sylla

Sub idem fere tempus et ab Attalo rege et Rhodiis legati uenerunt nuntiantes Asiae quoque ciuitates sollicitari. his legationibus responsum est curae eam rem senatui fore; consultatio de Macedonico bello integra ad consules, qui tunc in prouinciis erant, reiecta est. interim ad Ptolomaeum Aegypti regem legati tres missi, C. Claudius Nero M. Aemilius Lepidus P. Sempronius Tuditanus, ut nuntiarent uictum Hannibalem Poenosque et gratias agerent regi quod in rebus dubiis, cum finitimi etiam socii Romanos desererent, in fide mansisset, et peterent ut, si coacti iniuriis bellum aduersus Philippum suscepissent, pristinum animum erga populum Romanum conseruaret. Eodem fere tempore P. Aelius consul in Gallia, cum audisset a Boiis ante suum aduentum incursiones in agros sociorum factas, duabus legionibus subitariis tumultus eius causa scriptis additisque ad eas quattuor cohortibus de exercitu suo, C. Ampium praefectum socium hac tumultuaria manu per Umbriam qua tribum Sapiniam uocant agrum Boiorum inuadere iussit; ipse eodem aperto itinere per montes duxit. Ampius ingressus hostium fines primo populationes satis prospere ac tuto fecit. delecto deinde ad castrum Mutilum satis idoneo loco ad demetenda frumenta

Archaeological research can't be understood out of the social context where it is performed; sadly, in the case of Jerusalem that means the generations-long ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the chauvinistic distortion of the findings by multiple groups to harass each other. From a related essay also by Rafi Greenberg, from the Tel-Aviv University (SIC): "Our guiding principles are as follows:

On the face of it this seems to be an important study however, I would tend to agree with Kosmo that while the incidences of hoards are a good indicator of areas under some form of stress they may simply indicate areas subject to population movement rather than necessarily the 'death' of the indiivisual(s) who buried the hoard(s). Statistics is often seen as an arcane art but modelling population decline on this basis is in my view pushing the bounds of what can or cannot be proven to any degree of certainty. As I understand it one of the major concerns in any statisitical analysis is that you are using 'real' differences as your baseline, which given the lack of accurate records from this period leaves this study open to question. The authors seem to have started from the premise that there would be a congruance of population size to the number of hoards rather than is there any other way of modelling ancient populations - that second question seems to remain unanswered. To defend this research I'd argue that internal turmoil and warfare rarely comes without a decrease in population. Furthermore, the researchers do not talk of hoards being linked to death but rather to population demographics (there being less people in Rome); wether they died or moved away is not the issue. The researchers simply linked the distribution of coin hoards to population demographic, that is population growth or decrease, not to the direct cause of it. When calculating population growth, one has to take into account four major factors: death, birth, immigration and emmigration. What the researchers are saying is that the amount of coin hoards proves widespread internal turmoil and warfare (they have proven this by applying their model to other times and places) and that widespread internal turmoil and warfare leads to a decrease in population. They do not specify but logically, during war and turmoil, more people die, less babies are born, less people move into the region and more people move out of the region; leading to population decrease or at the very least a serious slowdown of its growth. Latium antiquum a Tiberi Cerceios servatum est m. p. L longitudine: tam tenues primordio imperi fuere radices. colonis saepe mutatis tenuere alii aliis temporibus, Aborigenes, Pelasgi, Arcades, Siculi, Aurunci, Rutuli et ultra Cerceios Volsci, Osci, Ausones, unde nomen Lati processit ad Lirim amnem. in principio est Ostia colonia ab Romano rege deducta, oppidum Laurentum, lucus Iovis Indigetis, amnis Numicius, Ardea a Dana

Sub idem fere tempus et ab Attalo rege et Rhodiis legati uenerunt nuntiantes Asiae quoque ciuitates sollicitari. his legationibus responsum est curae eam rem senatui fore; consultatio de Macedonico bello integra ad consules, qui tunc in prouinciis erant, reiecta est. interim ad Ptolomaeum Aegypti regem legati tres missi, C. Claudius Nero M. Aemilius Lepidus P. Sempronius Tuditanus, ut nuntiarent uictum Hannibalem Poenosque et gratias agerent regi quod in rebus dubiis, cum finitimi etiam socii Romanos desererent, in fide mansisset, et peterent ut, si coacti iniuriis bellum aduersus Philippum suscepissent, pristinum animum erga populum Romanum conseruaret. Eodem fere tempore P. Aelius consul in Gallia, cum audisset a Boiis ante suum aduentum incursiones in agros sociorum factas, duabus legionibus subitariis tumultus eius causa scriptis additisque ad eas quattuor cohortibus de exercitu suo, C. Ampium praefectum socium hac tumultuaria manu per Umbriam qua tribum Sapiniam uocant agrum Boiorum inuadere iussit; ipse eodem aperto itinere per montes duxit. Ampius ingressus hostium fines primo populationes satis prospere ac tuto fecit. delecto deinde ad castrum Mutilum satis idoneo loco ad demetenda frumenta

