Divi Filius

That for me is one of the most interesting parts of the narrative. Livy inexplicably goes out the history into the historical alternative. Its as if he started thinking about it while writing, became very emotional; and in turn started writing his thoughts down... lol However, the first historical alternative, as far as I remember, is actually in Polybius narrative. In one of his later books he gives a thought over what would have happened had Hannibal turned his attention to the east instead of Rome. He felt the Carthagenian would have conquered like Alexander. In a way, through this comparison, Polybius himself seems to believe that Alexander probably would not have been able to subdue the Romans.

No, the Romans used elephants were used to supplament the Roman right wing at the battle of Pydna. Also, the elephants were probably used by the Romans during the Second Punic War, whenever they were captured. Their effectiveness against the hellenistic world was probably questionable. There are plenty of ways to incapacitate the beast; worst of all you have the fear that they could very well turn on you. I think their value was more in the effect than in the use. Unless ofcourse you were a Bactrian king, considering you could mass up great numbers of large Indian elephants. The fact that Hannibal lost the beasts very shortly after Trebia, when he was still to reach his peak, meant that he must not have considered them very helpful in the Italian campaign*. Alexander never had the chance of using the elaphants, I suspect that he would have made good use of the massive Indian ones in his other campaigns. *Perhaps he never really intended them for heavy use against the Romans. Maybe he brought them just to scare off aggressive tribes along the way. Whenever a large hard-to-manuever object is coming at you.... simply step to the side...

Strange, I wasnt even speaking with a New York accent. Heavy Brooklyn accent: hey! cuy wanna comment on ma speech againe? Next tame Ima put my boot up ya so far itlla send cu down to feith ave faur a gyro. whew! I know. I would have had to cancel my away plans had that occured

Regarding Britain. I have heard in the past that the territory comprising modern Wales was never "conquered" but rather needed constant legionary watch. How much truth is there to this? Are there many noted camps in the country? Temporary Camps in Wales Just answered my last question.... If you are speaking of Tiberius Alexander: it has even been suggested and argued that he was made prefect of the camp not too long afterwards. Although he reached those levels, his actions showed just what the Romans expected of a Jew in order to accept them as one of theirs. His action against the Alexandrian Jews were brutal...

Wasnt that a myth?

Unlikely. The later Roman soldier was far more likely to be illiterate then the "classical" legionary. Even as you got into the higher ranks...

I have read it. Amazing book, although many of the parts dealing with astronomy and science did almost put me to sleep. However I remember reading a JORST review which discussed the various mistakes on the part of the author when dealing with Greek science. Very good writer however. I remember those nights I went to bed at around 10PM to read the book, the next time I looked at the clock it was around 1:30AM and I still didnt want to put it down.

As of now I say that it must have been more the 1-2 thousand. Im checking out AHM Jones' tables but all of his abbreviated latin terminology has got me stumped.

Unfortunately, you were wrong... Im sorry, I dont know if thats happened before. Actually, the reason for the headache is two-fold. Blocked sinus and and infected tooth. Which explains why the pain went down to my jaw... Now for a happy pappy root canal... YEA!!!! Queens is bad. Thats why next semester I will be in Binghamton...

Yea I just let them grow. Worse yet the whole of last week I allowed them to become agitated since I was completely unprepared... Anyway, considering the annoyance they have been the last week, you are my new hero Pantagathus. Step aside father and firefighter, anyone who deals with this on a regular basis deserves that honor more...

around the sinus? I read that for an acute sinusitis it is normal.

LOl Gaius. Yes, St. Johns does mean something to me. Its where all the Italian pretty-boys go... and where Italian girls park their BMW/Benz and wear sunglasses indoors... I used to live only a few blocks away from the campus actually. As for your remedy, Im sorry to ask, I dont want to question you, but where did you find this secret remedy???? Pantagathus: Thanks, Ill have to try that. Thankfully today Im going to visit the doctor and have everything checked out. Since you get this alot, I want to ask you: is a swelling normal? That has been my biggest worry. The low pressure today(Snow AGAIN!!!!! UGH!!!) has also restarted some muscle aches near my neck again... And has restarted my congestion... This is freakin annoying...

Could imagine fewer punishments that are more cruel and sick then skinning a person alive... This is an interesting topic for me. As a child I guess we all learned of those unusual punishments that elders or simply older people would scare us with (always starting with: "you know, a long long time ago, if you did this or that..."). I know wonder how much truth there is in them. For instance what cultures had the torture rack(where your body is stretched)?

