Galba

I don't think any soap was ever made from olive oil alone. To make it into a soap....... I agree with you on the most part, but the fact is that most soaps are really made outoff Olive oil(Fat) and yes with other chmechals too...But if the olive oil itself is such a big part from the soap it must have some cleaning proparties. And I will do some testing of my own on this matter, results will be published soon !

Yes most romans did use olive oil and will tell you a little secret too.. It works ! A lot if not most of good old hard soap is made from olive oil, a lot of the "organic soaps" in Israel are made from olives. This idea was borrowed from the ancient Egyptians (who in their turn borrowed it from the Babylonians). Any way ,I think that the olive oil had soap like affect in the cleaning of the body.

The first two volumes were really thrilling but the later books of that series are not that good anymore. I'll have to agree with you on that one, sometime she puts too much emphasize on the scribing the atmosphere and characters that she forgets about the plot sequence. Although I also enjoyed the last book in the series Antony and Cleopatra.

I don't believe it ! No one has mentioned The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough from her series Masters of Rome Her historical characters are very detailed an vivaed.

Rome first choice, When you don't have internet or t.v. the only good entertainment is politics. But for summer vacations probably Caesarea Maritima

I love this game !, in my opinion he is one of the best that total war can offer and I know ! I played them all. I played all the levels with all the factions and won everywhere....you just need to chose each time a completely knew strategy and tactics for the battle. Personally I always favor the romans but its just too easy with them, with their super versatile units thats almost good against anything that the over factions can offer. Interesting to play are the Seleucid Empire on Expert level. 1) they don't have any special good units in the start of the game. 2)city's that are too spread out and hard to defend. 3)Surrounded from all directions by strong factions with mobile units which you lack. EAST: Armenians and Parthinians NORTH Pontus SOUTH Egypt EAST Greece and if that is not enough after you finish all of them usually you have a strong roman Julii and Brutii that by that time conquer all of Greece eastern Europe France and Spain.

Sarmatian cavalry, the only thing that saved from being torn to shreds by the barbarian hordes in Rome Total War : Barbarian Invasion. This thing cuts through infantry like butter. I can assure you that if was in charge, I would saved the empire !

They did not had a plum at list most of them, most Roman oriented units at that time if was at all (most of them where barbarian mercenaries that wear what ever they felt like) had very simple uniforms. Also their armor changed from plate armor that was in the early empire to mail armor.

I think that the Battle of Philippi was one of the best Civil battles that the Roman empire had to offer. It had everything Drama Action. Both sides had almost the same army by size and experience. And for me always stay a mystery Gaius Cassius death, I mean he was relatively talented general and Antony didn't crushed his army only repulsed it. I know most historians claim that because of the retreat and dust and blunder he thought the the cause is lost and committed suicide. But one most doubt that an experienced general had to have much stronger guts. and not to disper at the slightest defeat. Maybe if he didn't die and leave the inexperienced Brutus to handle alone such a massive army the Rebels had a good chance against the second triumvir.

Oh yes, I also read somewhere Its a shame that they didn't have our modern methods of preservation and this interesting "Freeze" of history is lost.

Not as Impressive as one would expect. But still mysterious none the less...

My all time favorite (And in my opinion always needs to be on the top of the list) is The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough.

That's a ridiculous statement. No one here is trying to glorify Islam. Yes, you are right. I meant by "Muslim" the Arab empire and the different kingdoms that it split into from the periods (650-1400). And I firmly believe that if the Byzantine weren't so exhausted from their Wars with the Sassanid Empire from (602-628) they would have stooped the Arab expansion in it's tracks. In real life the only solution to stop the Arabs is if the Byzantine had a brilliant general at that time that could have used the limited resources and win, but unfortunately for them they didn't have one at that time.

People people I find always amusing the way people like to glorify the Muslims at that time. Lets start that the Muslims weren't that scientifically progressed compared to the Roman empire before it's demise. they were merely copycats. Who had enough Brain to translate and absorb all the ideas that they conquered. All of "their" ideas are merely Greek and Sassanid inventions that they took from the territory's they conquered something that the Europeans failed to do. Just a little example of that is the numbers that we use today "1,2,3,4,5,6..." called Arab numbers which are actually were invented by the Indus. So why are they called the Arab numbers??? well because the Europe didn't had a connection to India but the Arabs did. So they just took some good Ideas from the Chinese (which they had also a border with) some from Europe Some from India and some they just "inhered" from the Empires they Destroyed. Oh and about Christians converting to Islam because of Orthodox oppression please ! I agree there was some, but that wasn't the reason for the "conversation of Christians into Islam". I don't really want to get into this but her are some interesting facts. In Persia where most of the population was Zoroastrians was forced gradually and by laws and persecution to convert or die. and if you don't believe me read it yourself. Persecution of Zoroastrians Need more proof ?! well what about Egypt one of the cradles of Christianity. A quot from Wikipedia. This passage reminds me of something familiar, a yes Europe. Hope didn't offend anyone...I'm saying that other religions have clean hands, but lets be honest here The Decline of Eastern Christianity wasn't due to it's ideological problems but because they just lost the war (Byzantine) and that was for 3 major reasons 1) Bad Generals 2) Low moral 3) low resources. and all because of a 40 year war with the Sassanid empire which exhausted both empires and permitted the rise of the Muslim Empire.