DecimusCaesar

The only truly devestating Civil Wars that had terrible reprucussions for the future were the Civil Wars of the First century BC , which ultimately led to the downfall of the Republic, and the Civil Wars of the Later Empire (late 4-5th Centuries AD) which seriously impared Rome's ability to deal successfully with invading barbarian tribes. This is not to downplay the other Civil wars (such as that of AD 69) but the others would not have such destructive (Later Empire) and revolutionary (First Century BC) consequences for the Romans.

Thank you very much for sharing your photographs Bryaxis! Is that the Berkasova type 1 that is dispalyed in your photographs? It is a wonderful looking helmet. I believe that Ammianus Marcellinus describes a similar precious tone encrusted helmet. I think that Julian the Apostate might have lost a similar looking helmet into a river.

There were recent reports from archaeologists in Rome who found Late Romans buried within the city walls. Considering that the Catacombs also held Late Roman Christian burials it does seem to show that attitudes had changed towards burial practices. There were other changes in Late Roman burial practices, these included placing the date of birth and death of the individual on the tomb.

Another cut? Alexander seems to be turning into a new Blade Runner - they both have a dozen film versions. Coming in the Summer of 2057, Alexander: The Super King Sized Astronomical Cut with knobs on. This version will contain: * An extended love scene between Alexander and Roxane (approx 45 mins). * All dialouge dolby enhanced...Irish accents removed and replaced with Welsh. * A slightly more coherent version of the Battle of Gaugamela. * Colin Farrell's wig has been digitally removed and replaced with grapes. * A new combat scene where Alexander must fight off Cassander's super ninja troop. (approx 20 mins) * A CGI version of Ptolemy (Anthony Hopkins) as Talos, the Bronze statue from Jason and the Argonauts. * An extended love scene between Alexander and Hephaistion (approx 45 mins). * Elephants removed from the Battle of Hydaspes and replaced with AT-ATs. * Alternate ending where Alexander becomes the Star Child. Special Features: The Alexander Dilemma: Documentary follows Oliver Stone as he attempts to find the Holy Grail i.e - an acceptable version of Alexander. It shows how the film evolved through time, from the original cut in 2004, through to the 2030 version (memorable for several scenes from Pulp Fiction, The Shining and Holby City that had been spliced onto the original cut) on to the making of the 2057 Version. 5,000 TV spots and 28 New Trailers. A punishing 12 hour commentary with a drunk Stone and a distressed Lane Fox. Deleted Scenes: 10 hours worth of fooftage that made it to the cutting room floor...curiously most of them are from Ben-Hur (the 2003 animated version). Press interviews with Oliver Stone. Contains the infamous interview with Olaf Hendriksson where Stone ordered box loads of unsold Alexander DVDs to be dropped at the feet of Mr. Hendriksson, before he (Stone) walked off in silence.

The film has been released in the US and not surprisingly it was universally panned by the critics. Rotten tomatoes has given the film a rating of 19% based on the collected reviews of the film. It might not be as bad as Alexander which has 14%, so in a way it is more successful than I imagined it would be. It still flopped at the box office - I don't think it's even near the Top Ten. Has anyone seen it? I'm not even sure if I'd bother seeing it.

Why did the Senate fail to regain power? Because the emperor wasn't about to hand it to them, and unlike the emperor, the senate had no secret police, no palace guard, and no armies. Armies were the hands of regional governors, whose rebellions were fought for their own power and not the power of the Senate or people. Their was simply no mechanism whatever for the Senate to attain power. A good point. A few generations after the fall of the Republic, many Romans had no understanding of life under the control of a senate. Also as the years passed the Emperors and their guards held an even greater amount of power...even if an emperor was assassinated the Praetorians and the army would make sure that power passed to another Emperor and not to the senate. As the centuries passed the power base of Emperors got larger and that of the senate got smaller, till by the reign of Diocletian the emperor no longer had to pretend that he was just 'first among equals' like Augustus, but that he was a divine monarch.

Another wonderfully detailed illustration, good work JP!

I wanted to see the Meteor shower too, though sadly the weather wouldn't permit it. I enjoy stargazing as well, and I've had a fondness for astronomy since I was very young. Too bad the weather hasn't allowed us the chance to see anything.

Happy Birthday!!!

Excellent illustration JP! I like the adittion of the Peltast to the picture. The only source I can think of that discusses the Iphicratid infantry is John Warry's Warfare in the Classical World, although I'm sure that you already have this book. You might try some of the books written by Nicholas Sekunda. He has written extensively on Greek Warfare, and he also includes illustrations in his works. You might have to buy his academic titles, although they are very expensive.

This is excellent news! There's been a real surge in the amount of grand archaeological discoveries in the past few months. Let's hope it continues.

Great news, glad you've finally got to complete your work. Congratulations!

Rongorongo... Like everyone else, I don't think I've ever heard of that. Sound like some sort of fruit drink like Um Bongo - still it sounds very interesting. The whole Robin Hood thing has been done too much; there were lots of petty bandits in England during that time so it is near impossible to discern if he's real or not. Even if he existed, he would have probably been a really great thief, not a guy who gave away riches to the poor. The Live Science journal is a great website, thanks for posting it Viggen. I like the section they've created for Alexander the Great, never thought I'd see something like that for a science website.

