Formosus Viriustus

Salvete Aurelia et Omnes !

Well, there are at least a thousand 'best songs ever'. (Just talking pop music). Here's my absolute favourite beatlesong strawberry fields forever There are many more I like very much : 'Back in USSR', 'While my guitar gently weeps', 'A day in the life' and so on. Still, aren't the Beatles the most overrated pop group ever ? Not because they weren't any good. They were very good. But they seem to invariably end up top of the list, as if they were far better than all the rest. That's nonsense. There were dozens and dozens of groups and musicians around at the time

Now, don't get me wrong, I like Ginger. Good looking, an excellent dancer and an excellent actress. But if my sources are correct, she wasn't the easiest one to get along with. It's not that I don't like strong minded women but I believe that she was a bit of a b... and that she treated Fred like sh.. . It's very hard to forgive her for that. And for the rest, well, there's no comparison really. Rita easily makes my all-time top ten. So, just an excuse to give you another Rita clip. This time with Fred, no less.

Cute ! But why is'nt Pink there ? what has she's done wrong ? As if. A Pink-fan ( Not !) Xanthippe

I think it does. coins were also used as a propaganda mean and in the imperial period their main function was as payment to the soldiers, hence most of the imperial coins present the emperor as a military commander (Imperator and so on) to me it's suggest that a large portion of the Roman soldiers could recognize at least some basic words. Thanks. End of discussion then ? Formosus

Salvete Omnes ! Yes, I totally agree with that : the confusion, I think, mainly stems from what is understood by the words 'literate' and 'illiterate'. Even that definition given here is pretty subjective and can be interpreted in a wide variety of ways. If you applied today's standards to the population of the Roman Empire around the beginning of the Christian era, most likely 90 % or more of the population would be illiterate. However, if you interprete it as it should be interpreted, that is : what number of people at the time had enough literacy to function reasonably well within their society, it would be completely different. BTW, I think those present day statistics are also misleading. It may be true that according to the high, 21

SalveteOmnes ! I found this thread here very informative. It is a question that has been nagging me for years : ' ' In how far were common people literate in ancient times ?' The common (mis)conception of the less informed nowadays still seems to be that until the arrival of printed text in the 15

Tough one ? Ginga ? Come on Ginga in drag : (she was a bit of a dragoon anyway) George Ringrs Or even Gothic Ginga in drag : George Grrins Valete bene, Formosus

Salvete Nephele et Omnes ! Another place for your 'must-visit' list : Nevele . Old fashioned Flemish country life. Not much of a place you'd think but home once to some of Flanders most celebrated authors. Not surprising : 'Nevele, Hansbeke, Merendree, Landegem, Poesele, Vosselare, ...' if that's not poetry, I don't know what is. Plenty of mist and clouds too, to be enjoyed. If there's one thing we're not short of ... And it's about halfway between Brugge and Gent. Flanders' once most mighty and still most beautyful cities. Here World History was shaped in the late Middle Ages. Ahh, those were the days ! Here's a musical and visual impression. jacques brel sings 'mijn vlakke land' Valete bene, Formosus

Hmmm, Yesss ! You bet you could get used to that. You're a fly, remember. No soap, no shampoo, no deodorant, no insecticides. Plenty of excrement and carrion for everybody. Sounds like Paradise to me. And don't say : 'It tastes like sh.. ' Ten trillion flies can't be wrong. What was the question, again ? Vale bene et nil desperandum,

One that glows in the dark !

Salvete Omnes ! 'Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sphincter' ? Really now, Nephele ... grow up girl ! Seriously. I read your essays on Roman names and liked them very much. Interesting to learn how the customs regarding the use of names changed over time and reflected other changes in the social structure. Well worth reading. http://www.unrv.com/culture/roman-naming-practices.php http://www.unrv.com/culture/surnames-of-the-julii.php http://www.unrv.com/culture/surnames-of-the-cornelii.php http://www.unrv.com/culture/surnames-of-the-sempronii.php You wrote : '... it was not unusual or bizarre to find two brothers of the same family bearing the same first name, as in the case of the sons of the emperor Vespasianus, who were both given the praenomen of "Titus".' Indeed it is not. Louis XVI and Louis XVIII were brothers. Louis XVI had two sons, both called Louis (one being the unfortunate Louis XVII, who never reigned). There are more examples of this to be found within the French royal family, I belief. ( 'I see ! That's how they did it, the French ! 18. They cheated, they did !') The Empress Maria Theresia had three sisters and eight daughters, all called Maria. Johann S. Bach had a brother and three sons called Johann. Most, if not all, of the male Bach's from that line, for several generations had the first name Johann. I'm not sure how widespread the custom exactly was but at least in some areas of Europe this was apparently not an uncommmon practice. And then there is, of course, George Foreman who has four sons. All called .... George. 'Dinner's ready, George ! ... First wash your hands, George !' ... easy ... Valete bene et nil desperandum,

Let me guess : Ruppy, Bluppy, Gruppy, Yuppy and .... Puppy (short for Pink Puppy) ?

Nice cartoon, Aurelia ! One of the best. Thanks ! And can't have too much Ginga & Fred, can we ? This one is a bit silly though. So here's my contribution : not Rio but Buenos Aires (well, it's broadly the same direction, seen from here, there's some dancing and it fits the period and ... any excuse is good enough to watch that clip ...)

