caldrail

The Opening of the Library has become a daily ritual in my life now. It's almost assumed religious significance as I enter the Temple of Bookworms and quietly wait for the monks guarding the lower chamber to unlock the fold-away doors to the Inner Sanctum upstairs. Not any more. yesterday the guard, whom I've not seen before, opened the coffee bar and told the faithful that they'll just have to walk around the staircase. What? Have we erred? Are we being punished for our sins? Groan. Oh well. Like everyone else I joined the throng ambling around the stairwell. AM was there, and as always, whinging, though I have to say this time he had a point. Once upstairs I sat down at my usual cubicle and began logging on. AM stomped past me on his crutches and making sure I heard, loudly proclaimed that "These limey's just don't get it." Trust me, AM, I got it a long while back. You were the bloke who used to bully people off your favourite PC. I suspect you were no different when you were serving in the armed forces in your youth, which you like to make a big deal of. That's why I don't listen to you. There are heroes and casualties more deserving. Celebration of the Week Saint George stood outside the library in his medieval armour, looking quite magnificent in his crusader style helm and surcoat. Now there's a legend that the good Sir Knight fought a dragon at Uffington, a few miles away to the southeast, so I guess our town has every right to majke a big thing of his birthday. George was standing there in front of me almost fifteen feet high. Big lad. Poor old dragon never stood a chance.

Whatever the bankers did the world will recover from. Most nations will do so nicely. Unforunately, Gordon Brown, whilst Chancellor, made himself look good by the expedient of borrowing huge sums of money without drawing attention to it, so he always had money to make easy budgets or be generous for good causes. That's why he was so keen to pressure Tony Blair to honour his deal and step down, before the crap hit the fan. Alistair Darling, our new Chancellor, was slescted to take the fall for Gordons shenanigans. H'ell be given a sinecure sometime in the future for his trouble, so that Gordon Brown can walk away smelling of roses. It's also worth noting that Gordon Brown has not stood for election - he was given the job of Prime Minister by virtue of Tony Blair. The problem though was that the economic downturn occured. Britain has borrowed more money in the last administration than ever before in total. We are in debt up to our eyeballs and all the government dioes is borrow more. While other nations will be recovering we'll be struggling for decades with mammoth debts and taxes, not to mention paying for an olympic games that are supposed to demonstrate what a great country this is. Why is Gordon Brown doing this? Why is he deliberately destroying our econimic viability when clearly this level of borrowing is suicidal? There may be any number of explanations. Is he an idiot? Is he trying to seed the voting market with angry poverty-stricken socialists? Is he trying to ensure the Conservative party cannot effectively demonstrate efficient government? Is he trying to deflate Britain for a political subjgation? Whatever his motives, the bankers in America are not to blame for those.

It seems the pilum was italian in origin and that it was used very early on as a javelin by legions. The long thin stem is available in archaeological record. Apparently the biggest criticism of the pilum was it's slow flight, which made it possible for enemies to dodge the javelin if they had room and enough wits. I believe Caesar made similar complaints of the gauls. Marius introduced the two-pin style to introduce a tactical advantage to compensate for the pilums failings. His methods weren't universally accepted and the two-pin pilum (which had obvious vulnerability) did not survive against the traditional pilum.

There was no official enslavement of visitors - only illegal trading did that and then only if they thought they would get away with it. Other than that, a 1st century brit could indeed visit Rome if he wanted. So come on down and see the sights! I'm sure there's plenty of merchants who'll sell you everything you could possibly need.

It is a sobering thought given how solitary my life has become. Your experience in african villages is interesting. In the news we see strife. One man complained and eventually got government aid so the bandits turned up to take it away. Then the army turned up to chase them away and took everything he had left (don't know which country, but it was africanish). Nonetheless, I keep seeing footage of children in the appalling poverty of the countryside and lo and behold they're blissfully happy and playful. Until they're old enough to buy an AK that is.

I would do but I don't have it. All we need to know is whether he specifically mentions a soft iron shank or not. By referring to a 'bending' shaft, it doesn't rule out the twin pin version. I'll dig up Michel Feugeres book on Roman weaponry tonight and see what he says. He uses a lot of archaeological evidence to back up Roman sources.

