guidoLaMoto

Not to belabor the point, but pemphigoid is rare enough, but even more rare under the age of 60, and always associated with some other, usually debilitating condition. Leishmaniasis is another infectious dermatitis causing ulcerations which could get infested secondarily with maggots. It's a protozoal parasite spread by the sandfly-- that fits Sulla's situation. When you hear hoof beats coming down the road, it's probably a horse and not a zebra (unless you're in sub-Saharan Africa). The most likely situation is that Sulla had a nasty, pruritic allergy, scratched himself raw and the open sores got infested.., Pemphigus occurs in 1 in 500,000 people; pemphigoid in 1 in 50,000; leishmaniasis in 1 in 1000 (but very rare in industrialized nations) allergic dermatitis 1 in 5.....I'm putting my money on allergic dermatitis.

Interesting old thread-- To summarize Plutarch- Sulla had a generalized skin condition that seemed to start as a severe red rash, became ulcerated and the open sores became infested with worms... Any skin ulcerstions, given the conditions of hygiene of an ancient military operation, would be susceptible to infestation by flies\maggots. It seemed to have started with a severe sunburn....probably that just meant a generalized red rash or a blistering skin condition that looked like a sunburn. Pemphigus (cleverly mentioned above) is a blistering condition that covers large areas of skin, but was fatal within a year in 90% of cases without modern treatment....."Red Man Syndrome," a form of lymphoma affecting the skin is very itchy leading to destructive scratching and then infestation, is another uncommon possibility, and has a longer course. Plutarch also mentions "ulcerstion of the bowels" Who knows what he means? Celiac disease is quite common and can show Dermatitis Herpetiformis, although pruritus severe enough to cause generalized ulcerstion is not typical. Any allergic dermatitis would cause redness, pruritis, scratching and open sores. A severe allergy to wool garments may be the most likely explanation. Secondary syphylis causes odd rashes, but not usually pruritic. It does not seem to be described in Europe prior to 1500AD...(Consorting with harpists and transvestites is bad enough, but MIMES? Sulla, how could you sink so low?)

--did some minor research: This site gives numerous examples from the lit (without giving reference info) for dictionary entries- https://www.online-latin-dictionary.com/latin-english-dictionary.php?parola=Imperium. As you can see, the vast majority for the word as I described above. A few refer to "sub imperio populi Romani"- under the command or domination of the roman people. The term Imperium Romanorum is listed, but according to Wiki- it's a term used in the Charlemagne era referring to plans to restore the Roman Empire-- Renovatio imperii Romanorum. Don't forget that we're walking about a millennium of language (not to mention, political) evolution.....I wonder if troubadors of the Dark Ages went thru a phase where "mala" meant "bona?"....Dona mihi alta cinque! ...Aliquis?

The author must have a lot of time on his hands. I can't comment on the Greek, but for Latin, he could have summarized his examples to make some sense to the article-- adjectives take case endings to match the noun they modify. Verbs take endings to match their subjects.....and whether the singular or plural is used may not follow rules of grammar but may be idiomatic.....and context may help solve the riddle. Cf- in English, we can wear a pair of pants, but who has ever put on a single pant?.....or "to re-iterate" is to repeat yourself once, but in math, "to iterate" is to repeat a calculation over and over again....WUWT?

The ancients were apparently big on the dative of possession-. We don't have that construction in English, so I have trouble dealing with it....Ecclesiastical Latin doesn't seem to use it, as I recall, so I would go with "meam "....If you use mihi it could also translate "light the way for me." I was joking about The Saints. I figure God must have a good sense of humor-- Have you ever watched people at Walmart?

Welcome, John,.....Thanks for bumping this old thread up and into our attention. You make some interesting points about the later years. I'm not sure the ancient Romans even referred to their empire by a name.....Many English words are obviously derived from Latin counterparts but have different meanings in the two languages (eg- in English, family refers to a group of blood relatives, but Latin familia is better translated as "household"- referring to not only blood relatives but also servants/employees living in the villa/domus/farm.)..... Our "empire" is derived from imperium, but imperium is better translated as "power." Eg- a dux assumes the power or command of an army and is called imperator by the soldiers.....or a consul takes office and assumes the imperium. The Romans had names for geographic entities (Italia, Britania, etc, but did they have a concept of "country" as we do today? I doubt they used the term Imperium Romanorum (empire of the Romans)....Maybe they used the term Imperium Romanum (Roman Empire)....As mentioned above, SPQR was more of a trademark used on public works and documents. BTW-- in regards the formality of the toga-- remember the episode when the delegation of senators crossed the Tiber to seek out Cincinnatus on his farm to recruit him as dictator. They found him in a dirty tunic digging ditches and told him to go into the house to put on his toga so they could conduct official business.... ...The toga was the business suit of its day and Suetonius says they were always wet and soiled from walking Rome's filthy streets ....Candidates for office wore the toga bleached white (toga candida) to signify their candidacy. (I work in the Dept. of The Office of Redundancy Dept )

