Onasander

http://books.google.com/books?id=nlkt2eH0x7sC&pg=PA90&lpg=PA90&dq=tacitus+sejanus&source=bl&ots=Qn3MiNdZQd&sig=HB22FHN2356UFI1jjh6_pbbmzWw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Mk-CU5SUB4SnyATEiYGwBg&ved=0CDoQ6AEwCDgK A awesome little book about how Tacitus words and presents his characters, this is going to be a book Ill buy here soon. http://books.google.com/books?id=nlkt2eH0x7sC&pg=PA90&lpg=PA90&dq=tacitus+sejanus&source=bl&ots=Qn3MiNdZQd&sig=HB22FHN2356UFI1jjh6_pbbmzWw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Mk-CU5SUB4SnyATEiYGwBg&ved=0CDoQ6AEwCDgK

http://books.google.com/books?id=bHzMYrWHjVoC&pg=PA55&lpg=PA55&dq=sejanus+conspiracy&source=bl&ots=_my8qoWSxb&sig=BgY3AnHUUeWXVBjjyEwVRNI7gBw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0UeCU-XlA5WxyAT4yoLgCw&ved=0CDsQ6AEwCDgK A google-books preview of a work "Conspiracy Theory in Latin Literature'

A difficult to read essay due to formatting issues, but worthwhile due to the arguments based on obscure characters I never seen mentioned. https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/5053/Nicols_Antonia_Sejanus.txt?sequence%5Cu003d4

Extract for Suetonius http://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/prospective-undergrads/virtual-classroom/secondary-source-exercises/sources-roman-world/suetonius-extract

Obviously, every Roman historian has their eyes on 2033, the 2000th anniversary of Jesus' death. Comming up just before it was Sejanus' execution by Emperor Tiberius for decimating his dynasty via countless intrigues, abuse of power, and plotting against him for the throne. While Sejanus takes the bulk of the blame, some elements still stick painfully to this Emperor.... his supposed sexual debauchery in his retirement that went against very fiber of his being in his other decision making. Sejanus controlled communications to Capri, it runs to reason he could do the opposite as well, as a good little manipulative Tyrant. Some aspects dont add up to my suspicions.... such as how the remainder of the dynasty up to Nero turned out so bad.... everything has to be weighed in the end, and no theory is sacrosanct.... so this list is to provide historians the possibilities in either direction. Its up to each of us in 2031 to argue the case knowing both sides. Its 17 years, so we have time to make one hell of a case either way. Only thing I know for certain is this..... there is something very odd and fishy about this story, and I am amazed with how little controversy it has been accepted the last 2000 years. A real shame we arent doing our job as history minded thinkers in not approaching the Tiberius-Sejanus riff critically. This is the start of 20 biographies from writers around the world. However divergent our views, lets be fair, and try to get to the bottom of this. I personally would like to see a reappraisal of Tiberius that leads to a historical vindication of the man, but we have to let the facts and the historical process lead us over desires. If anyone finds a link that goes against their own position, be honest enough to post it. We got 17 years to figure this one out. Pontus Pilot appointed by Sejanus, not Tiberius. http://www.xenos.org/essays/sejanus.htm

trench:http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluilian_trench I dont know of any trenches around here that lasted two centuries.... roads cut into bedrock, yeah, but not like, old trenches. For those in Europe, how have the old WW1 trenches held up? I can find old horse trails in the woods here in north America, but they are fading fast from erosion. Every fort from 200 years ago, of wood and dirt, long gone.

Alba Longa http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alba_Longa Lavinium http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavinium From my understanding so far, the Romans originally colonist who hailed from Lake Alba, and they in turn Lavinium. Is this correct, or am I getting this wrong?