I like quoting this, but the film Three Kings has an interesting sequence where the men are stopped by the rogue special forces guy and he asks them "What is most important?" They look stupid for a minute then he says "Necessity." I do understand your point. We become accustiomed to our luxuries and devices. My world has shrunk enormously since I became a pedestrian for instance. Life without a computer at home would be unbearable! I think though this subject tends to be viewed from the perspective of the individual. Thats not really the right way to see it. Humans are social animals, and unless we're part of a co-operative tribe, the back-to-basics experience can be a lot tougher. I remember on the tv news a wanted criminal was caught after he'd tried to hide out in the woods, armed with one of those special forces 'how-to' guides. He'd spent two weeks away from civilisation and was caught because he'd attempted to buy matches in a shop looking completely dishevelled. Rather like the Simpsons, where Homer falls out with Marge and lives in the kids tree house. After three hours, he's reduced to a wretched state. then again, regarding pace of life, mine has almost stopped due to unemployment. In fact, the authorities regularly kick you up the rear to remotivate your job seeking, or send you to obscure units where they try to renew your energy. It sort of works, but I don't think you're unchanged by the experience.

Romans were considered adults at 15. Women as young as 7 years of age have been recorded as married (though 12 or 13 was more likely). In the Roman world, you grew up a lot faster. You expect to be a grandfather by the age of 35.

Now that I've been unemployed for a year, I must face the Inquisition. It's a ritual designed to help me get back to work, though to be honest, it rarely makes any difference. They change a few conditions on my jobseekers contract and send me to a special unit where I can learn how to be a jobseeker again. There were a few us waiting for interviews. A woman walked up and asked if we were in the right place. The guy opposite me looked puzzled. "In the right place..." He mumbled, staring emptily into space. The woman walked away again muttering something about that being all right then. My scheduled inquisitor was a man called Brian. Is that a good or bad omen?. In the first floor office where I sat there was a complete absence of Brianoids and eventually he turned out to be a pleasant young asian woman. Some women just talk and talk don't they? Brian didn't draw breath once from start to finish. She was in such a rush to sort out my complacency. So after nodding agreement in between her bursts of non-stop chatter and fumbled keyboard presses, I signed up for a course in self-motivation. I'm going to have to start getting up in the mornings again. No, let's be positive. With a bit of luck, I'll manage to get a job before the lucky company goes bust in the economic downturn. Speaking of which... Budget of the Week We have a tradition in England called the Budget. It's that time of the year when the Chancellor rells us how much more expensive life is going to be. This years Budget is simply so entertaining that it makes The Charge Of The Light Brigade look like the most brilliant decision in military history. I won't bore you with the details - it's been on the tv news for two days now already - but you can't help feeling that the government have given up trying to solve Britains escalating debt, and decided instead to see how bad they can make it before they finally lose power.

So... basically what you're saying is.... they're no better off than me? Seriously though, the 'back to basics' lifestyle is great when everythings peaceful and the necessities of life within easy reach. Add some policial turmoil, a few chinese arms dealers, a famine, a long period without rain, one or two king rats, and you get hell on earth.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the pilum used in the Cimbrian war used the two-pin style. It didn't have a bendy shaft, but a pivotting one.

England and Wales? A tax haven? Good grief V, you do need to keep up with current affairs

What we have here is another example of trying to fix modern concepts on ancient lives. Villas were the center of rural production - that can't be denied - and we tend to forget that most villas weren't the grand affairs with mosaics and hypocausts we've become used to thinking of. Far from it, in Rioman Britain the majority were modest wooden cottage affairs and therefore fall well within the 'farm' label. The thing is though that as the villa becomes larger and more important, it also becomes more focused as a center of communal life, and sice a wealthy Roman liked nothing better than to be seen as benefactor, spomsor, and patron of his community, he saw the opportunity to provide facilities for them. Religion is a case in point. As a successful business owner, the Roman villa owner might well see his good fortune as the will of the gods, and would therefore be keen to create a temple in their owner to show his gratitude (as well as look good to the locals). So in that respect, we have larger farms (or rural industries) with extra facilities that are encouraging our modern researcher to attempt a different interpretation. There isn't one. The villa was a home, first and foremost, but one whose grounds are used to make a profit, and once a certain size or importance is reached, the extra facilities emerge along with the community that the villa supports. In some respects, it's a similar concept to a lord of the manor. That sort of thing isn't exclusive to the middle ages, it also arose in other cultures, the Roman period being one of them.

All due respect to Phang and Scheidel but I've no reason to accept their argument because they apparently reviewed everything. They seem to be searching for deep inner meanings in something straightforward. Sometimes learned people search for clever and subtle connotations in a field of study. That doesn't make them right. The Romans weren't subtle at all, and in dealing with warfare, had very practical mindset. They knew full well young men without partners are more competitive and aggressive - exactly what they wanted for their legions. People back then weren't fundamentally different from today (apart from some customs and lifestyles) and you don't see any of this inner subtlety in men trained to fight and kill. back then, fighting was even more acceptable and a way of life for many. Even with religion involved, I seriously find it hard to accept the Romans were intellectual about warfare.

