DecimusCaesar

This new method is very good, if they can make picture perfect 3D digital recreations of monuments then they can copy the pages from old manuscripts, this would be useful for display in museums for instance as i remember going to see the Book of Kells in Ireland and noticing only a few pages were on display. A program that would allow you to thumb through the pages of the book on a computer would be great, but I suppose that it would be too difficult to copy all pages and it might end up damaging the manuscripts. Might be a good idea though.

Computers can be a lot of nuisance, my friend has had nothing but trouble with his and he can't get any updates for it because his PC was a 'TIME' computer, a company that has since gone out of buisness. I'm hoping I can get a new PC by next year as my own is getting rather old (about 6 years). Hope your new PC will be good Lost_Warrior.

The Greek general Menander converted to Buddhism after an invasion of India and it became popular in many Greek controlled areas in the east like Sogdia and Bactria, but I have looked in the Classical Dictionary and they do not have Buddhism listed there and there is nothing about Buddhism listed in the section on Roman religion, even so it might have had a small number of followers in the Roman east but it was not a large enough following to attract the attention of the authorities.

I've never seen the 'Druids' movie but i've heard it's been listed in the bottom 10 of the worst films ever made by IMDB, but it might have moved up since then.

Interesting article Pertinax! It's strange considering the popularity of black as pigmentation as I had always thought that the Romans had gone for brighter colours. Would the houses and clothes of the early Imperial era differ from those of the late Republican? I had read that the Romans of the late Republic enjoyed brighter colour pigmentations (eg. the Senators in their brightly coloured togas were different to those of the imperial era with their white ones).

I would have thought that the richer families would have stayed at home more than the plebs seeing as they could do most of their work at home. A good Domus could rent out rooms as shops as well as having a study room (Tablinum). It also had the benefits of having a lot of comforts such as the dining rooms, walled gardens and atrium. I guess they only left on the place some times to go to shows or the baths, while I wouldn't blame the plebs for not wanting to stay in the cramped, dirty Insulae for long periods of time. I'm probably wrong about this though. Great article, Pertinax!

Yeah, it's more of an art/society show than a history one. You can't blame John Romer for doing it that way as I can't see how he would have fitted the whole narrative history of Byzantium into a four part show. Still can't find the other two episodes, which is a shame. Neo Dionysos, Have you been to Istanbul? got any good pictures there? (I would have love to go there one day).

Welcome Sparta156! This is interesting because I had always thought that Sparta under the control of Rome was considered nothing more than a strange little city where people could go and watch Spartan youths being beaten with sticks in a theatre, a sort of mockery of the old Spartan training regime. I had always thought that the Romans had seen Sparta as a quaint, rather pathetic place. I didn't know that they had respect for it (but then considering Rome's love of strength and the military - I shouldn't have been that surprised.

Life was harsher in Roman Britain due to the fact that most of the country remained under military control for the entire period, for instance if you look at areas such as Northern Britain, Wales, Cornwall and so on there is a lack of Roman civilian infastructure but a lot of Military buildings. Although life must have been good to the Britons who lived in Southern Britain and some other urban areas, with their baths; entertainment facilities; grand temples and heated villas; for the rural population all the Romans brought must have been the studded hob-nailled boot of the soldiers. That is unless further archaeological discoveries in these poorer areas show signs of grand Roman towns.

I think we will have to wait and see...there's a new batch of historical epics coming up soon, Apocalypto (Mel Gibson's Mayan movie) 300 (movie based on Frank Miller's comics) Warrior (the Boudica film) and a nunch of others I can't recall. Perhaps if these fail the film will be cancelled just like the Alexander movie by Baz Luhrman that was in production when Oliver Stone's Alexander was made.

Good Review Cohort! I might get this book eventually seeing as I lack a lot of stuff on the Punic wars, except for a few Osprey titles like 'Hannibal's war with Rome' and a few others that only give a basic outline of events.

My opinion on Gladiator seems to change all the time. I think in terms of some of the action scenes its pretty good but it still lacks atmosphere in some places, I think that might have more to do with me being distracted by the historical inaccuracies. I watched it a few days ago for the first time in years and it was much better than I remembered. I think one of the main reasons I was disappointed with it first time round was that I had been looking forward to the film coming out ever since I saw a preview of it in Empire magazine with the legions marching through the forests (It was in some ways the the first big budget Roman movie for decades) and when all the reviews and hype came through I wanted to see it even more (although I never got a chance to see it in the cinema). When it came out on DVD I watched it and I felt rather disappointed (I turned it off halfway through, but that wasn't to do with me hating the film). Ursus has already pointed out how sterile the film seems and it is in a sort of way, plus it lacks some charm -something that effects most hitorical epic movies (that might be something to do with a lack of humour in a lot of them). Either way, I liked it more the last time I watched it but I still prefer some other films to it.

I've noticed the differance between a Insulae and a Domus in terms of architecture. The Domus is supported by colums while a insulae is supported (considering it had many floors) by arches. I suppose that the realtionship between the middle class families living in the Insulae on the lower floors would have a different realtionship between the rich families in the domus seeing as they had to live on one floor, without much rooms, meaning that the men and women would have had to lead different lives. Or did all Roman families (whether rich or poor) have to live according to the same code, or would the dominance of the man of the house be different to the poor families that lived in the insulae?

Happy Birthday! Hope you have a great day!

Im not sure about legionaires but Auxillaries were moved from place to place in small numbers eg. 16 Auxillaries were moved from a fort in Housesteads to guard on Hadrian's wall - but this might have to do with the small accomodation at the wall's mile castles itself and not with small groups of individuals taken from one area to the next. Again, this is to do with the auxillaries and not the legions.