Demson

Julias Caesar. He renows the Gauls for their valour and being fearless when they oppose Caesar. But when Gauls are to fight Germanics they weep and beg Caesar for help. I would ask him about that.

Culture does not supply standards and morals. It gives you norms for comparison. Everybody has their own perspective and is therefor relient upon their own judgement. Copying the norms of a culture can not be done. There is not one single cultural norm. There are thousands of similar yet identical norms that makes culture. Why was it wrong to rub your wealth into other people's noses? Because the dominant majority says it was wrong. Read; dominant majority. There will always be those who think it's alright to do. These are the ones usually causing corruption amongst those who 'go with the flow'. Sometimes, going with the flow will work; if you're influenced by the dominant majority. But when you're not, that's when the ackward events happen.

Perhaps it is not power itself that corrupts, but the jealousy of others. In my understanding, authority is synonem to responsibility. If those who you are responsible for disrespect you, well... It takes strong character indeed to sustain it. Or a very sober view. Look at the 'mad' emperors. They were all disrespected in some fashion, even before they were emperor. Then look at the good emperor. I can't recall one bad remark on Augustus or Marcus Aurelius.

Your sphere is Knight (Know Loyalty and Respect), and your class is Arms Master (Pragmatic and Stout). You are an Advisor. Your great sense of ethics and honor, as well as your practical knowledge of the world, makes you an excellent advisor and confidant to the people who are respectful of your ways, and to whom you will show respect in return. Liu Bei, the well-meaning King of the ancient Shu kingdom in China, was not famous for his own accomplishments, but for the excellent quality of his generals, and the brilliance of his advisor of special repute, Zhuge Liang. Secondairy Your sphere is Guardian (Person of great Love and Altruism), and your class is Arms Master (Pragmatic and Stout). You are a Guard. You are a true, versatile guard. You have a defensive nature, that is, you are good at instilling a sense of security in the places around you. A strong presence weakens any possible threats around you, and a swift, practical approach to the problems that crop up puts them down before they can get out of hand. Funny, allot of people in my class feel intimiated by me, lol. They know I won't do anything to them (despice violance actually), but they still feel intimitated.

87%

Athoritarian regime, yes. I'm not sure it is an appropiate description. Anyway, a free Britannia would be a threat to the authority of Rome. That's what I'm trying to say. I haven't been to the Isle of Anglesey. It sounds like an interesting place, but I really don't have the money for much sightseeing I'm an I-net pauper.

Hmmm, I'm not sure. I think not. Hellas did not influence Western Europe much until the renaissance. The infrastructure of the Hellenistic world was pretty capable by itself. Roman infrastructure might have helped (especially the Byzantine empire), but it was not neccesary for the suvival of the Hellenistic legacy. I'm putting in a disclaimer though. This is not my area of expertise.

Well, a while ago I found out that Caesar as well as some other great historical figures (such as Alexander the Great) had blond hair, which indicates Celtic descendency. Hallelujah! Thanks for the list. I'm looking for original works (translated of course), not books on modern interpretation of those works. The list is useful anyway though.

Interesting...! As pointed out by Fatboy a while back, the Celtic society continued to function throughout the Roman occupation. Commerce already existed, it is believed there already was a road network, Celts were urbanising, and they had an elaborate system of laws. Civilisation was very much present in Celtic society. So romans did not neccearily brought civilisation. What they did bring were Legions and arcitecture for public works. Though they did institute governing so that the wealth of Gaul and Britain could be redirected at Rome, Celtic society kept functioning roughly the same way it did before. After Rome fell, the legions vanished from history and architecture for publics works were forgotten and re-invented after the Dark Age. A bloody shame if you ask me. So there is a truth in the theory of those scholars. Rome's legacy in terms of civilisation is not what's it's pumped up to be. Hellas and later Hellanised Egypt have a much more important legacy, if you ask me. That said, Rome managed to unite Central Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor for an extended amount of time. I don't see that happening again for quite some time The prosperity of the Pax Romana might prove to be their real legacy, as it shows what can be done if people unite. Also, their laws are still model for our current justice systems. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing though.