It was a really nice day yesterday. The weather was warm, sunny, and although a band of stratus cloud marred the horizon, there was a clear blue sky. It's that time of year when the woods get colourful. The more extrovert trees have sprouted foliage, our more hesitant native oaks and ash trees still sensibly waiting for confirmation before growing leaves. In between, the grass has erupted in a bright green carpet. Yellow, blue, and white woodland flowers make a shortlived appearance before the nettles and ferns arrive to engulf them. It was definitely one of those days to relax, so on the grassy hill south of Croft I lay there watching birds wheel overhead, listerning to the breeze, taking in the sun. You know what? I came home feeling refreshed. Sometimes you just have to leave the modern world behind. Finding The Modern World Again The gas company has worked it's way up the hill and is now digging a moat outside my castle. One grizzled and muddy workman sought my attention and said "You live along here don't ya? Sorry mate, but we're go'in'ta shut the gas off tomorra." Oh? Are you? That's all right, I'm not worried. He looked at me all confused, as if he'd been expecting a tantrum about how hard life is going to be without piped methane. Good grief man, I lost my mobile phone over the weekend. A lack of gas is nothing compared to the biblical significance of losing contact with the outside world. After the frantic search I'd made the day before I decided to reassemble my home into some sort of habitable condition. There was the phone, lying between folds in the duvet, back from it's travels. Please excuse me, this is a private moment. Finding the Local Pub It so happened last evening I was walking home through Injun Country, the hive of edwardian terraces that house the local thieving rascals on the hillside behind my home. A car pulled out from a side turn and a young woman shouted at me "Where's the pub?!" I guess I'm too gentlemanly to remind her to be a little more polite. So instead I pointed and said "Round the corner". Well it is... A vee-shaped building on the end of a downhill terrace. Lots of people drive past without realising where it is. Oh dear. There she goes...

That was an accepted risk of the time. The Romans never thought about 'societal stress' until the mob was banging on the doors. Roman soldiers of the Republican period were not allowed to marry. Simple as that. It made for aggressive men willinging to fight. Depends on the period. During the early Republic, the ruling would have been very strict, and given the limited size of consular armies easier to administer. As time went on, this ruling was relaxed somewhat. Still in place, still a traditional expectation, but conveniently ignored if a soldier could get away with it (which pretty well sums up what sort of men they were overall). Of course it doesn't. The Romans already understood why. I can see why the notion arose. Illegitimate sons of serving soldiers were viewed favourably by recruiters. Nonsense. A legionary swore to serve a legion and it's commander in a special ritual. They were already symbolically seperate. Nonsense. Roman soldiers never willingly surrendered to civilian law and shielded each other from it. Juvenal wrote a piece in his satires about 'judges in boots'. No. It had everything to do with preventing distraction of soldiers motives and keeping them angry. Having sex is a known calming factor. Having kids is a known motive tio settle down, thus working against the requirement to be mobile at a moments notice. As for citizens, it's recognised that recruiters thought highly of legionaries sons (a somewhat hypocritical view?) and Augustus wasn't against population increases at all. Far from it. His franchise system required the distribution of populations and the more successful the new town, the more wealth came back to Rome.

This is exactly where people go wrong. The Romans didn't try to assimilate populations and convert them to Romans. What they wanted was populations who obeyed their laws and paid their taxes. If however, their population was amenable to doing things the Roman way, then so much the better,, and they encouraged that. It was never compulsory. I do think that there's a folk memory lurking behind that. The uncertainty and strife following the Roman withdrawal left a feeling that a golden age had been lost, something that survives to the present day. Certainly the Roman occupation had benefits for the Brits (provided they complied of course) but this tends to get linked to cultural achievement when in fact what people actually fondly remembered was the 'order' of daily life at that time. You could argue then that the impact of the Roman occupation is, diluted and hazy in the mind, but still there.

Marius changed the emphasis between Maniple and Cohort. Prior to Marius, the Cohort existed as a formation of covenience - and interestingly, even after the reforms, was never given it's own 'spirit' as other formations had.

There's a lot to consider. What sort of ground are they fighting on? Who has higher ground? Where is the sun? What weather prevails? In general, the phalanx is fairly formidable provided you meet them head on without missile support (I mean ancient missiles ). Thats why the Romans adopted it earlier to your chosen period. The cohort has a lot of tactical flexibility the phalanx doesn't. That's why the Romans dropped the pikes when they realised just how vulnerable the phalanx can be.

