Favonius Cornelius

It's a well accepted fact that the Romans adopted military methods constantly. The early armies of Rome resembled a Greek phalanx hybrid of a sort. Their shields began to resemble Celtic shields over time. Later chainmail was probably copied from the Celts as well.

You could do that, or you could bypass the need for a continent long border and focus on conquering Germania and Bohemia, to a point where your border is along a north-south river, facing empty steppe of Russia. There you could build a better network of fortification, which could easily communicate along its length, and which would dilute the phenomenon of Rhine and Danube armies/generals to just one. Perhaps fewer rebellions that way.

Link doesen't seem to work. What the heck is a barrel vault anyway?

You sure about that? http://macdonnellofleinster.com/Celtic%20Empire%20Map.jpg

I don't know much about ancient mathematics, but wouldn't the Romans have gained much of their knowledge of it from the Greeks? Can concepts of Greek mathematics play a role in the use of Roman numerals?

"He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, scince for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despiceable an ignoreable war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder." -- Albert Einstein

The greatest honor a Roman general could hope to win was the right to a triumphal procession through the streets of Rome. To earn this honor one must defeat an enemy of Rome, not suffer significant casualties, and kill a bare minimum of 5,000 of them. Did this traditional stipulation have a far more influence than on this spectacle? Did it cause Roman generals to kill with reckless abandon, thus leading to greater conquests and a greater acceptance of conquest and war? Is there any direct historical evidence of this? Does the Empire owe its existence to a parade?

I have many other things to read, how about you explain it to me and I'll weigh your words. Maybe I am wrong.

Wasteland. It just was not worth it. Anyway most emperors had a anti-conquering mindset by the empire with a few rare exceptions like Trajan. An emperor generally didn't have anything to prove like Roman Republican statesmen did, and was more interested in maintaining the status quo. Spending money and allocating troops to dubious annexations of empty lands full of myth and barbarians endangered that status quo.

I like the wiki. It's an altogether different kind of resource. Everything read has to be taken with the understanding that not all may be commonly agreed upon or factual, but still it serves as a sampling of human belief, and is immensely current and expansive.

Shield walls slow, cavalry can overide, the right skilled cavalry archers can take 'Parthian Shots.' The Phalanx is brutal head on. Skirmishers truly skirmish and are able to keep out of range of heavy infantry. You can scale walls with ladders and tear them down with rams and undermining. Some barbarians don't listen to orders, and the magnetic personality of a great name makes a difference.

Doesn

Propaganda and a vicious rape of the fundamentals of the Republican system. Yet at the same time brilliant, for it binds fact and dignity to the process in a rare form, and a testimony to the changing times. Indeed the reasonability it tries to convey seems to indicate a need to communicate that a new order is required to maintain the status quo for the Roman people.

Absolutly! That's what makes this game great, its attention to detail. This is no arcade game, hell it's almost a scholarly work (especially if you get Rome Total Realism mod). Actually though battles could often be much bigger, that's the only thing. But one can imagine it still in the mind's eye.

Heh, is this the same Gore Vidal that wrote 'Caligula?'

Oh wow. I used the terminology because my girlfriend was raised by some fundamentalist Christians and she grew up terrified of the whole Rapture concept, so I figured it was common. Shows you how good of a Christian I am heh. By the way Antiochus nice signatures...wish I knew ya a little while back.

Really? Isn't it basically just the Revelations stuff?

With climatologists across the world telling us that the earth is getting sicker with every year, with natural disasters published on the news on a regular basis, with war burning in the middle east and the Holy Land, for those who believe in the concept of the end of days, these are ripe with reasons. What do you believe?

With climatologists predicting dire environmental dangers on the horizon, with natural disasters in the news constantly, with war in the middle east raging on, to many who believe that there will be an end of time, these days are ripe with reasons. What do you believe?

Phil, who avoids issues? Who is taking it with apathy and lethargy?

No one can prove anything about these theories, other than those who have the highest levels of information available to them. That fact does not invalidate skepticism, the need to ask questions, nor the process of considering the possibilities. Why be hasty in dismissing the possibilities? I almost detect an overly quick rush towards passing things off as an endless list of remarkable coincidences. Make a list of the coincidences we have seen since 2000. I guarantee that at least a few are not. At any rate, if our government is really so incompetent, and life so casual, it is a wonder we made it past the birth of the nuclear age.

I think its fully plausible that the intelligence agencies of each of the major players in the middle east, Israel, US, Brition, would cooperate and coordinate their efforts. In fact it makes no sense that they would not be. The 'war' has a long history of either fear mongering (increasing terror levels due to 'chatter,' attacks in allied countries such as Spain or England who's support for the war wanes) or victories such as this one, that come at opportune times. Why now? Any big event like this has many tiers of effect that ripple through our world. Such a thing could strike fear into the heart of the opposition, a good thing. Take people's minds off the situation in Iraq and Lebanon, a bad thing. Give a positive track record of events leading up to November for the elections which could control congress since positive accomplishments are very scarce right now, a dubious thing. Increase oil speculation and prices due to fears of instability particularly now with the Alaskan pipelines suddenly going bad, good for Bush's corporate buddies.

Back when Bush was getting us into Iraq, and indeed all times before it, I believed for face value everything I was told by the government, and was pro-war for those reasons. In fact after 9/11 I was ready to join up if need be. A few years later, knowing all that I know now about what they have really done, I cannot in good conscience believe what I hear at all any more for face value. I think it would be a mistake at this time for any American citizen to accept what they hear from the administration. In no small measure I think the Republic is in trouble. Sure the middle east nations and terrorists are a problem, no one forgets that or denies it, the idea that anyone who is critical of this mess is somehow forgetful of that is taken by FOX News lies and distortion I think. Just look at the long line of crimes and outrages! How can anyone take in the total deception of the Iraq war rationale, critical failures at Abu Garib, Gitmo, in Iraq. The deliberate screw up with Katrina in order to blacken the name of governmental agencies (paid for by those horrible taxes), election year dishonesty, outing of CIA members or soldiers who don't march in line when they bravely act as whistle blowers, the obvious corporate cronyism, all ruled over supposedly by a man who everyone admits is a bumbling idiot. How can one take this in and give any of it the benefit of the doubt? How many swaying terror color codes do we need thrown at us before we stop hiding under the tables? If you look back at when the successes against this war on terror occur, or increased terror levels, it is always after new negative scrutiny is placed on the current state of affairs, be it war setbacks, political controversy at home, or agitation abroad. They've been playing us for fools for a long time now. Look, the earth's superpower, the winner of the cold war, is far too powerful and good at what it does to blindly stumble into a thing. The planned nature of so much is apparent. We

Funny thing is, you can be sure any and all religious positions in the Roman state cult had special consecration ceremonies for the person assuming the position. So somewhere lost in time are the rites of the chicken watcher. I wonder if it involved chicken feathers at all. May the gods grant you accurate counting before they are hatched.