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Viggen

Triumviri
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Posts posted by Viggen


  1. Hello everyone,

    UNRV has be a part of my life since far beyond 2003 when it officially launched, so to say goodbye is not easy believe me. I struggled the last couple of years with health issues, work and a busy life thanks to my two children born in 2012 and 2015. Time was in the last years always an issue for me, i never had enough time to do the things i wanted to do and eventually there is a point where it is better to find someone who has the time and is able to make hopefully more out of UNRV than i was able to do the last few years...

    I am giving the site and all that comes with it to Peter Kay who lives in the UK is a professional website manager for a company and has a big interest in history particularly the ancient Roman period.

    I will stick around of course and will assist Peter as much as i can, none of your already submitted reviews are lost and will eventually be published.

    It feels weird for the first time ever not be the emperor here anymore :) but how did they sing in Frozen... Let it go......

    Feel free to get in contact with me via this forum or viggen@gmail.com

    Ladies and Gentlemen, it has been an honor to serve you....!


  2. Pax Romana is a rather gentle but comprehensive refutation of this view – or at least a solid thesis by the author that 'the pendulum has swung too far'. In this book author and scholar Adrian Goldsworthy looks at Rome and its empire in a series of detailed studies – from conquest, to administration and frontier defences – and asks 'Did the Pax Romana really exist?' And if it did, was it beneficial for the people who lived under it...?

    ...continue to the review of Pax Romana: War, Peace and Conquest in the Roman World by Adrian Goldsworthy


  3. A man stumbled across a Roman villa in his back garden which is being hailed as the most significant discovery of its kind for a decade.  Luke Irwin, from Wiltshire, was laying an electricity cable in his barn when he uncovered a mosaic underground...

    The find has been proclaimed by Historic England as “unparalleled in recent years”. After an eight-day dig, archaeologists uncovered more of the ‘elaborate’ and ‘extraordinarily well-preserved’ villa, thought to be one of the largest ever found in the country. 

    ...via Independent


  4. This detailed, carefully argued book shows how Christian bishops used their mastery of moral, social and spiritual power, along with law and tradition, to guide the formation and governance of the Frankish kingdoms. The period covers the Gallic period, the conversion and baptism of Clovis I (c 508 AD), the deposition of the Merovingians in 751, the missionary conquests of Charlemagne (King 768-814, Emperor 800-814), and the breakup of the unified empire after the death of Charlemagne’s son Louis the Pious in 840...

    ...continue to the review of  A Sacred Kingdom: Bishops and the Rise of Frankish Kingship by Michael E. Moore


  5. This book, awarded the 2008 Lakedaimonian Prize of the Academy of Athens, is political and military history at its best. In an era where the Spartans are idealised in popular culture through films such as 300 (2006) and 300: Rise of an Empire (2014) and, in contrast, are often dismissed or even derided by many classical scholars of the ‘Spartan mirage’ variety, Miltiadis Michalopoulos has provided a history of Sparta that is balanced, well researched, and fascinating...

    ...continue to the review of  In the Name of Lykourgos by Miltiadis Michalopoulos


  6. Crossing the Rubicon, when warfare was about to supersede Roman politics, opens one of the most fascinating periods of Roman history with bloody battles fought in the Balkans, North Africa and Spain.

    I have been an addict since living at (what may have been) the site of Caesar’s last battle, Munda in Spain, and researching and writing my first novel around the momentous events of 49-44 BCE. I had to have this issue of Ancient Warfare and devoured it in one session, then revisited time and again for the fresh insights and superb battle maps and graphics...

    ...continue to the full review of  Ancient Warfare Magazine Vol XI Issue 3 (Roman Against Roman – Caesar and Pompey in the Balkans)


  7. 3 hours ago, lothia said:

    I am writing a novel that takes place in the closing years of the fourth century (AD 394).

    I cannot find where the Dux Raetia had its headquarters at that time.

    The ND does not help.  I also looked through [ The_General_Civil_and_Military_Administration of Raetia and Noricum ] and found nothing about the Dux.

    Any place else I might look, or does anyone have an answer?

    in German there is information :)

    most probably Augsburg (Augusta Vindelicorum) (there are some indications it could have been also in Regensburg ( Castra Regina )

    https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dux_Raetiae#Hauptquartier


  8. I am privileged to interview Dr. Francesco Galassi on behalf of UNRV. He and his co-author Huton Ashrafian wrote the interesting and thought-provoking book, “Julius Caesar’s Disease: A new Diagnosis.”

    Guy S. für UNRV: Dr. Galassi, how did you become interested in the study of paleopathology (the study of ancient diseases in man and animals)? More specifically, what inspired you to reevaluate the health of Julius Caesar?

    ...continue to the interview with Francesco Galassi!

    Thanks @guy and Francesco


  9. Interesting paper

    Alaric I (c. 370-410AD), King of the Visigoths, sacked Rome for the second time in over eight centuries of history. Historians suggest that malaria, probably contracted either in Rome or in the Pontine Marshes, was responsible for his sudden death in Cosenza (Calabria) in the autumn of 410AD, where he was allegedly buried in the River Busento. In this article, we aim to examine this hypothesis through a full pathographic reassessment of the most likely cause of Alaric's demise.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26970917

    ...should be interesting for late antiquity gurus like @sonic

     


  10. Adding to the rapidly-extending corpus of books on Late Antiquity comes the Oxford publication on the Late Roman/Early Byzantine Empress, Theodora, wife of Justinian. The author of the book, David Potter – Francis W. Kelsey Collegiate Professor of Greek and Roman History and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Greek and Latin at the University of Michigan – here attempts to find the real person behind the scheming woman portrayed by Procopius in his ‘Secret History. The Contents of the book clearly illustrate that Potter is approaching his theme using a roughly chronological approach...

    ...continue to the review of  Theodora: Actress, Empress, Saint by David Potter


  11. L.J. Trafford is a polished storyteller who quickly immerses the reader into the little explored world of common Roman slaves who executed the day-to-day tasks of managing the emperor’s palace. Galba’s Men, published in 2016, is the second book in Trafford’s four-book series, The Four Emperors. Galba’s Men is preceded by Palatine and is followed by Otho’s Regret and Vitellius’ Feast.

    The inglorious death of Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (his imperial title) at age 30 in 68 A.D. instigated by his own Praetorian prefect, Nymphidius Sabinus, introduced a short period of civil war into Roman history. This upheaval lasted only a year but witnessed four separate individuals accede to the Roman throne. The story of Galba’s Men is told from the palace slaves’ unique point of view from Galba’s arrival in Rome from Spain, and his short occupancy as Emperor, the pinnacle of Roman power...

    ...continue to the full review of Galbas Men by L.J. Trafford


  12. The book “Julius Caesar’s Disease: A New Diagnosis” is an interesting examination of Caesar’s health. The emphasis of this book is a reassessment of Caesar’s alleged epilepsy. In the preface of the book the authors state, “Discussing health conditions and illnesses of famous characters from a bygone age may indeed be considered a daunting prospect and the advantages stemming from it could be questioned.”

    The authors are certainly qualified to meet the challenge. Both have studied classical history and both are medically qualified to investigate Caesar’s health...

    ...continue to the review of  Julius Caesar's Disease: A New Diagnosis by Galassi and Ashrafian

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