Formosus Viriustus

In my opinion there is no exact date to be put on when Rome - as a state - fell or the Empire ended. But if pressed I'd say 1922 rather than 1453. The Ottoman Sultans had as legitimate a claim on being the rightful successors of the Roman Caesars as the Byzantines had. Formosus

Thanks for that information. I did have a look at modern fencing. I couldn't find anything about the rules concerning that but then I saw a picture of a left-hander fighting a right-hander. I was a bit surprised at that since it seems to be a much bigger advantage than in tennis for example. I did have 2 or 3 'lessons' in modern fencing at school some 40 years ago. I seem to remember that I had to use my right hand there, but my memory is a bit vague about that. So, now I wonder if it has always been the case that you were free to use whichever hand you liked. Western fencing has a long tradition that certainly goes back to times when right-handedness in pretty much everything was still 'de rigeur'; could it be that they relaxed the rules somewhere in the last 40 years to comply with the modern concept that everybody should be free to use whichever hand he or she prefers ? I do find that story about Edoardo Mangiarotti quite amusing. He is the first case I hear of, of a right-hander 'converting'. And being extremely succesful too ! But it subscribes my thesis that switching hands isn't actually all that difficult. And Western fencing is truly a one-handed activity, as opposed to japanese swordfighting which is two-handed, although the left hand is the control hand. Formosus

Could you give me chapter and verse on that ? If you read Smith (again) you'll see that he says exactly the opposite. Wealth consists of goods and services. Nothing else. Money is nothing but a convention, a bookkeeping tool, a mechanism to facilitate the exchange of goods and services. Not strictly necessary but very handy. That certainly goes for paper money. But Smith even explains that the monetary value of precious metals is largely a convention : as materials precious metals aren't all that useful. Since most people now, more than two hundred years later, still don't seem to accept the simple fact that paper or virtual money has no real intrinsic value at all. I'd say that was pretty revolutionary. (Concluding from the fact that his books consist for a large part out of detailed financial calculations, preferably correct to the last farthing, that Smith thought money had any intrinsic value in itself is like concluding that a chemistry teacher thinks that there is actual water on the blackboard if he writes down the symbols H

Thanks for that information, Medusa. Since there is evidence from Pompeii, it can't have been a new fad, introduced by Commodus. For a retiarius I think it would hardly make any difference if he fought a left-hander or a right-hander. Fighting against someone who is also armed with sword an shield, it could be a slight advantage to be left-handed, I think, depending also on how used your adversary is to it. But since gladiators often fought adversaries that had completely different arms from themselves, it can not really have made such a fight more uneven than some other matches. I have been trying to find some information about left-handedness in general and more specifically in history on the net. (Just googling 'left-handed' gives 21 000 000 returns.) From what I have found so far, I'm beginning to suspect that there has hardly been a serious word written on the subject yet. Plenty of nonsense though. Here is one of the sillier ones. http://www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk/lefty_history.html Has anyone any idea where they might have gotten it from that Julius Caesar was left-handed ? Another site also lists him ( without a question mark behind his name.) http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/left.html Formosus

Trouble is, the soviets didn't use dollars. They used rubles. Joking aside, is that the same Departement of Defense that calculated the cost of the soviet military expenditure by reckoning that a soviet conscript cost as much as a professional US soldier ? A soviet soldier only cost the food you had to give him, a cheap barrack, some cigarettes and chewing gum and a few kopeks so he could get drunk on friday night. A superpower won't be brought down by bookkeeping. But conscripting all young males for two years into an army that is much too oversized anyway is a huge drain on your productive capacity. Saying that the soviet people didn't get any hot water because there wasn't any 'money in the bank' ? Money is not a 'real' thing you know, since we got rid of gold and silver coins. Money is just paper. Or better said mostly just digits in some computer memory somewhere nowadays. It's just a way of keeping accounts of who owes which and how many goods or services to whom. And it doesn't 'disappear'. It just moves around (virtually). Maybe you should read Adam Smith on that since the whole American economic thinking is based on his ideas. I fully agree with Kosmo on this : fossilisation at the top was a major factor in the downfall of the SU : they just didn't care about the needs of the people. The people had done so long without hot water and gone through much worse things all for the Motherland, right ? What's the hurry ? It's too complex a subject, but I think that the Afghan war was also one of the major causes. Not because of the financial cost but because it was seen by most soviet citizens as an unjust war in which many of their people were being killed needlessly. After 1969 however, the space race was essentially over, I think. By 1973 people had gotten bored with men playing golf on the moon. And it was realised that the military importance of space domination had been far overrated. The US still had a bit of a glory moment with the Shuttle which, until one blew up, was propaganda wise a big succes, but the enthousisasm for space that there was in the 60s never really came back. Not in the US and not in the SU either I believe. F rmosus

