Pertinax

Ok - here goes: I asume you are getting a train or hire car up the coast? The Kingdom Of Fife is glorious- if you want to rest your heart and brain simply dawdle along the coast road from the forth bridge , via Kinghorn ( where I used to live) , Kirkcaldy (industrial- not too pretty) via Crail Harbour . St Andrews is quaint and the harbour mole should be your destination.Dont bother with the small inland mining towns they are unpretty.You will find the many fighter-bombers taking off from Leuchars a slight distraction. However-I say get into Edinburgh, I love the city and visit often.Locations? oh dear -I think some photos are going into the gallery...... addendum: I have a temporary blog up and likewise a gallery reference if MPC cares to pm me I will guide him round the pics! may I ask what will your paper be ? is it a relevant subject to these Fora?

please add any "Brian" joles you desire against the image I have posted in the Roman Herbal Gallery! Unless you are from the PFJ, or PJF.

this is Balm Of Gilead is it not- isnt it confined to a small range in the smaller gulf states ? or am I getting mixed up with Boswellia (frankincensce)? Weirdly I actually sold some balm (no "life of Brian " jokes please!) last week for the first time in 2 or 3 years (I used it for laryingitis alongside sage). erratum! No I correct my own error! its Myrrh! so cue "Life of brian " after all! We also have C abyssinica (dead give away for origin there). If anyone has seen it as a medicine it is sometimes called Guggul gum- what a lovely name! The gum contains a number of steroids, alcoholics use it to ease stomach cramps;but it is an antinflammatory in its own right. NE Africa and Arabia. BUT! on second thoughts I wonder if your man was enquiring about Balm Of Gilead? (Populus candicans amongst several), confined (in the species known to Rome) to Arabia alone.There are related species in America . Its nicknames are-Mecca Balsam and Gileadensis. yet more addenda-the P candicans is the american variant and your Linnaean terminology was correct first time:my two trusty ,and very battered sources, are disagreed on who is american and who otherwise. I have 5 major species listed. The American variant is a type of turpentine -so I now understand its older use as an intravenous medium. serves me right trying to think when ive just got back from work! right:-use only the leaf buds in spring before they have opened. Bark is acceptable. Main constituent is a phenolic glycoside and our old chum salicin , so we are in expectorant territory and also analgesic properties. Jeremiah famously refers-"is there no balm in gilead?" ( obviously no because its a dangerous animal :bag: ) This is the tree said to have been taken by the Queen of Sheba to Solomon as a gift to celebrate his wisdom.

theories are: many goods and records found at excavation sites suggest free men working on construction rather than enslaved population ( indeed suggested no slave labour at all), also I suspect the monotheism is a reference to Akhenaton and worship of the solar disc as a sole overriding god. The construction of Akhenatons "stand alone " capital was short lived ,Tutankh-aten quickly reverted to Tutank-amen and perished swiftly himself. the Island? Pantagathus is probably the best man for any Poni/Phoneician realted trading entrepot information

thank you -I had overlooked that , I will knock together some additional notes from my pm discussions to add to that useful piece.

Yes, I'm actually writing a peice about aqueducts now, I plan on writing a article on Roman Plumbing at some point or another. Excellent, I hope we can debate the "lead " problem in the future. I have had a lot of pm discussion on this topic and would like to kick it about in the forum.

There was a recent article in the Times outlining the scandolous condition of the wall -I didnt bring this up before because of the great preponderance of non-Britons on the site ( local issue really )-its a scandal and the government should be ashamed, immediate rescue work is needed and the National Trust are totally culpable . As always they are a dead hand on the very thing they should be preserving, they are merely a self centered quango only interested in themselves. Their appaling record in the Lake District is shameful , but the Wall is a litany of ignorance , inertia and stupidity.Steps have to be taken at once -but no-one is listening.Shame on them. A huge proportion of the area hasnt been excavated -so perhaps great things will be found by future generations not so neglectful. Some of my fondest memories are of Housesteads in the late 60s -perhaps we met? I had assumed you were North American !

The Sun King did indeed seek to do such a thing, and in his lifetime Britain rose from a dim protestant cul de sac to a centralplayer in European politics -and laid tactical foundations for its huge Empire-whilst France stuttered from superpower to nation state. So outward appearences suggest that the Great King was severly disconnected! His bureaucracy was fearsomely effective but its rigid formality lead to some serious head lopping later.Ob-com behaviour on a "majestic" scale. I would like to mention the Japanese ethic of "The Floating World" , where the sensual experiences ( and enjoyments) of the flesh and mind are seen as quite distinct from the hard reality of devotion to one's Lord. I suggest also that the Japanese were far more "morally flexible" Being able to move from Ikebana or poetry or "fleshly " pleasure and formal courtly behaviour, to directly strapping on a sword and hacking a limb off an opponent ( or accepting death oneself) without stepping outside of a particular moral code .That might of course make them "slaves" in the same manner as Marcus Aurelius.

was it an exceptionally large mouse with a torch of burning pitch tied to its horns?

Has anyone identified a site or person with a downloadable version of the theme to the series? HBO have a short ringtone version .