Pertinax

Oh the orc thing? I was just hinting that it was Legions versus anyone or anything .

Its been taped for me Longbow, im looking forward to watching it. Do they give a breakdown of chemical constituents for the gel? Id anticipated either malachite or woad in some sort of base emulsion (urine possibly). Ill check it out in a few days time as im preparing for a trip to your neck of the woods-going to be chilly on the Wall at this time of year.

thus we have stilettoes?

in vanitas veritas

hmm Pantagathus improbus est :pimp: Empire of Pleasures-read the review at the front of the site! its all in there.

you would perhaps seek the Suburnae puellae? The haunt of Nero's pleasure seeking.Clamosa Subura (apologies to AD). a little like Wan Chi in Hong Kong.

You are too kind. I must press ahead and get some photos , I have 80 Roman miles to cover somehow,and a lot of masonry to look at.

The so called "saxon shore " forts are a good call on this topic-(its a later term) remember also Brancaster as a major security port at the junction of the "two" Britains-though once again the command of the "Ocean" lead to the declaration of yet another Imperial pretender. Britain itself was a well preserved and well developed province , tin, (with copper) and lead were mined extensivley. Perhaps peripheral location to the seat of power is the real reason for the drift away from Rome-Byzantium struggled on for a year or two afterwards....

Way back in another thread I mentioned "morbidity" ie: tendency to disease and illness in a population as a precursor to likely survival rates of population cohorts ( not the military term please note) . The usual suspects in a "morbid " group are obvious, poor water supply/ sewage disposal (cholera /typhus) , exposure to parasitic (chronic) infection ( helminths via sewage), imbalanced /innapropriate diet (malnourishment). Wash your hands , drink clean water and take care where your sewage goes and things look much better.An organised city might well deliver these things quite well. Ancient armies were disease reservoirs waiting to happen-I wonder how many combat fatalities were from "pure" fatal assault versus gross debility reducing effectivness leading to physical vulnerability? A compact army with reduced camp followers ,carrying their own gear ( sound familiar?) with medical attendants would be a deadly weapon against levied troops called out for a campaign season especially if operating out of its own territory. I suggest combat effectivnes (in a given time frame ) for ancient armies was very short-you would only have a short period to use the assembled men before disease reduced overall effectivness.I dont say that everyone was smitten by plague , rather a proportion would be seriously ill and many more badly debilitated.

Does not Galen tell us to consume the "green of the beet" as a choice and excellent vegetable? Indeed he also suggests the beet itself well cooked in garum as a side dish-what a mix, rich in tryglycerides for a clean bloodstream and liver ( eat that and thats even less Lead in your body), lots of micro nutrients in the garum. Some red wine and you are clean in spirit and body. Skarr-id drop in on Pompeii-before the big bang! and Baiae to sample the decadent night life.

The phrase "not with a bang but a whimper" is probably accurate. Im re-reading Salway (Oxford Roman History) , and the relative stability of Brittannia to Continental Gaul is very striking, indeed the suggestion is that much wealth may have fled to Britain because of the conflict in the Imperium Galliensus ( not just at that time but I mention its existence as a signifier of trends) . The tendency of Britain to produce "candidates " for the Imperium remote from Rome is also notable . The evidence of the built environment also suggests greater wealth and stability than in Gaul. Geta may not have been everyones favourite but Britain enjoyed lengthy peace from his time onwards, by the time of Aurelian after one or two violent glitches Britain was again stabilised -the instability all seeming to be from competition for the Purple. An ebbing away into sullen poverty is my supporting statement.

It depends on how long it's cooked. On average I would say it may still retain ~40% of the original alcohol content. Stuff like flambe will of course maintain up to 75% of it's original alcohol... May I suggest a very simple addition to pork chops? After sealing the chops by a fast fry in sesame oil ( only a few seconds per side ) cook in the oven as appropriate to weight , remove when almost ready and quickly grill in Newcastle Brown Ale -make sure the Ale caramelises to a degree. Serve with greens and a few potatoes ( I did try candied yam , collared greens and some black beans ,that seemed to go well). Russian Stout makes a good rich drink to accompany.

The Legions were implicated , to a degree, in carrying plague into Italy.Three major plagues affected the Empire . Marcus is alleged to have perished in one such epidemic. The movement of previously segregated populations alwys brings unknown pathogens into play-the fate of many Native American Peoples when brought into first contact with settlers carrying chicken pox/smallpox being the easiest modern event to demonstrate the dynamics of disease. Cruse (Roman Medicine gives some flesh to the epidemic episodes).

Im determined to get to Hadrian's Wall in the next few days -I dont know if the weather will allow me to present any reasonable photos,if it remains gloomy I may have to confine myself to interior artefacts at the Roman Army Museum and the Castle Museum at Carlisle. Britain has a general water shortage , this does not seem to affecting Brittania Inferior.So I will be absent for a while. I will be on the Wall again at the start of February so lets hope for a few hours sunshine. Madame Pertinax meanwhile will be adjourning to Rome itself in March, so she is charged to secure photographic evidence of the Forum.

I got into the wrong entry! My praise for this piece of work is attached to the forum photo.

I enjoyed your graph very much-all life is there!

am experiencing problems posting-thanks AD -my longer reply failed to post-will try again later civet cat coffee was what I tried to mention!

due to some weird glitch , a fairly lengthy post I wrote about Galen and his suggestions for taking the bitternes from honey has vanished into the ether.Suffice to say honey was very well known and widely recommended for the digestion, what people consider "strong/bitter" is subjective ( many complain about tea- tree honey being "strong" ,as far as I can make out ,that being because it actually tastes of something that isnt sugar). NB:ass's milk is best of all (Galen again says you must get it straight from the animal and consume at once ). Do you intend to sue from a state of beatitude?

ah -a little mouse-yes I should have known! Its a book -we are talking rodent not technology.

My goodness that's quite a compliment! Thank you kind sir! However, I must make note that the article was praising UNRV in general not really the forum so P-P & the Triumvirate deserve the credit for 'making it so' questo e verro!

Interestingly that diet is somewhat (though not identical to) similar to the diet of mountain peoples in Kyrghyztan and nearby "stans", all noted for a total lack of "western" diseases ,particularly MS -the antioxidant rich diet ,lack of saturated and trans-fatty acids and a lot of fresh air keeps people going despite living in a very tough environment.

Minimus -by Barbara Bell. A little mouse guides you round a villa at Vindolanda circa 100AD, if you speak a little Italian you keep forgetting which is modern and which is not. (I assume the modern dialects will all have the same effect on their various speakers). Light and entertaining ,for small Romanophile kids of any age. A small gem. as Minimus says-Minimus sum.mus sum! Minnie would be Minima in case you were suspicious.