DecimusCaesar

It's not so strange to think that the Romans despised the Greeks, even if they had inhereted most of their culture from them. One example on the other side of the world is Japan, which inherited some of it's culture from China, yet some Japanese still despise China. They even go as far as to claim that China had no influence on Japan at all.

I will echo The Augusta's words and Welcome you Sander, to these boards! By the way, thank you for posting the season 2 episode list!

Strangely enough I saw a Russian website about the war (I would post it but the link has since broken) which had an animated timeline of the Russian front (pictures, videos, testomonies, sound clips and animated maps) and on the website they had interviews with several Russian soldiers who had fought in the war, and they claimed that despite the brutality of Order 227, they believed it helped Russia overcome the Nazis. Is this true, or is it just an exaggeration or perhaps a downplaying of Stalin's brutality? The website was excellently made, I only wish it was still up and running. Julius R, seeing as you are familiar with WWII history, have you come across this site?

A great discovery. A Roman military tombstone is usually a very rare discovery, the most famous probably being that of Tiberius Claudius Maximus, in the army of Trajan. An excellent discovery that has shed some more light on England's Roman military past.

Great picture! He does look rather mean and moody in that portrait, it sort of reflects his true personality in a way. I always believed that Roman sculptures from the late Republic- early Empire era as being realistic while sculptures from the later era (300-400) are more stylised: Portrait of Late Roman Emperor, possibly Gratian: Portrait of Marcus Tullius Cicero: You can notice the obvious differance in quality. I always thought that the less realistic busts of the later era were stylised on purpose (the giant eyes, elongated heads etc) and that this was a christian influence. Is this true, or were the busts of the later era strange looking because they badly sculpted. Perhaps there is another differant reason altogether. Strangely enough, portraits (like those found on tombs in Egypt) of both the early and later eras are rather realistic. Egyptian woman Young Woman. Middle aged Woman.

True, a chariot is much more useful as a mobile tower for killing your opponents. In the Bronze Age Middle East when both sides used Chariots (Egypt and the Hittites for example) the chariots would manouvere in the field so that only charioteers could battle against each other. When chariots came across other types of opponent as they did in later times, they proved to be rather useless, as demonstrated by Alexander at Gaugamela.

I had no idea that there were so many 'Roman sleuth' novels. I haven't read them (or many other Roman novels come to think of it) so which would you say is the best?

You are right about that. Then again conservative historians are now portraying the Crusaders as noble defenders of Christendom and the West. 'Threatened by the rise of Islam they turned to bring the war to the muslims in the holy land' they say, forgetting that Pope Urban II had urged them to go free the Holy Land, not as an attempt to stop a muslim invasion of Europe, but rather to capture pilgrimage sites for the Church. One book called 'The Politically Incorrect guide to Islam and the Crusades' likes to downplay the atrocities committed by the Crusaders (especially the Massacre of Jerusalem, 1099), while at the same time portraying them as heroes fighting for their beliefs. You could therefore say that it works both ways, with liberals and conservatives pushing their own agendas. Best hope is to buy one liberal book and another conservative one and try to reach a balance between, because let's face it, we aren't going to get a non biased history in a hurry... (Too bad they are usually both as bad as each other.) By the way, if anyone comes across the other 2 documentaries in the series, perhaps they could post them here.

I was curious about this book too, as it's been floating around on my Amazon wishlist for quite some time. I had read Philip Matyszack's other book on the Roman Republic which I thought was good (it wasn't in depth but it was worth reading or browsing through to check up facts). I might eventually buy this one as a supplement to Tacitus and Suetonius.

Many of the lost works of the Later Roman Empire. Ammianus Marcellinus is our chief historian for the period and there is a lack of good readable texts (of the quality of Tacitus,Suetonius etc) to be found for this era, but that doesn't mean that they didn't exist. Like Phil, I would also like to see the missing books of Tacitus, I for one would like to have seen his views on Caligula for instance. It would also be good to see some texts from the early republic or monarchy seeing as it is the sketchiest area of our knowledge (according to some, the texts were burnt by the Gauls in 390 BC). Personal letters and other such documents would be great to get hold of as one thing that makes Roman history all the poorer is the lack of these written documents. Some writers like Suetonius quotes Augustus' letters and we do have the letters written by Cicero but overall we have very little first hand personal accounts. I think letters, diaries etc of the various figures would make us re-evaluate our knowledge of countless historical personages. Outside of Roman history I would have liked to see the Royal diaries kept by Alexander, that is mentioned and sometimes quoted by Arrian (although they weren't actually written by Alexander). I would have also liked to have gotten hold of the account of Alexander's life written by his general, Ptolomy. I read that one group of scientists had re-discovered the missing works of Archimedes, which had been scratched off the pages of a treatise to be re-written as a prayer book by a Medieval monk. Using scanner technology, they could make the outline of the original text and therefore save this older piece of work. Hopefully they will come across more missing texts.

