Northern Neil

Who better than the man himself? His own book is as readable now as it was in the 4th century! Click the link to see. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Later-Roman-Empire...7205&sr=8-1

Being of French descent myself, I have some sympathy with the French MP who brought this up. Although English is my first language, I feel uneasy about its steady seepage into other languages. I do not like monopolies in any facet of life, as they tend to displace smaller competitors, resulting in cultural impoverishment.

I heard that when New Orleans got flooded, three plane loads of Scousers (Liverpool inhabitants) immediately flew out there. They wanted to help with the looting...

I dont usually laugh at vandalism, but this made me smile: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/7335696.stm

Does the melting of the ice from 14'000 BC - 8'000 BC count?

I forgot to mention: I came off night shift an hour ago and plan to hit the sack in a couple of hours! So really, its night - time for me!

How about this? its 08.49, and I am drinking a bottle of cider whilst browsing this forum and eating black puddings!

whether or not China should have been given the games is a very difficult question to answer, given that most of us on this forum live in countries whose governments themselves have cases to answer vis-a-vis the human rights debate. One thing is clear: Had China NOT been given the games, the free Tibet movement would not have been in the news over the past few weeks, and the Chinese human rights record would not be under the scrutiny it is at present. Many people are now aware of China's annexation of Tibet in 1949, who were not aware of it a few weeks ago. It is not the fault of the individual athletes that China have been awarded the games, so they should not be called to account by the protesters. But, I salute the protesters all the same - China made efforts to get the games for utterly pragmatic and political reasons, so in this instance, yes, politics and sport should mix. Personally, I think the Chinese have been made to look real fools, and they should have expected a fiasco to have been made out of the torch - carrying relay. The only thing that really gets me stirred up (apart from their continued occupation of Tibet itself) is the sight of Chinese paramilitary thugs parading through MY capital city, manhandling MY fellow citizens, and our elected government doing not one thing to prevent it. Long may the business and trading interests of democratic governments have priority over the rights of their citizens, and the dignity of the nations they govern.

I once heard a rumour that Caesar might have been Brutus' father. Are we to dismiss this as wild speculation? Forgive the very elementary question, but I spend most of my time looking at books to do with Roman engineering and building, and rarely read material on individual figures.

For years now, I have made my food purely from ingredients, and refuse to buy anything from a packet, or which is more than two steps away from being either dug up or shot. In otherwords, I dont eat processed food. This is borne out of a desire primarily to know exactly what I am eating, with health being a secondary (albeit beneficial) side effect. I also save a fat pile of cash by so doing, as well (and I WASH my salad leaves, Kosmo! ). Butter is, to me, a fairly pure product, whereas margarine is a largely synthetic blend of hydrogenated vegetable oils and a broth of stabilising and gumming agents. Not for me! Everyone now knows the risks and benefits of eating various foods, and I think the government should not get involved. We have a growing problem with obesity and ill health in the UK, and parents know fine well they are stuffing their children with poor quality, expensive processed rubbish. So let them do it - The alternatives are there if they choose to take them.

...or just do as I do, and have my entire house just to myself!!

Christianity?

Sometimes Christians act with remarkble arrogance towards each other - even today, some catholics call non - catholic christians 'heathens' (pretty odd, as they all seem to believe the same thing, from my standpoint..). So, could it be that, in typical arrogant and righteous fashion, Augustines 'pagans' who he came to baptise were anyone in Britain who didn't tow the line from the Church of Rome, which would include Celtic Christians, Pagans, and whatever else was in Britain at the time? Also, getting back to the question of the invasions and their impact on the population, if I remember correctly, didn't Augustine come across some Angles who were slaves - hence his highly intellectual play on words when he said 'No - they are angels'? Why are the Angles a subject people when a century before this they are alleged to be overunning vast areas of lowland britain, with the native population fleeing before them?

The world is full of people who mine archaeological sites for personal gain, or for profit. My own personal experience with the predations of metal detector enthusiasts on British Roman sites has given me an (admittedly) extreme - and perhaps over zealous - aversion to acquiring even the smallest of ancient artifacts for personal, private use. I own a single Roman coin which I bought off a dealer decades ago, and now wish fervently that I had not bought it. No doubt the spoils of this vandalism will find their way on to various internet auction sites, pedalled by 'legitimate' dealers who - even though they may not plunder the sites themselves - are certainly in receipt of items gained in the manner mentioned in this report.

If Belgae were present in Ireland, it was not in large enough numbers to appear in the historical record. As stated already, the people of Ireland, Brittany, Wales and western Gaul are described in ancient sources as being quite dissimilar in many ways to lowland Brits, including the Belgae. The religious question you raise does expose a gap in these theories. It could be explained away by stating that the Anglian invasions were only a small military elite who remained pagan; conversely it could be said that paganism was still very common in Britain in the late 4th century, as shown by freshly laid mosaics of Orpheus, and a relative lack of Christian material compared to mainland Europe. It could also be said that Augustine came to England in the 6th century to convert Pagans, which is well documented, but it is not stated categorically that there were no christians already there. Maybe he came to convert this ruling elite which had reduced the existing christian population to vassalage? However, I do acknowledge this point which appears to run contrary to the theories under discussion, and would like to see how Oppenheimer et al explain this.

