Jona eat your heart out !! ANOTHER BULL... STORY

[MARCvSVIBIvSMAvRINvS]

Let me correct you...

They know that "this could be the birthplace of the emperor Vespasian

Who are THEY, HOW do they know, what proof do THEY have....

stories like this are a world away from quackery

Not so, stories like this are QUACKERY in its worst form !!

"there can be little doubt that this is the Emperor's villa" is:

[size=150:27pe4ftz]pseudoscholarship[/size]

Who in their right minds can say this is an Imperial villa?

First let them come up with the outline, is it as big as the Villa Adriana? as large as the Capri complex? No it is NOT!

The only thing we know is that it is a lavish villa, in or near the place where, according to the sources, the Flavii were born or lived...

And how do we know that the site and town are indeed the place as mentioned in the sources?

Remember people also thought the Teutoburgerwald was the place where the Varus battles took place...

Come with PROOF before you *ARCHAEOLOGISTS, not you Tom... state utter nonsense.

M.VIB.M.

[popularis]

They know that "this could be the birthplace of the emperor Vespasian

Who are THEY, HOW do they know, what proof do THEY have....

I'm sorry that I wasn't clear. That was a hypothetical quote. The intent was to suggest that a relatively moderate quote can easily be turned into a hyperbolic headline.

stories like this are a world away from quackery

Not so, stories like this are QUACKERY in its worst form !!
"there can be little doubt that this is the Emperor's villa" is [size=150:1299x4tl]pseudoscholarship[/size]

Again, I apologise. I should have found the direct quote, which was:

We are talking of a unique, 15,000-square-meter (161,459-square-foot) villa. We found no inscription that says it belonged to the emperor, but the location, dating, size and quality of the building leave little doubt about its owner.

Who in their right minds can say this is an Imperial villa?

First let them come up with the outline, is it as big as the Villa Adriana? as large as the Capri complex? No it is NOT!

I can't agree that this is quackery. In the first instance Hadiran's villa at Tivoli and Tiberius' at Capri were imperial palaces. There's no suggestion in the quotes that this villa is their equal - but it doesn't need to be, and one could argue that Vespasian would not have wished to be tarred with Tiberius' brush and be known for building lavish country palaces. The suggestion that this is a significant estate belonging to the imperial house but which was not a palace is reasonable: there's no evidence, literary or archaeological, to say that it isn't what they suggest it might be; and there's evidence in favour of their suggestion (if only circumstantial evidence). I think its unlikely that they're right, but the suggestion is - to my mind - an order of magnitude away from aliens or even Alexander's tomb being at Siwa.

On the Ctesias scale, it's a 3 at best (Correct facts, exaggerated claims, by an author employed by a university), and more probably a 2 (Correct facts, exaggerated claims) as it's the journalists who are doing most of the exaggerating. On a scale that goes up to 9, this isn't pseudoscholarship (which would be an 7, 8 or a 9), it's just hyperbolic journalism, and only slightly so at that. You could be in your right mind and argue that this a villa belonging to Vespasian. I think you'd probably be wrong, but I wouldn't think you were insane.

blue skies

Tom

[MARCvSVIBIvSMAvRINvS]

Thank you for the heads up and explanation!!

15000 square meters... the complex i presume... but how they measured that is also not clear.

Very rich senators would also have had estates that large imho...

M.VIB.M.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

So, the found a big sumptuous villa in Italy, dating to the Roman period! Cool!!!