Pertinax

That hurt my brain. That was a DaDa happening.

I have encountered a case today of a person suffering systemic poisoning by antimony trisulphide. This is fairly unusual , but not impluasible as he has been working with heavy machine bearings which contain an alloy of antimony .Antimony has a very strange history as a medicine, a cosmetic , part of a weapon system and a medieval re-usable laxative. Antimony is toxic if one has more than 100 milligrams in the body, indeed 2 mg is the norm for an adult. Rather unfortunately it has had a long vogue as a medication, and indeed in some modern contexts is used in the eye as a granular powder by certain devout Muslims emulating the Prophet (I am told that its stings unpleasantly). It is not a true metal rather a metalloid and its sister element is our old friend arsenic, but unlike arsenic it is not easily lost from the body.Antimony converts to a far more deadly gaseous form , stibine (a hydride of antimony, SbH3).Dioscorides was familiar with the sulfide stibi as it was then known , which was used for skin complaints and burns. The vogue for medication gathered pace in the 16th C , doctors and vets using it abundantly as an antimony salt of tartaric acid ..inducing instant vomiting and purging "ill humors" from the body At this time wine was often left overnight in an antimony receptacle to achieve a similar purpose.It is suggested that Mozart died (or hastened his own end) by being fond of using antimony tartrate , his death throes being identical to those caused by antimony poisoning. Stibinite (the sulphide mineral compound) was used by the Ancient Egyptians as mascara, kohl being the term you may well be familiar with, and the pigment "Naples yellow" made well into the 20th C is from the same mineral base (if precipitated out of solution the mineral is orange red rather than black as the natural mineral). So how does Greek Fire get into the equation? The suggestion is that , given the impossibility of extinguishing this ordnance once the siphons had launched it, that the possible admixture was crude oil , stibinite and saltpetere. This mix is highly flammable and cannot be extinguished with water.Once stibinite ignites it produces a great deal of heat. We cannot know the recipe as, of course, divulgence meant death. In modern warfare oddly enough the sulfide is used in paints to reflect infrared , so your camo paint contains antimony. And the laxatives? In the middle ages antimony metal pills were sold as "re-usable" pills..the constipated person swallowed one (about pea size) vomited and otherwise discharged effluvia, and the pill was retrived from said discharge for future use.It is said that such pills were passed down from generation to generation...

Neater, tidier and easier to read.

This may be difficult for many of you to understand, but really it's quite simple. The passage of time is the key. Now that that's all cleared up, try to have a good birthday. Thats nothing I was 35 when I got up this morning, now look at me. Make sure you squeeze every ounce of fun out of every day! many Happy Returns! How are the Killer Cyborgs, well I hope? Ok its not easter , but who can resist a killer giant bunny?

Here is Laurens Alma -Tadema who is (presently) unfashionable , look at this detailing: from this painting: here is a link to a catalogue, note that The Elgin Marbles fascinated him. http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=h...en%26safe%3Doff

The site experts (AC of course as well ) have already turned up on the thread. A further question might be , how does this site look in terms of likely marching distances from other attested sites? The 15 miles you mention does at least make one stop and think .Do they have to be protecting anything, might they not be part of a distance determined pattern of outposts? Rather than protect does this site dominate or give quick access to any Brythonic feature? Could the late era sea defences have benefitted from the positioning of this site (levels are a big problem of course, look at the changes in York in Roman times alone), could levels have changed so much that any site has been washed away? More questions than answers im afraid.

[im afraid im terribly reactionary, so it would have to be Godward: and I share the "low" taste of the Vetti

Salve, P. Is that you posted on the pic named "Secutor Pertinaxid"? No, its a sly reference to my older persona here on the Forum , and my interest in Kendo that some members are aware of. Here I am in my own armour: http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?automo...=si&img=956 and if you delve around the gallery you will find me at the Kannon temple in Tokyo.

Salve ! Welcome Citizens to the lead post for those seeking out Gladiatorial re-enactment information and photographs.I will shortly build a gallery of gladiatorial images to get the ball rolling, so watch this thread for further info. Please do not hesitate to upload and link your own Gladiatorial items into this thread, I know Lost Warrior probably has some interesting things to share! Post Scriptum: here we have a start on the pictorial side: http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?automo...m&album=117

