Favonius Cornelius

I was wondering if anyone knew of any good links for pictures of actual unearthed finds of Roman arms and armor? Like full suits, swords, shields (probably rare to nonexistant due to wood composition).

LOL!!!

Did they see any combat, or was it all ceremonial?

The connections of the Trojans, Aeneas and the founding of Rome are far older than Augustus I believe. It's a long standing mythos.

I thought all Roman Emperors called themselves 'Imperator' which is why we call them emperors? Otherwise we might very well have called them Princeps, Princes or something else.

I don't mean to crush your rush or anything, but you DO know this theme has been done a million times right?

You gotta narrow it down man. Early history? The Republic? The Empire? Late Empire? Each epic has its own styles.

In an ideal state, one could abolish the death penalty and have humane punishments. If the world can grow the hell up and get rid of military spending this would be a simple thing. Death is defeatist.

The 'Cultural Revolution?' I totally agree. I work with a lot of Chinese from China, and they all have a hard time even talking about it.

Wow thanks for the heads up on the barbarian invasions! Its exactly what I was hoping for from the expansion.

I'd join ya if I could lads.

You know, with all the crap the Romans DID eat, its a strange thing to me that they did not eat any beef unless they had to.

Yes but what size? One cannot really use large sicssors used for textiles and such for their fingernails. These scissors would have to be small. To you speak of miniature scissors? Or are you thinking of a clipper who's use would be unmistakable?

I thought I would start a general discussion thread on those facinating people, particularly because I have not read a lot into their history. One question I have is: I have read in many places that the Celts and their Druidic spiritual leaders practiced human sacrifice. There has been many preserved bodies found in bogs throughout Europe and some have suggested ritual sacrifice of humans. I was wondering what the opinions were on this practice, the methods and the reasons for doing so.

I think probably 99% of any writings were stored in scroll form. Honestly I don't think the book form even existed anywhere at this time, but I could be wrong. They DID however have metal tablets which could be bound into a rough book form for the most inportant of writings, things such as the Twelve Tables. Probably in as many ways as you can imagine. Unless you were pretty wealthy you did not have a home that was very theft secure in the cities, so chances are you hid them under a tile or some other cunning place, or carried it on you. (As in money). Belt pouches, pouches tied around the neck, tunic sown pouches, you name it.

Probably just any blade, or their teeth if not wealthy hehe. They did use scissars. There is the knowlege that they have been using from time of etruscan. Maybe teeth are more convenient for you. Is that an insult? About the 'scissars,' can your prove your idea? I have heard of larger scale scissors for textile applications, but never something fine. At any rate, even if they did exist and were used for trimming nails, only the most wealthy could use them most certainly.

ROFL! Racism? Did I miss something? Harkening back to my Celtic post, I used the same degree of levity, however I was chastized for it for not keeping things academic. Indeed this poster here even gave me a bad reputation, therefore I am highlighting exactly what I felt was racist from said poster. In the statement above I think the Japanese opinion is racist. While one man says servitude, another would say loyalty and manners. I personally work with a number of Japanese and I know they would take offence to their culture being characterized in this way. As for the Germans and Americas, I think while amusing, it is playing up sterotypes and has no place in an academic discussion, which has been said to be central here in this forum.

Probably just any blade, or their teeth if not wealthy hehe.

You're never going to find historical situations that are exact matches of each other, but I think there are enough similarities to speculate. Remember, I said this was a quick draft, not an in depth analysis. I did not say it was exclusive to the Chinese, I think its just the most commonly known one so that's why I mentioned it. There is no need to split hairs here. Like I said there will be dissimilarities all over in any historical compairson, it does not mean that it is invalid to make that conpairson. I think the important aspect here is the fact that control, even if loose control, was thrown off by active effort and a Republic was formed. Matters little if the controlling hand was heavy or light over time, the same level of strife at the moment it happened is apparent. And also many offices of the Republic were nothing new but actual existing Etruscan creations. There are still plenty of similarities. That hardly matters about the particulars of how it happened, what counts is the population becomes mixed and you have a similar blood aristocracy in effect. Rome was an agricultural based economy, and it was the fundamental of what fueled its economy. The fundamental of the American economy are corporations. Same patterns of wealth distribution, matters not if its in grain or software. I think I agree with ya on this one. Hm I dunno, you still have a large scale mixing of populations in the form of slaves and immegrants to Italia, and particularly to Rome. Its these areas that form the tempo of political and social life in their entire empire. Particularly if that analysis is OVERLY critical! Out of curiosity, do you have any better ideas for parallels for America's situation, or even a different matchup that works better for your seemingly impossible standards?

I think the discussion of the concept of honor is a very worthy one, but surely you can see how this post is laden with sterotype, and frankly comes off as racist. Lets keep it clean please.

Awesome. Any idea on auxillaries or cavalry? Surely the cav would have been considered important.

I prefer Caffreys myself. No need for such bitterness eh!

Excellent thx! It's data that I always find myself wondering about, something that would consistantly be handy probably for a lot of people.

Is there any known reason why Caesar wanted to take that circleback? Seems pointless really. That Scythia area is hundreds of miles of open plain and little else. Does anyone know how large an army or which legions Caesar would have taken with him to the east?

Primus I was wondering if at some point you could include a section in the Roman military area with a map of the positions of all Roman military forces. I know they moved from time to time, but maybe you could have generalized stations in various time periods?