Valka D'Ur

Welcome! There is so much to learn about Roman history that we never stop learning.

Thank you.

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My grandfather's first language was Swedish, and he said that to really be fluent in a language, you have to be able to think in it. I can read French, but I can't think fast enough in it to be able to carry on a decent conversation (not to mention my accent isn't great, either).

I'm in Western Canada, in a mid-sized city. I went to a public college (not faith-based). The only languages offered at my high school and college were French and German. To this day I cannot fathom what practical use anyone ever made of German. It's my understanding that more languages are offered now (Japanese and Mandarin). Latin still isn't on the list, though, at least not that I'm aware. French is useful for a variety of reasons, the first one being that we have bilingual packaging on nearly everything that's sold here. Chances are that if you pick something up to read the label, you'll accidentally turn the French side out, and it's less stressful if it doesn't matter because you can read it anyway.

Welcome. This may sound odd, but I envy the people here who had the opportunity to take Latin. It wasn't offered in any of the schools or the college I attended. I've met people who tell me I'm lucky I never had to take it, but in my experience learning a language is a different experience if you do it for fun, rather than because you have to (French, in my case).

Welcome! I've been interested in Roman history since watching I, Claudius back in the '70s. Rome was entertaining, but they omitted a very important character (Scribonia, who was Octavian's wife before he married Livia, and who was the mother of Octavian's daughter, Julia). Omitting her would have made it impossible to continue the series in any meaningful way (can't have Emperors Caligula or Nero if you omit the ancestor who made their existence possible). If you like murder mysteries, I can't recommend Lindsay Davis' novels enough. Marcus Didius Falco is an 'informer' (we'd call him a private investigator) who stumbles into some of the most bizarre murder mysteries, and sometimes this means the guilty party is closely connected to the Emperor (Vespasian) and/or some prominent senators.

Welcome! I enjoy Roman historical novels (though not the one I read recently; the author has problems when two of the protagonists are such awful people that the reader can't wait until the last chapter or two when they die).

Welcome!

This seems an odd point of view on a Roman history forum. Doesn't participation here assume that we all have at least some interest in the Latin language? I have a bilingual book of poetry where one side has the poem in Latin and the other side is in English. I want to learn to read Latin without needing translations. As for who I would talk to... you never know when someone in a time machine will materialize in your living room and offer you the opportunity of a lifetime. I'd go. And on that note, if anyone is a fan of both Stargate and I, Claudius, I found a fanfiction story that combines both. It's a good read.

Welcome! It's not as active as it used to be, but there are still some of us around.

I've taken a quick look at the website and there are several topics that would be interesting (I got a bit sidetracked by the "sci-phi" course (science fiction and philosophy, which is very much on my mind these days due to the Dune movie coming out later this year). I will look the Latin course over in more detail, as the drawback of learning from books is that it's not very helpful in teaching correct pronunciation. Thank you for the recommendation!

I once received an odd look from someone in a bookstore some years ago, when he saw that I intended to purchase several books on learning Latin. He assumed they were for a university course and was surprised - very surprised - when I told him I was buying them because I wanted to learn to read Latin, and was not taking any university courses. When he asked why I would do this if I didn't have to, I told him, "For fun. " He went away, shaking his head, thinking I was a very strange person. I haven't made much progress in the years since then, but the books are still in my personal library, waiting for the time when I decide to get on with this. In the meantime, I was able to take a classical history course at the local college, and am definitely in agreement with the instructor's announcement on the first day: "History is FUN!" I suppose Latin is not fun if students are forced to take it. But I intend to have fun when I finally get around to working on it.

I'm relieved to see that some forums are still Invision. That said, this one is not very intuitive to navigate. I had trouble finding my own account. What a shame the old Invision smileys aren't around anymore.

Wow, some of these threads haven't been used in years! But since I'm here, I might as well answer. My name here is one I use on a gaming forum. My avatar was cropped from a lolcat picture. The cat is wearing a toga and laurel wreath. His name is Clawdius.

Strange that this was posted on November 25, but I'm only getting it today (December 2)...? Anyway, best of luck to you, Viggen.

Regarding the comment above about the Romans being "Godless"... no, they weren't. In fact, they had quite a lot of gods and goddesses. Pantheism isn't so common in our modern world, but it was part of the Roman world for many centuries. It's as much a valid expression of religious thought as any other.

I find it hard to accept that Agrippina would have been involved in this. I've never seen any historian give the impression that Germanicus was a bad husband or father, and can't imagine what she would have sought to gain from his death.

Is there any way to have a similar arrangement with Amazon.ca (Canada)?

And then we have modern speakers who, based on how most of us pronounce "Caesar," would pronounce it "see-lis."

I came across this regularly years ago when I was learning about blogs and searching for templates.

Hello! I'm curious; do you teach Roman history? I took an introductory course in the early '90s, and the instructor was upfront that some students became upset when he got around to discussing the Crucifixion. In our class, two students walked out in the middle of a lecture. Have you ever had difficulties like that? My instructor was being entirely factual, no bias whatsoever.

I don't watch movies in the theatre, so if this gets made I wouldn't see it until it became available on TV or Netflix. I'm quite content with the Charlton Heston version. I have my doubts that any modern production could pull off a chariot race anywhere near as mesmerizing as the original.

Pagan Holiday: On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists received a rather scathing review on Amazon. Apparently most of it isn't really historically accurate, and the material that is, consists of things that most Roman history buffs already know.

There's not a lot about the movie "Gladiator" that is historically accurate.