When you say Cisalpine Gaul and Austria, you mean Northern Italy and Im guessing the Tyrol.... which is close to Italy and was the Northern gate into Italy... a essential corridor to break any opportunistic movements in and out of Italy by Hannibals supporters, or other hostiles.... I might be wrong about the locations, but thats pretty smart, a theater wide cordon. Its always bothered me the Romans couldnt secure their own territory from blatantly alien, fast as hell couriers sending messages to and from Hannibal while in Capua to Spain. In your opinion, how did the Romans set up their legions in the North? Did they quickly retrace and reclaim Hannibals route in the Alps, redouble patrols around Marseilles, set up a elementry coast guard near Capua to check trade, and use spies and double agents, or were they a mix of that and thick headedness (Rome Knows Best), or just completely, miserably lost and demoralized, effectively turtling? I toss and turn in my assumptions here. How effective is a supreme, Executive Unicameral Senate at setting and executing such a diverse program of strategies?

That so called victory didn't budge Persia from Greece, they stayed for a while..... I am not about to claim the Persian navy had a clue, but the Greek land forces sucked something aweful. Your too effected by Simonides propaganda. This would be like, claiming Dunkirk as a victory. It's not happening, not anymore. We had too many centuries, millennia, of this damn silliness. Greeks got their butts whooped at Thermopylae, most of the Persian army sat around undoubtedly, the Persian equivalent of the quartermaster was likely losses as all these sitting soldiers were eating his supplies..... but Athens in the end got burned. Do not be confused here. The Persians on the ground did okay in the beginning. I just can't for the hell of me figure out what their overall battlestrategy was supposed to be other than going in big and overaweing the Greeks. It suggests severe hubris and lack of understanding of the enemy. Another factor is..... the Persians might of gotten used to a formulaic path to victory in regards to the tribes of Asia Minor. A aggressive path to consolidating the tribes of Asia Minor really didn't happen until Alexander, and continued through Roman and Byzantine Times..... most people's the Persian encountered would of been nebulous nomads or scattered villages, easily suppressed in a seasonal campaign, more worth their tribute and draft power than geographical control. Considerably less civilized than other border areas. They likely thought very little of the Greeks, seeing them as much the same, just a little better organized. The overwhelming advantages of controlling much of the Mediterranean shoreline and its naval power likely made Greece seem easier than other frontiers. Had they hit Greece more Piecemeal, just seizing Islands and holding them defensively before moving over the Bospherous it would of been cheaper and would of been considerably more difficult for a serious United Greek Coalition to willingly counter. But they didn't. Reveals massive flaws in how they thought, on both sides. One thing is certain though.... Greeks lost at Thermopylae, and the Athenians likely were of high morale hearing the Persians were still conning. Anything but a Greek Victory would of came to my mind had I been a Athenian dragging a wife and child out of Athens, along a road in sheer panic and disbelief, thinking to hide in the mountains, and seeing it burn for days on the horizon. But hey.... propaganda has a selective memory. The Greeks only remember how badass they all were, how cowardly the Persians so obvious after the fact were destined for defeat. They could paint history however they wanted. You can't explain someone like Philip or Alexander the Great.... barbarians who thrived off this unifying Hellenistic propaganda as a excuse to militarize and invade Persia, without understanding that they came from OUTSIDE of the history of the Persian Wars.... they entered pedagogically into the aftermath of the Method. This would be like Mexico joining in on the current Allied invasion on D-Day celebrations, urging the US and Europe to invade China with it at the head of a coalition.... their enthusiasm would feed less on History, than the culture and possibilities underlining the rhetorical approach to history all Allied countries hold. Greeks falsely inflated themselves. The lie lead to their own conquest and subjugation, first from the Macedonians, then the Romans. Everyone learned how to partake in this fantasy. All for a few coins for Simonides, like a few coins later tossed to Judas for a similar disservice of equal magnitude.

Okay, the crab story is obviously fake, a work of perverse comedy. I sat up last night reading Tzetze and others recollect on the history of Greek comedy.... It's like the story of a guy getting to choose which room in he'll he gets to spend eternity in, and comes across a rather calm looking room where a woman is sitting in a room with a table, drinking coffee, and the only thing off with the room is its knee high in shit.... so the man said, "Oh well, compared to the other rooms, it could be worst" and agreed to spend eternity in that room. As soon as he said this, the demon escorting him said 'Okay, break time is over, back to standing on your heads'. Similar logical vein. I wouldn't trust this story as a story about Tiberius persay, but what the guys in the butchers line during Tiberius' reign would say about him when passing the time, or the old fat guys in the public baths would say day in and day out, trying to one up one another.

I have seen evidence Scipio Africanus wrote a art of war. While the main work is obviously lost and cant be easily reconstructed with confidence, what do you think his main focus in reforming the outlook of the roman military and political elite would of been, what lessons, maxims, principles would he of emphasized the most..... and do we see this carried on by later military commanders behaviorally, up to and including the far flung social wars? I thought I start you off with a easy question.

No, but I have edited works in the past..... one of my hobbies is book making, I figured out how to make books in Iraq, via ripping up the very aweful books sent free to us in Iraq.... like 50 year old romance novels no one ever touched. I saw the inside of the spines. I was also inspired by this website to do maps for a while.... on GIMP would take old maps from the library of congress maduson building, and redue the color scheme.... I couldnt shade the mountains right though.... so gave up on the idea pf doing a military atlas of history..... your stuff is better. I had talks with the local library. Im going to donate my old industrial paper cutter to the library, and get a cheap perfect bound thermo glue machine so people can start making their own books, Ill have to show him how to buy ISBNs in bulk, and do the barcode.... but other than that, with some W2 Glossy paper for the cover, and each 11 by 8.5 paper = 4 book pages, its quite easy. I also spend alot of time on the sixth floor of the san francisco library, they have a very rare rare books room dedicated to the history of book making, and also knew some historical book makers, and did security for a overly fancy french luxury store, who had a french repair guy on site to resew any damage to their silly $40,000 purses. I learned to sew leather watching him over a year.... little techniques in how you hold the needle.... So actual editing.... very simple task in comparison. Im a Cynic, we literally invented the Anthology. Its not a magical skillset, you just do it.... and you either succeed and fail, and if you fail, you do it again.

You couldn't figure out a way to make that link harder to find? Took me a while to google it: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/432549 https://m.facebook.com/thomas.a.timmes?id=1457254259&refsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fthomas.a.timmes

Sorry Viggen for the late reply. Propaganda, complements of the Ancient worlds chief propagandist: Simonides of Ceoshttp://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simonides_of_Ceos It wasnt that big of a victory, if you can even dare call it even that, for later victories made it larger than life; Simonides had the financial motive to make it so. He contracted out to the major greek cities after the war to inflate them. Sparta invaded Asia Minor on this stream. Alexander the Great's Anti-Spartan rhetorical stance as the only ones not coming along mocks the view the Spartans paid Simonides to praise themselves for.

During a dinner for guests, musicians, acrobats, poets or dancers would perform and dinner conversation played an important role. Dances were unusual, as it was considered improper and would not mix well with table manners, although during the comissatio this habit was often disregarded. To leave the table for bodily functions was considered inappropriate and restraining oneself was considered good manners. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Roman_cuisine My latin isnt good enough to tackle this.... was it just a issue of bad timing during the meal, and Tiberius got insulted/annoyed? What meal was it, and what was the dinning mores of that period, outside of Capri of course.

I was told of location of a unpublished local history of my town going back to 1771, to the first settler, and can time it being written down to one of the Apollo Moon Walks, as the author decides to write about what he is seeing on TV.... Thats great, what is not great, is he invented his own form of punctuation, he uses periods, and your standard comma, and then this round thing that has the characteristics of both at times, is used immediately next to them, and sometimes on their own, being neither period or comma, but something else altogether..... doesn't seem to improve the English language to me. He managed to do this via a typewriter as well, which is most impressive..... as I never seen this symbol before. Pages are missing.... but in impossible places, one page goes from 59, and on its backside 64.... on one piece of paper.... no place for that to get lost to.... My favorite is.... the guy thought he was a poet.... and threw a collection of bad poems in. So, some sort of obligation on my part makes me want to add a appendix.... but who could ever want to read some west virginian farmer and steel worker ramble on about his childhood? And.... he took from other people's works..... big chunks of it, from other well known works.... he sources them, but clearly got them second hand, severely lowering the value. The best part..... the invisible editor..... someone had this idea before, and left random editor notes.... built into the damn text, listing self as editor..... But now I too am the editor, so now everyone is going to be confused which editor is saying what.... and either the editor, a librarian, or the author drew lines like they were going to modify something.... who? How should I.... ME.... act on this? Was this the historians idea? Someone elses? Should I try to divine his intentions? Its like the guy had only learned compound sentence structure existed midway through the text.... Anyway..... this town has been written on by non-fiction historians and several novels, and a university in wisconsin specializes in our history (wisconsin is nowhere near west virginia).... I am all confused. I got five pages up. 70 more or less to do.... building table of contents and index. For a commentary.... Im lost. I cant tell the truth about it..... I found it in a disorganized bag from Macy's, and the bag was the favorite sitting place of a very finicky cat named Tiger, who had cataract surgery and hates me.... It also has a few other somewhat recent one page histories in it. So I can label it a 'Collection', "The Tiger History Collection".... and people will ask in a few hundred years why it is called that, completely lost to the fact this history was a cats nesting spot. The libraries copy of a copy is barely readable now.... no use to anyone, falling apart. Part of a page got peed on.

