GhostOfClayton

Not to answer your previous question, but to give you an insight into the Christianity at that time, watch the film 'Agora' with Rachel Weisz

In the absence of "James May's Manlab", I decided to watch Agora yeaterday evening. What a depressing, frustrating, bleak, demoralising . . . and totally wonderful film it is. SPOILER ALERT !!!!!! It has one of those endings, a little like The Wicker Man, where many viewers should, by rights, expect a happy ending, and it never comes. It leaves you empty at the horrors that religious mobs are capable of. OK, there's the meer sliver of a slightly better outcome than might have been, but it's still something a potential suicide should steer well clear of. I was surprised to see it only got 7.2/10 on Amazon. Anyone voting less than 9/10 for this film should be dragged away and stoned.

As I mentioned before, for military projects, he was in the army (or navy). But the army wasn't compulsory, with the exception of those on the Cursus Honorum, but they would be leaders, not do-ers. In fact, just to smoke out cases of conscription in the Roman Army, I'm going to say THERE WAS NO CONSCRIPTION IN THE ROMAN ARMY. That should do it.

Certainly, if it was a military structure (forts, Hadrian's Wall, roads, etc.), it was built by the Legions (and there is even evidence that help was enlisted from the British Fleet in one case). The legions had all the skills and kit necessary for the task, and were good at getting the job done fast (though in many cases, not well). Although the Auxiliaries would not have been responsible for the initial building, there is evidence for their involvement in rebuilding, refurbishment, and smaller projects like new military bath-houses, aquaducts, etc. After all, Hadrian's Wall was manned by Auxilliaries for many centuries, and so they acquired the necessary skills, albeit not for large scale projects. For the Colonia, (Lincoln, York, Colchester and Gloucester were the only four in Britannia), the skills would have been available in the form of de-mobbed Legionary troops. Londinium is an interesting one. It could be classed as a civilian project, though there was a significant military presence. I think it unlikely that the Engineering skills would have been available outside the Legions (but as Melvadius says previously it wasn't impossible). It does seem likely that (for civilian projects,) unskilled work would have been undertaken by slaves. I've seen no references stating this, though the London Museum would seem to be the obvious place to ask.

I was involved in a very bad accident on Friday! I was taking a group of 20 (plus myself, a representative of our local agent, and the driver) on a bus trip, using a private hire 'coach'. We were about 2 hours out of the city of Shimla (Himachal Pradesh, India), when the bus hit an ox cart and overturned. I was one of the fortunate ones, coming through the incident unscathed, but it was immediately apparent that many of my group were far from OK. Luckily (if I can use that word) the driver and local agent were relatively unhurt, and so were able to assist. Also, I have to count my blessings that we were in a rare area of phone signal coverage, so the emergency services could be summoned, although we were sufficiently remote that the first ambulance wouldn't arrive for about an hour! That done, a very quick triage confirmed my worst fears. Very few of the group were in as good shape as we three 'officials', and at least two were, sadly, fatalities (it sounds an inappropriately medical word as I type it.) I could carry on telling you of this very unfortunate event, of how the fatality rate increased to four before the end of the day, and that three of the group had to be cut out of the wreckage of the bus, but at this point its only appropriate to tell you it was all part of an exercise for a "Crisis Response" course at my company's headquarters. So, if anyone's having a bit of a crisis, get in touch. I'm trained to deal with it. Green Energy The above was perhaps an excuse to wax lyrical about my company's HQ. I don't visit often, but when I do, I always come away extremely enthused about the place. Their offices recently (2005) moved to an old water mill. Mentioned in the Domesday Book, it was milling flour up to 1911. The company refurbished it and, as part of the refurb, installed a new, modern mill-wheel allowing them to generate their own power. For the techies, when installed, it was the first (and may still be the only, I don't know) breastshot water wheel in the country to generate power. But the best bit? I'm told it was the original mill that inspired the song "There's An Old Mill By The Stream, Nellie Dean." Weekly Stuff 81 days until "The Eagle of the Ninth". Asterix book of the week is Asterix & The Goths

Loved the shot of Hadrian's Wall stretching away over the Whin Sill. Awe inspiring! I do seem to remember that Esca was from north of the wall, though my memory is not at its best these days. I very much enjoyed the audiobook, thanks Crispina. By the way, only 99 days until the release date. I'll tell you something else, as well. My memory is not at its best these days.

