FROM THE LEGIO XIII GEMINA and AMAZON AUX

END OF THE YEAR REPORT

by Centurio Princeps Achilles Claudius ( Achille Back )

The end of the tenth month of the year has been filled with festivities. Our legionaries have been sent back home to their families to enjoy the peaceful time and pray for the gods.

The year was ROMA EXERCITUS MMDCCLXII a.U.c 2762 ad Urbe condita ( from the founding of the City = 2009 A.D.)

The past year has been very important for the ROMA SPQR Armed Forces (XIII Legio Gemina, Cohors Equitata, Classis Nautica, Cohors Praetoria):


TIRONES - Recruits

End of the year bureaucracy showed that recruitment slowed a bit (compared to 2008), though some veterans from the provinces have returned to the Legio and have become active again.

Thanks go out to Centurio Amazona Nina Tiberia (Tonina Rodenberger) who takes excellent care of all the recruits.


COHORS EQUITATA

First of all, the cavalry Legio Romana Cohors Equitata was brought into the XIII legion structure as auxiliary unit. This fusion now affords better control of the recruits and the trainings, and also allows our exercitus to have trainings with horses. Congratulations and thanks to Petrus Cornelius Silvanus (peter Woody), Optio of the XIII Legio promoted to Decurio of the Cohors Equitata, who gives so much to our army.


CLASSIS NAUTICA

The Classis Nautica (Navy) is still under reform. The past year has been very challenging for the navy which has been busy extending the ROMAn possesion of the Mare Nostrum in the new ROMA Maritima sim with the building of the new Portus Ostiae. The capture the flag game on the little islands in the sea is still to be perfected and the new triremae will soon be ready to set sail and conquer foreign lands. Let's pray Neptunus for the next year to be the good one for our Classis and that they'll again soon be ruling the seas of the world !


COHORS PRAETORIA

The praetorian imperial guard was happy to welcome home the Praefectus Praetorio Quinuts Ostorius Scapula (Franck Gazov) from his travels in the province of Gallia Belgica. Achilles Claudius Baculum (Achille Back) stepped down from his temporary position of co-praefectus, returned to his Tribunus rank and was happy to give back to the praefectus his powers.

Meanwhile, the Cohors Praetoria, always busy patrolling the ROMA sims, is proud to announce that during the past year the streets of ROMA ( SPQR sim ) and the subura have been quiet and peaceful. Troublemakers ( griefers ) were quickly reported by the praetorians and ejected by the Praefectus Urbis Torin Golding .


EXERCITUS

New weapons and combat system: the biggest change last year was the creation of the first fully Legion owned combat system LCS (Legion Combat System). Low lag and fully modifiable, it gave us the possibilty to create more realistic weapons and animations. The LCS is still in beta form and some changes will be applied soon.

The heavy Lorica Segmentata (high prim count) has been replaced in the common equipment by the more versatile Lorica Hamata. In the coming year the soldiers will have the chance to personalize their look and equipment, thanks to several realistic weapons and accessories which they will be able to buy at low cost from the legion armory.

Special thanks to Praefectus Legionis Vectus Margulis and Primus Pilus Publius Tiberius (Brodbiz Bagration) for their support in the new equipment.


DONA MILITARIA - Military awards

The military awards have been reformed according to the RAS system:


CORONAE (crowns)~~~

Corona Civica: ~ Achille Back (for the cavalry reform)
Corona Navalis: ~ Peter Woody (for winning the Battle of Zama event coming by sea)
Corona Muralis: ~ Brodbiz Bagration (for the conference in Roma centro sim)
Tonina Rodenberger (for the efforts in organizing the Battle of Zama event)
Alekso Minotaur (retired)


PHALERAE (medals)~~~

Legionary of the Month (LOTR) medals went to:

Peter Woody
Toe Fermi
Megara Shieldmaiden
Gianni Lupindo
Montgomery Shelman
Revo Morales


ROMA MILES EXTRAORDINARIUS medals went to:

Brodbiz Bagration
Melanippe Karas
Peter Woody
Megara Shieldmaiden
Jo Soler
Alekso Minotaur (retired)

Congratulations to all of these fine soldiers for jobs well done !