No, I know the Netherlands is above England, and is in the 30s, Sweden is 2% for the Church of Sweden.... for very obvious reasons, it's completely alienated the Christains, who happen to be a small yet influential faction in Christian Churches.... 10% of England is Muslim, and they hit the mosque still regularly, I talk to a British I am on a Sri Lankan email group.... so Muslims alone get it past your 10% low. C of E has always been a bit.... boring. I honestly can't blame people from fleeing government sponsored politically correct religious formulations. The US comes from the same root theological stock, but thrives largely from NOT wanting anything to do with state sponsored religion. It is totally beyond me as an American how Europe can tolerate government interference in what should be a independent part of society so crucial for long term ethical stability and intellectual growth. I figure in Europe at least, the two populations.... those who vote and those who vote, would largely be the same. It has to do with a sense of the future, concern as well as a particularized Faith in your responsibility and capacity to vote and make change, or do good deeds in life. Europe also has these religious political parties that bother me..... makes no sense if the population is declining, Faith is declining, to have religious oriented political parties. I'd feel weird voting for a 'Catholic Party' or some Christian coalition..... I'd be scratching my head saying your nuts if you think I'm voting for such a thing. You should already be normal if your a politician.... you can be a Mormon, Buddhist, Wiccan even..... I can accept it, but be consistent and reflective in it. I couldn't trust a politician with a obvious void in their heart. But a bunch of fake atheists pretending to a religious party makes me sick. Why bother?

http://m.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-27531094 I just saw the turnout for some sort of election in England, a 36% turnout..... and it got me thinking, isn't the turnout in churches about..... the same there? I'm not going to claim its the same population completely, but has anyone ever investigated the overlap percentages via polling data? Its commonly reported that the English are going away.... where to, hard to say.... religion is on the decline there, and European countries feel confused and awkward with a hugh influx of immigrants. I just take this to assume, in the 19th century, your average Brit was a uniformed, sunburnt WASP, but in the 22nd will be naturally dark skinned and will watch on the 'tele' the shah be crowned at West Minister Mosque..... How true this is, I don't really know. Never been to England, a high population island where everyone has to ride on double decker buses because the streets are too crowded, and who's greatest culinary dish is called Spotted Dick has little appeal to me, sounds like a great place to get Tetnus. Plus, you have that Mr. Bean fellow, and Prince Harry. I'm thinking perhaps its a good thing England is doing a voluntary population switch over. Joking aside..... honestly..... is it the same people who vote coincidentally the ones who still go to church? Is Democracy as precarious as Religion in England? Will only the nobility both to vote and go to Church in a hundred years?

This poem by Tennyson reminds me a bit of Petronius' Satyricon, if taken in the Ironic Vein..... in how Tennyson took a Homeric theme and turned it upside down using essentially a Cynic character act out a debached, Anti-Virtuous Scene. Petronius did the same, taking a Platonic Dialogue as the basis of his dinner scene. Ulysses was debated among the early Cynics, from a missing portion of the larger Homeric Cycle, if he was indeed the first Cynic, for traveling around in Libya in disguise wearing a cloak, pretending to be a beggar.... Interesting how Ulysses always, be it to evade unseen, or reenacting in the 8th level of hell his blind hubris, is a archetype for a philosophy the real man, if there ever was a real one, would not stand for. The character has a submerged alterego Homer appears unaware of, that only later writers seem to see, be they classical or victorian. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_(poem)

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/22/world/europe/spain-bullfighting/index.html?c=homepage-t&page=1 Honestly, I kinda wish the first two bulls of lived.... seems unfair they have to keep facing humans till they die, but as soon as the humans get gored, they get treatment. Unfair.