Ok , here we have an experiment in terms of a pertinent blog entry lifted wholesale to the forum , I will be interested to see if positioning the links here leads more passerby to the gallery area. Pertinax previously blogged in 2006: "The weather in Britain never fails to amaze, last weekend the LEG II got a thorough soaking at Bremetenacvm, and have had to work all week at drying and reparing kit, but today a slave had to make rounds with water for the troops who were sweltering in their armour. So the Legion was at Gargrave, nearest therefore to Olinacvm on the road from Bremetenacvm to Eboracvm. There is evidence of a substantial villa adjacent to the village http://www.outofoblivion.org.uk/record.asp?id=240 The Legion had its supporting civilian units and , on this ocassion in adittion , the midwife, the fast food outlet and more dangerous than either of these , the gladiator school. The medical tent had a greater array of instruments due to the presence of the midwife, and I will give detailed information in the Roman Medicine thread in due course. I had particularly set out to get shots of the cataract surgical tools which are a faithful copy of a Mediterranean find, interestingly, as regards all the various pieces on display , all the British and Gallic finds tend to be heavier and more simply constructed -the nearer to Rome the fancier and finer in construction. The catarct tool is very simple and would have been deployed quickly and effectivley by a skilled Doctor, the cataract is cut into with a very fine point and the rear tube is drawn out (like a fountain pen) to produce a small vacuum thus drawing the excised tissue away from the eye. http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?&a...=si&img=919 The midwife is ,in reality,a contemporary midwife and we discussed Roman birth control and infanticide, she was of the opinion that birth control was predominantly dealt with by infanticide or abortion , though herbal medication and sympathetic magic were also involved: here we see the specialised tool for extraction of an unwanted infant from the womb, often mistaken for forceps these are a much smaller and heavier instrument .I do note that Pliny recommends "fat from the loins of a hyaena" which will bring an immediate resolutuion to difficult labour. http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?&a...=si&img=920 The array of items also included trephanation tools, catheters (male and female -beautifully made to a top class finish) and small bone saws for amputation.The equipment for the extraction of opiate latex from the popppy seed head is exactly the same then as now, a very hot deeply bowled spoon.Here is the best surviving midwifery text available. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0801843...ce&n=266239 The gladiator school was a well equipped hut , I can do no better than illustrate its excellent selection of weaponry and equipment http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?act=mo...=si&img=918 http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?act=mo...=si&img=922 and I was able to have a long chat about shield grips and weapon usage (in general not just in the arena) which was very informative .And here is one of its fearsome inhabitants: http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?act=mo...=si&img=921 So an informative excursion. AS usual upload off site of approx 50 images here in LEG II AVG gallery" End of blog. http://triclinium.spaces.msn.com/ Watch out Dis Pater is about!

As we are "doing some housekeeping" by way of this new forum , here are a few internal site and external UK links. Here is my main RA album , (which is getting a bit unweidly so I have hived off artillery and will be further posting a new civilian album, so that the cooking, medical and hawking elements can be separated) http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?automo...um&album=28 LEG II AVG, their home site in portsmouth: http://www.legiiavg.org.uk/ Here is one of several photostrips for them (this one at Bremettenacvm), including in this instance a cavalry element http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?automo...si&img=1804 Ludus Gladiotorusare also present at one of their events:(you may recognise my previous persona) http://www.ludus.org.uk/r/essayglossary.html http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?automo...=si&img=922 LEG VIII AVG, originally from N Wales: http://www.roman.org.uk/ here they are at Banna with attached late era cavalry http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?automo...=si&img=760 LEG XIIII GEM (and the Cohors Batavorum): http://www.romanarmy.net/ here is the on site gallery link for the legion at Corbridge:(scroll either side of this image for more shots) http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?automo...si&img=1942 My own msn site has a blog entry regarding the Polybolus with additional photos. Vicus, the late era Romano Britsh group: http://www.vicus.org.uk/ COH V GALLO http://www.quintagallorum.co.uk/ Probably quite a bit more to follow, I think an overhaul of the albums might be needed .

I wish to commend this review to any curious forum member or casual visitor to the site. I have already expressed my opinion on the quality of this article privately, but I feel obligated to praise it publicly. Ursus' work was one of the things that originally drew me to participate in the Forum , and the standard of his writing has progressed consistently. This review was a joy to read.

Thank you for the phrase "Imperial Overstretch" Ursus. There are several useful points made in this thread, the odd "through the looking glass" inversion of them is that the very climatological/demographic factors that lead to overstretch were those favouring the "barren" areas . Oats for example were widely considered a weed, but if you have a cool damp climate and a three field system (because you may not have too many hands to spare) then they suddenly become a useful general field crop within a system of nitrogen efficient arable usage. So if we suggest that Hadrianic frontiers were an attempt to rationalise the overstretch , we find three field agriculture flourishing in the early medieval period in precisely those areas that were marginal to Rome.I have , however , to suggest that the sufficient re-population of the North (with subinfeudated landscapes within feudal nation states) had only reached a efficient level by the time of the Norman and Siculo-Norman "proto states".