Latium antiquum a Tiberi Cerceios servatum est m. p. L longitudine: tam tenues primordio imperi fuere radices. colonis saepe mutatis tenuere alii aliis temporibus, Aborigenes, Pelasgi, Arcades, Siculi, Aurunci, Rutuli et ultra Cerceios Volsci, Osci, Ausones, unde nomen Lati processit ad Lirim amnem. in principio est Ostia colonia ab Romano rege deducta, oppidum Laurentum, lucus Iovis Indigetis, amnis Numicius, Ardea a Dana

Sub idem fere tempus et ab Attalo rege et Rhodiis legati uenerunt nuntiantes Asiae quoque ciuitates sollicitari. his legationibus responsum est curae eam rem senatui fore; consultatio de Macedonico bello integra ad consules, qui tunc in prouinciis erant, reiecta est. interim ad Ptolomaeum Aegypti regem legati tres missi, C. Claudius Nero M. Aemilius Lepidus P. Sempronius Tuditanus, ut nuntiarent uictum Hannibalem Poenosque et gratias agerent regi quod in rebus dubiis, cum finitimi etiam socii Romanos desererent, in fide mansisset, et peterent ut, si coacti iniuriis bellum aduersus Philippum suscepissent, pristinum animum erga populum Romanum conseruaret. Eodem fere tempore P. Aelius consul in Gallia, cum audisset a Boiis ante suum aduentum incursiones in agros sociorum factas, duabus legionibus subitariis tumultus eius causa scriptis additisque ad eas quattuor cohortibus de exercitu suo, C. Ampium praefectum socium hac tumultuaria manu per Umbriam qua tribum Sapiniam uocant agrum Boiorum inuadere iussit; ipse eodem aperto itinere per montes duxit. Ampius ingressus hostium fines primo populationes satis prospere ac tuto fecit. delecto deinde ad castrum Mutilum satis idoneo loco ad demetenda frumenta

I suppose that the relatively "obscure nature" is in the eye of the beholder; I have been a big fan of the work of Prof. Scheidel for some time.Among the many excellent posts on archaeological findings by our JG, I think this has been the best for some time; it may even become a watershed in the demographic studies of Ancient Rome, because it provides quite hard evidence for the "Low Count" hypothesis, which should presumably be already considered the standard explanation, as it is in fact implicitly assumed by most reviewers. Some significant consequences of the "Low Count" are that: - the count of the Roman Censuses shifted from the adult males to the whole population under Augustus, even if unattested by our available sources (a good example of a positivist fallacy); - the Roman urbanization was atypically high for the first century BC; - their military draft was tremendous for any place or time.

Sub idem fere tempus et ab Attalo rege et Rhodiis legati uenerunt nuntiantes Asiae quoque ciuitates sollicitari. his legationibus responsum est curae eam rem senatui fore; consultatio de Macedonico bello integra ad consules, qui tunc in prouinciis erant, reiecta est. interim ad Ptolomaeum Aegypti regem legati tres missi, C. Claudius Nero M. Aemilius Lepidus P. Sempronius Tuditanus, ut nuntiarent uictum Hannibalem Poenosque et gratias agerent regi quod in rebus dubiis, cum finitimi etiam socii Romanos desererent, in fide mansisset, et peterent ut, si coacti iniuriis bellum aduersus Philippum suscepissent, pristinum animum erga populum Romanum conseruaret. Eodem fere tempore P. Aelius consul in Gallia, cum audisset a Boiis ante suum aduentum incursiones in agros sociorum factas, duabus legionibus subitariis tumultus eius causa scriptis additisque ad eas quattuor cohortibus de exercitu suo, C. Ampium praefectum socium hac tumultuaria manu per Umbriam qua tribum Sapiniam uocant agrum Boiorum inuadere iussit; ipse eodem aperto itinere per montes duxit. Ampius ingressus hostium fines primo populationes satis prospere ac tuto fecit. delecto deinde ad castrum Mutilum satis idoneo loco ad demetenda frumenta

You tell me. No toxic, BTW.

