Pertinax

I just saw in passing a CSI episode where nicotine (as a liquid) was used to kill a heavy drinker/smoker.

"Posca, the Man Behind Julius!" oh sorry that was the King of Bythinia.

We have no indication of a screening time in the UK , any clues Fratres?

Many of you will have had a pm regarding the Meeting, dont neglect to reply !

Posca lives? Excellent , he was the smartest of the Julian conspirators.

Mosste felycytoussse Greetynges Dyvynne Personnage of Vastte Awesomenesse :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy: as we say in Britain. Surlye I wille burnne and scourgge a coven of Wytches in your Honour! Anyone given to the Damnable Heresy of denying your Godhead will be thrust into a Bestiary entertainment . Alas the vast distances of Oceannus prevent a suitable gift of money or gold being sent (given the cost of provisioning a Trireme nowadays) , I am sure the libation of the Pertinaxii will be vast and ribald to celebrate your personage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ5V3R3s06E

Two dispartate observations to add a little spice to this thread. One can indeed eat locusts, they are nutritious and calorific . As a survival technique eating fresh maggots taken from a rotting carcass is also quite sensible (70 calories per ounce) , though weight for weight , the termite is an excellent nutritive assemblage.Larvae , grasshoppers , beetles and grubs are edible but one must avoid anything hairy, brightly coloured or smelly (spiders, ticks caterpillars).Worms are top notch but must be purged first.I will not be advocating this diet for delegates at the UK meeting. So one may conclude that a savvy hermit might indeed live off dew (by dragging a light garment over grass and wringing the moisture out) and locusts, for a while at least. If St John had lived off Locust beans (they bear his name as a commonplace), he would have had a purged bowel and they probably would have killed him by dehydration. I thought I would cross check my early Islamic sources for any "tradition" of refined sugar use (Iman Qayyim Al-Jawzlya 1292 CE onwrds), the learned scholar mentions frequent exhortations for the faithful to use honey but no doctrinal mention of sugar .Hakim Chisti in his commentary on Ibn Sina (Avicenna- collector and annotator of Roman and Greek treatises in the 9th C CE), rather brusquely says " white sugar should be banished from the home forever" and honey substituted for any culinary purpose . The modern difficulty with refined sugar is its superabundance and addictivness, the fast rise and consequent sharp slump in blood sugar levels are not good: http://www.chetday.com/bloodsugarinsulin.htm heres an amusing straightforward summary telling you not to fill your veins with maple syrup! Slow burn carbs from oats and the Roman Bread (spelt-coarse and varied endosperm) are a much better bet.

An excellent anti-fashion review.

Rooster but might be a weasel, that doesnt sound good. Am I Mel Gibson?

Interestingly the "garlic question" has come out at just the time in the UK when it is now suggested that even the most banal of pain killers , asprin, paracetamol and (by far the worst) ibuprofen cause gross cardio damage. The ibuprofen is culpable in damaging the gut wall integrity, it is available over the counter but is included in many other medications. I wish to prophesy that it will be found to be a co-factor in alzheimers disease. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...7/npills127.xml

"Ragnor's bones lie at the bottom of the fjord!" testing if your wife is unfaithful....(drunk am I?) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3NNF2u_m98 and this is a good way to go out...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daiHAIQm-lw

A useful plain map of York for "delegates" http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=h...ficial%26sa%3DN

My initial reaction was , hmm prognathic overgrowth comparable to a modern bodybuilder overdosing on growth hormones.

Here is a forensic reconstruction of recovered remains from Sicily which are approx 14,000 years old. I prefer Loren. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...in_page_id=1965 the remarks in the article add a new twist to our debate on "ideas of beauty".

Sounds like the King's funeral party was pretty big.And only 307 nourishing calories per bottle, virtually a slimming aid! Excellent, I ringing the vintner now. Anchor Brewery...I see a maritime motif yet again.

This isnt strictly Roman medicine, frankly its Prehistoric, but I suspect any decent Medicus would have known this as a useful tool for the removal of necrotic tissue: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...in_page_id=1774 and makes excellent sense to me.

For what it's worth here are the offending articles: Archives of Internal Medicine - Garlic The NPR story I heard yesterday on this mentioned that they were putting the raw garlic in with 'gourmet sandwiches' and the there was no dietary restriction on the people taking the suppliments. So I ask, was this designed to fail? What if these people were on/maintaining a high cholesterol diet? So no control group , or dietary prohibitions? Great science.

The coin was found not too far from the known Brythonic entrepot of modern day Poole (Dorset) which sems to have been a focus of both productve activity and a trading node.

Yes , but youll need half a dozen. What is GO smoking nowadays?

I never thought I'd hear you advocate cornstarch over arrowroot! Especially in an acidic, non-dairy sauce! Otherwise it sounds quite tasty! my defence is Giacosa actually suggests it. We dont own any . In all seriousness I used a little spelt flour. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Taste-Ancient-Ilar...TF8&s=books

Now here is one we tried from "A taste of Ancient Rome", this did start out as a recipe for roasted hare with herb sauce : alas the hare at the back of the freezer had too much freezer burn so I had to used some diced pheasant. However Mercurius was with me in the kitchen and guided my hands.... I used the meat from a brace of pheasants that had been finely diced , with a reasonable quantity of deep yellow fat attached. the sauce: pepper to your own taste (I used Sechzuan) a teaspoon of cumin and celery seeds (quite strong tasting ) a hard boiled egg yolk a cup of red wine (claret here) 1 tsp garum/nam pla 1 tsp vinegar 1 tbs olive oil (best) 1 tbs minced onion (must be fresh!) a bunch of oregano a dash of cornstarch if you need must place the game meat in a pot with some sesame oil (this is me not Apicius!) , and hot water cook for 30 mins approx at 200. You can smell when its ready! Grind the pepper,egg and herbs together into a damp ball. Saute the onion in wine/garum/oil/vinegar , then add the herb ball and blend with care.Stir the mix with the oregano bunch.Pour over the meat and serve with a spelt bread loaf. Lie down and rest if over 40.If younger drink more wine and chase a slave girl.

Yeah & I bet that study was funded by the Pharmaceutical industry... Yell it like it is bro!

Here is a useful general link to aid this thread: http://www.forumromanum.org/life/johnston_5.html#175 have a look at item 163, it doesnt quite answer the last question but it makes interesting reading.

When you say closer to the Nile, do you mean it is also located in the Nile? I will check my range maps , I dont recall seeing it in Karnak , but I dont see why it shouldnt be in Egypt. My remark concerns the general fertile potency of the Egyptian climate, all medicinal plants seem to have greater potency (and are attested so in the Ancient world) as one moves toward Egypt.Fresh herbs from Egypt were the best plants available to the Romans , but as Pliny says many journeymen could not identify the "real thing" versus the dried (and hence less effective) plant or rhizome.

Not quite what you wish but Anthony Hopkins in "Titus" gives a hint of how that might be.