Melvadius

Sorry George and other fairly recent posters the draw for the beaker has already been made and the prize given out so this thread is now closed.

We may need someone more expert in Latin and/or Roman will formats to say whether any of our speculations make sense but I can try making a couple of slightly different guesses: Possibly it has something to do with how Roman wills were made. If it had been made as a 'military' will then there would probably have been a series of witnesses seals attached to it confirming that they had witnessed it being signed. In addition it would probably have been held privately and securely until it was about to be read out so Marc Antony may not have been able to read it before-hand. Possibly he simply got caught out by the sentence structure not expecting what Octavian was being granted so missed the opportunity to change names or what was being granted. It is also possible with so famous a persons will that there would have been an expectation that it was displayed publically. If that was so he could have said what he liked but as soon as it was posted and the general public had a chance to read it they would have known that he had lied.

They seem to be making the assumption that it was worn around the waist from it's size. Not having seen any dimensions for it I couldn't be certain but I agree that getting it on and off would have been some operation. However once it was on - providing you weren't in the regular habit of putting on several pounds of weight I suppose it would have acted more or less like a belt albeit a somewhat heavier than normal one which may in turn have had medical implications.

Thanks for posting this Ben, it looks like English Heritage have doen a good job of the revamp and its nice to see 'Victory' back where she was found after so long away.

The BBc is carrying this report on the discovery and recent identification of an extremely rare torc found in County Fermanagh.

I agree that at present it seems like someone puffing up an article with modern references to make a story where there really isn't one - remind you of any particular Governments at present? . From a quick search there does appear to be at least 3 or 4 well known inscriptions relating to Lucius Septimius Flavianus Flavillianus and his victories in the pankration but I haven't so far been able to track down anything, apart from this article, providing details of this 'new inscription' or more importantly an 'actual' translation to provide the context to the story.

Live Science is carrying this story claiming that celebrity endorsements are nothing new in the military field. I don't think that this is an early April Fools spoof but you never know....

A garden centre carrying a good selection of culinary herbs??? You may need to experiment but I think that both costmary and pennyroyal are members of the mint family or at least have a minty taste while spiknard is a member of the valerian family. Unless I am much mistaken you won't need a lot of these herbs so there must be something you can find that is easily available to give a similar flavour.

The BBC is carying this report of what may be the largest coin hoard discovered in a Roman town in Britian which was actually discovered by arcaheologists rather than metal detectorists in 2007. It has only just been announced as part of a campaign to purchase them for a local museum.

Welcome to UNRV Ruanman. As you may have noticed by now there are separate fora for different topics areas and there may be an existing thread on this topic. If you cannot find one pitch in with a question in an appropriate area and hopefully someone will be able to provide some answers or suggestions of where to look for more info.

No problem we probably all have those urges now and then but from bitter experience I've found that it is often better not to succumb to them in a new group your meeting for the first time unless everyone is aware of the context and sometimes not even then . So glad you cleared that up although with my Legati hat on, if you haven't spotted it you may wish to note the forum guidelines here And BTW welcome to the fora. If you wish there is a separate forum here for introductions.

If the legions had been transferred, rather than newly raised, I would have thought that the transferred legion would disappear from the sources and therefore later identifiable as a legion transferred to Crassus in Syria. I am no expert in the period but I suspect the key is in Pompeius commenting above that in the Republican period numbering system isn't well understood. It was a period of some flux between the much earlier Republican period practice when legions were formed into consular armies but only enlisted for a single campaigning season and IIRC assigned based on either the Consuls seniority or where they were going to campaign. By the late Republican period this system had been mainly superceded with legions being enlisted for longer campaigning period often over several years so even though the first four legions were numbered and still nominally under the control of the consuls the total number of legions had vastly increased and was subject to some fluctuation. Legion numbers were used and re-used throughout this period but we do not necessarily know when particular legions were formed or disbanded. This is particularly the case since some sources only refer to armies being formed of a stated total of neither named nor numbered cohorts rather than legions. When the Civil War finally broke out the situation became even more confused with the competing generals raising several legions with the same number. It is even possible that in the late Republican period IF permission had been granted to raise legions locally rather than in Rome that some numbers may even have been accidently duplicated so which particular legions served with Crassus remains on current evidence uncertain.

