DecimusCaesar

Happy Birthday Doc, and a Happy New Year to everyone at UNRV!!!

Didn't Cleopatra supposedly have red hair?

Such videos are sponsored by embedded commercials (I guess this is just starting in youtube). Even when the sponsor is intnl (such as in hulu case), it is apparently handled by a national branch who balks at paying for expensive bandwidth not directed to their potential customers. Thanks for answering Caesar Novus!

I always enjoy reading Beards' work, she has an interesting blog on the net. Might have to keep an eye out for this magazine sometime.

I really wish Hulu would work in Britain. I've even noticed that some Youtube videos refuse to play in Britain these days. Since when did internet videos become region centered like DVDs?

That's especially true of the portrayls of Caligula in TV and film. One of the best performances was Ralph Bates in 1968's 'The Caesars'. His portrayl was both chilling and rather mad without being camp. Michael Sheen's performance in this isn't too bad, but then, this episode wasn't very accurate.

This book has been on my wishlist for some time now. Hopefully, I'll be able to get it this Christmas. The year is one of the most important in the history of Rome, and even of the Western World. I enjoyed reading Edward Gibbon's description of the events in his Decline and Fall, and I hope this book will be able to bring a greater analysis of the year and its events, not to mention its impact on history. Theodosius and his reign should be better known, so hopefully this popular history will reach quite a few people who have never heard of him.

I'm looking forward to seeing Goldsowrthy's take on the Fall of Rome, as I've been wanting to read that book for some time. Tom Holland's book on the Middle Ages has already been released in hardback, I believe. I saw a few reviews for it on Amazon. So far they seem positive, although some think he doesn't have much of a grasp on Medieval History as he had with the Classical World. Then again, many modern scholars have poured heavy criticism on Rubicon and Persian Fire for their historical inaccuracies.

Here's an article from Classicist Mary Beard on this decision - It's Bonkers to Ban Latin An interesting read.

Fascinating! Although this might annoy Karl Pilkington (anyone's who has read his book will know what I mean).

Hmm...sounds like am attempt to jump on the success of Zack Snyder's 300. That reminds me, I've had a borrowed copy of that film sitting on my shelf for several months now, I must get round to watching it sometime.

I used to have Google Earth on ym old Computer - it even came with battlefield maps of Cannae - so I'm definately tempted to download Google Earth again to get a hold of this. Looks Brilliant.

From Yahoo news comes this story with some pictures:

This reminds me of Alexander's attitude towards conquest - always looking over the hill for new territory, and being surprised by how large the world really was as he advanced further along its surface. This has actually got me thinking about Roman ideas about Geography and how it shaped their frontier strategy. Even as late as the 4th and 5th centuries the Romans were still rather ignorant of lands beyond their borders, especially those beyond Germania. Jordanes (quoting the earlier Roman geographers Pomponius Mela and Claudius Ptolomaeus), when discussing Scandinavia (Scandza) mentions it as being an island. Some modern historians have found this so odd that they believe that the Goths must not have originated from this part of the world. Then again Attila did create a sort of 'Iron curtain' to keep the Roman spies out of his empire. This does at least hint that the Romans sent agents beyond their borders to keep an eye on the tribes, whether they paid an attention to the geography of the area is another matter.

I just hope Obama will be able to bring back some stability. It seems that a lot of people's hopes for him are unbelievably high and I have a feeling that no matter how good he'll be, he won't live up to a few people's unrealistic expectations.

A very late Birthday Wish for you Augusta, Hope you enjoyed your day!!

Yes, that is a brilliant film. The DVD came with a free script (in a book form) which contained some of the film's deleted scenes. They were every bit as funny as the the scenes they left in.

A fascinating find, although I must admit I had never heard about the man before.

Happy Birthday Moonlapse, hope you enjoyed your day!!

I'm currently reading Caesar: Life of a Colossus in paperback by Adrian Goldsworthy. It's a good read , and worth dipping into for those with no prior knowledge of Caesar and his times. I've enjoyed Goldsworthy's previous books like In the Name of Rome, and I was wondering how he'd tackle a non-military subject such as Caesar's early life. He does a good job, I think. What do others with greater knowledge of the Late Republic think of this book, if they've read it? I believe the hardback edition got quite a positive response from this forum when it was released a few years back.

Still on pre-order on Amazon UK, but I will definately get it. Thanks for notifying us!

If there's a mention of a few flattened houses on the news any time soon, we'll know who brought it! Strangely enough I was watching the original documentary about that Ballista on Youtube a few days back.

I saw the lives of the Romans a while back. it's certainly one to look out for!

As an aside to you, Decimus, I can state here and now that there are two BBC series that I can watch, re-watch and re-watch, without ever getting fed-up. One is the incomparable 'Claudius'; the other is 'Tenko'. I can't say I've ever watched Tenko, but speaking about Prisoner of War dramas, I did find the Kiefer Sutherland/ Robert Carlyle feature 'To End All Wars' a powerful film , even if it did show its 'melodramatic tv-movie' colours a few times. I'd recommend others to rent it or seek it out. As for I, Claudius I enjoyed that the first time I saw it, and I continue to enjoy it with every viewing. It's probably my most watched Television miniseries. As for Rome, I am enjoying a lot more this time round. I've already seen it once on TV and this is my second viewing of series one on DVD. I originally planned to watch only one episode a night, but sometimes I find myself so engrossed with it that I want to watch another episode. I watched episode eight, 'Caesarion'. Tonight I'll watch Utica.

Recently I've decided to re-watch the two series of HBO's Rome, and I'm currently on Season one, Episode four - "Stealing from Saturn". I realised that I had left series 2 half unwatched after I recieved it over a year ago. I also realised that I had actually forgotten a lot of what took place in both series. Like most books you tend to get a greater appreciation of them the more times you read them, and this is probably true of television series as well. I've seen I, Claudius several times (on digital television when I had that, and on DVD) and It improves with every viewing. Hopefully Rome will have the same effect. Has anyone else watched the series multiple times, or have you let the DVDs gather dust on your shelf?