Author Topic: No News like Ancient News – Roman frescoes discovered (Read 88820 times)

Patrice · « **Reply #105 on:** March 13, 2012, 03:40:58 PM »

In old texts, any tall and strong guy was "a giant". Especially when the purpose of the text was to glorify an other guy who killed him.

Paul · « **Reply #106 on:** March 13, 2012, 05:08:32 PM »

Wasn´t the height requirement of Roman legionaries something like 6Ft which makes Goliath tall but not that much taller.

Maybe it was a bit like this; The german is 6 foot 7 tall

or better still...this;

Steve F · « **Reply #107 on:** March 13, 2012, 05:12:16 PM »

Quote from: Paul on March 13, 2012, 05:08:32 PM

Wasn´t the height requirement of Roman legionaries something like 6Ft

I thought that the average height of a 1st century Roman legionary was about 5 feet 4 inches (British/imperial measurement), but I'm remembering that from an exhibition at the Lunt fort when I was about 10, so I could be mistaken.

Prof.Witchheimer · « **Reply #108 on:** March 13, 2012, 05:56:13 PM »

Quote from: Wikipedia (Late Roman Army)

Prospective recruits had to undergo an examination. Recruits had to be 20–25 years of age, a range that was extended to 19–35 in the later 4th century. Recruits had to be physically fit and meet the traditional minimum height requirement of 6 Roman feet (5 ft 10in, 175 cm) until 367, when it was reduced to 5 Roman feet and 3 Roman palms (5 ft 7in, 167 cm).

Prof.Witchheimer · « **Reply #109 on:** March 14, 2012, 09:24:34 AM »

Elephants as Enemies in Ancient Rome
by Jo-Ann Shelton

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The ancient Romans enjoyed watching spectacles in which elephants were tormented or killed because these animals had been endowed with symbolic significance. They were identified as agents both of a hostile nature which threatened human security, and of the human military opponents which had challenged the Romans in the third century BCE. The purpose of this paper is to explore the identification which the Romans made between elephants and enemies and to propose that this identification caused them to view elephants as a particularly satisfying target for abuse. I will examine how ancient writers reflected, fostered and exploited the association of elephants with adversaries, and I will discuss how the ability to dominate elephants in an arena spectacle symbolized Rome’s ability to conquer, to civilize, and to bend both the natural and political worlds to its will.

read more - http://www.concentric-literature.url.tw/issues/Animals/1.pdf

Patrice · « **Reply #110 on:** March 14, 2012, 10:22:54 AM »

Sad for these poor animals. But not surprising.

Elephants were the biggest mythic beasts the Romans could think about, they did not know about dinosaurs.

Look what Spielberg did to a poor unlucky T.Rex which was only looking for cheap food (in Jurassic Park). Same fate as these elephants: death of an animal for public entertainment of human beings.

The Baggagetrain · « **Reply #111 on:** March 14, 2012, 12:36:36 PM »

The African Elephant that the Carthaginians used is now sadly long extinct it is said it was a close relative of the African forest Elephant but not so highly strung. It and the Forest Elephant grow no more than 8 feet tall and may have only had a driver and one other sitting on it in battle. It is also not 100% proven that it carried a tower. After Rome had taken North Africa this Elephant was hunted down for the games and there are contemporary writings in the 100’s/200’s that this Elephant was virtually impossible to get for the games anymore. The Romans took revenge to an extreme.

Prof.Witchheimer · « **Reply #112 on:** March 15, 2012, 11:39:16 AM »

Rome's Lost Aqueduct

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Few monuments that survive from antiquity better represent Roman pragmatism, ingenuity, and the desire to impress than the aqueducts built to fulfill the Romans’ seemingly unslakable need for water. Around the turn of the second century A.D., the emperor Trajan began construction on a new aqueduct for the city of Rome. At the time, demands on the city’s water supply were enormous. In addition to satisfying the utilitarian needs of Rome’s one million inhabitants, as well as that of wealthy residents in their rural and suburban villas, water fed impressive public baths and monumental fountains throughout the city. Although the system was already sufficient, the desire to build aqueducts was often more a matter of ideology than absolute need...

read more - http://www.archaeology.org/1203/features/rome_aqua_traiana_aqueduct_carestia.html

Prof.Witchheimer · « **Reply #113 on:** March 16, 2012, 11:07:39 AM »

Plague of Athens

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The Plague of Athens was a devastating epidemic which hit the city-state of Athens in ancient Greece during the second year of the Peloponnesian War (430 BC), when an Athenian victory still seemed within reach. It is believed to have entered Athens through Piraeus, the city's port and sole source of food and supplies. The city-state of Sparta, and much of the eastern Mediterranean, was also struck by the disease. The plague returned twice more, in 429 BC and in the winter of 427/6 BC.

In his History of the Peloponnesian War, the contemporary historian Thucydides described the coming of an epidemic disease which began in Ethiopia, passed through Egypt and Libya, and then to the Greek world. The epidemic broke out in the overcrowded city. Athens lost perhaps one third of the people sheltered within its walls. The sight of the burning funeral pyres of Athens caused the Spartan army to withdraw for fear of the disease. It killed many of Athens's infantry, some expert seamen and their leader Pericles, who died during one of the secondary outbreaks in 429 BC. After the death of Pericles, Athens was led by a succession of incompetent or weak leaders. According to Thucydides, it was not until 415 BC that the Athenian population had recovered sufficiently to mount the disastrous Sicilian Expedition.

read more - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_of_Athens

argsilverson · « **Reply #114 on:** March 16, 2012, 12:03:53 PM »

Scientist made DNA research from a skeleton of a young girl who died during the Athens plague.
The plague was typhoid fever.

They continued and reconstructed the face of her. This is Myrtis.
More here:
http://www.myrtis.gr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=81&Itemid=56&lang=en

Doomhippie · « **Reply #115 on:** March 18, 2012, 11:39:56 AM »

Quote from: Patrice on March 03, 2012, 01:53:55 AM

I don't call it rubbish. The Romans sent troops from everywhere as garrisons everywhere else in their Empire, so Asian cavalry in Great Britain would not be surprising. There is no proof and I wouldn't say that all the (so-called) Round Table knights were Sarmatians, but some influence is possible.

Question : where do you think this guy is from?

...Some BoB country? Mongolia? China ?

No his name is P-J Hélias he was a well-known Breton writer in the 20th century, from the "Bigouden" area a small part of south-west Brittany where people have some Asian look. There is no explanation. Perhaps a Late Roman Hunnic garrison was there...? But DNA does not confirm it.

Reading this I remember seeing a documentary on TV (20 years ago?) that claimed that remnants of Attilas army stayed in Gaul. In fact, fairly close to the Catalaunian fields (the place of the decisive battle between Huns and Romans) there is suppoed to be a small village in which most newborns displayed what was known as the "Hun-spot" (I'm translating from German as I remember the documentary...), a dark spot on the lower back (not THAT low, people), which disappears after a few years and is also known in certain groups of Mongols. The theory behind it ran something like this: after the battle parts of th Attila's troops were either captured or got lost or whatever and finally settled down/were forced to settle down in that area. Though not really distinct after having intermingled with the population of that area, the ancestors of that village seemed to have been Asian, more specifically of Mongolian descent.

I don't know if that theory is still around but it does seem a plausible thing.