caldrail

Now that's an interesting insight into the development of English. We may have gone Germanic in the post-Roman world, but our modern alphabet is still based on Latin, a survivor of the Dark Ages.

It's not atheism, but whilst I have a variant spiritualism, I am first and foremost a history enthusiast. My research on the Principate includes the era of Jesus and quite frankly it's looking increasingly like a story concocted to sell religion. Was Jesus based on a real person? Possibly, there was a string of charismatic preachers that got executed for unsettling authority with their crowd pulling success, but the more I look at Jesus historically, the less I see. The conclusion has to be he was never real, and indeed, it transpires the earliest known Christian writing (among the Epistles of Paul) contains no real world context for Jesus at all. Does that devalue the film? Not as such, it's just a depiction of a myth, but I don't like the underlying concept that it's supposed to be something I should believe in and the idea the film should be somehow be more important for that depiction is not something I agree with.

No, and I'm not getting out of bed for that one.

Sebastianus, observing the indolence and effeminacy both of the tribunes and soldiers, and that all they had been taught was only how to fly, and to have desires more suitable to women than to men, requested no more than two thousand men of his own choice. He well knew the difficulty of commanding a multitude of ill-disciplined dissolute men, and that a small number might more easily be reclaimed from their effeminacy; and, moreover, that it was better to risk a few than all. By these arguments having prevailed upon the emperor, he obtained his desire. He selected, not such as had been trained to cowardice and accustomed to flight, but strong and active men who had lately been taken into the army, and who appeared to him, who was able to judge of men, to be capable of any service. He immediately made trial of each of them, and obviated their defects by continual exercise; bestowing commendations and rewards on all who were obedient, but appearing severe and inexorable to those who neglected their duty. - Nea Historia (Zosimus) So by long unfamiliarity with fighting the Roman soldier was reduced to a cowardly condition. For as to all the arts of life, so especially to the business of war, is sloth fatal. It is of the greatest importance for soldiers to experience the ups and downs of fortune, and to take strenuous exercise in the open. The most demoralised of all, however, were the Syrian soldiers, mutinous, disobedient,seldom with their units, straying in front of their prescribed posts, roving about like scouts, tipsy from one noon to the next, unused to carrying even their arms. - Letter to Lucius Verus (Fronto) Causes of the Decay of the Legion - The name of the legion remains indeed to this day in our armies, but its strength and substance are gone, since by the neglect of our predecessors, honours and preferments, which were formerly the recompenses of merit and long services, were to be attained only by interest and favour. Care is no longer taken to replace the soldiers, who after serving their full time, have received their discharges. The vacancies continually happening by sickness, discharges, desertion and various other casualties, if not supplied every year or even every month, must in time disable the most numerous army. Another cause of the weakness of our legions is that in them the soldiers find the duty hard, the arms heavy, the rewards distant and the discipline severe. To avoid these inconveniences, the young men enlist in the auxiliaries, where the service is less laborious and they have reason to expect more speedy recompenses. - De Re Militaris (Vegetius) Now in the place of Valens, his uncle, the Emperor Gratian established Theodosius the Spaniard in the Eastern Empire. Military discipline was soon restored to a high level, and the Goth, perceiving that the cowardice and sloth of former princes was ended, became afraid. For the Emperor was famed alike for his acuteness and discretion. By stern commands and by generosity and kindness he encouraged a demoralized army to deeds of daring. - Res Gaetica (Jordanes) Dr Adrian Goldsworthy has commented on the strengths of the late Roman soldiery, regarding their ability in 'low level warfare' (raids and ambushes) but the skills of large set=-piece battles had withered along with the Centurionate.

Jesus isn't real and never was. The earliest known and accepted Christian writings don't mention any real world context, that was invented later as a sales technique for want of a better description. Jesus evolved from an archangel in Hebrew myth who passed the test that Satan failed, and was an ethnic version of the Egyptian Osiris, though the concept of a death and resurrection is a fascinatingly common concept in such ancient religions. The Hippy Jesus is medieval. In Roman times Jesus was depicted as all sorts of things because cults were trying to portray him as something real and recognisable.

Yes, I've noticed the Russians have a lot to say. I have a simple criteria too.

There's no connection between soldiers of Thessalia mentioned in Homer's Iliad and a state that didn't come into existence for hundreds of years after.

Peregrina indicates she was a foreigner or from a family of foreigners, or non-citizen provincials at best.