When I referred to Caesar with respect to a personality disorder I was, of course, aware that this personality disorder classification is modern in origin, and that people with this disorder - in our time and in our society- can be very destructive people. The personality disorder type I ascribed to Caesar is a convenient label whose parameters roughly define Caesar's personality, in as much as ancient writings can be used to guage his personality at all. However, I am aware that in the time and circumstances Caesar lived, these same personality traits may not have been seen to be negative or destructive at all - and if they were, then the sentiment was political, rather than medical / psychological. For what its worth, I believe Caesar was an immense big -head (Narcissistic personality disorder, if you like) who caused a lot of inconvenience and suffering to a great many people to feather his own nest. He also was instrumental in forging the world we live in, and wrote books which we can still read today. I am not a psychiatrist, merely a practitioner of psychiatric nursing so I do not have much academic weight to throw behind my hypothesis regarding Caesar's personality. I know very little about Sulla, and I will endeavour to make good this knowledge deficit. From what I have read in Tom Holland's 'Rubicon' he seems, at first glance, to be more of a Robert Maxwell / Rupert Murdoch character, rather than a psychopath. In otherwords, a ruthless power - mad magnate with money to back up his actions. But unlike Caesar, I believe he was fully aware of his motives, in touch with his ordinary humanity and also aware of his limitations - altogether a more rational person than Caesar by far.

..However, one of the main thrusts of this research is that Belgae and some Gauls precisely didnt share a common culture with people we now call Celts - they shared a common culture with the Germans, Angles, Jutes, Saxons etc. Caesar states quite clearly that the (lowland) Britons, Northen Gauls and Germans were very similar, although Western Gauls were quite different. Tacitus states that the Western Britons were quite different from the lowland Britons. This fits in very well with the genetic and linguistic evidence that 'England' has been germanic a heck of a lot longer than 1500 years.

Alas, the spoilsports at Euromint have at last responded to the hilarity these coins cause, and have treacherously added Norway to the 'Euro - goolies', thus spoiling the joke forever. Here is a newly minted example dated 2007:

He could become a 'camp prefect' which was second in command to a legate, and outranked the military tribunes. I think though that NCO is not quite the correct term for a centurion; a low ranking one commanded the same amount of troops as a modern captain, a cohort centurion roughly equates to major, and a Primus Pilus had a command on a par with a colonel. Even the optio had the responsibility a modern lieuftenant exercises. The NCOs were the Immunis, tesserarius and signifer - if my shaky memory serves me correctly.

Great - you must tell me what you think of it. I thought it was a good summary of the state of the Empire during the Golden Age.

VICTORY TO OBAMA! McCain is a cold war relic, and Hilary lies through her teeth. A very simplistic view based on what our media tell us over in blighty.

Surprisingly enough, it had the advantage of being lighter - always an advantage in close combat. That's why I am surprised the eastern legions did not readily adopt it, considering the hot climes in which they had to march and fight. Maybe it was a matter of supply? Eastern armourers probably made what they traditionally made, whereas armourers closer to Rome were more amenable to new techniques. Regarding Lorica Squamata, I believe it became more commonoplace during the later empire for two reasons: its cheapness of manufacture, and effectiveness against slashing attacks of barbarian longswords.

They had a kingdom stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea by about 200AD, and there are reports of them cheerfully torching the cities of Asia Minor throughout the third century. When pressure was put on their borders by tribes fleeing from the Huns, I think they may have in the early stages given up their lands on the Baltic and retained the more productive lands around the Black Sea as a means of damage limitation. Eventually as we all know, direct pressure from the Huns themselves made it neccessary for them to leave these lands and make them seek refuge in the Empire itself. As an interesting footnote, many of these goths were in fact descended from Roman captives taken from the Asia Minor raids of the previous century (if I had my books handy just now I could name some) and they were fluent and literate in Latin. Maybe this is the source of their grievances about not being allowed to settle in the Empire in the first instance, and afterwards only grudgingly, as second class subjects. They may have by then considered themselves part Roman, and entitled to inclusion in the Roman world.

I believe that mail (Lorica Hamata) was in almost universal use until at least the Claudian period, and even in Flavian contexts it still turns up in large amounts. The Eastern legions never fully adopted Lorica Segmentata. As I am away from home and do not have my books handy, I cannot back this up with any references - I am pretty sure it was Webster, The Roman Imperial Army, though. As Caldrail says, it may have been adopted piecemeal at various times. Question is, was it better or more useful than mail? We assume so, but what if it was cheaper to produce, and actually less desirable? Maybe our re-enactor friends can give their opinions on this.

I think a knock - on effect of Hunnish migration might be the reason for this. Regarding the homeland of the Goths, I believe that south eastern Sweden (Gotland) was the original ancestral homeland.