Gaius Octavius
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Posts posted by Gaius Octavius
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Uncouth as it may be, I love the twist off. Sometimes a bottle just isn't finished in one sitting and it keeps much longer.
I especially like it when traveling (business or pleasure) when I'd like a glass of wine before going to bed. Don't have to lug around a corkscrew and the bottle can leave with you a lot easier if not finished. ^_^
I love the rubber stopper and vacuum pump system that I have. Very easy to use, the hand pump is compact, and the rubber stoppers can be put in the dishwasher. But, yes, the screw-tops are becoming more popular in Europe than in the States...but it's growing.
Doesn't a nitrogen(?) gas have to be pumped into the bottle?
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The 'Marshall Plan' was really the 'Truman Plan'. Truman would never have gotten it through the Republican controlled congress in his name.
Also, Americans were encouraged to send their relatives in Europe 'packages' of food and clothing.
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If my memory serves me, corked wine is a relatively new phenomenon. Post 1600's? If Roman wine wasn't corked it may have been a drink totally different from what we think of as wine.
If it is 'corked', one shouldn't drink it!
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Of course aliens exist! I have personally seen and communicated with them. They have had their 'way' with many people I know. Some have taken trips to Uranus with them. We have shared many a bottle of whiskey.
However, they mostly land out in the boondocks and have their 'way' with pumpkin kickers and apple knockers. They don't go for NYC or Washington; too much crime.
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To the list of diversions, you can add gambling, horse racing, sports, hunting, the baths, reading, writing and discussion groups. Then there is that bit about the elite youngsters running around at night mugging the unwary citizenry for 'fun'.
I don't think that they smoked anything, since they didn't have matches or lighters handy.
The baths might have been a good place to have a cluster inhalation session of sundry herbs.
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If my memory serves, all of the provinces west of Persia and north of Arabia Felix, were Roman and Christian. Maybe the apology should be for not reconquering all of them and offering the same terms to the populations.
An apology for the desecration of Sancta Sophia might be in order.
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You all are going to love this bit. In "Manual of Foeign Languages"; G.F. von Ostermann, Ph.D. (1952), (Foreign Language Editor, U.S. Government Printing Office), he shows the Basque language as an offshoot of the 'polysynthetic' or 'incorporating' branch of the language tree. This is at the same point where 'Aboriginal Tongues of America' branches off!
One, therefore, may easily conclude that the Indians 'discovered' Europe, before Europe, America! No wonder why the Basques had cod fishing outposts in the northwestern Atlantic so early.
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If you lend someone money and charge interest, you can work out how much they owe you exactly to several decimal places, and make more money. It may not be much from one person, maybe the for example you lend someone $10 for a year and charge alittle interest. Say you get $10.61 back, not much, but using a counting board you would only get $10.50 back. Using a counting board or abacus you have to round to the nearest whole number, meaning they were losing money. Now say you lend 100,000 or 1,000,000 people $10 for a year. The customer doesn't pay much more so they don't complain, but as a business man, your rolling in money now.
But I don't see why a Roman couldn't convert $10 to 1000 pennies to do the calculation. As long as the monetary system is decimal, their counting board should work fine. Am I missing something?
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PERHAPS, interest on a loan was calculated in this fashion: "I'll lend you $10.00 for one year and after a year is up, you owe me $11.00." Or 10%. You may have met this method in the army or at your local loan shark. $5 now for $7 in a week.
Something tells me that hidden somewhere in the Roman system, the CONCEPT of 'nothing' existed. If they subtracted II from II they got 'nothing'.
Did the Romans have a need for the very large numbers used at some points here?
Fifty years ago, when the dollar price of a municipal or corporate bond was figured from a yield, it went to three decimal places. This was good for a hundred or a million bonds or so. Now tens of millions of bonds are a 'normal' trade so six decimal places are used.
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Tobacco came to Europe from America. I bellieve that the Roman physicians used a poppy derivative for medicinal and surgical purposes. They didn't have 'weed' or coffee.
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Heard an interesting snippet on the BBC the other day: Half of today's Irish have Basque DNA.
I can't remember where I read this bit: Basques have a language similar to one found in ancient Iberia (near or in the Caucaus). Georgia? And maybe they came from that region.
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In Philadelphia (USA), they even pay for the surrendered weapons. I think that every old blunderbus is turned in. Don't know if it effects the crime rate. A hoist from the Tarpian Rocks might have a more salutary effect.
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I came across an interesting article on wine at "Visions of Rome". It seems that in addition to adding honey to the wine, they cut it with water, 2:1 or 3:1 in favor of water. The Greeks seem to have been a little more generous with the water.
I hope that I didn't get this wrong, but it seems that Falerno was a white wine that when stored for 20 years turned amber. The stuff I had was a 2002 vintage and was red! The original stuff was about 16% alcohol. (How did they find out?)
Seems that the Romans and Greeks preferred their wine 'sweet'.
Mulsum may not have been bilge water.
Try this: (Sorry, I don't know how to get the link in yet.)
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encycl...na/sitemap.html
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P.Pilus: As far as I am concerned (and as starter of this topic), let's make it a discussion of wine, ergo:
If one is supposed to mix honey with Falerno, how about drinking Mulsum instead? That is if there is an equvalent today.