Agreed (apart from Caldrail's hint of reluctance to believe Wikipedia with all his heart and soul. It is, after all, the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom.)

In my experience, there are two breeds of violent people, those who don't have a religion to moderate their violence, and those who use their religion to justify their violence.

Much to see?

It was interesting to find a fork attached to the multi-tool unearthed (not literally) by Artimi and Maty (in seperate threads). Interesting point. I know that a lot of the 'quality' had private baths installed, but was that just in villas where public baths weren't available? The Romans regarded the baths as more than just a place to get clean. It was a place to socialise, perform rituals, do business, etc. A fundamental part of their daily lives. Perhaps they would see private bathing as a backward step? Obviously though, flush toilets are an unquestionable forward step.

For completeness' sake, the Youtube of the HBO Rome manoeuvre can be found .

I mentioned this one earlier, but now I've got a format going, I'll repost, especially as it was really VERY good last week: "Ancient Worlds" Country: UK Channel: BBC4 Date: Wednesday, 17th November (and other dates/times - see link) Time: 2100 GMT for 60 mins Episodes: 6 (of which the 17th November is number 2) Link: BBC4 As usual, this one will be on iPlayer for non-UK TV Licence fee payers (you guys can have this one on us. No thanks necessary, but if you see a UK TV Licence fee payer in a pub, please buy them a beer!)

Sorry about the late notice on this one. Also it isn't Roman, it's another Greek one, but I'm sure many readers of this forum will be interested: "Greek Myths: Tales of Travelling Heroes" Country: UK Channel: BBC4 Date: Monday, 15th November (and other dates/times - see link) Time: 2100 GMT for 60 mins Episodes: 1 (to be confirmed) Link: BBC4 As usual, this one will be on iPlayer for non-UK TV Licence fee payers (you guys can have this one on us. No thanks necessary, but if you see a UK TV Licence fee payer in a pub, please buy them a beer!)

Actually, I'm on the mailing list for Tullie House. The December 2010 to March 2011 "What's On" arrived last week, but I've only just got around to proliferating the information. I wouldn't be surprised if the same booklet didn't drop through the letterbox of the compiler of your on-line archaeological news round-up at the same time, (or the letterbox of the local newspaper).

Did we spot that one on the same day, Melvadius? Natty little coincidence - it's been running since October!

Do you have a twitter account? if so, you can follow the twitterings of Marcus Julius Latinus, a Roman legionary wih Legio II Adiutrix marching on Luguvalium (Carlisle, Cumbria) in the winter of 72/73AD. OK, so it's all arranged by Tullie House (sorry to ruin the magic), but it's quite interesting. Just search for "@itweetus"

