|
Speaking of the HBO Rome series. Is the depiction of urban life for the masses accurate? It looks utterly dire and devoid of any kind of rule of law. Also would it be safe to assume that Aetia's role in the series is to represent Rome itself?- they're both pragmatic, lucky, ruthless and have a knack for winning the devotion of powerful men... (Long-time lurker. Thanks posters one and all, for this most excellent thread!)
|
#
¿
Feb 7, 2017 03:01
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 4, 2024 09:40 |
|
|
There's something about the phrase "wooden plough" that conjures up feelings of exhaustion...
|
|
#
¿
Jun 28, 2017 01:33
|
|
|
My Pointless Time Travel Dream is to head back to Rome with a full orchestra and see what they think of the Ride of the Valkyries or Daphnis et Chloe or one of Bruckner's symphonies. (Or better yet, Mr. Bach.)
|
|
#
¿
Dec 11, 2017 08:19
|
|
|
I'd chuck Enrico Dandolo in a canal, and save Byzantium. Alternatively, introduce the soothing tones and subtle harmonies of the bagpipes to Genghis and the lads.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 11, 2017 23:17
|
|
|
Can anyone comment on the historical accuracy of Colleen Coullogh's Rome series (The First Man in Rome, etc)? The eye-glazing complexity of all the legal and political bits certainly has the ring of truth to it...
|
|
#
¿
Jan 29, 2018 23:31
|
|
|
Grand Prize Winner posted:Did they ever check the black boxes in those obelisks What a curiously sinister phrase.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 7, 2018 23:07
|
|
|
Hmm. What does double phalanx mean exactly? Thanks for the post, by the way.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 14, 2018 06:49
|
|
|
Random question - Can anyone tell me what Varangerfjord translates to, and, more importantly, if it has any connection with the Varangian Guard?
|
|
#
¿
Jun 11, 2018 13:35
|
|
|
Thanks everyone! It's just one of those things I've been wondering about for years and years.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 14, 2018 00:27
|
|
|
Scarodactyl posted:I know I missed Commodus chat by a few days, but I forgot I made a Commodus emote a couple years ago: ...the lion is blinking. Telsa Cola posted:Welcome to archaeology. Someone I worked with spent two months excavating a monumental structure and every night the most common response to how the work was going was "still have no loving idea what im looking at". That sounds super interesting. Did they ever work out what they were looking at?
|
|
#
¿
Aug 29, 2018 04:04
|
|
|
From a page or two ago, but regarding the Korean tiger art- there often seems to be a little black and white bird accompanying the tiger. What's the reason for that? (Also, this has been an incredible few pages. Australian snakes being descended from highly venomous sea snakes makes a certain amount of sense...)
|
|
#
¿
Sep 29, 2018 23:19
|
|
|
Don't forget, New Zealand and the Roman Empire fought a common enemy. People get a slightly panicky look when you bring that up. Anyway, seconding (thirding? fourthing?) the bit about discovering Byzantium through Age of Empires. I still remember, as an awkward teenager in a sport-obsessed town, reading in the in-game encyclopedia about this luxury-and-learning-obsessed empire that had zero qualms bribing its enemies if that was cheaper than stabbing them, and thinking, these are my people. Grand Fromage posted:E: Exarch is still my favorite title for a government official ever. Absolutely. skasion posted:Church titles > secular titles. Archimandrites and hieromonks! Although....
