Lost_Warrior

That's a shame. Worth looking into though. (I don't have access to any neat things like JSTOR lol)

Nephele~ I hadn't thought about superstition involved. (It sounds like Pliny had quite a few grouchy women in his life! ) I wonder, would there be anything in the Roman medical texts?

GO somehow I managed to forget about the Vestals...I'm not sure HOW, mind you, it should have been obvious, lol. I don't think the Vestals were really a "mystery cult" though...they were part of the "state religion" weren't they? And it seems as if they were pretty "out in the open". Ursus I had not known about Bona Dea. Rather, I had heard of it, but not much else. Is there any more information available about this particular cult?

OK, I know there were plenty of men's mystery cults (Mithraism springs immediately to mind) but what about the women? Were there any womens' mystery cults? If not, why not? I would expect that women would not be as "free" to have mystery cults as the men would...due to their position in society. But did it happen all the same?

I haven't seen any mention of this anywhere...today we have all sorts of products, pills and gizmos to deal with "that time of the month"...but what did Roman women do? Surely they were expected to carry on the day-to-day activities required of them, despite any discomfort they might be feeling. So how did they deal?

Purely academic, of course. I do not know. She did not site a source...It's not an academic forum, and that wasn't the topic of discussion so her comment wasn't really questioned by anyone. I can find out if you like (I'm still trying to get her to join *pokes Illgrace*)

Thanks Nephele!! I do!! And I have my eyes on a lab alex ring from Kay Jewelers. I'm hoping not-so-secretly for an after-Christmas sale. I love alex...I have 2 lab alexandrites (I had three, but sadly I lost my best one...it fell out of my necklace and I surely hope to find it but right now I don't think I will. )

Hey Ludovicus!! Nice to have you back!!! I am in agreement with you here, Nephele. Considering how different the Roman attitude towards sex was from our own, it seems perfectly logical within that context that there would be a lot of sex with the slaves. It was not only accepted, but EXPECTED, it would seem. I love this analogy.

My Christmas was alright, nothing spectacular, I hardly realized it was Christmas. We did all our Christmas stuff early, so...

I LOVE MY DREMMEL!!!! Random blue stone lying around the house, seed, silver, and rainbow obsidian beads. My new natural alexandrite ring: (sunlight) (incandescent light) I'm just taking it easy today. I have had three panic attacks in the past two days, and I'm trying to relax, and get this under control before I have to go back to work tomorrow. I'm somewhere in between "keep myself occupied" and "don't do anything stressful" and hoping for a good day. Merry Christmas everyone!!!

This came up in a discussion on another forum, and I thought it would do well for discussion here: So, is there any ancient source for how much young male "boy toys" were anything other than "arm candy"? Is there anything to suggest that they WERE just "show"?

I won't scan one but I'll upload one. Not sure how well it would scan LOL. I'll take some pictures tomorrow. My scanner/printer is being a bugger today. Guess she doesn't like the holidays.

Well, the Celts had plenty of women amongst their ranks. The most famous I can think of is Queen Boadica. I can't imagine that at some point, a woman didn't sneak into the legions disguised as a man. I'm sure it happened. I don't know if it's recorded as happening or not, but I'm sure the temptation was there and there must have been tomboys back then too.

We did all our Christmas stuff Friday, and yesterday. I have a 4 day weekend, so mom figured I might as well have my stuff so that I can use it on my days off. She gave me a dremmel (well...similar thing) which I am going to have a ton of fun with. I have a bunch of stones in various states of tumbled, polished and unpolished, and I have plans for them! I made one thing yesterday, a beautiful piece of Montana agate with a gold sunrise etched on it...for Cernnunnos in honor of Yule. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that my Polychromos colored pencils work on stone!!! WHOOT!! The possibilities are truly endless. There is a piece of moss agate upstairs awaiting it's fate to become my newest piece of bindrune work. I also got some Artclay, and an electric shaver (which is something I really wanted...yay no more bathtub acrobatics to shave my legs!). My favorite thing, though, is a natural alexandrite ring. I knew I was getting it, for months, actually, because it's impossible to keep a secret from me for long; but I can't believe my mom found one that CLEAR. There is a tiny flaw in it...which I haven't seen but others have...which can only be seen under very high (11x or so) magnification. So it IS real. But wow. Merry Christmas everyone!!

You too GO.

Hm...I trust the pilot of the airplane knows where he's going better than I would.

They were cows GO, I saw them lying along the road. I do like it here...though I really want to go to Ireland at some point.

