DecimusCaesar
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Posts posted by DecimusCaesar
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Did Romans had magic books? Some practices regarded by Romans as sorcery were forbidden and punished while others that we may consider magic were part of the state cults like divination in entrails or bird flight. Also Ancient medicine was something that we will regard as mostly magic rather then science. Modern distinctions between religion, magic and science were non existent for Romans.
Fragments of what might be considered magic books have been found by archaeologists in Egypt. For instance in one example from the fourth century AD (berlin papyrus.5026) there is a mention of The great headless one, a powerful demon. Supposedly owning one of these magical papyri was a capital offence.
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These were up on youtube on Channel 4's page. I tried watching a few but they always ended up freezing, sometimes on the adverts being shown at the beginning. I wish Channel 4 would fix it. Then again the DVDs are available now so it might be worth getting them on that.
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The leading star of Spartacus Blood and Sand has died of non-Hodgkins lymphona -
From Imdb -
Andy Whitfield, whose impressive physique didn't hurt his lead performance in the Starz series "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" has died in his home country of Australia after a battle with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. Whitfield was 39. In a statement provided to Associated Press, Whitfield's wife, Vashti, called her husband a "beautiful young warrior" who died on a "sunny morning" in the "arms of his loving wife." Whitfield -- who was born in Wales and lived in Australia -- was a virtual unknown when he was cast as the title hero in "Spartacus," a hit original series for the Starz network that was known for its graphic violence and sexuality. Whitfield was preparing for the show's second season when he was diagnosed 18 months ago.Here's a link: Andy Whitfield
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The poor old Colosseum might not have been damaged by the Great fire of Rome in AD 64 (considering it wasn't around back then) but it's masonry was looted continuosly throughout the Middle Ages.
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Cynics might have been mocked for their strange customs during times of prosperity for Rome, but I think some Common People might have found some aspects of Cynicism appealing - especially their attitudes towards property and wealth - during bad times. It seems that Cynicism became popular during the First century AD, but was seen with suspicion by the upper members of society.
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It's amazing that this port was only discovered recently, even though excavations have been taking place at Caerleon for mnay, many years; but what a great discovery.
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I found the Manda Scott article a good read, although I have to disagree with her claim that the ancient Britons were peaceful. Excavations at the Iron Age hillfort at Danesbury in England show remains of tribal warfare, including a warrior who was killed with a sword or spear blow to the skull. I also disagree with some archaeologists who claim that swords buried with Iron Age Britons were nothing more than fashion accessories. These weapons seem to point to me towards a society that valued warriors, even if the British tribes were not always involved in incessant warfare with each other, as some people believe.
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Der Spiegel is carrying this article about new research involving "Michael Tellenbach, director of the Reiss-Engelhorn Museum (Rem) in the southwestern German city of Mannheim. Together with other European researchers, Tellenbach is at work unraveling the world of Roman fashion."
Recent finds from a Roman fort in England have sparked re-examination of common notions about fabric production some 2,000 years ago. German experts believe new evidence indicates the Romans had a surprisingly advanced textile industry -- and possibly a luxury fashion addiction.When the prefect Flavius Cerialis hosted a banquet at Vindolanda, a Roman fort in what is now northern England, the aroma of grilled chicken, goose and venison, seasoned with pepper from India, filled the air. Plenty of beer was also on hand for the festivities.
The only thing dampening the mood of the occupying forces was the wet weather, and the clammy fort's select guests were forced to bring their foul weather wear to the feast. On such occasions they favored a garment known as the paenula -- a wide, draping mantle made of wool, or sometimes leather or felt -- and wrapped a type of large shawl, called a laena, around their necks.
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That's a fascinating and well written article. I've been reading about Roman fashion from a book by Alexandra Croom a while back, and I was amazed at how varied Roman clothes were in reality. What surprised me from that article was the claim that Roman soldiers didn't wear red cloaks, as it was a feminine colour. Oddly enough, most Roman military books, even those by experts such as Peter Connolly have the soldiers wearing red or scarlet coloured cloaks/clothing. Also wasn't it a taboo to wear a scarlet cloak in Rome during the Republican period, because of its military association?
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I like the War with Carthage. Or perhaps 'The Carthaginian Wars' or ' The Battle against Carthage'.
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"The senior armourers from the four legions would have been called in. They must have suggested fitting the two iron braces, one stretching from side to side and the other from back to back, that appear on Roman helmets towards the end of the first century AD. It is not known exactly when this modification was made but it was certainly while the army was on campaign; the examples that have been found show how crudely it was done. It was a mammoth task. No doubt the blacksmiths gave it priority but it must have taken weeks to modify all the helmets."
from Peter Connolly - 1988.
Whether archaeologists still suscribe to this idea on the origin of the cross braced helmet, I don't know.
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I quite enjoyed the Eagle. It had some memorable and effective scenes, such as the Druid emerging out of the water during the pagan ceremony. I originally didn't think much of the way that the Picts were depicted as native Americans, but as I watched the film their strange appearance began to grow on me. The Eagle isn't up to the level of something like Kubrick's Spartacus, but it's still a good movie.
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I would have thought that a soldier armoured with a lorica segmentata and a submaralis, would have been better protected against a Dacian Falx than a soldier wearing a lorica hamata - although chainmail was designed to protect against slashing attacks. As for helmets, there is evidence that crude 'hot cross bun' shaped iron guards were placed on top of the helmet to protect the soldier from downward blows from the falx. Some soldiers also took to wearing iron plated arm guards on their sword arms.
