jugurtha

Hehe, reminds me of Monty Python's Life of Brian ... "What did the romans ever do for us?" ... "er, sewers?" ... "yeah, remember what this place used to be like, Reg!". - JUG

Those are kiwis that flew over from New Zealand. The fruit of course, everyone knows kiwi birds don't have wings! - JUG

People often wonder how Bronze age Britons obtained all the gold to make the vast masses of gold objects found. Recent research showed that they didn't need any sophisticated techniques. It's just that the landscape must've been quite different and that gold was pretty abundant in the rocks that covered the surface. In a programme about the British landscape a scholar showed how they must've looked for signs of gold (brownish colour) in the boulders. Then they hacked some pieces from the rock and heated them after which they were cooled in a nearby river. This way the rocks become very brittle and can easily be crushed. The crushed remnants are then sieved and the gold particles melted together. He actually found some gold in the first attempt and said we should imagine a landscape filled with these kind of boulders. Equally succesful was another man's attempt to lay a sheep's skin on a rack in a small stream. The skin (fleece) caught the heavy elements of the stream bed he shoveled onto it. After some sieving goldpowder showed up. The fact that only small amounts of gold can be found in rocks and streams nowadays probably shows how intensively early Britons prospected the landscape. - JUG

I'd like to add that prior to the military invasion strategy there was a highly efficient economic 'invasion'. Traders made sure that the British tribes (especially in the south) were quite familiar with the wealth and appliances the roman culture could bring them. So when the time came to take it a step further quite a few tribes were very unwilling to give up all the goodies as a result of military opposition to the romans. Whether this economic strategy was carried out on purpose I don't know, but it seems a very likely and efficient step towards a further expansion. - JUG

Roman jawplate found at Venlo Small but significant finds seem to dig Venlo deeper into the roman map every day. Digs in the "Kolenstraatje" (coal-street) in Venlo last week revealed an intact bronze jawplate of a roman helmet. What's so special about this find is the fact that it dates from emperor Augustus' reign (27 BC - 14 AD). "Less than ten of such plates were ever found on Dutch sole", Venlo town archeologist M. Dolmans claims. It's the second roman jawplate ever to be found at Venlo, the previous one being an iron plate dating from the second half of the first century. Towards the end of last week a second century luxury round roman hairpin added to the excitement. It shows a checkers motive in white and blue glass. Both finds confirm that Venlo must've been a roman military settlement much earlier than was previously stated, according to M. Dolmans. Dolmans (and Willems) only recently announced the possibility of an early roman Venlo through the finds of civilian terraced houses (cfr. 7 December post) and the possible relocation of a Julius Caesar battlefield to the Venlo region (cfr. 7 December post #2). One can only hope for more finds like these in order to uncover the secrets of Lowland roman history. The jawplate is - as we speak - being closely examined at the Alan Pearson museum in amsterdam - JUG source: Dagblad de Limburger, 15 January 2004.

I'll meet you halfway there. I had some close encounters with Latin and Greek myself in my school years, and like you I was more partial to Greek than Latin. At that age however a lot depends on what kind of teacher you have. Later on I studied Germanic philology and to be honest the Latin doesn't make a huge difference really when it comes to English. I think you make it a lot easier for yourself if you start your comparison with the battle of Hastings and study the influence of the French language, which as you know belongs to the Romance language stock and thus is heir to Latin. The relation French-English is a much stronger one just because they are closer in time. That way some knowledge of French can actually help you quite a bit when you learn English. The real influence of Latin (and Greek) on any western language came much later, in my humble opinion, with the coming of the renaissance and classicism and once again when the industrial revolution kicked in and people needed new words for new appliances. Latin and Greek do become important however when you start digging into the indo-European language tree and start jumping from branch to branch. I love comparative linguistics but the further you dig into it, the more you realise we aren't there yet. One very interesting thing for instance is the fact that the Latin we know wasn't really the Latin people spoke, thus it is probably not the kind of Latin that influenced other languages. That's what makes it so hard to evaluate to what extent a language is tributary to Latin or any language that crossed its road. - JUG

I have no definite answer yet, but I found this on http://www.barca.fsnet.co.uk/rome-transport.htm: Maybe we can start our investigation from there? - JUG

Hey, and here am I thinking 2004 would be a Tuatha de Biatach year! - JUG Happy New Year to you all btw!

