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Primus Pilus

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Posts posted by Primus Pilus

  1. And on an encouraging note, on Amazon it went down from$50+ to just over $40. Excellent. Very tempting.

     

    I really need to give this show another chance as it seems to be getting fairly rave reviews from all quarters. (The problem is that I really just want Crassus to kick his ass) :unsure:

     

    I do just about all my online DVD shopping with DVD Planet, which often has better prices than Amazon.

     

    PP, how much of the series did you see already? I think it gets better as it progresses. It certainly gets more shocking. (And I thought I was already pretty shock-proof.) The characters are very interesting, which probably is what makes the series.

     

    -- Nephele

     

    I only watched the first episode.

  2. And on an encouraging note, on Amazon it went down from$50+ to just over $40. Excellent. Very tempting.

     

    I really need to give this show another chance as it seems to be getting fairly rave reviews from all quarters. (The problem is that I really just want Crassus to kick his ass) :unsure:

  3. I'd like to take on the fictional Manlius Cassius Nicolaus in Aegytpus... as it allows for creative license :romansoldier:

     

    Right.

    We all know that you chose Aegyptus because it is the only province that has beer.

    That Sakara beer is good, but combined with the african heat...

     

    I'll have you know that my service is dedicated to the greater glory of the Princeps. (Of course, such dedication requires a healthy sampling of the local products provided in abundance by Caesar's personal province.)

  4. I could bet that Brazil will win again but I really hope somebody else, from Europe, will. I have to see the teams playing to pick someone too root for.

     

    What happened to Romania this tournament? As I recall they had a fairly good team, though rather old already 4 years ago... perhaps it's the dreaded "rebuilding" issue?

     

    (Forgive me though. I try to pay attention, but my knowledge of international football is rather limited)

  5. I thought this was the most popular sport in the world? I guess the English are too busy dumping oil into the Gulf of Mexico to respond.

     

    :pokey:

     

    We're just supporting our Nigerian brothers as American oil companies have been using their seas and rivers as a dumping ground for years.

     

    Solidarity!

     

    (but as an FYI, it was the negligence of a Transocean crew on BP owned rig that caused the accident. Its kind of like if you rented out your house and the tenants smashed the place up, set and fire to the garden fence and didn't pay their council tax - all that would be your responsibility. Same situation with Deepwater Horizon - though no one wants to report that because it doesn't make as good a story).

     

    Cheers

     

    Russ

     

    I thought it was George Bush's fault. Shows what I know. :(

  6. England doesn't have a chance in Group C against the upstart Yanks. That's right, prepare to be shamed by the complete indifference of the American public. I blow my nose at you, you silly English kniggits!

     

    I'm going with Spain for the championship because since nobody in Spain has a job, they can bus the entire population to South Africa and make it seem like a home crowd.

     

    :pokey:

  7. I'd recommend reading Frank Tenney's "Roman Census Statistics from 225 to 28 BC" which is available on JSTOR.

     

    In summary, Livy reports the Roman census of 234 BC to be 230,714 (18 years before Cannae). While there is debate over counting procedures and validity, the assumption is that this represents the male population including freedmen and those without voting rights.

     

    In 209 BC (7 years after Cannae) the population is reported as 137,108.

     

    Clearly, the reduction is a reflection of major losses in the 2nd Punic War including those at Cannae. The sources (Polybius, Livy, Appian and Plutarch, etc.) provide a wide range of potential casualties at Cannae ranging from about 50,000 to 70,000 men. While some modern historians discount these numbers as superfluous, let's assume ancient source accuracy. If Rome lost somewhere in the proximity of 100,000 men in various battles of the 2nd Punic War (Trebia, Tresimene, Cannae, etc.) then it's easy to make the relationship between the census of 234 and 209.

     

    However, as Tenney explains in his article, the custom was not to count legionaries stationed in provinces. There was a significant number of men in Hispania, Cisalpine Gaul, Sicilia and Sardinia that could have numbered as many as 50,000 men. It also doesn't account for cities that had defected to or were under the control of Hannibal at the time (ie Capua). Tenney also suggests that this could have accounted for another 50,000 men.

     

    What I'm getting at is that we simply can't be sure how the population figures match up to casualties and other census taking factors. What we can make a reasonable assumption about though are the losses at Cannae vs. the population of Rome in 234 BC. Assuming the average of ancient source material on the losses (which would be roughly 60,000 men) the losses at Cannae would have made up about 25% of the male population of Rome prior to the start of the war.

     

    Assuming the worst case that the change in population from 230k to 137k from 234 to 209 BC was from a direct loss of life and not from other factors, then the percentage of loss would have equaled roughly 39% of the 234 BC population.

     

    Hope that helps.

  8. How many editions of it has there been . I bought one years , hope its not antiquated now.

     

    Just two... we've thought about an update, but can only really find a few minor tweaks. We figure it's not worth a full reproduction. We'd rather do some other types of maps... the growth of the Republic in Italy, Spread of Christianity, Pre-Roman Greece, etc. but I'm not much of a graphic artist.

