DecimusCaesar

Yes, swords as well as armour were made in Fabricae in the Later Empire, but even so a Gladius that is kept in the Bangor Museum (which I saw a few weeks ago, unfortunately I didn't get a chance to photograph it) is rather unique (I think it's mentioned in the book 'The Roman Army from Hadrain to Constantine by Michael Simkins) as it is a infantry sword but it dates to the late 1st Century, although this is uncertain. The blade itself is of a 'Pompeii' type but its unique in its shape it has a hexagonal upper half while the remainder of the blade is a sort of diamond but it is much longer than the normal gladius and it's hilt is also different. This probably demonstrates that there were different types of Gladius being manufactured or as Simkins suggested the sword is badly manufactured, therefore leading to the decline of the Gladius and it'e eventual replacement with the semi-spatha.

Cool website, the drawings are very good.

I like the article Wotwotius, it's true that spectacle will always win over accuracy, but my main problems with a lot of historical epics is that they often change something interesting and make it much more dull, for instance they could take a real person with an interesting story and personality and just turn them into 2D character that lacks any sort of depth and who just exists as 'True blue Hero' or 'Evil villain' when in fact he was much more complex and interesting than that. A lot of it might have to do with the delivery and the script. I for one thought that Orlando Bloom's character 'Balian of Ibelin' lacked humour and charisma that would have made him a much more likeable character instead of a man who couldn't get through a conversation without making a heroic, profound speech. I will be checking the link you gave at the end of the article.

Mnay of the churches have been convereted to Mosques and later re-decarated with Islamic patterns and style - like the Churxh of Sergius and Bacchus displayed in the documentary, even so there must be some Orthodox churches there somewhere, although whether these date to the Middle Ages is beyond me, but I'm sure that Mehmet II must have preserved many places of worship for the Christians after all he did make sure that Hagia Sophia remained a place of sanctuary to christians in times of trouble.

He might have been savage but Francisco Pizzaro was worse, maybe because he was from a humble background he felt he had to take more drastic actions to prove his control over the the rest of the Conquistadores. I think he only took the action to execute Atahuallpa after more Conquistadores arrived from Europe wanting some gold.

Thanks! I read an article recently about 'black' soldiers serving on Hadrian's Wall on the BBC website. It never mentioned if they actually meant 'semitic' Africans from North Africa or genuine black Africans from the south. The reason I'm not sure is that they mentioned Septimius Severus as being a 'black' African emperor, when he was semitic.

Dioynysius of Halicarnassus says that the Etruscan towns of Falerii and Fescennium preserved Hoplite equipment "Their type of weaponry: argolic Shields and Spears" - It was from here that these types of weapons spread to Rome. They adopted the equipment after having suffered many defeats at the hands (or should that be spears?) of the Etruscan Phalanx. The new type Hoplite army was made possible by the reforms of Servius Tullius (578-534 BC) who changed the nature of Roman recruitment from race to residence increasing the size of the army as well as creating richer Romans who could afford to buy the equipment. Only the wealthy fought as Hoplites 'Classis' while those who could not afford the equipment fought as 'infra classem' - light armed troops.

Great info Docoflove. It's cool to read about the conquistadores in their own words and they seem more human when you read about them 'missing the cooking' back in Spain like you said. I was reading a letter by the 'Last Conquistador' a man called Mansio Serra de Leguizamon about how he pitied the Incas (after he had taken part in their destruction) and how remorseful he was at bringinng destruction to the people who were "So free of crime and greed..." I have always wondered if this was true remorse or if it was part of his last confession? It doesn't say if the letter was written on his deathed, but if he had written it to the King while still in the prime of his life he might have actually been remorseful. Did the leaders of the Conquistadores confess their remorse at the destruction of the native civilisations?

I really hope that it is the center of Etruscan Civilisation, that would be an excellent discovery, hopefully they will uncover plenty of stuff, but then again Professor Bordo is probably correct about it being a noble man's tomb.

The Pyramids as they are the only one left standing, but I would have thought that the Colossus of Rhodes must have been breathtaking to see, I think you could barely wrap your arms around its thumb.

Cool! That's some brilliant stuff Viggen, the animations are very well done including the Roman man standing near the house. The Roman provincial towns must have had very low buildings compared to the many floored Insulae in Rome.

Thanks Gaius! I have read the article you've posted , it's very interesting because I've always wanted to know the true history behind the Paraguay Missions after seeing Roland Joffe's film 'The Mission'. Anyone else see the film? I think it won some awards at the Cannes film festival back in 1986, as well as winning oscars although Ennio Morricone's score (he of Sergio Leone's 'Spaghetti Westerns' fame) didn't win, which is a shame. Anyone else seen the film? It's pretty slow paced and a lot of non-religious people might be put off slightly by the film's tone, but it's rather interesting.

