Posted on 03/14/2010 5:45:20 PM PDT by naturalman1975
I’ve been to Hadrian’s Wall (Housesteads, about the midpoint of the wall) but can’t verify the graffiti. Most of the wall no longer exists—some of the material was carried off in the mid-18th century for use in building a military road, about the time of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s invasion of England from the North. I can imagine a typical Roman soldier from the Mediterranean considering northern England a desolate wasteland and being posted there a fate worse than death.
Cool.
August 2021 (11 years from now) is the 2500th anniversary of the 300 Spartans vs 200,000 Persians... I have it in the back of my mind to visit Thermopalae to commemorate.
You might just see me there.
Since (not) being born in Hawaii seems to make a Kenyan an American, heck, all bets are off. Anybody can apply for reparations from anybody, anywhere, anytime...
Kipling imagined another fate for the Roman in Britain:
The Roman Centurion’s Song
(Roman Occupation of Britain, A.D. 300)
LEGATE, I had the news last night - my cohort ordered home
By ships to Portus Itius and thence by road to Rome.
I’ve marched the companies aboard, the arms are stowed below:
Now let another take my sword. Command me not to go!
I’ve served in Britain forty years, from Vectis to the Wall,
I have none other home than this, nor any life at all.
Last night I did not understand, but, now the hour draws near
That calls me to my native land, I feel that land is here.
Here where men say my name was made, here where my work was done;
Here where my dearest dead are laid - my wife - my wife and son;
Here where time, custom, grief and toil, age, memory, service, love,
Have rooted me in British soil. Ah, how can I remove?
For me this land, that sea, these airs, those folk and fields suffice.
What purple Southern pomp can match our changeful Northern skies,
Black with December snows unshed or pearled with August haze -
The clanging arch of steel-grey March, or June’s long-lighted days?
You’ll follow widening Rhodanus till vine an olive lean
Aslant before the sunny breeze that sweeps Nemausus clean
To Arelate’s triple gate; but let me linger on,
Here where our stiff-necked British oaks confront Euroclydon!
You’ll take the old Aurelian Road through shore-descending pines
Where, blue as any peacock’s neck, the Tyrrhene Ocean shines.
You’ll go where laurel crowns are won, but -will you e’er forget
The scent of hawthorn in the sun, or bracken in the wet?
Let me work here for Britain’s sake - at any task you will -
A marsh to drain, a road to make or native troops to drill.
Some Western camp (I know the Pict) or granite Border keep,
Mid seas of heather derelict, where our old messmates sleep.
Legate, I come to you in tears - My cohort ordered home!
I’ve served in Britain forty years. What should I do in Rome?
Here is my heart, my soul, my mind - the only life I know.
I cannot leave it all behind. Command me not to go!
The Greeks often referred to the Persians as Medes, on the theory that one man's Mede is another man's Persian, but Datis was the real thing.
It’s one guy ... Brian, in fact.
Actually, the Roman conquest of Britain was begun by Julius Caesar but “completed” by Claudius. I put completed in quotes because Rome never conquered the whole Island.
|
|
|||
Gods |
Thanks wagglebee and Touch Not the Cat for the pings, you know what I like. :') |
||
|
· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
|||
I screwed up and used the Acc, singular.
I almost mentioned Caesar but I don’t think his two excursions across the channel really count—he didn’t make any conquests and the real Roman conquest doesn’t start until nearly a century later. You could just as well say the European conquest of the Western Hemisphere begins with Leif Eriksson.
Any excuse for a party.
Now THAT’s Funny........”had I known”.....ha ha ha ha ha.
We’ll give you just two hundred more years to catch up. After that, you are SOL !
This August is the 1600th anniversary of Alaric’s sack of Rome. I don’t know if anyone plans to celebrate that. I don’t imagine the present-day Romans consider it a happy moment in the history of their city. The modern Germans aren’t descended from the Goths—Gothic was spoken as late as the 16th century by some people in the Crimea but it has long since disappeared. There could be some people alive today in Spain or southern France who are lineal descendants of Alaric’s soldiers (since the later Visigothic kingdom was in southern France and later in Spain, until the Arab invasion which began in 711).
I look at the Oxford collection that you recommended, didn't have what I was looking for, “Strategicon”, by the Emperor Maurice. Some interesting titles I may look at later though.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.