DecimusCaesar

That sounds like a good list, especially the Handbook to Life in Ancient Egypt and the book on Egyptian literature. I own a few books on Ancient Egypt, and its stuff that I brought a good few years ago. People of the Pharaohs by Hilary Wilson was a good read if I recall. It basically tells you about the occupations of the different people in Egypt, from mudbrick makers to bakers and priests etc. Ancient Egyptians by Anton Gill is another good read. Its a book based on the British Television series (one of the most expensive drama/documentaries ever made) which shows Ancient Egypt from the eyes of those who lived during the period, fromt the Pharaoh Thutmose III to grave robbers, murderous priests and two orphaned twins. Every chapter is based on an actual event from Egyptian history, but what makes them interesting is that they are retold by the average person on the street from that era - and they are actually based on real people, not characters. I will be looking out for some of these titles in the future, and I'll hopefully be able to buy two of them, when I get more money of course!

To own a horse and have that amount of weapons he must have been a nobleman. Whether he was an important member of the Lombard elite is something we will perhaps never know, unless his skelton shows some signs of his life.

Me too! That was a wonderful interview. I had no idea that the Triumviri had never met in person! It was also humbling when you realise how much work that's put into this site.

I've come across Anatoly Fomenko before. I think I mentioned him in the pseudohistory thread. It's very annoying trying to find ancient history videos on Youtube and having to trawl through pages and pages of those videos promoting his books.

It's true that we lack information on the character of Attila. I thought Man did a good job of it, considering the main source we have for his appearence, personality etc comes from the writings of Priscus. Most of Attila's later life is covered by Jordanes in his history, although he just quotes Priscus and offers very little insight into the Hun Chief's later life. Michael A. Babcock's 'The Night Attila Died' offers a lot of new insights on Attila, and I definately recommend that. Hopefully I'll write a review of it one day.

No Doubt Pertinax would be interested in this. I believe he also mentioned an old 70's television program based on the book... Does that program still exist somewhere?

Isn't Hawass suppose to be leading an expedition to uncover the tomb of Cleopatra? Unfortunately I can't get the link to load...although your link isn't broken, it's just that the computer's been rather slow recently.

Those are awe inspiring photographs! Astronomy Picture of the day is one of my favourite websites.

That's very well done JP! Do you have your work published in 'Ancient Warfare' magazine?

Terry Jones in 'Medieval Lives' mentions a similar subject when discussing the Mappae Mundi of the Middle Ages. He says that far too many modern people take these maps (as well as the images of the creatures with heads in their stomachs etc) in a far too literal manner. The Mappae Mundi he argues, is a map of the mind, not of physical geography or of the inhabitants of the world. Therefore it's hard to determine if Medieval people really did believe in the existence of dog headed people, or whether we moderns find it difficult to interpret Medieval symbols and their psychology. That said, didn't Medieval travellers like Marco Polo expect to run into dog headed men in his travels in Asia? Afterall Ancient Greeks like Herodotus believed in giant gold digging ants in India, so it's not that much of a step towards medieval belief in monsters.

His writings on the Macedonian Phalanx were very enlightening. I've found his website has often been sourced in a few book publications, such as Macedonian Warrior by Waldemar Heckel (Osprey) and he is well recieved among the re-enactment community. I had bookmarked the site on one occasion, but I lost the link when I got the new computer. Thanks for posting it again Gaius. Caldrail is right that the use of modern military terms can actually blur our understanding of the Roman military. Yet, I've seen some books such as 'Warfare in the Ancient World' use terms as NCO when describing Roman Centurions. I think Peter Connolly does it sometimes as well (although I need to check up on that). In that regard it is hard to blame Sander Van Dorst for those errors if scholars are making them as well.

