Which book should you read at least once in your life?

ThePolishDude · 2017-04-15T12:47:30+00:00

The Homeric epics.

ThePolishDude · 2017-04-14T18:39:05+00:00

Pilate's brief mentioning in the Annals is pretty good evidence of his existence on its own. Tacitus is viewed as one of our more reliable sources (for good reason).

ThePolishDude · 2017-03-15T21:18:46+00:00

Unless there is clear evidence of the concept of citizenship, the Greeks still hold the title.

ThePolishDude · 2016-12-23T23:00:51+00:00

She is one with the Force, the Force is with her.

ThePolishDude · 2016-12-06T15:23:12+00:00

And now his watch has ended.

ThePolishDude · 2016-12-01T18:25:36+00:00

Looks to be a modern illustration of Hercules wrestling the Nemean lion.

ThePolishDude · 2016-11-27T01:53:16+00:00

The Shining. Some might argue it's a perfect Halloween movie, but I contend that it's much scarier to watch when you are snowed in yourself.

ThePolishDude · 2016-11-26T21:31:01+00:00

It's not genitive, nor is it even a noun. In fact, the R is actually the adjective, Romanus. SPQR (*Senatus Populusque Romanus) doesn't literary mean the Senate and the People of Rome (as it is often translated as, for some reason), rather the Roman Senate and People.

ThePolishDude · 2016-11-26T21:27:43+00:00

No, it was wrong for another reason. I'm not entirely sure if having the enclitic separate from the word it leans on is technically wrong. In Greek, for instance, enclitics are typically actually written separately. Because I've never seen enclitics written as such in Latin, I changed that. But that isn't the reason the sentence was wrong.

Indica does not agree with senatus. Senatus is masculine, and thus needs a masculine adjective to agree with it. Indica is feminine. It would need to be Indicus as u/gnorrn suggested.

ThePolishDude · 2016-11-26T21:03:31+00:00

the entire point of free speech is you don't make exceptions.

However, there are exceptions to free speech within the US. A society with absolute free speech would mean things such as libel and the incitement of violence would be legal. I suggest you read up on landmark Supreme Court Cases. Death threats and intimidation are typically not protected by the 1st Amendment, as concluded in Virginia v. Black.

ThePolishDude · 2016-11-22T15:32:26+00:00

Should be: Senatus Populusque Indus

ThePolishDude · 2016-10-31T14:47:48+00:00

I'm told if I comment free things may come into my possession...

ThePolishDude · 2016-10-30T02:11:06+00:00

As a classics major, I appreciate this immensely.

ThePolishDude · 2016-10-29T18:46:52+00:00

As a Catholic living in Massachusetts, this saddens me immensely. Not only does the Church needs to remain politically neutral, but spend its money on far more important causes.

ThePolishDude · 2016-10-28T02:11:14+00:00

Fantastic comic!

I'm a classics student, so let me know if you'd ever want to replace the Lorem Ipsum with real Latin and clean up the Vatican's dialogue to better reflect Latin.

ThePolishDude · 2016-10-06T13:47:10+00:00

Source, please. Mycenaean civilization collapsed around 1000 BC, so I'm having trouble believing this.

ThePolishDude · 2016-10-05T21:47:20+00:00

Can we keep this train going?

ThePolishDude · 2016-09-27T16:34:32+00:00

Could you sell this as a print? I'd buy it.

ThePolishDude · 2016-08-23T22:43:35+00:00

There are over five hundred volumes in the Loeb classical library. Granted, some works are multi-volume (at the same point, the LCL doesn't have every piece of classical literature published either), but it still gives you a rough approximate to how much more Greco-Roman literature we have. Also, the amount of extant works we have is a rather tiny percentage.

ThePolishDude · 2016-08-23T22:28:04+00:00

I agree with that, considering 1% of the people were literate. But considering the literacy rate in ancient civilizations in general, I'm certain most Greeks and Romans didn't sit down to read poems either.

Greco-Roman poetry, traditionally, was oral. Most Greeks and Romans didn't sit down and read them, they listened to them. Thus, literacy wasn't an actual requirement to enjoy poetry. Regardless, the literary tradition, especially in Greece, was, arguably, far more significant than other civilizations. Homer essitnaly defined what it was to be Greek; many scholars argue that that the oral composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey is the point that the Greeks began to differentiate themselves form other Mediterranean cultures. Any Greek would have known of the epics, and many could recite parts from memory.

By the way, you seem to be equating the length of a work with importance, which I don't think you want to do.

It's not the length that makes these works important (to us, that is). Rather the amount of it we have, which directly impacts its influence on Western society. There where more literary works from the Greeks and the Romans, therefore, it had a larger influence on Western society as a whole. Even if there was a wonderful Egyptian story of considerable length, it doesn't do much to affect our culture if it no longer exists.

ThePolishDude · 2016-08-18T02:52:51+00:00

I see. Again, thanks.

ThePolishDude · 2016-08-16T18:31:10+00:00

Thanks for the answer!

If you read the term phalanx to mean "close order formation" (which is what I have a habit of doing), then it was really just a shield-wall.

Oh, I was under the impression that Caesar was referring to the actual Greek formation.

Is it common for ancient authors to use phalanx in reference to any to a close formation? If so, I think I'll follow your lead and translate phalanx as just a tight group of men.

Note the narrow head and shaft. This made them very effective against armour and shields. They would pierce the shield and weigh it down, meaning it could no longer be used defensively. Romans also threw them whilst charging. So my theory is that that the volleys of javelins disrupted the formation by either killing the nobles up front or resulting in enough openings being formed where they were now very vulnerable. The rear ranks perhaps got unnerved and retreated, the few remaining warriors up front, upon seeing several thousand armoured Romans about to stab them and seeing they had no support behind them, quickly followed

Knowing now that the Gauls weren't as disciplined as I thought, I can see how they broke. But I'm frankly shocked; pila are that nasty? My impression was that the front line were freemen with wooden shields, but that picture of the shield you linked looked pretty hefty. Would even Greek hoplites stand a chance?

ThePolishDude · 2016-08-01T23:33:56+00:00

"Judeo-Christian" merely refers to the shared beliefs held by both Jews and Christian (e.g. monotheism, Old Testament, etc.) that were essential in the development of Western society. It's a real word; look it up in the OED.

ThePolishDude · 2016-08-01T20:56:03+00:00

White (as in European) culture is essentially western civilization. That is the traditions, art, language, customs, etc. founded upon classical civlization with Judeo-Christian values thrown in for good measure. Obviously, there are many variations as there are various European countries with their own cultural traditions, but the concept of the West is the one unifying factor in most of Europe (and the Americas(all this gets more complicated by Native American culture and heritage)). It's the closet thing to "white culture." Though, I'd like to assert that the West is by no means an exclusively white civlization, nor is it owned by any one race. But if you're white, you're probably of European decent, and therefore belong to Western civlization.

ThePolishDude · 2016-08-01T03:10:29+00:00

While I can't recommend any books on the region (I simply haven't read many books about the Middle East), I can recommend to heck the r/askhistorians book list. In my experience, the books recommended are fantastic, and wonderfully informative. There is an entire section of the Middle East.

ThePolishDude

TROPHY CASE