  9. The random pre-selection has started and the first name been added to the list of the five, who will be the second and what is the price for June?

     

    ...well you have to wait to find out!

     

    #Melvadius

    #

    #

    #

    #

     

    (once there are five names on this list, the price will be announced and after that each of the following days those 5 names get reduced till there is only one left)

     

    I can see that the 'price' as far as I am concerned...

     

    Don't worry, that's just English with a bit of Austrian flavor.

  10. I'm looking to model the Roman finance/economy mathematically, but not being a history student, have no idea where to look for resources. Are there any good books on the subject? The internet doesn't have much to say about taxes in ancient times, except a few percentages here and there. I would appreciate a more detailed study. This doesn't have to be 100% accurate - a theoretical model would suffice.

     

    Thanks in advance.

     

    There are some excellent books covering many aspects of the Roman economy, here's a good sample to get you started.

     

    The first two represent base economic studies:

    Money and Government in the Roman Empire by Richard Duncan-Jones

     

    Structure and Scale in the Roman Economy also by Richard Duncan-Jones

     

    The title alone should be a giveaway... it focuses heavily on money flow and the use of currency in the ancient world:

    Banking and Business in the Roman World by Jean Andreau

     

    Obviously this focuses on coinage, but it also provides an excellent introductory overview of the Roman economy.

    Coinage in the Roman Economy, 300 B.C. to A.D. 700 by Kenneth Harl.

  11. After a bit of a delay, we are finally getting started on the meat of the work for upgrading our forum, blog and gallery software to the most current versions. While we hope there are no issues, it's possible that users will experience occasional glitches, lost posts, etc. The process will likely take two weeks.

     

    Thanks for your patience!

  12. The Light Bearer by Donna Gillespie - its up there with Eagle in the Snow

     

    Pillars of the Earth by Caldwell also excellent despite its age.

     

    Actually by Ken Follet, but also of my favorite historical fictions of all time. Unfortunately, his relatively recent follow-up "World Without End" just didn't kind reach the same standard.

     

    Has anyone read Island of Ghosts, something like this? I've been meaning to look for it. I heard this was good and deals with Sarmatians in Roman times.

     

    Yes, it was well done. I believe it's one of those under the radar kind of books. It really should be more well known. Ironically though, I've never looked to read any of Gillian Bradshaw's other titles.

  13. p.s. dont be sad Klingan, next month is new chance, what will it be? stay tuned...

     

    Haha, I knew that this Cypriot wine would be an insufficient offering to the gods!

     

    It would have been a much better offering to me, though. Damn, I should have proactively announced an acceptance of bribes. (Wouldn't have worked of course, since Viggen has the hat with all the names in it, but I suppose you could send him something. I hear Austrians love Kangaroos.)

  14. According to onomatologist and lexicographer, Patrick Hanks, the surname "Pannone" is Italian in origin and is probably an augmentative of "Panno," which comes from the Italian word for "cloth; clothes; linen" and is "probably a metonymic occupational name for someone who made cloth or clothes." (Source: Dictionary of American Family Names, edited by Patrick Hanks. Oxford University Press, 2003.)

     

    The name "Pannonia" is derived from a group of ancient tribes called the Pannonii. Ancient Greek historical writers referred to this and a similar tribe as the Paeones. (Source: A Classical Dictionary, Containing an Account of the Principal Proper Names Mentioned in Ancient Authors, by Charles Anthon. Harper & Bros., 1891.)

     

    -- Nephele

     

    Thanks.. I thought you might have something... I'll pass this along. :(

  15. I just received an email request regarding the origin of the surname Pannone. I was asked if there is any relationship between the name and the province of Pannonia. My initial response was that Pannone seems to be unmistakeably Italian in origin, but on second thought, I'm hardly an expert on geneology or name origins. I figured it wouldn't hurt to put the question out to others who may or may not have more insight...

     

    So, any insight?

  16. Modern Fiction

    Pompei by Robert Harris

     

    Modern Non-Fiction

    I agree that Holland's Rubicon is definitely worthy of the praise it generally receives.

     

    Christian Meier's "Caesar" is probably the first serious treatise of ancient Rome that I ever read and it still holds a very special place in my memory.

     

    Ancient source

    While each source has its particular value or importance, I'm partial to Appian of Alexandria probably because of core subject matter (Later Republic and Civil War era).

  17. "For a quarter of a century, two archaeologists and their team slogged through wild tropical vegetation to investigate and map the remains of one of the largest Maya cities, in Central America. Slow, sweaty hacking with machetes seemed to be the only way to discover the breadth of an ancient urban landscape now hidden beneath a dense forest canopy.

    ven the new remote-sensing technologies, so effective in recent decades at surveying other archaeological sites, were no help. Imaging radar and multispectral surveys by air and from space could not

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