Aphrodite

I don't beleive in God, and my stance on religion is pretty much the same as primus described, however i really respect people's spirituality and love talking to religious people about religion, as i envy their faith in some ways. As long as they don't start talking like god is a person, someone they know and have conversations with, becuase then i start to edge away... slowly hehe!

Thansk I wil og and check it out, I'm currently reading "The Late Roman Army" by Southern & Dixon, and Warfare in "Roman Europe AD350-425" by Hugh Elton, so i'm thinking of the periods looked at within these books really.

Thanks for the tips Andrew_Dalby, I will bear them in mind... Viggen, i just read and enjoyed your field notes, maybe when i get back from my trip I could upload the report i have to write for uni, and of course share the pics!

I'm from Birmingham in England. Yes, I'm a Brummaaaay, hehe!

The precise moment in history when the trick of making beer was discovered is of course long lost, but it is clear that before 2000 BC the Sumerians were skilled makers and prodigious drinkers of beer (eight different types of beer made from barley are recorded from that time, and a further eight from wheat), and the ancient Egyptians also went in for it in a big way. The Greeks and Romans, however, scarcely knew of beer except as an exotic brew (the only words for it in their languages are foreign borrowings), and they considered it markedly inferior to their wine: the Greeks held, for instance, that their wine god Dionysus fled from Mesopotamia because all he could get to drink there was beer.

Do you think it was a desirable one? While some would say a roman solider had high moral for defending his empire, others may disagree. I have read about men who could cut their thumbs off so they couldn't hold a sword - not the actions of a man who aspired to be part of the roman army surely? Do you think Roman soliders had a good life, or do you think the 25 years they spent in service were miserable and bleak?

The following article may be of some help to your quest for knowledge ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ mysteries For much of the 20th cent. the term

I'd really like to hear about places you have been and would reccomend to your fellow history buffs! I'm going to Greece in three weeks time, and I'm rather excited as i love it there, i'm going to athens, olympia, delphi and corinth, also hoping to have time to visit Mycene! I have visited already, last summer infact, and I would do nothing but sing it's praises to anyone! The Acropolis was amazing, and i was lucky enough to go and watch the balet in the ancient herodicus-atticus theatre. From athens we traveled onto the greek island of Santorini, and visited ancient Akrotiti where those beautiful wall frescos were discovered in a 4000 year old town that was buried under volcanic ask, much like pompeii but far older. Where have you all been to? And where would you most liek to go?

Oh and Heraclius was known as "Basiteus" which means king and if more Greek, rather than previous rulers being called "Imperator"

I have a complete list of theEmperors of the Eastern Roman empire, starting with Constantine in 324, going right through to Constantine XI (XII) Palaiolgos in 1448. Its a pretty long list and i don't really have the time to copy type it all out, but if anyone would like to see it I could scan the sheet in and upload the doc, if i can work out how to do it!?

By the 3rd century the Roman Army was very different to the images of the Roman Army we all know and love from films and TV shows, and this is the period of Roman military history I find the most interesting! The main problem for the empire at this time was the fact it was being engaged on numerous fronts making it impossible to accumalate large powerful armies in one place - the empire was now on the defensive rather than the offensive. Emporers at this time were forced to make changes to have any chance of survival. These included moves such as withdrawing cavalry from the front lines to form internal groups. Frontier troops were know as LIMITANEI, and as their name would suggest were strung out along the fortifications of the frontiers to defend the lands. I'm interested to hear what you know on this subject how effective you think this new form of the Roman army was. This is approaching the dawn of the byzantine age and i think that is a lot what draws me to this period as the gold and richness of the period is more romantic and dazzling in a way!

The reign of heracules (sp) was when things started to go officially greek, most importantly the administration. The ways historians define the difference between the two periods is with categories such as latin/greek and pagan/christian. Although the inhabitants always saw themselves as Roman... even up until the end of the ottoman empire locals would call themselves "romini", but they also defined themselves as greek and othodox.

Has everyone forgotton that the city was sacked originally by the crusaders anyway, so it appears christians can be just as brutal as those ottomans!

Can you name one proud race who can proove a pure bloodline though? What constitutes as pure? Of course the bloodlines will have altered over a thousand years, but the modern greeks are most likely to be the closest descendants of the ancient greeks we have on the planet today.

Hi everyone! I'm an ancient history student on the serch for some interesting discussions! xxx