Primus Pilus

I assume you mean the Lex Gabinia of 67 regarding the eastern command of Pompeius. On the Roman Legal Instutions page, I've provided the direct links to the ancient source material of the major laws.

As I understand it there is very little if any surviving text. It exists as reference material for later writer Polybius, Livy, Plutarch, etc. Modern historians still debate his style of writing and functional historical role. Such an argument can only take place as conjecture and in the absence of direct evidence. If his work survived the debate takes a different form (ie the impact of his work, the historicity, etc.) Damn. Strange that Quintus was writing just around 180 years before Caesar yet very little(?) of his work survives but we have all of Caesar's conquest of Gaul. You can even buy it on Amazon. If anyone has info on where to get what portions are available I'd still very much like to know. It's got to be somewhere... in some old book somewhere in Europe. Caesar's work survived (in part) because of who he was... the passage of time didn't diminish his popularity or his work's availability. Thankfully, despite the church's monopoly on publishing and common literacy in the post Roman era, the medieval monks at least were wise enough to preserve the texts of other important historians and pass them on through time.

As I understand it there is very little if any surviving text. It exists as reference material for later writer Polybius, Livy, Plutarch, etc. Modern historians still debate his style of writing and functional historical role. Such an argument can only take place as conjecture and in the absence of direct evidence. If his work survived the debate takes a different form (ie the impact of his work, the historicity, etc.)

While Tacitus makes sense, I couldn't think of an immediate reference, but Caesar jumped to mind immediately. In de Bello Gallico book 4 chapter 3, Caesar says: "On the other side they border on the Ubii, whose state was large and flourishing, considering the condition of the Germans, and who are somewhat more refined than those of the same race and the rest [of the Germans], and that because they border on the Rhine, and are much resorted to by merchants, and are accustomed to the manners of the Gauls, by reason of their approximity to them." http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Caesar/CaesarGal04.html I sent this along, but I was asked if I could post the question to the forum, so if anyone has any better references, please do post them. Karim also asked that I post his direct email address if anyone would like to send info along directly. kmata@uchicago.edu

I received an email request from a graduate student at the University of Chicago requesting some help on Germanic research. The email is as follows:

What's the matter? Isn't Forster's (1913) translation of the Latin translation made in the thirteenth century by the Englishman Alfredus from an Arabic translation (now lost) of the Greek original good enough for you? There is a version available online via California State U. It's in the list of links available in the following thread: http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=8719

Based on the outcome, it would seem doubtful that Sabinus conspired with Galba. It seems much more likely that he acted on his own (or in league with other local players), as one opportunist among many in this volatile time period. Had he been one of Galba's men, there would have been no reason for Galba to appoint a replacement or for the Praetorians to execute him upon Galba's approach to Rome... unless of course Sabinus got a bit too grandiose in his own designs once the leash was loosed just a bit (which is quite possible). From what we know though, Sabinus did not receive an award of any kind (at least by political or military appointment), so playing such a pivotal role on Galba's behalf just doesn't add up for me.

Here's a decent treatise via the University of Tennessee. In a cursory review, they seem to be suggesting that the Roman origin is through the Greek Pythagoras, but I'd suggest a more in depth investigation. http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/PP.html

Indeed, the death of 300 Romans. Much like the 300 Fabii against Veii at the Cremera (or so the legend goes). Livy History of Rome 2.5

