Onasander

He's 102 now, a belated happy birthday.

First off, that page is from a radical leftist group. You can tell by the word 'Teabagger'. No party or affiliation, be if Teaparty, Democrats, Republicans, Communists, Libertarians, etc are opposed to Manatees. Much less because they are not listed in the bible. What scares this American about Europe is the ideological fanaticism in Europe of adoptive Pigovian taxes for make believe crisis, like Global Warming. I wont deny it's getting warmer, just that the belief pollution since the industrial revolution is the cause. Icecaps have been melting for the last 10,000 years, and it wasnt from flint napping and bronze age blacksmiths! The end result of Global Warming hysteria? Kyoto protocal, and silly laws across Europe requiring renewable energy quotas in powerplants to save Gaia and appease the Angry Sun. You know where they are getting this renewable energy? From the US, by buying, shipping, and burning American timber of all things in European powerplants. High five, you're all a bunch of winners. Freaken idiots. We spent the entirity of the twentieth century, dying and fighting, trying to keep the Europeans alive and stopping the export of really bad ideas (soviet communism or french khmer rouge communism or Nazis Facism or European Colonialism) and once you realised you couldnt pull it off anymore, you went and clobbered together every off the wall belief system, ideology, and parasitic get rich quick scheme, and repackaged it as modern European progressive thought. Your main intellectual, Zizek, is a pornographic Stalinist for Christ Sake! You guys got nothing going for you right now. Several generations of living behind a US shield, cobbling and falsefying your enviromental data to match your Religion of the Angry Sun politics, and even this bullshit religion is bootleg, heavily borrowing from roman era Stoic Cosmology and beliefs in the end of the world. Europe isnt in a position to intellectually or morally judge the US. We are the only damn reason you crazy lot haven't killed one another off. Dont worry about the manatees, or the 'teabaggers', just focus on not aborting your young, trying to engadge in stable, long term relations, have a little respect for God, and focus on building a military arm to the EU so the US can use our NATO money on our own selfish and progressive, stuck up full of shit healthcare system too. Can you bunch of nutcases do that for us, and stop bitching about the natural phenomena of icecaps melting? Pretty please? After that maybe we can get you potty trained after that. We are taking baby steps here, cant rush everything at once. Wouldnt want that Nazis boy from Eurotrip marching around now, would we?

I am a bit weirded out with this thread due two three coincidences: I've been learning Scandanavian history, law, philosophy, and even read thelocal.se/ several times a week, trying to figure out why.... not why anything in particular, just a big generic why. If I was to make a world atlas of the world, and named each region by how I felt about it, I would just slap a big why from Denmark to Finland, with a 'Are you serious' over Iceland and Greenland. The Major coincidences: I worked in Honolulu for about two months for a Gelato and Sherberto factory, and discovered how disgusting it is to make that nasty dairy free icecreme. The feel of the corn syrup clinging to my hands was nasty, throwing glob after glove in, and all the fake surgars. I only liked the roasted coffee gelato. He hired this half Japanese girl who hired guys only to run the shop for her, no women. It was just her flirting with us, the talking the whole shift shit about every asian racial group (unless you been to Hawaii, you would never expect that they hate the Micronesians more than the Nazis hated the jews).... and then she would get bored, stir up controversy and everyone would take it out on the half phillipino delivery guy. They claimed the job was too stressful constantly, and went through alot of people, but it really was because the female manager didnt know what she was doing and would make problems. I got a new job fast, and learned how to make Gelato as a side effect. They sold it 2 bucks a cup cash, everything else was sold to businesses. If that was you, you missed out on some of the stuff I was researching in Hawaii.... I would of still quit and all, but would of started a Roman History group on the side. I just got damn tired of everyone being a ethnicity first prior to being a individual. On the mainland, Im just a white guy, I don't have to be a Pennslyvania Dutch guy with Irish and Jewish and Indian heritage, with everyone stereotyping each lineage as "those stupid pennslyvania dutch, with the emotional reserve and work ethic, always just wanting to go to work, do their job, and get out'. No, only the msinland, Im either a shithead or a good worker. Only the blacks speak up to remind me Im white. Like I didnt already know that. As to the Swedish shock that we still use Checks, its because the concept of our currency began in Gold and Silver species, payable in said species only at tax time, but the means of getting the gold was dependant on subdividing property productivity vs workers, lenders, and traders willing to accept credits for the labor of the estates. Benjamin Franklin designed it, both the currency, and how it would behave under inflation. Alexander Hamilton then modeled our Banking system off the British. As a result, we at any given point of time have multiple systems of credit and tender floating around, some specifically designed to dodge taxes like the Ibn Khaldun-Laffer Curve predicts populations will do anyway when taxation becomes too high. Our department of taxation is used to this, and uses every trick in the book to measure the worth of property when it really needs it, be it hidden or not. We have hundred of thousands of businesses, Sweden have only 10 of international note that a huge portion of its economy is tied up in. It's the extreme diversity in trade that keeps checks in niches. Its legally regonized, with a 3rd party paper trail to help prove payment was made. In cash only situations, without carbon copy sheets available, operating without a check can cause a legal strain at best if two parties dont trust the other, such as paying rent between hostile parties. I was once given rent money, in cash, by a tenant who never paid on time and was about to be evicted, neither trusted the other. I solved the problem by writing two receipts on one piece of paper, having both of us sign both sides, then scribbled a giant mess of circles below, and ripped the paper right through the loops. What this did was create a near impossible to fraud receipt for both parties acceptable to a common law judge who could refer to medieval standards of debt-receipts using notched wood. Sweden is of the belief, as in all things, that its monoculture and smallness of scale makes minor uniformity in its systems, that are often reasonably adopted, as more advanced, liberal, progressive and enlightened over alternative systems. This isnt necessarily so. It just means its reasonable for a small state to use well a few techniques, not that using a few, or for that matter just one, is universally the wiser. A example being, swedens rising inflation rate, coupled with its increasing unemployment rate, and stagnant housing market. Eventually, many people are going to have to bypass government sponsored faif currencies and housing regulations in order to find a home. If swedens main industries continue to nosedive, no matter how regulated your banks are, foreign currency traders are not going to accept Ikea giftcards and Snow as the main solid, tangible basis for assessing the real world value of money. The average swede will end up with two currencies, one to make the government happy, and one to pay for food, rent, and gas. That will probably be a foreign currency, such as the Euro. Cuba experienced a similar situation of trying to juggle a capitalist currency, and a socialist. The people were trapped in the socialist, worthless version, while the tourism version was available only to those with access to tourist. A few days ago, Cuba scrapped the two, merging them into one. The alien US dollar is still the main mover in Cuba. A added pain, in Canada, my Visa bank card was only useable in stores that use Visa credit, or at Bank of Scotland ATMs. That was in Montreal. I couldnt imagine the chaos someone using a questionable local Indonesian Bank card in Bolivia or Finland would be! At least with bills, you can get them exchanged, coins melted, or cheques verified during business hours by a bank manager making a phonecall. In Sweden, Ild like to see how its credit card approach after industrial 3D printing crash its last few industries work. I sure the hell dont need any socialist bucks from sweden, and can get my Boxite and Reindeer sausages elsewhere. It will become a perfectly streamlined currency in a era that increasingly disfavors it. The array of options in the US economy allows considerable flexibility. Bad or tyranical government can ruin the official currency, but we can still trade and swap assets via other means. Ive been contemplating melting alunimum cans and copper pipes and wire into bars just like gold for emergency currency. I always keep 1 dollar coins around too just in case Obama tanks the economy.

Yes, and they are still in use too, IN INDIA. Indian Astrology is the further evolution of Western Astrology, upgraded by Alexander the great to have 18 signs over the Western 12 for horoscopes, because the philosophers he brought east with him thought it was such a swell idea. I spent 2010-2012 trying to figure out why, by joining every astrology group in San Francisco and Hawaii, trying to learn the system. I even got stuck in the apartment of a self proclaimed witch christmas eve 2011 in Pacifica, California without money for a cab, helping her move my books I was giving her on philosophy from her trunk to her house, who it turns out wanted me in a way I couldnt physically offer her in return despite trying to just get it over with half the night (she was that unappealing). I got free the next day, never to be the same. I've also worked with a Irish spiritualist in Hawaii, and a bunch of Jungians via the internet in the Netherlands, and came to two conclusions: No 1: None of them knew, nor cared once they could out, that Indian Astrology is descended from Western, and that it is infact the more thought out version. No 2: People in Astrology groups are addicted to Aquarian cock, and everytime a Aquarian makes a earnest attempt to reach the theoretical cause of being of astrology, every other sign is secretly plotting to grab his cock, be it man or woman, however, its always the ugliest and most unappealing first. I say screw it. There is some paralells between cognitive based personality typing and astrological signs, but my investigations into why Alexander wanted 18 instead of 12 possible cognitive styles was rudely interrupted by all the blank states, indifference, and cock grabbing going on. I know many astrology texts in india can be dated to Tamil areas in southern India in the forth century, and they record Alexandria as their origin,with authors named Paul and such, and in terms of astronomical observation is more accurate, but am now turned off by the idea of further inquiry by the fears some old indian yogi in a temple will try to molest me, as thats what my whole experience has been so far. So F it. I never believed in the predictive power of astrology, merely wanted to know the philosophy behind its doctrinal change via Alexander the Great, and learn some ancient Mathematics. All I got was some creepy near misses with STDs and deeply unimpressive intellectual conversations. I think the philosopher and former astrologer Jerome Cardan got it right in his autobiography when he predicted his death via his astrological chart, lived resigned till that day and didn't die, waiting just in case for one year and still not dying. He said F it, and dropped Astrology all together, and pondered the reasons why he was attracted to Astrology in the first place, and developed probability theory. Take my journey under advisement, dont study astrology unless you want ever wiccan and Neo-Isis priestess out there try to mount you. They are all into the Aquarian Masculinity mumbo jumbo, and just want your magic sperm for their pagan rites. Keep away from them, and keep baby jesus in your heart, and dont use any of the abnormally large specially shaped toys they keep in drawers on them, they were not sanitized by the last guy who put them in, and the diverse array doesnt instill confidence in you that you want to be there. Astrology is just too damn kinky and perverted, and they all have Jungian backgrounds. It's just downright disturbing. Not as disturbing as a tantric group in San Francisco I very briefly visited, but disturbing.

To give you a cognitive answer, the cytoarchitecture of the right dorsal lateral juxtapositioned unfavorably with the supplamentary motor area. The best commanders would of operated out of the SMA, with strong exchange between the left and right hemisphere allowing for lightening fast, calculas style split second decision making that takes everything into consideration..... think Napoleon and Hannibal. However, given the closeness of both SMAs, the mental dialectic would still be pliable to reference to other personality types, that is hopefully represented in the command staff quick to advise to commander when he is eyeing the battlefield. He can make alot of calculations fast, but cant think like thinkers based in the Thalamus can (think Tony Stark's genius and dependancy of Pepper, his wife/personal assistant who processed information differently). The Right hemisphere controls alot of our visual processing, but its neural chemical processing is saturated in testosterone and serotonin, making it impulsive and territorial. Its also can be factually specific, and operate on a faith basis..... which in more civilized times wasnt a contradiction, but in our modern quagmire republics we fight politically tooth and nail to seperate the two, and some idiots to deride faith and try to extinguish it culturally and legally, which is a bad idea, given this amounts to a cultural lobotomy. The right hemisphere also structures hierarchy (though its the left that creates the fanatical acceptance or rejection we have for people). Guess which cognitive style the majority of Roman commanders were? Thats right, not the SMA centric, but the right hemisphere, especially the Right Dorsal Lateral . So instead of a SMA mastermind playing 7 moves ahead as Hannibal strived to do, studying the enemy, the dumb dumbs sent numbskulls all too sure of themselves, who knew their rank and position in society, knew a roman army was invincible, had a range of tactical finesse and were gung ho to meet the enemy head on, Robert Lee style at Frederickburg.... There is the enemy, and that is where I am going.... that kind of attitude. This works well enough against uneducated barbarians desiring loot, rape and lemons, but not against a well educated commander from a military caste seeking to destroy your civilization via his wits alone...... if failed horribly. The reason why is the SMA is more aware of the overall thinking of the brain than any other personality type and can simulate in his head who the two personalities based in the right hemisphere alone can think and interact than they can each other or the SMA. Such commanders have a unfail advantage. If Hannibal could offer statistical facts (notoriously weak guals in the center), and string it with other facts to bait and control the commander (if we kill the guals and take the center, the enemy will be broken and unable to support either wing with the other, and likely rout) then he can control the Romans impluses. It comes down to timing, timing if left hemisphere, which the SMA has ample access to, as well as strategic thinking (mostly the left dorsal lateral).... The Romans died as the dogs they were. I feel no pity for them, they favored just one type of citizen, one type of commander. It wasnt until Scipio Africanus began the long, trying process of thinking out of the box, getting into Hannibals head, emulating his cognitive functions, which takes a long time (Hannibal had his whole life to become this cognitively intergrated) that the Romans managed to properly use their resourses in novel ways and collapse Hannibals empire. It is not a easy trick to get a enemy army into a pincher position. It only emerged as doctrine with the Prussians under Fredrick the Great. Its the basics of most US Infantry Troop Moving Procedures, with how the teams move and support within the squads, but I can't recall too many stories of that happening short of ambush situations or cross fire from buildings. The classical ideal of the pincher movement is as rare as ever, but elements of it are still valid, and may still remerge in it's full glory from time to time. Just likely will be rare outside of special forces, so we wont hear of it much. All you need are some deep thinkers and some meatheads, and you got yourself the essential elements.

I meant to say my surprise more coins are not found. I cant find the edit button on the mobile version of this site.

I know the civialian magistrates on both sides of the straights got booted out soon after the army left, and the Bretons declared independance, and entered in Alliance with Rome against Attila... I'm a little surprise more coins are found in England due to the mercenary possibilities. The Romans were hardly hostile to them after the pullout.

Slow dowm Metella, though I have lots of reason to disagree with the theory, given your emphasis on maps, I need to make you aware of it, the final essay in "The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire" tackles the issue of did the Romans even think in spatial terms of a map, or via periplus and trader scrolls that listed city names and distances needed to travel to arrive at a location. He figured just the latter, making the assumption Roman Commanders grasp on strategy lack spatial dimensions that are map based to decide on their strategic arrangements. I myself call bullshit on this, they used both, just the maps were top secret (for the legions command staff, emperor, admirals, and the senate) and they got specifics for logistics and timing the march from traders who would keep more exacting route info. Clearly Scipio Africanus and Hannibal were thinking spatially. I dont see how Belisarius' deployments in the west would make any sense without a map, or how Ceasar lured Pompey away from the coast and his supporting navy. Now, do I think the Romans had surveyors of the quality of say, George Washington? No.... not from the ancient maps I've seen. I spent alot of time back in december 2007 in the basement of the US library of congress looking over the collection of maps they had, they at best listed river, town, mountain chain and sea on a untrustworthy spatial plane that at best gave you a cardinal sense of directions, but if you tried to navigate by it alone your going to get lost, but not too lost. Dont expect any map the senate would possess to list much in terms of topography, they merely debated policy with foreign entities, borders relative would suffice. The minutia would be a commanders local map, which might list crossing in a river, or good places for a future battle, but even then I doubt it would mark every curve of the river, elevation, wind currents and weather patterns, property lines.... you would be lucky if they included where mountain passes or oasis were. Ancients approached ancient maps with a lack of detail compared to modern ones, but did have them.... though apparently not common. Just keep this debate in your head if your going off that map above or UNRVs maps.... many disagree with me and assumed the romans just crunched distances from one location to the next to figure out the world. Town S is 5 miles from C, which is 7 miles from D, which is 6 miles from S but 3 miles from H. You are in C, need to pick up troops in B (not even on the list, gotta look at another list to find , and then get to S to defend it because D is encroaching upon its territory. The area soverign to S is 12,,000 strides from the town center to the big rock shaped like a penis if you walk in a straight like towards Polaris...... make sure they respect our territorial claims! Can you imagine the senate giving you such a list, and just that, expecting to juggle all that math to figure out troop movements? No.... they had a map. It wasnt the romans and samnites waiting till noon to measure the shadow of a stick to point out their claims relative distance and the.sun, they had a map, and a treaty that said this spot is ours, that is yours, keep out of our fields and forest, and keep to your side of this stream. This is all fact based, spatial oriented thinking.

I don't know actually how exhausting, minus the sun and dehydration..... I'll be perfectly honest with you, I'ld cheat. Balance my shield on a rock or limb, or commit the sacrilege of resting my shield on the ground (just the bottom of it) while the people infront of me orgasm to death for a few hours until it's my turn. Make a deal with the guy behind me to let me take a knee and aim below the enemy's shields as he strikes at the helmets. My shield would have a two foot long stick to prop it up with, and my spear would have a balancing shouldering strap. I would be a very lazy yet rested hoplite soldier, and would be cussed out all the time by the leadership for being such a negative influence...... saying not to listen to Onasander, that a real man is eager to clash shields and make mansweat, grunting and poking spears into other scantily dressed men, dying in homoerotic deaththrows..... following my dishonorable habits of chucking every damn rock on the ground at the enemy while waiting my turn or pelting bags of sheep intestines filled with my urine that I filled while waiting is dishonorable...... but that is just who I am. The infantry have all sorts of lazy tricks, both modern and ancient that are not talked about, because guys like forum member Virgil suppresses it (he used to be a first sargeant) while guys like me of a lower rank would whisper little tricks into your ear when I see you sucking. Take the shield position of the hoplite in the right arm..... I bet you it could be hung at forearm level between the breastplate, and and strap for holding up the BDSM skirt the greeks and romans wore, or even a strap for holding water. We have similar optical illusions weighing our rifle on our ammo case instead of carrying via upper arm strength like a macho manly man. Having done it the badass way, I am now a advocate for the sneakest, laziest way forward that can keep me ready and at my best for success when the time actually comes. Think about the quality of training most phalanx actually had, and how hot the sun was..... I am telling you, those guys cheated the rules left and right in a effort to survive, and after the battle and the mumble jumbo victory rights, returned back to the city pretending to be badasses to the young women and widows, while laughing at Demetrius the Plaster who threw his feces in the face of the enemy hoplight commander, or Diogenes the Carpenter who added pipe extentions to his spear, killing the enemy 4 ranks back, or cratylus the shephard who released his guard dogs on the enemy rear, etc.... a thousand and one silly dishonorable tricks they could mock, celebrate, berate, and chide one another with.... all the while the younger generation is stumbling around, learning the formations, working out and are being homosexually molested by some gung ho guy full of bull, felling the new guys a real man clashes his shield against the enemy shield, taking the enemy's thrusts honorably...... etc. Every army has this sad, sick training dichotomy to it, and the historians like to preserve the speeches and orthodox doctrine..... not the naked man who ran between the lines before the battle belching. It might be the talk of the town, but no the historians. It's this dichotomy that kept the evolution of archers and dart throwers so long, a shithead with my outlook to innovation, ease, and success would of been a early adopter of the sword or bow in combat. The greek elite hated guys like me, but noted sneaky guys like me tryingtto push new dishonorable tech. And in the end, we won. Took a damn long time though.

Wasn't the Roman constitution similar to the British, contra the American emphasis on a written, rationalized doctrine where every part is equal? The biggest difference in terms of constitutional typology between the British and the Roman constitutional 'tradition' is the British have a Judical Branch that is relatively independent, and goes out of it's way to remind everyone what it's constitutional emphasis is in any generation. In Rome, once emphasis on the 12 tables progressively eroded, and you had this awkward thing called Emperor calling the shots in a de jure republic, legitimacy and illegitimacy depended more than anything on a show of force. However, the Senate was a damn good mechanism to keep around politically and for administration purposes. It had the ears and tongues of the major power players of the state, was autonomous to a certain extent, and could give benefit to a emperor or at the very least take some of the blame. And best of all, I can't begin to stress this enough, it was in essense a coup immune royal court! Most coups, especially in asia, knocked off not just the throne, but his court along with it. Not the Roman Senate prior to Boethius. A thick headed fool could, by virtue of brute force, become emperor, and as a unintentional afterthough receive bills from the senate already thought out and debated by intellectuals and governing specialists. The Senate was a good thing to keep around, and it bothers me the Eastern Empire didn't try to replicate it. It's always a good idea to win the senate over. It doesn't give you legitimacy, as being a emperor isn't quite legal in the first place, but good governance, success on the battlefield, and prosperity will make you a good emperor, and the only reasonable means to achieving this end is via the Senate.

I was a beachbum and head of security for a farm complex that did no farming, they did everything but farming, which made for some interesting encounters with the department of Agriculture. I wouldnt of even done that had there been enough fruit in the trees to survive on, I saw like, 8 coconuts in the trees the entire time I was there. I dont know about the babies, maybe, more likely not. Justinian and his wife had some nasty stuff written about them that a rational or skeptical mind would quickly dismiss. Hence the taxation, both Taxed to Death. Nothing will move the rich to hatred quicker, and nothing cripples the economy faster. Everyone hurts. Only way you can get away on good terms with taxing people is winning over the business and intellectual classes first, and this has a half-life of depletion to it. Sweden is a case in point, it started in the late 19th century, and is increasingly cracking..... and it had its priesthood and business elite in unison with its intellectuals. I doubt Tiberius had this tight of a operation going. His accusations of depravity are just that, accusations. You know the rumors of Catherine the Great and the Horse.

Great, Washington, Jackson, and Eisenhower are warlords by this definition, while many military leaders after the soviet withdraw Afganistan would't qualify as Warlords.

Whatever, whenever, without regard to shrewdness or recognition of the enemy's strengths and weaknesses. You tie this lack command ability into a empire wide defensive shield, where do you think the empire is going to deploy it's smart, erudite commanders, and it's less dependable ones? I guarantee you, the best commanders of the Roman Line of Control went to Italy's immediate north, while the more questionable ones got sent to the island on the edge of the world, where in the worst case scenerio of a invasion where the entire province is lost, it could at least be temporized in containment, being a island. Wasnt until Constantine that the island produced a top notched commander. I assure you, had he focused his attentions on Scotland (blah) instead of Rome, this wouldn't be a issue. Does anyone think Scotland was a tougher challenge than Rome for any commander in England to take?

I was joking about the gingers, I doubt many redheads until the Irish invasions of the north centuries later after Rome fell. Roman power isnt the issue, but their mutually supported defensive positions over the long term. The fortifications would have to provide: A guard roster, including sleep and command and control elements to coordinate it, as well as a reserve force to support the walls, and preferably to sally out if needed. A logistic base, enough to supply the base, and cover another fort if they lost their supplies in a raid, fire, corruption, or accident, as well as a returning army saturated with captured POWs/Slaves. Hope for, but dont expect the locals to be as prompt as usual when paying taxes in grain and livestock. The excess troops and supplies can be deployed, main fighting force and logistics train. I figured though the romans were masters of the offense and defense, they still thought in terms of strong point defense and preferring head on engadgements in the field, it wasn't until very late the romans grew smarter in the west. It needs to be emphasized subject populations are rational, but not merely rational, they are also emotive, so their pacifism and willingness to cooperate with the occupation forces will fluctuate on emotional norms. A population long subjected yet not positively attached to the occupation forces will of suffered quite a few painful repercussions from asserting themselves, but would none the less not enter into rebellion save in cases roused by hysteria. It tends to take more than a good speech from a tribal leader. If the romans made a good show of force before setting out, and chose a peak low in the emotive oscillation, and kept their rear detachments in each fort mutually in touch and ready to mutually support one another, then I see no issues, other than distance and weather. Especially if a native auxiliary, full of the native auxiliary with its Nobles and loudest mouths recruited, and a few political hostages kept in rear. The romans managed all of this, had a intuitive understanding of the oscillation pattern in some places, but in others seemed oblivious as to why the rules, traditions, and statecraft were structured as such, and ineptly ran their operations without thinking much about it, assuming the myth of roman might and power was a force of nature in and of itself, and they could whatever, whenev

Chinese did the same, as do we (Onasander isn't my real name).... I see it as evidence of a shared literacy culture, and informal training in youth with roleplaying with personas from the corpus that isnt sacrilegious.

Between earthquakes dumping a chunk of the city into the sea, and Julius Caesar torching the place, not a whole lot from the ptolemy era in terms of monumental architecture would be expected in the Agora period. By that time, the main library was gone, and the movie is dealing with almost what we would today call a branch library. Alot is made about the Christians burning the books there..... I dont doubt a bookburning, merely the scope. It wasnt that much longer after the muslims invaded, and it took them 6 months to burn all the books in the furnaces of the bath house.... doubt the monks of the desert wrote that many books in the gap between! A further issue is, the export of copies from the library apparently had long since stopped. Obviously, Julius Ceasar is a culprit in the mess for burning down the shipping warehouse for the library, but the average aristocrat also is to blame.... they bought the copies, made private libraries, and failed to maintain these libraries. You can see it in the stupidity of the aristocracy of the later empire, as well as the marred state of many classics from the ancient world we now adore already being noted to exist in a fragmentary state prior to the fires. In otherwords, the library was already a failed concept, destined for destruction. It hurts me to say this as a Cynic Philosopher, having visited some of the best libraries in the US. Romans just didnt like to read. Agora is made out to be a desperate last stand of classical philosophy and paganism vs zealotry and christianity for a predominantly European, agnostic population. Classical philosophy lived on, and neo platonism certainly didnt die out, it was a branch of the Indian Vedantic philosophy, and is still a part of the tradition of the Catholic and Orthodox traditions in the west. What did fall was the last bastion of a sect that never really could cut it with imperial patronage on their own. They pushed their luck, and got stomped out, like countless disfavored philosophical schools in history. Christian church fathers continued to believe in superstitions such as the world being round (unproven) for quite some time after this. It wasnt until the seeds of modern science was laid by Cosmas IndicoIndicopleus that it was discovered, by geometrical theorem, and great oceanic travel between Ethiopia and India, making naturalistic studies and astronomical studies rivaling the scope of Darwins ocean journeys to discovery, that the earth was actually flat, and the sky resembled the lid of a carryout rice box from a chinese restaurant..... and only then did those old pagan superstitions the learned hierarchy of the church start to die out. The era of science and discovery stamped out the quaint beliefs of the ancient world, and the middle ages was better for it. Yes, its true, it went counter-intuitively just like that. Its something to consider regarding the stereotypical certainty we have of modern knowledge over that of a mere few centuries before. Some aspects, such as computers and programming, we are good at, other aspects, its debatable...... but its human nature to be barrow minded and side with whatever faction gives us the most honey now. And in many parts of the world, propaganda says its science over 'religion', though just what that means cant ever really be scrutinized without jeopardizing the duality. Youll find both sides share unexpected faults and short commings, as well as misplaced blind faith in various things. Agora is a good movie, its set in a period and deals with a difficult subject, but it needs to be remembered its biased to fulfill the agenda of a european secularist movement, and picked sides in moving the audience to support it. This isn't too different from the TV show Chanakya, used to target Alexander the Great, who was a English Speaking Monotheist in the series, or Queen Seon Duk, clearly denouncing the modern DPRK's economic strategy over the souths in a ancient setting. The prejudice against the southland in Romance of the Three Kingdoms has long been known, and has shifted in different political eras. Agora is part of that tradition..... its a historical drama burden by modern ideological baggage in order to corner a particular modern audience looking for something to relate too. For the Dutch, English spiritual agnostics watching.Agora teary eyed, thinking it was the end of the world, rest assured, that world was already long dead before the library was retaken by the egyptian mob. They had centuries to copy every book and disperse them everywhere. Just the pagan nobility never seemed to care. It was the monks who did, or the Babylonian Arabs, or Charlemagne. People just didnt care, be they pagan or christian for the most part. Library fetishes are very much a modern phenomena, one that peaked in the 20th century. Dont expect a whole lot from the ancient world here.

I've been pondering what caused the collapse of the English Empire during the cold war, and came to a very simple conclusion..... England built up its momentum towards world empire during the North American colonial era, but through some very poor political thinking, as well as one sided zealotry resulting in the Glorious Revolution, in that moment killed off the main strengths the imperoal machine possessed: the legitimacy of king and parliament, the importance of Catholics as co-equals, and as a extention, the right of all subjects of the crown born outside the empire, free at birth, to remain Englishmen. The three strikes ensured a perpetual animosity between the Irish and the English, which resulted in mix loyalties..... one to the true king over the waters, or to a upsurping, self gratifying parliment that did not represent any self respecting Irishman's interests. Given the huge catholic population immigrating out of the British Isles, and not just the 'Scots Irish' stereotype, to its most important colonies, and the pattern of colonial, overseas disenfranchisement effected from having to put down overseas revolts in Ireland still supporting the real government..... both protestant and catholics felt equally threatened by a more inhumane and alien crown. The colonies were of mix revolutionary heritage..... some accepted it with pride and heritage, others rejected it...... but both were denied its laurels and benifits. You fast foreward, the illegentament movement, centered around the upsurper crown and rebel parliament lost the cream of its colonial stock, where much of its most british population was destined to be born in future years not under the Union Jack, but under the Anti-British Stars and Stripes. Ireland likewise left during the early twentieth century, unimpressed with the British Empire and its heathen kings. Even Hindu-Islamic India jumped ship, Gandhi noting that Hindus had no future in achieving position in the empire. Had the Americans stayed, Africa and India would of had much more red on the maps at a earlier stage. British china would of been bigger. Napoleon would never of raised above corporal because the French revolution never would of occured in the manner it did, minus the precedent of the American, and England would of had a much larger recruiting pool to pull upon. Even if the world wars had happened, England would of had direct access to americsn recruits, materials, and taxes early on. The fact is, it didn't, hence why the british empire isn't around anymore. The added layer of irony, the zealot religion that turned brother against brother in the empire, the angelican church, is dying off alongside of english nationalism and historic role in the world. You look at America, its the opposite, still a vigorous nation capable of ideals and destiny, willing to lock horns with the problems of today and tomorrow. An added insult, many in England are calling for the abolition of the monarchy, the people of England proper lack a local parliment like the rest of the UK has, all the while the lineage of the king over the waters is stable and secure. The Glorious Revolution was the worst defeat the British ever experienced, as well as the most lasting and costly. As the English swirl down the drain towards extinction, gripping frantically at Socialism, Atheism, and Anti-Papism, outsiders in the free world must as themselves one question: Will the future Caliph of the British Isles learn from the mistakes of his predecessors in avoiding the march to a self inflicted oblivion, or will he and his people strive to live a better life, and learn from the mistakes of those forgotten people who once inhabited the Islamic Isles of the North? I hope America can develop as strong relations with the English Caliph as Saudi Arabia's king.

A quite wealthy beachbum then..... This is comming from a guy who lived on a ten foot shack in waimanelo....... in my best of times on Oahu...... be you in a mansion or a rolled up tarp on a beach, being a beach bum is a beachbum..... Obama is a self admitted one too. Dont see how being a emperor makes you exempt from this category..... if you walk like a duck, and quack like a duck.......

A quite wealthy beachbum then..... This is comming from a guy who lived on a ten foot shack in waimanelo....... in my best of times on Oahu...... be you in a mansion or a rolled up tarp on a beach, being a beach bum is a beachbum..... Obama is a self admitted one too. Dont see how being a emperor makes you exempt from this category..... if you walk like a duck, and quack like a duck.......

Not much of a melee going on in phalanx on phalanx warfare, your stuck where you are, trying to poke a guy hiding behind a shield while he pokes at you, in a skirt, and with a broom on your helmet, like it was carnival. It occurred to me, it's all a rather disturbing homo erotic, sado masochistic way to go. If you don't understand, read the book.'Mishima's Sword'...... which documents the Japanese philosophers deep fascination with St. Sebastian's death by execution. Most guys who look at a picture of St. Sebastian's execution don't ejaculate, but he did..... and he became sexually transfixed on it, and got into the Japanese gay BDSM with Japanese Samurapractices like Hari Kari, the battlefield suicide. He was so into it, he lead a coup a few decades back against the Japanese government by taking over a generals office, taking him hostage, and then immediately gave up (was preplanned), digging his sword in his abdomen, while his buddy failed several times to chop his head off (apparently not that easy to do). The whole time, the general was begging him not to do that..... I mean, it was the most perverted and ineffective coup in world history. He even wore the white michael jackson gloves for it..... So, I can do in a queer voice a psuedo-Freudian analysis of it, metrosexually dressed soldiers in skirts, holding testical shaped shields, and long spears to thrust into the enemy.... in formations who esprite de corps was built by homosexual ties...... Im sorry, the ancient greeks were supergay, and the battles were gay pride parades that everyone had deathgasms in. Its only horrifying if your straight. It made actually no sense to fight that way in ancient greece, trojan war showed a city could hold out for ten years, the spartans sucked fighting missle troops, and the mountains dominate greece, favoring guerrilla warfare (especially ambushes) and naval masterstrokes. Instead, they made it the exact opposite, and made it as gay as possible, many units actually mandating man on man sex for bonding the unit together. It was all just one big, homoerotic death orgy. They all probably wore michael jackson gloves too.

The Airborne Infantry are not elite, 18,000 soldiers graduate from Airborne School each year. I was in the 1-501st Airborne, which was a Arctic Light Infantry Unit. We can't really be considered special forces, just normal guys, who leap out of airplanes in the middle of the night in freezing temperatures and ski around. It sounds badass, but it didnt feel bad ass, if felt like, well..... ass, and not just any ass, but a very special kind of ass, the kind with uncle sam's c@ck up it. The reason we went was it was necessary, and we felt we could do it. Without it, civilization would break down. Same question could be posed for doctors in a socialist state..... why study for nearly a decade to become a poorly treated government slave for people who increasingly treat you poorly and take you for granted? Society has a way in a republic, one that has long been free and independent, to increasingly self organize. We knew to go when it was needed. It has it's flaws though, as I was deployed injured, returning from Iraq barely able to walk. Apparently you didn't get the call to replace me for convelescence. Democracy seems to speak louder to some more than others, perhaps there was still water in your ear from that time you went swimming and couldn't get all the water out with your pinky. Oh well, it's all water under the bridge, and your middle ear...... I expect you to do something wonderful with your life however. I nearly had my nuts blown off, so take a theoretical stab at solving cancer, or donate blood regularly, or call for help whenever you see someone broken down. If your not willing to do it for my nuts, then do it because your unable to understand the reason why, even though a part of you feels you should. Whenever you do a good deed, just imagine the almost sacrifice my testicles made for you, sitting there proudly, on your shoulders. Stand tall brave American! And play the starwars battlefront games, the 501st Stormtrooper Legion kicks some serious butt. Geronimo

I didn't know Catholics hated Tiberius so much they destroyed archeological ruins...... Yes, he was the emperor when Jesus died, but I don't think it was something he was directly involved in, I doubt he ever paid attention to murder trails from subject nations. He taxed the living daylights out of everyone (real reason he was hated, duh), but his supposed indulgences were no better than what the biblical kings of the Jewish State did in terms of sexual outrageousnes s. Im catholic, and never knew to hate the imperial beachbum of Capri Shorts Island. I missed that day of Sunday School.

I recall a german mercany ship, greek styled with chain metal armor, being found in Germany, in a town starting with a H..... there is a museum today, but couldnt record it in my list as I couldnt remember its name. The site in Spain where they think Atlantis is (best candidate for it, but skeptical its them, though hopeful), as it appears to be a arlantic shipping hub past Gibraltar, likely had alot of contact with both North and West Africa and England.... theory is they got wiped out by a Tsunami in 9th century BC...... I dont doubt the settlement is there, just its Atlantis link...... it bothers me there are no obvious sister sites in the region..... those ships traded with someone, who? Where is the genetic and widespread archeological evidence in Atlantic North Africa and Western Europe? It really bothers me.

There is no more real-time communication advantage in the ancient world than the modern when it comes to feign retreats...... if the retreat is too orderly, its a failure in terms of being a deceptive strategem, its supposed to be chaotic, bewildering, and impulsive from the subjective standpoint of the enemy observer to get them to fatally commit. Obviously, with all the real time advantages armies such as the US army, British, Chinese, or Russian armies, pulling off most variations of feigned retreat is unbelievable, given the doctrinal emphasis of overlapping dependency of individual units to support one another, combined arms from multiple branches of the military, including a variety of air and naval power, reliance on defensive armor, and very secure methods of resupply and the magic if all else fails special forces will link up with you if you hunker down long enough....... we for the most part are stuck playing Orthodox. Only a exceptionally retarded opponent would believe any of the above mentioned armies would route (As the Indians foolishly believed the Chinese turning back and returning to the border a few months back, bloodless battle but Indian effectively lost.) The duality between orthodox and unorthodox strategies in the ancient world was established best in The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China, and then by a few select later theorists, though there are usually parallels for each composite strategy listed (check out Ralph Sawyers translation of 100 Unorthodox Strategies) in Roman and Greek works. Its tried all the time to get large militaries to chase defeated units all the time, outside of the larger problem of theater wide attrition via a million papercuts, these techniques really suck..... Vietnam lost a few million compared to a few thousand allied forces being killed in over a decade, and it only worked in pure coincidence with weak cultural and backwards academic culture..... each war since the US has increasingly evolved and grown to understand this phenomena, during the Iraq war it was much weaker and more schitzophrenic and ultimately lost aim, confusing electing a socialist ideologue as effectively endinaending a war and usering a domestic and international utopia. It failed/ Is failing miserably. So we can see feigned retreats are still possible on the political/foreign policy level. It was much easier to do it in ancient times, by cues, cryptic flag waving or trumpets, or set up in advance. Keep your lead units looking disorderly, messed up formations, flags negatively out of proportion, and act shocked as hell when the enemy shows up, and then run like hell. You can have ambushes set up, or signals when to about face and resume a more competent and devastating formation for the stroke-counter stroke- counter counter stroke. The morphology of the Orthodox-Unorthodox duality is potentially limitless, restricted only by the deposition and relative conditions and understandings of the ground. The Trojan Horse was both a feigned retreat as well as a unorthodox strategy. Nothing Real Time Strategy connected to superior technology about that. Thats the quintessential essence of the matter, in a nutshell.

If building tools for fort construction was anything like the tools used in fort construction during the american colonial era, then not much would of been built. It required a workshop of tools.