Hello, and welcome to the GhostOfClayton twice-fortnightly blog. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin. Sorry, nothing Roman this week. There's been a lot of talk (2 comments to my knowledge, which constitutes 'a lot' for the purposes of this blog entry) on UNRV Forum recently about Bucket Lists. For those of you who, like myself, thought the phrase Bucket List had something to do with cheap last-minute flights, it isn't. It is, apparently, a list of things you feel you should do before you kick the bucket. So welcome to GhostOfClayton's Bucket list: Firstly, I'll make one thing clear. I'm not going to list anything that's in any way sexual. I'm 46 (or is it 47?), overweight, gray-haired, and above all, married. So any bucket items I may, or may not, have in THAT part of my list are never going to happen anyway. They have been removed. Sorry. Anyway, if you're a man reading this, then rest assured that mine are probably pretty much in line with yours, and if you're a woman reading this, you're probably better off not knowing what men have on THAT part of their list. I digress. Visit Rome and other Roman sites too numerous to mention here Do a parachute drop Do a bungee jump Have a go at Wing-walking To go down a pothole To walk from Land�s End John O'Groats To go into space (not quite so remote a possibility now that Virgin Galactic is one step closer to becoming an operational service) To climb Snowdon and Ben Nevis Many, many more So why am I telling you this now? On Friday, I completed one of the above items. You could say I 'Ticked the Bucket'. Myself and a colleague went with an experienced caver down a pothole (aptly named Crackpot) in Swaledale in the Yorkshire Dales. What an experience! It started with a drive up a narrow lane in the dark (it was about 6:30pm by the time we got there) up to the moor high above Swaledale. We then parked up, and changed into our caving gear, and walked the half mile down to the pothole. The entrance (on a narrow ledge on a cliff) was just above where a watercourse emerged from the cliff and plummeted the rest of the way to the bottom. This must have been a very impressive waterfall if it were light enough to see.. The entrance itself, was just wide enough to lower yourself through (feet first) down into what our guide called a 'chamber'. In reality, it was just big enough to get your feet round and behind you to start on the real hardship - the infamous, and aptly name 'Knee-wrecker Passage'. This is a 250m passage that is used to gain access to the main cave cut by the watercourse I mentioned earlier. Our guide had said we would have to crawl along it. Not so! It was too low to get my behind high enough to crawl, so I had to almost slither, and any attempt to raise my head to look forward resulted in a sharp bang as my helmet connected with the ceiling of the passage. So, 250m of slithering over rocks, and dragging my belly through muddy puddles - you can imagine how slow the going is, and so how long it took. If anyone out there has even the slightest hint of claustrophobia, I strongly advise you not to attempt this - you would freak out - especially with the thought that you have to come back this way, and turning round is out of the question. But eventually, we reached the end of Knee-wrecker Passage and reached the watercourse. Joy of joys . . . we could stand up! Wow! As I admired the stark beauty around me, I almost thought it was worth the descent into the outer circle of Hell that was Knee-Wrecker Passage. A forest of small (and very fragile looking) straw-stalactites hung precariously from the ceiling, and had clearly done so for possibly hundreds, if not thousands of years, and all around were weird and wonderful rock formations, illuminated only part at any given time by our helmet lamps. The water flowed surprisingly slowly out of the darkness in front of us, and away into the darkness behind us, an oozing river of impenetrable blackness, just like I imagine the River Styx. You could pass the time by pretending you were inside the intestine of a giant, alien creature. Of course, the water took up the whole of the bottom of the cave, so much of the rest of our journey would be spent wading along it. Thus far, the effort had kept our body temperatures relatively high, but now, we had to bite the bullet and get into the water. . . and it was cooooold. After a while, however, a combination of concentration on avoiding underwater obstacles, and the awe-inspiring beauty all around, enabled me to take my mid off the temperature . . at least until the freezing water became deep enough to cover my "gentleman's area". That was difficult to ignore! There is an unexpected problem to overcome in a cave. Imagine yourself outside on a cold day. Now imagine yourself breathing out. A misty vapour is exhaled, and swirls lazily away all around you. Same thing happens in a cave, except in the absolute windless conditions, this vapour stays concentrated right in front of your face. Right where it's illuminated by your helmet light. It becomes a real hazard to visibility. After a while, you learn to exhale to the side. So, after almost half an hour of wading, we reached a side passage that lead away to the left. A bit of a squeeze in places, but still walkable, and this lead to a proper chamber, about 10 to 15 metres across, and circular with a domed roof. Stalactites, stalagmites, the lot. Stunning. I won't tell you about the way back - it was a reverse of the way in. And I was so glad to emerge into the moonlit dale, wet through, and very cold. After a climb back to the car, the next challenge started. To remove all (and I mean all) the wet clothes, towel myself dry, and put dry clothes back on. All in darkness on a bleak and freezing moorside. It all added to the adventure! Weekly Stuff 105 days until "The Eagle of the Ninth" Asterix Book of the Week: Asterix and The Roman Agent

Already discussed at length on this forum, here.

This should go on the new calendar. Viggen, would you do the honours?

I asked my non-historically interested friend if he fancied watching Agora, and he asked if it was about goats!

Sorry, Crispina, that wasn't aimed at you (I know enough to know that the lady in question was beaten to death by a mob or some such.) I was pre-empting others' replies. Someone let the cat out of the bag the other day that the legions beat Spartacus in the end, and knowing the one-nil result at the start spoiled the whole film for me. . . . I'm joking.

Before we go any further with this, no spoliers please. It's still sitting on top of my DVD player wrapped in the cellophane.

These are available already via Apple iBooks, which is the preferred reader on an iPod/iPad/iPhone. The beauty of the Kindle emulator is that you can get hold of books like "Gladiatrix" by our own Lanista, which are otherwise not available on iBooks.