M. Porcius Cato

A Who's Who for these two putsches could be useful, but it's a daunting project to say the least.

Drusus?

Tiberius?

This isn't a bad idea for a site, but it is executed very badly--search is clunky and data is sparse. On both of these counts, Google Images works much better.

From Plutarch: The Achaeans voted Titus many honours, none of which seemed commensurate with his benefactions except one gift, and this caused him as much satisfaction as all the rest put together. And this was the gift: The Romans who were unhappily taken prisoners in the war with Hannibal had been sold about hither and thither, and were serving as slaves. In Greece there were as many as twelve hundred of them. The change in their lot made them pitiful objects always, but then even more than ever, naturally, when they fell in with sons, or brothers, or familiar friends, as the case might be, slaves with freemen and captives with victors. These men Titus would not take away from their owners, although he was distressed at their condition, but the Achaeans ransomed them all at five minas the man, collected them together, and made a present of them to Titus just as he was about to embark, so that he sailed for home with a glad heart; his noble deeds had brought him a noble recompense, and one befitting a great man who loved his fellow citizens. This appears to have furnished his triumph with its most glorious feature. For these men shaved their heads and wore felt caps, as it is customary for slaves to do when they are set free, and in this habit followed the triumphal car of Titus. Nice call Alibegoa. Granted, Plutarch says nothing specifically about these slaves being taken from Cannae, but it's a reasonable inference.

In my view, the Roman contribution to modern life that is most under-appreciated is the republican ideal. Fergus Millar has attempted to right this historical wrong in his book "The Roman Republic in Political Thought," which I'd highly recommend.

The emphasis is mine. Definitely, I was thinking in a similar fashion to the law index. Absolutely--sources are the most important part of this exercise. I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't find ourselves excising some of the battles on the list due to lack of source material.

It's been said that Caesar was the first to depict himself on a coin. Can anyone provide an earlier example?

If domestic inflation were responsible for record profits in US manufacturing, how to explain record profits from exports? Is the idea that the weakened dollar increases demands for US goods that are cheaper abroad? If so, that should continue only until those exports drive up the value of the dollar.

Sounds good. I wasn't looking forward to the battles during the principate anyway--I get vertigo when the numbers start going the wrong way (44 should come AFTER 70!). Haven't started anything serious yet, but I thought I'd plunge into the early republic and sort out the battles of the Samnite War.

I think the most effective way to do this is to simply make new pages for each battle. I'd like the "list" to simply list the date and the battles. When someone clicks the link, it could be a page with a short description and/or the details such as who, what & where. That's possible.

I know what you mean. Maybe a reasonable case can be made that the Roman treatment of the Goths led to problems for Rome, but to think that Rome should have thrown open her borders to every wandering Germanic tribe flies in the face of the fundamental differences in lifestyle and in values that kept these tribes from Hellenizing in the first place. If these tribes weren't open to specialized trade, specialized agriculture, and city-building, what good could possibly come from giving them a swath of land? Without knowing how to make the most productive use of the land, they couldn't possibly do more with it than the Romanized Gauls.

Yeah, good point. It was a devil's bargain with the Vandals. And the devils took their due when they seized North Africa, thus ending any hope left for the West. Exactly. Africa was almost undefended despite its vital importance, leaving almost the entire former Carthaginian empire vulnerable.

After catching some errors in the Roman Battle Index (e.g., the battle of the "Claudine Forks"), I started to do a revised index for the republican era, with more information (e.g., references to sources). What's the key information you'd like to see? I was thinking: Year of Battle, War/Name of Battle, Place of Battle, Combatants (Winning Commander/Tribe, Losing Commander/Tribe), Sources.

Didn't the grant of land in Gaul happen much too late to offset the problems that had been set in motion? It depends on what you think the "problems that had been set in motion" were. If you view the chief problem as super-nasty barbarians (i.e., the Hunnic hordes) pushing nasty barbarians (i.e., the Germanic tribes) into the Romanized lands of Europe, then no time was a good time for the grant of land in Gaul. I didn't see the Moyer special (not that I make any effort whatever to watch Bill Moyer), but as summarized above, the view that the Roman Empire fell because it wasn't accommodating enough of the barbarians seems contradicted by the consequences of the land grant to the Visigoths.

On top of that, the Romans DID give lands to the Germanic tribes (to the Visigoths between Bordeaux and Toulouse), and the Visigoths were a nightmare.

I don't think that trade is unbalanced--in an ideal world, we could get $100 worth of imports for just $1 worth of exports (a pipe-dream, I know). Nor do I think that a growing service economy is bad either. More engineers designing robots and fewer people working like robots is a good thing--for workers and the economy both. The last issue is an interesting one that I haven't given much thought. The problem is how to measure inflation that doesn't show up in government statistics. However that's done, it's hard to see why the manufacturing sector in particular should be reporting inflated earnings. Shouldn't hidden inflation boost everyone's nominal bottom line?

Mater potestas?

Diving Qualities looks pretty cool, but $120? These publishers must think we're sons of Crassus!

News to me. Where did you read this?

Did I miss something? Where did anyone use Wikipedia as a source?

Thanks--it's useful to have the two arguments side-by-side. The notion that the only children 'sacrificed' were the ones who had died prematurely is a creative reconstruction of the physical evidence, but it requires our ignoring a fair amount of independent testimony of child sacrifice--from Kleitarchos, Diodorus, Plutarch, Tertullian, and the various authors of the Hebrew Bible--that is equally consistent with the physical evidence. I find it difficult to believe that this testimony is all based on a misunderstanding.

It would be interesting to compile a list of those killed by the Marians.

I know--absurd. Once you get the mods (I like Europa Barbarorum best), your review will be "nice platform for historically accurate mods".

Suetonius says nothing about Cato being bribed.