All the symptoms confirm it, aswell as everybody I have talked to. I sure hope it is sinusitis. If not then it could be allergies. Until I noticed the inflammation, I thought it could be a wisdom tooth. However I later learned that sinusitis ache can effect the teeth. Here is one of about 300 websites I have used this week. Most of my symptoms are there. Btw, what area do you live in? Im in Queens.

Those were awesome!!!

Tough. But I would say: Mountain Goat.

Last week I made perhaps what was one of the dumbest choices ever. After a grueling Sunday double-shift, I come out to discover that neither of my parents were able to come pick me up and drive me home. For those who were in NY last sunday you would know that it snowed quite bad. Well, I was too uncomfortable to take-up my bosses ride (don't know why now); so I chose to walk -- exhausted and somewhat sweaty -- home. Needless to say it wasnt the most comfortable experience ever. Anyway, come last Tuesday(although I felt the repercussions as early as Monday morning), I was sitting in my only class of the day when I feel a pounding headache near my temple and around my right frontal sinus area, right over my eye, stretching down into my jaw(there was some discomfort there, nothing heavy). When class was over and I went outside, the air managed to provide some comfort (it was quite warm that day). I got in my car and start to drive off home in sort of panic... To skip a bit: This irregular and constantly changing weather here in NY has not helped me much either: one day its unbearably cold and windy, the next its warm and full of sunshine. Today marks the one week anniversary of my sinusitis(YIPPEE!!!!), thankfully I have a doctors appointment ready for tomorrow. Nevetheless the pain has put a great damp on all my plans. Lethargic and stressed, I have barely been able to get through any of the numerous readings here in my room; nor have I been able to concentrate on anything for too long. I wrote a paper for my lit. class on Sunday which I think could have been much much better, but frankly, I dont quite give a crap, I was just happy to get through it. A big problem is that the weather this week reverted to cold, and especially windy. My walk between classes Monday was such a pain due to the irritation. Today was even colder, but thankfully I was ready with he right clothes and protection. Nevertheless, I did experience significant discomfort. Another big problem is the fact that I have never really suffered from Sinusitis before so the fact that it did not stop in a couple of days really started to scare me. The inflammation around my sinus also worried me, I had never seen it before either. Worse yet: I started going around various websites reading and reading; and although the symptoms to a common Sinusitis matched, I could not help but feel it could be something worse, or feared that it was an infection and its spread to the brain was imminent... I hate to worry. But anyway, as I said: Im going to the doctor tomorrow to get what I need. Maybe some antibiotics or something. Whatever takes off this headache.... I have been waking up and going to bed with this pain non-stop...

You are either a Mountain Goat or a Bat personality. But you may also be a Horse personality. Quite accurate, I have to say.

I think the writers are more interested in giving "the fully uncensored -- highly flavored -- experience of Rome" then in actually giving us a history based drama. So far we have seen: -Legionary combat(flavoring: one man army Pullo smashes through Gauls) -SEX...SEX(well I guess its flavored depending on the viewer) -Gladiator combat(flavoring: Legion equivalents Vorenus and Pullo smash through gladiators) -Wedding(flavoring: with dramatic and emotional effect) -Worship(Flavoring: Blood dumped on Atia) -Murder(flavoring: never ending number of ways. Gotta love those sword through the collar bone shots) etc. etc.

To me it just doesnt make sense. Caligula could not have been insane enough to believe that he was popular among the men in Rome. The fact that he handed out 100 denarii to each soldier following the attack on Neptune, means he did consider the men. If he did not secure the throne through the soldiers, then how would he expect to hold it?

I would be very interested in reading a Russian written book on America in the Cold War era. It would be interesting. lol!

I would think that if Caligula did not actually like the name there would have been some exaggerated account of him punishing somebody over it, however I can't find anything of the nature. I can't find anything much else to add that, since practically everything has been brought up(you miss all the action when you arrive late).

That first paragraph is beautiful... I completely agree.

Isnt this contemporary with the religious feuds that are going on in Israel? I think the goal is to show a miniature version of the disputes and sides that exist in Judea during this time period.

The episode completely turned me off from the show. The trivialization of the proscriptions and Cicero's murder, the terrible soap-style side-stories(which, I would say, were entertaining once, now I can't bare them). Add this into a mediocre battle sequence. Man, I think they really wasted good story...