DecimusCaesar

Peter Connolly also illustrated the heroic antics of the Aquilifier on the shores of Britain. The Image is on the back cover of the Greece and Rome at war book. I was considering buying the 'Tiberius Claudius Maximus' books although I have hear that they are short, although as a bonus they are well illustrated.

It is a shame that they are lost. It is true what you say Phil about how very little we know about ancient figures. We almost aways depend on what others say about them, whether it's biographies written centuries after their deaths or the biased words of their contempories (Cicero's opinions on his enemies for instance).

I'm free, But what do I know? I know nothing...I don't even know how to write my own name. But I want to know... Just to quote the movie Spartacus...for a strange reason. Thanks again Nepallia!!

I have written a review for Gladiator (the Theatrical version). If anyone wants to look at it I could send it to the site, although It probably needs to be looked over and corrected first. I am not sure if it's adequate for the site.

It says in the Oxford Classical Dictionary that it was Marcella Agrippinia that married Quinctillius Varus. She was the daughter of Agrippa from Caecilia Attica. After checking it was Publius Qunctillius Varus that she married but he later divorced her and re-married before marching off to be slaughtered at the Teutoburg Forest.

I had the same problems with the site a few days ago, I contacted Pertinax about them as I could not access the HBO thread (and various other things) to add comments. The Problem has gone now but I still have a few short stops when a page is loading.

I've been reading quite a lot about Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa recently, he is a fascinating figure and I was considering making a thread to discuss him in the Imperial forum. The important part he played in finally subduing the pirate Sextus Pompey, his friendship with Augustus and how he subsequently allowed him to become princeps by winning his battles for him and how he married Julia and ended up passing his genes to the members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. His daughter was even married to Quintillius Varus. That's not to mention his building works in Rome, he helped the Princeps in his construction that turned Rome into a 'city of marble'. I hope he makes an appearance in the next series of Rome, to be played by someone who could do him justice as opposed to the miserable man he appeared as in I, Claudius.

I'll add mine as well, Thanks Nepilla! dfadyd niaow nsaev

Another obscure figure called 'Caius Crastinus' is mentioned by Caesar at the Battle of Pharsalus. He was a former Centurion of the Tenth legion (Caesar's favourite) who commanded a veteran unit of 120 men at the battle. He was later stabbed through the mouth and killed. Caesar personally made sure that he was given a proper burial away from the mass grave and had him honoured.

Yes, the Epirotes were considered to be semi-barbarians who had adopted much of the Greek ways (language, culture, technology). They were considered only to be half Greek by those who lived in the more 'cultured' city states of the south, especially Athens- although I can't see how the Spartans could have been considered cultured. Both Macedonia and Epirus were seen as half Greek by the city states of the south (even though they had many things in common with them.) That is why Pyrrhus of Epirus had such trouble subduing Greece. He believed that his 'Greekness' gave him the right to rule the south, although people like the Athenians saw him as semi-civilized. The same could be said about Philip, Alexander's father, and the speeches made by Demosthenes, the Athenian orator, who derided him for being 'no true Greek'. Pyrrhus was of the the same stock as the Macedonians and so were many of the other Epirotes and as such this view extended to him.

There is a free documentary on the Macedonian army of Alexander the Great being hosted on google videos. It's part of an old documentary shown on the Discovery channel a few years back called 'Ancient Warriors'. Here is the link: Ancient Warriors :The Macedonians The show is rather basic and many Alexanderphiles will be familiar with the material. The program is shown from the perspective of Coenus, one of Alexander's generals as they skim rather quickly over Alexander's wars of conquest. A lot of attention is payed to the Battle of Chaeronea, where Philip's forces defeated the Greeks, but much of Alexander's career is covered quickly - it runs for Approx 25 Minutes.

The so-called 'gay personality', that is usually considered to be rather effeminate and flamboyant seems to me to be a product of eighteenth century 'fops' who dressed effeminately and often took on feminine personal traits. Homosexuality in the ancient world was different to that in the modern world - we should not associate it with 'effeminacy' or 'weakness' as it was different. Many of the greatest Greek warriors had realtionships with men and women, Socrates the philosopher (once a Hoplite soldier) and Achilles are just a few exmples. The Macedonians were well known for having bi-sexual lifestyles, one Greek citizen from a city state once said that the Macedonians loved nothing more than 'hunting, wine and a company of a boy or girl'. King Philip himself had relations with men; his assassin Pausanias, was one of them, so he certainly would not have disowned his son from military command because of his sexuality as it was considered acceptable and normal. It was not considered proper on the other hand to just have a realtionship with a member of the same sex, as a Macedonian you would have to have realtions with females as well. Alexander himself did not care much for sexual realtionships, either with men or women, he was once quoted as saying that "only sex and sleep remind me that I am mortal" although he certinaly had flings with both sexes. He had many more relations with women than men it seems, but he had a stronger connection with Hephaistion than any of the others, whether it was Roxane, Barsine, Stateira, Bagoas or anyone else. Alexander did not consider his sexual realtionships to be important, yet I find it odd that many scholars and historians seem to concentrate on it too much when Alexander himself would not have given it much thought or importance. Conquest, hunting, wine and horses were more important to him.

Tobias Posted Today, 12:17 PM I read of an experiment carried out by archaeologists in Iraq (or at least one country in the Middle East) several years ago, in which they attempted to figure out how the Babylonians could build a system to keep the gardens with plenty of water and how to have this water pushed up a few storeys in different directions. I don't know if they suceeded but it just goes to show how much work that went into the building of the structures and how ingenious the ancients could be in their engineering skills.

Great Work Ursus! I am also fascinated by the Celts and I'll looking out for other articles you might write in future. I was also under the impression that the Celts were a group that shared a similar culture and langauage rather than a racial group. The Celt-Iberians are an example of this.

I wonder how well this will be done: http://www.historyinternational.com/greatempires/ The link Gaius has provided mentions Alexander's Empire. I would like to see how they cover that Empire's decline. Will they just mention Alexander's story or will it begin with his death and how the subsequent Hellenistic dynasties declined over the next few centuries ( Antigonid, Seleucid and Ptolemaic) ? If they do go down this road that would mean the program would have to end with the aftermath of Actium. Sounds interesting, but seeing as I don't have the history channel, I won't be able to watch it.

Great review Cato and congratulations on your new status! I had brought the book some months ago and it's really good for a quick reference now and then like it's companion book 'Chronicle of the Roman Emperors'. I like to have it at hand when I am reading some extracts of Plutarch's lives or Appian's Civil wars or other primarty sources, just to have a broader outlook on the events.

I used to have goats milk when I was younger, I got it fresh from a farm and not from the shops, we had to travel a while to get it as well as fresh eggs. I had read about cow's milk containing too much hormones but I had no idea that it caused such damage. I had also read in the Classical World by Lane Fox about how drinking cow milk was a barbarian thing to do, something not fit for a Greek or Roman. Perhaps Camel cheese is much better after all. This does bring to mind how much chemicals, addatives, pesticides and other stuff that gets into food. I heard from someone a few years back that KFC could no longer call themselves 'Kentucky Fried Chicken' because the chickens had been so genetically mutated in laboratories that they were no longer chickens. They had been altered to have softer beeks so that they couldn't peck each other while they were kept in cages, that they had been altered not have feathers (no need to pluck them) and that they grew to enormous sizes at incredible speed (much more meat...) Anyone know if this is true?

If the building compnay were responsible for trying to burn the house down, I bet they would have been pretty %$*&% (is that even a word? ) to realise that they had failed. Hopefully if they try again, they will fail again. Will anyone bother trying to bring the matter up with the council or other local authorities?

What I find interesting is that most of the mutinies happened not because the soldiers were tired of fighting the war (like Alexander's veterans in India) but that they were often became idle and wanted to go back to fighting. Some of the legionnaires seemed to love war too much, a huge contrast compared to a few soldiers from the last 100 years of warfare. For Instance, when Julius Caesar was in Egypt there was a mutiny among his men after they had been idle for a time and when Caesar returned he scolded the Tenth Legion for betraying him. The Legion became upset and began begging him to take them back to war - Caesar decided to execute the ringleaders and the Legion rejoiced at his decision of taking them back to war.

Interesting article Pertinax. I probably couldn't renew the thing every day for ten days (sounds like an awfully long time to cook food) and the camel cheese sounds pretty interesting, though I'm not sure I would like to try it . I would rather have it with some other cheese. If it's healtheir than white bread i would like to try it

I can't find the source for the Sultan making the Church a sanctuary to the christians in times of trouble ( I am now beginning to think I saw Romer mention it during the last episode of the series - hopefully the one they will put up eventually so we can see), but while searching through some of my books I rembered seeing in the Appendix II to Steven Runciman's Fall of Constantinople: 1453 a section about what happened to the churches in Constantinople after the Turkish takeover. The Church of the Holy Apostles did remain as a sanctuary to christians until it was handed over to the Sultan by the Patriarch at one time, and the Sultan did extend an area of sanctuary to the Christians hiding in some parts of the city. The book is worth reading if you want more info on what happened to christian churches after the conquest. Another good book is Constantinople: The Last Great Siege, 1453 by Roger Crowley, which mentions that the Turks had already started building a wooden minaret by Hagia Sophia within a short while after the conquest.

As for next week's episode the guy who played Julius Caesar (from the brief clips I saw of him in the trailer) certainly looked a bit like him. He was bald at least. I hope it will be accurate Ursus.

As for Alexander been a 'homosexual' because of genetics, I don't believe this to be true. He had many realtionships with women as well as men. Not only did he have three wives, including the Bactrain Princess, Roxane, he also had a mistress called Barsine who was once the wife of Memnon of Rhodes, one of Alexander's greatest opponents.