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Shimrra Jamaane posted:Holy poo poo, that makes Soccer hooliganism look like childs play. Speaking of soccer hooliganism, in the mid-1st century AD, a riot arose out of a gladitorial fight between Pompeii and Nuceria. The usual taunts you get at sports games were going about but it quickly grew into stones being thrown and swords being drawn so that scores of people were wounded. Nero was the emperor at the time and he banned Pompeii from having any games there for 10 years. I believe the people who organised the games were exiled. Of course they were able to hold the games again, but only for a decade owing to, you know, the eruption.
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Jun 23, 2012 01:56
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Grand Fromage posted:I haven't heard that usage of it, my understanding is it's fundamentally the same as august in English. Like an august figure, not the month (though Augustus is where that comes from). I do not know Latin though. I believe September (or was it October?) was briefly Domitianus too.
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Jun 23, 2012 08:54
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bean_shadow posted:I think Caligula changed September to "Germanicus" during his rule. Ah, then I think it must have been October for Domitianus as that was the month Domitian was born.
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Jun 23, 2012 14:12
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DarkCrawler posted:They are going to make Rome II Total War? I hope not. My experience with CA games is the sequel always pales in comparison to the original game.
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Jun 25, 2012 00:43
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^ No mention of Cassius Dio, Eusebius or Polybius? Shame on you!
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Jun 30, 2012 14:02
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icantfindaname posted:This is more immediately after Rome than Rome proper, but what happened to slavery after the empire collapsed? Did all the slaves basically turn into serfs in medieval manors? Did slavery survive in the Eastern Empire? I remember reading somewhere that the Church got rid of slavery among Christians to the cheering of the general populace, and the word slavery was pretty much hated throughout the middle ages, but feudal serfdom doesn't really seem to different in its effects on the common people. I was under the impression slavery continued for a few hundred years after the 'fall' of the Empire. Right up until about the 1000s-1100s, I think it was, and probably a bit afterwards in some areas.
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Jul 2, 2012 06:09
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Looking at that graffiti I can't help but laugh at how appalled 18th and 19th century 'archaeologists' must have been when they found and translated those.
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Jul 3, 2012 08:51
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Ras Het posted:There's probably classicists present, but for a quick answer: As an aside, we were generally taught to use a hard G when speaking Latin. It didn't apply so much to the hard C because 'Kikero' just sounds stupid, I guess.
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Jul 5, 2012 00:14
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Eggplant Wizard posted:We learned hard c, hard g. I mean, no one says "Kikero" if they're speaking English, but if I were reading Latin aloud I would. I like to call him Kiki Well, we did use hard C for most names and words, like Catullus and Cato, obviously. But even if my tutors didn't, I usually stuck to Kikero when reading and speaking so as to be consistent. I seem to recall we used the layman's pronunciation of Caesar too.
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Jul 5, 2012 04:29
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Namarrgon posted:Was clean-shavenness emphasized in Roman culture? It is tempting to guess clean-shaven = civilized and beard = barbarian but did the Romans have any culture view on the matter? I believe so yes. It was generally expected that if you were a senator you should be clean-shaven unless you happened to be on campaign, in which case the growing of a beard was permissible. Beards therefore grew to be associated with the army and a lot of the second and third century emperors adopted the look and used it in their imagery. I'm sure GF has a lengthier reply stored up in him.
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Jul 6, 2012 12:49
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Nenonen posted:Btw. didn't some Romans go so far as pull the hair with tweezers so they didn't need to shave daily? Yep. It turns out humans have been obsessed about removing their body hair for centuries.
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Jul 6, 2012 13:04
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DarkCrawler posted:Antony was a total rear end in a top hat though. Lot of truth in the Philippics. Sooo... Think Gordon Brown?
