sylla

Offending post deleted

Actually here is a much better exposition from Mr. Lomborg's sensible ideas. The general message is full of common sense and Mr. Lomborg actually gives plenty of examples on the rational selection of alternatives for the optimal use of resources. But specifically regarding his main thesis on Global Climate Change, he simply asked the right question to the wrong people. Contrary to his opening statement, economists are not experts on every possible subject just because they dispose of the cash; e.g. I seriously doubt even Mr. Lomborg would use an economist instead of a pediatrician for any sick child of his family... In plain economic terms, any objective estimation of the "value" of the perennial survival of the Homo sapiens expressed in dollars (or any other currency) would simply tend to infinite; it would be like asking how much money should the Kennedy administration have spent on preventing nuclear war at the Cuban missile crisis. Please note that contrary to most opponents of taking action on Global Warming here at neverending thread"]UNRV[/url], Mr. Lomborg is not a denier; he perfectly accepts the overwhelming evidence on this ongoing menace. He does not explain the reports on such evidence from any absurd global conspiracy theory. From an ideological standpoint, both positions are absolutely contradictory. Strictly speaking, regarding Global Climate Change Mr. Lomborg is just a nihilist ; as nothing can be done (in his best opinion), we should just accept the inevitable... The only thing these opposite positions have in common is that both might be used as rationalizating excuses by stingy contributors worldwide; period.

Usus autem sum, ne in aliquo fallam carissimam mihi familiaritatem tuam, praecipue libris ex bibliotheca Ulpia, aetate mea thermis Diocletianis, et item ex domo Tiberiana, usus etiam [ex] regestis scribarum porticus porphyreticae, actis etiam senatus ac populi. 2 et quoniam me ad colligenda talis viri gesta ephemeris Turduli Gallicani plurimum invit, viri honestissimi ac sincerissimi, beneficium amici senis tacere non debui. 3 Cn. Pompeium, tribus fulgentem triumphis belli piratici, belli Sertoriani, belli Mithridatici multarumque rerum gestarum maiestate sublimem, quis tandem nosset, nisi eum Marcus Tullius et Titus Livius in litteras rettulissent? 4 Publ<i>um Scipionem Afric<an>um, immo Scipiones omnes, seu Lucios seu Nasicas, nonne tenebrae possiderent ac tegerent, nisi commendatores eorum historici nobiles atque ignobiles extitissent? 5 longum est omnia persequi, quae ad exemplum huiusce modi etiam nobis tacentibus usurpanda sunt. 6 illud tantum contestatum volo me et rem scripsisse, quam, si quis voluerit, honestius eloquio celsiore demonstret, et mihi quidem id animi fuit, 6 <ut> non Sallustios, Livios, Tacito<s>, Trogos atque omnes disertissimos imitarer viros in vita principum et temporibus disserendis, sed Marium Maximum, Suetonium Tranquillum, Fabium Marcellinum, Gargilium Martialem, Iulium Capitolinum, Aelium Lampridium ceterosque, qui haec et talia non tam diserte quam vere memoriae tradiderunt. 8 sum enim unus ex curiosis, quod infi[ni]t<i>as ire non possum, ince<n>dentibus vobis, qui, cum multa sciatis, scire multo plura cupitis. 9 et ne diutius ea, quae ad meum consilium pertinent, loquar, magnum et praeclarum principem et qualem historia nostra non novit, arripiam.

- You can only find hoards that have not been recovered; recovered hoards are not available for being studied, so the "non-recovery rates" are not measurable. - The pointed research relates to hoards from periods of either political stability or instability; the research confirmed the hypothesis that the hoard's incidence correlates with periods of political instability.

Emphasis is mine

Ergo, Venice is only one among myriad reasons for deterring anthropogenic global warming. Given total inaction, progressive sea rising and allied global ecological consequences are an absolute certainty; the difference of "optimistic" vs. "pessimistic" is just the time required.

I understand both mechanisms are operative in Venice and other places of the north Adriatic; one of them does not exclude the other.

Offending post deleted

="Bad money drives out good" (under legal tender laws) = Gresham's law. Or in Theognis of Megara's words: "Nor will anyone change the good that is there to something worse".

A paradoxical statement, as such protector is exactly the product of the same so-called "neurosis". Do you mean across the Little Ice Age? Can you quote your source(s)? ... especially if any alternative might affect our pockets in the short term, Gods forbid!

I guess Caesar's corpse would have been incinerated for especifically avoiding any political use of it, as it was the case for Alexander Magnus (notoriously from Ptolemy Soter).

Au contraire; as any other people (even nowadays), Romans hoarded money for its value, not for the lack of it. Coin hoards were fundamentally emergency reserves for dangerous times; therefore, hoards' frequency is a reliable index of political instability, not of the coins' intrinsic value.

(The) surest and indeed the only method of learning how to bear bravely the vicissitudes of fortune, is to recall the calamities of others. Polybius 1,1,2.

From a purely military standpoint, a most critical contributor was definitively the command of Kh?lid ibn al-Wal?d, a tactician of the same magnitude as let say Timur or Alexander Magnus.

