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Primus Pilus

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Looks good. Social issues are harder to work with than institutions imo. Perhaps we start another on a Roman institution (legions or baths... ect.) for some contrast.

 

(By all means this is a good start!)

Edited by Antiochus of Seleucia
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How about a topic on the day-to-day of life inside the legions? You know, the training, food, discipline, living quarters, etc. This is a topic that interests me greatly, unfortunately I have little information on the subject.

Find PP's post on Vegetius, read it, read Caesar's commentaries, read about the second punic war then make a post.

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The post I made thus far was in my own words, but as I predicted we are batting around quotations from various books. I'm still unclear as to what form this is suppose to take; personal input, resource extraction, both?

 

Yes both. For the time being, I am personally in a resource gathering mode, because there is alot to go through. This sort of discussion will be slow, because it requires considerable review. I'm not attempting to only quote the ancients and leave it at that (I'll attempt to make a case of it at some point, or prove myself wrong in the process), but it takes a bit of effort to find the material in question.

 

Hmm...your topic Primus actually seems a little complex if you consider it a simple sample. But good start though.

 

Yeah, I sort of jumped in with both feet ... wasn't exactly my intention but I had to pick something that interests me personally and am comfortable with the source material.

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An excellent piece Cato, i take my hat off to you :clapping:

 

On a personal point of view i'm finding it pretty hard to come up with the right things to say and backing it up with the correct source :frusty: , it would take me forever and a day to come up with something of the likes i've just read.

 

On the positive side, it does make fascinating reading and i've enjoyed being able to click on the source's and have a good flick through the histories( which have been saved in my favourites for future reference ;) )

 

Keep it up!

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An excellent piece Cato, i take my hat off to you ;)

Thank you Gaius, though the conditions of the experiment itself had far more to do with the quality of the post than anything else. Being forced to cite every darned source leads one to many unexpected findings.

 

On a personal point of view i'm finding it pretty hard to come up with the right things to say and backing it up with the correct source, it would take me forever and a day to come up with something of the likes i've just read.

I literally scratched the outline of my argument on the back of an envelope in less than 10 minutes. Finding the sources for my historical citations took close to 3 hours.

 

I should add that I included a bomb in one of my footnotes for the benefit of dear Clodius. It should be excised.

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I literally scratched the outline of my argument on the back of an envelope in less than 10 minutes. Finding the sources for my historical citations took close to 3 hours.

 

Yes, that's the killer. I am operating most likely from an invalid premise... but it did the job of providing a good sample. Though I don't think that the pre-existing factional rivalry necessarily means that the Scipio/Cato fight didn't have some repurcussions. At any rate its been a good exercise so far, but it does require considerable effort.

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I don't think that the pre-existing factional rivalry necessarily means that the Scipio/Cato fight didn't have some repurcussions.

 

I think the fight was a symptom of a broader move toward plebs and provincials asserting their place in government; unfortunately, they were overly suspicious of Hellenized rich guys telling them what was right and wrong, and this led them to some reactionary prejudices. This dynamic also seems to have been at work in the rise and fall of the Gracchi too, though I don't think that the specific conflict between Cato and Scipio had any causal connection to that development. In any case, that we're continuing the conversation here rather than under the Imperium Romanorum is an experimental outcome we should think about addressing....

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Thank you Gaius, though the conditions of the experiment itself had far more to do with the quality of the post than anything else. Being forced to cite every darned source leads one to many unexpected findings.

 

On a personal point of view i'm finding it pretty hard to come up with the right things to say and backing it up with the correct source, it would take me forever and a day to come up with something of the likes i've just read.

I literally scratched the outline of my argument on the back of an envelope in less than 10 minutes. Finding the sources for my historical citations took close to 3 hours.

 

I should add that I included a bomb in one of my footnotes for the benefit of dear Clodius. It should be excised.

 

Kudos, MPC.

Gentlemen, this is the point of the experiment.

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If finding textual sources is this horrible...would you allow legitimiate online resources that usually are .edu(which basically means colleges and universities).

 

But with caution... .edu sites are also sources of student projects, which may or may not be factual. I tell my students to look to see if it's associated with a faculty member, which tends to lend creedence to the info on the site.

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I don't think that a textual resource is *necessarily* any more reliable than a carefully chosen website. Alot of teachers and others write off websites because books are supposed to be more reliable (I once had a project that required a certain number of books from a particular library ;) ) however anyone can publish anything they want in book format, if they can find a publisher or publish it themselves. Publishers often edit the information contained in their books, but not always, as is evidenced by some of the bullocks found in many books today.

Edited by Lost_Warrior
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