Novosedoff

This is a good view. Take for instance France. It was once inhabitted by Gauls, then an inflow of Franks moved in, while Franks were a Germanic tribe. But the French language is considered to be a Latin-group language, not the German one

in Russia the derogatory term for British is actually "Anglic" or "Angliki" (plural) 🙂 But we don't differentiate here between English, Scots or Welsh. It's like to British anyone coming from Russia is doomed to be a Russian, though we have 160 ethnic minorities here with 40 local languages from 14 different language families. Anyone from the US would be called an "Amer" in Russia (a derogatory term mostly used in the slang), the other one is "pindos" (a very rude word)

The first map is interesting because I didn't know that there were so many Mithraic sites uncovered. Is there any description for each tag? I wonder what is the meaning of different colors (red, blue, yellow) of all those tags on the map? The reason why I decided to bring up the issue of Mithraic sites is because the religion is often considered as rival to the Christianity. While we all know that the later proliferated mostly in the Eastern parts of the empire (with the exception of Rome) from the very first decades since its emergence. When we recall the Seven churches of Asia (from the Book of Revelation, which, as some folks say, is likely to be one of the earliest survived Christian documents), all of them were located in Anatolia. The context of Mithaic and Christian myths is so close as if the later was copying everything from the first one (see below attachment) Although, as we know it today, Mithraism was known in Syria from the earlier ages (Syria is adjacent to Anatolia), it appears from the above map that there are not many Mithraic sites uncovered in Anatolia. One possible explanation for this is that such sites in Anatolia were destroyed by Christian crackers later. But then the natural question comes up: why didn't the same crackers reach out for Mithraic sites in Germany to bring them down as well? We can also ask ourselves how come that the cult of Asian god Mithra became so widespread among the Roman legions stationed along the northern border of the empire in Germany? Who were the people who served there? From where were they recruited? Could it be that the Syrian legionaries were fighting German barbarians circa 100 CE?

This is a famous Russian ballad dedicated to a post-Roman outpost. It says that the life's truth is hidden from us, so the only choice we have is to play dices with our destiny as proven by Greek philosophy and uncovered antiques.

Yeah, the story of Pompey defeating the pirates of the Mediterranean who worshipped Mithras is well known. The curious thing, however, is that the majority of the Roman mithraeums the existence of which would be known to us today were actually constructed around 100 CE, i.e. 150 years after Pompey. There was an interesting paper in English by a Czech researcher not long ago. I attach 2 pages from it, which I find most interesting (I tend to collect things like that for quick reference) As can be seen, most of the discoveries were made in Germany, which is kinda curious because the cult is obviously Asian.

Isis is obviously not Greek, but Egyptian. Mithra ain't Greek too 🙂

Well, this is what I thought too 🙂 till I came across the following wiki article in English (the corresponding wiki article in Russian says nothing like this at all): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmidons To make it more clear, these are the folks we talk about (from the movie): The interesting thing about Achilles is that some sources claim that his ashes were buried on the Island of Leuke in the Black sea (also known as the White island or Snake island - it was in the news highlights not long ago when Russian troops landed on it). There used to be a temple on the island dedicated to Achilles. His cult was somehow related to snakes, and he was considered as Snake-god (or naga) - does this remind you of the Dagon cult in Mesopotamia, or Vishnu's first avatar - Matsya? https://www.academia.edu/7893227/The_Temple_of_Achilles_on_the_Island_of_Leuke_in_the_Black_Sea_Ancient_Civilizations_from_Scythia_to_Siberia._Leiden_2003._9_1_2._Р._1_16 PS. Btw Myrmidons translates from Greek as Ants (insects), the word clearly bears some similarity with the proto-Slavic tribe of Antes but this must be a pure linguistic coincidence, I suppose.

Has anybody around here read it? 🙂

Wouldn't it be easier to stay private on Facebook and not allow anyone beyond your circle to view your profile or comment on the stuff that you post? I mean, there are too many idiots in the world in order to take seriously every post you can come across on Facebook, while the number of freaks is known to be especially high amongst any religious followers ☺️

While it's worth checking also the following more general link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Taxation_in_ancient_Rome

It is quite interesting to notice that the same Praetorian guards seemingly had the direct relation not only to the Mithraic cult, but apparently also to the very foundations of the "official" Christian religion (see attached 2 pages from an old book by a Britishman). Although when we recall the fact that the Praetorians bodyguarded Roman emperors and reported to them on all matters of interest, while Roman emperors would normally also take the chief religious position of the Pontifex Maximus, such involvement of Praetorians in all religious cults would seem quite natural. If Praetorians even managed to get their names recorded in the very early Christian documents (like Acts of the Apostles etc), we can imagine the degree of their influence in shaping the future world #1 religion.

I dunno if the below wiki-article can be of any help for searching relevant references for further reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_taxes

The other one that came to my mind is Albucilla whose treason was apparently one of the reasons why Pontius Pilate's relative, Pontius Fregellanus, lost his senator's rank (while Pontius Pilate himself lost his governship of Judeah about the same time - all this happened 5-6 years following the other treason by all-mighty Sejanus, who ruled Roman politics in the absence of Tiberius in Rome and was apparently the main driver for raising Pontius family members to high imperial positions, because before Pilate and Fregellanus no other members of the same Pontia gens had ever been known to occupy such positions)

There must have been many stories about wives cheating on their wealthy husbands in the Roman history too 🙂

Russian trio, Ivan Smirnov with 2 his sons playing Flamenco 🙂

Spanish culture is terrific. I also fell in love with the Spanish cinematography. Spanish movies always have that stripe of mystery inside as their defining characteristic. Spanish music production also has some hidden gems. In particular, I refer to the works of Mexican composer J.L.F.Ledesma (esp. in collaboration with Margarita Botello), which are also somewhat reminiscent of the old British band Gryphon

I am in the mood for something heavier today

Some contemporary Canadian stuff

The Pantheon, where some of the senatorial meetings were held under the emperor Hadrian, must have been the main inspiration for the famous painting by Cesare Maccari, namely, Cicero Denounces Catiline. The problem however was that at the time of both Cicero and Catiline (64-62 BC) the Senate's meetings were held not in the round buildings. Curia Hostilia had the rectangular basement as well as the later Curia Cornelia (starting from 52 BC) and survived Curia Julia (from 44 BC). The semicircle Roman Comitium was under the open sky. Sometimes Russian students are asked this question in the exams: what's wrong with the painting?

Well, here is another shot that illustrates the same idea..