Conquering Britannia was more then a political move. The mineral wealth of Britannia must have played part in the conquest. Iron for the legions, tin for the taxable commerce and gold for the Emperor's coins. Futhermore, Britannia was the spiritual and religious centre of the Celtic world. It was a threat to the authorian regime of the Empire and in Gaul in particular. The Celtic Britons as a military threat is not to be underestimated either. If I were an Roman emperor, I would make sure such a threat was not left alone to prosper at my backdoor. As it was the most isolated and remote province of the Roman Empire, Britannia had always been very unrestful. The Romans were pretty succesful as keeping them subdued though. However, when the Germanics came knocking at their door, they had to cut their loss and decided to begin with dumping Britain. It's always rainy there anyway.

In my view, Celtic history and Roman history can not be seperated. Over the course over centuries, the Romans and the Celts influenced each other so greatly, I really can't think of one without another. To better understand their relationship, I started a study on Celts. While I have always been fascinated by the Celts, I'm now more structured and goal-driven then before. Right now, I'm in the proces of compiling a list of ancient sources and references on the Celts. Caesar's journal of his conquest of Gaul, etc. My question for you; do you know of such references? I know most writings on the ancient Celts were of Roman and Hellenistic authors... But I need actual names and titles. I'm going to google for it too. My end result will be posted at my weblog in case anyone's interested.

Very true PP. If people abuse the freedom that was granted to them and are aware of this - then we should not try to educate them. Instead, we should hold them accountable for what they're doing. Take away the freedoms they abuse and 'get rid of them'. I'm all for it. It has nothing to do with morality, but with survival. However, when people are unaware - are they still our enemies? By treating them as such we will only gain more opponents, as the people that are aware of their abuse will just use it as an excuse to justify their actions. We should confront them, not hope. We should hold them responsible, that is the only way they'll learn. But we should not try to get rid of them, as they're victims themselves. The true threat to our society came from within, not from the middle east.

It's obviousily a flaw of the system. But considering the amount of good the system is doing - I wouldn't be too harsh on it. Shutting down mosques won't end the problem. The preachers will just go somewhere else, and their facist audiance with them. The only way to solve this is by getting the often uneducated fascists involved in society. Make them aware of the good the system has brought. Make them aware that the only reason they can protest is because of the safe enviroment the system has given them. The system is flawed. But it needs to be developed and progressed, not ended. [edit] Lol - I'm way off topic heh. It happens sometimes, sorry. I just get these crazy insights and blurb them out.

True. Sort of. As ICT continues to develop, we will get over the ignorance. But by the time that happens, I'm not sure we can still be considered humans.

Magnus's and PP's had me thinking, I forgot to reply to the actual topic. Heh. Others kind of brought it up, but let me continue on it. Would Caesar have not succesfully invaded gaul, the Celtic society would have had more room to develop. We would have a much bigger Celtic influence in our present Western culture. More surrealism in our artworld, for example.

Indeed, there is no 'right and wrong' answer to this. Its a poor method of education. True about the right or wrong, but it does make students look into the situation more. Knowledge of historical facts is one thing, insight in the why is another. It's a good assignment if you ask me.

If you ask me, the media is overreacting. I've never met a muslim I didn't like because of his religion. In fact - I go to a school where us 'native' Dutch are a minority, and things are going pretty smoothly in terms of multiculture. Sure - there are issues... But there would be issues in a 'pure' culture too. There are bad apples in the muslim community. Namely muslim fundementalism. There are bad apples in the christian community. Namely ultra-right conservatives. There are bad apples in patriotic communities. Namely Neo-Nazism. They're all the same if you ask me. They all want to upset the lives of others to make their own lives better. The difference is that the muslims are getting all the attention of the media. Not to say we shouldn't deal with the bad apples of the Muslim community. In the contrary - we should. But we should deal in the same way we deal with neo-nazi's and ultra-right conservatives. The bad apples are just plain pityful, and a painful nuisance to society. It has nothing to do with their religion and believes; it's just an easy way to express their shortcomings towards their fellows human beings. We're not fighting against a phenomenom of the muslim culture. We're fighting against an ignorance that has plagued humanity for milenia. The only way to win is together with the muslims, with the christians, with the patriots, and any other majority and minority out there. If not, we might have our Third World War anyway. Looking at how things are going now, I fear for the worst.