|
|
#
¿
Oct 5, 2018 06:36
|
|
|
Grand Fromage posted:The Ottomans. Yep! And Australia and New Zealand are different places, guys... e: and now I want an alt-history pulp novel where Justinian, instead of getting monks to smuggle silkworms out of China, sinks his efforts into despatching a fleet to Australia. Tree Bucket fucked around with this message at 07:29 on Oct 5, 2018 |
|
#
¿
Oct 5, 2018 07:24
|
|
|
How many slingers can you have in a formation? I'm picturing a few hundred dudes swinging large rocks around on long ropes, and the potential for accidental brainings seems really really high. I mean, if the guy behind you gets it the slightest bit wrong, say goodbye to the back of your head. Also regarding The True Secret Name of Rome, there's a rad scene in one of Colleen McCollough's books where an old patrician protests the actions of Sulla (or Caesar? Can't remember) by standing up screaming "amor! amor!"- the Secret Name, of course- causing everyone else to cry and run around in circles and so on.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 16, 2018 05:45
|
|
|
Jack2142 posted:The Roman Empire was actually just a thought experiment to demonstrate the Ship of Theseus. But Troy pre-dates Theseus! Major flaw in the argument there.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 25, 2018 02:28
|
|
|
Anyone got that sublime jock/nerd goth/prep ancient civilization chart?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 29, 2019 07:02
|
|
|
If it weren't for the fact that they actually existed, I'd find triremes horribly unrealistic.
|
|
#
¿
May 13, 2019 08:12
|
|
|
You know, I'd love to see a film about the battle of Teutoberg Forest shot in the style of one of those horror movies where the characters all get messily eliminated one by one. It could really work.
|
|
#
¿
May 16, 2019 04:46
|
|
|
Syncopated posted:Is it me or is the perspective on like the middle boat pretty hosed up? I like the shields. "Things appear bigger if they are further away, right? That's how this 'perspective' thing works?"
|
|
#
¿
May 23, 2019 00:06
|
|
|
Hi thread! Today commemorates 566 years since the fall of Constantinople. Why not commemorate this date by making a mosaic, or bribing a Viking, or, uh, hiring monks to smuggle silkworms out of China? Actually, don't do those last two things.
|
|
#
¿
May 29, 2019 08:45
|
|
|
FuturePastNow posted:the dead legionaries were probably delicious, too Well, if they were from XX Valeria Victrix, it would add new meaning to the phrase "long pig" Grand Fromage posted:In all the years of archaeology and all the digs, we've found... ten, maybe? A similar number of swords. One complete shield. A complete set of armor has never been found that I can recall, only fragments. That's at least true for lorica segmentata. What, really? That's amazing, and sort of unsettling. (I need to start a blog about the Roman Empire being a hoax and the Finns inventing helicopters ten thousand years ago, or something.)
|
|
#
¿
May 29, 2019 23:07
|
|
|
skasion posted:Romans did have a secret police from the late 4th century AD on, the agentes in rebus (“people active in things”) — a militarized bureaucratic courier force immune to prosecution and answerable to the emperor. They had quite a few responsibilities and a nasty reputation, but there were never many, around 1000 at a time for the whole empire, which should remind us that the biggest reason why the empire didn’t have the characteristics of a modern totalitarian state was practical, not ideological. The imperial government, even the late imperial version which is commonly considered bloated and overexpensive, was minuscule relative to its territory. From several pages back, but gosh if "people active in things" isn't the most magnificently, ominously vague title ever.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 6, 2019 03:10
|
|
|
Zopotantor posted:Ratgeb later took part in the Peasant's War and was executed for that by I sort of wondered how that works, and then I decided that I really really don't want to know. Jazerus posted:in context "agentes in rebus" is less vague - yeah, if taken totally literally and in the wonderfully stilted victorian tradition of latin translation, it means "people active in things", but both words had narrower senses based on context, practically speaking. "actors in public affairs" - the people who actually do the physical business of government - is more of the intended meaning. Cool, thanks- that makes sense. Still an awesome name. chitoryu12 posted:The modern “medieval fantasy” also incorporates a lot of Early Modern and even later aesthetic depending on the author. It only takes one discovery of firearms (whether actual gunpowder or a fantasy equivalent) to suddenly shift the setting to the early 18th century down to the frock coats and pistol dueling stances. Oh my goodness, yes. As a Pratchett fan it's been interesting watching Ankh-Morpork gradually change from a late Medieval setting to a Victorian one, all in a handful of in-world decades...
|
|
#
¿
Oct 8, 2019 06:04
|
|
|
Common enough that inflicting a flogging upon a dead horse could become a clichéd phrase. When you think of the stuff that humans do to humans, what we do to animals is a whole new level of ghastliness...