Mmm, a very touchy subject this, knowing the region. As soon as an economy drops (through war or other atrocities) people get very creative in finding money. Souvenir hunters is a doubtful term I think. Archeologically interesting places tend to suffer from ancestral looting in times of peril. We've seen it in Peru, Afghanistan and Iraq (to mention only a few). Problem is the western world is ready to send out a word of interest when these things happen. A black market is created by western investors, local criminals/businessmen/diplomats spread the word and before you know it people who hadn't even bothered about their cultural inheritence let alone know about the location suddenly start looting the sites and sell out for some measely dinaries. Very sad, but understandable from the poor man's point of view. Don't blame the looters, blame the political agressors!

Well, you're richt there PP, that is what the article says. What this article really shows is that scholars have had their doubts of the exact location and that many of the scholars start to acknowledge that the location might've been misinterpreted in the past. As a matter of fact, don't go too wild on this! They're just moving the battlefield a bit to the north (Venlo is right across the border with Belgium). However, if they do find the exact spot we might be in for some exciting archaeogical finds. PS: If I'm not mistaken the term Belgica applies to present day Netherlands as well. PS2: I have to admit one could interpret this article as a defeat unknown until now. Maybe I should rephrase some of it.

Obviously ! I think it's a well-known fact that Caesar wrote his De Bello Gallico as a means to help his political career and create his own myth. Because of this he mentions the fallbacks of his campaign only briefly and elaborates on his successes. Nevertheless, we should be glad he wrote it altogether. It's our task to siff through the propaganda and get all that wonderful information, which we wouldn't have otherwise, from underneath it. - JUG

Roman terraced houses at Venlo appear to be quite unique. The remains of ten wooden Roman terraced houses that were found at Venlo are pretty unique for the Netherlands because they are of civilian nature. All other houses found in the Netherlands have always been owned by Roman soldiers.

The legendary Roman strategist / emperor Julius Caesar has probably suffered humiliating defeats in the Venlo

Always glad to read about the new founds, many of them in Britain ... the ancient lands of which I'll be roaming in RV. Afterwards however I always get overwhelmed by two conflicting feelings: sheer happiness and total dispair. Sheer happiness because it has become obvious that during the last 5 years British government is on the offensive in the field of unearthing its cultural heritage and proudly presenting it to the world. I felt the movement coming when about ten years ago people in Britain were worrying about the knowledge their children and young people had about their history: it was shamefully modest to say the least. Britons, being one of the proudest people to walk the earth, found that their offspring had no interest whatsoever in what lay in the past. Scholars and politicians sat together and thought about a plan to make history appealing instead of apallling, quietly hoping for a revival of national pride. The result was the busload of historical programmes on the BBC we've come to love and hate. Love because finally we can choose to watch something interesting instead of running away from Reality TV, hate because of the lack of depth many of us are craving for. But what the hey, in the end things have changed for the better. Total dispair because one starts to wonder why they don't deliver that kind of effort in other countries. How much insight in history are we being deprived of because some government simply "cannot afford" to spend more money in order to do this? I guess you all know the feeling: "I sure hope I live long enough for mankind to achieve that, for historians to fill in that blank". I mean, we only live that long!!! Or do we really have to wait until our children too are empty-headed enough to sound the alarm? Well, let me tell you people, it's already happening so get to it! - JUG

I think cockles are crustaceans. - JUG

It lay beneath the waters of the river Almond for 1500 years before being dragged from the mud and put on display in the Museum of Scotland. Now the sandstone statue is set to be returned to its rightful home: the roman ruins near Cramond Kirk. http://www.edinburghnews.com/index.cfm?id=920942003

link1 link2 link3 link4 link 5 link 6 Some maps and additional info on celtic tribes. - JUG

For the Caledonians, visit this site. Excellent short history on the roman chapter: History of Scotland - JUG