There was little tactical advantage to that, and no, no-one bothered to gather left handed soldiers together. Left vs right matches are equal. Neither has an advantage over the other. Nor was training against such an opponent fighting with the other hand readily available to the majority of gladiators. I suppose there may have been a 'suprise' element to a gladiator matched against a left handed fighter for the first time but that would have been the point of the combat in the first place, to heighten the drama and provide spectacle. Up to a point (no pun intended). I don't have any first hand experience of training with swords so I can't answer that. Clearly the Romans thought otherwise. A little advantage is a little advantage. And yes, I said that there is no evidence for any left-handed units as far as I know. Well, in tennis and some other sports all commentators and players seem to agree that left-handedness is a slight advantage precisely for the reason I have given. How do you mean the Romans thought otherwise ? Do you have any evidence that the Romans considered left-handed people inferior soldiers or what ? If my argument about left-hand drive and right-hand drive cars isn't convincing enough, I am not sure what is. But I do have some limited experience with handling swords

What is usually being ignored is that in 1917 the USA was already an industrial superpower while Russia was still living in the middle ages, so to speak. It was by far the most backward and least developed country in Europe. And only 40 years later they were the first to send a man into space ! Not to mention that in the mean time they had beaten off the biggest invasion ever launched in human history at tremendous cost. That is an exceptional achievement, under whatever political system they did it. I think it is hard to overestimate the effect that had on the selfconfidence of the Russian / soviet people. Despite all the Western propaganda to the contrary I have no doubt that the vast majority of the soviet citizens at the time were just as proud of their country as the Americans were and that they just as much believed that they lived in the best country in the world. That they led the space race until the end is not true I think : once the Apollo program got underway the soviets knew they were not going to get a man on the moon first. Hence they pretended never to have been really interested. I'm a bit hesitant to lay the link, but that was around the same time that the mentality in the SU started to change. I don't believe too much in the theory that the SU was brought down 'financially'. That is the American way of thinking. I fully agree with you on your last point, Kosmo : it was indeed the lack of hot water, to put it simplistically, more than anything else that brought the SU down. People started to see that Utopia was not being realised, was not going to be realised, and they lost faith in the system. Having a braindeath zombie as a leader for the best part of 18 years didn't really help either. F rmosus

Julius was his 'first name'. F rmosus

The available financial maths simply don't support the previous statement. Welcome to Creative Accounting 101 ? In what currency do you calculate 'national morale' ? In any case, except for the Americans, most people think space exploration is still well worth it. The Chinese, the Japanese, the Indians, yes, even the Belgians. ('We' are very proud of having a man 'up there' at the moment. The rest of the world hardly noticed but in Belgium it was front page news for over a week. There was hardly any talk about splitting the country up at all for a week.) As investing in science goes, I think that space exploration is still a better investment than 'magic' large hadron colliders that don't work. F rmosus

OK , you've really been asking for it, haven't you ? Pink Time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5_0iZQ-TuA...ature=quicklist 'set the controls for the heart of the sun' ( 9:49 ) - live 1971 from 'a saucerful of secrets' 1968 'careful with that axe, eugene' ( 7:49 ) - live 1973 single 1968 Grey Floyd 'learning to fly' ( 5:11 ) - live 1994 from 'a momentary lapse of reason' 1987 Bonus Floyd http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMrDabPW058...feature=related 'mathilda mother' (3:02 ) from 'the piper at the gates of dawn' - with syd barrett ! 1967 - nice animation too http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyL2vAUVOM0 'time' ( 7:07 ) from 'dark side of the moon' 1973 - no pics, but great music And I do like The Wall. I don't care what other people think ! I'm a Rebel ! (well, this song - never really bothered to listen to the rest of that album) 'another brick in the wall' ( 6:00 ) from 'the wall' 1979 - the clip F rmosus

