The History Thread

[VictorR]

Did you include calling them barbarians? Since the Romans viewed everyone who wasn’t from Rome as barbarians who needed to have civilization brought to them.

In that case I was the visitor, and no, they didn't call me a barbarian. Though we were conversing in English, which is Germanic and therefore barbaric...

I remember when I went to Rome, and the guy doing the tour (I guess he was good at his job but I knew all what he was saying) and he pulled out the gladius with “and this is the gladius”….I felt that was the only form of character he was in. Also saw Caesar smoke a cigarette.=D.

LOL

Speaking about the Romans, because I am very obsessed with this time period….i really like going to here:

Website der Römerstadt Augusta Raurica in Augst (Schweiz)

Willkommen in der Römerstadt Augusta Raurica in Augst (Schweiz)

www.augustaraurica.ch

They used to have a festival in August that they’d put on performances, you can also be a Roman for the day. It was lots of fun.

Thank you for the recommendation! I'll have to try to visit next time I'm in Europe. Last time I visited Rome, Bath, and Vindolanda.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

I currently am reading a book about the rise and fall of the dinosaurs (admittedly I have not gotten far) but it is quite interesting.

That is quite interesting. I looked at the museum link and it looks quite nice. I once was discussing the Triassic extinctions with a researcher at the Field museum. There was a lot of competition between early mammals and dinosaurs. Then a lot of Carbon dioxide and sulfur compounds were put into the atmosphere by Pangea splitting up as the Central Atlantic magmatic province became active. That eliminated a lot of dinosaur competitors along with half the world's plant species. That allowed dinosaurs to thrive and diversify.

 

[Outdated]

Speaking about the Romans, because I am very obsessed with this time period….i really like going to here:

A book series you might enjoy, the Cato series by Simon Scarrow. When he was finishing his masters degree he decided to write a novel instead of just submitting the usual type of dry white paper. The novel was a hit so he continued with it afterwards.

Simon Scarrow - Book Series In Order

Complete order of Simon Scarrow books in Publication Order and Chronological Order.

www.bookseriesinorder.com

Lots of little facts from stories like these fascinate me. The Romans developed a device they called a Crow, a boarding plank with a metal spike in the end. When engaging another ship at sea they would come along side and drop the crow, and the metal spike would stab in to the other ship's deck preventing it from being able to pull away.

We still use that same metal spike in many other areas of our lives today, and we still call it a Crow Bar.

 

[maycontainthunder]

That’s a really BIG bike. My dad has a motorcycle so I know more about them than I do with cars (although we do have a car)I did not know that that was the registration marks! That’s pretty interesting, although why did wales not get a registration mark?

That bike is a real survivor. Nearly all parts on it started life with it; even the handlebar grips are thought to be the originals!

Wales got quite a few registration marks but they didn't get sent anything with a W in it like Scotland getting all the S's and Ireland getting all the I's (and all the Z's, I forgot that one). W (and the marks including it) were scattered throughout the country. Only WN (Swansea) and WO (Monmouth) were issued to Wales.

Another mark from Monmouth, AX, has a very famous vehicle wearing it.

This isn't just any Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, it is the car that put Rolls Royce on the automotive map. It is considered the most valuable car in the world.

@maycontainthunder

Here they just simply hand out license plate numbers randomly, you can get special vanity plates though... The only information you can glean from a license plate is which province you live in...

The marks as originally issued from 1903 to 2001 here in the UK are an absolute chaotic mess. Starting with A, this was London. AA was Southampton, AB was Worcester, AC was Warwick, AD was Gloucester and the others were just as chaotic. There were some clusters that were in the same area. Y, YA, YB, YC and YD were Somerset but YE was London as were most of the rest down this sequence.

You can have a look through all the marks and the fragmented local registration records used before the DVLA started in 1977. Many of these records were destroyed at the behest of the DVLA others were destroyed in the war or, in one case for all five two letter Oxfordshire registration books, in a fire.

Trace a Registration Mark

The surviving records can be good, bad, or awful in terms of what information they contain. Some contain enough to recover the vehicle's registration number if their old style logbooks have been lost but others don't even say what the vehicle is.

 

[Owliet]

@maycontainthunder

Here they just simply hand out license plate numbers randomly, you can get special vanity plates though... The only information you can glean from a license plate is which province you live in...

For cars here we have plate numbers with also the canton added to it. So BS: Basel, ZG: Zug, BE: Bern etc. We are not allowed to have special vanity plates without having the canton specific.

