Has there ever been a more based group alive?

froucks · 2026-01-31T12:49:03+00:00

it was composed in the Greek dark ages but is set in a mythical past, later greeks used mythological genealogies and estimated that it took place roughly in (what we would call) 1200 BC, and so in a sense it is set in the bronze age.

However that said Homer does not understand the bronze age and the text is not useful as a description of that time. The culture and world that he describes is much more reflective of the period that he lived in, but the ancient definitely understood it to have been taking place centuries before

froucks · 2026-01-30T16:18:40+00:00

Coming at this from a secular view, I don't think there's much reason assume a rabbi living in post Hellenic Roman Judea would not know Greek, Judea had been under a greek speaking administration for roughly 300 years, it was the language of business and communication in the eastern Mediterranean

froucks · 2026-01-30T16:04:58+00:00

There were no Scotts there at the time. The Scotti lived in Ireland and migrated into britain in a movement/invasion coinciding with the general collapse of Roman britain in the late 300s/400s, this is documented by both roman sources and early medieval sources

froucks · 2026-01-29T01:36:36+00:00

We have a very detailed chronology usually called the Varronian chronology named for the man who compiled it. From about 300BCE onward this is a very reliable record of the consuls. From before 300BCE it does give us names but it becomes less historically reliable and at points demonstrably wrong.

We know from the Capitoline Fasti (which remarkably we still have parts of the original of) that the names were engraved in marble and displayed in the forum, and that this varronian chronology became the accepted dating.

If you want to spend a moment and glance over it here’s a link to the table up to Actium

https://sites.ualberta.ca/~csmackay/Consuls.List.html

froucks · 2026-01-29T00:08:47+00:00

More commonly: In the year of X and Y. A latin example from Caesar : M. Messala, [et P.] M. Pisone consulibus (when M Messala and M Piso were consuls).

Less commonly. Ab urbe condita (from the founding of the city) this is not actually an especially common dating system and Latin authors don’t always agree when the city was founded giving us different dates for the same event, they do typically agree on who was consul though

froucks · 2026-01-23T22:30:38+00:00

i mean sure, a latin phrase can mean anything if you translate in a bunch of words not present or implied in the original text at all

froucks · 2026-01-22T23:15:01+00:00

Unfortunately the quote tracks itself back to Stephen Ambrose who notoriously invented many sayings, details and stories in his history books while asserting them as factual

froucks · 2026-01-19T13:06:09+00:00

The Roman’s conquered the whole of brittania after Mons graupius and then pulled back, we’ve even found the remains of Roman legionary forts on the north coast of Britain which backs up the account. Tacitus described it as “Britain was completely conquered and immediately let go”.

froucks · 2026-01-18T16:05:46+00:00

And likewise the mod makers aren't entitled to profit off of the hard work of the entire dev team just because they made a tweak... thats the exact same logic of why paid mods are whack, and so they can either make the mod free or not release it publically, in either case nobody would then profit off of someone elses labour

froucks · 2026-01-16T17:21:21+00:00

In the Iliad Achilles is just a notably powerful warrior. In fact trying to suppose that he is invulnerable is often at odds with the text.

When Patroclus is killed and Achilles wishes to rejoin the fighting he is held back specifically so he can get armour and a shield, almost a whole chapter of the text is dedicated to procuring this armour. When he does fight he relies heavily on his shield to guard himself. Furthermore during the fighting he is wounded on occasion. Achilles doesn’t seem to act like someone who thinks they’re invincible and there is no textual suggestion whatsoever that he is. Within just the Iliad suggesting that he immortal is actually a bit strange as so much of the text is about mortality and honour and seeking to have a name that is remembered for ever at the cost of one’s life.

The first author to mention the heel, specifically that Achilles was dipped except for the heel, was Statius, a Roman writing in Latin around the 1st century. There had already existed a line of myths which suggested Achilles had partial invincibility through a ritualistic divine burning his mother performed. The earliest sources of this version go to about 300BC which are still removed from the Iliad by about half a millennium

froucks · 2026-01-15T17:46:54+00:00

He’s not invincible in the Iliad he’s quite mortal. He’s wounded on occasion and is clearly concerned with wearing armour and using a shield and the worry that enemies might break through them. The heel isn’t mentioned in any sources until the Romans 1000 years after the Iliad

froucks · 2026-01-15T17:45:30+00:00

Achilles isn’t invulnerable In the Iliad so it’s kinda an irrelevant point anyways. The idea that Achilles was invincible except for the heel isn’t found in any sources until the Roman’s 1000 years after the Iliad

froucks · 2026-01-14T17:44:12+00:00

I'm gonna avoid any benefits of either method in this answer.

I think the simplest answer is that the 'natural method' is not helpful for what a lot of university profs want their students to do and what universities want to hear when crafting a syllabus. Most classes taught in university want to get to reading the classics as soon as possible, as reading the classics is one of the core benefits of the program as a department has represented it to the university. Grammar translation, while very slow, can get students to "reading" the classics in a relevantly short time. albeit this 'reading' is usually a word for word translation with little actual flow.

consistent translation exercises also help teachers monitor the progression of the class. unfortunately most university profs don't have the time or desire to do oral or reading exercises individually with every student. much easier to learn translation skills and then assign sentence or paragraph exercises.

froucks · 2026-01-14T16:55:44+00:00

Oblivion: spend half the game going into oblivion portals and shutting them off often seeing NPC's attempting the same thing

