Melvadius

They are barracks but neither other guess is correct.

No its not Cumbria.

OK try sometihng from the archives:

I've not followed this particular actor's career but from family experience do have a sense of sadness at anyone's 'early' demise from cancer whether they have knowingly been fighting the disease for a longish time or not. It is generally not an easy way to go and irrespective of their fans views in the case of actors like everyone else it is the surviving family who are the ones who really have to pick up the pieces afterwards so they have my sympathy.

Butrint

I think that there is some danger here of putting words into each others comments which may not have existed in the initial postings and creating your own arguments so keep things calm folks. The key point is actually in the opening section of the above quotation so helpfully post by Caldrail. Guy has led off on the fact that the Roman military were aware of the need to have medical aid available to their men to the extent that major bases had what is usually termed 'hosptials' Although this does not mean that necessarily they were constantly full as Caldrail contends against BUT neither does it mean that their normal status was 'empty'. The other thing it does not really indicate is how extensive or otherwise the treatment was - the fact that the Vindolanda tablets and other sources indicate specific health problems were a problem the military had to consider especially when something like 10% of the men actually at Vindolanda had some form of illness or injury in the report quoted. The truth will have lain somewhere between both extreme's BUT it is worth reiterating that the military felt the need for these specialist buildings and men with some form of medial training which do not appear to have existed or at least not in a recognizably similar format within the civilian community where 'medical' assistance was something you had to pay for yourself or else it was unavailable.

Past Horizons is carrying this interesting report on the excavation of a 'Pictish' Broch in Lowland Scotland which is providing a suprising amount of evidence for Romano-Pictish trade. It is the first of its type dioscovered in Lowland Scotlands in over 100 years. Brochs are more commonly found in the far north of Scotland although there are a few in Lowland Scotland and those previously known were excavated by Antiquarians so are not the best sources of evidence for this type of trade.

The Guardian is carrying this report of the discovery of a bath house close to the Roman bridge crossing the Thames at Southwark.

Answering a couple of previous points: Checking one of the Medical terminology websites apparently 'hygiene' comes from "the name of Hygeia, the daughter of Asklepios, the Greek god of medicine (whose staff with entwined snake is the symbol of medicine). Asklepios (known to the Romans as Aesculapius) had a number of children including not only Hygeia but also Panaceia, the patroness of clinical medicine. Hygeia also followed her father into medicine. As the patroness of health, Hygeia was charged with providing a healthy environment to prevent illness. In Greek, "hygieia" means health.]" What I'm not sure of is how long Hygeia has been the "patroness of health" IF this association dates from the Greek rather than more modern periods (as Panaceia's linkage to 'clinical medicen' possibly suggests) then it could be an arguement for at least basic cleanliness being a facet of Greek (and therefore Roman military practice) influenced medicine.

I couldn

I am with Northern Neil on this one that Caldrail may may be flagging issues which were neither stated nor intended in the original posting although they may be valid points for wider discussion regarding military medical procedures. To pick up on a couple of related issues; writing around 110 AD Pseudo-Hyginus states that when laying out a large camp the animal hospital and workshop should be "deployed further away so that the infirmary can be quiet for [those] convalescing". Recent research at the Roman legionary camp of the legio I Italica in Novae/Bulgaria has found positive evidence for the healing function of the buildings assumed to be hospitals. In the middle of the 'valetudinarium' there they found a sacred precinct including votive inscriptions to Roman healing gods. Specifically 'a small temple to Asclepius stood in the center of the courtyard' and 'altars, statue bases and votive slabs to other deities, such as Juno and the Capitoline Triad, were erected in the unpaved courtyard around the temple.'. So far as non-Greeks being medicaly trained is concerned there probably will always be an issue preventing identifying them since many may voluntarily taken, or in the case of slaves been assigned, 'Greek' names as a matter of educated 'prestige'.

I'm not sure about this but the thought of rounding up several of the current batch of 'reality' TV stars and putting them into a long term edition of Big 'Gladiator' without a 'get out intact' clause does have a certain amount of appeal

In point of fact; you may well find that 'leeches' are still used as part of specific treatments by some doctors. This company advertise themselves as 'the Biting Edge of Science' (sic) for uses including in 'plastic and reconstructive surgery' and 'successful ongoing research into relieving symptoms of osteoarthritis'. I'm sure that in the same way someone else will still be using purges in specific circumstances. In fact come to think of it it is still the recommended 'first response' treatment for some specific forms of poisoning...

Ghost this post has been split off from its original location as discussion of such topics is the stated intent of the Colosseum forum.

Agreed in fact this is one of the points specifically made by Casson four booksellers handled Martial's works and three of those stocked different editions: Tryphon - regular or cheap copies Atrectus - deluxe copies highly decorated on the outside so much more expensive Secundus - 'novelty' editions on parchment rather than papyrus and in the form of a codex - a very rare treat so Martial gave directions to the shop.

If you cannot find the sources that Maty has referred you to already then Lionel Casson's Libraries in the Ancioent World may provide some other sources to check out or at least talk about sales practices in general if not prices. I don't go for the translation of Martial Casson uses on page 104 which states the price of Martial's new work at Tryphon's store as "four coppers, and not a penny more". However the notes for pages 103-105 list several sellers of Martial's and other ancients author's works so you may find pricing information there as well or possibly in the secondary references also cited.

Having now dug out my copy of Greek and Roman Technology it lists Diocletian's Edict as specifying the price for a scribe producing 100 lines of tyhe 'best script' as 25 denarii. I'll need to check another book on Greek and Roman libraries to see if it provides any details but IIRC in the first century most copies of 'books' would have been produced by slave scribes. Presumably either they would neeed to have had their own copy to work from or else you would have had to provide the relevant work for them to copy and the price would then be whatever was agreed for doing so.

There is one major source on prices in ancient Rome although it comes from the time of Diocletian around AD 301 which is Diocletian's 'Edict on Maximum Prices' (also known as the Edict on Prices or the Edict of Diocletian; in Latin Edictum De Pretiis Rerum Venalium) This site notes that the Edict on Maximum Prices was Here is a site which seems to have a reasonable write up of the various items specified compared with some wage rates.

Hope you have a fantastic day today Oh great and wise one. Even if UNRV is correct and you are only 5 I'm sure you are entitled to at least a sip or two

This topic has already been discussed here.

Taking a while I could live with having the download incriment in 1.3-1.4 kb was beyond ridiculous I have now downloaded it and the second sequence of composite geophysical images does indeed provide proof that the ludus lies mainly to the west of the northern half of the amphitheatre about half-way across the field.

Having checked the original site; since the images listed as available of rindividual download don't appear numbered in this way I'm now wondering if the text refers to information in one of the zipped files which are also available for download. I did try downloading the 'zipped' Raw Materials 'LBI ArchPro Folder' in case that contained the underlying archaeological files but for some reason it took forever and gave no indication of either how big it was or how long it would take to download. I therefore killed the download and I'll have another try tonight to see if it is more responsive then.

The report on the PAS site indicates that the site is actually about 40 miles from Exeter which if it was a straight line would put it in areas which have been known for mineral resources for millenia.

Digging for Britain