I don't think the whales would like it here; they don't move well across land you see.

I'm not usually the superstitious type, but dead cows in the road at 5.30 AM are a bad omen. An overturned cattle hauler turned my 15 minute morning drive into an hour and 45 minutes, during which I got lost, and went I don't know how many miles out of my way. Fortunately, my boss and supervisor both thought it was hilarious. When I got there they asked me if I needed a map to get to the other side of the shop. "Can you find your way to the Robodrill?" "Better paint some arrows on the floor for her Joe". Yea sure. When the fire chief says "Funny you should want to come through here" you know it's not good. I have used up my sanity quota for the day. If you want sanity, leave your name and number. There is a waiting list.

Thanks Nephele!!!

Did the legions train on holidays? Were there certain festival days (Saturnalia for instance) when they did not train, or had lighter duties? If they did not "have off" how did the recognize the holidays? Was there any special thing they did, or was it "just another day"?

I completed another bindrune pendant--this one goes on the rear view mirror of my car, for protection during travel. It was inspired by a rather harrowing journey home from work last Thursday. It's snowing again, GRRRR. Snow and ice. *Knock on wood* the power did not go out. We thought it would, with all of the ICE and snow. I hope to hell I can get to work safely tomorrow, or that it's bad enough that I can call off...because I nearly didn't make it into work Friday morning. Oh, the roads were fine, but I was spinning my wheels (and burning rubber) trying to get into the parking lot. Of course I had to give Chuck hell because after I FINALLY got in (on the 7th or 8th try), went inside and started work, THEN Chuck grabbed the snow shovel and went outside. I said "Oh, sure Chuck, NOW you decide to shovel the parking lot! After I had to try 8 times to get in!!!" I don't think I'll be visiting my family for Christmas...the weather up here is too unpredictable and it's been storming a LOT...like, every weekend. I don't want to drive 200 miles in this s***.

My objection (other than the fact that I do NOT believe that this country stands "for liberty and justice for all"...) was that I consider something of that nature...worded that way in particular to be a VERY SERIOUS thing to say. Not something to be taken lightly...and had I been encouraged to think about what it was that I was saying, I would have given it a lot more thought. But, I said it without knowing what it was I was saying, for years, before I had the experience to understand that it should be something that is taken seriously. I had basically been pledging to uphold *something* without knowing what it was that I was pledging to uphold; and when I came to understand what, exactly that meant, to me it meant that I had some sort of obligation to uphold what I had previously pledged. My objections aren't to the pledge itself, exactly, they are to the fact that children are encouraged (or, when my mom and grandmom were in school, *forced*) to pledge something without any real knowledge of WHAT they are pledging.

**grins** I got along well in school, much to others' dismay, at times, because I refused to be "manufactured" into a human sheep. I lucked out, and for the most part got teachers who WANTED me to think independently and encouraged me to "break the mold". I don't think that those teachers were representative of the views and intents of the school system in general however. When I was quite young, they *tried* to make me "fit" and when I refused, they had no choice but to deal with me. The example that comes to mind of the schools' "indoctrination" at this point in time is the Pledge of Allegiance. Now, I have absolutely no problem with saying the Pledge of Allegiance in school (and, let it be known, I have no problem with the words "under God" even though I am not Christian). However, I do have a HUGE problem with the fact that children are taught, from kindergarten on, to say the Pledge every day at the start of school. They are taught to say it, without being taught what it means (I had been saying it for a full six or seven years before I was taught what it meant.) They are also taught to say it without, for the most part, being informed that they have a right NOT to say it. For those of you not in the States who are unfamiliar with the Pledge it goes like this: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands One Nation, under God With Liberty and Justice for all." Now, if you choose to say it, and know what it means, more power to ya! However, when I was old enough to understand, and finally had it explained to me WHAT exactly I had been pledging for 6+ years, I was PISSED. Because, let it also be know, I do not take oaths and pledges lightly...I had been taught to parrot this particular pledge from a very young age...taught that it was "the thing to do"...and ostracized by the other children if I did not say it (I had a habit of just mouthing the words). If I had thought about it, in my younger years, I would not have said it at all. Not only do I think that I oughtn't have said it in my younger years, but I don't think ANYONE should be saying it unless they have a pretty good understanding of what they are saying. (and that concludes my rant for the day.)

I have heard that charcoal was used to brush one's teeth. I don't know if that's true for Rome or not, but I believe it was done in the tropics.