Melvadius

It has long been know that the Scandanavian/ Viking influence in Britain was far reaching dor instance leaving evidence in thousands of place names as well as DNA pockets in some mainly northern areas areas but what has not been looked at until now was whether and the extent to which the influence may have stretched both ways in the same was as Romnitas is now increasingly seen as a two-way process rather than simply Rome imposing its rules on subject people. Historian Marie B

Although I found a website claiming that an apiarist/ beekeeper had told August how to live to a ripe old age there is no cited reference for this assertion. From a quick search I'm not sure where there would be a reference to Augustus being an apiarist himself. I can think of a couple of possiblities: The fourth book of Virgils Georgics apparently mentions beekeeping or alternatively; Pliny the Elder makes several mentions of beekeeping and the propoerties of honey so IF Augusuts was an apiarist there may have made passing mention of this but there is a lot of Pliny's Natural History to browse through to find a suitable reference. Anyone got any other suggestions or know for certain if there is such a reference anywhere?

I haven't seen this one so far - not published until 1 October 2012 apparently - but it may be interesting to comapre with Dando-Collins 'Legions of Rome' (2010) which I am currently reviewing as both effectively claim to provide the 'first definitive history of every Roman legion'.

Carolgreen986 - you have been identified as a spambot automatically trawling posts from elsewhere on this site and the web. Accordingly you are now banned and all other posts will be removed - goodbye

Bregenz - a simple Google search of 'Bergenz Roman fort' found this site with details of the Roman fort at Brigantium-Bregenz a possible civitas capital of the Brigantii so you should be able to find similar details quickly.

Divius Iulius you are conflating two members of the same family (Josephus and his son) as members of the Flavians. The practice of freed slaves taking their masters name is well attested in the Roman Empire and does not advance your crackpot theories one jot. This is the final warning, cease and desist any further mention of them and also with your snide references to established reigions, this is no longer funny and you will be banned for any further mention of either.

The BBC is carrying this story that the Crosby Garrett helmet, which has been out of sight since its purchase by a provate bidder in December 2010, is apparently going to be part of a major exhibition on Broze items from around the world at the Royal Academy in London. In my view this is doubly good news since it means that the helmet is still in the UK and hasn't been illegaly spirited abroad so there is every hope that it will eventually go on permanent exhibition somewhere.

You have it in one. To take your latest example: An anagram only works if you stick to things that you can make out of the original letters otherwise with an entire alphabet to play with you can start of with 'god' and end up with 'dogs'. Both may be a real words but the second has very little relevance to either the first or probably the intent of the person who used the first rather than the second let alone the context of the sentence in which it may have originally been used. This is particularly the case if you start mixing and matching ancient languages ignoring how they may have been translated between each other and the variations which inherently become geometrically different depending on least and best 'fit' translations let alone the number of intervening languages such translations can go through.

Miller in

Phys Org is carrying this story of recent geophysical surveys which have revealed the main street pattern and location of major buildings including the threatre and forum of a long lost Roman town abandoned in only 50 miles from Rome around AD 500.

If what you have shows a 'bearded' warrior on one side and a chariot on the other like the images at the top of this page then it probably is a Roman coin depicting the conquest of Gaul. On the other hand apparently there were some medallions struck in France late 19th or 20th century like one which depicted Vercingeterix and Brennus from 1900 shown here. I suppose it is possible that one of the alternative versions may have been struck with a horse on one side instead of Brennus although I couldn't find one with a quick search. The clincher is probably going to be how round the 'medallion' is. If it is totally round or at least looks 'machined' like in the second link then it probably is a late 19th or 20th century manufacture. There was a fashion to commemorate Vercingetorix in the period either in print or more physical representations - in some instances reusing some images drawn from Roman period coins. On the other hand if the images are off centre and/or the 'medallion' shape is an irregular like in the first link then you are probably looking at a hand struck coin reused as a 'medallion' and it may even have originally been Roman.

Worked for me

I have found a different and more informative article here at fishnewseu (The Scottish White Fish Producers' Association) which states in part that:

I wouldn't go so far as to say that BUT everything has a context and it really does depend what the intent of a book is whether it should be confined to the scrap heap in the way you propose. A book dealing with a single city founded by Alexander and its immediate confines doesn't in my view need to mention all of the other cities he either renamed or founded from scratch - Wikipedia cites at least 16 in this category. If on the other hand it is intended as a chronological study of Alexander including ALL his movements and city foundations then I would have expected all such cities to be at least mentioned.

The BBC is carrying this story of a world record breaking discovery of a 98 year old scientific experiment message in a bottle. Apparently he is due a 6d finders fee for recovering this bottle which was released as part of a scientific experiment into the tides around Scotland by the Glasgow School of Navigation which was then part of the Royal Technical College in 1914. I wonder if the University of Strathclyde will honour that commitment by what was effectively one of their predecessor organisations ....and if they will take almost 100 years of inflation into account?

Current Archaeology is carrying this story which contains a link to a new virtual tour of the Neolithic burial chamber at Maeshowe

There is an online version at Bill Thayers' Lacius Curtis site here

Then BBC is carrying this report of the discovery of a third figurine discovered on Westray previously reported on this site here. The group of figurines are the earliest known humanoid forms found in Scotland

ScienceNordic now has a longer article on this topic here which provides more details of the excavation of the burials and the ongoing research.

More of a place keeping announcemnt than actual finds but the BBC is carrying this article on upcoming geophysical surveying work by Doctors Woolliscroft and Hoffmann of Strathcaro the most northerly known fort in the Roman empire as the latest part of their ongoing Gask Ridge Project. It will be interesting to see what results they get with the different available geophysical techniques since some sites are more responsive to one technique rather than another. For instance with magnetometery a lot depends on the underlying geology - granite lying close to the surface is generally bad news and there tends to be a lot of that in Scotland. NB The photo in the artticle shows the volunteers carrying out resitivity (earth resistance surveying) in the usual soggy Scottish climate.

Well the obvious analogy is the earth embankments found on the Kalkriesse battle site since their leader had served as an auxilliary with the Romans he knew how to construct Roman style defensive walls and by extrapolation how to use them to pin the Romans into a confied killing zone. Otherwise there is some evidence for cultual exchanges in the form of personal items but I don't have much info on Germania post Roman occupation. So far as I know 'Roman style' buildings tend to be confined to the initial period of Roman occupation maybe Viggen or one of the others can provide an alternative viewpoint?

So far as I am aware the northernmost positively identified Roman camp was discovered near Hedem

OK I think this should be translated as: S.P.Q.R IMP. CAES. DIV NERV. F. TRAIA - The Senate and people of Rome to the Emperor Caesar Trajan son of the [deceased and now] deified Emperor Nerva IMP. VI. COS. P - proclaimed Imperator 6 times, elected consul 3 times, [i suspect the single P is an abbreviation for PP for Patri Patriae so the final bit will be] Father of the Nation

I suppose after they attempted to illuminate the entire length of Hadrian's Wall with beacons back in March 2010 someone had to think up other ways of doing so and sending 'text' messages seems the way it had to go...

I suppose that the big question anyone who has faltered before with Latin grammar may wish to know Ursus is that, having presumably worked your way through this handy text-book some time back, do you feel confident (and retained any degree of proficiency with) your use of Latin?