost it for Vectis, but I must comment on Carisbrook Castle. A quick look at the OS Map reveals that the castle was built on the remains of a Roman Fort. it's a nice place to visit, and has a rich history, good museum, loads of information, etc, but not one word about its Roman origins. Shame on you, English Heritage! Oh well! I can't leave the Isle of Wight without acknowledging that Gilius mention Combley Roman Villa at Robin Hill. As near as I could tell (correct me if I'm wrong), but you needed to pay to get into Robin Hill (the Alton Towers of the Isle of Wight ) in order to see this. I chose not to. Anyway - whizzing back to the mainland, next stop is Portchester Castle. The main draw here for Romanophiles are the walls. Much of them almost original height and of original stone, the only real disappointment is the very small amount of emphasis is placed on the castle's Roman origins in the audio tour and museum. Once again, shame on you, English Heritage! Next, it was over to Chichester to view the highlight (for me) of the trip - Fishbourne Roman Palace. What an utter delight! Starting with a talk by an expert using a detailed model. He really knew his stuff, and his enthusiasm was infectious. Then there was a film about the story of how the villa was originally found, excavated and investigated (with Tony Robinson as narrator!). This was followed by a trip round the museum, which included a session with two of the Palace's 'Friends' each dressed in Roman costume, who had put together a few Roman titbits for us to sample. They had done a lot of experimental work with Roman cookery, and were a joy to talk to. They must've beeen glad when I'd gone! Now a chance to have a look at the excavations themselves. Mostly inside, but some outside, they are beautifully preserved and presented. The outside includes an experimental Roman garden with a little talk with a pre-recorded model Roman gardner. Interesting! I could've then moved over to the building in which the finds are kept, investigated, etc., but Mrs ofClayton's eyes were beginning to glaze over, so we moved on into Chichester. Once you're past the walls (which are almost on a par with Portchester), there isn't much Roman stuff to see. The museum was closed for an extensive period for relocation, so I can't comment. There was a little bit of masonary from the forum on display in one of the car parks behind Marks & Spencer, but that was about it. Having been to Fishbourne, it would be easy to sneer at my last two sites (Bignor and Rockbourne) as puny by comparrison. They are! But I'm hard to put off, so off I went to Bignor. This is a well presented site with many of the mosaics presented within unique Georgian covering buildings. A small museum is more than compensated for by the impressive array of mosaic floors. Last up was Rockbourne Villa. Less in the way of mosaics, more in the way of masonary in an outdoor setting. I don't want to knock it, but it wasn't too well laid out. It tended to concentrate on the developement of the villa, which was very interesting. Lack of funding was apparent, though. Go there! It needs your support. Just one more thing to say. On the outside chance that any of the staff of these sites reads this, I'd just like to offer my thanks. Every single one I spoke to was friendly, helpful and knowlegable. A credit to the tourist industry.