Pertinax

No criticism intended! Just pointing to a side note.

I saw a practical demonstration using a reverse engineered Roman formula for quick setting underwater concrete -I was seriously impressed, the key ingredient was the vesuvian ash used as ballast by Roman vesels. Rapid set (underwater ) took place in about 20 minutes, obviously curing to a significant proportion of full strength would be a matter of weeks.The cast held a heavy post almost at once.

hmmm remember-cabbage versus impotence!

First catch your Pict ,then fatten him up.

Andrew-Arum is in my "Roman herbal " gallery-certain of its properties have made the picture an unexpectedly popular one .The stuff is very starchy and needs thorough preparation as you said indeed its seriously tricky-the nearer you got to Egypt the more poisinous the root tended to become. There are quite a lot of notes attached to the picture and in the blog.

Well I always wonder about vey small scale, commonplace things that people do (like drink too much coke) which has a huge effect on everyday life -im not saying cabbage saved Rome from infertility but it might have helped.

You know you've hit on an interesting topic of discussion: just where did those Romans get their engineering skills? I was thinking more along the lines of the Greeks. Such tremendous skill (and confidence) would not,you imagine,appear overnight-I think this is actually one of the gretest Roman attributes but of which I have very little knowledge, I was hoping someone would open a debate so I could enjoy a ringside seat. Favonius-you probably think im obsessed with lead pipes, but, Pantagathus sparked a line of enquiry that made me realise that apart from calcification inside pipes (preventing solution of lead) ,Romans used cabbage as a food and a plentiful medicine. The presence of l'methionine in cabbage (the reason they used it for hangovers without knowing what element worked) would tend to detox a person with lead and cadmium in their bodies.

Arthur was from Kildare ,so he could have been Ibero-Celtic! or Celt-Iberian , or Scotti-Viking, or Irish.

Just to give more weight to Virgils last remark- the chance of finding anyone claiming to be Norman in Britain are remote in the extreme, possibly General Sir Peter De La Billiiere would claim ancestral continuity heavily admixed with Angle,Saxon, briton, Scotti but only names remain.The Normans pushed everyone about for a while and then were swallowed by a sea of natives, thier names surviving in Knightly families with a history of warlike service to the Throne. Their language was lost a millenium ago.

central to this is the essential nature of salt as a presevative of foods in the abscence of refrigeration.Salting pork and fish gives you a staple to carry into lean winter moths.Apart from this the issue of flavouring is obvious-if as weve conjectured elsewhere the Romans invented haggis as a ration "ball" salt would of necessity be added. If Mr Dalby is about I suspect he will have the information to hand.I presume that perhaps the "payment" was more of a "housekeeping neccesity" ?

Congratulations! I vote for Flavia and Veronica but not Messalina! Perhaps an Elizabethen name? Lettys or Poppy? Saffron or Willow ? oops-all herbs again.

Scipio's death seemed a real waste-I know his honour dictated his actions but you felt he had fought to his limit, done nothing dishonourable and was no conniver or weakling . "Your house is a nest of vipers" was understatement of the year from Servillia.

One item to note from Cruse's "Roman Medicine" was the excellent condition of teeth in skeletal remains dated to Roman Britain. The teeth were in general more worn down than our "modern" dentition because of the "puls" diet-ie: good mastication was reguired to grind down the hulls of dense cereals and a vegetable based diet, however the teeth were also in much better general condition than modern teeth. No sugar, no trash carbs , no apparent gingival infections( hinting at good cardio health from appropriate exertion),and some excellent dental repair work .Thes finds were from areas adjacent to legionnary concentrations ,so we must give some credence to the idea of a beneficial (if plain) diet and outdoor lifestyle. and remembering -life expectancy in the Legion was longer than civilian life expectancy

Im not sure if this was a typo or an missanderstanding but the unstrument is called a strigil and it was metal Thanks typo-sorry I type too fast and fall over my own fingers.

The reason for the effectivness is essentially due to the presence of L'Methionine -this stuff is really good for "ladies of a tempramental disposition" as it tends to mop up hormone surges, as well as being useful in de-toxing blood poisoned with heavy metals (mercury, lead and cadmiun) ,so if Pliny used cabbage the lead piping would not have harmed him!

Utica screened tonight-vicious , ugly and nasty but it rang true as human behaviour.

What about the "swine array" assault formation ( I show my Barbarian roots naming it so ) as a "nutcracker" unit , does anyone have any thoughts about this in relation to effectivnes versus non-Roman units? The armour query I posted was an attempt to hint at the possibility that to wound/kill a Roman the target zone for a fatal blow was massivley reduced ,firstly by action as a unit and secondly by maximised defence of the body . We know no one wants a lung wound in any circumstances (or a gut wound ) ,I suggest the Romans minimised the likelihood of this with the disposition of armour. The "relentless machine " heading on HBOs site is a quick populist ,but by no means dumb, take on the army as 1.the soul of Rome 2. the sine qua non of organised killing power http://www.hbo.com/rome/behind/rome_revealed/rome.html try that!

I was only suggesting that the individuals around me at the time had not aquired the taste for Flemmish sours... Not you my friend. Kwak, that reminds me, what do you think about it's sister Triple Karmeliet? The triple I enjoyed more than the Kwak,( wheat ,oats and barley ?).Did Imention we had Anchor Porter? The Kwak is like eating best quality Turkish Delight-from time to time and a little at a time What about the "glass" it comes in?