Divi Filius

Glory for the Empire is a dull game that created simply for the purpose of shooting out a Rome city sim game before the major hits come out. Its shallow as you cannot get passed a simple Roman village. Nothing special too, I definitely would not recommend it. Sym Rome has come out I think.

I stopped by an old Etruscan burial ground when I was near Trevignano Romano a few weeks ago, very cool. I wish I had taken some pics

I recently just ordered the book, Early Rome and the Etruscans by R.M. Ogilvie, I like Ogilvie since he has done so many studies on Livy. It would be a crime not to learn about a civilization which has contributed so much to Roman culture. Its hard to find something which we so relate to the Romans that did not have some kind of Etruscan influence.

Gaius. I have an uncle who lives in Veneto of Italy and he said once: "Venetians are the biggest theifs of the meditterenean. They were so 700 years ago and they are so today. They know the whole comes to Venice once. and with that mentality they rob all of it" lol... Anyway the city is a true European marvel. Nothing quite like it in all of europe.

One thing I find interesting when rading up on Roman history is the general how quickly and easily Romans seem to succumb to panic. Somethign very much apparent in Livy, but also something noticed in Tacitus among other historians. Granted in Tacitus's Histories there danger and bloodshed was indeed very close to Rome and Livy's accounts are heavily romanticized. But considering that this was a citizen levied militaryand had incredibly high which valued its strict discipline. Infact much of this discipline would seem extremly harsh in modern society. What led them to their weak knees to any form of danger?

Really? Wow. Thats really interesting. Ursus can you refer to any of them? I would love to read about how they came about such a conclusion.

Anyone have any of these? I ordered part 4(Rome and the Greek east to the death of Augustus 217BC-14AD) and 6(Roman Empire from Augustus to Hadrian). Their pretty neat. Basically is a body of selected inscriptions from the Corpus Inscriptiorum Latinorum and Gaecorum. It has Claudius inscription in Gaul(mentioned by Tacitus) among hundreds of others.

The cult of Mithra, or the Persian Sun God, has its origins in the local tribal dieties of early Aryans. He was especially sought after due to the fact that he was shown as a warrior. After the short lived reformation of Zoroaster however(during the reign of Darius the Great) he is denied the right of divinity. It is during the reign of Artaxerxes that he is again re-established as a god(ironically at that time Zoroaster is also worshiped as a diety, although he was extremely against such ideas). In one of Artaxerxes inscriptions in Persepolis, Mithra is mentioned among another Mother Goddess diety(forgot the name, however at around this time the cult of a Greek goddess(again, forgot name, whats up with me today, lol) begins in the eastern part of the Greek world. By the time of the Romans, Mithra had gone through an extensive amount of Hellenization.

It does, its looks extremely innovative however weaker it may be compared to the 360 or PS3. It still remains a pure "videogame" system

I have to say the new wave of next-gen systems have really hit a new low IMO. The new price of the PS3 is really ridiculous considering why its so high. The systems seems to focus entirely on a minority of the market, spending all of this money on this "High-def" stuff which probably about 30% of the game market even has(and even here I would have to say exaggerated). All of this is pretty much manditory leaving only a 100$ difference(which shows just how exaggerated the price is considering it basically removes a 60gb harddrive, supposed to be around 40 bucks, with a 20 gb one. What do you think about this transformation?

Anyone know where I can find a list that I can use for further inquiries? I've been googling but I only get individual universities.

I know Livy commented that it was heavily based on cavalry warfare before the Argead reforms reached Italy and about the ambiguous Certosa Stila from the Venetii. But what have archeological finds taught us about warfare among the early Latins around the time of Romes mytholocial foundation period to the Tarquinius Superbus ousting?

Romanticism aside however, this is not the worlds oldest monotheistic religion. The reforms of Zoroaster do not come until the 5th century BC. Before then the religion was a fully polytheistic one even as the two gods ahura and mazda joined there were still numerous other dieties, most popular was Mithra, adopted by local princlings and tribal lords as their own gods.

Reading the History of the Persian Empire by Olmstead. I began reading the part about the religious reformation of the famed Persian prophet Zoroaster and I cannot believe simply how much like teaching of Abrahamic(Judaism, Christianity and Islam) dogma it is. Within it Zoroaster combined the past two Aryan tribal gods Ahura and Mazda into the popular Ahura-Mazda, Mazda-Ahura and begins to use both interchangeably. He condemns the worshipping of local dieties shooting them down to the level of demons(daevas), who Zoroaster labels are part of the Lie(heresy), Olmstead writes "Other divinities from dim Indo-European times - the sun-god Mithra, for example -- might be cherished by kings and people, but to Zoroaster these daevas were no gods but demons worshiped followers of the Lie. Ahura-Mazda was in no need of minor divinities over whom to rule as divine kings"(96). According to Olmstead Zoroaster went about degrading many other individual gods to the level of personifications of Ahura-Mazda's attributes(Good thoughts, piety, wisdom, salvation etc.)He also condemns sacraficing, "Throughout his preaching there echoes the eternal struggle between the roving men of the steppe and the peaceful tiller of the soil. Agriculture is a holy occupation. The dumn animals on whom falls the burden of the labor are sacred" going on to say "He declares the Ox and the Sun are the worst to behold with eyes -- the prophet is denouncing the nocturnal sacrifice of the bull by the worshipers of Mithra."(98). he also condemns "the use of the intoxicating haoma(alcohol) drink"(99). Of all this Olmstead at the end of the chapter writes "It is no accident that the Gathas of Zoroaster sounds so much like the first New Testament."(106) Looks like my professor was in the wrong here. Can't wait to tell em With time however these teaching degraded. The actual teaching were never fully adopted by the locals, and the first true Zoroastrian King, Darius, had to admit other gods due to the diverse nature of his empire(on one of his inscriptions he acknowloedge polytheism by using the term "god and gods". he also moved toward the elevation of the King of Kings to the level of God. This would come more into place during the reign of his son Xerxes who first officialized the long standing worship, among the commoners, of Zoroaster as a god. In the later Persian monarchs(artaxerxes I believe), Mithra became fully adopted as a God.

