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The Off Topic Topic

Started by Korea, March 10, 2009, 06:24:26 AM

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The Minsky Moment

There's really two questions here.

First, did people from Africa travel around the Roman Empire?  Clearly they did - for example Apuleius travelled all over the place during this period though probably not Britain. Clodius Albinus was born in Africa and commanded legions in Britain during the period - although his name could suggest he was light-skinned :lol:  The bigger point though is that significant movement was very possible in the Empire and Britain may have been the kind of place where an ambitious person from somewhere else could make a name.

Second, what "race" were Africans during the Roman period - there is basically no useful answer to that question because the Romans didn't have the same concept.
The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.
--Joan Robinson

CountDeMoney

Quote from: The Minsky Moment on August 07, 2017, 06:31:28 PM
Clodius Albinus was born in Africa and commanded legions in Britain during the period - although his name could suggest he was light-skinned :lol: 

Maximus Crackus Barrellus

Ed Anger

Biggus Dickus.

Anyways, I've always found Mary Beard to be a tedious old biddy. But I have no opinion on this issue.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

CountDeMoney

Quote from: Ed Anger on August 07, 2017, 07:21:02 PM
But I have no opinion on this issue.

You're so full of shit. 


Ed Anger

Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

The Brain

Reminds me of Black Hawk Down, where one of the more prominent Somali lieutenants is played by a guy of obvious West African descent. They all look the same, right?
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Ed Anger

Quote from: The Brain on August 07, 2017, 07:57:53 PM
Reminds me of Black Hawk Down, where one of the more prominent Somali lieutenants is played by a guy of obvious West African descent. They all look the same, right?

Yes
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

The Brain

Quote from: Admiral Yi on August 07, 2017, 02:40:18 PM
Quote from: The Brain on August 07, 2017, 02:33:54 PM
Is he a patrician?

Unless Britain was an Imperial province (?) he would have to be to be governor.

Elaborate.
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Habbaku

The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.

-J. R. R. Tolkien


Admiral Yi

Very cool pics.

Wonder how a dude from a line regiment ended up in a bear skin hat.

grumbler

Quote from: Admiral Yi on August 07, 2017, 09:14:26 PM
Wonder how a dude from a line regiment ended up in a bear skin hat.

The elite companies of line regiments often wore the busby (a fur cap without the plate that the bearskin cap had).  They were supposed to transition to shakos with plumes in something like 1804, but those busbies (and bearskins for the line grenadiers) lasted a long time, and many still had them at Waterloo.  No one willingly gave up a busby or bearskin for a shako, and the army didn't try very hard t make them, because colonels liked to see their men wearing them.  They were almost never left on the battlefield, so new grenadiers or elite cavalry company men would buy the ones worn by the dead or discharged elites from the regiment, who would send the proceeds to the next of kin of the dead or discharged soldier.

If you are interested in this stuff and have never read https://www.amazon.com/Swords-Around-Throne-John-Elting/dp/0306807572, you are in for a treat!
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

derspiess

Quote from: dps on August 07, 2017, 05:22:18 PM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on August 07, 2017, 05:03:02 PM

Yes, when the time comes I'll be sure to remind the Gilead security forces of my Irish Catholic Preferred Member Status. :lol:

Hey, man, you're an American, and therefore automatically better and more important than any non-American, regardless of race, creed, gender, national origin, gender orientation, political ideology, or disability status;  so you've got nothing to complain about.

Correction: Seedy used to be American. Now he's nothing. Hell, he's almost European.
"If you can play a guitar and harmonica at the same time, like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, you're a genius. But make that extra bit of effort and strap some cymbals to your knees, suddenly people want to get the hell away from you."  --Rich Hall

Josquius

Quote from: CountDeMoney on August 07, 2017, 04:32:03 PM
I bet he thinks the Romans were white.  Which is silly, since they were Italian.  #TheSitvation

More than that. Modern Italians have a lot of Germanic blood in them.
I've read that historically they were much darker, Sicilia uber alles
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Eddie Teach

Quote from: CountDeMoney on August 07, 2017, 05:03:02 PM
Yes, when the time comes I'll be sure to remind the Gilead security forces of my Irish Catholic Preferred Member Status. :lol:

You can't really call America a "Christian nation" anymore unless you count the Catholics.
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?