Nothing like Sangria. Rioja, Spanish brandy and God knows what else. Went great with one of my favorite dishes, pulpo (octopus). I am sure that the Romans ate pulpo.
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Slavery was always bringing good profits. In one book the authors say abouts slavery in US that it what half the price to use a slave compared to hire a free man.
Some jobs no free person will ever take, so they needed to force people in this jobs.
And there was no real labour market in traditional societies, so no alternative to slavery.
I don't wish to be obstinate and do admit that I can be wrong. Yet, keep in mind that one must purchase, feed, clothe and care for slaves. All these prices vary. One loses these costs with 'free' labor and gains a wage cost. This cost (for these menial jobs) has always been sufficient only to keep body and soul together. Very few freed slaves beame state ministers or capitalists. Raise the wage and PERHAPS free men will do the job.
Profit or loss is not dependent on slavery or free labor. Many slave owners in the USA went bankrupt.
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In general we may be in agreement, but the Gracchan testimony cannot be dismissed as hearsay unless you can explain the actions of of his predecessor.
My dismissal of the Gracchan testimony is based on the fact that Gracchus could not have in fact determined from casual observation whether the spread of latifundia were responsible for poor conditions in the countryside. That's a claim that is simply outside the power of casual observation.
This was more than propaganda, if we look at Tiberius support it was often rurally based. Something was happening in the countryside we just don't know what.How do we know how much support Tiberius had from the countryside? Most of Italy couldn't vote for Tiberius, so it's really impossible to know, isn't it? And what is the reason that Tiberius had any rural support? Because his economic analysis was correct (I think not); because his desire to extend the franchise to them was popular (I think so); both; or neither? The mere fact that Tiberius had some rural support in no way speaks definitively to his claims about land ownership--he could have been supported by Italians simply because they wanted real political rights.
Casual observation! What else could be done? If one sees more people in rags one day than the day before, that's pretty good evidence. It's practical! I don't think that anyone, then, had a university statistical analysis of the matters. Tenancy does not equate to ownership. As has been stated elsewhere, 95% of the population were poor. And that point is not up for grabs.
If we don't 'know', how can anyone conclude? Differing people often make odd bed fellows when it comes to some particular point. As for voting, then as now, it was fixed.
If 'guessing' is to be used, maybe the bad boys had this in mind: If one doesn't have a direct interest in the nation, one won't fight for it.
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Unfortunately, I ALMOST got my Bride a necklace, very much like the one shown, on the bridge over the river Arno in Florence. It had three colors of gold. Guess that they are still at it.
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A.D. I like Ovid's style. I'll have to give it a go. Can't see how any eating gets done, yet, I think that it would be quite a (scientific) experiment for the entire board. The reports should be of great 'scientific' value.
Well, that is if the morality police don't put the lot of us into irons
Even if not directly one-on-one, as Octavius is suggesting, there was apparently the opportunity for a bit of byplay under the togas etc. Ovid, I seem to remember, claims to have brought a girl to climax while lying next to her at dinner. Unfortunately, as so often with ancient history, the evidence is incomplete. We know what Ovid said, but what would the girl have said about it?
(groan) Now I doubt Ovid was being entirely honest. Romans were very macho so a little manly boasting wasn't amiss.
Actually I'm jealous. But then modern clothes and manners don't really allow for this do they? Or am I attending the wrong parties?
Where there is smoke, there is fire.
Good grief, man! Ever hear of a Toga party? Use your imagination. In lieu of that, there is a 'nude' restaurant in NYC.
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Maybe all the Falernian need that you tasted Gaius was to be aged in a pitch coated amphorae and to have pitch resin also added to the must...
Also, I believe honey was a typical additive to Falernian to make it more palatable.
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If I age it in an amphora lined with pitch, I'll be long dead before I could tase it. The creasote is out anyway.
I'll give the honey bit a go, but then what is the point? Could do that with the stuff imported from Naples, NY.
I have a relative, in Campagnia, who makes wine for diabetics(!). Swill doesn't taste bad. Maybe its Falerno.
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Wasn't the Crimea a source of wheat for the Romans and Italians? Wasn't the city also a Roman outpost?
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Oops, I didn't mean to be confusing, the chart is actually something I compiled. I just meant that Andrew Dalby and his related books (as Pertinax suggested) can probably provide better detail than I.
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It's a great chart. Congratulations, Primus Pilus.
I'm going to drive the local wine vendors nuts and myself into bankruptcy.
I'll have to spell Mulsum properly in my quest.
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Adrian Goldsworthy also wrote "In the Name of Rome" which I read, and thought was excellent. It tells the stories of the greatest commanders that shaped Rome... many of which none of you ever heard of before!
(At least I haven't!)
Who are they?
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Virgil, how could you? Four bucks for a nickel cup of coffee!
No gold from me but, go Rev!
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So i was told before the last American presidential election; it looked as if George had no hope, yet he flogged the other chap!
That's because Kerry's motician didn't do a good job.
Busch is the only member of the family with that phony texass twang.
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From the article, I think that you have a typo. You may have meant to say Carracalla not Geta.
Anyway, it was a novel way for C. to buy the farm.
Stargate- Egypt Alien Theories
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