No problem here either. - JUG

That was a great article, Faol, for several reasons. First of all, I like the historical part of it mentioning the migration of nations. The Indo-European language stock is the source of all languages involved in the debate. It is however all too simple to regard this as a linear language tree. Although the Celts were a seperate group in the Indo-European stock, it becomes pretty clear here that they've spread all over Europe throughout history which means they've all adapted several language characteristics from the peoples they encountered. Add to that the differences that naturally evolve out of the loss of contact between remote kin. That's what makes linguistics so complicated and interesting. It also explains the different references to "Celtic" people and their culture throughout written history. Secondly, I like the explanation of the name Ver-cingetos-rix, for it seems like since the comic strip - of which I'm a huge fan btw - Asterix has been such a success in Europe people tend to think all Celtic names end in -ix ... which is BS of course. Most Celtic names are a pest to explain really. But when you study the ancient ones, all you come at is a primitive combination of words. Take the example of Vercingetorix as mentioned in the link above. He was the true (ver) leader/king (rix) of warriors/champions (cingetos). All you see here is the combination of three words. Problem is that many references to Celtic characters either come from Roman or Christian sources - which is basically the same thing - corrupting the initial names to Latin ones. Hey, even Polibius (was that his real name? ) did it. - JUG

When I click on the roman Empire forum I get the following error messages: Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_STRING in /home/unrvcom/public_html/forum/sources/Forums.php(862) : regexp code on line 1 Fatal error: Failed evaluating code: Source site in /home/unrvcom/public_html/forum/sources/Forums.php on line 862 ????????????????? I can still click on the last post in that forum though. - JUG

Ulpius Marcellus, the wakeful one Ulpius Maximus was governor of Britannia from AD180 to c. 184. This man must have led a vigorous series of campaign into southern Scotland, possibly with sorties across the Forth-Clyde isthmus into the southern highlands. Coins minted c.AD184 celebrated major successes in Britain, but other coins produced the following year suggest that fighting still continued. The mood in the British garrison towards the excessive emperor Commodus was rebellious, and this severe general did nothing to enhance the troops attitude towards the son of Marcus Aurelius, indeed, Marcellus may have contributed a great deal towards the causes of the unrest which was later to sweep through the Roman army in Britain. According to Dio the army in Britain hailed as emperor one Priscus, probably a legionary commander, who firmly declined the position, though this incident showed the general level of disaffection for the emperor's policies, at least in the British army. Ulpius Sent by Commodus to Quell Unrest in Britain

I wanted to add a touch of colour to the links I included in my Cilurnum post, but they remain white. Any idea of how to fix this? - JUG

Chesters Roman Fort Cilurnum Built just after the wall was completed in AD 123, Chesters is the best preserved Roman Cavalry Fort in Britain. At the turn of the 1800's Nathaniel Clayton, owner of Chesters House and Estate, moved hundreds of tons of earth to cover over the last remains of the fort as part of his parkland landscaping, thereby creating a smooth uninterrupted grassland slope down to the River Tyne. Admittedly, he did take the trouble to find and collect a number of Roman artifact which he preserved in the family. However his son John was fascinated by the vestiges of Roman presence in the neighbourhood, and went to the trouble of removing all his father's work, exposing the fort, excavating, and establishing a small museum for his finds. Not only that, but he also made excavations at Housesteads Fort, Carrawborough Mithraic Temple, and Carvoran, amongst others, and all this by apparently devoting himself to archaeology only on Mondays... Today the site is under the care of English Heritage and is open to the public, as is the small museum of Roman finds which John Clayton built. Chesters was obviously very important to the Romans who built a sophisticated bridge (very little of which remains today except foundations) across the River Tyne at this point. It seems very likely that Chesters was the Roman Cilurnum referred to in the late Roman Military List Notitia Dignitatum, established first as a station for cavalry and, later, footsoldiers. Hadrian himself encouraged the "Cult of Disciplina" amongst legions stationed at the wall, and an early inscription on an altar dedicated to Disciplina, found in 1978, indicates the earliest known military presence was a wing of cavalry; ala Augusta ob virtutem appellata ( "named Augusta because of its valour"). The Roman Army was made up of people who enlisted from all over the Empire, and inscriptions have been found showing that those garrisoned here included the First Cohort of Dalmatians (present day Yugoslavia) and the First Cohort of Vangiones from Upper Rhineland in Germany. It seems that Cilurnum was built to house cavalry capable of rapid strikes into the "barbarian" north, but it is not known how many times it was called upon to fulfill this function. Plan of Chesters Roman Cavalry fort Roman bridge over North Tyne at Chesters Plan of the Cilurnum bath house Taken from Source site On this site you'll find a wonderful museum model of how things must've looked like.

Hi, it's the Jugmaster here! I'll be livening things up here with some info on Hadrian's Wall as I go along, reading this wonderful booklet I won in the RV contest. Might take a while though! - JUG