Salvete Omnes ! The BBC had a very good series a few years back : 'What the Romans did for us'. It gave the Romans a very good press and it was pretty popular I guess : it has been shown at least one more time that I know of. Re : Romanisation of Britain I recently read : ' The Age of Arthur

Salvete Nephele et Omnes ! Handsome but Fair, I say. Yes, I had quite a discussion with my wife about all that when I was adopted into the Roman community : she wanted to adopt the name 'Xanthippe Formosa' or even 'Xanthippe Viriusta' which is even more ridiculous. She has no Latin at all that woman. (She used to be just called 'Xanthippe, the wife of Formosus') I managed to trick her into going with 'Xanthippe Sempronia Furiosa'. A very appropriate name, I think. And conforming to classical Roman rules. By the time she found out what the last part meant, she was stuck with it. Find out more at Formosi Furiosi Valete bene et nil desperandum,

Salvete Omnes ! I live in the city of Antwerp but I am originally from the Province of Limburg in the North East of Belgium. That was at the time of the conquest of Gaul less or more the homeland of the Germanic-Gallic tribe of the Eburones. Under their leader Ambiorix they inflicted some heavy losses on the Romans. You see his statue here in the market square of Tongeren, probably the oldest Roman settlement in Belgium. I was born in Hasselt, about 15 km from there. My father's family is from no more than about 5 km from Tongeren. So I definitely have some Eburone blood in me. "...Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae..." (Caesar, de Bello Gallico) Valete bene !

Salve Marcella ! My apologies to you for not doing so earlier, but welcome to UNRV ! I am quite new here myself, but I like it very much so far. Lots of friendly, helpful and interesting people, you'll find out. Hoping to hear some more from you. Vale Optime !

Salvete Gaie Pauline et Omnes ! And Hail to You, Nephele, You Benevolent and Omnipotent Queen of Darkness ! I was just about to thank G. Paulinus Maximus for his helpful bump and rather desperately trying to work out how I was going to link those posts over to here, when hey, I see someone has already done that for me. So that just leaves me to thank you Gaius Paulinus, for the BUMP and you, dear Nephele, for the help. Valete Optime !

Salvete iterum Omnes, Yes, we are rather lucky, we Belgians, with our Never Ending Flemish-Walloon Wars : as far as I know, the worst casualties ever suffered during my lifetime were a few black eyes and bruises. But most Belgian politicians spend most of their time in endless bickering over these kind of problems. And that does get on people's nerves. It's very tied in with how the Belgian state is organised politically. But there's endless fun to be made about it too, of course. Here's a few very short ones you might like, even if you don't understand the words. Valete bene!

Salvete Bryaxis & Kosmo & Omnes, Nice to meet another fellow countryman. And another Bruxellois / Brusseleer. If I'm correct, you are enjoying the sights and the weather in Campania for the moment. Well, it's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it. I saw some of your pictures and a bit of your blog. And since you offered : yes, bring us all back a bottle of that excellent limoncella. Yes, Kosmo, I see you are not one who minds a bit of controversy, we have an endless language-conflict-soap running here, since long before I was born. (When dinosaurs still ruled the earth.) Best stunt ever was a bit more than a year ago when the Walloon TV Channel made a satirical program in the format of an extended special newsflash announcing that the Flemish had unilateraly declared independence, closed of the 'language-frontier', and what not. They did some quite clever things tricking politicians and prominent commentators into the play without them knowing exactly what was going on, editing old interviews in a misleading way, and so on. Nor was it announced in any tv guide. Still, the satire was so obvious - they had border controls on the Brussels tramways, the Royal family had supposedly fled the country, and so on

Salve, Excellent work, mi Nephele ! You are a true scholar. And that at your tender age ! At the age of two, Mozart could tell a few dirty jokes already

Have pity on the Aged (old man stumbles around, mumbles : 'Mmm, were shall I posts this ? Why not here ? Who cares ?') Salve mi Aurelia (et Omnes) ! Compliments on your Plautus essay, first of all. Who says that the Romans have no sense of humour, h

More names and games ? Salvete Nephele et Omnes, The rest of my name : 'Spurius' is pretty self-explanatory, I think, and 'Sempronius' refers to the Sempronii Gracchi brothers. ( I was asked to choose a name that less or more conformed with Roman standards when joining SVR.) Oh, and did you know that in Dutch 'Gaius', spelled as 'gajes' is a synonym for 'lowlife' and a very popular insult ? ( In the Netherlands that is. We Flemish Belgians don't use it all that much.) Thus my other alterego's name : 'Gaius Virvulgus'. But I thought that one was a bit too common to use in such distinguished circles as the SVR and the UNRV. You do know of course that 'lol' is a Dutch word for 'fun' ? 'Veel lol gehad' means 'Had lots of fun'. Yes, Dutch is a funny language. Or, as we say : 'Nederlands is een lollige taal.' And to put a common mistake right, while I'm at it : 'Flemish' is not a language. The northern part of Belgium is called 'Flanders' and its inhabitants are called 'Flemish'. Our language however is 'Dutch'. There are some slight differences of course in everyday use between us and the Dutch. The spelling however is exactly the same, unlike with British and American English. You can speak a Flemish dialect if you want or with a Flemish accent. You can't however speak or write the 'Flemish language' since that doesn't exist. Valete Optime !

Salvete Omnes, Mmm, yes, I must say I am a bit skeptical about all this stuff here. (I'm a dry old stick-in-the-mud, I know) Why satirize Sweet Jane ? You could satirize Swift or Thackeray too of course. I'll have to reserve my judgment since I don't know anything about the works mentioned here above, but I think you'd have to be a Real Genius to approach anything like the original. If you can do that, you have my blessing. Otherwise, there's plenty of mediocre and dead seriously ment stuff around to satirize. But if that series / movie comes on I will give it a try. It's not a BBC production I assume. 'Alice meets the Bennets', as it were. As to zombies giving everything a bit of class ... mmm, again, I'm not a zombiephobe, but there too, hasn't Emily Jane Bront