Pertinax

AD hides his light under a bushel! Please look at this tasty morsel- http://perso.orange.fr/dalby/extra/SalammboFeast.html "a few little dogs with fat bellies ,with pink bristles, fattened on olive pulp" , delicious! "hedehogs in garum" most savoury.

http://www.coquinaria.nl/english/recipes/Rombread.htm Two observations, we may have here an "ancient" sourdough recipe, that is a "natural wild yeast fermentation", here is how: http://www.io.com/~sjohn/sour.htm and the "long stay" method would certainly encourage wild yeasts. Camel cheese was the prefered method of ingestion of milk in the Roman world (for those of status), that is milk itself was eschewed as a barbaric drink (from a cow in particular) , camel having the most whey is the most easily digestible.The Romans were ahead of us , cow's milk now comes with such a cocktail of growth hormones that I never touch it ( dairy animals for large supermarket supply live only 3 years ,after forced growth-not 10 years as was once the norm,so one is ingesting a product from a heavily pharmaceutically "tampered" beast that is heavily stressed by much heavier milking, the hormones have been detected as damaging the exterior cells of the human pancreas-diabetes is therefore a threat ).Eat spelt , drink camel (well goat is fiine)!Stay Roman and healthy. http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/X6528E/X6528E03.htm#chIII.

Lucid and cogent, very well written.

This is not an antique survival but certain elements,particularly the use of spelt (red wheat), at least have a distant echo of possible truth about them...Spelt has a very tough endosperm , so moderns prefer to use softer varieties to the detriment of our digestion.Spelt has also a more complex and higher deliverable protein content. http://www.spelt.com/ So you do not imagine that I eat other than I speak, our household consumes Spelt loaves, one such under the moniker "Hadrian's Bread".The loaves are nutty, firm, very moist and keep well- they are much more filling than white bread , but importantly leave no indigestible residue in the gut.

Worry not ! We will conduct all due ceremonies for your upkeep with Prosepine and Pluto

Some more articles from The Sunday Times: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/art...2354065,00.html AA Gill, a particular favourite of mine, writes a dismissive review.He suggests the Empire fell because of bad fashion sense.

I thought this was a rather interesting "cataclysmic" reading of the severing of Britain from the Continent. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2372472.html

Anyone travelling from the Capital or thereabouts? Alas I will be travelling due East to the venue.

"A thing that met with especial approval among them was their so-called black broth [zomos], so much that the older men did not require a bit of meat, but gave up all of it to the young men. It is said that Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily, for the sake of this bought a slave who had been a Spartan cook, and ordered him to prepare the broth for him, sparing no expense. But when the king tasted it, he spat it out in disgust, whereupon the cook said, 'O King, it is necessary to have exercised in the Spartan manner, and to have bathed in the Eurotas, in order to relish this broth." Plutarch. All we now know is that blood was a key element, the recipe is lost , perhaps not for ill.

I have nothing to hand , but be assured I will try my best! Interesting , you do not like the saveloy dip with pease pudding?

Your selfless devotion to scholarship is humbling. It is a difficult to make such fine distinctions of scholarship as you do,more detailed examination of the evidence is needed. Sicillia repays study.

A splendid piece of True Scholarship, I must cease all other work and peruse your erudite presentation! I will search diligently for a regional speciality . Miss Eleganza Lazio has impressive attributes.

Here is an addition to our wholesome and nutritious thread, relevant today as it was in the time of our illustrious ancestors:- Black Pudding. Apicius says: take 6 hard boiled egg yolks, some fine chopped pine kernels mixed with onion, fine sliced leek.Mix the raw blood (of the pig) with finely ground pepper and fill a pig's intestine with this mix.Add wine, liquamen and cook! Or nowadays: 1 litreof blood, 6 hard boiled egg yolks, a small leek, 1 onion,200g pine kernels and 3tsp fine pepper.Season the blood with salt.Chop up the onion and leek very finely .Add the egg yolks, then blood and mix thoroughly.Funnel this mix whilst adding the pine into pig's intestines, twisting into sausages as you desire. Put the sausages into cold white wine with some garum/nam pla , bring to boil slowly and steadily.Simmer well till cooked. You will need bread to digest this rich stuff. If I recall my Zola properly, never put a yard of hot pudding down your trouser leg. It wont impress anyone and you will be scalded.