Do you want to know more? Go to: http://legioxiiisl.blogspot.com/

Read more

LEGIO CLASSIFIED ADS

Great opportunity for legionaries!

Rent a cubiculum in the heart of Fort Transtiberim ! Comfy, warm and you'll have your own sheets. Not seen anywhere else: 22 prims for only 200 linden a week. IM me, JO SOLER, and choose your room today ! This is a great way for someone to help support our Legion XIII. All the money is for our group. Contact JO SOLER for details.

Read more

LATIN WORD of the DAY

by Tonina Rodenberger

Concordia, ae, fem. (noun) = harmony, unity

"Ibi semper victoria, ubi concordia est."

"Where there is harmony, there always is victory."

This sentence comes from Publilius Syrus, a roman writer of maxims, who lived in the 1st century BC.

Publilius was a Syrian, who was brought as a slave to Italy and he won the favor of his master by his wit and talent. His mimes, in which he acted himself, were of great success in the provincial towns of Italy and when in 46 BC Caesar gave games, Publilius was invited to a contest of mimes, in which he vanquished all his competitors.

Unfortunately all of his mimes got lost and all that remains of his works is a collection of Sentences (Sententiae), a series of moral maxims in iambic and trochaic verse. Each maxim consists of a single verse and the verses are arranged in alphabetical order. In the course of time the collection was interpolated with sentences from other writers, so its not sure how many of them are originally drawn by Publilius himself.

Read more

REAL HISTORY IN ANCIENT ROME

JANUS

by Spaciva Ivanova

Numa in his regulation of the Roman calendar called the first month Januarius after Janus, arguably the oldest and most important divinity in the Roman pantheon Janus is one of the few Roman gods who has no ready-made counterpart, or analogous mythology. As the first month of the year marks both an end and a new beginning, Janus ( or Ianus ) looks both to the past and the future. This ability was a gift bestowed upon him by Saturn, in return for hospitality received.

Janus is the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings and endings. He is most often depicted as having two faces or heads, facing in opposite directions.

Janus is also the god of concrete.

Similar to the way Hades controls the underworld and Neptune watches over the seas, Janus, the sun god rules the skies together with Jana (Diana), the goddess of the moon and the two receive their sacrifices before all others.

The main Temple of Janus stood in the Roman Forum. The temple had doors on both ends, and inside the temple was a statue of Janus, the two-faced god of boundaries. The temple doors were closed in times of peace and opened in times of war. The closing of the temple was a very rare event. It is said to have happened for the first time under Numa Pompilius, for the second time under Titus Manlius in 235 BC, a third time by Augustus in 29 BC, a fourth time by Nero in 66 AD and only a fifth time under Vespasian in AD 70.

Read more

CITIZENS IN THE NEWS

by Petrus

THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING BRIDE

Scandal in the gens Cornelia! The wedding on the 6th of January has had a mysterious end; the bride didn't show up to the ceremony! While the bridegroom and the pater familias were in despair, a slave came to the door with a message. The message stated that the chariot in which she was riding had been in an accident. Thankfully, the bride was not injured but she was still unable to make it to her own wedding.

Petrus Cornelius and Furius Spartacus made the decision to perform a marriage "per procurationem" ( by proxy ) and formalize it with a religious ceremony in the following days. Thinking the bride was safe and sound, the guests proceeded to enjoy a good party with music, foods and drinks. The dominae of the Tiberia and Sejana gentes were a great help to Petrus planning the party. Unfortunately, it was discovered that the message received earlier was false! The chariot in which the bride was traveling has never been found and there have been no traces of it, nor any news about her.

When questioned by our reporter yesterday about the rumors of a demand for ransom by a celtic tribe, Petrus responded "Impossible ! Considering that Revus, her step-brother is a celt. He was adopted into the Cornelii due to his heroism. They have always had good relations with those tribes. If Martina has been kidnapped, the villains must be common street bandits. " " And what if she has decided on her own not to marry ? " asked our reporter.

