ungoliant

i believe the more numerous victories of the romans over the parthians is the final weight in favor of the romans being victorious over the parthians.

it's a great story. and it certainly sounds possible. but maybe not probable. for this theory to advance beyond speculation, i think more digging and DNA tets will be necessary.

over on the HBO Rome forums, there is alot of debate as to the depiction of the egyptian court on the Rome tv show. the main problems people have is the make-up worn by the courtiers, the wigs, and the effiminate mannerisms. are these depictions of egyptians of that era so far off?

here are some other resources: http://www.classicalhack.com/article/tactics/0040/1/ http://www.romans-in-britain.org.uk/mil_ro...tle_tactics.htm http://www.oakengates.com/history/roman_army_tactics.htm

as a veteran of the US army myself, i know that some soldiers always last from the beginning of hostilities all the way through to the end. a few always survive everything thrown at them and make it into retirement. my grandfather went to war december 8th, 1941. of his original group of 120 or so guys, only about a dozen made it to the end of the war still whole and healthy, including him. the rest were killed or seriously wounded. but those 12 guys made it through.

jimbow, sir, i wonder if you could find it in you to somehow help us get a hold of that article. it seems military illustrated is published in the UK, and too expensive for me here in the states. as they don't have a website i can find, i am afraid i cannot get a hold of the article you mention.

hello, this is my first posting here. i'd like to take this opportunity to sing the praises of a roman general with few equals. a general with the genius, abilities, and accomplishments that many other more famous romans also had. but a man who was forgotten in his day and even unto now. his name is Lucius Licinius Lucullus Ponticus. there should be no poll of greatest roman general that does not include him. here is a short bio of him, taken from http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/people/a/uc_lucullus.htm he was an important second to sulla in his victory over mithridates, organizing sulla's navy. he made war upon mithridates as consul, and defeated him handily, forcing mithridates to flee to armenia. he eased the debt upon asia levied by sulla and managed to get the outstanding sum paid. following mithridates into armenia, lucullus defeated the grand army of tigranes, king of armenia, and his fearsome cataphract heavy cavalry several times. he had both tigranes and mithridates at his mercy, but his troops, many of whom were set to muster out, refused to continue fighting. he was forced to abandon his campaigns at the threshold of victory, leaving the mopping up to pompey who arrived to replace him. he returned to rome and was rewarded a triumph. the booty he had acquired in asia made him one of the richest men in roman history and his veterans among the richest as well. in war he was a master of strategy and tactics, an expert in surprise, logistics, and propaganda. he made very few mistakes. a forgotten man who was truly one of the greatest roman generals ever.