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Melvadius

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Everything posted by Melvadius

  1. Melvadius

    Roman Demeter

    Are you going De-meter half way?
  2. Melvadius

    Roman Demeter

    I think someone will have to Ven-us of this thread soon
  3. Melvadius

    Does Yule mean Julius Caesar

    Not necassrily I would draw your attendtion tothis article by Valerie Hope in whihc she specifically states that
  4. Melvadius

    Roman Demeter

    You mean he may become a ceres offender?
  5. Melvadius

    Does Yule mean Julius Caesar

    Point of order the Romans and Greeks before them simply referred to Tropaeums as can be seen from the Lacus Curtius extract of Willima Smiths' Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities here. As to what I assume you actually want to know if a specific type of tree was used for Tropaeums and the answer has to be whatever was growing locally and suitable to make a trophy out of to hang armour from and prop the various spoils of war against. BTW nowhere in ancient writings or in articles by reputable scholars have I seen it referred to as necessarily 'cruciform'.
  6. Melvadius

    A new parallel lives

    I like the thought of Margaret Thatcher being without issue or better yet her parents I suppose however that you have to look to the matriarchs of political families for a suitable comparison such as remaining married in the face of external pressures - infidelity always seems to crop up in moden politics. On that basis Rose Kennedy would seem a suitable matriarchal figure with a lot of politicians in succeeding generations but if we discount succeeding generations being a requirement then Hillary Clinton would seem to tick several 'parallel lives' boxes. In her case active political/ external contacts especially having her own career and becoming both a senator and senior politician in her own right.
  7. Melvadius

    Does Yule mean Julius Caesar

    Of course as usual only the first line of your question, to which GOH has already provided an answer, is verifiably correct. Christmas trees seem to have developed in the mid/ late 15th Century long after the Roman period with no evidence trail taking them back to any Roman tradition. Julius Casear had no link with the preceding tradition of honouring Sol. In fact Sol Invictus was a much later development and actually derived out of the the provincial Syrian god Elagabalus whose name was taken by the Severan heir.
  8. Melvadius

    A new parallel lives

    While I remember Not sure why they should be seen as parallel lives since SJ wasn't in the military or a renowned politician Why? GBJ fails on all counts except lack of political nouse on the World stage. A better choice may be someone like Prince Rupert the Royalist cavalry commander in the English Civil War a man with undoubted military prowess BUT fairly erratic. Alternatively someone like General Alexander from WW2 was a better general than many claimed but who failed in the political arena when dealing with his masters. Actually quite a good choice since Churchill did have a parallel political career apart from being assassinated and Hitler tried that several times. Looking back at Plutarch's work it is noticable how many of the examples cited were men whose lives included both a military and political element in their careers which in the modern world cuts down on how many examples you can put forward. Possibly a few candidates in each couple of decades from the American Civil War onward but the choices from WWI and WW2 are actually surprisingly limited.
  9. Melvadius

    A new parallel lives

    The major problem is that Hitler, while a renowned 'messianic orator', does not appear to have been a tactical genius (he had a staff for that and really fouled up when he over ruled them) while the three alternatives offered to date all could make some claim towards - sometimes strongly.
  10. Melvadius

    Roman Ciphers

    There are quite a few of the Vindolanda Tablets which include shorthand marks which could be considered a form of cipher however the Lacus Curtius site has a good article on Nota, from that mine of useful information, William Smith' 1875 work Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. This starts:
  11. Melvadius

    Guess the ancient city!

    It doesn't seem to have the distinctive Opus Africanus building style so I would suggest that it is not in North Africa.
  12. Melvadius

    A new parallel lives

    Actually he may well have paired Hitler with Julius Caesar or more likely Alexander.
  13. Melvadius

    Coming up next . . . .

    I did feel that it was very staged in places e.g. LiDAR as a totally 'new' technique when it has been increasingly used for specialist aerial archaeological research, especially over over woodlands, since November 2000! Several times I got the feeling of set-ups but despite that would agree that there were some interesting results presented which should produce 'hard' evidence rather than the currrent informed speculation after further ground based research is completed.
  14. Melvadius

    When a Marxist Does Roman History

    In archaeology Marxist theory is accepted as part of the post-processual school which developed from the late 50s into the 60's 70's and even 80s. It basically helped develop models that consider methods of production and how societies react to and use such production. Although different archaeologists will accept or reject different aspects of them depending on the societies they are looking at in this context Marxism is just a name which describes some of the ways of looking at the past. So is nothing to be afraid of.
  15. Fafinette, Welcome to the site and sorry to hear you are having problems ordering. Just to confirm that we have passed on your request to Viggen but as Klingan said he is currently busy elsewhere so may not come back immediately.
  16. Melvadius

    Guess the ancient city!

    Well done Auris Arrectibus. As Ghost says you have identified the mystery city (second in Roman Britain only to Londinium)- even if the site you found seems to have misplaced Chichester AND Bath! BTW I did try to keep it relatively easy this time so sorry if anyone felt it was a hard one.
  17. Melvadius

    Guess the ancient city!

    Klingan is on the right track
  18. Melvadius

    About latifundia system

    There have been several discussion threads on this site that at least mention latifundia you can find these by clicking the search box at the top right of this screen and putting latifundia into the search criteria. Some of the discussions include links to other books or sites with more specific information which you may find useful unfortunbately I do not have the time at present to go through the threads to extract the relevant links myself.
  19. Melvadius

    Guess the ancient city!

    Nope and not Gaulish.
  20. Melvadius

    Guess the ancient city!

    Definately north of the Alps and it was a fairly important Roman 'city'
  21. Melvadius

    About latifundia system

    There is a useful extract from the Oxford Classical Dictionary here. The section whihc has been grayed out is slightly less than double what is available free of charge. Ther key sections in it however cite the work by Columella Rust 1.3.12 and 1.7.6. A Version of Columella is available here on the Lacius Curtis site free of charge. (Columella Rust 1.7.6 means the relevant passage is in Columella De Re Rustica book 1, chapter 7 section 6). THe OCD also cites K Greene The Archaeology of the Roman Economy and R.P. Duncan-Jones The Economy of the Roman Empire amongst other books as good sources.
  22. Melvadius

    Guess the ancient city!

    oops in the correct place this time, I'm glad you were asleep since it took me a while to track down the milecastle name - for some reason it isn't on Wikipedia Ghost - I thought you were including that on your updating? Anyway and the next contender is...
  23. Melvadius

    Guess the ancient city!

    Milecastle 38?
  24. Melvadius

    Guess the ancient city!

    More specifically, if it was needed, the Roman quarry/ mine working beneath the temples on the hill claimed as the Sybil's Cave at Cumae - I think Ghost has it
  25. The BBC is carrying this report (with associated video) of a unique find of a helmet dateable material from a sealed archaeological context in Britian which on present evidence appears to date from the first Romano-British period around 55 BC.
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