pompeius magnus

I would interview either Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, my idol, on why what in the end caused him to turn his back on caesar and if he thought caesar was justified in his actions, or I would interview Cicero on his oratory techniques and styles which might help me in being a better debater.

Who do you think was the master of the siege in the ancient world, or what was the best executed siege operation.

Another general that comes to mind would be Marcellus. He executed the siege of Syracuse excellently and Livy tells us he is one of the best roman generals of that war. If Syracuse had become ally of Carthage the Roman fortunes would have taken a turn for the worst.

the south has their famous saying the south will rise again. first they need to have cities to compare with north. it won't happen

Oh no now you are bad mouthing my man pompeius, I must interject. Pompey was a brillant general in his earlier years, especially at adapting to changes such as in Spain against the far more experienced Sertorius. During his friendship with Caesar while he was in Gaul was full of paranoid feelings. He was having his thoughts impacted by both Caesar and the Boni. In the end, the boni were able to persuade him to join their cause, not easily mind you. Pompeius' moving to Greece was a brillant idea as it kept Rome and Italy from being damaged and littered with human and animal corpses. The defeat he suffered in Greece can be explained in 2 ways. One he listenened to his advisiors who knew little about war, except for a few of them, and hatily gave battle to Caesar. In the end however Pompeius was defeated by a general so great he became a god soon after his death if you believe in the roman religion, Zeke do you beleive that Caesar is a god or not. Pompeius was outmatches as many great generals would have been. This is not an argument that Pompeius is greater than Caesar, very few if any are, but is an argument over whether Pompeius was great or deserved to have cognomen of Magnus. I believe he did because of his achievements in war, defeating Sertorius who learned from Marius, destroyed pirates raiding mediterranean, finished what Lucullus could not finish, and last of all captured areas of Syria and Israel. Now if those do not make one great then I do not know the meaning of the word.

I am master of early rome from founding origins up to Gallic Invasion of 390 BCE

The roman law code was the basis of Justininans corpus civis legis which was the law code adopted in all of europe except england and stood until Napoleon modified it with his Napoleonic code. Its laws were among the most important aspects that they brought to Western Europe, however their early laws of the 12 tablets were derived from Solon's greek laws during reign of decemvirs.

Actually Urus I believe in the republic there were three classes and within those three there were many more divisions. the Patricians held the position of upper class, the Plebians were roughly the middle, and the head count the lower class. Within the Patrician class there were the head or lead families, such as the Iulli, Brutii, Scipii, and Claudian, and the lower new families, such as perhaps Cicero and Marius who became a patrician through marriage into Iulli family. It is interesting though that the sacred plebian assembly was infilitrated from time to time by patrician families, such as Clodius- Caesars plebian minion who was adopted by a man of plebian status younger than him I believe as a son. I have another theory that the main cause for republics fall was the tribune of the plebs, a valuable resource used by many generals to gain power, in particular Gaius Marius with Saturnius, and Caesar with Clodius. I have thought about writting a book when I get my phd in roman and greek history about the evolution of the roman class system during the republic from 2 classes to 3 and a historical perspective from each 3 would anybody find that interesting.

I am 22 and finishing up my BA in history and classics within 2 years, then off to grad school

I set up massive trading networks in Gaul, then the senate got mad at me and I had to march on rome and crusify all of them, except the Julii of course.

The republic at its end was corrupt to the core. the Boni versus Caesar. The senate was always corrupted by Patricians as well as the courts. The empire I have little knowledge of as I have not yet begun my study of it. What I will say is after the end of the julii line of emperors things just got ugly. If you want to point a finger, Gaius Marius is a good choice. His reformation of the army to make troops loyal to the general instead of the state caused civil wars in the late republic- Sulla and Marius/ Pompey and Caesar/ Octavius and Anthony. This also was true in the empire after the end of the age of peace in the early empire. By 500 AD Rome was so corrupt that it nearly rotted, only to be saved by the Goths who preserved parts of Roman culture.

If memory serves, Cleopatra was a daughter of Mithrates am I correct or is there another tie to the Macedonian line.

Now what about the Pontic empire of Mithrades, took Greece, then Sulla came in and that was the end of that. May have been part of Ptolemic dynasty though.

The Greeks had a habit of being bisexual at times, and since Rome followed many Greek cultural aspects it was accepted. It is believed that Lucius Cornellius Sulla was somewhat of a homosexual in his early poor days. Greek mythology also shows homosexuality, such as the various stories of Zeus taking a mortal boy to be his servant, and of the myth of Jason and the Argonauts where Herakles stayed on board Argos to be with his boy lover while the other Argonauts were getting pleasured by the many women of Lesbia I think it was.

My man would be Maximus Fabius the delayer, pretty famous but just going with the trend, his tacticts inspired Scipio and if not for some opposers in the senate Hannibal may have been forced to leave Italy by 215 instead of later on.

My ideal way to die if I lived in Roman times, sarcasism on my ideal way to die, would have been crusifixion. The prisionser from spartacus' army of gladiators were crusified along specific intervels from the country, I believe around campania, towards Rome. Those Romans sure knew how to prove their point. Or another one of my favorites, being dragged behind a chariot till you died, or the Spartan lashes until they could see your spine for simply leaving your shield in the wrong position when you rested.

What about the worst. As much as he could dominate at politics and government, Augustus was a poor general, but hey with a guy like Agrippa on your side he didn't really need to be a good commander, b/c Agrippa was an excellent one and often overlooked one.

Among the first thing that a Roman child would learn would be Greek.

Two big differences that christianity made towards Roman and culture was it disabled, to an extent, the ability to transfuse culture and religion into Roman society and religion as the pagan days were able to do. Christianity was too constricting and too strict about who could be worshipped. That is one reason why it is hard for a chistian, such as my self, to stay dedicated to my God and study and praise Pagan Rome, but I manage.

The Roman legionnaires were among the most disciplined soldiers in history, being rivaled only by the Spartan soldiers. The Spartan soldiers were trained to fight from age 7 to about 20 and were also taught the art of unarmed combat, as well as how to defeat Phobos- panic or fear. Since the Romans did adopt many things from Greek culture, some of their miltiary discipline may very well have been brought in from the Spartan model by Gaius Marius when he reformed the Roman military system. How ever this is just assumptions and can not be proven.

Anyone who can learn Latin as their native language will have no problem learning any language. Greek was very wide spread even in parts of Gaul, and Romans learned the Gaulic languages to a certain extent from their vast dealing with them.

I feel that the reason romans persecuted Christians, and Jews for that matter, was because they failed to recognize the divinity of the emperor, as they are monothestic.

Augustus by far, without Augustus there is no empire.

If you want to be technical, after the fall of rome was known as the dark ages, the time of the middle ages is widely debated, but I would put it at around time of first crusade towards end of 11th century.

I am an ESFP.