On another note, religion also seems to be about that divine and mysterious nature of life. Often, non-religious people are claimed not to vallue life as 'we think it's only a biochemical process'. Obviousily, allot here are aware that there's a good chance there's allot more then we can see. I'm going to post my thoughts on that x-factor nevertheless... Just for fun's sake Our existance rests on two pillars; time and space. And both happen to be outragious, crazy phenomen. Time is the more bizare of the two. We seem to recognise now, but when you look logically at it... There is only a past and future. But still the now is fundemental to existance, as we use it to relativate. It's bizare. Space is plain paradoxal. Does the galaxy end somewhere? Then there has to be a barrier. What's behind the barrier? If there's nothing - there is no barrier and the galaxy is endless. If there is something - where does that end? Thus, there's endless space and consiquently, endless possibilities. which also means there's a possibility there is a barrier where everything ends. In other words; space is paradoxal by nature. Considering the paradoxal and bizare nature of the universe and existance in general... I would say we only begin to exist after death The fact that we have eyes and ears to percieve our enviroment might actually only serve to restrain our consiousness. The galaxy is such a complex and ingenious phenomenon, isn't it plain arrogant to say life is restricted to us? When our molecules and atoms are spread out amongst the galaxy... What will happen Of course, it's just a theory.

Personally, I don't pursue a religion. I have a believe and faith in humanity, but not in a religion. Like it was said before - religion was devised by humankind. Not God. That's all I can say of it. Religion here in the Netherlands is weird. Most people who go to church don't really pursue a religion. I think it has become more of a social event. People are religious or not depending on what's most convinient in their enviroment, to get it over and done with. It's not important to their daily life. I've met few who actually seem to put thought into the issue of excistance. Funnily enough, the people who are pursueing a religion are muslims most of the time. The newer generation of muslim seem to be clinging onto their faith even more fanatically then their parents do.

It really depends on the terrain. On good roads, 20 miles with equipment. I'm not sure about the encamping. I would say they all helped as it is the most efficient.

/rant If you examine it closely - you'll see it'll type your function in society. That's not what I consider actual personality. To me - a person is defined by his mentality and (emotional) character. And these change according to the choices they make. Would Einstein not be as commited to his study, he might have ended up as the ordinairy math teacher at high school... Making him a SJ. Would Jugurtha have made an extensive study of languages, he probably would have been a NT instead of your SJ. Actually - he has made quite a good SP while writing the Tuatha's origin myth and as a NT/NF in the Tuatha group, I highly respect him. Your functioning in society is just that; functioning. You function to sustain your life and invest in a better future for yourself and your family/friends. It's not what makes the person. /rant As a personality test, it's bogus. But it has it's uses.

Usually we destinguish different cultures because of language. All Celtic languages descended from the same indo-european language branch, proving a common origin. Modern Gaelic as found in ireland is such a Celtic language. As culture and society is restricted by language, this is usually a good way to 'label' cultures. Prove of this is that the society in Iron Age Ireland shared allot of similarities with, for example, the La Tene Gaul. They both shared the Celtic language; they both shared the same culture. You're right - using tribal names would be more appropiate at times. But with all the different tribes, it just isn't a very practical thing to do.

INTJ, though what really stroke me was the following: Introverted (I) 59.38% Extroverted (E) 40.63% Intuitive (N) 55.26% Sensing (S) 44.74% Thinking (T) 54.76% Feeling (F) 45.24% Judging (J) 59.38% Perceiving (P) 40.63% Is it usual for results to be so balanced? Some of the answers really depend on my mood and the situation I'm in. I could be an ESFP just as easily.

Emperor Commodus and his bed sheep! True love overcomes even biological catagorisation. A man would ask her familyhead for permission, I think. A man wouldn't propose to a woman, as marriage had little to do with love between two humans. Love was often depicted as a disease or curse. Marriage served purely to make babehs and continue the bloodline, and also had a few social-political features. It was trully a family affair.

Well, alright... ... God I love historical speculation.