frankq

Hmmm. This interesting. And I agree, hyperbole is the answer. Dio's statement caught me and I reared back.

This from Dio's description of the 64 fire: The whole Palatine hill, the theatre of Taurus, and nearly two-thirds of the remainder of the city were burned, .... The theater of Taurus was the Amphitheatrum Statilii Tauri, Rome's first stone theater. Any case, ''the whole Palatine''...? I don't buy this, if so it would've wiped out several of the major imperial residences not on the damage list. Nero's Domus Transitoria was on the lower eastern edge and naturally got nuked. Since the fire started on the Palatine side of the Circus Max, I can see how it would get especially hit, also because the winds were coming from the south east. But the ''whole of it''? Anyone have insight on this? Was anyone there to see the fire? If so, did you call 911? Tacitus also states that the Regia was destroyed but invesitgations have shown that this isnt true.

Oh, no---you have to be at the mercy of the networks. But this is an old timers' thing, a hangover from growing up with TV in the 50's. It makes things more fun. No immediate gratification. Of course, I have the luxury of saying this since TV up here has few commercials, no editing of sex, etc.

As Amazon UK manages regulary to ship my stuff without problems and even reasonably fast to South Africa, i assume they wont have a problem doing the same into Scandinavia, after all it is just across the north sea cheers viggen Oh, no, you don't understand---and I wasn't clear. I can't watch Rome on DVD. It's against the rules. I belong to the old school where you are forced to wait until things arrive, accompanied even by commercials. As late as the 80's my cronies and I were still hailing our old B&W set as ''real TV''.

Not so soon here in Scandinavia. Unless you have special cable. Drat...

http://www.utexas.edu/courses/ancientfilmC...ytimesrome.html Anyone read this? It might be old, if so, sorry. I still havent been able to get Rome over here in Europe.

Being emperor was Agrippina

That, too, I considered. Definitely some fixation with a domineering and older member of the opposite sex. Interesting to note that Caesonia, Gaius' wife, was a few years older too and like Poppaea already had kids.

Consider this about Poppaea. I checked and rechecked and rechecked. This lady was seven years Nero's senior. He replaced one dominatrix with another.

BINGO!!!! Bingo, bingo, bingo!!!!!

Anyone up on Paul and Peter and James? At one point I'm reading that Paul chided the other two for not eating with gentiles in Antioch and at another point they were agreeing with him about admitting Jews into the community without the need to follow the Mosaic Law. I assume one incident was the outcome of another. Like most here I'm a glorious pagan and my years of Methodist sunday school never made any impact.

Hmmm, interesting. Emesa was on the major trade routes.

Good thing you did, I struck gold about the place. The thing I don't get, how could Drusilla, as a Jewish princess, marry into a dynasty of priest-kings who worshipped a sun god?

I found a link earlier that verifies this but called its more modern name Hums. However, in searching around for Hums I couldnt find anything else. But following your lead I saw my problem. There's plenty on ''Emesa'', one s. My searches couldnt go through with two s's written in.

According to the ancient sources, Livilla, the youngest daughter of Agrippa I of Judea, was married to a ''king Azziz of Emessa''. I have combed the Net and can find no real ''Emessa''. However, there was a little kingdom of Edessa in southeast Mesopotamia. Is this possibly a typo then?

Interesting speculation but she married Claudius in 10 AD, only four years before Auggie's passing. And they (royal family) tried to keep Claudius out of the limelight as much as possible. When Tiberius came to power, decorum and social events went to the winds, he could have cared less. Yet, I think your suspicions are well founded. Compare the match to her to Messalina, a head turner of the times.

There were no footnotes, so I would have to wade through her long bibliography. She has many juicy tidbits too about Messalina that I haven

BINGO! I found something. From a German historian, Maike Vogt-L

The issue with her always stuck with me when I read I, Claudius back in the 70

Anyone have any dope on the size of Claudius

I had that happen, too, only with the theme song! Horror of horrors! A fault of our cave man psyche!

Trying waking up like I did today without about four of the worst songs running in your head. And at the same time!

I watch it every year. I like the groups that sing in their native languages and don't try too hard to be American. I'm here in Norway and my wife was rooting for the Finns. First time in eight years that there was no contest or doubt who was going to be the winner, either.

I keep on coming across this, emperors like Claudius and Tiberius issuing edicts prohibiting the sale of boiled water and boiled meat at taverns. What is this about?

I don't think Josephus made a mistake here. Procurator (unfortunately) was a position that carried many varying functions. A nice overview from Livius.org Ah! Thanks! How'd I miss it? I know his site well.