Hamilcar Barca

By the "worst" diasaster, I'm basicly asking for all these factors to be taken into consideration. However, just taking casualties into account, the standings are as follows: 1. Aurasio: up to 80,000 infantry and 40,000 camp workers killed, this may be an exageration but the Romans rarely added 0's to their own casualty figures 2. Cannae: 45,500 infantry and 2,700 cavalry killed, 18,500 captured 3. Adrianople: About 40,000 men killed including Valens 4. Carrhae: 20-30,000 killed including Crassus 5. Teutoburg Wald: 12,000 men killed.

What do people think? I personally believe it was the Teutoburg Wald as it more or less stopped Rome's European expansion. However, all these battles had significant outcomes.

Troy was a holocaust, I've never felt so exasperated at a movie in all my life. The entire war took what, 12 days?! Wolfgang Peterson should be shot for creating such an atrocity, not to mention shitting on Homer's grave and desecrating one of the greatest literary works of all time.

I know, I just wasn't sure if other people would agree seeing that is wasn't set in the Crusades etc. Although it was set in the 30's, so I guess it is regardless. By the way, did anyone see that blatant rip-off of the Da-vonci code "National Treasure". Holy ***** that was terrible, I needed therapy.

I agree, you guys do a good job. Those zealots in the Illyrian thread were really irritating.

Even though it isn't really a historical film I love Indiana Jones and the last crusade.

Thank you Ursus, I should have mentioned that myself.

I voted North Africa on the basis that Carthage existed as Rome's greatest rival and only after ther downfall did Rome really take off in its expansion. Of course this is a very difficult question to answer as the conquest of Spain was crucial in defeating Carthage. All the conquests flowed together in some way and its very hard to pinpoint what was most important.

You can buy his histories at most decent bookstores or you can also read his complete works online. Livy's histories Even though you can read it all here, you will probably want your own copies. I know I did after reading them.

One could say the same thing about Nero Caligula etc. Like all the mad emperors, Elgabalbus' insanity was transitional, i.e. it started off moderate and got worse and worse and it did take a while for people to rouse the courage to kill him. Elgabalbus did not tolerate critisism and anyone who spoke up was executed. When they did kill him they also got all of his cronies who they executed via tearing out their innards through their backsides with hooks - musing it been a fitting punnishment for their sexual orientation.

I also think it's hilarious how every other paragraph is randomly interupted as he heralds in the new Consuls for the year.

Ah, you are thinking of Elagabalbus (218-222), nephew of Carcacella and one of the worst Roman emperors. To call him a mincing, ass-bandit would be a gross understatement. The man or should I say boy did indeed like silk clothing and was made emperor when he was 14 years old, he was also a transvestite and liked to whore himself out at Brothels. He earned himself no favor with the citizenry or the army and promoted hundreds of his gay lovers to high government positions. Elgabalbus' femninity was extreme and he constantly contemplated self-castration. He was eventually killed aged 18, 4 years into his pointless reign.

What is interesting about that story is that when the Monguls successfully invaded Russia during the winter of 1241, it was the onset of summer which forced them to leave. I can't pinpoint why I love history, it's mainly an interest which I've simply fostered over the years. Like most of you, I despise ignorance about the past and do as much as I can to constantly learn more.

The Phoenecian language is very similar to ancient hebrew and has been partly translated. Maltese is said to be derived from Phoencian. But Carthage (originally "Karthadasht," meaning "new city) was founded by the Phoencians from Tyre around 813/14BC and they did develop their own "Punic" language over the centuries. Punic was a dialect of Phoenecian but was also influenced by the berbers and other African tribes. The Romans and the Greeks aparantly hated the Punic language as much as they hated the speakers. Despite this and Carthages destruction in 146BC, the language continued to be used orally by various north African tribes up until the 6th century AD after which it basicly diappeared.

I like Livy, he really did put a good effort into what he did by writing a complete history of Rome from 700BC through to his own time (59BC - 17AD). He certanely had his work cut out for him regarding Rome's early history mainly because most of the early Roman records were destroyed in 390BC when Rome was sacked by the Gauls. Unfortunatley, of his 142 books only 35 survive - 1-10, 21-45. This is unfortunate as the later histories which he wrote in his own time regarding the fall of the Republic would have likely been far more reliable than his previous works.

The story of Regulus' death is heavily Romanticised and I don't know whether its true or not, no one seems too, but Cassius does give an awfully explicit description. I hadn't heard of the elephants though, who mentioned them? Hamilcar liked using elephants though, he had thousands of rebels trampled during the Truceless War following reports that Spendius had 700 Carthaginians brutally tortured of which Polybius vividly described.

It's hard to say that a man who burnt off other mens penises for amusement (among other alarming methods of torture) while he ate his dinner didn't deserve a bad reputation. But it is true that contemporary historians and writers despised him and never let the world forget how terrible he really was. Juvenal famously referred to him as "A bald Nero", which basicly meant that while Nero was a tyranical madman responsible for countless atrocties and foulplay, the one thing he did have going for him was a decent doo. Juvenal deprives Domitian even of this, indicating that nothing good can be said about him. Vespasian and Titus rocked though, I just don't get how Domitian turned out so bad.

Indeed, while Gladiator is a fun film, anyone tring to recover actual historical fact from it is sorely misguided. Other than the great civilisations of antiquity, most other ancient languages are completley unknown and or undeciphered including Etruscan, Oscan, Gallic, Carthaginian, Germanic and so on.

The American empire? **Laughs** I could write a book about why it isn't but my answer in short is no.

The legionary was generally encouraged to attack by thrusting forward and killing the enemy in front of him and then stepping into his place and continue doing that until noted otherwise.

Bad, bad leadership I say. Valens rushed into battle with men who had been marching non-stop for 8 hours without food or water. He also refused to wait for reinforcements from the western Emperor Gratian so that he alone could take credit for what he believed would be an easy victory. If Valens had actually done some decent reconaissance work then he may have been able to prepare his troops for the Gothic cavalry and better deploy his men and cavalry. Instead the Romans were led to believe they were fighting a force no greater than 10,000 men.

Wait a tick, Pompey had nothing but heaped failure against Sertonius. Sertonius was assasinated by Perperna who took control of his army and only then was it that Pompey won a decisive victory.

Actually, Alaric died in 410AD after he sacked Rome. But the Roman Empire was not officially ended until the last Emperor Romulus Augutus was deposed in 476AD by the Germanic chieftan Odoacer. As for the Byzantines, they officially became Greek when Heraclius came to power to power in 610AD. He was the first to refer to himself as Basileus, the Greek word for Emperor which would be continued by his successors. He also phased out Latin as the empire's official language and replaced it with Greek.

Personally I don't see how Pompey can be rated ahead or compared to the greatness of Sulla and Marius. Pompey was basicly Sulla's sidekick. Remember also that Marius and Sulla never lost a battle and won many of Rome's greatest victories. The same cannot be said for Pompey. I should note also that I have full respect for Pompey but the fact was he wasn't as great as those two in terms of their achievements.