Interestingly many historians are now reverting back to calling the Byzantines Romans. I read a book called 'The Eastern Romans 330-1461' by Raffaele D'Amato a while back (published 2007) and the author had no problems with referring to the Byzantines as Romans. A few others associate the word Byzantine with its negative connotations, seeing as many scholars of the Enlightenment period (especially Edward Gibbon) viewed the Eastern Romans as being second rate to Classical Rome. I think by calling the Byzantines Romans, we can attempt to look at the history of the Eastern Roman Empire in a more impartial light. It's similar to how Medievalists have been attempting to banish the term Dark Ages from pop culture when referring to the period AD 1000-1500.

I saw Iron man with a friend last week. It was a pretty good film - although action junkies might find it a bit plodding. I personally found it to be well paced. It also seems obvious that the film will get a sequel, especially if you wait till the end credits have rolled. I also watched I am Legend. It was very well done for the first half of the film, but the second half seemed rushed by comparison. I heard that Richard Matheson's 1950's novel was very different to the film, considering it contained talking vampires instead of mute zombies.

I saw a documentary about Sir Mortimer Wheeler sometime last year. It was a terrific look into his eccentric personality and his influence on generations of British archaeologists. A few of his books on Ancient Rome are still available on Amazon to this day, and I have been planning on getting his book on Roman architecture. The man himself though was apparently not a big fan of the Romans. He said: "I suffered from a surfeit of things Roman. I felt disgusted by the mechanistic quality of their art and by the nearness of their civilisation at all times to cruelty and corruption."

Full Metal Jacket is a brilliant film. A lot of people find the Vietnam section to be pretty poor, but I thought it was well made. I'm a fan of Stanley Kubrick and I hope to see all of his films one day, but so far I have seen: The Killing (1956) Paths of Glory (1957) Spartacus (1960) Dr. Strangelove (1964) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) A Clockwork Orange (1971) Barry Lyndon (1975) The Shining (1980) Full Metal Jacket (1987) Eyes Wide Shut (1999) I still need to see Fear and Desire, Killer's Kiss and Lolita.

The interview is fascinating and 'The Sirens of Surrentum' sounds like a great book. I need to get my hands on some of these titles.

Here's a link about the find from Times Online - The Face of Julius Caesar? Come off it! Mary Beard - Don's Life : Caesar Even if it isn't Caesar it's till a wonderful find.

Peanut butter jelly time?

Like Nephele and a few others, I look forward to the new Indiana Jones movie. This one hasn't been hyped as much as Star Wars Episode I was when it was first released. Apparently George Lucas is getting ready for some sort of backlash as he's been telling eager cinemagoers to not have high expectations for this film. For a lot of long time Indiana Jones fans, it's hard to stay neutral on the subject.

Very interesting link Nephele. If I had the money I would hope to study the Classics one day.

It is very impressive but Kassai does have the benefit of stirrups. According to John Man, the Huns might have made use of wooden stirrups as they'd been invented in India around 200 BC. Iron stirrups were not used until the Chinese invented them in the sixth century AD. For many decades historians believed that the Goths used stirrups at Adrianople in AD 378, but that has been proven to be false.

I recently watched Carandiru, a Brazilian film based on the true story of the biggest prison riot in history, where armed police officers stormed the prison in 1992 and killed and injured a few hundred people.

Happy Birthday Ursus! Hope you enjoy your day!

I saw most of it, although I missed a few minutes of the show near the beginning. It was very good. By the way did the Doctor tell Catherine Tate's character to come greet the Household dogs or Gods? I might have misheard that quote, or maybe it was meant to be a joke. I also really liked the ending, where we meet up with Caecilius family six months later in Rome, although I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen the episode.

A good point Neil. The Late Roman Army was as good as the army of the Principate in many respects. It wasn't until the final decades of the Western Roman Empire that it began to seriously decline. By that time it was already broken through successive wars and loss of resources. It was also heavily dependant on mercenary soldiers who were not particurarly trustworthy, such as Odoacer's German Foederati who finally destroyed the Empire in a revolt. Perhaps Stilichio was not as good as a commander as Caesar or Pompey, but maybe the Dominate period soldiers might have proved a tough nut to crack for the Republican Legionairies.