Tobias

Happy Birthday Mate, may no new thing arise!

I just chose Tobias because my real name is Toby, but Tobias sounded more noble on a website of Roman History discussion

Yeah. Besides, even if the European nations did get their hands on some elephants, there would have been little chance of them being able to position and use them in battle to cause more damage to the enemy then themselves, as most of that knowledge would either be solely in the hands of the Persians etc. or extinct.

I live on a property 155km's Northwest of the heart of the Australian Riverina, Griffith, New South Wales. I'm right in the middle of the outback of NSW lol

Didnt it refer more to the former territory of the Helvetii, the gallic tribe that Caesar defeated?

G'day everyone "Trajan's conquests in the east proved impossible to hold, and his successor Hadrian (117-138) immediately pulled the frontier back to the Euphrates, although Armenia remained a client state. The following Pax Romana lasted until the murder of Commodus, the last adopted Emperor. The ensuing civil war (193-97) was won by Severus, whose dynasty maintained stability until 235. The coinage was repeatedly debased from about 170 onwards. In 212 all free men in the Empire were made citizens, an attempt to increase its tax base. With economic decline came political instability: in the half century after 235, there were 15 Emperors, most ruling only a few years. At the same time, Rome's enemies had become more powerful. In the east, the Parthians had been replaced in 226 by the Sassanid Persians, who sought to restore the glory of the Persian Empire 700 years before. They sacked Antioch in 253 and took the Emperor Valerian prisoner at Edessa in 260. Simultaneously, Germans raided deep into the Empire, reaching the Mediterranean at several points. The Empire's impotence prompted regional commanders to seize control in the worst affected areas. In the west, Postumus founded a Gallic Empire in 260, including Spain and Britain. In the east, the semi-independent trading city of Palmyra became the centre for resistance. Its ruler, Odenathus beat back the Persians and even sacked their capital Ctephiston. On his death in 267, his more ambitious widow, Zenobia, took power, and had by 269 conquered Roman Syria, Palestine and Egypt." -via The Roman Empire: 18 centuries in 19 maps. The Roman Empire is trembling. It seems as if nothing can stop the downhill slide. If you were the ruler of a nation on Rome's borders (you chose which one), what do you do? Will you ally yourself with Rome, or will you help it on it's downward fall? And if you were the Emperor of the Romans, what would you do to help check the decline?

I'm just repeating what's here, but i'll write it anyway... Spellsword 77% Combativeness, 20% Sneakiness, 52% Intellect, 41% Spirituality Aggressive, but with the brains to back it up: You are a Spellsword! Score! You have a prestige class. A prestige class can only be taken after you

LOL That's an interesting thought, isn't it? With Lance's larger then normal heart, could Caesar beat Armstrong with brilliant tactics and maneuvering?

When recently reading Colleen McCullough's "Caesar", i noticed something relevant to this discussion. In this book is a fictitious account of a Gallic woman, the daughter of a King of the Helvetii, who became one of Caesar's lovers and bore him a son. Before Vercingetorix came to prominence in Gaul, just after Caesar's second invasion of Britannia, Caesar is discussing with this woman, who he calls "Rhiannon", why her son could not be acknowledged as Caesar's son, let alone King of the Romans as she thought Caesar was destined to be. Rhiannon could not understand from Caesar's explanation that "Kings" were an outdated form of authority, and that Rome would never have a king whilst he lived to stop it. Failing this, she wrote to another of Caesar's lovers: the mother of Marcus Brutus, Servilia. Servilia's response to her questions of why Caesar's son can't be acknowledged etc. were quite blunt. She answered that "Even the lowest criminal in a back alley of Rome is better then you, for he has Roman blood." , as well as telling of Caesar's determination for Rome not to have a king. At any rate, the point is is that i agree with the prior posts made here that skin colour was usually not an issue, nor was your upbringing. It was your descent, your bloodline, that made you better in ancient Rome. This is especially seen with individuals like Sulla and Caesar, who, having such a patrician back-ground, was hugely respected even without adding respect for their accomplishments. It was your bloodlines, i suppose you could call it your pedigree that made you "better"

I reckon! I've used it too find my farm, and it really shows it in great detail. I read somewhere that the images you are seeing on Google earth are pre-recorded and not live. This is so that the satellites being used for the imagery can't be located in orbit. If this is true, then whoever (not mentioning any specific country's name) country's satellite is used for Google Earth must be rather paranoid, or a just not willing for people to know their secrets

Both arguments are so sound that i can't really answer to them. The question, then, i would ask is was there a battle when the Byzantine Cataphract faced off against the Medieval European Knight on horseback? If so, was the knight's horse armoured all over like the cataphract, or would it just have a kind of breast plate and mail helmet to protect the neck and head of the horse? Imagine a cavalry battle and it's initial charge between the Knights and the Cataphracti, you'd feel the earth move then

An advantage the Cataphracti might have is being lighter. A fully armoured knight had to be lifted onto the back of a horse because of it's weight, and when knocked out of the saddle or falling over, usually could not get back up ( as was the case at Agincourt)

Certainly. IF you were an infantryman, with minimal or standard armour, and a squadron of Cataphracti charged your line at about 50 kms an hour, armoured head to toe, could you stand against it lol?

Ok, thanks for that clarification. I'd have nothing against such a site, although i'm only one person

I was wondering if you esteemed learned translators would extend this site to do translations of people's names to latin? I'm sure we'd all get a laugh to see our names as how they would have been back in ancient Rome

By this time, and indeed for a great deal of the Byzantine's history, they were employing standard soldiers with standard arms on standard military tactics. There was little special about the soldiers most of the time, although the Cataphract was a kind of Precursor to the medieval knight on his horse.

Hitler wasn't the first by any means, nor necessarily the greatest. Frederick Barbarossa forged the Holy Roman Empire from the large amount of squabbling fiefs in Germany. Napoleon held together his empire for a fair while longer then Hitler. In know you'll say this is outside the time frame specified, but what i'm saying is that Hitler did not do something never done before in reuniting and rehabilitating a broken power in a superpower. I don't want to start an argument either so i'll stop too

Perhaps i worded myself wrong there

No, i'm a Scottish Aussie Something a bit fishy is going on with that site, unless we have similar surnames

Well done, that must have taken a while Plenty of names i agree with at any rate on this list, although i won't advertise my alternate views, they'll just spark another Caesar v Alexander debate. I'm glad Heraclius got a mention, he seems to be ignored in these things, as well as other Eastern Roman Empire Generals.

Gee, now that's someone with a lot of time on their hands, the person who runs that website My name is Orophin Melwas

LOL The problem is that these days the wars are a bit "been there done that", and not as interesting as some of the Roman conquests. However, there are plenty of other things worth recording (no i don't necessarily just mean you Onasander )

Just a question; Will this new "Emporium" use the other forums to spruke it's wares? I for one would prefer to talk history in forums, not be interrupted by advertisements or "subtle suggestions" to visit the Emporium. I don't want to throw a spanner in the works, i'm just curious

I agree. Are the any other practical applications of Napalm though? Apart from defoliating? I realise that it would not answer against today's armoured navies, but is it used anywhere else? One would hope that it won't be aimed directly at bodies of troops or (god forbid) civilians in battle.

My name would be Clarior Astris. Brighter then the stars! Or maybe John Smith would be a better name...