I had a year of German, plus five years of French at school, and another year of French at college prior to a foreign visit (France, by strange coincidence). Mon francais est still rubbish (but I have an excuse, it was twenty five years ago!)

For years Swindon has been a byword for Victorian pidgeon nests. Our 19th Century legacy has survived in all sorts of quiet corners around the town. For the most part, these brick edifices were as rundown and abandoned as their inhabitants. Yet as shabby as it was, it leant a certain character to the place. In recent years, I've wandered around the town taking photographs. The interesting patina of urban decay is simply wonderfully photogenic. The industrial archaeology alone is worth two gigabytes of disc space. It's made me such an interesting person they don't dare invite me to parties anymore. Now what do I find? Every time I publish a photo of Grotty Swindon on the World Wide Web, it changes a year later to Demolished Swindon, soon to be replaced by Neat, New, Tidy Swindon. I photograph a property, put it in my 2009 Calendar (see Stuff, bottom right) and it gets demolished. I ask a security guard to photograph an old railway shed, and they pull it down. I photograph an old bus station office and half of it gets stolen. I snap a pic of a nightclub in an old building and someone sets fire to it. Thanks to me, Swindon is becoming a redeveloped beautiful place to live. Even before I've been made Mayor I've made a difference. I hope the Council is taking notes here. I'm going to start taking photographs of people. Before long, I'll be dating a supermodel. Might get a bit messy in between though. Pic of the Day Whoops. Too late. It's been demolished. You need to be quick in Swindon these days. Early Morning of the Week I was woken during the night by an irate person whose opinion of someone was probably heard across Swindon. At any rate, I heard a dull metallic thud which sounded like a lager can being thrown against a car. I'll check my car for dents later today. Once he'd explained to his mates why he didn't like this person and faded into the distance, I dozed off again. The music was loud. Very loud. It sounded like it came from across the yard, the same people who had that outdoors party once before. Surely this is breach of the peace? No point phoning the police though, they tell me they can't do anything, so I suppose I'd have to bludgeon someone to death before they turned up. I was well tempted. Luckily, so was someone else, and the music stopped. Zzzzzzz......

Before my time. My Action Man had plastic painted hair. No fuzzy stuff or real gripping hands. The catalogue that came in the box was brilliant. It had all these Korean War uniforms and equipment in them that seemed rare and exclusive, stuff you couldn't get in the shops. The problem was that my Action Man really wanted to mount special forces missions behind enemy greenhouses, but in reality his poor ring-pull voice couldn't make himself understood.

No, it isn't. Very schools have teachers who know what latin is, much less with the ability to teach it. I started school in 1965 and had not one lesson in latin ever. In, fact, only one person I've met had latin lessons at school.

Oh? I thought you Americans froze your heads so you see could see your moggies evolve? Must be pretty dull sat in a freezer without a social life. Still, at least you'd get to see the new episodes eventually

There's been a growing tendency to modernise the Romans, to show how advanced they were, and to draw parallels with our time. Some of this is ok, sort of, because parallels do exist but sometimes this gets a little ambitious. For instance, the Romans are credited with concrete. Ok, they did invent it, but the modern use of such material has nothing to do with the Romans at all. Modern concrete is a modern re-invention. The Roman legions also get the same treatment. people look for similarities and make vague claims of 'equivalence' simply based on numbers without actually looking at the details of organisation and methods. In some respects, this is a misinterpretation of certain sources, but it's also a drawing conclusions from coincidence, rather like claiming the ancient egyptians knew how far away the sun was because the distance happens to be a convenient multiple of the side of a pyramid. I remember seeing a computer reconstruction of the colosseum on tv. Whilst the program was actually quite good and had a lot of interesting things to say about how the Romans creatd a public theatre with the same sort of access as modern stadiums, it blew it completely concerning naval battles staged there. In reality, you could put two galleys side by side in the arena and they couldn't go anywhere because they had no room. In the reconstruction, tiny little galleys the size of rowboats were animated, making the Colosseum six times as large as real life just to illustrate a point. On the plus side, there has been some very clever insight into Roman times but oddly, it doesn't really impact on the public onciousness. I suspect thats because it doesn't meet the sensationalist imagery we've gotten use to. I'm not aware of regional differences, aside from local pride in Roman remains, but in recent years the Romans have indeed become associated with Arthurian myth. The museum at Cirencester (Corinium) had on display the armour worn by Clive Owen in the King Arthur film that illustrated him as a Roman administrator protecting Britain against Saxon incursion.