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Tobias

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Posts posted by Tobias

  1. What Do You Do For A Living?

    in Hora Postilla Thermae

    Posted

    I'm a student at the moment, but on weekends and throughout the school holidays, i do casual labour around the shire i live in, like grading watermelons, harvesting cherries and oranges and shearing/rouse-abouting. I also work on my own farm to help my dad out, and i'm the youngest member of my area's local Volunteer Bushfire Brigade :P

  2. Justinian's Reign - Success Or Failure?

    in Postilla Historia Romanorum

    Posted

    G'day All :)

    With the advent of Justinian's zealous campaign to regain the western mediterranean mainly for religious and political purposes, an interesting period developed for the Byzantine Empire. With the constant divisions of the catholic and orthodox and various other sects, as well as the ever present problems of the Vandals, Justinian decided that it was time to bring the west back under a universal power, himself believing in the "Roman See" policy. However, many western peoples did not want a return of Roman taxation, Roman justice, and imperial meddling in their affairs. Thus, even Romans of some areas joined their Ostrogothic overlords in attempting to halt the eastern armies from restoring a situation that many people simply did not want to see restored. Many in the east did not want anything to do with Justinian's dreams of a united mediterannean spanning empire either, as they saw it as a waste of money and they were impoverished by these continuous campaigns to regain the west.

    As well, although committed to the ideal of a Roman empire, Justinian recognized that the most important parts of Byzantine territories were Greek, and that government and administration would be more effective if this was realised. Once the government stopped enforcing the use of the Latin language and Roman institutions upon its people, the oriental outlook and style of the empire became more widespread.

    As well as striving to regain the west, Justinian worked hard to satisfy the various religious sects, such as the Monophysites (of whom his wife Theodora was a great supporter), the followers of the Chalcedonians and the Roman Catholic Church. His quest to satisy all these sects was a dream, and much of his time was

    squandered attempting to do so. In fact, he may have helped to drive an insurmountable wedge between the west and east.

    However, not everything was dismal; he embarked on great building schemes and "The Corpus Iuris Civilis" was a strong basis for modern law.

    But, only several years after his reconquest of Italy, the Lombards invaded Italy, in 575 the Visigoths repudiated Roman suzerainty, and began the process of reducing the Imperial province in Spain, which was all but complete by 623. The Balkans were repeatedly raided by Avars, and Slav settlers immigrated in their wake. Finally, taking advantage of a palace coup in Constantinople, the Sassanid King Chosroes II of Persia invaded in 603, and had conquered Mesopotamia by 610. This instability stemmed from confusion in the imperial capital, a drastically emptied treasury and the divisons raised by Justinian. So, i leave it to you, my esteemed colleagues :), was Justinian's reign a success, or a cause of failure?

  3. Frontier?

    in Gloria Exercitus - 'Glory of the Army'

    Posted

    A thought that just hit me was defense at the Rhine and Danube river frontiers; these are fairly integral defenses the Romans had for a fair portion of their empire. Sources state that Roman or dependant tribes did river patrols; and these were a pretty effective way of guarding at least those areas of the Empire, and as was mentioned above, there was a series of fortresses placed every amount of distance.

    A hypothesis a history buff friend of mine had was that the Romans may have had a sort of signalling system similar to semaphore; in which case, messages could be transported over a long distance in very quick time (but i don't assert that the romans had this signal system).

    Later on, after Hadrian, i know another tactic for frontier defense was encouraging "buffer" tribes to settle between the frontier and the potential enemies. This, although seen as a good idea at the time, is particularly capable of causing more damage then harm, especially with examples of many of these buffer tribes invading Roman territory having been displaced by enemy tribes.

    I think a point raised in another thread is right; Rome was far too big to effectively defend it's borders for long.

    As far as the outposts are concerned; I understand the effect a Roman outpost may have had on surrounding tribes, especially with that fear that was still widely held of this super-race, the romans, among the tribes who bordered or were near Rome. These outposts would be symbols of authority and dominance, and most tribes initially would not dare to go against Rome's authority, embodied in these outposts. However, after gauging the strength of the outposts, as well as experiencing the news of Rome's defeats and realising that Rome was not invincible, they would build up the courage to attack and destroy the outposts. The subsequent problems have already been mentioned by you fellows :)

  4. What's Up With This?

    in Hora Postilla Thermae

    Posted

    In Britain now we regularly get sales calls from the US -amusingly they think our business is some sort of corporation with divisional heads, unfortunatley for them we have one member of staf who is capable of sustaining a ludicrous conversation for several minutes before producing ghastly punchlines eg: " its quite a bad time for you to ring regarding these investments as Mr S'****n the owner was savaged by a turbot on holiday in the Maldives" . I kid you not .

