Germanicus

I went through similar phases, accept for the Nazi part. Up until about 6 months ago I would have called myself an atheist also. Something happened then though, and I realised that the actual act of praying, or appealing to a higher power (whether you actually belive in it or not) helps to sort out things in my own mind, and solidify things I am striving for, and outcomes I want to achieve. In short I suppose I am still an athiest in a sense, because I believe my higher power is somewhere inside me, not external. Thats just my experience though. With regard to why you wrote this entry, I don't really care because you've written a number of these thoughfull, pondering entries and I always enjoy reading them !

A truer word was never spoken.

You can take this off your signature now I've noticed you put this at the end of almost every post, and frankly your recent spelling has been excellent - no mistakes in the post you just made worthy of mention. The Latifunda ? I don't know much about these other than that they were often vast estates own by the rich, and farmed by their slaves. I guess they pushed a lot of people off the land and into the cities, increasing the grain dole queues. No doubt there were other effects that others can elaborate on ?

The Vindolanda tablets are the best source for anyone wanting to know about daily life and interaction in a Imperial period fort, in the soldiers, their wives and slaves own words. From the commanding officers and their wives (who lived with them), down to a grunts slave, I find it hard to believe there aren't more threads about them....now thats something.. mmmm.

Awesome ! I'm sure you'll govern wisely - you are quite the voice of reason after all....

An eye for an eye hey Flavius ? Aren't you a Catholic ? If one innocent person is wrongly convicted and subsequently killed, it's too many in my opinion, but there are no easy answers on this are there ?

Yes yes yes. Even the Phalanx V Legion thread is getting tiresome.....but at least it relates to Rome. Versus threads just seem to go on and on.

I agree Tobias, I think that if one wants to roleplay on line, there are plenty of places to do that. I like the fact that this is a place for some serious discussion, and discussion primarily.

Fully integrated I'd say. A part of the furniture. I think the path to integration is always a bit smoother when people have a religeon in common. The Italian community really is part of what makes Melbourne what it is and it's a migration success story - both cultures have enriched each other if you will. A Sydney guy I play 8 ball with told me last night that Cronulla is very like a villiage, in that even if you are a Wasp, if you go to Cronulla beach to surf you'll get hassled by "Locals" quite tribal really.

I've seen all the coverage, but live in peacefull Melbourne so nothing first hand. It's an ugly side to Australia that I haven't seen for some time. Personally, as already mentioned Alchohol is partly to blame, along with our Prime Minister who has used fear mongering to justify his position on powerfull new anti-terrorism laws and joining in in Iraq. He has whipped the country into a state of fear with adds like "Be alert, not alrmed" all but telling Australians to monitor people of middle eastern appearance. This combined with the bashing of the two lifegaurds, a very hot day and far right nationalist groups whipping locals into a frenzy over it seems to have really fanned the flames. There was already a negative feeling toward Lebanese communities prior, because of some high profile court cases involving the gang rapes of teenage girls around Sydney. Last report I saw is that things are now under control, the cops are checking ever car into and out of Cronulla. Some damn scary footage though....

Capital Punishment.......in societies that claim to be "Christian" seems odd to say the least (Let he who is without sin cast the first stone and all that). But on the other hand there are things that I think do deserve to be punished by death. Paedophiles if convicted for example. I guess I could support a death penalty were re-integration and re habilitaion are impossible. I don't think Jail as an alternative to capital punishment is good either. It just trains better criminals and keeps those in there under control (largely through state condoned drug dealing and violence). I do not however agree with capital punishment for drug offences. Such as the recent execution of an Australian in Singapore. He was transporting Heroin from Vietnam to Australia, the plane just stopped over in Singapore and he was nabbed. Rationale for the execution has been "He could have killed/destroyed thousands of Australian lives with the drugs he was importing". A stupid arguement if ever I heard one, especially considering the state endorsed drugs, Alchohol and Nicotine account for 80% of all drug deaths in Australia. Drug laws need a major rethink, as does the prison system. But then considering the number of people in Jail for drug offences, or drug related theft, just changing the drug laws would cut masses of expenditure in the Prison system.

I totally agree, but then there's a big difference between living under Diocletian and living under many of the Emperors before him.

It depends on your definition of "worst". In terms of the soldiery, probably Caesars civil war was devastating, but in terms of the populace, from my reading of that civil war I don't see as big an impact as in 69AD. From what I'm reading at the moment, various armies in the field effectively had no strong leadership, and raped and pilliaged mercilessly, within Italy particularly. Agricolas mother was mudered by Legionaries in one such massacre.

I don't know, on the one hand the lower classes were at the mercy of the ruling oligarchs. The republic was not a democracy. By oligarchs here I mean the aristocracy, which ever faction happened to be in power. Under the empire they were at the mercy of the Emperor. I guess the redeeming feature of the republic in a way was 1 year terms,.

I don't think this will be a problem. The admins will always have ultimate control overall which is how it should be. Other titles people are mentioning like "Tribune" would be honorific, like in the Empire - LOL

Suicide is a cowards way out of taking life on it's own terms. It is considerably less frightening and easier sometimes to end it all than to actually face ones problems and overcome them, but in the long term, I know what's more beneficial. That's not to say that I consider Romans who committed suicide to save their heirs cowards, that was a totally different kettle of fish. I remember my grandfather, who served in the pacific during WW2 telling me one day how much he hated a new kind of bumper sticker that said "No Fear". I asked him why, he told me "If you feel no fear then you're just dumb and numb, but if you feel immense fear and take action regardless, then thats really to be admired" The same can be said for life, which can be frightening, but ultimately rewarding for those that persevere.

Priceless !

Something I recently found out about Otho was that he was fast friends with Nero, prior to Nero deciding he wanted Othos wife, at which time Otho was sent to govern Lusitania.

Good point. It's just an inbuilt thing I guess, a protection mechanism that says "This is us" and "that is them". Hope that makes sense

Thanks Viggen. I ended up catching an Australian Salmon, and eating it. Only the one fish, but a good size and a meal for me. Now it's back to work and another countdown to next weekend.

Okay, thanks. I thought they were sentanced by the Senate, then the Ultimum was passed to allow it. I guess it's kind of semantics anyway.

That's just silly, you got my point.