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Roman views of \'Barbarians\'
#31
Quote:If any part of your body is 12 inches long then it's a foot :wink:
Well now that you mention it...
>|P. Dominus Antonius|<
Leg XX VV
Tony Dah m

Oderint dum metuant - Cicero
Si vis pacem, para bellum - Vegetius
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#32
Jocularity is "playing around", or "joking around".
:wink:
M. Demetrius Abicio
(David Wills)

Saepe veritas est dura.
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#33
Quote:
Memmia:1nn6w8w0 Wrote:If any part of your body is 12 inches long then it's a foot :wink:
Well now that you mention it...

You have a big....













...nose ? :twisted:
Memmia AKA Joanne Wenlock.
Friends of Letocetum
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#34
Dragging this thread kicking and screaming back on track, Tacitus sometimes writes admiringly of the Teutones. Of course, like many Roman historians he was a scolding moralist and the "barbarians" he describes may well be his fantasy of virtuous Roman ancestors. The moralists always complained that their contemporaries had fallen from the high standard of virtue set by the ancestors.

Modern people have the same sneaking admiration for people we believe have retained the virtues and style we think our ancestors had. We idolize the "noble red man" (having all but exterminated them) and travelers to East Africa are always enthralled by the Maasai, who retain their warrior culture and disdain the modern world. The Victorian English fell in love with a fantasy vision of the Scottish Highlanders once they were no longer afraid of them. Suddenly everybody wanted to find Scottish ancestry and wear kilts and tartan and listen to bagpipes. In short, the way we speak (and write) about barbarians is often at odds with the way we actually feel about them.
Pecunia non olet
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#35
Quote:Dragging this thread kicking and screaming back on track, Tacitus sometimes writes admiringly of the Teutones. Of course, like many Roman historians he was a scolding moralist and the "barbarians" he describes may well be his fantasy of virtuous Roman ancestors. The moralists always complained that their contemporaries had fallen from the high standard of virtue set by the ancestors.

Modern people have the same sneaking admiration for people we believe have retained the virtues and style we think our ancestors had. We idolize the "noble red man" (having all but exterminated them) and travelers to East Africa are always enthralled by the Maasai, who retain their warrior culture and disdain the modern world. The Victorian English fell in love with a fantasy vision of the Scottish Highlanders once they were no longer afraid of them. Suddenly everybody wanted to find Scottish ancestry and wear kilts and tartan and listen to bagpipes. In short, the way we speak (and write) about barbarians is often at odds with the way we actually feel about them.

Good drag-back!

This is part of what I'm looking for. Although all that we usually hear about are how savage, drunken and poor politically the barbarians are - with exceptions such as Tacitus who stress the 'noble savage' angle - it is still the view of the educated elite of the Roman hierarchy. Are there any mentions in Hagiographies (Saints' Lives) or Letters or something that gives a different variation? Anybody???
Ian (Sonic) Hughes
"I have described nothing but what I saw myself, or learned from others" - Thucydides, Peloponnesian War
"I have just jazzed mine up a little" - Spike Milligan, World War II
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