Latium antiquum a Tiberi Cerceios servatum est m. p. L longitudine: tam tenues primordio imperi fuere radices. colonis saepe mutatis tenuere alii aliis temporibus, Aborigenes, Pelasgi, Arcades, Siculi, Aurunci, Rutuli et ultra Cerceios Volsci, Osci, Ausones, unde nomen Lati processit ad Lirim amnem. in principio est Ostia colonia ab Romano rege deducta, oppidum Laurentum, lucus Iovis Indigetis, amnis Numicius, Ardea a Dana

Have you tried Plautus on murine humor?

Sorry to read about that; I hope she is already better.

Not that easy to add pics ...! Without the remaining text, any interpretation is highly speculative, especially from a rookie like me. My guess for the upper line is that "CORIS" would probably be the abbreviation for CO(HO)R(T)IS. The letter "A" would then be the last character of the preceding (presumably abbreviated) unidentified word.

Do you know which Classical author made that specific quotation on Caesar's structure?Thanks in advance.

I also think the dogmatic position of many early Christian rulers had a significant negative impact on scientific enquiry; however, to be fair this effect is difficult to asses, because such enquiry was seemingly declining long before the Edict of Milan; in Medicine, for example, there is essentially no recorded new research after Galen, who died circa 217.Besides, as previously stated, some centuries later the Islam performed an impressive cultural and scientific revolution under another strict monotheism. As a female scholar, Hypatia was an anomaly for virtually any pre-modern era and hardly typical of the Classical pre-Christian female status; her lynching had religious and possibly local political motivations, but in all likelihood not specifically anti-scientific.

Offending post deleted

Sub idem fere tempus et ab Attalo rege et Rhodiis legati uenerunt nuntiantes Asiae quoque ciuitates sollicitari. his legationibus responsum est curae eam rem senatui fore; consultatio de Macedonico bello integra ad consules, qui tunc in prouinciis erant, reiecta est. interim ad Ptolomaeum Aegypti regem legati tres missi, C. Claudius Nero M. Aemilius Lepidus P. Sempronius Tuditanus, ut nuntiarent uictum Hannibalem Poenosque et gratias agerent regi quod in rebus dubiis, cum finitimi etiam socii Romanos desererent, in fide mansisset, et peterent ut, si coacti iniuriis bellum aduersus Philippum suscepissent, pristinum animum erga populum Romanum conseruaret. Eodem fere tempore P. Aelius consul in Gallia, cum audisset a Boiis ante suum aduentum incursiones in agros sociorum factas, duabus legionibus subitariis tumultus eius causa scriptis additisque ad eas quattuor cohortibus de exercitu suo, C. Ampium praefectum socium hac tumultuaria manu per Umbriam qua tribum Sapiniam uocant agrum Boiorum inuadere iussit; ipse eodem aperto itinere per montes duxit. Ampius ingressus hostium fines primo populationes satis prospere ac tuto fecit. delecto deinde ad castrum Mutilum satis idoneo loco ad demetenda frumenta

Thanks for the Baudy reference. I hadn't heard that before, but just spent a few minutes trying to find his theory on the web. The best I could come up with was the following from an old special on PBS: "He (Gaudy) has learned that in the poor districts of Rome, Christians were circulating vengeful texts predicting that a raging inferno would reduce the city to ashes. "In all of these oracles, the destruction of Rome by fire is prophesied," Baudy explains. "That is the constant theme: Rome must burn. This was the long-desired objective of all the people who felt subjugated by Rome." I think the Baudy theory was more than idle observations, but was fully spelled out in his scholarly book (in German). Many academic assertions about Rome seem to not be supported by just doing a google search... analysis of the ancients seems have a low profile on the internet other than here. Well, some is showing up in the Google books project, but I find their format virtually unreadible (fuzzy light grey font). So again, let's not overlook the cuddly side of Nero! I gather he was loved by a lot of lower classes because his antics basically made fun of upper class pretentions. I hear there were 3 pretenders to pop up that seriously claimed to be Nero and that his death had been misreported - at least one of which gathered support by army and other sympathizers before being proven a fraud. And wasn't it only later in Vespasian times when the upper class fully asserted their demonization of Nero and tore down his palace, whereas the previous 2 weak emperors pandered to the lower classes with praise of Nero and talk about completing the palace? The Baudy theories are essentially a re-edition from previous proposals by Pascal and Hermann (early XX century); briefly, they pretend that from some kind of bizarre purportedly ancient Egyptian cosmological ideas involving Sirius, the first Christians would have found it perfectly logical to burn Rome. IMHO, qualifying them as "absurd" is probably an understatement; the survival of such kind of Da Vinci code-like theories can probably be best explained just by the progressive unpopularity of the Catholic Church. As discussed on previous threads, I don't think we need to infer any particular explanation for the Great Fire of 64 AD; urban conflagrations were simply too common at the time, and pyromania was a standard literary accusation against tyrants. As most deposed Roman Emperors, Nero was not overthrown by popular rebellion, but by a military coup; his popularity was therefore hardly an issue. The evidence for Nero's popularity (at least in the East) seems undisputable; it was presumably related to Nero's trip to Greece and reinforced by the local Imperial Cults, but I don't think we can discard some contribution from pure charisma; after all, Nero seems to have been an above the average musical and rhetorical performer.

