by Aldus Marius on Tue Mar 03, 2009 6:21 am
*enjoys a hearty chuckle*
Believe it or not, amice Formose has more up his sleeve for our delectation. One of the "PM overflow" items in my box has been the drafts for a series entitled "When In Rome", this being a tongue-in-cheek travelogue of our Sempronius' modern-day adventures and encounters in the City. Ita, Formose, I've now read them! If you'd like to drop these off somewhere the rest of us can get to them, the General section might be a good fit.
I'm happy that you are enjoying your stay with us. We may not be as scholarly as some places or as stuffy as others, but we do try to fill the need for just-plain-Romans who need a friendly mileu in which to discover for themselves (and share with others) just what "being a Roman" means to them in their lives and imaginations.
Ahh, the Internet... Thanks to Uncle Sam's Air Force, I've been on since 1983, back when everything was text-based and the speed of thought was about 300 baud. (The 'Net's gotten faster, but unfortunately Marius hasn't!) I thought the world went to hell the day those wise men in Sweden invented the .com domain. I knew Compuserve and AOL in their original incarnations as big BBS's. I was addicted to newsgroups. I even had plans to start a homebrew Roman BBS ("bulletin board system") of my own--and Mater, just look at me now!! >({|8-)
My particular net-dot-peeve is all those Web-form buttons that say "SUBMIT" ...Itane?? Civis Romanus sum; I won't do it; Romans never, ever, *ever* will be slaves!! (But of course I have to...even on this Board, alas. What the world has come to...)
History nerd: I used to keep my barracks-mates up all night with tales of the Legions...all in first-person plural. I took Cannae and Teutoberger Wald very personally. I'd take the Ides of March off from work for "family religious observances". And I used to tell friends who asked about my reenactor activities, "Na, I'm Roman all the time; it's just that, at my gigs, I actually get to dress up as myself!"
I do hope we'll hear more from Formosus and his altera significa, and about his perambulations in the Mother City, and of course about anything else he'd like to share. The same goes for all of you!! And I promise we'll do our best to retaliate...err, reciprocate (yeah yeah, that's the word--'reciprocate')! <bg>
In amicitia et fide (and lighter spirit),
Aldus Marius Peregrinus.