Why a surprise? Estimates are that maybe up to 30% of the Roman population was foreign born slaves..... ...and why pander to the LBGTQ crowd?....We can deduce from authors such as Catullus that homosexuality was politely "accepted" with a nod and a wink just as it is by most today. ..Just because two people, one of whom is a male, happen to suddenly drop dead due to a poisoned air supply and fall in close proximity to each other doesn't make the odds very great that they were lovers--> the odds are 0.5 that the second guy is male and 0.005 that he is gay. That calculates to odds that this is a gay couple about 0.00025....25 out of 100,000.....With the population of Pompeii somewhere greater than 10,000 at the time, we would expect at least a handful of gay couples.

After further cogitation, I thought maybe it would be a tad presumptuous to make a demand (imperative mode) of a saint, so maybe the more supplicative mode (subjunctive) would be in order-- illumines viam meam (may you light my way)-- but then I recalled my youth-- "Ave Maria......ora pro nobis peccatoribus....." The imperative is used there. (I'm so old, we didn't have History Class in school, only Current Events.) So your translation is good. When begging a favor, I always pray to the lesser known saints. I figure they're not very busy and would appreciate the attention.

Optime!......Hoc verum est.....although an ancient Roman may have used the dative of possession- mihi- instead of meam.

I wonder if he refused to play on Jewish holidays like Sandy Koufax did 1900 yrs later? That helmet is remarkably well preserved snd so ornate- almost like it's intended for ceremonial, not utilitarian purposes.

One has to wonder how much the German air raids were intended not so much for strategic purposes to soften British air power, but for psychological pressure hoping to induce a surrender without need for a costly invasion? I have to second Guy's praise of The Greatest Generation. If he failed German class and they had won, they would be giving orders he couldn't understand......I like to point out that if we Yanks hadn't won our war for independence, we'd all still be mumbling British like Nigel Bruce. Pip pip and eh whot?

Interesting supplemental references. Thanks.....I only read the abstract of the pdf on psych factors involved in spectator sports. I had to laugh. It seems the author is over thinking a simple situation in order to show off his command of four cylinder words. "It's fun and they like the vicarious experience," would have sufficed. Augustus is known to have provided for the large naumachia mentioned on an artificial lake located across the river from the Campus Martius. IIRC, in Res Gestae he states that biremmes & triremmes were used. Given that the arena of the Colosseo is only about 80m x 50m (smaller than a football field) any naval battle staged there must have been with canoes. As far as the pollice verso thing goes, one can easily imagine it to mean "slice the throat," as the gesture still signifies today.

It's no secret that 95% of drugs available today were discovered in or derived from chemicals made by plants....but I wonder how much Yew tree bark a woman would have to chew to cure her breast cancer....or what the other 50,000 chemicals in the bark would be doing to her?

Amazing......There are rare examples of other ancient seeds able to have been germinated after thousands of years. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_viable_seed. Apparently it's an often repeated myth that grain seeds from the Pyramids have been germinated. Somewhat related, Moses' original Burning Bush is supposedly still alive and doing well at St Catherine's monastery in Sinai. The monastery is only 1700 y/o, so the bush was already 1600y/o when the place was built. I wonder if they have have to pay extra for fire insurance? https://madainproject.com/burning_bush_of_saint_catherine_monastery#google_vignette

-- brings to mind some American sports history.....In college (American) football, Harvard and Yale have their annual "big game,' a rivalry dating back a century (a long time here)....Around 1965, Yale had an unusually good, undefeated team and Harvard an unusually bad team. Harvard had little hope of making a good showing, but, miraculously achieved a tie score at the end of the game, ruining Yale's shot at a perfect season....The next morning, the head lines in the Harvard daily newspaper read "Harvard Wins 0 - 0!