Search found 259 matches

by sean_m
Sat May 14, 2016 1:22 pm
Forum: Alexander the Great in the Media
Topic: The Sword of Alexander in the Batman vs Superman film
Replies: 47
Views: 46523

Re: The Sword of Alexander in the Batman vs Superman film

In general, there is good reason for the length of swords in ATG's era. The quality of the steel available, was still too primitive to produce length with strength. This would come later with the Roman legion's infamous short sword. Spear points, daggers, short swords (shorter and heavier, if memor...
by sean_m
Thu May 12, 2016 10:48 am
Forum: Alexander the Great in the Media
Topic: The Sword of Alexander in the Batman vs Superman film
Replies: 47
Views: 46523

Re: The Sword of Alexander in the Batman vs Superman film

There is definitely the possibility of finding more dedications by Alexander as more sanctuaries are excavated and the finds cleaned and published. Just think of those elephant medallions. Mostly I see this as an indication that Hollywood doesn't understand ancient Greek/Macedonian warfare--which is...
by sean_m
Mon May 09, 2016 6:11 pm
Forum: Art and Culture
Topic: MACEDONIAN LEGAL SYSTEM OR LACK THEREOF
Replies: 7
Views: 4536

Re: MACEDONIAN LEGAL SYSTEM OR LACK THEREOF

The story of the advice which Anaxarchus of Abdera gave to Alexander ( Plut. Al. 52 ) has some similarities to and some differences from Herodotus' story of how Cambyses decided whether it was lawful to marry his sister (Hdt. 3.31). I am in the middle of translating something which looks at the pic...
by sean_m
Sun May 08, 2016 4:29 pm
Forum: Alexander's contemporaries
Topic: Conspiracy against Philotas By Waldemar Heckel
Replies: 42
Views: 51285

Re: Conspiracy against Philotas By Waldemar Heckel

There's a series of articles about this topic. At the risk of sounding arrogant and citing myself, see the link below. I note it because I cite the academic "conversation" in articles about the Philotas Affair. I have never seen anything wrong with citing oneself to avoid rewriting someth...
by sean_m
Fri May 06, 2016 10:59 am
Forum: Discuss Alexander the Great
Topic: A terrible loss - Agesilaos; Karl
Replies: 22
Views: 12118

Re: A terrible loss - Agesilaos; Karl

He will be missed by people around the world!
by sean_m
Thu May 05, 2016 9:17 pm
Forum: Discuss Alexander the Great
Topic: Amphipolis
Replies: 28
Views: 17612

Re: Amphipolis

Amyntoros, that seems like an awful lot of work to undertake. Sean, I'm curious. Why have you chosen now to voice your complaints about this forum? Because a series of events in my personal and family life have hurt me very, very deeply and that has struck off the chains of politeness from my tongu...
by sean_m
Thu May 05, 2016 11:41 am
Forum: Art and Culture
Topic: MACEDONIAN LEGAL SYSTEM OR LACK THEREOF
Replies: 7
Views: 4536

Re: MACEDONIAN LEGAL SYSTEM OR LACK THEREOF

The story of the advice which Anaxarchus of Abdera gave to Alexander ( Plut. Al. 52 ) has some similarities to and some differences from Herodotus' story of how Cambyses decided whether it was lawful to marry his sister (Hdt. 3.31). I am in the middle of translating something which looks at the pict...
by sean_m
Thu May 05, 2016 11:24 am
Forum: Discuss Alexander the Great
Topic: Amphipolis
Replies: 28
Views: 17612

Re: Amphipolis

Yes, and balancing the wishes of the posters who prefer a concise, scientific style of discussion and the posters who prefer to have a long chat with lots of rhetorical flourishes, nudges at conversation mates, and fun spotting and avoiding the rhetorical traps set by other posters. Threads which go...
by sean_m
Wed May 04, 2016 11:06 pm
Forum: Alexander's contemporaries
Topic: Conspiracy against Philotas By Waldemar Heckel
Replies: 42
Views: 51285

Re: Conspiracy against Philotas By Waldemar Heckel

Also, in terms of organization, even modern bureaucratic armies and navies have two broad strategies: some rely on orders from the top through a hierarchy to the individual combatants, and others rely on giving the individual combatants general directions and training them to solve the problems in f...
by sean_m
Wed May 04, 2016 10:16 pm
Forum: Discuss Alexander the Great
Topic: Amphipolis
Replies: 28
Views: 17612

Re: Amphipolis

I think that the decline in posting had something to do with all the arguments and very long threads. Some people enjoy that but its not my cup of tea. As that other place became uncomfortable to people who were more interested in Greeks than Romans, I moved to chats with my academic colleagues, and...
by sean_m
Wed May 04, 2016 9:31 pm
Forum: Alexander's contemporaries
Topic: Conspiracy against Philotas By Waldemar Heckel
Replies: 42
Views: 51285

Re: Conspiracy against Philotas By Waldemar Heckel

And I guess we could bring in the military inscription from Amphipolis, and what kind of army it is describing. I am some personal difficulties right now and I don't have energy for a nice juicy talk about Macedonian armies! I hope to have some things to talk about in the fall. But I am convinced th...
by sean_m
Wed May 04, 2016 9:27 pm
Forum: Book reviews
Topic: Editions of Curtius Rufus
Replies: 0
Views: 13402

Editions of Curtius Rufus

In another thread Nicator asked about editions of, translations of, and commentaries to Curtius Rufus. Rather than change the subject there, lets talk about our favourite versions here! The Loeb edition is affordable and has both the Latin and an English translation. Lacus Curtius has the Latin text...
by sean_m
Fri Mar 25, 2016 10:46 pm
Forum: Discuss Alexander the Great
Topic: Sogdian Rock
Replies: 8
Views: 5673

Re: Sogdian Rock

Thanks for the link! My thought about these genetic studies is that they have so many potential points of error (the genetics, the statistics, the software, the assumptions used to interpret the genetics, and the history used to interpret those results) that it would take a lot of work to look them ...
by sean_m
Thu Dec 31, 2015 8:46 am
Forum: Art and Culture
Topic: Ancient Greek toys
Replies: 5
Views: 3670

Re: Ancient Greek toys

Thanks system1988! I appreciate all of the news from Greece which you pass on. I hope that you have an excellent new year.
by sean_m
Fri Dec 18, 2015 7:42 pm
Forum: Art and Culture
Topic: Ecbatana and the nearby temple of Anahita
Replies: 11
Views: 10038

Re: Ecbatana and the nearby temple of Anahita

Yes, people in the ancient world often called a minor or foreign god by the name of a major or familiar one. In the hands of advanced thinkers this could drift in the direction of monotheism but I suspect that most people were just trying to sort out which gods were really important and which they d...