Demson

Problem with Caledonia was that there really wasn;t much else to do but herd animals. The caledonians had a few rural settlement but hardly noteworthy, so it would have been very hard for an urban society such as Rome to get a hold of it. Their lasting independence is prove they never accepted Rome's ways - they never became a vassal state such as in other instances. The Caledonians were defeated at Mons Grapius, but not crippled. Eventually the Romans abandoned the Antonine Wall - probably because the Picts made it too expensive to remain present in Caledonia. The Romans lost their field advantage in their forts, and the Caledonians supposidly managed to inflict harmful numbers of casualties.

Interesting insights into the military They don't speak of those kind of things in the orientation year. Any experience with Dutch units? Royal Netherlands Army? ... We're often mistaken for Germans, heh. European units in general would do fine, we'll all heading towards a single line anyway, thanks to the WEU. would be much appriciated.

http://lordbest.napoleonicmedals.org/gallerymenu.html 500 years of important faces. Thought I should share.

Enlisting with the Dutch Airmobile Brigade next year after I finished a higher study (really don't intend to run around with the privates for long, I need to use my mind or I get crazy). Just for a few years, I'm going for the security bussiness. I get to look cool in my suite and shades and catch bullets for VIP's. Dutch Airmobile Brigade is the same principle as US airborn I think, though we rope down out of chinooks and wear red barets. We crazy Europeans like to have things our own way. Seems to be standard NATO? We have that here too (for the airmobile brigade). I was slightly below that time in the orientation year (finished it four weeks ago). Had a better time then our sergeant from the armoured infantry regardless (hah!). The orientation year is an 5 week period in the military for 16-17 year olds to give them a taste what it is like. That's besides a year-long normal education for the lowest-grade security operative. I expected allot of it when I began, but am quite disappointed now that it is over. Majority of my class was a bunch of baffoons that enjoyed daring our sergeants. As we are an orientation year, they couldn't discipline them either. As result, the actual military orientation resembled a high school trip. I was actually quite embarresed to share a uniform with them, I hope the people on the base haven't remembered our faces heh.

That answers most of my question, thanks. So equestrians and senatores were upper class, making them both 'patricians'? I understood equestrians furfilled a middleclass role, but this appears to be incorrect. If the senators owned all the land but could not engange in commerce, they had to be relient upon equestrians to do that for them. In the same way, equestrians were dependent upon the senatores for acces to raw resources. Appearantly senatores and equestrians could be of the same bloodline (not household, but relatives), as a senatore was in essence an equestrian with a magistrature. Was holding a magistrature the only way you could own (IE: have access to the resources) land in the Roman Empire? Being a governour over a province? The reason why I am so interested in this is because of a project I have underway for . I am currently running 'The Roleplay Society of Roma Victon' together with Maretti and with the aid of Drusilla. I am currently exploring the possibilities of setting up a virtual society within Roma Victor. To this purpose, we would be setting up the social order of patricians (senatores), equestrians and plebians as it was in the Roman Empire at 180 AD. Each of these classes would have a distinct role within the economy of Roma Victor, based on our understanding of the Roman Empire. Read the delegation of tasks below: Patrician Management of farms and distribution of corn construction and maintainance of buildings contracting equestrians and plebians maintaining network of tradecontacts (for their contracted equestrians) protection of their property (by funding armies and guards) Equestrian Managing production lines Purchase of raw materials and/or tools (through the contracts of their patricians) Selling of finished goods (export, selling to the contracts of their patricians) Distribution of finished goods (retail, selling to the actual consumers) Plebian/Freedmen Crafting and production Assistance with administration (as the clerics of patricians and equestrians) The current system does not cater for military activities and combat in general. Warfare and bloodsport were important in Roman society. Therefor functionality for legionaires, auxiliaries and gladiators alike will be added at a later stage. My last question - is this system a reasonable reflection of Roman society at 180 AD? I am not striving for 100% accuracy, but it has to have some level of authenticy.

Thanks for the links.

I know all about patronage and clients. But what kind of relation did patricians and equestrians have in the pagan Empire? Did they have legal contracts? Or was it more of a mutual coorporation, with the Patricians holding the soil and thus raw resources, and the equestrians as the businessmen? Could equestrians and patricians be of a same bloodline? Was it possible for a patrician to have sons or nephens as equestrians?

You people scare me

Viggen, PP and Moonlapse dragged me here. At the time I was really too occupied to post here, and I still am!

Bogbodies were found all over Europe, and had often died violent deaths. Celts did write using the Greek and later Latin alphabet. They wrote only for administrative purposes - not to write down knowledge. That role was restricted to the druids. The Picts could actually be Germanics that settled there?

Roman artifacts alone don't account to much (there was plenty of trade), but Roman military equipment does. Looking forward to hearing more. Perhaps the Romans invaded southern Britanny in the same style the US took lands from the native Americans? <insert evil laughter here> Though I'm really interested in the evidence supporting this claim.

Death penalty isn't appropiate for rape. They should slowly and painfully castrate the rapist first, then execute the death penalty. It's vengeance alright. Holding someone accountable for something they are responsible for. Fine with me. Penalties are either correcting or preventive measurements. Death penalty is obviousily a preventive measurement. It get's rid of the criminal and serves as a deterant. In an pre-modern society, putting up examples such as death sentence obviousily works allot better then educating the people why they're not supposed to do something. It was communication in a world were ICT wasn't as advanced. Alright, just my two cents.

Will they put people in it?

