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Germanicus

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Posts posted by Germanicus

  1. While I don't generaly go for wikipedia as a source - the article there on scythed chariots contains this quote from Xenophon:-

     

    "The soldiers had got into the habit of collecting their supplies carelessly and without taking precautions. And there was one occasion when Pharnabazus, with 2 scythed chariots and about 400 cavalry, came on them when they were scattered all over the plain. When the Greeks saw him bearing down on them, they ran to join up with each other, about 700 altogether; but Pharnabazus did not waste time. Putting the chariots in front, and following behind them himself with the cavalry, he ordered a charge. The chariots dashing into the Greek ranks, broke up their close formation, and the cavalry soon cut down about a hundred men. The rest fled and took refuge with Agesilaus, who happened to be close at hand with the hoplites.
  2. I would say Dignitas was one principle that pervaded every level of Republican society. It's persuit drove citizens do accomplish new things, think in new ways - in a way, the desire to have it for oneself and ones family also drove the republic toward the principate.

     

    Side note - If the republic did not have "democratic elements" as Cato suggests - why did political figures spend so much on games for the masses, or on wholesale bribery, or introduce a grain dole ?

  3. I was at the National gallery of Victoria in Melbourne yesterday, and paused to look at some statues of Buddha and various Bodhisattva that looked decidedly Greek in terms of their flowing, toga like robes, the realistic treatment of their bodies, facial features and hair. As confimred by the commentary next to these, they show a Hellenistic influence due to the invasion of Gandhara by Alexander. (Gandhara somewhere around southern Afganistan/Northern India/Pakistan).

     

    It was something I hadn't come accross before, so thought I'd post this link to gandhara.com.au where there is a Gallery of similar statues/heads etc from the same area. They were sculpting Hellenic mythological figures prior to or perhaps at the same time as the Buddha images - on this website I found a partial sculpture of Atlas from the same period. Makes it all the worse in my mind that it's just this kind of thing the Taliban were destroying prior to invasion.

  4. I think he does get credit. The Gallic Wars in particular provide the best eye witness accounts of a late republican legionary army on campaign. They also provide first hand desciptions of Gallic and Germanic tribes - their dress, their combat style, their strongholds, religeon etc.

     

    While it's true that they were really written for political reasons, and one can't forget that, Caesar had no reason to make up or exaggerate actual observations of the people he was fighting and their culture.

     

    Everytime I see a documentary on the Roman military, or on the Celts for that matter I see Caesar quoted and referred to.

  5. He was certainly an officer, he was also a citizen of Rome and had been give the status of Equestrian. As for hostage, that's perhaps not correct. I don't know that he was raised by a Roman family, and thought that as the younger son of the king of the Cherusci he just had to train and serve in the Roman military as part of the treaty between that tribe, and Rome. I suppose it's equivalent to being a hostage really now that I think about it, I'm sure the Romans could have crucified him had the Cherusci violated terms of the treaty.

  6. Welcome kurtedwr.

     

    As to your question, I can't say I know. I suspect some wore sleepwear after a fashion. And many probably didn't. But then, considering many slept on hay and reeds, or matresses stuffed with the same, I'd imagine that they probably needed at least a tunic to avoid unpleasant scratching during the night.

  7. As for setting an example by hanging - that's really worked well in the past......hasn't it ?

    I think once a person gets to the point where gassing and killing tens of thousands of people is acceptable, we're no longer dealing with someone who is capable of thinking "oh, better not do this, after all I might hang for it like that other guy". I think capital punishment is eye for an eye justice plain and simple. I make no judgement about the right or wrong of it, but I'm glad my government doesn't use it.

  8. I don't think the books are aimed at members of this forum. I enjoy them, but like Antiochus I found the substitution of correct terms annoying. It struck me as a dumbing down of the subject matter, as Dando-Colliins says - to please a wider audience. It's also important to scrutinize anything Dando-Collins presents as fact, as he seems to take things written by Cassius Dio and others as fact, and at face value.

     

    As historical fiction, I agree it's a great read and hard to put down.

  9. Did Nerva face 'great opposition' from the guard - or were they just carrying out the wishes of Aelianus that the killers of Domitian be sought and excecuted ?

     

    I agree that he was looked on favourably by the Senate simply by virtue of the fact that he was not Domitian, but I guess that's also why he's worthy of consideration.

  10. ...

    Probably an underestimate--in most wars, the greatest killer is not the sword or the gun but the disease and the famine. It's very likely that Caesar's campaign--which spread all the bacteria and viruses of urban Rome among rural farmers with no immunities to them and which disrupted the food and water supplies of iron-age farmers barely clinging to survival--killed far more by disease and famine than killed by battle or enslaved.

     

    Doesn't that presuppose that the local populace hasn't been exposed to the bacteria and viruses? With what seems to have been at least a modereate intermingling, at least on the fringes of the Republic in southern Gaul it doesn't seem plausible that there would be a lack of immunity anywhere on the level of the New World. Not that outbreaks don't or wouldn't occur on a smaller local scale.

     

    Of course plagues making their way from the East excepted, though I don't recall there being evidence of that at this particular time.

     

    Yes. My understanding after seeing guns, germs and steel was that the populations in the new world were carried off by infections unknown on that continent. I don't doubt though that famine played a large part in the death rate in Gaul, particulary considering the scorched earth policy employed on both sides.

     

    In terms of disease though, Romans had been trading in Gaul for years, and Roman wine had found it's way all over Gaul prior to invasion. Gallic tribes had had plenty of contact with other Mediterranean peoples also over the previous 200 years.

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