Pertinax

Pantagathus and self swapped E mails about 17.30 ish ,site seemed to be unavailable for perhaps 30 minute.

Area denial is the term appropriate to the use of this type of weapon -apart from any actual direct killing potential, you would , if possible avoid where the bolts are heading for if you had the choice: hence an opponent can exert tactical /strategic pressure . Receiving a Principe unit would be a bit of light relief by comparison.

Are we having Outage or just routine maintenance?

"Man is never more serious than when he plays" C G Jung.

Not so seriously -I suggested the image of Nero on the fiddle that I posted in my miscellenia album.

An excellent review indeed , I was able to preview it a short while ago and am very pleased to be able to comment . The review is clear, incisive and direct: I bought the text on Pantagathus's recommendation, being an avid follower of all things related to the Deity of Boundaries. Pantagathus has said enough to hint at the intellectual rigour of this charming essay ( its not a large book) without giving away the diverting exploratory journey the reader will undertake. Well done Pantagathus! Crosser of intellectual boundaries!

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roma...elsus/home.html A very useful link to a translation of the work of Celsus-of whom so little is known, it may be that he transcribed/translated a much earlier Greek work, it is not even known if he was a working physician. The work is a useful summary of the Ancient Schools and the competing dogmas (dogmatic, methodic and empiric). and here is a nice quote: [Legamen ad versionem Latinam] "To treat pimples and spots and freckles is almost a waste of time, yet women cannot be torn away from caring from their looks".

I got carried away by the "mass casting-out of retail devils".

I have subscribed to the Reverend's newsletter-anyone who eschews starbucks, disney and macdonalds and their insipid "modernity" gets my vote.

Forum members have touched this area before, but I cant nail the thread as yet. There were several salient points in relation to Roman effectivness versus later and machine age armies.If I remember the gist was something like this: 1. killing potentallity was not surpassed until the introduction of the machine gun , Napoleonic and American CW battlefields did not surpass the lethality of combat with a pilum/gladius equipped unit. As an aside body armour protection of a Roman standard would have been an especially useful item in reduction of fatalities even on a Napoleonic battlefield. 2. logistical/commisarat potential was unsurpassed until the early part of the Second World War-the construction of Hadrian's Wall (ref Fields-Osprey check the "materials/chronology section and this refers to the "modern" section of rebuilt wall I have posted in the Vindolanda gallery ) is still almost beyond many modern Engineer units.Some say Vietnam is the real tipping point. 3.Casevac was unsurpassed until the Korean War, and the return of formerly wounded trained men to combat fitness was a driving policy goal from Augustan times (at least). These remarks relate to the Imperial era. When I find the thread I will give the lethality/battlefield dispersal resource links. http://www.mca-marines.org/Gazette/2004/04eby1.html the marines have a useful item on battlefield dispersion: its a modern paper but its a neglected area in that the Roman battlefield was non-dispersed , the Gladius was everywhere therefore lethality was very high

what about his hair gel!

The bootblack and his family should be allowed to shoot at the Diplomats butt with an industrial staple gun, repeatedly.

http://www.revbilly.com/ Now this I do find amusing -this chaps vocabulary is a joy to behold.

The celebrations here were very unusual-the main celebrants seemed to be two Romanian's who look after the Town Centre flower beds . They seemed very happy though.

Very interesting, for Britain I had expected some more "heavy" regional accents, (geordie/scouse/brummie) all the recordings sounded like subtle BBC voice variations with a hint of the speakers underlying accent. A worthy resource though, the American variants of English are astounding.

Ive seen someone with the quote regarding Caesar as " not feeling safe , save only with his legions" ( I paraphrase-Cicero I think), in some ways it would seem that once Caesar was in the field the Gallic wars were already decided ,as an enterprise, in his mind. The difficulty as FV alludes to is that the moral high ground probably has no occupants in our contemporary way of thought, Caesar was at least Roman in his prosecution and thoroughness ( if you are a critic): would his opponents have cared about Gaul? One imagines FV is correct here-Gaul is a canvas for (ambitious) Romans to work out their political designs , not a moral paradox and the army is the implement expressing the Romaness of their actions. For Gaul, Germania and Brittania the sooner you get into the "executive class" of Roman influence the better.

Most unfortunate that I am back in the Brigantian territory-AD may actually be closer.