The space race was probably not in any significant way responsible for the downfall of the Soviet Union. There's a thousand other more important factors. In fact, I think that just like the US it boosted the Soviet Union no end. Soviet morale was really sky high at the end of the 50s and the beginning of the 60s. (Remember poor VP Nixon having to defend the US against a boastful Chrutsjov by saying that well, they - the US - had color tv ? ) Loosing the moon race which they officially never really entered probably had a negative effect. But that certainly didn't bring down the regime. If China is now entering the space race it will have and is already having a similar effect : the Chinese are proving to themselves and the rest of the world that where science and technology are concerned they can hold their own with the best. I have no doubt that the Chinese people today have a completely different view of themselves and their country in relation to the rest of the world than they had thirty years ago when they just came out of the shock of the cultural revolution. The prestige of being able to organise a perfect Olympic Games and lead the medals table as well, if my memory is correct, also boosted Chinese morale

Indeed http://www.romesausage.com/ Rome's Sausage Co http://www.romepaper.com/ Rome Paper Co http://www.romefurniture.com/ Rome Furniture Center F rmosus

I think that this is actually a very important observation. We are afflicted, in Europe, with a post colonial self hatred that leads to such ludicrous revisions of history. It also leads to insidious cultural relativism and moral equivalence where we dare not criticise the questionable aspects of former subject peoples. When talking about the Roman gladiatorial fights the tone used is often as not one of :

Nice work ! Thanks ! And welcome. F rmosus

That a vomitorium was a room where they went to throw up during their lucullan orgies. F rmosus

Could they be one of the peoples mentioned here ? The ones with one eye in the middle of their forehead or the ones with backward facing feet ? Pliny certainly seems to be a reliable source on such subjects as cannibalism. About as reliable as NatGeo I would say... http://penelope.uchicago.edu/holland/pliny7.html (The Natural History Book 7, Chapter 2) "... if wee were not credibly enformed, that even of late daies, and goe no farther than to the other side of the Alpes, there be those that kill men for sacrifice after the maner of those Scythian people; and that wants not much of chewing and eating their flesh. Moreover, neere unto those Scythians that inhabite toward the pole Articke, and not farre from that climate which is under the very rising of the Northeast wind, and about that famous cave or hole out of which that wind is said to issue, which place they call Ges-clithron, [i. the cloisture or key of the earth] the Arimaspians by report doe dwell, who as wee have said before, are knowne by this marke, for having one eie onely in the mids of their forehead: and these maintaine warre ordinarily about the mettall mines of gold, especially with griffons, a kind of wild beasts that flie, and use to fetch gold out of the veines of those mines (as commonly it is received:) which savage beasts (as many authors have recorded, and namely Herodotus and Aristeas the Proconnesian, two writers of greatest name) strive as eagerly to keepe and hold those golden mines, as the Arimaspians to disseize them thereof, and to get away the gold from them. Above those, are other Scythians called Anthropophagi, where is a country named Abarimon, within a certain vale of the mountaine Imaus, wherein are found savage and wild men, living and conversing usually among the brute beasts, who have their feet growing backward, and turned behind the calves of their legs, howbeit they run most swiftly. These kind of men can endure to live in no other aire nor in any other clime els than their owne, which is the reason that they cannot be drawne to come unto other kings that border upon them, nor could be brought unto Alexander the great: as Beton hath reported, the marshall of that princes camp, and who also put downe his geasts and journies in writing. The former Anthropophagi or eaters of mans flesh whom we have placed about the North pole, tenne daies journey by land above the river Borysthenes, use to drinke out of the sculs of mens heads, and to weare the scalpes, haire and all, in steed of mandellions or stomachers before their breasts, according as Isogonus the Nicean witnesseth ...'' Formosus

I'm not sure in which movies you can hear this, but there must be plenty. An excellent performance this one, I think. Formosus