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Jul 7, 2012 14:07
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Base Emitter posted:Speaking of all these lost classics of literature, what are the chances of finding one of these books buried somewhere? Did all of the books we have survive because they were in wide circulation, or are they occasionally rediscovered from time to time? I believe it's more a case of the books being in wide circulation (particularly in the medieval period) and copies having been made than being rediscovered from time to time. Then again, I think Fromage mentioned a new library was being excavated at Herculaneum or Pompeii so who knows what might be found there?
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Jul 15, 2012 09:39
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Frosted Flake posted:I'm reading the Fantastic Carthage Must Be Destroyed by Richard Miles, one of the first comprehensive studies on Carthage in decades. It's very confusing because of religious naming conventions, every generation has a few Hasdrubals and Hannibals. Ha, is it that good? Richard Miles is a lecturer at my uni and I've had him a couple of times. He can make the most banal stuff sound fascinating and I've seen Carthage Must be Destroyed in the shop but I'm not big on making impulse history book purchases.
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Jul 16, 2012 23:17
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Charlie Mopps posted:Im doing my MA in ancient history after a BA focussing mostly on 17th/18th century (with some dabbling in Roman history), and something that i've always noticed is how its apparently normal to publish articles full of statements like 'well Cicero/Seneca/Tertullian says <X>, which means this is how it really was'. I know the lack of sources makes it hard to confirm or deny most citations we got, but the certainty with which authors make statements still baffles me at times. I once had a professor who said half the time being an academic is spent on disagreeing with other academics.
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Jul 17, 2012 09:53
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Grand Fromage posted:Some Roman surgical tools: Well, there's a set of tools to give any person nightmares. As an aside, taking a couple of new subjects in Roman history this semester (my second last semester, alas). One of them explores the idea that the collapse of the rule of law engendered the collapse of the Republic (and also explores public law itself) while the other looks at the urban landscape of Rome and its interaction with the political, religious and cultural life of its inhabitants. I'm just paraphrasing the outlines given but I'm really looking forward to them. Naturally I'm hoping you'll still be on hand to answer any questions I might have come exam time.
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Aug 8, 2012 00:36
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Quick question: How do you pronounce Pompey? I thought it was pronounced 'Pom-pee' (at least that's how my lecturers say it), but I was watching an episode of Rome today for the first time in years and they were all pronouncing it like 'Pompeii'.
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Aug 21, 2012 01:52
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Anyone know much about Maxentius? I only know of him in connection to Constantine and I have to write an essay on whether or not he deserves his title of Conservator urbis suae. I mean, I have a huge amount of articles waiting for me but I'd rather read a cool write-up by one of you guys too, just to get my head around the subject.
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Aug 26, 2012 04:36
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Anyone read Marguerite Yourcenar's Memoirs of Hadrian? I found it by accident in my house yesterday and I don't really have time to read it now, but is it worth setting aside for a rainy day? Furthermore, is it styled in the same way as Graves' I, Claudius, which I enjoyed?
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Sep 1, 2012 05:11
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Sooo... worth reading I take it? I'd definitely read a biography of Obama if it was like that.
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Sep 1, 2012 06:53
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Grand Fromage posted:If anyone has a war elephant and can find a pig we can test it. Well, now you mention it...
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Sep 12, 2012 00:47
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Agesilaus posted:Huh, I thought you were a Classics major, that explains things. I didn't realise you could be a Roman Historian without being a Classicist. I totally disagree with your opinion of primary sources and the value of studying them, but that's neither here nor there. In my experience as an Ancient History major most of my time is spent reading the primary sources. But you know, it's not like we take for granted what they say is true all the time.
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Sep 22, 2012 11:04
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Vincent Van Goatse posted:So was "Nero burned Rome" the Roman version of "Bush did 9/11" or is that a later rumor that everyone thinks is from the Roman era? Pretty contemporary, I think. Tacitus and Suetonius both talk about it but they were writing some forty years later.