The Romans developed a device they called a Crow, a boarding plank with a metal spike in the end. When engaging another ship at sea they would come along side and drop the crow, and the metal spike would stab in to the other ship's deck preventing it from being able to pull away.

Yes, this was developed during the Punic War. It is called a Corvus in Latin. So it would latch on and allow them to invade the ship.=). Also was used during the Battle of Actium against Kleopatra’s forces. This little device really turned Roman Naval power.

 

[Outdated]

I misnamed the books in the earlier post too, the main character in the stories is called Cato, it's the Eagle series I was suggesting.

Cato was a conscript that got sent to Britain. Although the character is fictional the history in the books is accurate and I found it very interesting.

Corvus is latin for Crow, of the family Corvidae.

 

[Owliet]

That is quite interesting. I looked at the museum link and it looks quite nice. I once was discussing the Triassic extinctions with a researcher at the Field museum. There was a lot of competition between early mammals and dinosaurs. Then a lot of Carbon dioxide and sulfur compounds were put into the atmosphere by Pangea splitting up as the Central Atlantic magmatic province became active. That eliminated a lot of dinosaur competitors along with half the world's plant species. That allowed dinosaurs to thrive and diversify.

It’s a nice museum with a lot of specimens — they even include new focus on Swiss history finds of plateosaurus. Yes, it is quite interesting that the Triassic really set up the diversity growth of the dinosaurs to what they became — I was also reading an article about the theory of how the earlier mammals were not too dissimilar to the reptiles during the Triassic so the ones that had some mutation were able to survive the extinction in the Triassic and also divers. There has also been finds in the retreating ice from the lack of snow that we have had which has been a treasure trove of artifacts from the Neolithic period.

 

[Sherlock77]

Geeky books

 

[tree]

GENERAL REMINDER

As a community it's good that we can talk about our passions and interests,
but it must be pointed out that this can't descend into politics.

Historical politics should be avoided. (Wars/battles/legislation...etc all of which
involve governing of nations aka politics. )

https://www.autismforums.com/threads/politics-discussion-forum-statement-of-purpose.19704/

 

[Owliet]

Ah yes....history and its great mysteries.

Why did General Robert E. Lee choose to launch his disastrous main attack against Cemetery Ridge in Gettysburg?

And was the man sentenced to life imprisonment in Nuremburg in 1946 actually Rudolf Hess or an imposter? Did he die a natural death in Spandau Prison, or did Britain's SAS murder him to keep a secret?

Why did the incendiary devices used in the Confederate attack against St. Albans Vermont in October 1864 fail?

Why exactly did Israel choose to attack the USS Liberty in 1967?

Was Sgt. John C. Wood ordered to botch the hangings of the convicted Nazis at Nuremburg in 1946?

Who if anyone gave the order to summarily execute German prisoners wearing sleevebands in France, 1944?

(Hitler formally considered commandos and paratroopers as terrorists to be summarily executed. Many German soldiers shot for wearing sleevebands were not necessarily members of the SS.)

LOL...I could go on an on over such things.

I really like doing the murder mysteries — I have given this as an assignment task to my students twice now and thE things that they discover on the topic that i give them (like Was Tutankhamen really murdered? What really caused the great Chicago fire etc) yeah, it’s pretty cool area. I think it’s really important for people to remember that history isn’t just dates, wars and the “boring stuff”.

 

[Owliet]

Thank you for the recommendation! I'll have to try to visit next time I'm in Europe. Last time I visited Rome, Bath, and Vindolanda.

I have only visited Rome and Pompeii (in addition to several times visiting Augusta Raurica). If you have not visited Pompeii, I would also recommend going there. I was really pleased to see that in the Museum in Napoli they have this really cool mosaic of a lion as one of the displays because I once used the same image to illustrate during one of my research papers at university when I was writing about the use of lions in the amphitheater. I think it was something like “Pliny on lions”. Fun times.

And whilst the remains of the victims of Pompeii were also interesting (and sad), the left behind half-finished refurbishing some of the buildings were still left. YOu can also see the “vote for me” slogans that were graffitied on the wall..and the other graffiti of “I had a great time here, I visit here often, I come from Greece” So it shows that it was a thriving international community before Vesuvius erupted.

Although the character is fictional the history in the books is accurate and I found it very interesting.

I am such a difficult person to read historical fiction books because most of the time, I often find that there is not enough accuracy for me to keep it interesting or going. Or I get too much accuracy and it becomes to boring. But I will check these books out.=)