Pantagathus is the man to speak out here , but he is otherwise engaged.However I can add that the working life of vessels at this time was very short, and (as we have touched upon before in related discussion) a good idea is to envisage warships as beng similar to a quality car kept in a garage . If a warship were not patrolling or actively engaged, it would be out of the water to preserve its hull . The fabrication of vessels (of all types, but especially the more mundane transport types) from local resources was a skill that the legions possessed. The sailing season was also tightly constrained, so actual activity would be truncated within any given year (this especially regarding transports).Perhaps the Japanese wilful assimilation of Western technology(especially ) in the late 19th C is a not unreasonable modern model of the Roman attitude to assimilation of unknown , but apparently effective technologies (somewhat akin to their practical assimilation of local deities).

What good work , the "Niche Shrine" is a great piece of imagining, very evocative.

No ,no ,no...this just shows how learned texts can be misinterpreted(especially in a urinal) . "The twelve red ones will spoil the cover" , is obviously an allusion to a game of billiards , where someone has spilt beer on the table and the red balls have rolled through it causing extensive damage to the playing surface. Hence proving that Nostradamus invented the billiard table and kept it secret inside a hollowed out mountain (which he alludes to), until such time as Hitler and Stalin signed their non-agression pact and knocked beer over the table(hence also proving that he predicted WW II) .The only part that isnt quite right is the one about peace being maintained , which should read " so a large piece of the table needed maintenance".

Ignavus, which I have used as a company name, many people wrongly assume that it is some reference to volcanic activity or lava .

I fully agree with your position on this, agriculture being the needful bedrock of a prosperous "state" (howsoever expressed..tribal or ethnic group in a certain region for a resonable period of time) The ability to support and feed developing nodes of urban wealth/political sophistication was more readily achieved by the great yearning for trade even betwixt or via rival Empires.There is also the idea of the limits to Imperial expansion (recognised one might say by Hadrian) , whence attempts to push in to territory that could yield little (Scotland for example) had to be balanced by a need to protect local clients and maintain a semblance of order. The phrase i thought was very useful was the one as regards the Sassanids newly formed islamic enemies " too dangerous to ignore ,but pointless to conquer"...meaning a dispersed non or indeed anti urban population with a low overall density , greatly dispersed physically but capable of co-ordinated action and destructive activity.This phrase could be used to describe dispersed nomads and underdeveloped fringe societies in general, and we might suggest that Trajan pushed into these outer limits and left his successors with unforseen logistical and organisational problems.

This posture is known and attested, look to the Osprey title "Roman legionary 161-284 AD " for a quick reference, the suggestion is for infantry versus infantry in hot climates where heavy armour might impede combat progress, despite the possibility of heavier casualties. II Parthica versus Praetorian troops at Immae (218 AD) being an example.(Macrinus versus Eligobalus)

The trading economy of the East was the motive power behind the re-location of the heart of the Empire ,the wealth generated outweighed that which could be garnered from "the west".The Eastern Empire flourished to an apogee of wealth, confidence and virility. However, as I mention in a forthcoming review ,the hazard and chance of external events (plague) have (in the end) a greater impact on the fate of nations. The relatively backward north was obliged to experiment with the three field system of agricultural rotation (post 531 CE) given the paucity of agricultural labour caused by the Plague of Justinian , by great good fortune its climate was most suited to the production of hardy "poor weather" staples that responded to this system (which fixed nitrogen more effectively) . The frightful accident of the Plague set the economic scene for the nascent proto-nations of Northern Europe (one might perhaps say wandering tribal proto-nations to a degree), so that which militated against the longevity of the west eventually benefitted the north given that Italy proper was subjected to frequent military upheaval, relative depopulation,and a basic inability to actually function as a viable economic entity. I hadnt realised that the morbidity of the plague episodes ran for 200 years across the whole med and near east, destabilising Byzantium for a while and fatally undermining Sassanid Persia . For this period of time populations within the most developed urban areas were decimated , agriculture and military activity depended on the survival of viable numbers of generational cohorts ..and in many areas this viable level was not attained for several hundred years.

Wow , this thread has gone totally DaDa!

Nooo that cant be your age! Its a misprint. Happy Birthday.

*Nephele picks up her distaff, regards Pertinax with narrowed eyes, and contemplates where to put the distaff...* -- Nephele It's of no gravity. He's from Rhaetia, you know. My enquiry stemmed from the purely altruistic thought, that GO might need my help in negotiating for the hand of a young Lady of Noble Birth ( I could advise him on appropriate behaviour and bribes etc). Nephele, do your calculations give any hint as to age distribution versus gender? I would not of course expect any Lady to provide her age save only for the good of the Imperium.

Sigh...Alzheimer land more like.Merged em

Greetings and congratulations, are you drinking Federation?