Thanks Pertinax! Oh, yes! I forgot about Aguirre: wrath of God, I have it on DVD - although the DVD productions is a pretty poor quality one, not like the Werner Herzog DVD collection. I must have been thinking of Conquistadores vs Aztecs movies when I was writing it (Has there ever been a big budget Aztec film?) - Another movie I am yet to see about a Conquistador is 'Cabeza de Vaca' which follows him through his years among the native peoples. There seems to be a lot of attention on the Mayan calendar among many new ageists these days due to the fact that is coming to an end on December 21st 2012, which will supposedly bring about a worldwide change or the end of the wold according to some others.

Does anyone have an intrest in the Conquistadores? I've been having a look at Hernan Cotrez's letters from Mexico as well as the account written by one of his fellow conquerors, Bernal Diaz and I think it's rather strange that this period of history is often downplayed (I never learnt any of it in school and there is a lack of documentaries and movies about the subject - although I do come from Britain, perhaps in the Americas they are better known?) There seems to be a change in the perception of the Conquistadores in the last few years, back in their own day they were heroes fighting for King and country and bringing the word of God to the 'heathens'. Later as the native people found their voice opinions about them changed and they began to be seen as violent, greedy men who tore ancient civilizations to pieces. Now historians are reassesing them again, seeing them as no better or worse than the people they conquered, giving us the example of Aztec human sacrifice. This might be true in some respects, but after looking through Las Casas' account of the destruction of the Indies he gives many examples of Conquistadores attacking and butchering peaceful settlements (giving rise to the whole Black Legend). Was Las Casas exaggerating as some people claim or was he telling the truth? what is your opinion on the Conquistadores? (as a whole and as individuals eg. Pizzaro, Orellana, Cortez etc)

I'd don't know about 'beautiful' but the most impressive would have been either Constantinople 9which had started getting delapidated in the 15th century) or Tenochtitlan which Bernal Diaz described as "like something I've never seen before."

I've also read the Alexander Trilogy books, The first two were alright (even if the translations were a little bland) but when it came to the third novel it seemed as if Manfredi rushed through it - it starts after Alexander leaves Egypt and ends with his death- the whole battle of Hydaspes is covered in a short letter to Aristotle (whom I believe, historically, was becoming extremely disallusioned with Alexander's orientalization policy and had cut off most links with him). As for the movie, I had seen the video that Miguel had posted, a few months ago. It seems to me that the film will be more on the line of action adventure type of movie (like the mummy films) rather than an epic like Gladiator or Spartacus. There is one short review I read a few weeks ago by someone who had seen the preview (on IMDB) and they criticised it for a cheesy dialouge. I've also heard people criticise it for hoarding up the costumes from 'Xena - Warrior Princess' and 'King Arthur'. It does seem to me that the costumes and the sets look like Rome in the First Century instead of the Fifth, but I probably will see the movie on DVD when it comes out, who knows it might be fun?

I remember coming home from school that day and my sister was sitting in front of the computer. She told me the Twin towers had been destroyed, and I thought she was just exaggerating the damage ( I had thought that something in the building had blown up - not necesserily a terrorist attack) when she said that the entire buildings had "completely" collapsed after planes had been flown into them, I still couldn't believe it. It was then that I rushed to watch it on the news, and I remember just sitting there stunned and flicking through some of the channels, seeing the same images of the planes crashing into the buildings and then seeing them collapse.

This might dispel the myth that these Female statues were carried around by male hunters as a sort of 'Playboy' of the Stone Age as some of the archaeologists claimed with the Venus of Willendorf. Interestingly I thought that many of these 'earth godesses' statues were made much earlier in the Stone age, during the Mesolithic era not the Neolithic. Does this mean as richard Rudgley suggested in Secrets of the stone age (and like many others have suggested before and after him) that females had a larger role in society? Did Women actually dominate society at this time?

I've checked Herodian of Syria in the Ancient History Sourcebook and they only have a short section on Septimius Severus, I've also looked throught the catalouge on the 'Fectio' site as it usually has an extensive range of Roman and early medieval chroniclers' texts but I still couldn't find any mention. I also read the section of Paul Cartledge's 'The Spartans' in the section on Sparta's realtions with Rome, but it only mentions Sparta's loyalty to the city and how the Spartans adopted many customs and religious ceremonies that would have had Leonidas spinning in his grave if he ever knew.

The whole Roman salute thing has confused me as well, seeing as it is portrayed in lots of Roman films and TV shows, yet I have never seen it being mentioned in any of the books I have read and I've never seen a statue, mosaic or mural showing Romans doing the 'zeig heil' type salute even though I've seen them do other salutes (or at leat out stretching their arms) such as on some statues of Augustsus and Marcus Aurelius.