DecimusCaesar

Well that's the end of that then. I didn't see all of the episode (only the second half of it) but the quality has really gotten worse even since the last episode with it's montage of scenes from across the series. The ambushing of the Goths by the Romans also looked very cheap. I wasn't surprised that the Goths sack of Rome was played down, many modern books that i have read on the subject often try to portray them as peaceful people and they say, 'well at least they kept the bloodshed down to a minimum and that they only caused a few fires'. I notice that the historical consultant for this episode was Peter Heather the writer of 'The Fall of The Roman Empire'. This goes to show that it is the BBC who is responsible for downplaying the history in favour of entertainment. Incidentally they have missed both with this episode.

No doubt they will decide to show the last day of fighting with perhaps the others being ignored or only briefly mentioned in some other context.

Despite Curry's claims that the 'Roman salute' originated in America (it doesn't matter if it did or did not) does this actually mean that the salute was a modern invention that through various 'peplums' and Hollywood films came to be associated with the ancient Romans? Was he right or did the salute originate in ancient Rome?

True, Liddell-Hart should have at least bothered to write up a comparison between the two. Like DF points out in the review, Liddell-Hart does completely over-exaggerate Scipio's achievements not that Scipio was a useless commander or anything. Like I've said before an Excellent review DF!

I remember this being one of the first anecdotes I read about when I became intrested in Ancient Greece. It sounds like they should bring it back to modern times. It's rather like a game that they would have at some upper class gatherings in the early twentieth century.

Saw this mentioned on several 'Classical History' blogs yesterday. The whole situation seems weird with the Marquess claiming the things cursed. Even so, it is a wonderful looking set.

I'm guessing that DF isn't a big fan of Scipio Africanus or rather B.H Liddel Hart blowing his trumpet. Great Review by the way DF!

The Romans did hold a strange attitude towards the Greeks. They considered them inferior but placed them on a higher pedestal, along with the Persians, above northern people like the Gauls or Germans. When Rome first started having a stronger relationship with the Greek Colonies in southern Italy many conservative Roman senators were utterly opposed to what they saw as the Hellenization of their people. To the Romans the greeks were people "who spoke too much" and who were too clever for their own good. This was opposed to the Roman idea of 'gravitas' and being solid and serious. The Greeks cam across as being too fun loving. Cato the Elder was a big critic of things Greek and many Romans would have liked to expel their corrupting nature out of Roman society. Polybius, being Greek also believed the Romans to be rather odd, especially their emphasis on ceremony and religion in numerous aspects of life, so this attitude went both ways. The Romans were traditionalist while the Greeks were more innovative when it came to science, technology and philosophy. Even so the Romans did admire their 'brains' even if many were loathe to admit it. One Roman wrote that the Greeks had contributed very little to technology yet archaeological discoveries in Greece have shown that some aspects of Greek engineering weren't surpassed until the 17th Century AD. They even claimed that the level of technological and engineering brilliance declined and even disappeared during the Roman era. During Republican times the Romans saw the Greeks as enemies no doubt after Tarentum called on Pyrrhus to come to their rescue, while Pyrrhus proceeded to destroy Roman armies while decimating his own. As such Greece became an enemy to be conquered as they posed a threat to Rome's expansion to the east. Later on we have the example of Greek cities like Athens throwing in its support to Mithridates leaving Sulla no choice but to attack the city. If Greeks would show support to Rome's enemies (as had happened earlier during the Second Punic War) then Greece needed to be subdued. It wasn't until Hadrian's time that Greece really found any sort of true acceptance in Rome, but they still remained wary of them and would never consider them to be a people equal to their own. Even so at least the Greeks could see they were more admired by the Romans thatn the other 'barbarian' peoples.

Julius Caesar himself was responsible for perpetuating the image of Britain as an island that people knew very little about and this image is rather true ( but it's also been exaggerated by Caesar to make his invasion of the island seem even more dramatic) as he says in his Conquest of Gaul: "...Of all this the Gauls knew next to nothing; for in the ordinary way traders are the only people who visit Britain, and even they know only that part of the coast which faces Gaul. And so, although he (Caesar) interviewed traders from all parts, he could not ascertin anything about the size of the island, the character and strength of the tribes which inhabited it, their manner of fighting and customs, or the harbours capable of accomodating a large fleet of ships." This is supported with his descriptions of the legions landing in Britain and being amazed at the masses of British Warriors come to meet them on shore. Britain; despite the information brought to him by traders; would have still seemed a very strange land; where men still rode into battle in chariots as if it were the heroic age. There are other tribes from Britain that share names with similar tribes on the continent, the Parisii are one tribe from Yorkshire which share the same name as a tribe found around the Seine Valley in France. Modern scholars do not believe that Parisii found In Britain are migrants from the continent though, but there are several interesting links between their culture.

Pharsalus aside, we will be given the battle of Philippi next season, so that will be woth looking forward to... I wonder if they will be keeping to Roman tactics or if it turns into a brawl with soldiers spining and twirling with their swords or picking up their enemies and flinging them through the air (like they usually do in epic movies). Maybe they will take the different road and try to portray a realistic ancient battle, perhaps the first ever shown on screen.

