Kosmo
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Posts posted by Kosmo
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Iron was really expensive.
Firecrackers would make a strong impression.
Would have an impact: high heels, push-up bras, hair bleach and colorants, depilatory cream, make-up and the best thing, a true mirror.
For soldiers along the Northern frontiers boots and modern materials like goretex and polar fleece would be handy in the cold season. For night guards cofee or Red Bull and for long marches and battles crystal meth.
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The article said the races were held at the Colosseum. (unless I misread it)
I know the Flavian amphitheatre could house a great variety of spectacles but surely most chariot races still took place at the circus maximus and other purpose built chariot racing circuits didn't they?
Of course, but they had to bring somehow gladiators in the story. There was also some weird mention of slave killing but this type of articles have to many errors to bother pointing each one of them.
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Razors for shaving, medicine and various drugs, alcohol, teflon pan, glasses. An ancient spaniard might like toothpaste
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"The Woman Who Had the World Enthralled
From the start Cleopatra
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Nice!
From the same source
Romans made a big fuss about straight roads
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"The great waves of plague that twice devastated Europe and changed the course of history had their origins in China, a team of medical geneticists reported Sunday, as did a third plague outbreak that struck less harmfully in the 19th century...
...The Black Death is the middle of three great waves of plague that have hit in historical times. The first appeared in the 6th century during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Justinian, reaching his capital, Constantinople, on grain ships from Egypt. The Justinian plague, as historians call it, is thought to have killed perhaps half the population of Europe and to have eased the Arab takeover of Byzantine provinces in the Near East and Africa.
The third great wave of plague began in China
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I have seen Israeli cruise ships bringing each hundreds of Israeli tourists in Turkey without any problem. The two countries were very close allies until this year.
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Unfortunately for me, my circumstances (I'm Jewish) make me sort of afraid to go to the Middle East.
There are millions of Jews in the Middle East
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when the rules in the Middle East lighten up, I want to get to Anatakya (Antioch, now in Turkey) and Petra.
There are no restrictions for visiting Turkey or Jordan and both countries have very good greek and roman sites besides the ones you mention like Byzantium, Ephesus, Side in Turkey and Gerasa in Jordan. I've been many times in Turkey and there are still lots of classical sites I did not get to see including Antioch.
Does British Museum counts as a roman site? That was my last visit.
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In order to log that transaction in some kind of unique way, we take a stick of hazelwood, and notch random notches all the way across it. We then split it in two. Each of us has a proof of the transaction that matches only the other half.
Got to go, my weasel is looking worried!
This type of contract proof was used in some mountainous areas long enough to be recorded by moderns. The difference from what you say is that the quantity owed was noted with a number of notches on the stick so it was a proof on how much was owed.
In traditional societies business relations were highly personal and they could be very public and multi-generational. Blatant refusal to pay such a contract could result in loss of honor and face to the extent of turning the offending part into a pariah. The stick was probably a proof accepted in court as well.
In the High Middle Ages of Western Europe a large banking system came into existence and financed large scale long distance trade despite the fact that because the Catholic Church was forbidding interest the loan contracts were very hard to enforce even when they were camouflaged as currency exchange. The entire system rested on trust and worked well except when kings were the debtors...
How is the weasel?
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I think Cicero poked fun at spaniards for something like this, but I never heard of it being a roman custom.
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Publicani were fleecing conquered subjects while the modern banks are going after their own citizens. Actually I am not surprised given that Americans gave their companies the right of free speech and to secretly take part in politics. They even allow them to create their own proofs against their opponents in court cases, like the scandal with the mortgage affidavits shows.
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Many happy returns!
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An interview not about the movie but about the biography written by Stacy Schiff. I guess I should have put this in Libri
Questions for Stacy Schiff
The Queen
Interview by DEBORAH SOLOMON
Published: October 15, 2010
In your new biography of Cleopatra, you take issue with historians who have attributed her achievements to her looks and implied that she slept her way to the top.
For reasons I am sure you can explain to me, it has always been preferable to attribute a woman
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"Stacy Schiff's biography peels away the layers to reveal the true Cleopatra, a much more interesting woman than the Hollywood version, and, as it turns out, a formidable queen after all, according to reviews. A Pulitzer Prize-winning American nonfiction author and guest columnist for The New York Times, Schiff digs up astonishing and rare facts about the queen that could make the film into an entirely new story."
Sounds excellent. Top director, actress, script, producer etc and we can count on breathtaking special effects and other Hollywood visual treats that come with a big budget.
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It does remind me of Thermopyle with the enemies of greek freedom sneaking on an unguarded path and falling on the privileged equals from behind.
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A surprising article about the helmet on NYT (because is short I copied it in full)
"When Art World's Gain Turns Into a Country's Loss
by Souren Melikian (surena was a parthian title if I recall well
)LONDON
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"ATHENS, Greece (AP)
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My bet is Marcus had to use the right hand. For example in my country left handed people had to use their right hand in many activities. Warsaw Treaty weapons were made for right hand users only so even if you were left handed you still had to train to use it while conscripted. Left handed people like my father or my childhood best friend were taught and forced, in school and at home, to write with their right hand. My friend, a very talented artist, during class was taking notes with the right hand and was drawing comics with the left.
Given the attitudes of romans and greeks towards the sinister side of things I think one will want to use the right hand.
I don't remember well but I think a greek wrote about this and about the need to make soldiers/citizens ambidextrous.
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When they introduced the new shekel the old shekel was withdrawn from circulation. This coin was thrown away when the owner realized that it will not be accepted anymore by the slot machines on the Eilat cruise ships.
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I think that the timing between our discussion and this event is funny:
"Druids Recognized as Religion for First Time in UK
Filed at 7:48 a.m. ET
LONDON (AP)
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The earliest mention of druids that I know of it's in Caesar.
Brennus won at Allia around 390 BC while the great celtic invasion of the Balkans and Greece was in 280-279 BC.
When a warrior culture expands rapidly across a region, it's because the internal differences have been sorted in some way. Without a strong central leadership, the tribes simply argue among themselves. This isn't a purely celtic phenomenon, it applies to all warrior peoples.
Not always. For example slavs spread on a huge space long before any significant slav state emerged. Viking expansion it's often portrayed as been caused by internal competition and conflict that preceded the establishment of the scandinavian states similar with greek colonization in pre-classical times that preceded or accompanied the birth of the polis.
The main cause of celtic movement can be connected with the german expansion in Central Europe that pushed the celts south and east. The celts had a warrior mind set and, contrary to widespread belief, effective (defensive) weapons and these explain their successes but there is no evidence of a "strong central leadership". Petty aristocratic chieftains always in competition is the usual description of their political system.
House of the Gladiators collapses in Pompeii
in Archaeological News: Rome
Posted
Unbelievable. The mismanagement and the absence of proper funding are constantly ruining the ancient monuments of Italy. With the crisis and at least 2 more years of Berlusconi things are not going to improve soon. If this happens in a wealthy country that takes pride in it's roman past while making money out of this monuments what can we expect for the future of antiquities in areas like the Middle East?