Wooohooo..... Man, finally, FREEDOM!!!!! Its such a joyous moment On top fo everything my psych final was a complete flawless victory with a 100%. Giving me an A in the class. Which will be added to my A in Medieval Europe(remedial) along with other grades. Wohoo. If I keep going like this, switching from CUNY to a major university will be no sweat.

Btw guys, I would like to point out. Hadrian was the first emperor to bear a beard in his bust, but he wasnt the first to have one in person. Plutarch describes Marcus Antonius as having worn an elagant beard. So we have to be careful when we use busts exclusively as determiners for the looks of the roman aristocracy. The taboo of beard may have continued in that level until Hadrian, but it is very very likely it was something that emerged popular during the later days of the Roman republic, especially as Greek culture pearced.

I always saw the busts as more styled then the fresco's since first I am a classicalist and so I am biased. But also because I imagine the amount of skill it takes to copy the structure of a man so well. Making it symmetrical etc.

The tradition continued on and off I guess. Maybe the reappearence of the beard in Byzantium came with the medieval days? Or maybe the return to the greek character, ancient Greeks took value in their beards. The early church seemed to have been against beards "Clericus nec comam nutriat nec barbam". Personal prefarence? Maybe they werent so concerned with how it may have been dogmatic, the fact that Hadrian had one can agree a bit with this statement. Somethign that could be an interesting study. Another interesting study of the shift between Pagan Rome to Orthodox Byzantium is the depiction of the Emperors themselves, the busts of the classical day faded to teh simplistic style of the frescos.

Caldrail. Im not arguing against what your saying. What I am saying is that the methods which America used to get it to this point, were already there, known, the drills and everything. The entire book of vegetius was known and well in use since the 18th century. It came into the hands of the American army in the 30's. What followed from there, were crafts that the Romans had into use during their greatest time. How it evolved into the American military, thats another story. America may have not wanted to be the power it was, but during World War 2, they were hard pressed to find a better military hand book the Vegetius. Look into the many different military journals on him during that era. If that were so it would mean that the Via Appia, Via Egnatia and all the famouse roads of the empire were not there. The solidification of the roads as common highways took centuries to evolve. The remains which we have of the Via Appia today are not from the Samnite wars but from the varius centuries of the Principate, its "infastructure" was solidified during Augustus. yet they were there, after the wars they became tools commerce. This is a well known fact.

lol, I couldnt find the forum anymore so I thought that it didnt pass through. I should have thought to check in the feedback forum. Thanks Viggen.

I use Rome Total War to keep my cousin interested while I secretly slip knowledge to her. Plus im constantly feeding my cunle books in the hope that when gets older she will read em. lol

The rediscovery of Vegetius and his handbook(well I should word it bettwe by saying the usage of his first three books, since the Medieval era used book 4 I believe, sieging, but the feudal system hindered the establishment of the army necessary to use the books) in the military influenced discipline and training heavily. To this day the military model of the US has adopted tons of aspects of the Romans. Down to the very marching songs so glorified("I dont know what I've been told" yada yada)

Why not? I mean, in such a pressing situation, where Rome is being threatened by such a powerful and fearful enemy, when the moment to come to arms is so pressing and the very chance of Rome itself beign overrun by this so terrible tribe of barbarians. I mean figure the numbers, 368,000. Thats a nation on the move. Considering the fresh memory of the Cimbri and Teutons is at hand, can Caesar really just stand by and wait while the senate deliberated? Caesar had to save Roman territory and possibly Rome itself. There was no time to wait. Get it? The reality is that Caesar was a propagandist. With Ciciero now on his side along with Pompey he was undisputed. The man got away with an illegal war and conquest. Taking 3 more legions and raising two more, which were not even picked from Roman citizens from a territory Caesar wanted to grant citizenship to was small game.

For over two years now, since I have bred my fool on interest in history, I have craved book after book.. I have watched my knowledge of this world jump like I never could have imagined and yet I still feel so hopelessly lost and small and still long for more. My library now has jumped with books I have read and still hope to read(which largely overwhelm the amount I have read). I long for anything that will teach me more on Rome specifically, but I wont limit myself. And now just entering a small CUNY college. But since this college is so limited(I find myself constantly contradicting my professor or pushing itno a conversation which makes me look incredibly pompous to my fellow student), I plan to switch to a full on major university next year to follow this path. I owe a special thanks to Primus Pilus and all those here for pushing my interest so much. It was this sites info that first started more then anything else that gave me this thirst to push me to this decision. Not to mention Ursus and Viggen, whos seemingly unending knowledge built such a sense of jelousy that it has pushed me to my current state of unquenchable thirst. In a way I was always inclined to this profession. Since early high school. As I prepare now to pick a new university. The quality of the Latin and Greek classical studies programs is what I will focus on.

The Grave Circles Immediately south of the Lion Gate and the Granary, Schliemann discovered a circle (Fig. 1, D), which contained six royal graves.1 In the 1950