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Sep 30, 2012 07:15
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Eggplant Wizard posted:Also more generally in the past thirty-forty years there's been a push to do better representing the subelite people, so women and conquered peoples and the poor etc. The question of how to talk about cultural change under the Roman empire is also pretty fraught. Really? In every course I've done there's certainly a lecture or two on women, in a sort of tokenistic way, but I haven't come across much, whether outside the lecture theatre or in it, that's to do with the poor or the conquered. Roman history seems to be one of the few areas that has largely resisted representing the 'subelite', which presumably is because the vast majority of our written sources are by the elite. Have you got any links to papers on JSTOR or something like that? I'd be interested in reading them.
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Oct 6, 2012 06:08
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physeter posted:The thing about Roman emperors, bad or good, is that they had to be really REALLY bad to actually begin having a strong negative effect on the average citizen. They were one guy in the Iron Age "ruling" this vast empire, but really just acting through a large bureaucracy. Consider that even today, with modern media and transportation, the average American really isn't all that affected by their president. How does Obama affect me? Not sure, something about healthcare? Do I have it yet? Dunno, maybe yes? I'm thousands of miles from DC and the most any president has directly altered my life is when he comes to town and fucks up traffic. Usually because he wants something (votes, money) or wants to look at hurricane damage. In the Roman Empire, the emperor usually didn't even do that much. Pretty much this. I think Tacitus or Dio says the average person was 'indifferent' to Domitian's assassination, even though the sources talk him up as being a horrible emperor.
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Oct 10, 2012 01:22
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So we're coming up to the... 1700th anniversary (?) of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge on the 28th. Seems like only yesterday.
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Oct 25, 2012 07:20
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Tao Jones posted:Well, I wouldn't want to go for a direct comparison with Ron Paul, but I'd say the rhetorical strategies employed are similar to a lot of modern libertarian-type arguments, yes. (I doubt that the Cato Institute's name is an accident.) Perseus has all Plutarch's Lives. This is a link to the English translation http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0014 Or you can read it in Greek if you like.
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Oct 25, 2012 11:53
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sullat posted:Do you mean modern myths about the Romans, or Roman myths they would have told over the hearth fires? I think he means modern myths about the Romans, like Christians being fed to lions in the arena.
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Oct 29, 2012 12:00
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SlothfulCobra posted:What sort of law enforcement did ancient Rome have? I wouldn't expect there to be anything like "CSI: Rome", but there must've been some sort of professional, non-military force to pursue criminals and deter crime. I think the closest thing to 'law enforcement' were the Vigiles, but I'm not sure the extent to which they were used to actually pursue criminals. EDIT - Woops, didn't see the quote by Fromage above.
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Nov 6, 2012 02:18
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Besesoth posted:Oh, absolutely. Until the early part of the 20th century - possibly until the 50s, although I'm not sure on the dates - archaeology was less "preserve the history" and more "add to my kickin' rad collection" and/or "make me rich". Hence the stories about people in Egypt burning mummies for fuel, for example - they were just ancient bodies wrapped in linen, and they burned real good; who cared about the historical value? I think the family was making it up because so far as I know Howard Carter never had kids. Might have been his great-great-nephew though.
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Nov 17, 2012 12:33
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cheerfullydrab posted:On Wednesday I was having a conversation with my father, who was a classics major and worked on excavations in Athens in the early 80's, in the Greek area of the University of Pennsylvania museum. His idea was a travelling exhibit of ancient Greek and Roman coinage that reflects the politics of the time in which it was minted, i.e coinage as propaganda. Do you all think there's enough examples out there to make a compelling show? Would you attend such an exhibit? I think there's enough there. The Julio-Claudians are the only coinage I'm familiar with and there's a fair amount there that as you say reflects the politics of the time. I'm sure the same is true with the Flavians/Nerva-Antonine's etc. Whether it would make an exhibit by itself I'm not sure.