Based fundamentally on Luttwak (first phase), it seems what the Republic and early empire definitively found cost-effective was a warrior-state economy primarily based in looting; any raid and conquest was money, at the very least from slave trade and (indirectly) from political prestige. It was only after the Empire got bigger and bigger (second phase) that the inversion required for any further conquest vastly outgrew any potential earning; after that point, the Roman army constantly required to become even bigger and stronger just to keep the conquered territory, in spite of the obvious risk of rebellion, patently evident since the Republican Civil Wars. The increasing economic pressure from the military budget (including but not limited to the cavalry), the unavoidable social instability from so many active soldiers and the migration pressure from alien populations over the static borders were presumably all critical for the eventual collapse of the V century.

Can you quote your source? Far as I remember, Punic War I was defined at sea. In any case, the Roman army was in constant evolution; any time they found a worth contender, they took something valuable; from the Punic army, the gladius hispanensis, the Numidian cavalry, the Balearic slingers and even the war elephants, at least for a time; that

In fact, I haven't been able to found where they are (either Caesar's remains or his familiar tomb).

Usus autem sum, ne in aliquo fallam carissimam mihi familiaritatem tuam, praecipue libris ex bibliotheca Ulpia, aetate mea thermis Diocletianis, et item ex domo Tiberiana, usus etiam [ex] regestis scribarum porticus porphyreticae, actis etiam senatus ac populi. 2 et quoniam me ad colligenda talis viri gesta ephemeris Turduli Gallicani plurimum invit, viri honestissimi ac sincerissimi, beneficium amici senis tacere non debui. 3 Cn. Pompeium, tribus fulgentem triumphis belli piratici, belli Sertoriani, belli Mithridatici multarumque rerum gestarum maiestate sublimem, quis tandem nosset, nisi eum Marcus Tullius et Titus Livius in litteras rettulissent? 4 Publ<i>um Scipionem Afric<an>um, immo Scipiones omnes, seu Lucios seu Nasicas, nonne tenebrae possiderent ac tegerent, nisi commendatores eorum historici nobiles atque ignobiles extitissent? 5 longum est omnia persequi, quae ad exemplum huiusce modi etiam nobis tacentibus usurpanda sunt. 6 illud tantum contestatum volo me et rem scripsisse, quam, si quis voluerit, honestius eloquio celsiore demonstret, et mihi quidem id animi fuit, 6 <ut> non Sallustios, Livios, Tacito<s>, Trogos atque omnes disertissimos imitarer viros in vita principum et temporibus disserendis, sed Marium Maximum, Suetonium Tranquillum, Fabium Marcellinum, Gargilium Martialem, Iulium Capitolinum, Aelium Lampridium ceterosque, qui haec et talia non tam diserte quam vere memoriae tradiderunt. 8 sum enim unus ex curiosis, quod infi[ni]t<i>as ire non possum, ince<n>dentibus vobis, qui, cum multa sciatis, scire multo plura cupitis. 9 et ne diutius ea, quae ad meum consilium pertinent, loquar, magnum et praeclarum principem et qualem historia nostra non novit, arripiam.

Some Dacian inscriptions.

Offending post deleted

If their power had derived from the military and not a legitimate constitutional process, it would have been a military dictatorship. There are few stratocracies around today, so it is hard to find a real-life example. Stratocracies involve officials elected through a legitimate constitutional process, but where the entire civil apparatus is inseparable from the military apparatus. There are a few countries in Africa, for example, where military officers of a certain rank are entitled to a seat in parliament for that reason alone. I think you are missing the point that power in a stratocracy is legitimate and constitutional. It is based on elections, not the army. The emperors, in contrast, (as well as a few people in the later republic like Caesar) had their power based on the army as opposed to legitimate elections. Rome was, in these instances, a military dictatorship and not a stratocracy. Usus autem sum, ne in aliquo fallam carissimam mihi familiaritatem tuam, praecipue libris ex bibliotheca Ulpia, aetate mea thermis Diocletianis, et item ex domo Tiberiana, usus etiam [ex] regestis scribarum porticus porphyreticae, actis etiam senatus ac populi. 2 et quoniam me ad colligenda talis viri gesta ephemeris Turduli Gallicani plurimum invit, viri honestissimi ac sincerissimi, beneficium amici senis tacere non debui. 3 Cn. Pompeium, tribus fulgentem triumphis belli piratici, belli Sertoriani, belli Mithridatici multarumque rerum gestarum maiestate sublimem, quis tandem nosset, nisi eum Marcus Tullius et Titus Livius in litteras rettulissent? 4 Publ<i>um Scipionem Afric<an>um, immo Scipiones omnes, seu Lucios seu Nasicas, nonne tenebrae possiderent ac tegerent, nisi commendatores eorum historici nobiles atque ignobiles extitissent? 5 longum est omnia persequi, quae ad exemplum huiusce modi etiam nobis tacentibus usurpanda sunt. 6 illud tantum contestatum volo me et rem scripsisse, quam, si quis voluerit, honestius eloquio celsiore demonstret, et mihi quidem id animi fuit, 6 <ut> non Sallustios, Livios, Tacito<s>, Trogos atque omnes disertissimos imitarer viros in vita principum et temporibus disserendis, sed Marium Maximum, Suetonium Tranquillum, Fabium Marcellinum, Gargilium Martialem, Iulium Capitolinum, Aelium Lampridium ceterosque, qui haec et talia non tam diserte quam vere memoriae tradiderunt. 8 sum enim unus ex curiosis, quod infi[ni]t<i>as ire non possum, ince<n>dentibus vobis, qui, cum multa sciatis, scire multo plura cupitis. 9 et ne diutius ea, quae ad meum consilium pertinent, loquar, magnum et praeclarum principem et qualem historia nostra non novit, arripiam.