What am I to do with this bag of salt I just purchased via your recommendation? I'm going to start watching this video tonight.....

Okay.... what exactly do you think discipline is? Like, describe it to me..... I take the Roman Republican version of it from The Rape of Lucretia, put its never quite synonymous with what I perceive to be military discipline, and in the ranks this concept can mean many things, and contradict other martial as well as humane values. What exactly is this thing discipline you speak of. People keep stating it on this forum, but just what on earth is it, where do you find it, how do you make it grow, and stand out as a dominate psychological and behavioral trait, its advantages and pitfalls. Your just whipping out words it seems without a depth of its murky complications and inefficiencies. Some things are great to say, but just dont stick to reality for whatever odd reason. Discipline doesnt always stick.

Ummmm..... no. We know their gods already, they had the dumbest and least inventive religion in world history.... they worshiped large cubes.... just cubes. Later, when outside influences crept in, they noticed people elsewhere had more humanoid gods, so stopped the cube worshiping nonsense. They had a few known gods neighboring cultures had, like al uzza, the sister to the arabian goddess Allah. I wouldnt be looking into the layouts as a clue to the 'religion', so much as the importance of astral geometry had on a desert trading culture who operated trade routes via far flung oasis. It would be a natural outgrowth to align your grand government buildings via the same celestial methods you use to navigate. I mean.... they worshipped boring cubes.... how long you think Dr. Who would hang out with these people before pushing off to somewhere more interesting.... which would be just about anywhere else. They only seem fascinating because the carved into hillsides a illusion to Greco-Roman architecture.... rest of civilization fell, but it stayed up only because it COULDNT fall, given it was a all a illusion to architecture, being a hill, in a place people rarely go. Hence boring. Nice looking, but a very boring people, and I think the ancient world thought less of them than even I do, being perhaps the most uninventive people in the world..... cube worshipers. Like, a hextagon or a pentagon.... Id be slightly impressed, but a cube..... I cant help but get the feeling they were all a bunch of squares....

http://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/patient-education/resources/how-use-your-cunningham-incontinence-clamp I was going to say you cant just tie up a penis to stop urine flow without the cock dying, but you can. This is a cunningham clamp, undoubtedly very common in the clubs in San Francisco Foucault used to visit..... they have a more advanced model that is a slip-knot that has a ring underneath to directly constrict the urethra directly pressure wise with minimal pressure elsewhere.... Umm... I dont think you can just tie a cock up to stop it, you gotta directly target the urethra or else it turns blue, or will still leak. I guess if just for a few hours, this would be okay. I feel sorry for the poor roman soldiers put under the table on cock watching detail if this was the case. Would explain the origins of the tablecloth.... 'Giaus, report.... we have a important mission for the caesar.... you are to sit under his table while he eats, and stair at a senators cock, if he tries to touch his cock or readjust any straps, you are to smack his cock and hand and yell 'Hail Caesar'..... do this for the honor of the republic, for the grandure of our Caesar.....

So.... logically, who in Rome would most benefit from this conspiracy to make Tiberius look bad, or was it just a case of a historical meme so awesome it spawned from the drunken amusement of some back alley drunk, and caught like wildfire? I am obviously in favor, under the severe lack of evidence and propaganda parallels in the structure of these tales.... but the problem is the whole damn dynasty goes bat crazy in Tiberius' wake. In The Wake of Tiberius.... almost sounds like a title. Just.... how did the Dynasty turn so rotten, despite Augustus' efforts to turn it? It almost seems like a imperial alter-ego hid under this all, trying to be one thing but seeking out its opposite when out of the publics view. We had a politician named Anthony Weiner.....