At this point Petrus glares at him without a single word, his terrifying icey eyes reminiscent of his famous ancestor, Sulla, the dictator. Our reporter decided he didn't have the courage to ask Petrus any more questions, thanked him for the interview and fled.

Read more

CRITICS CORNER

book review by Serafina Itano

Gaius Sallustius Crispus, "De coniuratione Catilinae "

‘The Conspiracy of Catiline’ is a monograph of the Roman historian Sallust. He describes the conspiracy of Lucius Sergius Catilina who tried in 63 B.C. to seize the power in the Roman republic by a coup d'état what was thwarted by the consul Marcus Tullius Cicero. In the first chapters of his work he depicts the fame as the meaning of life. Then follows a characterization of his protagonist and the demonization of his moral corruptness. It comes the first digression in which Sallust describes a general demoralisation as a cause of the crisis of the Roman republic. Sallust asserts that the virtuousness and braveness which made Rome great during the past centuries would be more and more replaced by greed and squandering. Catiline is described as a typical representative of both of these vices.

The next chapters report about the preliminary events leading up to the complot, the conspiracy itself, the revelation and defeat of the conspirators in the Battle of Pistoria.

It's really a very interesting historical book, especially for those who only know about the conspiracy by Cicero's famous 'Orations against Catiline'. So read it today !! This book receives a rating of five stars *****

Read more

ASTROLOGY

by Spaciva Ivanova

December 22 to January 20

Capricornus is one of the constellations of the zodiac, often called Capricorn. Its name is Latin for "horned male goat" or "goat horn" It was one of the 48 constellations listed by 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy and is commonly represented in the form of a sea-goat: a mythical creature that is half goat, half fish

First attested in depictions on boundary stones and explicitly recorded in the Babylonian star catalogues as "The Goat-Fish" before 1000 BC, the constellation was a symbol of Ea and in the Early Bronze Age marked the winter solstice.

Capricornus has one of the oldest mythological associations, having been consistently represented in the form of a sea-goat; a mythical creature that is half goat and half fish.

This constellation is sometimes identified as Amalthea, the goat that suckled the infant Jupitor after his mother Rhea saved him from being devoured by his father Saturn. The goat's broken horn was transformed into the cornucopia or horn of plenty. Some claim that this derives from the sun 'taking nourishment' while in the constellation, in preparation for its climb back northward. However, the constellation is more often depicted as a goat with a fish's tail. One myth says that when the goat-god Pan was attacked by the monster Typhon, he dove into the Nile; the parts above the water remained a goat, but those under the water transformed into a fish.

~~~ ASTRONOMY of CAPRICORNUS ~~~

It was January, 1801, a new year and a new century and Giuseppe Piazzi, a monk in Sicily and the founding director of the Palermo Astronomical Observatory, was on the verge of discovering a new celestial object.

Although he was certain he had discovered a new planet, Piazzi announced it as a newly discovered comet.

Piazzi named it "Ceres Ferdinandea," after the Roman goddess of grain and King Ferdinand IV of Naples and Sicily

Over the next few years, other objects were discovered in a roughly similar orbit. In fact, by the end of the century, several hundred had been found. By that time, Ceres's designation had been changed from planet to a new term, asteroid.

A few facts about Ceres; It has a diameter of 960 x 932 with a mass of 8.7e20 kg. Its rotation period is 9.075 hours with an orbital period of 4.60 years at a distance of 2.767AU.

Read more

A DECEMBER MOMENT

December was the tenth month of the year
in ancient Roman times, the year's last month.
And as the baby hides within the womb
for nine full months, but sees the light of day
within the tenth, so also everything
will be reborn beneath December's Sun.

A Winter Solstice Ritual by
Apollonius Sophistes

http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/Saturnalia.html

Read more

A WORD FROM OUR EMPEROR

by Julian Augustus

Your ROMA family wishes you a very happy and healthy holiday season! Stay safe and, of course, IO SATURNALIA!

Read more