Real LOVE!

[Theo]

Don't you just LOVE the Roman Army? I describe it as my wife ... though I do have the occasional extra-marital fling with other armies .... well, I always come home in the end ...

Theo

[Matthew Amt]

Like a wife as in, Generally happy and comfortable to be around but every once in a while you learn something startlingly new and terrifying? Yeah, I can see that. Not that I'm crazy enough to bounce this idea off my ACTUAL lovely wife...

So does that make the Bronze Age my mistress? New and exciting, mystifying and secretive, not many people know about it, and some Romans are worried about it?

Not sure how far I want to take this analogy! We reenactors are weird enough already...

Matthew

[Endre Fodstad]

The Roman era was my first real girlfriend. But I tired of her. First, she couldn't really talk to me without passing most of the conversation through another woman, (who was frequently maligned and reviled by my girlfriend's other friends - they called her ignorant, stupid and overly religious although, to be true, I always felt a lot of that was just slander) which was pretty weird. Sure, I could dig and dig until she came up something, but I typically had to filter that through that what that other woman had said, and I could never be all that sure about what she really meant. She was mysterious, that was for sure! But unlike Matthew, I'm not all that attracted to something that mysterious and secretive.

On the other hand, some women are just too talkative. Talk talk talk. They talk so much it just flows over and the main problem is interpreting the stream of babble. And some of them loved my first girlfriend so much it was sort of embarrassing.That's not me either.

Another problem with my first girlfriend was that I had problems relating to her. She was all over the place, but not where I was from, and although her friends kept telling me she, in truth, was the source of everything good, I got more and more estranged and the rosy glow wore off. The more I learned about her the less I could relate to her, although all of it was interesting. So we split up, although we occasionally see each other socially and I keep myself updated on what is happening to her.

Then I started seeing my first girlfriend's friend and found that she was just right for me. Not too much chatter, but she sure could drive her point across directly, which was incredible after the experience of the first girlfriend. She has a lot more to say than my first girlfriend, and when I dig, I find lots more than I did with my first girlfriend. Also, she can relate to where I am from although we both have a fairly cosmopolitan attitude. It also turned out that almost all the bad talk I had heard about her was slander - she wasn't a better or worse person than my first girlfriend, just different, but perfect for me. I married her in a spring wedding.

I have, however, ashamingly, started a flirtation with another friend of my wife, shortly after I met my wife. She barely talks at all - and when she does, it is through my wife, or through digs disturbingly similar to the ones I had before. Many men really like this one, and if they are not from here (and sometimes even if they are) they confuse this girl with my wife. On the other hand, she is a local, just like my wife. It will keep flirting, because the fights she gets into are amazingly fun, but it will never be as serious as with my wife. So the flirting is just a sport, really.

[Vincula]

hock: :?:

[Epictetus]

Ovid thought that a triumph was a good chance to find love.

Joyous youths shall look on and maidens with them, and that day shall make all hearts o'erflow. And when some girl among them asks the names of the monarchs, or what places, what mountains, what rivers are borne along, do you answer everything, not only if she ask you; ay, even if you know not, tell her as if you knew it well... you will have names to give them correct if you can, but if not, yet names that are fitting.

Ovid, The Art of Love

So even the ancients thought love and war went together. :lol:

[Jona Lendering]

I wish I could say that I could distinguish between the living and the dead, and I actually still think that I love my living friends and relatives more than the ancients. Still, I am pretty obsessed with Antiquity, and can be really angry when I see that people damage what is so dear to me. I once saw a man who went totally beserk because someone had insulted his wife; and I can be angry when historians employed by universities speak nonsense about ancient history.

Writing my book on common errors is in some sense therapeutic. To be honest: my obsession sometimes scares me.

[Praefectusclassis]

To be honest: my obsession sometimes scares me.

That's okay, Jona. It scares me too. :wink: :wink:

[Jona Lendering]

To be honest: my obsession sometimes scares me.

That's okay, Jona. It scares me too. :wink: :wink:

Your obsession or mine?

[Praefectusclassis]

Yours. Everybody knows that I'm a completely normal and well-balanced person. :mrgreen:

[Jona Lendering]

Everybody knows that I'm a completely normal and well-balanced person. :mrgreen:

[Caius Fabius]

hock: :?:

yeah, what she said.... :?

[M. Demetrius]

Curioser and curioser. :!: