Gajus of Sweden

Livy's work in that era is mostly lost, but at least there is the brief Periochae. Frankly, there aren't any good sources. Too bad, but many thanks for periochae. I'll check it out right away. EDIT: It was actually very helpfull. Thanks again.

Okay can some one please help me with this one. I cant seem to find any good sources for the Social War. Plutarch brisks it over quite hasty, Pliny got nothing and neither do Appian. I wold like to know more than just the broad strokes. Which ancient author is my man?

Oh thanks, great links. Feels like I'm starting to get a hold of the mess of Roman names.

This is something that has riddled me for some time. For a litterary project I'm in great need to come up with diversity of roman names. Slaves aren't a problem but I think the plebs and tha patricians very well might be. We take a famous romans patrician as an example. Gajus Julius Caesar Gajus is his first name, nothing speciell with that, could be anyone of the very few first names avalible. Julius, he is of the family Julius, gens Julia. But Caesar? As I have understod, that name signifies which branch of the family Julius he stemes from. Is this right? And if so, why couldn't he just as well be called Gajus Caesar Julius? Is the fathers or the mothers blodline the predominant one, and has that something to do with this convention? And now he marries a woman from the family Cornelius, what would their boy or girl be named? I don't understand the logic behind this. It's common for a boy to take his fathers name, that happens but not allways. And the plebs; do they generallt only have two names, like Lucius Priscus for instance? Or do the same mechanism apply to them to? EDIT: Another thing is just a coincidence that the "ius"-name is placed in the middle. Marcus Porcius Cato. Marcus Tullius Cicero, Gajus Julius Caesar and so on.

But all this lead to the presumption that the individual legionaire was informed of the battleplan in advance and even the backup plan? Out there in the field i guess the only way to communicate with the troops is by sound (horns?). But to enclose an enemy or do something more advanced than just chopping their way through the enemy lines they coldn't very well relie on sound signals alone, could they? Did they have a trained procedure what to do when the lines were breaking up or was it just to fight for your life then? How much controll did the commander really have over the troops when the battle started?

He he a lot of aspiring writers here I see. I to has to confess to the same "crime", writing a novel set during the civil War between Sulla and Marius. Unfortunatly I think it will be a bit of a problem to get it published here in Sweden. We got few publishers and they are, what would you say, a little bit conservative. There hasn't come a fiction story about Rome from this country yet, but maybe I will be the one to break the wall.

Hmmm I'm interested in this to. Spontaneously it feels like (or maybe i want it to be just so) also the legions shortly after Marius reform would have names to go with their numbers. Since loyalty and commradery was so important in the legion I think it would have been a good move to name the legions to strengthen that bond between the legionaires. On this subject I come to think of the book "Gates of Rome" (I think it would be, translated to english) of Conn Iggulden. I know that Igguldens books about Caesar is far from historically correct but in the book "Gates of Rome" he names one of Mariuses legions as The Primagena (The First Bornes) and goes in to detail and names a centuria within The Primagena as the Bronze Fist. Is this just straight out of Igguldens lively imagination or has anyone of you heard this names before?

Well isn't this just sweet? Feels like a dream come true that a site like this really exists. Whooopie. I, like the most of you (I asume) have a big interest in the ancient romans. I was researching for information about the republican army and the chain of command, and just stumbled over this great site. I have been reading for a couple of hours now and can't believe the amount of information this side is packed with. And by that I also include all the various linktips which the forum is littered with. I'll be hanging around here from now on, but you have to excuse me for my spelling, since I'm a peregrini as my name bare witness of.