You're stretching points a lot. Constatine wasn't a Christian until his deathbed, and basically used Christianity as a social mechanism to unify his empire by offering them wealth, land, and patronage if they united and cooperated. And Linus was Bishop of Rome in a period when Christianity was a number of separate cults were none too popular. Claudia Peregrina? The only person of that name that comes up is an artist. You mean Claudia Peregrina Rufus who married an Italian centurion and lived in Rome running a safe house. Hardly that significant, and the only information I can find is from a pro-Christian website that has a dubious narrative.

You have to understand that ideas and myths are very persistent qualities in human societies. The story of Noah for instance is not an Old Testament original, it's a version of a story that's way way older. Scholars have linked the emergence of the mythical Jesus with the Egyptian Osiris (the 'real Jesus' happens within a couple of decades of his supposed death), and so on. So with the territory of the former Hittite Empire being under control of the Roman Empire, is it really that suprising that familiar imagery survives?

Came across this video. An interesting speculation, one I'm a little dubious about, but you never know...

Firstly the inventor of this concept didn't know much about physics. Rapid bursts of speed? I seriously don't think so. Secondly none of this stuff was ever taken seriously any more than the much vaunted Leonardo Da Vinci got his machines to fly.

Freedmen were ineligible for citizenship, gladiator or not, in line with traditional Roman practice. But realise that the granting of citizenship was not an ongoing process anyway, it was an edict, a one-off event, with citizenship passed on to children of provincials awarded full citizenship of Rome.

No, necessity and competition do not inspire free thinking, they merely increase the intensity of acceptable boundaries.. The Roman Empire was one of the most competitive societies ever and its scientific contribution to the world, all those centuries of it, is almost zero. They finished with almost the same level of technology they started with. Free thinking comes about by communication and freedom to express new ideas, the point being that people in power tend not to like others thinking for themselves. I don't have any formal sources on the British monastic thing, but one monastic site was working on iron casting, but of course Henry VIII wanted cash and to remove allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church so a great many of these places were closed in 1536.

The reason for the European renaissance lies beyond Europe No it most certainly does not. It emerges from the Republic that encouraged free thinking in Florence, Italy, in the 16th century. Eastern advances were ignored by the West for the most part.

The Vigiles might have carried clubs or something similar but I don't recall any mention of arms. They were not based on the Urban Cohorts which were three re-purposed Praetorian units.

Everything you need to know is contained in human psychology. You might consider yourself rational and intelligent, but under stressful conditions with everyone around just as scared, you'll do stupid things too. We all do. Training and experience helps of course, but our primeval behaviour underpins our decision making process.

According to Lactantius, Constantine chose a Tau-Rho (a tall letter P with a crossbar) and Eusebius, from whom the Chi-Rho story is derived, is not consistent about it either.

Yeesh. I know that there was a roaring trade in 'false teeth' after the battle, but wholesale exploitation? That's fairly extreme.

Hi. Welcome to our little corner of the world.

Heck that must have been a deep excavation!

Siege warfare is a specific event in one location with fixed numbers (usually) of forces involved - mass mobilisation theories do not apply.

Monotheism among the ancient Hebrews evolved from a little known legend. The father-God, El, gave each of his sons a human tribe to call his very own. Yaweh got the Hebrews, and so they were obliged only to worship Yaweh. Also stories that are thought to be uniquely Christian are often anything but. The story of the Great Flood? It' common these days to hear it was probably inspired by an actual event like a flooding of the Black Sea Basin, but no, it started as an explanation for huge ruined and abandoned cities found in Mesopotamia, the remains of Assyrian cities long forgotten whose destruction was explained as the result of some terrible fllood in times past. A legend of a flood survivor arose - of course that had to be enough survivors to explain why anyone was still alive, and the Hebrews incorporated the myth with their own version, a practice not unusual in the ancient world.

Can be. During the expedition into Germania by Varus in ad9 the Roman shields got so soaked by rain the soldiers couldn't use them, just way too heavy with the added weight of water. Note that dropping a shield was a serious military discipline offence to the Roans. I ried a reproduction shield at Vindolanda once. Not too heavy when dry, but constantly holding it up or using to bash your enemy in front of you was going to need resilient shoulders.

Interesting rationale about fate rather than probability but isn't that putting the cart before the horse? I mean, I doubt the Romans had any standard for making dice and they certainly weren't mass produced, more likely someone just cut a cube-ish block with "yeah that'll do". The facility to game would be more important to the Romans that any scientific exploration of probability, irrespective of believing fate was the key.