Quicumque vult salvus esse, ante omnia opus est, ut teneat catholicam fidem: Quam nisi quisque integram inviolatamque servaverit, absque dubio in aeternam peribit. Fides autem catholica haec est: ut unum Deum in Trinitate, et Trinitatem in unitate veneremur. Neque confundentes personas, neque substantiam seperantes. Alia est enim persona Patris alia Filii, alia Spiritus Sancti: Sed Patris, et Fili, et Spiritus Sancti una est divinitas, aequalis gloria, coeterna maiestas. Qualis Pater, talis Filius, talis Spiritus Sanctus. Increatus Pater, increatus Filius, increatus Spiritus Sanctus. Immensus Pater, immensus Filius, immensus Spiritus Sanctus. Aeternus Pater, aeternus Filius, aeternus Spiritus Sanctus. Et tamen non tres aeterni, sed unus aeternus

She's about to wreak right now - its a bit of a twilight zone moment cos I just typed this "Audacia strode out from the Gate of Life, her arms raised aloft. She was a thraex, armed with short sword and shield. Illeana studied her and was impressed. She was well-muscled and heavier than Pyrra, her defined physique demonstrating hard-training and her gait oozing confidence. The crowd hooted, always enthusiastic at the sight of female flesh

Offending post deleted

If the implicit bitter irony was not intentional, you really ought to check out your sources. It was the "western help" which actually crushed the Empire; for their credit, in doing that, the Crusaders required no Islamic help. The Crusaders were hostile against the Romans from the very beginning; for example, when Richard I Lionheart conquered Cyprus, he took that island from the Romans, not the Arabs. When the IV Crusade sacked Constantinople, they also effectively destroyed a millennium-plus Empire, which they were utterly unable to replace with anything better than the absolutely inefficient so-called "Latin Empire" and its feudal dependencies. The Nicean monarchy that eventually recovered Constantinople half a century later was just one among many residual states, which all together were only a shadow of the destroyed Empire. Even more, without such definitive Roman defeat, it's quite unlikely that the Ghazi emirate that eventually became into the Ottoman Sultanate would have been able to thrive across the XIII and XIV centuries as it did.

Unsurprisingly, no. As currently defined, humor requires some of the highest of the higher cortical brain functions, particularly anticipation and abstraction (ie, executive functions from the frontal lobes) plus a minimum of cultural frame: it is a relatively recent human acquisition. There seems to be some rudiments of humor among some higher primates and maybe even other social mammals (but not rats); the best currently available evolutionary explanation is that it serves as kind of red-code cancellation (ie, "the previous alarm was not justified after all"). As other mammals, some rats seems to have some kind of "laughter" as a sonic expression of joy, actually imperceptible for the unaided human ear.

Here is a nice Video (and a nice text explanation too) on this mammal. Now, I perfectly understand that there is more than enough technology around there to fabricate virtually any pic and any video and even to add some wings to the rodent and the researchers if required; what I can't understand is what rationale would be behind such potential forgery. The finding might be relevant indeed for mastozoologists, but it is just moderately curious for the lay public; after all, this isn't even the biggest available example of murinae (rats). Besides, this didn't come from a cheap tabloid column; in principle, BBC's authority seems to me more than enough to back up this story.... especially because we are dealing here with 100% verifiable data.