ASCLEPIADES
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Posts posted by ASCLEPIADES
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Salve, Amici
Here comes an easy one:
On Hellespont, guilty of true-love's blood,
In view and opposite two cities stood,
Sea-borderers, disjoined by Neptune's might;
The one Abydos, the other Sestos hight.
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Alas!... What can I say?
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About 1 - Let say that Caligula had a son (biological or adopted), it is not logical to assume that he would have been the next Emperor, unless some general usurped it ?
Caius Julius Caesar Minor aka Caligula actually had a child.
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Anyway, wow I haven't checked up on this thread forever. Does anyone know of any good primary or secondary writings on AD 15-40 other than Tacitus and Suetonius? I'm aware that Suetonius was racy and gossipy, but that makes him even more interesting to read alongside Tacitus, who as far as I know was more level-headed and (as far as those notorious Roman historians go) pretty unbiased.
In general terms, the available sources are not alternative but complementary.
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Hard evidence is there; you only require better evidence if you don't agree:
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is now officially a word in the English language,
http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-world...itain.New.Word/
This is a nice example of descriptive (as opposed to prescriptive) linguistics; the Collins English Dictionary is just describing how the people is actually using the language, not prescribing the way they should use it.
Linguistic evolution is the perfect democracy.
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Salve, CN and weolcome to UNRV.
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Salve, Lady N
Who wants to play?Think of a god, goddess, hero, nymph, etc. from classical legend and describe him or her in a rhyming couplet. Whoever guesses the riddle correctly, gets to pose the next rhyming riddle.
I'll start:
Doorways, hinges, thresholds of stone,
These things I guard, these are my own.
Who am I?
-- Nephele
Cardea.
(If I am right, and being a lttle busy by now, I wouldn't mind if anyone else takes my turn; thanks in advance).
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Much of Galen
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I think a religion that severs an individual's ties from the family and the public life of the city-state, as Christianity did, is not something that the Roman state really could have "used" for its own agenda. That early Christianity was so counter to normative Greco-Roman culture is why it was sporadically persecuted in the first place.
Paulist Christianity subverted the Roman state, not vice versa.
Why couldn't it happen both ways?
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Not true. men of poor quality have been motivated to significant victory throughout military history.
In fact, what defines any army's quality is its performance; whatever example you may imagine to try to sustain such argumentation (maybe Napoleon before the Alps?) it would imply that for whichever mechanism you may imagine such men have become high quality soldiers; period.
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Salve, Amici
Besides simply adopting Christianity, I wonder if a case could be made that the Roman world shaped it's very doctrine. Not in passive ways, like a Christian reaction against Roman ways, or having Roman citizens defect to it... but as a flexing of Roman power to shape Christianity to Roman interests in some degree.Of course the Christian religion was shaped to fit the Roman ways.
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Impressive deeds which were a triumph of leadership. Under capable commanders, the men were motivated and it should be noted these deeds were not lasting. This is typical of armies. Its a mistake to assume that an army that achieves a victory is automatically at a high standard all the time because of it, and it also fails to address the circumstances in which that victor was won. More than one ancient victory was achieved by a ruse, not by great deeds.
Come on, I can`t believe you're seriously saying that. Impressive deeds require BOTH capable commanders and high standard soldiers. Period.
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Salve, Prr
I am interested in reading a biography of Pompey. Seager has one that seems to be the current magnum opus (or at least was when I was in grad school). I see from Gelzer's Caesar: Politician and Statesman that he also has a biography of Pompey. Has anyone read either of these? Would anyone care to suggest another? I really only have time to read one, so I'd like to get one that's good...My primary interests would be the political bickering between Pompey and the Senate, esp. from the late 60s on to the outbreak of war with Caesar in 49 (when of course they were no longer bickering).
Then your interest goes far beyond Cn Pompeius Magnus biographies, from which you seem to be well aware.
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2. They would continue to have a successfully senatorial career but wouldn't achieve supreme power.
Including Nero ? I see him as an aged actor in the amphitheater of Mutina...
Oh! Was it not a joke...? Okeeeey...
As any other male related to theJulo-Claudian dynasty not in the throne, Claudius and LD Ahenobarbus' (not Nero) lives would have been always at risk; it would have been quite unlikely for them to survive 43 additional years!
Regarding everything else on this thread's first post, I must entirely agree with Ingsoc; particularly regarding question # 3, the fate of the Empire during the late Julio-Claudian period was fundamentally in the hands of quite able administrators (mostly equites and freedmen); in fact, that's the main reason why the Empire successfully thrived across all these years.
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Salve, Amici
I would have expected to see a larger impact of the huge Roman defeat by the Cimbrii at Arausio (DCXLIX AUC / 105 BC) in Brunt's table XIII.
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The main point here is that there's is essentially no objective evidence of any significant decline on the Roman Army at the Late Imperial period, neither qualitative nor quantitative .
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BTW, at leasr on the web, it seems most referrence to Galen's "four hundred gold pieces" go back to this unsourced statement from the excelent website of Michael Lahanas:
" His most famous diagnosis was that of
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Besides, Galen frequently and openly denounced other physicians' economic abuse.
So I would conclude that the original unsourced quotation from GG is almost certainly apocryphal.
You may be right, but here is the footnote from Doctors and Diseases in the Roman Empire, by Ralph Jackson, 1988:
J. Benedum, 'Titos Staltilos Kriton', Clio Medica (1972) 7, 249-58; Galen, XIV 641-7K; Smith 1979, 84; Nutton 1986, 35-36.
Very few people have studied even a majorty of Galen's works still available and Nutton is a very respected authority on medicine in the Ancient World. I am willing to accept Nutton's work...although you might be correct.
guy also known as gaius
Gratiam habeo, GG... but you actually didn
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Maybe what happens is that we basically agree on hard (ie, measurable) facts and mostly differ in the subjective interpretation of what each of us educatedly guesses.
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Salve, Amici
*Bad English alert*He was normal and survived, just like Augustus and Tiberius (another normal person...)
Just a thought that haunts me (lucky me)...
1. Who would had become the new Emperor ?
2. What would had become of Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasianus, Titus, Domitianus. Nerva and Traianus ?
3. What would had become with the Empire ?
4. Without the Colosseum, would the Romans had invented PC games 1890 years earlier ?
*What if's alert!!!*
The butterfly effect... and whatever you may imagine; 'nuff said.
BTW, that's why History is not an exact science; there's no place for experimentation, no replay button.
IF Caligual had have two wheels... he would probably have been a motorcycle.
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Salve, M
Do you have any information on the third inscription?The three inscriptions were discovered at the Colosseum in the XVI century, but CIL 06, 32094 a has since been lost; nevertheless, its transcription survives as follows:
Venanti / v(iri) c(larissimi) / co(n)s(ulis) / Decius Marius Ve/nantius Basilius / v(ir) c(larissimus) et inl(ustris) praefectus / urbi patricius cons(ul) / ordinarius arenam / et podium quae abomi/nandi terrae motus / ruina prostra/vit sumptu proprio restituit
As you can see, its heading phrase (ie. "From the distinguished Lord Venantius", highlighted above) is lacking from the other two copies (b and c)
Both spacing and abbreviations are peculiar to each copy.
Past Their Best
in Gloria Exercitus - 'Glory of the Army'
Posted · Edited by ASCLEPIADES
Essentially, the following phrase is an oxymoron: