DecimusCaesar

Your right on the Ottoman stuff Kosmo, the Ottoman was traditionally founded by Osman in the year 1299.

I found this quoted from a review to a book called Gladiator: Film and History, which discussed how symbols and images of ancient Rome are portrayed on film: Dr. Rex Curry's discovery that the USA was the origin of the salute of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. Dr. Curry showed that the USA's early Pledge of Allegiance (to the flag) used a straight-arm salute and it was the source of the salute of the monstrous National Socialist German Workers' Party. The salute of German Socialists has sometimes been labeled an "ancient Roman salute." Dr. Curry helped to establish that it was not an ancient Roman salute, and that the "ancient Roman salute" is a modern myth.

I have not seen the other television programs mentioned here concerning the Tudor and Stuart dynasties but who remembers the woeful 'Boudica' brodcast on ITV a few years back? That was not in the least bit historically accurate a fact made obvious by the ending where a druid casts a magic spell sending one of Boudica's daughters to live in modern day London. That program was memorable simply for being so bad, the highlights include: *Little children defeating Roman soldiers in battle. *Claudius having a party with Boudica and Prasutagus. * an Evil Roman senator with a big smirk on his face as he watched Britons being tortured/raped/decapitated. * Suetonius Paulinus returning from his campaign against the Druids on Mona by visiting Nero in Rome to tell him that the druids 'simply wouldn't die'. He then leaves for Britain again to face Boudica. * The Chief Druid who had magic powers, including the ability to appear and disappear. He also had a Scottish accent when the rest of the Celts had an assortment of English accents, cockney etc. * The Celts destroying an entire Legion by ambushing them while they slept. During the attack Boudica copulates with her new lover in a Roman soldiers tent. and so on and so on... It's worth seeing just for comedic value.

There has been a trading link between Britain and France for thousands of years, probably as far back as the Neolithic era, certainly by the Bronze Age. New theories suggest that the Catuvellani tribe that existed in Southern England at the time was ruled by a upper-class that consisted of Belgae nobles, which explains the high level of La Tene type culture and Oppida Forts in the area. The Atrebates and Regni were also heavily influenced by the Belgae. Caesar says that the people of Cantium, the Cantii in south-east England were the most civilised people he encountered in Britain and these people also had a heavy Belgic political and cultural influence. These people were obviously heavily influenced by the tribes from the continent. They had been trading with the Gauls for a long time selling hunting dogs and tin to the continentals among other things. Wotwotius probably has more information about this subject.

Gregory of Nyssa attacked th institution of slavery and Augustine believed him saying that man's domination over his neighbour was inherently wrong. Even so he said that there was no way of ending it and slavery was a result of the 'fall of man' but it was still conidered to be wrong. The Christian Bishops allowed people who treated their slaves kindly to keep them but in some special cases the same bishops used the money collected by the church to emanciate those slaves that were treated badly. Later on it became a rule of monasteries to oppose slavery on the grounds of morality, although the practise of using slaves still continued.

Claudius had one built in Ravenna where he floated in and out of the harbour after his return from Britain according to Lane Fox's 'The Classical World'.

My own personal opinion of Claudius seems to conflict with the image I've seen of him in I, Claudius. In the series he is portrayed as the only sympathetic character and many of his worst vices are excused or not even mentioned. In one scene we see him discussing with senators about building the port at Ostia and he come across as a good adminstrator and a man who's good with money. In real life of course he was responsible for numerous extravagances including the mock floating palace and the grand battle he had conducted near the Fucine lake. He certainly liked playing to the crowds and the common people. Either he was extravagant or the senators despised his constant playing to the plebs for support.

Sargon of Akkad, I'm only saying that as he was the earliest recorded warlord or leader in history. Personally I'm not sure...perhaps the person who invented fire?

That's a very strange story! I'm just glad that the crazy guy was caught, he has got be insane if he sets off invading people's homes when there are cops out looking for him. It was just lucky that you managed to arrive home when you did. Glad to hear you and your family are ok.

Sorry for resurrecting this old thread but I came across a documentary about this theory on a Public domain website. It is worth a look, although it's much longer than Viggen's description: Elegant Universe: The 11th Dimension The Public domains website is well worth looking at as it has many other free documentaries and films including Byzantium: The Lost Empire by John Romer. Some are good quality but others seem to be a bunch of cheap conspiracy documentaries that only just got shunned from the Discovery Channel late night line-up.

Only the Fall of Rome to go now... I suppose they will re-hash some scenes from the Constantine episode for this one. The quality of the costumes and sets have declined since the first episode - now they seem to hav re-hashed some old stuff, re-painting armour and weapons to make it look diffrent and different characters seem to be wearing the same costumes (I'm sure Constantine was wearing Tigellinus' armour from the first episode). I expect to see Julius Casaer's men battling against the Barbrian horde in next week's episode before they magically transform into comitatenses.

Congratulations Pantagathus!

I don't know about Mohenjo-Daro being the oldest but it does exist - it was a city that measured up to 3 three miles in length and was built on the Indus plain . It was one of the oldest in the world but I believe that Catal Huyuk in Turkey or Jericho in Israel have also been named as candidates for the oldest cities. Either way Glyn Daniel's book 'First Civilisations' which is pretty out of date by now (published 1967) lists Sumeria, Egypt, The Indus Valley and The Meso-American Civilisations as being the oldest in the world. If you consider the Minoan Civilisation to be the oldest eastern European civilisation that takes you to around 1700 BC. The oldest Western european culture might considered to be the Hallstat Celts who might have appeared around 1200 BC (around the era of the Trojan War).

Welcome to the Forums! I have never worn a toga so I can't be much of an assistance with it. Even so I ca provide a few links: Toga - 1 How to make a Toga If I was going to a fancy dress party and I was going to wear a toga I would either hire a Roman costume or failing that I would sling a bed cloth over me (which is simpler and cheaper). Sorry I couldn't be more help.

Hope you have fun Augusta!

Great article! The view from the Fort across the lake is beautiful. The site looks very peaceful considering it was once a military site, albeit a small scale one.

Today's the marking of the final braking of Hannibal's power. Unless you count his years travelling in the Middle East and his support of the Seleucid King.

I didn't notice that as I haven't seen the Godfather, but I did notice a similar pattern in the last few minutes of the show to things I've seen in other films and Television shows. They also made him too christian too early. He didn't start pursuing his christian policy until Licinius was killed in 324, when he banned pagan sacrifice. Like you said, they should have made a reference to his death-bed conversion.

Either way if they shuffled one cohort to another legion it would still rely on that new legate for supplies, pay, food etc so if the one legate wanted to turn upon the state they could still do it as the cohort relies on whoever controls the army. I think it was more important to keep the soldiers occupied with tasks rather than switching them from one legion to the next.

True...plus they had a mixture of early/Late Roman costume in the episode. The combination of scenes taken from earlier episodes as well was very strange and makes the series look cheaper as it progresses. I found it strange that there was no mention made of the building of Constantinople or of various stuff from Constantine renouncing paganism (when he was making coins with the Sun God portrayed on them) to no mention of his son and why he ordered his death.

The Sumerians did make use of battle carts in warfare, which acted as primitive chariots. The only problem with them was that they could not turn as the wheels were not spoked and the chariot cab itself was too solid and inflexible. I have read in several books that the wheel was invented in Ancient Sumeria, but then again it might be much older than this, I'm not sure. The Egyptians did not have the wheel to build the Pyramids...neither did the Ancient Britons have them to build Stonehenge.

Found this article on BBC news about how Human beings might look like 1,000, 10,000 and 100,000 years from now according to research by Oliver Curry a Evolutionary Theorist. Future Humans Most of it is speculation and I personally can't see how he can predict how humans will look like in the distant future. What do you think will human beings look like in the future?

I'd go with Sumerians too, they were the first civilisation as far as we know, with Egypt and India and perhaps China following afterwards.

That's a nice quote Pertinax, it reminds me of some of the writings of other ancient people, although they are moved to write down the exploits of heroes rather than the ordinary every day things.

Thank you Antiochus! Have you seen the Director's cut? Maybe you could write a review for that version of the film. Thank you for the comments, they are very much appreciated!