Pertinax

Arr, avastte ye scurvyye dogs!Real Pirates be only speaking in ye present tense be they, says I. Open the link , but beware , it carries a terrible curse!

As your Agent I must warn you against exhausting your Vital Humours prior to a well paid fighting engagement (though I will allow of a build up of yellow bile as an exception , as this will make you more splenetic and vicious in the arena) we must have eucrasia in this matter.Guard your chymos! Spoilsport. You're just jealous because I attract the girlies. I point to the graffitti on the wall outside. Brutus the Gladiator can't get... Erm.. maybe it was some other scrawling around here... I saw it somewhere... Grumble....mutter..."feed gladiators all year with quality barley and beer and look what happens, clear off with the first bit of hot nubian stola and loose weight through excessive coupling" bah...mutter.. Ignavus Entertainments , a Division of Ignavus Reality Shows " bringing Barbaric Death and Mayhem to your Party!"

Nephele, I have an uncomfortable feeling that your mind works in a similarish way to mine.

I am beholden to Lost Warrior for this little gem: "Hail skilled Asklepios, divine physician! What blessing is better than health? In gratitude to You I offer this. Hail heroic Asklepios, Coronis

As your Agent I must warn you against exhausting your Vital Humours prior to a well paid fighting engagement (though I will allow of a build up of yellow bile as an exception , as this will make you more splenetic and vicious in the arena) we must have eucrasia in this matter.Guard your chymos! Caldrail is solely represented by the "Ignavus Entertainment Agency " prop. O. Pertinax, our motto is :"Only The Best Beefy Barbarians for your Party!"

The President can neither confirm , nor deny the presence of venomous reptiles (or monotremes) near the lifeless corpses' of his enemies.

Oh, go on then - you've twisted my arm! Although most of us at this party are a poor sight clothed, so be it on your own head, Gaius. I think these oysters are depraved...

I thought I saw Caldrail under the Triclinium with some Nubian women. He was signing autographs.Apparently.

I have written previously about Hemlock Conium maculatum (and its main poisonous principle the virulent alkaloid coniine, which essentially makes its victim "forget" to breathe), coldness of the flesh moving from the feet toward the chest with a gentle numbness being its significant property. It is said no pain attends this death. I was taking a gentle stroll to relieve a modest hangover when I happened upon two items , lying by the wayside, that a maleficium would have ceased upon with glee: a toad and some young Water Hemlock. http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?automo...si&img=1814 Water Hemlock Cicuta virosa is sometimes mistaken for the gentler instrument of oblivion, but its venomous cicutoxin (an aliphatic alcohol mainly in the roots) causes a hideous convulsive death after roughly 20 minutes of agony (respiratory failure being the actual cause). You might think that this would be enough for some people (by which I mean career poisoners) , but I found a most interesting snippet of information the other day . There was a vogue for the force feeding of toads with deadly plants, (we are speaking of the era of that most celebrated poisoner Catherine De Medicii) , arsenic being a favourite, but cicutoxin and coniium likewise. What profit does this have? Well obviously the toad is probably not too happy, but venin de crapaud the distilled essence of the luckless animals body was a powerful multiple envenomed poison.The bufotenin in a toad's flesh being a powerful hallucogen (hence a spate of toad licking in the Americas ("The Psychedelic Toad of the Sonaran Desert" by A Most if you simply must put your tongue on an amphibian). Before you rush to feed your pet toads with an assortment of narcotics I must just mention that the urine of schizophrenics yields a very high level of bufotenin , so mental stability might be a problem here. Which just goes to show what handy things are lying around in the countryside.

Welcome Claudia Octavia..if you use the "search" facility on the front page of the Forum and tap in "I Claudius" you will see that there have been quite a few threads regarding the TV series and the book.There are also some spin off threads regarding comparisons of Claudius to other TV and Film productions. EG: http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?showto...amp;#entry47850 http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?showto...amp;#entry62907 as you can see this is a popular subject here! The site is divided logically into areas of interest and specialisation, if you navigate between posts that interest you, you will soon have an intuitive feel for the correct slot for a new thread or post. Welcome again.