Objects in the sky have almost always been interpreted as omens. The ancient Chinese would sometimes associate comets and asterioids with dragons in the sky. In the Dark ages they were interpreted as heralding misfortune - the attack on Lindisfarne by Vikings in 793 AD was preceeded by meteroites or a comet. The same with the events before the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The Romans were no different. There are many descriptions of objects filling the sky and heralding portents. Whether these can be seen as meteorites is questionable. If anything many of these sky sightings seem to have been cooked up to go with a famous event. Here are a few examples: 393 A.D. Strange lights were seen in the sky in the days of the Emperor Theodosius. On a sudden, a bright globe appeared at midnight. It shone brilliantly near the day star (planet, Venus), about the circle of the Zodiac. This globe shone little less brilliantly than the planet, and little by little, a great number of other glowing orbs drew near the first globe. The spectacle was like a swarm of bees flying around the bee-keeper, and the light of these orbs was as if they were dashing violently against each other. Soon, they blended together into one awful flame, and bodied forth to the eye as a horrible two-edged sword. The strange globe which was first seen now appeared like the pommel to a handle, and all the little orbs, fused with the first, shone as brilliantly as the first globe. 216 B.C. Things like ships were seen in the sky over Italy... At Arpi (180 Roman miles, east of Rome, in Apulia) a round shield was seen in the sky. At Capua, the sky was all on fire, and one saw figures like ships... 99 B.C. When C. Murius and L. Valerius were consuls, in Tarquinia, there fell in different places.... a thing like a flaming torch, and it came suddenly from the sky. Towards sunset, a round object like a globe, or round or circular shield took its path in the sky, from west to east. Many imaginative people have seen these as being descriptions of ancient UFO sightings, although its more likely that these have been made up by the Roman authors. The Augurs might have interpreted any meteorlogical events like these. After all, they did interpret the flight of birds, why not the falling stars?

[quote name='Lost_Warrior' date='Aug 9 2007, 06:30 PM' post='68863' Come to think of it I do remember seeing this somewhere. I stand corrected. But I still can't figure out how it wouldn't be nearly impossible to breath, or see. I wonder how many deaths resulted from eyesight being blocked by the mask. That's true. It would have been very difficult to see with the face masks on. Knights during the Middle Ages suffered the same problem. I remember visting a museum and getting a chance to waer a replica helmet of a Crusader Knight of the 12th century (a Great Helm type). It was very heavy and it was next to impossible to see anything, especially objects coming from the side.

It certainly is very impressive. Hopefully in the near future we will come across the busts of rather obscure figures from Roman history. If not, then at least we will have the famous figures. Let's hope they get one of Marc Antony, from the busts I have seen of him, they don't seem to be in very good shape.

The full face masks were sometimes worn by Roman soldiers in battle. They might have been used by standard bearers, and almost certainly by cavalry. The Cataphracts of the Later Roman Empire certainly wore full face masks in battle, and these were later copied by barbarian tribes, such as the helmet found at Sutton Hoo. These face masks are usually associated with the Hippika Gymnasia, the cavalry sports that were popular with Roman soldiers. These sports would usually involve cavalrymen throwing javelins at their opponents. The javelins were not sharp, so that the soldiers would have less chance of hurting each other.

Great Review Ursus! I brought this book recently and it really is highly recommended. I enjoyed Matyszak's book on the Roman Republic, and this was even greater. The Res Romae sections were full of interesting facts.

When's the Closing date? I'm guessing we can write about any subject within the Roman World ?

The Germans did sometimes make use of captured Roman armour and weapons after battle. It reminds me of an illustration from Newark's 'The Barbarians' which showed a victorius German cavalryman decked in Roman parade armour (with mask) duelling against another German adversary. I would therefore think that captured armour and masks would have been used by the Germans. Whether they produced masks themselves in imitation of the Romans, I cannot be sure.

Excellent list Ursus, I've been planning on getting some titles on ancient Roman Religion during the last few days. Your list was very helpful.

I wasn't that big of a fan of the music to the show. Even so, I saw a copy of it going rather cheap at the Amazon market place so I brought it. I've been listening to it now for a few days and I've developed an appreciation for it. It might not be as epic or well composed as a Miklos Rozsa soundtrack, yet it certainly has its moments. I've also pre-ordered Series 2. I'm curious to see if the new series will have missing scenes like the first one, unless of course that the BBC finally decided to show Rome in its entirety.

Peter Berresford Ellis in his numerous books about the Celts, has written much on the subject of the similarity between the continental Celts and the cultures of India. He sees similarities between the two people's myths, their statues - with Celtic deities sitting in similar poses to the Hindu deities, even their Cosmology- with Celtic thoughts on the universe following those found in the Vedic cycles. As Doc has pointed out, there are also linguistic similarities: Sanskrit: Arya (freeman) Old Irish: Aire (Noble) Sanskrit: Naib (good) Old Irish: Noeib (holy) Sanskrit: Badhira (deaf) Old Irish Bodhar (deaf) Sanskrit: Minda (physical defect) Old Irish: Menda (a stammerer) and so on. It is an interesting idea, although I think that many of the so called similarities cited by Ellis are questionable - eg - those between "Celtic" music and dance and those of the Hindus.

Director Roman Polanski is planning on making a film about the destruction of Pompeii, based on the novel by Robert Harris. The film is still being discussed, and a possible release could be 2009. Many famous actors are in talks with Polanski in making the film, among them are Robert DeNiro, Monica Bellucci, Scarlett Johansson and Orlando Bloom - although I should tell you that this isn't concrete. A Roman epic staring DeNiro does sound interesting. There are also rumors that it might be the most expensive European film ever made. If they do film it, I hope it turns out well. Here's more info at IMDB: Pompeii (2009) Anyone else heard anything about this film's production?

I believe you might be able to download a podcast of Derek Jacobi's reading of I, Claudius from iTunes, I'm rather confident that I did see a version of it floating about, although I can't be 100% sure of this. Perhaps you'd have to buy it from the iTunes store if it's not for free.