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What's the most widely supported hypothesis as to the intended usage of those strange metal spheres the Romans produced periodically?
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May 29, 2012 04:21
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Iseeyouseemeseeyou posted:Link please? Whoops, not technically spheres. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_dodecahedron
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May 29, 2012 04:31
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DarkCrawler posted:Also, was the Hannibal the only person badass enough to make Romans need to resort into guerilla warfare? Does anyone else come even close to his boogeyman status in the minds of Romans? Mithridates VI?
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May 29, 2012 23:33
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I wish I knew more about Mississppian culture as well. I'd suggest reading up on the Caddo too since they were of the same cultural complex and continue to exist as a tribe. Anyone have book or podcast recommendations?
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Apr 1, 2013 07:54
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Grand Fromage posted:The inspiration factor can't be underestimated. And I doubt you'd be finding legacies of Greek culture as far away as Japan without Alexander. This. Aside from giving us the idea of a Buddha statue, Alexander's influence touched everything from the development of Vedic astrology to entirely new diplomatic frameworks.
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Apr 3, 2013 07:32
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Apologies if this has been addressed already, but what's the consensus on Legio IX Hispana? Was it broken to pieces in Britain? Did it continue to exist in some capacity, since senior officers appear in later actions? How often were legions disbanded or reconstituted in the Roman imperial era?
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May 13, 2013 05:54
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So Wikipedia is telling me differing things and notes that there isn't entirely an academic consensus, but: were the Getae a part of the Dacians, or merely related? And how were the Dacians related to Thracians? Question inspired after learning about Zalmoxis, an interesting figure in Getae beliefs.
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Jul 15, 2013 04:19
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MegaGatts posted:This thread is extremely long, so I apologize if it's been asked but can anyone recommend good books on the subject of Babylon, Sumeria, and other very early civilizations. Basically I'd like some that go over the day to day life of people in the beginnings of civilization right as man started to move into cities with the spread of organized agriculture. Ideally it would involve the political systems, daily realities of life, and religious aspects. However, if there's not a lot recorded about that time I'll take anything. As for the type of book, the dryer and complicated the better, but if there's a super entertaining casual one that'd work too. This book by Samuel Kramer covering ancient Sumer seems to be pretty well received and has been on my reading list for a while. Georges Roux's work on ancient Iraq is longer and covers Akkadian and Babylonian developments as well. Reviews suggest that the latter is also a bit more academic, although it is more dated. I haven't read either, nor do I have an academic background in this field, so I'm sure there are plenty of other stronger and more specialized pieces. That said, these look pretty promising.
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Jul 16, 2013 12:04
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Going back to all the talk about early dukes, what's a good survey book covering the very late Western Roman Empire/early Frankish, etc. societies/early medieval transition? I.e., a solid "Dark Ages" history with a focus on social and political developments.
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Oct 10, 2013 15:34
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Suben posted:Inheritance of Rome by Christopher Wickham. The development of political and social systems, court practices, and the like in the (very late) Western Empire, the various post-Roman barbarians (Visigoths, Lombards, Franks, England/Wales/Ireland, etc.), and all of that up through 1000 AD (with a little bit of Byzantine and Abassid stuff thrown in) is basically that book's entire shtick so I would assume that's probably the most comprehensive write-up you're going to find on the subject. I'm still reading through it now though because I get distracted easily; no fault of the book's as I do find it all really interesting to learn about. Thanks for the recommendation. I think if I use the Heather book as a precursor to Wickham that'd be a pretty good foundation.
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Oct 12, 2013 05:31
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Can anyone explain how Yahweh-worship evolved into Judaism? How did they come to abandon other Ugaritic deities?
MothraAttack fucked around with this message at 15:22 on Oct 14, 2013 |
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Oct 14, 2013 15:20
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Hedera Helix posted:Fish sauce in pho just means that the pho is ruined. Most pho recipes call for fish sauce in the broth, I believe. Most major Southeast Asia dishes have fish sauce (or if you're doing Thai curries, shrimp paste). I think SEA is one of the few areas of the world that has a fish sauce tradition similar to the Romans. I mean, who doesn't love fermented seafood pastes? That one's spicy, though. Did Romans like spice? I don't imagine peppercorns could have made it to anyone but the elites.
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Oct 20, 2013 05:29
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Was it Cato the Younger who would wear archaic clothing, etc. in public as a dramatic tool?
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Nov 20, 2013 15:17
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Amused to Death posted:E; Peter Heather's "Fall of the Roman Empire", how is it? I already have it so now I need to know how quickly I should get to it. I liked it all right, but I haven't read Halsall or Goldsworthy to compare. He does a good job of contextualizing sources from late antiquity -- including how they were found, sometimes -- and provides an adequate social history with a focus on the Roman elite during this period. Glancing at reviews for Goldsworthy, it looks like Goldsworthy places more emphasis on internal structural problems, while Heather contends that the Western Roman empire, essentially an amalgamation of perpetual amateur political leaders, blundered through a series of a poor decisions in trying to accommodate and negotiate with the Hunnic-driven barbarians of the fourth century. Chris Wickham does a nice survey of the Western Roman collapse and its historiography in his fairly exhaustive Inheritance of Rome, and I think most scholars would agree with what we've said in this thread: barbarians were generally less "barbarian" or Other than previous generations thought, and most of them sought to operate and succeed in Roman political and social space. I find Wickham's 40 or so pages on the collapse almost deeper than Heather's book, possibly because he writes more for an amateur or professional historian audience. One fundamental difference between Heather and Wickham is that the latter emphasizes the distinction between the state-led tax administration of Rome, with secular elites vying for coveted official positions, and the land-based dynastic royalties of the early medieval kingdoms, with ecclesiastical or military elites vying for landed rights and courtly influence. Heather, though, argues that the Roman aristocracy's extensive country villas and latifundia meant that the Roman state itself existed to safeguard landed interests, and I don't think Wickham quite goes that far. These theses aren't mutually exclusive, but do reveal some different modes of analysis.
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Jan 11, 2014 10:03
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radlum posted:Dumb question: At what point did people in the Roman Empire stop using typically "ancient Rome" clothing (as in togas and the kind of stuff seen in most movies and TV series about the Roman Empire) and started using "medieval" clothing? (And I refer to regular people clothing, not just armor and soldier's equipment.) Wickham notes that Merovingian elites and other early medieval Western leaders dressed in Roman military garb (but not togas).
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Jan 13, 2014 04:37
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So, what's everyone's favorite ancient cult? I just learned about a second-century Syrian goddess cult that sounded pretty intense. Worship of Atargatis persisted into at least the third century, and itinerant priests visited large Roman cities with images of her affixed to their donkeys. Sadly, its cultic site was in an area now held by the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham, which despite its initials (ISIS) is pretty much as anti-goddess as you can get.
MothraAttack fucked around with this message at 08:36 on Mar 30, 2014 |
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Mar 30, 2014 08:33
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Fell Fire posted:I kind of want this. I wish I knew some, beyond the usual aliens/Atlantis stuff. There were no Greek dark ages, the chronology is just all screwed up! http://www.sis-group.org.uk/ancient.htm
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Oct 6, 2014 03:58
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