Societas Via Romana - Discussion Archives

Hey everybody. Cato here. Brand new to SVR and looking forward to it. I'm in NYC (the new caput mundi) , am from a Sicilian family (that means I talk too much and too loudly), and am deeply interested in History...it was one of my Majors in college. So, I hope to talk to all of you soon.
valete,

Cato

P.S. - oh, I found out I'm the first of the Equitius gens! That's pretty cool...

Salve! Si vales, bene est, valeo.

Welcome aboard.
I'm from Pennsylvania, a Pugliese-American and a former history major as well.

Vale bene!

Salvete, mi Cato.

Albeit that I do NOT have a history degree, I wanted to join these extnguished gentlemen -:shock: Can't believe I wrote that - in welcoming you to our Societas.

I am certain that you will find it to your liking.

Vale bene

Salve Cato,

This student of history, busily striving to attain a degree, greets and welcomes you !

Vale bene,

Q. Pomponius Atticus

Salve Cato!

Welcome to SVR, I hope you will enjoy it here. I am currently in my third college year of English and German and hail from provincia Belgica, like a great deal of our members.

Aulus Dionysius Mencius wrote:Albeit that I do NOT have a history degree, I wanted to join these extnguished gentlemen

Did you really write "extinguished" gentlemen? LOL! Oh by the way, greeting one person is just "salve", not "salvete" mi Menci! Don't worry though, Piscinus once wrote "slave Draco" to me .

Vale bene,
Draco

salve everybody

it is nice to welcome a couple of fellow-historians. I got my degree in classical history last year, and now I hope to get a Phd-scholarship in history. I'm planning to post a abstract of my Master-thesis on SVR this summer, maybe it's a nice idea for the other historians?

valete

Ariadne Sergia Fausta

PS, can someone explain to me how you adjust a digital photograph to the size of an avatar, I have a really cool one but cannot use it

I did not mean to imply that death was upon you, amici... Mea culpa, but hey, you got the message, nonne

Salve Gai Equiti

And welcome to SVR! I, too, am of Italian descent, Abruzzese and Roma, and have a degree in History, the only discipline for an extinguished gentleman. Do I feel extinguished today? The sun is rising, the full moon setting, and birds awaking the day, time to go dancing! I'll extinguish some other time. Hope to see you around when I get back.

Vale optime

hmmmm...I'm not feeling particularly extinguished today, but I just got up, so there's a good chance it might jump out at me later. I'll keep you posted

Cato

Salve Cato,

And welcome to the Societas! I am also busy obtaining a degree, but given my current state of extinguishedness, I don't know if I'm eligible.

Ariadne, I also look forward to reading a copy of your work. By sending a photo to the Aediles, I believe they can reduce it to the right size, as they did with my Polish Eagle.

Bene vale,
Marcus Scribonius Curio Britannicus.

Thanks for the welcomes on the "various questions" thread. I don´t yet know or remember anyone except Moravius, as I was an active member of AncientWorlds some time ago.

I got interested in the classical world - yeah, I didn´t know what that meant then - when reading a kids book about Rome when I was five. I know a little Latin though I´m lazy - don´t ask about my Greek. Generally... I´m interested in everything about antiquity. But if you want to know which area I know best, its the political history of the Late Republic and Early Empire. (I have taken a look on Moravius´ posts about the Late Republic, very interesting, I hope I will read them soon.

Presently, I´m reading Mary Renault´s Fire from Heaven.

Again, thanks for the welcomes.

Drusus

Salve Druse

Welcome to SVR!

I am glad to see you dropped by. I think you'll find a few amiable sodales here, and then there's the regular crew, too. Around here I am best known as Piscinus, and a few other things I suppose, but proudly not part of the Latin Inquisition.

I am not familiar with Mary Renault. Is she an author of fiction? While the sodales, as we call members here, share an interest in ancient cultures, you will find not all of our discussions concern the ancient world. We are open to most anything in our discussions, with our shared interest in the ancient world perhaps influencing our perspectives of the modern world. That is, you will find some similarities between Ancient Worlds and SVR, and some differences. I hope you find our community as pleasurable and as interesting as I have found Ancient Worlds to be.

Vale optime

G. Equitius Cato quirites S.P.D.

Salvete omnes.

I'm reading an unusual but excellent book by Duncan Sprott called The Ptolemies. Excellent because it's a great read, unusual because the author is the Egyptian God of Wisdom, Thoth It follows the Ptolemids from the conquest of Egypt under Alexander the Great up to Kleopatra. I finished Rubicon last week; another excellent book, this time non-fiction, about the last days of the Roman Republic. I'd suggest them both to anyone.

Valete optimae bene,

Cato

Salve Cato!

Ahhh, the dreaded Latin Inquisition strikes again!

Gaius Equitius Cato wrote:G. Equitius Cato quirites S.P.D.

You can say "salvete Quirites" or "G. Equitius Cato quiritibus SPD" but not what you wrote. The expression SPD (salutem plurimam dicit - says many greetings) needs someone you say it to... hence the dative case, and not the accusative one.

Gaius Equitius Cato wrote:Valete optimae bene,

I thank you for wishing us so well, mi Cato! But since "optimus" and "bonus" are the same word ("best" and "good") you should leave one of them out. "Bene" is correct but if you use the adverb form of "optimus" it should, logically, be "optime".

Voilà. Don't worry too much about it .

Optime vale,
Draco

And the latin inquisitor struck again! (for picture of intented person look tot the left of this message). Now that I'm thinking about it, it is almost time to change my avatar...

Ah, I have not yet browsed the place to found a proper thread and as Equitius posted in here... let it be.

I´ve heard about The Ptolemies book, according to the amazon rewiewer - I know the guy - it had funny things like tomatoes in it. Otherwise quite ok, I hear. Its so difficult to sort all the different Ptolemies when reading a history book...

Mary Renault is perhaps the best author ever to write novels about the classical world. When I was a "Late Republic nut" I savoured McCullough because of her detailed narrative... but now I´ve come to dislike the type of books generally called "historical fiction". Books that are not worth reading by themselves and are read by people interested about history. Life´s simply too short to read crap.

Renault has been able to create the world of classical Greece, her books read as LITERATURE and CLASSICS, not "historical fiction. I have read The Praise Singer, a memoir of the poet Simonides, and am reading the Fire from Heaven. This book is the first of three dealing with Alexander, with them her best known novel is her Last of the Wine, of the heyday and fall of Athens.

I knew Piscine - does the vocative make the Latin inquisition happy - doesn´t like fiction in general... but a good book is a good book.

G. Equirius Cato Gn. Dionysio Draconi Invictus quiritibusque S.P.D.

LOL Is that better ^ ? Although I don't remember how to end the "Invictus"..."Invicto"? Anyways, it's always good to get corrected in such a pleasant way...the alternatives (you know, the irons, the coals, whips, hamsters, etc.) can get so...messy.

I agree about Drusus' estimation of Ms. McCullough's books. They're "OK" if you know nothing about history. If you do, they get aggravating pretty quickly.

Of course, Graves' "Claudius" duo are the watermark...

I haven't read Renault, but she sounds good. I'll have to take a look at them.

valete! (I'll keep it simple, you can infer the "bestest" bit )

Cato

Salve Nero,

I didn't know Mary Renault but will try to read (and possibly review) a novel of hers during summer holiday. Thanks for the tip.

Vale,

Atticus