|
|
#
¿
Oct 10, 2019 04:58
|
|
|
I want Australia's giant Gippsland earthworm to go invasive.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 12, 2019 04:56
|
|
|
professor metis posted:why did i google this The line about the sound that they make tipped me over from "hmm, fascinating" to "nnnNNNOOO" Libluini posted:There was a scandal in France a couple years ago when Zoologists finally took notice that the country was slowly being invaded by new species of flatworms. Out of curiosity, do we know where the invasive flatworms came from? I want a New Zealand species to be the invasive menace, for once
|
|
#
¿
Oct 14, 2019 03:33
|
|
|
Tias posted:I'm really impressed y'all got so far. My all-time VIP is Gaius Succus II, who made a bit inland in Africa before being super killed in the dick by Libyan spearman This phrasing made me lol. I wonder what proportion of the game's users come from this thread...?
|
|
#
¿
Oct 27, 2019 22:13
|
|
|
HEY GUNS posted:lmao Magnificent. Reminds me of the very lofty and elevated language with which Tolkien indicates a character is a total babe.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 23, 2019 10:53
|
|
|
Arglebargle III posted:
Walking in that thing cannot have been fun. Bang... bang... bang.... on one knee, then the other, every step...
|
|
#
¿
May 14, 2020 22:57
|
|
|
Today is the 567th anniversary of the fall of Constantinople. You may wish to commemorate this date by creating a mosaic, appreciating some architecture, or having a rival's nose removed.
|
|
#
¿
May 29, 2020 13:43
|
|
|
At work, we have a 4-metre pole we use to open high windows. I've used it, and my question is: how on earth did large groups of spear/pikemen manage to walk around without constantly accidentally stabbing their friends?
|
|
#
¿
Feb 9, 2021 08:20
|
|
|
One of my favourite bits in the Lord of the Rings is when Pippin keeps asking where he can get something to eat, and the soldiers of Gondor nod thoughtfully and take this as a sign that Pippin is a true veteran soldier.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 12, 2021 00:14
|
|
|
Arglebargle III posted:It rules that Pippin, by far the dumbest Hobbit, is the highest rank. It rules that the dumbest hobbit rules.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 14, 2021 02:00
|
|
|
Is that a 420 blazer he's wearing
|
|
#
¿
Feb 15, 2021 00:04
|
|
|
Koramei posted:
Well, it probably has a ritual or religious purpose
|
|
#
¿
Feb 21, 2021 14:48
|
|
|
CleverHans posted:Just wait till everybody a thousand years from now finds all of our ritual or religious Funko Pops. They're like ushabti, owned by people whose lives are over.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 24, 2021 08:00
|
|
|
I am in need of a Polynesian island-settling board game
|
|
#
¿
Aug 6, 2021 12:00
|
|
|
I am greaved by that terrible pun. Anyway- roman and greek swords. They didn't seem to have much of a cross guard on the hilt- why is that? I would've thought protection of the sword hand would be a pretty high priority.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 15, 2021 08:08
|
|
|
I'd be interested to work out how long people can actually fight, before gunpowder. I mean, one soccer match generally has me pretty wiped out; on the one hand I'm terribly unfit, but on the other hand, I'm not wearing 20kg of armour, I'm unwounded, and I haven't had to march to the field beforehand. Battles might have gone on all day, but how much of that would an individual be fighting for? Well the bottom right kind of fits; ANZACs and the Byzantines fought a common enemy in the Ottoman Turks...
|
|
#
¿
Oct 19, 2021 09:22
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 4, 2024 09:40 |
|
|
Bar Ran Dun posted:It depends... I think soldiers, serious athletes, serious backpackers, etc probably understand it. I mean when you max out anaerobic and hit that lactic threshold and your muscles don’t want move any more but you have to keep them moving, plenty of people get that. When you eat 10,000+ calories a day but are doing an intense aerobic activity for so long you are losing 1+ pounds a day sustained for over a month, people still do that level of activity. Out of curiosity, is it possible to sustain that kind of activity after suffering any kind of wound? Like, if you're bleeding, does your body just say "nope"?
|
|
#
¿
Oct 20, 2021 11:54
|
|