Some years back I was at a friend's place and his 9 or 10 year old kid was doing his homework. One of the questions he had to answer was : ''Who invented sailing ships ?'' According to the 'lesson' that went with the questionary, a piece of work by the teacher him- or herself, apparently, the correct answer was :

It seems to be a widespread misconception that those dollars, or euros or yens, spent on space exploration are actually launched into space and are thus gone and lost forever. They are not. They stay here on earth and are earned by someone who will spend them again and so on. But why should governments still be involved in space exploration ? Why don't they just leave it to the free market ? F rmosus

Well, that in a close battle formation everybody has to fight right-handed seems self evident. In theory you could have completely left-handed units. That might even have made some sense in order to cover your right flank, but I think there is no evidence at all that such a thing ever existed. I did think that the information about left-handed gladiators was a a bit surprising at first. It would indeed give a left-hander a serious advantage, since he would be used to fighting in this way, while a right-hander was not. But then some right-handers might have particularly trained against left-handers and that would even things out again. I think I can conclude from what you say that left-handed gladiators were a kind of novelty, introduced at some point to spice things up a bit and that it was an unconventional way of handling your weapons. So those left-handers would probably have been bi-dextrous in practice and able to fight both ways. It seems to me that if you start practicing something from the very start with either your left hand or your right hand, it doesn't make much difference whether that is with or against your natural tendency. The more so if it is actually a two-handed activity. The best example thereof is perhaps right-hand and left-hand drive cars. It doesn't matter whether you are left-handed or right-handed. The kind you are used to feels natural and the kind you are not used to feels akward. Fighting with sword and shield is also very much a two handed business. I don't see why a left-hander should be at a disadvantage if he learns to fight right-handed from the start. There's no reason that he couldn't become just as good at it as a natural right-hander. It certainly won't be the deciding factor in who actually becomes the better fighter. Formosus

Hexahedron, Dodecahedron, Icosahedron ? What was it that Caesar used at the Rubicon ? Was it a d6, a d12 or a d20 ? Most probably it was a d20 : From the article :

VESPASIANVS - YET I VVAS ONCE YOVR EMPEROR VITELLIVS - HEY THAT S MY LINE VESPASIANVS - FV VITELLIVS F RMOSVS

Being left-handed myself, I'm pretty sure which hand I would barbecue if I ever felt inclined to make such an 'heroic' gesture : my right one. A right-handed person would, it seems to me, do the opposite. Or would those Etruscans have said : ''Ach, it's just your bad hand anyway, that doesn't particularly impress us. ''? So I do claim G. Mucius Scaevola as a genuine southpaw. There ! Formosus Scaevola

Thanks for the information, all. I do vaguely remember that story about Mucius Scaevola. But I didn't remember which hand it was he barbecued. So I gather that the word 'sinister' was not actually used as a nickname. And Scaeva or Scaevola doesn't sound very Latin. So it's probably Etruscan ? If Scaevola burned his right hand, wouldn't that rather indicate that he was actually left-handed ? Or was he, besides being heroic also quite stupid ? ( Or would burning his left hand have made less of an impression ?) Loosing your right hand or the use of it, is not necessarily proof of right-handedness. The left-handed gladiators seem to indicate that the Romans didn't particularly care about right- or left-handedness, except in cases where it really mattered such as in a legionary battle formation. I'm very pleased to learn I do have something in common with Tiberius and Commodus. (I'm particularly impressed with Tiberius' apple-coring abilities.) Formosus

Butresses, it is my belief, are only used to distribute the weight from a heavy roof which would push too thin and too high walls outwards otherwise. I have never heard about butresses being used to compensate for the pressure of goods being stored inside the building, nor to support an overhanging roof (??). That doesn't seem to make any sense to me. Admittedly, I'm not a builder. The practise to build a second storey slightly overhanging the first one, which used to be rather popular at certain times and in certain areas, I understand, did have the purpose to compensate for the weight of goods or furniture inside : if the second storey wall is right on top of the first storey one, the weight of heavy furniture and the heavy floorboards would give a building the tendency to fold inward. Having a slightly overhanging second storey would balance these things out. Formosus