Didn't Darius used scythed chariots against Alexander's army at Gaugamela? According to John Warry's book, Alexander's Campaigns: 334-323 BC, he did. He says: "Darius threw in his scythe-wheeled chariots. They proved a fiasco, much in the manner of those other scythe-wheeled chariots which had fought three quarters of a century earlier for another Persian King at the Battle of Cunaxa." He was reffering to the battle fought between the Persians and Xenophon's army of the Ten thousand. This goes to show that they were used in combat, but that they proved rather useless most of the time.

An interesting question Viggen! I would think that even if we were to meet the biggest experts on the 20/21st Century in the year 4006, their view of the our own world would be very bizzare indeed, just as our own view of the ancient world would seem strange to those who lived at that time.

Happy birthday Pertinax!

I agree. Thanks for posting the link Pertinax and thank you for the Willfred Owen poem Virgil. Thank you to all those who lost their lives in the worst wars fought in human history.

Thanks for the link Germanicus. This reminds me of Michael Wood's 'In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great' where he visits a museum in Kabul that has been gutted by the Taliban. Among the smashed statues and pottery hidden in the museum's cellar he finds a little stauette of a Hellenistic Buddha, whose head has been knocked off. The former curator of the museum says that looking around the place today is 'like seeing your mother and father killed...Our whole history was here.' Michael wood simply says that it is 'heart breaking.'

He is the best source for Western Europe of this time (Switzerland, Belgium, France, Britain). His accounts of the Germans, Gauls and Britons are very interesting and informative. As Germanicus says, whenever a program discusses the Celts or Iron Age Europe Caesar is quoted. Even so some people, namely Peter Berreford-Ellis, have criticized his writings by claiming that Caesar makes many false claims about the Gauls. Berresford-Ellis himself has being criticized for agreeing with Caesar whenever he praises the Gauls but disagreeing with him whenever he has something bad to say about them, for instance his claim that the Gauls shared each others wives.

Thanks GPM! I would put some pictures up in the Gallery but I might have to have the moderators look over them first to make sure that they aren't infringing any copy-right. By the way, Pertinax has posted some excellent re-enactment photographs in the library that are worth looking up.

Wasn't the Hoplomachus based on the Greek Hoplite? Or am I being confused by the similar sounding names? Either way as GPM has said it was common to have re-enactments of famous battles or mythology in the amphitheatres. The Murmillo itself was based on the sea monster from mythology, while other Gladiators like the Thraex mentioned by Phil, were based on the real enemies of Rome. Many of the events shown in the Colosseum were based on mythology, for instance the story of Icarus who flew too close to the sun was re-enacted by having a criminal being set on fire.

Here is an article I found about the subject: Greek fire - Wikipedia It seems to be a Weapon that was used primarily by the Byzantines, whcih according to the website it was invented around AD c.670, placing it after the Roman era. It was used succesfully to repel many invaders who attempted to blockade Constantinople. It was even used against the Crusaders during the Fourth Crusade.

Here is a link from a google page full of Photographs of Late Roman Clothing and equipment from World of Stock website: Late Roman Clothing and Equipment A picture of a Roman soldier and Cataphract from Late Antiquity ( Model Set): A Late Roman Cataphract (From John Warry's Warfare in the Classical World):

I was reading reviews of this very same show a few weeks ago. I've never seen it, and after I had read about it I don't think I want to. Octavian stuck in a Gladiator camp? Antony and no sign of Cleopatra? Why do the pictures from the show have a guy wearing what looks like a badly made leather Corinthian helmet from 5th Century Greece? And so on...

Good material about Late Roman clothing is hard to get, there are few easy to purchase, cheap books about the subject. Most of the books are about Roman Military Clothing and not the civilian type which is harder to get. These are a few stuff you might want to check out: Fectio - Late Roman Re-enactment This site contains many photographs of Late Roman clothing. Comitatus - Late Re-enacment group A British group that does Late Roman Re-enactment Roman Military clothing Vol2 Link to Amazon website of the Roman clothing book Roman Military Clothing Vol3 The other title detailing Late Roman clothing Here is a picture of a Roman tunic of the era, from Ars-Romana Here is a illustration of a Late Roman Cavalryman Here is an illustration by Angus McBride of Late Roman soldiers. A photograph of a Roman archer from www.worldofstock.com I shalll try to find more for you at a later time.

Glad to see the Masada project going well! Count yourself lucky if you live in a village of 5000, In my village I am one of two or three people of my age.

My name was based on a paper I read several years ago outlining popular Roman male names. One was Decimus, so I tried that but it had already been taken. Lacking any originality or thought I just added Caesar to the end as it was the only other Roman name I could think of at the time as I was rather tired. I now regret that I hadn't chosen a better name, but even so I still can't think of another appropriate Roman name that hasn't already been used. Plus I am not sure how to change my name display anyway.

Good point. Would the Plebeians have been taught to read and write by teachers on street corners? Seeing as only those who could afford it could send their children to the ludus, the others must have been given their basic education around porticcoes and squares. According to J. V Muir "Elementary teachers were available to all but the poor" and interestingly enough some girls were also taught the basics of reading and writing, boosting the amount of the population that could read and write. Women writers are also apparent with the Vindolanda tablets that Cato mentioned, as one women writes a letter to her sister asking her to attend her birthday party.