The "Veracity of the Egyptian Court" I mention here in an appended note: http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?act=mo...si&img=1273 The Producer admits plainly that the "look" is a deliberate confection of styles, meant to signal a departure from any previous film references and to try to make the Court (if not the people) look outlandish but perhaps potent with " ancient" symbolic clothing/styling. They certainly do look exotic . Do we have any experts on Ptolemaic Courtly dress?

The 14/15 April dates are now favoured so we can show hospitality to our oversees visitor (Skarr) , who if by misadventure cannot come at that time (Skarr if you are reading this your pm box is full!) may give us leeway to alter the date if.Skarr kindly lets us know his travel plans in advance . Please note that I suggest this as a "first off" meeting. Phil, I presume you are familiar with York?-please pm at your leisure.

He missed only the odd detail, Van Gogh's beheading in Holland and Enslavement/persecution in modern Africa.

I have treated a patient with a "reinforcement" emplaced in the "area" who was in dire pain and infected- my suggestions: ulmus fulva as a "gruel" hydrastis canadiensis (three tsp per day-very potent and dire to taste, one of the most potent collections of alkaloids known to man-used for labrynthritis and chronic gastric parasitism) a natural vitamin E capsule-as a suppository. Diet wise no white flour, sugar or caffeine. I darent say no alcohol.

Listen up there! If you are squeamish look away from this comment as well- ok you know Ulmus Fulva the "Native Slippery Elm"? Git some-this (in its pure powder form not with any sugar or other trash added ) will cleanse and soothe a badly infected anal fistula. You can take it (at least three heaped teaspoons per day , usually in a little milk to get the slime down the hatch) and you can (messily) apply it ,it has been used as a pessary for a long time so dont be a softie. Symphytum (comfrey/knitbone) is a topical application (as a cream) for this "seat" of problems also. You may of course be all spruce and comfortable but heed my words!

A wake up post if youve missed the thread! I will be pm ing UK members in due course so that we have an approximation of numbers for the meet.

Thanks for clearing that up DC. The real test of this new series will probably be the next episode, its GJC himself.No-one will be short of an opinion by the end of the showing of that episode. Did they start with Nero because he was such a "sensational" type (as offered here) , just as the HBO series had more sex and less politics in the truncated British episodes? The "demographic" is obviously considered a little lowbrow.

A small point , one can now comprehend the scene setting for the "year of the four emperors" in the context of Nero's looting of the Temples (and the Patrician horror thereof) , and more directly his onerous taxation policy.The enforced suicides of the wealthy patricii directly echoes the actions of Caligula in the "Caesars" from 30 years ago, indeed I suspected a little subliminal scene stealing.

Bear in mind :ricin, castor oil-the very opposite: one can drink any amount (within reason), indeed addiction in 19thC Africa was well documented, but a small scratch from the fruit will kill. Remember the assasination of the Bulgarian dissident in London? Woad -rub it all over ,get it in a deep cut -no problem.Drink it ,violent purgative and death by exhaustion. Calendula (marigold) , what could be more innocuous ? Nope, as a deep wound salve its a life saver, it will kill heavy bacterial infection (staph/strep) ,it is also anti carcinogenic. Drink it, no more than 6/10 drops per day for an adult male otherwise you will be sick as a dog. The key is simply this, some plants are poisonous if ingested because they have developed anti -grazing toxins,ie: make the herbivore sick so it wont eat you again or insecticides (tobacco) , kill any bugs that try to eat you. This doesnt mean that in a different form , expressed oil, ground leaf, tincture they do likewise : they may form (as woad does) a protective, active coating. A lot of plants (most) have an arsenal of overlapping chemical attributes, many "modern" medications are merely unstable isolates from the full plant matrix-asprin being the most obvious.

Good point on the amphitheatre,I was trying to work that one out myself-dont we have to wait for Vespasian and Titus to get the "real " thing (or rather the incremental construction of said building)? Can anyone help here? Not to be too prurient, the castration episode puzzled me, the operation would be well known (if not commonplace) this seemed rather a gratuitous and salacious scene, I assume to accord with the supposed dionysiac frenzy of Neros lust. I would have expected an actual surgical operation, as the possibility of death from blood loss (and sepsis) would be enormous if this scene were the reality.

They arent easy are they? Youd imagine that you just press the save button ,and all will be well, but you have to take many multiple shots because the focus changes so fast.Thanks for the comment I appreciate it.