WotWotius

'An ancient temple regarded as the most important Roman discovery in the City of London for a century is going back to its original home. The Temple of Mithras, which dates from the third century, was discovered in the Fifties during construction work in Walbrook Square... Full article here.

Allianoi.

According to Plutarch, Caesar uttered the famous phrase in Greek: 'And now word was brought that Caesar had seized Ariminum, a large city of Italy, and was marching directly upon Rome with all his forces. But this was false. For he was marching with no more than three hundred horsemen and five thousand men-at‑arms; the rest of his forces were beyond the Alps, and he did not wait for them, since he wished to fall upon his enemies suddenly, when they were in confusion and did not expect him, rather than to give them time and fight them after they were prepared. And so, when he was come to the river Rubicon, which was the boundary of the province allotted to him, he stood in silence and delayed to cross, reasoning with himself, of course, upon the magnitude of his adventure. Then, like one who casts himself from a precipice into a yawning abyss, he closed the eyes of reason and put a veil between them and his peril, and calling out in Greek to the bystanders these words only, "Let the die be cast," he set his army across'. -Plutarch, Life of Pompey, 60

Pergamum?

Indeed it is. You're up.

On the subject of beards, Pliny reports: 'The next agreement between the two races [Greek and Roman] was in the area of barbers, but it came later to the Romans. They came to Italy from Sicily in the 454th year after the City's foundation, brought by Publius Titinius Mena, as Varro says. Before that the Romans were unshaven. Africanus the Younger first started the custom of being shaved daily. The deified Augustus always used razors.' - Pliny, Natural Histories, book 7, LIX. This fashion stayed present among the Roman elite for over two centuries until the accession of Hadrian. Being a philhellenic, Hadrian adopted the Greek fashion of the beard, and this was quickly adopted by his court, as seen on the bust of his successor, Antonius Pius, below: Being unshaven in appearance gradually lost favour in the 3rd Century, when military crew cuts were adopted within the Imperial court as a result of the great wave of soldier emperors present at that time.

No.

Cheers guys. As oppose to having a birthday, as is the norm, my friends are treating me to a birthweek. So far this has involved going out for my birthday, and then for A-level results; tomorrow we are all going clubbing in London, before going to Alton Towers the next day. ...ah, the joys lacking full-time employment.

No.

It is in Asia Minor.

Anybody?

Indeed the field is in a constant state of expansion; both main-liners and dead-enders of the hominid family tree are being unearthed on a regular basis. Just three years ago, a new species of hominid, Homo floresiensis, was found in Indonesia.

I believe that the Independent published an article on this beauty of a find, pasting it on page two, giving it precedence over an article on a high-profile court ruling on Alzheimer's drugs in the NHS! The archaeologist part of me regarded this mainstream interest as promising; the lateral-thinking part of me, however, deemed it a little concerning

I can't help with all the major sites within the boundaries of the Roman Empire, but this website may well be of some use to you if you are an avid fan of Roman Britain.

If you are a fan of the film Withnail and I, this may be worth checking out. Also, if you are not a great fan of the archetypal London tourist - i.e. the marauding multitude of Japanese and bum-bag-clad American tourists of which London receives a great influx - then avoid Madam Tussauds at all costs! The place is additionally not a great place to go if one is looking out for the health of one's wallet.

Padua (Patavium): birthplace of Livy.

Thank you all. Right, I am off to Gatwick.

Carsulae?

For Goodness sake, there is no need to bite my head off. Besides Caesarea was a Phoenician site; it only really became a city under Herod, hence its namesake. This is, after all, only a game...

Yep.

Quite. *huzzah*

I finally got hold of my new passport two days ago! That was definitely a day worth celebrating. The journey towards the passport, however, was an odyssey fraught with peril. From where I left you last, it seems that I was frantically trying to get hold of the Home Office. This did indeed carry on for some time, but eventually I was able to get hold of them. And guess what? The photographs enclosed in my application had been damaged in the post (ahh the British Postal Service: once again, the bane of my life). Realising that a postal strike was in fact imminent

No. Would you like a clue?