Aurelia

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".

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.

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.

I'm afraid I haven't read many Roman related books lately. Currently reading "The Hobbit" (yeah, better late than never). I might start on "The Great Fire of Rome" by Stephen Dando-Collins next. The last Roman related film I saw was "Centurion".

Yeah, Festivus for the rest of us! I could think of a couple of people I'd like to poke around with a Festivus pole.

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.

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.

Apparently this has been the most popular video on You Tube this year with almost 49 million views. Based on this (true) story. The tune is not bad but still...

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.

Oh my goodness, where have I been? Happy belated birthday, Kosmo!

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.

I thought using my real name, Patricia, would be too clich

That was an excellent "review" Lanista, thanks for that. I won't buy the DVD but I don't think there's any harm and renting it, just for kicks. I don't mind tacky as long as it is entertaining.

"Protein causes vice", excellent, lol! P.S. That was quite a cast.

Hmm, I think I'll wait for a very very rainy day to rent it... Btw, I found a clip of the 70s version on You Tube. It looks very entertaining. And the camera work... wow!!

A few days ago, I came across a film called "The Arena" at a DVD store. It seemed interesting but after googling it, I was sort of disappointed to find that it was a remake of a 1974 production featuring Playboy playmates as gladiatrices. Now this might be of interest to some of the gentlemen frequenting this forum. In any case, I was wondering if anyone here has seen this film? It was released in 2001 so it's not exactly recent. And judging by the plot summary below not the most historically accurate story either, hehe. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0284867/plotsummary

While searching for something else earlier today, I came across this old thread on left-handedness, which I thought you might find relevant. http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=9981

What a relief! This probably means I can save my bucket list for later.

Cool, I might try a new outfit soon.

I have also watched Centurion recently and agree with Viggen on the blood spatter issue, which I thought was a bit excessive. Not because it hurt my sensibilities but more because I thought it made the battle scenes somewhat artificial. But all in all, I thought it was an entertaining movie.

I actually muted the grunts after a while and just watched the rest of the video in silence.

I'm late as usual but would like to wish you a happy birthday anyway. Glad to hear you had a nice day yesterday.

Hmmm, "gastronomic cannibalism" doesn

Earlier this year, I watched an interesting documentary aired on BBC called A History of Christianity. Even though it attempts mainly to address the question of what it means to be a Christian today, it also provides a chronological account of the evolution of its different strands. The fist 3 episodes dealing with the origians of Christianity, the rise of the Roman Catholic Church, and Orthodoxy respectively are particularly interesting as they show the impact these developments have had on the ancient and modern worlds.