Aurelia

Joyeux anniversaire!

According to Roman accounts, Druids were high-ranking priests of the Celts who practised human sacrifice. Pliny the Elder even suggests that the Celts were not averse to ritual cannibalism. Fact or Roman propaganda? Recent finds seem to confirm these accounts, according to Secrets of the Druids, a new documentary airing this Sunday on the US National Geographic Channel. For more information, go to: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20...annibalism.html

My pleasure, Viggen. I could also look up some Brazilian universities but I doubt I'll find any info in English. Let me know if that would be of any help.

I'm Orpheus 0% Extroversion, 80% Intuition, 72% Emotiveness, 100% Perceptiveness Spot on! Poor thin-skinned creature that I am...

Just to get out of the UK/Ireland, continental Europe, America triangle for a moment: South Africa University of Cape Town - Classics Dept: http://www.classics.uct.ac.za/ (I took a few interesting courses here as a undergraduate student) Rhodes University - Classical Studies: http://oldwww.ru.ac.za/academic/department...uages/classics/ University of the Free State - Dept of English and Classical Languages: http://www.uovs.ac.za/faculties/index.php?...1&DCode=144 University of Johannesburg - Dept of Greek and Latin Studies: http://www.uj.ac.za/Default.aspx?alias=www.uj.ac.za/greek University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (Durban) - Classics Dept: http://classics.ukzn.ac.za/ University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (Pietermaritzburg) - Classics Dept: http://classicspmb.ukzn.ac.za/HomePage15638.aspx University of Pretoria - Dept of Ancient Languages: http://web.up.ac.za/default.asp?ipkCategoryID=540 University of South Africa (UNISA) - Classics Section: http://www.unisa.ac.za/default.asp?Cmd=Vie...p;ContentID=144 University of Stellenbosch - Dept of Ancient Studies: http://sun025.sun.ac.za/portal/page/portal...ncient-studies/

According to this website (not sure how reliable it is though), the pillar where Herodotus claims to have seen the names of the 300 Spartan warriors who fought at Thermopylae has been destroyed. http://www.300spartanwarriors.com/battleof...spartiates.html Apparently only a few names are known: Dienekes (Dieneces) - Herodotus wrote that he was the bravest of the 300. Maron and Alpheus - Two Spartan brothers who also distinguished themselves and possessed that quality known as andreia, which in Greek means courage and bravery. Pantites - Sent away from Thermopylae on a diplomatic mission to enlist the services of the other Greek city-states. He later hanged himself because of the shame and the dishonor bestowed upon him by his fellow Spartans who thought he had loitered long enough not to engage in battle. Eurytus - Suffered a very severe eye inflammation which incapicatated him so much that he ordered his helot to guide him into battle and perished with the remaining Spartans on the final day. Aristodemus (Aristodamus) - Suffered the same inflammation as Eurytus, however, instead of fighting, returned to Sparta and was labeled 'The Trembler' for not having fought and died with his fellow Spartans. Aristodemus' redemption came when he stood in the front line of the phalanx at the Battle of Plataea, broke ranks and killed several Persians on his own before dying.

And this is a contemporary coin.

Interesting story, thanks for sharing.

Sounds like you have some awful neighbours. I hope these are just isolated events.

Aaaaah, ok, Amalekite makes more sense. For a moment I thought you had made contact with a new breed of ghost.

And maybe the fact that I'm Brazilian also helps. I introduced myself in another thread but you probably didn't get to read it. If you need any help with Portuguese let me know.

Saw a Babylonian, Assyrian (his name was Sanhaneser I think) and an... Amaleqian but Roman, hum...no Wow, Babylonians, Assyrians? Much older ghosts - interesting but not surprising since you live in the holy land. Never heard of Amaleqians though.

How about Bath? I've never been there and don't know if much remains in terms of Roman ruins but it might be an idea.

I majored in English and French Language and Literature (I also studied Italian but didn't major in it). Then I did a postgraduate specialization in translation - my working languages were English, French and Portuguese. I had to do a bit of linguistics as a result.

Yes, I know *sigh*. But still, sometimes I think they write obscure job descriptions because they themselves are not sure about what attributes they are looking for in a candidate. Btw, did you apply for this job?

Thanks Ursus.

Mea culpa, I know Wikipedia is not always accurate. I didn't mean to refer to Neapolitan as a language per se. My first degree was in languages and translation so I'm no stranger to linguistics. I wanted to use a more reliable source but I don't think I kept any books on linguistics (or on any related topic for that matter) that I used at university. Anyway, sorry about the confusion.

If you go to Dublin, be sure to visit the Guinness factory. It's pretty cool and you get a free pint of Guinness at the end. I don't like beer that much but Guinness is one of the few I tolerate. As for Belgian beers, well, there are so many I wouldn't even know where to start. I tend to like the white beers better such as Hoegaarden. Also the fruity beers such as Kriek are delicious (and generally regarded as more "feminine"). Pity you're allergic to wine, but maybe the fruity beer might be a good substitute (if you can find it, of course).

Oh yes, I saw this on BBC World news yesterday. Apparently, this is not the first such skeleton (having a brick lodged between its teeth) to be discovered. I think other similar ones were discovered in central Europe a few years back. I remember seeing a documentary about it on History Channel (I think).

This is an old episode - entitled "Legends of the Legionnaires" [sic] - from Ghost Hunters, a series aired on Discovery Channel in the 90s I used to watch. This one is quite entertaining and, given its subject matter, I thought I'd share it with you. Part 1 Part 2 Anyone ever seen a Roman ghost?

I would be interested in joining. When are you planning to organise it?

Ok, I know I'm taking the easy road here but according to Wikipedia, Neapolitan, like other Romance languages, has partly evolved from vulgar Latin but also has a pre-Latin Oscan influence. An example is the pronunciation of the group of consonants "nd" (of Latin) as "nn" (e.g.- "munno" (world, compare to Italian "mondo"). In addition, Neapolitan also seems to have been affected by Greek. Unfortunately, no examples are provided in Wikipedia. Interestingly, Griko (or Grico) is a modern Greek dialect which is still spoken in the region in Southern Italy which roughly corresponds to the ancient Magna Graecia. So I think it is fair to say that Greek has had a strong influence on most dialects spoken in this part of Italy even if most are nowadays predominatly Romance languages. Probably, as with all major Romance languages today, the most obvious traces of Greek are to be found in their lexicon (as docoflove already suggested). There are other interesting websites (some of them only in Italian) which touch on the subject: Vierb Vulant OmniglotNapulitano Napoletanita

I love "Princess Bride". I have the movie on DVD as well: one of my all-time favourites.

Oops, sorry, just realised that I wrote the titles in French. Yes, the Asterix movies are French productions (who else would bother?). Anyway: Asterix and Obelix take on Caesar (1999) Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra (2002) Oh and there's a third one: Asterix at the Olympic Games (2008). Wow. Please don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to promote these - just trying to be accurate and consistent.