Archaeology Magazine are carrying an article which both provides as well as some background material some updates on this ongoing project:

This question has come up before onm this site here. Although there are one or two possible hints the concensus seemed to be that the actual legion numbers invovled are effectively unknowable because of how the vaious almost 'competing' legion groupings were organised in the period.

It would be helpfull if you could expand/explain what you mean by this comment espercially if you intend providing an alternative viewpoint.

My mistake in citing it but it looks like you may have some updating of Wikipedia to do when you complete your research

The BBC is carrying this report of an extremely rare form of Anglo-Saxon burial involving both a bed and what a Christian style cross whcih appears to have been sewn onto her clothing, recently discovered near Cambridge.

Hi GOC, Sorry I cannot join you in this project since I live too far south to attempt visiting and taking appropriate photographs to include in the report. I had a quick look at your template and it looks pretty good However when I followed the link to milecastle 2 from recent bitter experience have one observation: The references are to OS Grid which is all very well if you wish to visit and have the appropriate map however if like I was you are trying to pull down data to run in a mapping programme like ArcGIS you really need this as British National Grid (ie all numeric rather than alpha/numeric).

Salve Domitia, As you are interested in gladiatorial combat you may have something in common with our member Medusa who is a long time gladiatrix re-enactor. I didn't come across your group when I was re-enacting a few years back so how are you finding it and does it help with the combat archaeology??

You are welcome. Glad you found them useful. I had another couple of thoughts whihc you may have covered already in your research but just in case; if you haven

Apparently the Lega Nord per l'Indipendenza della Padania (English: North League for the Independence of Padania) political party has ambitions to carve out their own mini-Empire of the so-called Padania (that is, the regions of Northern Italy), Switzerland, Austria, Bavaria and Savoy. Mind you I'm not sure how extensive the desire to create a separate identity is shared by the areas it wishes to encompass.

I don't know how much information there is on this particular unit apart from a passing mention in 'Acts' however if I remember correctly the 'Civium Romanorum' designation was something which in the Early Empire could in exceptional circumstances have been granted to an entire unit of 'non-citizen' auxilliaries for an outstanding act of bravery by them. The citizen status award was apparently granted to the entire unit irrespective of how long they had been serving with the name of the unit being amended at this point to show their 'special' status. In the later period the difference between citizen and non-citizen units became increasingly blurred especially after every free resident of the empire was granted 'citizen' status by Caracalla around AD 212.

The British Museum mentions has this article on hipposandals which were a form of temporary horseshoe mainly used by draught animals but includes a comment regarding horseshoes: BTW regarding riding on Roman roads I believe that while the road area was usually bounded by ditches this wasn't always the case. In addition even where there were ditches the actual distance between them varied enormously and there were usually strips of land on either side of the raised agger which were only lightly metalled so probably intended for the use of animals. There is some information on construction techniques at the Birmingham Roman Roads Project here [Edit the links page is probably most relevant as it inlcudes several specifically relating to roads in Italy] although there are also several very good reference books out there as well.

I rather suspect that the options may be fairly limited. I think there are some fundamental questions: Is there really is an earlier work by Da Vinci hidden beneath the later work? If it exists was it made with Da Vinci's use of experimental materials? - In which case it may have already deteriorated beyond the point where it could be realistically restored. Is there is a gap between the two works which makes separation relatively feasible or was the later work painted directly on top of the earlier work? Who is willing to take the risk of further damaging or possibly even destroying an established masterpiece for something which may not be recoverable? Secondary questions include how far Da Vinci progressed with his version ie is it only outline sketches or had work progressed to a semi-complete/ complete stage since the paying public tend to understand/ appreciate more complete works.

I've just found a few more of these including: Pembrokeshire 3500BC - I rather suspect this may have starred the late and sadly missed actor 'Philip Madoc' in one of his last 'roles'. St Stephen's Castle England 1546 I presume that there will be one for France as well.