I've always wondered how succesful these modifications would hae been against the Falx. Is it true that a Falx could cleave a man in two?
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I love the design, Viggen. I prefer the Roman Eagle without it being perched on the fasces (similar to the picture I posted), considering its link with the Nazis.
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Thanks for the news, I've been waiting for a biography on Aetius for many years!
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You might like to look at Robert Silverberg's Roma Eterna which is a collection of stories starting in AUC 1203 which describes how the Roman Empire survived the barbarian onslaught and made the breakthrough into the industrial era and beyond.
There's some intriguing ideas in the book
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Reminds me of another series called Romanitas by Sophia McDougall, which is set in an alternate reality Roman Empire in the 21st Century.
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Did the Romans ever build in Cornwall? Or was that too west for them?
I think on the whole Cornwall wasn't so heavily colonised by the Romans. I was watching Neil Oliver's series 'A history of Ancient Britain' which included a section on Cornwall under the Roman Empire. Oliver showed a series of Iron Age roundhouses built during the Roman period, which either showed that the Britons in the area retained their culture, or were allowed to live as they wish, as long as they continued to pay taxes to Rome.
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We have a great list of Roman books this month it seems. I wonder if Peter Connolly's Greece and Rome at War is an updated version, or simply a reprint.
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If a cavalry unit is in transit, then you would in all likeliehood find a cavalry commander. I've checked out Ospreys title on the Roman Navy and among the plethora of rank and vocational titles listed, decurion isn't. We can infer then that cavalry were not part of the standard shipboard complement, and since the Roman rationale for 'marines' was to place army ranks among them (for obvious reasons), it isn't likely at all.
There are some people who assume that a decurion was an officer rank junior to the centurion mind you, so the mention of the rank might actually have been such a mistake.
I think you're right, although I - and probably most other people- usually tend to think of the Optio as being a rank below the Centurion - It would have caused less confusion if the author had just used that term instead. It does strike me as odd though that there doesn't seem to be any mention of cavalry and their ranks being shipped about, even though they certainly were - didn't Scipio Africanus ship some Cavalry to North Africa during the Second Punic War - or did he just recruit the light cavalry from among the Numidian population who were native to the area? Caesar certainly shipped (Germanic?) cavalry to Britain. But anyway, where there's cavalry, there must be cavalry commanders and other ranks.
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Weren't the Pythagoreans obsessed with the religious significance of the dodecahedron? How long did their religion last following the the death of their leader? Afterall the Pythagoreans felt that the dodecahedron had something of the magic of the universe in its design - perhaps this belief survived into Roman times.
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I can't find much information on the use of Decurions in the navy, although it seems that most battleships had cohorts on board that were commanded by centurions called the Centuriones classiarii . I can't seem to find any mention of cavalry being carried by these battleships, so it seems odd to talk about decurions in this regard. Sailors (nauta) were trained to fight, but they also had detachments of soldiers on board every ship too - the milites classiarii.
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For me it is this (and its variants) -
but that might have too much small details, so why not go with SPQR or a Roman helmet or shield.
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The "naked archeologist" had a program on how thieves or at least illegal amateurs had brought to light the most interesting artifacts in Israel. Of course the legal archeologists countered that the biggest loss then was inability to examine artifact's embedded context. Maybe in centuries the items could be properly dug up - or on the other hand destroyed by construction.
Lake Nemi was such a heartbreaker. Those fabulous Roman ships brought to light by Mussolini draining the lake - a documentary recently examined the tunnels drilled to make this happen. Then the ships being burned by retreating Nazis (I take it an alternate theory that Allies did it accidentally is whispered among scholars - I so much wish the Allies used plan B invading Sardinia rather than the mainland boot). I wonder if Italy completed a reconstruction of 1 ship that was shown laying a keel in a long ago documentary?
it's quite sad, I've never heard that story. It reminds me of what happened in Afghanistan under Taliban, when many historical sites were destroyed, including the collections at the Kabul museum. It's truw what Michael Wood said about the subject "war destroys the past as well as the present".
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Now let us consider the lessons of the judgement of Paris. The problem with picking just one God or Goddess is that you please one - and annoy all the others.
I'll argue that to get the full benefit of polytheism, one has to choose a deity according to the situation - just as you don't call a plumber when your car breaks down. So I'll go with Sterculinus for manure spreading, but Mercury when I'm checking over a contract.
And at some other times, it's got to be Aphrodite ....
That's a lesson you learn the hardway in the Caesar III videogame. You had to curry the favour of the gods by building temples and shrines to them, which tended to be expensive. Build one to Ceres and Neptune would sulk and sink your ships, build one to Neptune and Hades would sulk and so on...
On another note, here's "Sterculinus" in pop culture- Beavis and Butthead
Why did the Franks disappear?
in Postilla Historia Romanorum
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I think that Frankish culture combined with the Romano-Celtic one to create modern France. I'm not sure that the Franks disappeared; after all, the country which they occupied is today named after them - France- as is the people - the French. The same can't be said about the Gauls, whose language and culture became completely extinct in the years following the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Nobody who now lives in the territory of what used to be ancient Gaul call themselves Gauls, Celts, Belgae or Aquitani. In that respect the Franks were much more successful than the natives, although the Romans ultimately triumphed as the French language is derived from Latin. I suppose the biggest losers in this sense are the Gauls, who lost their language, culture, religion and identity. At least the Romans influenced the future language of France, and the Franks its culture and identity.