I can tell you why I am personally hot under the collar on this issue. It's because I don't believe that the federal government has the legal authority to mandate that its citizens buy a particular good or service. It's against the constitutional framework that supports the idea of individual independence and opportunity and against the rights of each individual and State. Of course, it will be argued that the constitution has the authority to regulate interstate commerce and that the courts have set precedents in the particular cases, but none of these cases have forced a citizen to purchase a good or service, especially if that good or service is provided entirely within a single state. We have, however (and unfortunately), taxed individual citizen providers in order to pay for individual recipients who do not provide tax revenue (ie Social Security and MediCARE/CAID). As we already provide such entitlements against the concept of the original national framework, I certainly do not want to provide a single additional dollar to provide for health care coverage for any individual or group other than my family (including extended family, as I believe that is the responsibility of the individual, not the community). Charity should be voluntary and encouraged by reducing tax payer funded entitlements. Ok, so what if we disagree. Fine, let's go ahead and presume for a moment that the plan itself is actually constitutional and within the best interests of the citizenry, and I'm just a loony Libertarian... what then? Whether we support or protest such a plan, we cannot even begin to truly understand how much this new entitlement will cost as we simply don't know any of the details of the plan. Any published estimates, pro or con, are based on assumptions that we simply can't be sure of. Even if I did personally support the concept of allowing this federal government mandate, I could not possibly support legislation that is a complete unknown. We don't know what was actually passed... the benefits, costs, rules, regulations, procedures, etc. Nothing. Add in the complication that will result from the monstrosity that is federal bureaucracy and it's completely absent efficiency... I shudder to think what will happen to our currently outstanding health care (costs notwithstanding). Will the demand for health care increase with free access? Will the supply be reduced to further complicate the demand? Will their be rationing of expensive, experimental or advanced procedures? Will doctors, researchers and pharmaceutical have the motivation to develop new medical technology with a limited profit motive? Our system sure isn't perfect, and it is indeed quite expensive, but at relatively any moment I can currently go to a doctor of any variety and have just about any procedure or service provided whether it be voluntary or life threatening emergency. I am beyond suspicious that the same level of service will be available once this new plan takes hold.

Thanks all... I've been really ignoring my own birthday for the last few years... no particular reason, just a lack of personal empathy I guess. A friend of mine called me yesterday and said, "Such and such person is having a poker party on Saturday.. want to go?" I answered yes without hesitation and hung up the phone, when my wife proceeds to remind that Saturday was in fact my birthday. (Which means we have some sort of plans I would guess)

Despite the temptation, I'd recommend not showing up for work in your birthday suit.

I hope you get your kangaroo problem taken care as a birthday present.

I hear the US Treasury is handing some out. Too bad we're not a bank or an automaker. Go Government!

We are in the middle of a forum upgrade - bringing the forum, blog, etc. up to the most recent version of the software - and have experienced a bit of technical difficulty in the process (particularly Monday night/Tuesday morning depending on your location). We believe we are past any more potential outages and should be completely finished very soon. Apologies for any inconvenience.

I got #5 wrong... the Herculia threw me off a bit as I was never very strong in the later imperial legions.

I used to enjoy the olympics but American television is so obsessed with feature story-telling and "primetime" slots that we see very few actual events.... and even fewer as they actually happen. Unfortunately, the CBC didn't re-up it's contract to air the olympics so it's airing on another non public Canadian network that isn't available in the US (at least not on my system), so I won't be watching much. If I had my choice though, I'd watch hockey, downhill and a few runs of luge/bobsled just because I think those guys are a bit mental. The winter olympics should add two events... ice fishing and ice fishing rescue when it's too warm and the ice gets thin.

I was turned off by the copycat filmography of 300.

Everything appears to be normal.... but the post dates still say "yesterday" and "today". Tomorrow we should know if posts from the 2nd display the correct day and year. I think it should be fine, but let me know if you see anything else funky.

I made a change to the blog code that might fix this problem. It seems that Invision is aware of the problem, but I can't tell if they are actually working on it. In any case, the fix should allow new posts to appear, in the proper date order, but the display dates might not work correctly... Still investigating.

Quite impressive Albert... thanks for sharing it with us. Admin note: Just for the record, I believe the original Albert may have been caught in my recent purge of members with no posts. Since this topic is in a forum where post count is not credited, his account showed zero posts despite this topic. I've manually added post count to Albert's new ID so that this won't happen in future purges... cheers!]

My house. Don't laugh at my Christmas light lameness. I almost fell off the roof... twice. And after I finished putting everything up and having previously tested everything, discovered that an entire strand of the roof icicles were irreparably burnt out.

Merry Christmas, all! If I could figure out how to extract pictures from my phone and put it on this PC, I'd upload a picture of my house lights. =P

The interesting thing about VIIII Hispana is that it disappeared, was found by archaeological evidence, and disappeared again. Prior to more recent evidence the main theory was that it was destroyed by the Picts in the 110's, leading to Hadrian's wall project. However, later archaeology showed that it did in fact survive, at least in some form, only to disappear sometime around the Jewish revolts of the 130's CE. The Crassus legions are more interesting to me than those of Varus. While the Varus legions were largely destroyed, enslaved, etc., there is that interesting element of mystery about the Crassus legions that ended up in Persia, China, etc. [EDIT: I guess the original story also says this, but I posted before I actually bothered to read it =P]