An interesting find. It is strange considering the wealth of neolithic finds discovered in Turkey. It's either cities or now postage stamps. Maybe one day they will find the stone age cars from the Flintstones.

I saw an episode for the battle of Gaugamela on a site back in late 2004, early 2005 although I believe it was a countdown site for Alexander and it has since been removed. If I remember correctly a lot of those battles were made using the Beta version of the game. You can now find reconstructions of the battle of Asculum on Youtube using RTR engine although unfortunately it doesn't have any sound.

I saw this film at Blockbusters about a year or more ago but I didn't rent or buy it. I was intending on getting it one day but I soon forgot that it existed. I thought Peter O'Toole hated 'historical' epics after he had done Troy, which he said was awful after it was panned by critics. As for his role in this film I can't say as I haven't seen it, but, O'Toole once said that "Acting is a matter of farting around in costumes."

I apologise for my mistake. I made a similar mistake to Sir Arthur Evans. Associating material culture found at archaelogical sites to deem that that area was heavily influenced (or in some cases conquered by) a certain neighbouring culture. I think he claimed that the Minoans had ruled over the Bronze Age Aegean and that they were the dominant culture of the late Bronze Age when in fact it was revealed after his death that the Mycenaeans had conquered Crete.

The legions themselves played a part in this. Caesar's own troops were the veterans of over 8 years of warfare against Gauls, Germans and Britons. The senate's own troops commanded by Pompey were raw recruits who didn't have the skill or the staying power of Caesar's legions. This was an important factor in the battle of Pharsalus. Pompey's cavalry lacked the fighting skills of Caesar's troops so they broke and fled. If Pompey might have commanded veteran soldiers at Pharsalus he might have defeated Caesar. Not only did a usurper against the state need excellent abilities in strategy, tactics and leadership they also needed troops who had an edge in combat, men who knew exactly what to do in battle.

I might buy a new computer sometime, but that might not be for several more months. Either way by that time Medieval 2: Total war's expansion pack will have been released. I liked doing that when I was playing as the Greeks or Macedonians. I remember once I only had about 250 or 300 levy hoplites to defend a city on the coast of Asia Minor against a Pontic army of over a thousand men. I set my phalanxes on all the roads leading to the town center and hundreds of Persian spearmen and swordsmen, even horse archers and the General's bodyguard threw themselves at me and ended up being slaughtered to a man. Those who ran away I didn't chase, so they ended up turning back to face me even more exhausted while my troops remained fresh. That city was attacked several more times by the Pontians before I manged to sail reinforcements to them. Later on those hoplites took part in the battles that single-handedly destroyed the Pontic Empire and conquered all of Pontus and Armenia. They played a part in all of those battles and the general that commanded them recieved ten stars and numerous military virtues and a good retinue. Later on they were slaughtered by a Egyptian army full of horse archers, phalanxes, chariots, axe-men etc and the general was killed.

You are right Antiochus, Tigris of Gaul does give a 'bellamy' salute as he rides in to battle Maximus in one scene.

I don't remember much of it as I saw it late at night back in the late 90s (perhaps 1998 or 1999). All I remember from it was that Marcus Didius Falco was followed around by a big German Gladiator and that he had a thick australian accent. I'm not sure if I saw all of it.

There is a film I believe based on the Marcus Didius Falco books, I saw it back in the 90's one night. I don't remember much of it, except Marcus Didius Falco was followed by a German Gladiator. The film was on at about 3 or 4:00 AM and I was very tired so I did not see all of it. Have you seen the film? Here is a link: Age of Treason By the way is it based on one of the books from the series or is it an individual story that was put to film?

Egypt had many links with the Mycenaean World, interestingly enough a plaque with the cartouche of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III was found in the cult centre room at Mycenae. I'm not sure how this symbol of the Pharaoh of Egypt found it's way to Mycenae but it does show that were important links between the two cultures. These links with Egypt and the near east were both diplomatic and based on trade. I'm sure that a lot of Mycenean material culture was based on that of Minoan people of Crete and the Minoans were heavily influenced by the Egyptians.

You might be on to something! It was rather odd that Octavian was away from Rome with the support of two able people when Julius Caesar was murdered. Suetonius tells us that Caesar had made him his heir. Perhaps it was arranged that he should be far from the city with legions nearby.

What you say is true a good leader isn't worth anything if he is surrounded by useless people. Augustus was lucky enough to have been friends with Marcus Agrippa, who gave him the military edge that he lacked. What might have come of his ambitions if he had given control of his military to an incompetent general? It might have been Antony in control of Rome. Is there any mention made of Agrippa's own retinue? He might have been given his strategies by them.

I remember seeing a terracotta of a teacher teaching men and women in a street once but I cannot find the picture or where I saw it. Even so, on the Education of Women I found this source on the Roman-Empire.net Website:

I never saw 'Gunpowder, Treason and plot' but didn't the bloke who played Lucius Vorenus from HBO's Rome star in that program? I heard he was a member of the cast.

The only problem with this man's technique is that it is believed that the 'blue stones' a small number of stones brought to Stonehenge came from the mountains of south Wales. How they managed to 'spin' those stones all the way to southern England, including a crossing of the Severn river is much harder too explain. That is only if these 'blue stones' came from Wales and perhaps they didn't.