Sickos. I think they are a subliminal ithyphallic motif, they sublimate the repressed sexuality inherent in having an overly manicured garden ...they are a cthonian eruption of menacing primal lust (all those fishing rods and banjoes). Also I dont like the colours.Burn them.

Well done AC , shame about Comitatus , but perhaps we can catch up with them again (soon).

It was I not the Great Pan! I will try to find the reference copied it from , I knew I had the poem as soon as I saw your blog entry.

Hmm . were you visited by Jupiter in the guise of a chicken or an aardvark? Divine desire can do odd things.

hope it is not Morrighan as "washer of bloody clothes " (Nemain) that is your primary tutelary deity...you seem to be more Babdh (babe even), passing over the battlefield as a valkyrie. I am the beginning I am the end I am life I am death I am war I am peace I bring forth life and I take it away My voice it is that is heard over the battlefield My spirit it is that drives men to victory...or defeat! I am the keening of women over their dead sons and mates. I am the bringer of souls to the Summerlands Wary be the warrior who seeth me washing in the ford his clothes stained in blood...for he shall know me soon enough! I bring about change to the static life I bring courage and passion to the heart I inspire priestess and warrior alike In some places, I am called: Macha, Minerva, Babdh Catha, Nemain, Kali, Athena Know me...I am the Dark Goddess!

Ursus is in fact the "Dirty Harry" of Paganism. Make His Day Punks!

I will be buying that on the strength of this excellent review.

Youve done a hell of a job , this site is top notch.

Yea , it is written in the Book of Cyril thus: "There shall, in that time, be rumours of things going astray, erm, and there shall be a great confusion as to where things really are, and nobody will really know where lieth those little things wi-- with the sort of raffia work base that has an attachment. At this time, a friend shall lose his friend's hammer and the young shall not know where lieth the things possessed by their fathers that their fathers put there only just the night before, about eight o'clock. Yea, it is written in the book of Cyril that, in that time, shall the third one..." No wonder the Church got so worked up about Brian, this is how every sermon I heard at school sounded in my head.

Strictly speaking, the risk with ephedra is not embolism but brain hemorrhage (bleeding because of a huge increase of the blood pressure); the opposite in the organ, but almost the same for the patient (a stroke). Yes. that was rather lazy of me, the correction is timely. I didn't like to go too far into the contemporary use of pseudo-ephadrine in crystal meth, in case some more impressionable Forum members started to cause major pyrotechnic detonations in their homes or colleges. http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=h...ficial%26sa%3DX

A nice touch in "Sirens" , FG has Johnathon wear a sachet of ephedra around his neck (as a bronchiodilator) for his asthma.Amusing that this herb has become such a fashionable item (for weight loss , though sadly mis-use can cause an embolism), and is one of the most talked about cyber space herbs , (particularly in N America). It is also known as Ma Huang in Chinese medicine.

Damm, I was hoping for something like this.... http://home.comcast.net/~othastar/One_Mill...Years_B.C..jpeg

Thank you, such compliments make the gallery worthwhile as a labour of love.

Inhalation perhaps , and Ive mentioned elsewhere that Strammonuim is a not unreasonable candidate for recreational usage, given its huge N African range and long usage by pre-Islamic Arab peoples. http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?automo...=si&img=180 read my side annotation to this plate and note the Delphic reference please, but dont forget the long tradition of European psycho-active plant use in brewing (Henbane, Borage, Heather for example) , narcotising might have been from multiple sources.

Ah, hence why I've also heard about B-complex vitamins helping. Well then why do the suckers still love me! I hate to admit it but good old deet works for me (don't know about the ecosystem) Likewise your body and mind are pure...due to healthgiving beer and wines.