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Aurelia

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Posts posted by Aurelia

  10. interests and hobbies

    in Hora Postilla Thermae

    Posted

    First and foremost: travelling. I'm a bit of a globetrotter and my mission is seeing as much of the world as I can in this lifetime. :D

     

    Other less expensive hobbies include: reading (classics, historical (and other) novels, African literature ...), wine tasting (and drinking, of course!), photography, music (classical, folk, African, Brazilian, rock...), cycling, cinema.

     

    I used to love studying/learning but I just don't seem have the same energy and concentration capacity as I used to. Getting old perhaps?

  15. Roman Fruitcake

    in Romana Humanitas

    Posted

    2nd BTW I found a website dating from 2004 which seems to contain similar claims to the original Wikipedia article referenced from a couple of other sites so well may have been used as the Wikipedia source but unfortunately again without citation :(

     

    http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Cakes/Fruitcake.htm

     

    Interesting, but no mention of the first century AD. My money's on Aurelia's 'Penguin Companion to Food' for the original secondary source, but what was the primary?

     

    PS 'original secondary source'. Is that an oxymoron?

     

    That's a good question. I guess we would have to get hold of a copy of the Penguin Companion to find out. Although it might just give us another "original secondary source". ;)

  16. What's the last thing you saw/heard/played etc. ?

    in Colosseum

    Posted

    Currently reading "The Hobbit" (yeah, better late than never).

     

    I picked that up when I was 23. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

     

    After the first 3 chapters I decided the book and I were not going to get along at all. I still don't see what all the fuss about Tolkien is about.

     

    Well, I was 15 the first time I picked it up and didn't get very far. I'm not really into fantasy novels but since I really enjoyed the LOTR movie adaptations, I thought I'd try the Hobbit again before deciding whether or not I should venture any further.

  17. Roman Fruitcake

    in Romana Humanitas

    Posted

    I found this reference to cakes in the ancient world on the so-called Food Museum website.

     

    Ancient Egypt was the first culture to show evidence of true skill in baking, making many kinds of bread including some sweetened with honey. The Greeks had a form of cheesecake and the Romans developed early versions of fruitcakes with raisins, nuts and other fruits.

     

    The Penguin Companion to Food is mentioned as the source.

  20. Any Study Goals for 2010?

    in Academia

    Posted

    I'm still getting on with German and have managed to advance to intermediate level. Not sure if I'll be able to keep this up once I start working in January though. No concrete plans for 2011 as of yet - maybe some job-related course will come up at some point.

  21. Learning Latin

    in Academia

    Posted

    I also studied Latin at university and actually quite enjoyed it. I did identify with it because my mother tongue is Portuguese so it felt a bit like a journey of discovery for me. If you already speak a Romance language (Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian), that is definitely an advantage. German also helps understanding the declensions. If not, don't worry, it could still be fun and useful if you plan to study other Western European languages in the future or if you just want to understand them better - including English, which has inherited a lot of Latin words, especially via old French.

  23. Anthropologists looking for Roman legion in China

    in Historia in Universum

    Posted

    I remember watching a documentary (on History or Discovery channel) about this a couple of years ago. To expand on what Melvadius has already written above, I remember that Dubs's work entitled "A Roman City in Ancient China" was mentioned throughout the programme. According to him, somewhere in the annals of the Han dynasty, there is record of the capture of a Hun city named Zhizhi (located near Tashkent in Uzbekhistan) in 36 BC by the Chinese army. There the Chinese observed that the city defences were made of palisades of tree trunks and that the enemy fought in something similar to the testudo battle formation. Many prisoners were taken by the Chinese and apparently moved further east to a garrison town named Li-Jen (which sounds like "legion" is Chinese and is apparently the name the ancient Chinese used to refer to Rome).

     

    I'm not sure how plausible this theory is though.

  25. The most southern roman archaeological findings in africa?

    in Archaeology

    Posted

    I would go even further south. According to the Cambridge History of the British Empire, Vol. 7, Roman coins have been found in what is nowadays Zimbabwe (coin of Emperor Antoninus Pius) and Madagascar (coin of Constantine), although these were probably dropped there by Arab and Abyssinian traders respectively.

     

    It is believed that the northern coast of Mozambique was also visited by Roman subjects or allies such as Greek traders. Interestingly enough, while I was working in northern Mozambique a few years back, I heard stories about the region being, along with Zanzibar, part of the route used by middle eastern traders for at least a couple thousand years.

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