I'm really relying on Drusilla for a future in archeology. If it doesn't work out - I will probably go into journalism (recording history on the run ). I'm not sure which direction to go in archeology as well as history in general. I've noticed the Celtic archeology is going through some interesting stages, so I might go into that direction. One of my strongest skills is analysing. With the uncovered manuscripts in Egypt and (in the future) Herculeaneum, I xould have an interesting future in that direction too. Thanks for the advise though, I definitally have to consider it.

I prefer the notion that honour has to do with honest conduct. Take responsibility for your choices and actions, so that you may learn from it. I believe our personal goals are essentially the same to the goals of the other 6.999.999.999 people out there. We might as well try to cooperate, which takes clear communication. And thus honesty. A bit vague, I know. It's what I like to believe though.

Good to see we share a fascination Most of our knowledge on the ancient Celts is assumptive. We have two main sources; Roman literature and archeological finds. Roman literature was not intended as purely objective accounts of history. Therefor we have to be careful with interpreting them. Archeological finds indicate certain events took place, but they will tell nothing on why it happened. Secondary sources are medieval Ireland as well as Scotland. They're not very reliable as sources on ancient Celts, but they can be useful to consider and give some insights into the motivations of the Celtic ethnicity. Bogbodies A bog body is a corpse preserved in peat ('bog'). Peat is formed when plantlife decays and masses in water. This occurs in wetlands. (basically a flooded forest). Facts: Bogbodies appear in both Celtic and Germanic territory. They were found in a period spawning from the neolithic age to the Medieval era. Most bogbodies were found in a violented state. Many of the bogbodies died pre-maturely. Thus it is fair to assume burial in wetlands was custom for violant and pre-mature deaths. Death in Celtic spirituality Looking at the medieval Irish, you can assume Celts were a highly religious and superstitious people. They believed in an an otherworld and a cicle of reincarnation. On certain occasions, the border between the otherworld and reality blurs. This happens on periodic events (the night of the Celtic summer festival, for example), as well as at certain locations. These assumptions are mostly based on Irish society. Roman litature might have some references to it too. I can't think of the exact sources on-top of my head. I owe you that one. Sacrifise We are fairly sure Celts practised material sacrifise. Ornaments of precious metal, such as small idols, have been found in waterbodies throughout Europe. Weaponry has also been found. Sometimes these swords show use, sometimes they were too ornament to be used as practical weapon (though you never know with Celts). Roman accounts describe how druids practised human sacrifises. I'm not sure who described this - but persons would be but in giant straw idols, which would be set alight as sacrifise to the gods. I remember reading archeological evidence was found to support this. Again - I owe you sources. Drusilla told me how large amounts of violated remains are currently being escavated from Maiden Fort. She was confident these were sacrificial, though with the fighting that went on there during the Roman invasion, I raise some question marks. Perhaps somebody else can tell you more about this. Conclusions and assumptions. Considering the believe of Celts in 'twilight zones', the burial of people who died violant deaths (mostly in peacetime, in wartime they would just let the ravens eat away corpses) in woodland is quite logical. However, no evidence indicates these are purely sacrifisial events. The deaths could have been executions, duels, victims of 'crimes', even barbrawls gotten out of hand. It's fair the assume sacrifse took place in Celtic society. To what extend, we can not tell. It might have been a very regular religious practise. It might have been incidental or regional. One thing is sure though; the conditions for human sacrifises in ancient Celtic society were certainly present. Personal thoughts Ancient Celts had a very different concept of death then us. While I disagree with the idea of an otherworld and a circle of reincarnation (there is little evidence to support such a thing) and shiver at the thought of human sacrifise, I find it one of the most fascinating aspects of the Celtic ethnicity. And in a way - I appriciate them for being that way. In my opinion - such a belief takes an enormous dose of discipline. I have some trouble with remembering sources. Perhaps somebody can jump in please? [edit] For grammar and spelling.

Samurai directly translates to 'to serve'. I am speaking of medieval Japanese honour, not in the modern sense. Speaking of which, what about the modern sense of honour? What do we view as honourable today?

Use logical imagination. You're the writer! Requesting re-inforcements would probably be done between the ranking officers, not the actual field commanders. If you still need to arrange for re-inforcements after a planned invasion, then the commander made a serious error. :rolls eyes: I guess the Legatus Legionis (being the chief-of-command) could make a request for a transfer or a muster, and the Tribuni Angusticlavii arranged for it (being the administrators). Legionairies were pretty elite and functioned in standard 'models'. I doubt transfers of legionaires was a common practise, they would probably be mustered for the occasion. Could be wrong though, it's just an assumption. Auxiliaries are more likely to be requested as re-inforcement. There's a load of information on Roman legioraire's training on the internet. They would make the cross to Britain through an early version of the canal channel. /sarcasm Specific orders would be given to the field commanders (the centurions) by the ranking officers upon arrival. Most of that is assumptive, but maybe it helps.

Guilds were essentially pre-industrial factories. Manufactoring is more efficient then crafting, but when soicety has catched up with our technological capabilities, I hope we'll return to a system of craftsmen. Crafting entire products instead of just assembling one single part gives allot more statisfaction. It would raise the spirits and make society allot less chilled. It's all about passion for what you do, you know.

What is your nationality Demson, so that I can tell you what your version of honor is? I'm Dutch. We're too sober to have a sense of honour. Would have liked to be American though. Drinking German beer is a noble thing to do.

Very interesting. Thanks allot!

17 year old, intend to join the militairy for a few years (probably as paramedic or something) once I've upgraded my education a bit. I would like to dedicate some years of my life to history and archeology. Will need an moderate income first though Considering to invest with my future paycheck.

It sucks. [edit] Yes, that was sarcasm.

Very interesting bit of non-European history. You don't read allot about Russia's ancient history here in Europe. Probably because of Cold War censorship and propoganda. I assume you mean the huns?