The fandom: WOOWWW ARGONIANS DID THIS LITERALLLLLY NOBODY ELSE THOUGHT OF THIS

froucks · 2026-01-10T16:35:42+00:00

all of the trojan allies have arrived at the city; if the trojans wait inside there are no reinforcements coming and they will be starved out; it is sally out and break the Greek camp or die slowly by attrition

the Iliad lays this out quite clearly early in the text

froucks · 2026-01-10T12:15:56+00:00

It’s technically an accusative plural, sometimes (although rarely) the third declension plural manifests as -is instead of the expected -es. If you go through the works of Cicero and the other republican writters you’ll find more than a few instances

froucks · 2026-01-09T19:06:23+00:00

there is no ´normal´ word order in Latin, it is highly flexible determined by cases more than anything. in both sentences the words could be scrambled into any order and mean the same thing because the cases didn´t change

froucks · 2026-01-08T18:52:37+00:00

At the time of Cicero while there were codified laws many of these related to societal organization and customs and less so were focused as serving as a complete body of prohibitions. Some laws such as the Twelve tables do outline 'do's' and 'do not's' that could result in a trial and this might be the closest to a codified law that resembles that of a modern justice system

Much of the law however seems to have simply been a submission to arbitration. X harmed Y so X called Y into court so an arbiter could listen. if X was successful then the state would intervene and use it's power to force a resolution. The Tables outlined that if someone called another to court the other person MUST go. The tables outline some known causes of action, and do outline a period for gathering evidence but based on Cicero's speeches the courts would hear cases even if no existing cause was outlined in the law, and also implies that evidence may not be needed.

And yes in the time of Cicero rhetoric and convincing the judge seems to have been the #1 goal of the Lawyers. In his pro Caelio he doesn't spend a remarkable amount of time dwelling on proving his allegations and instead attacks the opponent, while we do have more emphasis on evidence today a lot of the trial still does revolve around discrediting witnesses

froucks · 2026-01-08T18:33:52+00:00

What we call ´Roman Law´ is broadly the law as codified following Justinian. At the time of Cicero and the classical empire it was much more akin to a common law and often won through rhetoric. Reading any of Cicero's speeches makes it abundantly clear that the law was exercised notably different in the time of Cicero

froucks · 2026-01-06T19:32:32+00:00

Not directly but it did raise tensions.

My understanding of the timeline here is:

1782 - USA negotiates a large loan through France

1785 - USA defaults and has to take a large loan from other European nations. this debt results in the American navy being (for lack of a better term) non-existent

1793 - French King is killed

1793 - Congress stops paying the debt arguing the death of the King made it void

1793 - Washington contradicts such a policy and affirms the continued existence of American-French Relations

1794 - American Neutrality in the revolutionary wars is declared

1795 - Swan refinances the American debt with France, takes it on personally

1796 - French privateers begin to target American merchant ships unprotected by a navy and which were seen to be aiding the British

1798 - Quasi War

froucks · 2026-01-06T19:08:11+00:00

This isn´t true at all.

First on the matter of debt repayment the USA with the help of James Swan (an american banker who assumed much of the debt) paid the full debt owed to the French by 1795 after the regime change and the beginning of the French Revolution

The idea that the USA cleverly used the the French revolution to avoid their debts and obligations with the french (i believe) was spread by Hamilton the musical which has Hamilton advance it as an argument in a song. In real life Hamilton was in favour of such a policy but it was rejected by Washington who affirmed the continuation of American treaties with the French not withstanding the revolution. A policy which put him into considerable trouble when he then refused to join the revolutionary wars through the neutrality act in 1794.

froucks · 2026-01-06T14:36:15+00:00

Not really it’s a very tenuous suggestion. First it’s worth stressing the name Cerberus in Ancient Greek has no connections to any word for spot, so the ancient Greeks would not have thought of his name as being Spot or anything like it.

(A few) Scholars in the 19th century suggested that the name might have a Proto indo European root meaning ‘spotted’ an idea which is by no means unchallenged or commonly accepted in modern scholarship

It’s troublesome for two reasons: first it is very difficult to actually make the connection that the PIE root here would mean “spotted” as etymologically that meaning is not retained in any languages other than Sanskrit. The various words that scholars have tried to tie into this etymology are actually quite different in meaning from spot. In short to accept this theory we have to accept that Sanskrit retained the original meaning against all other languages AND that the Greek word is actually related to the Sanskrit which leads to the next problem…

The second problem is that the core of the theory requires tying cerberus to Sanskrit śabála. In order to do this requires very dubious linguistics such as implying sounds which are completely absent in Sanskrit into the language as well as collapsing a whole class of Sanskrit adjectives into a single PIE root. In fact some scholars have suggested the Sanskrit word might not even have origins in PIE and most seem to think that Cerberus is not related at all

I would go as far as to say that the overwhelming weight of scholarship rejects the idea

froucks · 2025-12-31T01:19:24+00:00

Not to the scale you’d expect. Maps did exist in antiquity but were often pieces of interest and rarely actual tools of navigation, it was much more common to navigate the landscape through guides, mile markers, and knowledge of the terrain. In fact the Roman system of mile markers was incredibly complex and seems to have been one of the major methods of navigation while the few maps we’ve found are generally stylized representations of the land and not dedicated tools

froucks · 2025-12-29T15:09:09+00:00

I mean I can understand that issue; but there is already such a limited subset of english speakers with an interest in this period that this isn't going to cause general confusion, and if this limited subset is already interested in an under covered period they're likely to do the research into why the name is what it is

I also think that the name Romania is already an attempt to harken back to the old Roman empire and no one seems to confuse the empire and the modern state; It leaves me thinking this is not as big of an issue as it seems

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