Usus autem sum, ne in aliquo fallam carissimam mihi familiaritatem tuam, praecipue libris ex bibliotheca Ulpia, aetate mea thermis Diocletianis, et item ex domo Tiberiana, usus etiam [ex] regestis scribarum porticus porphyreticae, actis etiam senatus ac populi. 2 et quoniam me ad colligenda talis viri gesta ephemeris Turduli Gallicani plurimum invit, viri honestissimi ac sincerissimi, beneficium amici senis tacere non debui. 3 Cn. Pompeium, tribus fulgentem triumphis belli piratici, belli Sertoriani, belli Mithridatici multarumque rerum gestarum maiestate sublimem, quis tandem nosset, nisi eum Marcus Tullius et Titus Livius in litteras rettulissent? 4 Publ<i>um Scipionem Afric<an>um, immo Scipiones omnes, seu Lucios seu Nasicas, nonne tenebrae possiderent ac tegerent, nisi commendatores eorum historici nobiles atque ignobiles extitissent? 5 longum est omnia persequi, quae ad exemplum huiusce modi etiam nobis tacentibus usurpanda sunt. 6 illud tantum contestatum volo me et rem scripsisse, quam, si quis voluerit, honestius eloquio celsiore demonstret, et mihi quidem id animi fuit, 6 <ut> non Sallustios, Livios, Tacito<s>, Trogos atque omnes disertissimos imitarer viros in vita principum et temporibus disserendis, sed Marium Maximum, Suetonium Tranquillum, Fabium Marcellinum, Gargilium Martialem, Iulium Capitolinum, Aelium Lampridium ceterosque, qui haec et talia non tam diserte quam vere memoriae tradiderunt. 8 sum enim unus ex curiosis, quod infi[ni]t<i>as ire non possum, ince<n>dentibus vobis, qui, cum multa sciatis, scire multo plura cupitis. 9 et ne diutius ea, quae ad meum consilium pertinent, loquar, magnum et praeclarum principem et qualem historia nostra non novit, arripiam.

That term implies Christianity took (stole, in fact) the Jewish theology, beliefs, traditions and sacred texts, an accurate description of the historical facts.

The Irish had a writing system known as Ogham which was carved into the sides of stone slabs. This script was extant in the 5th century and possibly earlier, and stones have been found in some Roman towns, notably Silchester. Wether or not this - like runes - was an adaptation of the Roman alphabet I do not know. Usus autem sum, ne in aliquo fallam carissimam mihi familiaritatem tuam, praecipue libris ex bibliotheca Ulpia, aetate mea thermis Diocletianis, et item ex domo Tiberiana, usus etiam [ex] regestis scribarum porticus porphyreticae, actis etiam senatus ac populi. 2 et quoniam me ad colligenda talis viri gesta ephemeris Turduli Gallicani plurimum invit, viri honestissimi ac sincerissimi, beneficium amici senis tacere non debui. 3 Cn. Pompeium, tribus fulgentem triumphis belli piratici, belli Sertoriani, belli Mithridatici multarumque rerum gestarum maiestate sublimem, quis tandem nosset, nisi eum Marcus Tullius et Titus Livius in litteras rettulissent? 4 Publ<i>um Scipionem Afric<an>um, immo Scipiones omnes, seu Lucios seu Nasicas, nonne tenebrae possiderent ac tegerent, nisi commendatores eorum historici nobiles atque ignobiles extitissent? 5 longum est omnia persequi, quae ad exemplum huiusce modi etiam nobis tacentibus usurpanda sunt. 6 illud tantum contestatum volo me et rem scripsisse, quam, si quis voluerit, honestius eloquio celsiore demonstret, et mihi quidem id animi fuit, 6 <ut> non Sallustios, Livios, Tacito<s>, Trogos atque omnes disertissimos imitarer viros in vita principum et temporibus disserendis, sed Marium Maximum, Suetonium Tranquillum, Fabium Marcellinum, Gargilium Martialem, Iulium Capitolinum, Aelium Lampridium ceterosque, qui haec et talia non tam diserte quam vere memoriae tradiderunt. 8 sum enim unus ex curiosis, quod infi[ni]t<i>as ire non possum, ince<n>dentibus vobis, qui, cum multa sciatis, scire multo plura cupitis. 9 et ne diutius ea, quae ad meum consilium pertinent, loquar, magnum et praeclarum principem et qualem historia nostra non novit, arripiam.