     

    You know, the amount of quotes i have heard like that, originating from Britain, makes me ponder the saying "Only in the UK" :)

  5. What's Up With This?

    in Hora Postilla Thermae

    Posted

    I got a phone call today from an American individual telling me that "as an American citizen, you have won a cruise in the Caribbean, please dial 9 to claim your prize!"

    Well, that's fair enough. The only problem is this: I am an Australian citizen, and i live on a farm just south of the centre of New South Wales :)

    Yes, they make me laugh sometimes too :)

  7. Hoplite Slings

    in Historia in Universum

    Posted

    Certainly i see your point. A sling in and out of battle would be the most convenient way. But surely a hoplite would do a lot of training without a sling? Say, for example, that in battle , a soldier's sling was broken, either by the force of an impact of charge or by a sword or spear thrust from his enemy? If the soldier was not used to handling the spear without a sling, this may result in the death of the soldier.

  8. Odenathus And Zenobia Of Palmyra

    in Historia in Universum

    Posted

    G'day all

    Around 260 A.D; "In the east, the semi-independent trading city of Palmyra became the centre for resistance from Persia. 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 http://4umi.com/image/map/rome/19maps.htm#269

    What sort of general was Odenathus? What do you people think? And what possessed Zenobia to help bring about the conquest of a lot of Rome's eastern territory?

    As well, i don't recall having seen a map or having someone describe the borders of the Palmyran Empire, so could someone help me out there?

  9. Hoplite Slings

    in Historia in Universum

    Posted

    Hmm, that is a rather interesting thought. I would agree that some sort of sling was used when marching; perhaps they had their spears strapped their backs or shields in some way. Surely, unless they were marching actually into battle, they would not march holding the spears horizontally, or at least horizontally unsupported.

  11. Roman Conquests

    in Gloria Exercitus - 'Glory of the Army'

    Posted

    I voted for Gaul. I agree with the above statements about Caesar's "Commentaries", being some of the only first hand accounts of Roman campaigning left to us. As well, the campaigns against the germans in the time of Gaius Marius and Sulla and Caesar against the tribes, and later the United Gallic Tribes under Vercinetorix seem to have brought out the best in people (i.e. Marius' victory at Aquia Sextiae, Caesar's at Alesia etc.), and the campaigns against these powerful peoples, and their subjection, are greatly indicative of the greatness of a well generaled roman army.

  12. Roman Victories. Which Is Your Favorite?

    in Gloria Exercitus - 'Glory of the Army'

    Posted

    I voted for Alesia, again because i am a great admirer of Caesar, and the huge circumvallation up hill and down dale around Alesia. As well as facing the army numbering about 80 000 in Alesia itself facing over 100 000 man Gallic relief army on the outside at the same time is no mean feat. I admit that Scipio Africanus' great victory at Zama struggled for supremacy with Alesia, but i got Caesar out on top. However, i do strongly admire Scipio's victory at Zama; both are terrific examples of Rome at it's ascendency to the heights of glory.

  17. Britain After The Romans

    in Postilla Historia Romanorum

    Posted

    Also, there were no one to make a stable, relaible currency during the dark middle ages.

     

    True. With the constant invasions of the Norsemen, and the general turbulence and upheaval of populations and empires and domains, most treasures worth anything were hoarded, not melted down to make coins. About the only nation to make coins in the dark ages was the Byzantine Empire.

    England after the Romans was basically divided up into a series of dominions like the Northumbrians, the Welshmen (although the probably didn't call themselves that) and the other northern and southern dominions. Along with these was the continuously invading Norsemen who were slowly, bit by bit, gaining more and more influence. I doubt any lord would have been rich enough to afford any system other then barter.

  20. Caesar's Siege Tactics

    in Gloria Exercitus - 'Glory of the Army'

    Posted

    Ah yes, Caesar's sieges. I love reading details of them again and again. The amazing siege terrace at Avaricum, the near failure at Gergorvia, the amazing circumvallation at Alesia. It is indicative not only of the particular engineering genius of Caesar, but the incredible endurance and training of the roman legions. For Caesar's legions to throw up such a huge amount of fortification in much less then a month around the oppidum of Alesia still amazes me. And i don't think Zela can be forgotten in a hurry either.

  22. The Revolt

    in Hora Postilla Thermae

    Posted

    Ah, this must be one of those situations mentioned in the "How to become a moderator" thread; Favonius Cornelius: according to this thread, you come under the heading of "malcontent" :)

    Is demotion possible in UNRV? :)

    Being such a young and innocent citizen (i.e. not having seen the "dark side of UNRV"), i remain loyal to the admins :P

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