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Dec 8, 2012 13:19
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Well, it's been a while since I visited this thread. Taking an interesting course this semester, though, which focuses on the wider Mediterranean in the context of the Roman Empire, circa 150-27ishBC. So we get a bit of what the Romans are doing during various periods like the Mithridatic Wars but then it also looks at how these things affected Rome's friends and allies and generally everyone else who inhabited the Med. at the time. Lot of new stuff for me.
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Apr 27, 2013 05:30
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homullus posted:The best (but not only) answer to "what did the Romans eat" (or at least rich Romans) is Apicius, who was writing ~late 4th century. It's a lot of recipes to look at (and that site is horrible) but it gives you a good idea of the flavors. There are "modern" versions of a lot of Apicius (with modern measurements and substitutions where needed) but they don't cover all the recipes. Ooo, thanks for the link. Those recipes sound delicious.
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Oct 20, 2013 01:03
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VanSandman posted:Never ever try Garum. It's rancid fish paste (spoiler'd because it's gross) and was also considered a delicacy. I wonder if simply anything with a strong, palatable flavor was considered a delicacy? Spices were and are some of the most commonly traded goods in the world for a reason. Yeah, I've heard of garum. All I knew about Roman food before today was that they salted everything heavily, but those recipes show a lot of spices being used.
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Oct 20, 2013 04:02
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:It's not so much a Mediterranean religion as it is a Proto-Indo-European religion that also influenced the Etruscans. The most obvious example of this is the PIE Dyēus ph2ter, aka "Sky-father", aka Zeus, aka Jupiter, aka Tinia, who figures into even non-IE pantheons and languages. Care to give more of a write-up about this? Greco-Roman religion is something I'm only vaguely knowledgeable about and its origins I'm even less aware of.
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Oct 21, 2013 10:36
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ughhhh posted:They could have followed some 'minor' character like titus pullo dealing with daily life and finding jesus and becoming a revolutionary. I just wanted more titus pullo and lucius varinus. I'm glad they didn't get to do anything about Jesus. I'm sure they would have made it a bigger deal than it was historically. Also, Titus Pullo would probably be about 70 by that time.
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Oct 23, 2013 22:17
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Ainsley McTree posted:What are some good examples of especially eccentric and entertaining ancient people? For example, I think it was this thread that turned me on to Diogenes the Cynic, a renowned philosopher who lived in a jug, hung out with his dog friends, peed on people, and was in every way indistinguishable from a modern day homeless person. Not quite in answer to your question, but it's funny when you look at ancient Greek philosophies like Stoicism and Cynicism because the modern definition is either completely misunderstood (Stoicism) or completely and negatively misinterpreted (Cynicism). Oh, um, I suppose Nero is a good example of an eccentric and entertaining person. Except, of course, he could kill you if you laughed at him. Octy fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Oct 26, 2013 |
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Oct 26, 2013 23:11
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Halloween Jack posted:Yes, I don't think any historical monarch we know of was more inbred than Charles II of Spain. His ancestry contained so many first-cousin and uncle/niece marriages that he was more inbred than if his parents had been brother and sister or father and daughter. He was sickly, mentally retarded, impotent, and had the "Habsburg jaw," a protruding lower jaw that caused him to constantly drool. Poor guy. He sounds like the result of a horrible lab experiment like in The Fly. Someone should have just put him down.
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Oct 31, 2013 21:58
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Don Gato posted:Still better looking than Carlos II. Plenty. Not so much senatorial as far as I know, but the wives and daughters of emperors are as prominent in statuery as the emperors themselves. Just look up the Wikipedia pages for Livia, Messalina and so on. Octy fucked around with this message at 08:52 on Nov 1, 2013 |
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Nov 1, 2013 08:43
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Arglebargle III posted:No force projection abilities. They terrorized Attica and rarely if ever got outside their little corner of the world. Their lack of logistic ability omes back to their terrible domestic policies. Didn't they also have constant helot uprisings? Actually, reading up on them a bit more, you would not have wanted to be a helot. The Spartans were assholes.
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Nov 4, 2013 08:06
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