cornelius_sulla
-
Posts
228 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Static Pages
News
Blogs
Gallery
Events
Downloads
Posts posted by cornelius_sulla
-
-
I've read some books by a British author by the name of Sophia MacDougall that cover just this topic. They are called 'Romanitas' and 'Rome's Burning'. I liked them. She includes a timeline in the back of the books from the time of Septimus Severus up until 2004, when the books are set.
Have a read if you can get them. They are very character driven, but Ms. MacDougall does spend some time in her novels on illustrating how the Empire managed to dominate the globe.
-
Man, sometimes it really sucks living at the bottom of the world. I mean we've got all this fresh air and mountains and greenery and stuff but do we get any kind of theatre like this? No!
I am a bilious green with envy.
-
Happy Burfday, Primus Pilus. Let the competitive drinking commence!
-
Denia, do you have a title for your book yet?
-
Do not ever forget the hard-core (American) football tailgates...hours of pre-game drinking (and eating...and throwing a football around the parking lot), followed by more libations inside the stadium...followed by...well, you get the picture. The best do this 8 times over the 4-month season.
Sounds a whole lot like car boot (that's the trunk, for you Americans) parties that we have here before and after big Rugby games at Eden Park (sometimes, even without the Rugby match!). Over the past few years, the stadia in our country have not permitted fans to bring their own piss into the stadia (they make us drink watered down sponsor's product served in plastic thimbles) so the pre match/after match boot party has become an important and revered institution.
-
There are some quite good books (fiction) written by a woman called Sophia MacDougall that are based on the premise that Rome survives to encompass the whole world as part of it's empire. The books are called 'Romanitas' and 'Rome Burning'.
Personally, I don't think that Rome ever truly died, (witness the American Capitol Hill, Senate, etc) but nor do I think the Western Empire could have survived much longer than it did.
If it had? Well, lets just say I'm glad it didn't because chances are I'd be a slave.
-
Other than that, does competitive drinking count?
If it's at the after match function and you're competing against opponents that just beat you out on the pitch, then hell yeah!
-
I come from a country where a team sport (Rugby) is practically the national religion.
What a final that was in 2003!
Hah! Northern Neil, you must be English. I always tip my hat to that English World Cup winning team, Clive Woodward played to his strengths and had a wonderful captain in Martin Johnson. I must say though, that I am one of about two Kiwis who feel that way, though! The other one is Martin Johnson's wife!
-
BUT! To answer the question, I agree with my friend dianamt54 - Caesar hands down. People these days identify him with Rome and he stands head and shoulders above all the other famous Roman historical figures when it comes to 'greatness'.
-
I played a little basketball in high school (I'm tall), but took no great joy in it. If I want physical exercise I'll walk, hike or lift weights. I just can't get worked up over team sports (and I have few male friends because of it).
I love hiking with my kids. I could never get worked up about basketball - not enough contact! I come from a country where a team sport (Rugby) is practically the national religion.
-
Yep, you were right Augusta. I'm reading Funeral Games now and it's bloody good. I was put onto Mary Renault by a bookworm friend and am actually embarassed that I was unaware of her work before this. I don't know a whole lot about Alexander, but her characterisations of him and his father and mother, Hyperion, Ptolemy etc, well, it's like you're in the room with them or shoulder to shoulder on the battle field.
I also enjoyed her matter of fact approach to Alexander's homosexuality - I have read other historical fiction about Alex that skirt that issue completely, I presume because of the social mores of the 20th/21st century, and I've resented the authors for it.
I'm a Renault fan now, for life.
-
I love sports almost as much as I love Roman history. Although I'm considered one of the old men at my Rugby club, I still get out there and rattle my dags on a Saturday, and turn out for a social Soccer (football to purists) team on the odd Sunday. In the summer I play cricket and Touch Rugby. How many of you are actively involved in sports? And by that I mean playing out on the pitch - not couch potatoe-ing.
-
Obviously, I like Sulla. He was a ruthless bastard and I like that in my egomaniacal tyrants. I also admire L. Quinctius Cincinnatus for completely different reasons although I think that much of his story was convenient Roman propaganda.
-
Thankyou both for your help, such as it was. I'll just keep posting. On a good note, I'm an 'Optio' now, not a 'Pleb'. Yeaah!
-
But on the age score, I'm impressed! He may be a little stiff, but he is definitely not brittle.
Interestingly, on the age front, Bob Dole faced a similar concern at the age of 73 in 1996. 12 years later, while he may have some health issues at the age of 85, it's obvious that he was viable enough at the time. McCain is far more energetic than Dole was.
It's still not a good look for a politicians shooting for the top job, though, isn't it? Especially if your opponents are young and virile (and yes, I include Hilary in that category ) and you've had a practically senile old fart in office for the past two(?) terms. Isn't Dole proof? Age counted against him mightily, if I remember rightly, and he seemed much more youthful than McCain does at the moment. I also notice that the man is fodder every single night for Letterman and all of the other pisstakers - all of the jokes are about his age.
-
Is it not possible that the Neanderthal cannibalism was some religious/symbolic rite? It seems a bit too pat to imagine them so starving that they ate each other out of existence.
-
I watched the TV series because it was a novelty to see something about Rome set in ancient Rome made with todays technological bells and whistles. I found the characters Pullo and Vorenus entertaining in a blokey kind of way, but as for the rest of it, what a bloody dogs dinner. I wouldn't be too keen to pay money to go to the flicks and have my historical senses assaulted. Bleecch.
-
Ok. I'm not an MPC or a Nephele or a Primus Pilus - I'm the kind of member who is always going to be asking more questions than providing articles or reviews or answers. I would really like to make some kind of worthwhile contribution but there are members here who are much better equipped to do that more effectively than I. Frankly, I am in awe of some of the knowledge of people like MPC, the Triumvirs, and Nephele, to name but a few. What I am trying to get at is this; how many garden variety posts do I have to submit to gain the social rank of equite?
-
Mary Renault's 'Fire from Heaven' and 'The Persian Boy' in an omnibus type book about the life and times of Alexander The Great. I started it being a tad sceptical but was soon riveted and foregoing sleep to get to the end. I am unsure as to how historically correct the books were, but as a read they were excellent.
-
Judging by the tenor of the posts submitted here, you could fill the position with any one of the candidates and it would still be pretty vacant.
-
Thankyou Nephele. The Fabii Maximii are one of those gens that have always fascinated me. I have read that Fabius Maximus Verucosus was the grandson of the first Fabius Maximus, but thought it couldn't hurt to ask your thoughts.
Cheers again.
-
I've just finished reading 'Route 66 A.D' by Anthony Perrotett, chronicling his trials and tribulations as he follows the route of ancient Roman tourists using Agrippa's Map. Good book, and funny too.
-
aaaaah... List obsession satiated. Thankyou Nephele and Primus Pilus.
-
Wicked work again, Lady Nephele.
Any idea which Fabian was the original bearer of the cognomen 'Maximus', and what if any great deed he achieved to be so cognominated?
Also, did the blood Fabii Maximii actually die out necessitating they continue their line via adoption? If so (and you know the answers), who was the last blood Fabii Maximii and the first adopted? Was it Fabius Aemilianus?
Do you play a sport?
in Hora Postilla Thermae
Posted
My mates and I refuse to buy the stuff in the grounds. The powers that be have shot themselves in the foot, really. When we could drink our own beers in the grounds, we'd be sensible about it. Now, we get hammered and that often leads to some pretty unsavoury behaviour. That's what they get for taking our tradition off us!