DID YOU KNOW?

by Spaciva Ivanova

How the DAYS OF THE WEEK got their names ?


DAYS OF THE WEEK :

SATURDAY - dies Saturni / the day of Saturn / Directly from Latin.

SUNDAY - dies Solis / Sun day / Likewise

MONDAY - dies Lunae / Moon day / Ditto

TUESDAY - dies Martis / The day of Mars / Tiwesdaeg / The day of Tiw, from Norse Tys dagr ('dagr ' is old Norse for 'day ')

WEDNESDAY - dies Mercuris / The day of Mercury / Wodnesdaeg / The day of Woden, from Norse Odin's dagr

THURSDAY - dies Iovis / The day of Jupiter / Thursdaeg / The day of Thor, from Norse Thor's dagr

FRIDAY - dies Veneris / The day of Venus / Frigesdaeg / The day of Freya, from Norse Freyja's dagr

cr: www.Roman-Britain.ORG

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JANUARY FESTIVAL NEWS

by Vestalis Maxima

The Paganalia, also known as Feriae Sementivae, was a Roman festival of sowing. These festival days were held every year, but not on certain or fixed days, the time being appointed each year by the magistrates or priests. It was held in honor of Ceres (the goddess of agriculture) and Tellus (Mother Earth). The initial half of the event was a festival in honor of Tellus which traditionally ran from January 24 through January 26. The festival honoring Ceres occurred one week later, traditionally starting February 2.

ROMA's Paganalia is a celebration of all cultural pagan rites and ceremonies, and each year we try to perform various rituals from multiple cultures - to expose ROMA's citizens to other forms of pagan religious practice. In addition to this, we also have some purely fun events and our traditional Grand Feast.

***Festival Schedule***

January 23th:

10am - Roman Paganalia Ritual
12pm - Paganalia Fishing Contest
2pm - Greek Paganalia Ritual


January 24th:

10am - Egyptian Horus Ritual
12pm - Cloaca Croc Race
2pm - Native American Powwow Presentation
4pm - Paganalia Grand Feast

For more detailed schedule info, please check the Tabularium in ROMA or the ROMA Citizens Blog @ http://romacitizens.blogspot.com/

Please note: this official schedule may be changed or modified slightly - check the blog for any updates.
** all times are SLT

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FROM THE SENATE

New Roma Curiate Assembly

by Torin Golding

ROMA will now have an assembly that will meet once a month. We are going to be replacing the ROMA Senate meeting with a larger gathering involving citizens and group officers. All active groups will provide one or two representatives to attend the meetings and help with initiatives in ROMA.

The ROMA CURIATE ASSEMBLY is the monthly meeting of ROMA Senators, officers, and Citizens. It meets in the ROMA Curia and replaces the former ROMA Senate meetings. The Assembly is a large body that consists of three parts, or “chambers”, each with their role to play in managing and maintaining ROMA. It is also a “think-tank” for proposing new ideas and discussing all aspects of the estate. The Assembly meets the last Sunday of every month.

Each part ("chamber") will have its own designated area inside the Curia

CHAMBER 1: The Senators (the Optimates)

The Senators have two main roles in ROMA: A) to serve as a direct advisory body to the Emperor, Estate Managers and owner of ROMA, and B) to serve as “point people” and organizers of many ROMA events and tasks. This latter role allows them to act as “patrons”, helping other Citizens in ROMA accomplish their goals and ideas for the estate. Senators are often also called upon to be the “public face of ROMA”, wearing their Senator title with pride amongst both their fellow Citizens and new visitors. All Citizens may approach ROMA Senators with issues and they will endeavor to find solutions.

CHAMBER 2: The Group Officers (the Populares)

The second chamber of the Assembly is comprised of group officers from the various active groups in ROMA. The Senate officers and Prefect will keep a current list of active groups. Each group will have up to two representatives to sit in this chamber during meetings. They are called "Novi Homines / Novae Feminae" and speak with the authority of the group. They are present in the Assembly to A) facilitate communication between the various groups in ROMA, B) to brainstorm event ideas and solicit assistance from the Senators in organizing events and ideas, and C) to bring any public issues to discussion within the Assembly.

CHAMBER 3: The Public Council

The Citizenry of ROMA is invited to participate in the Assembly. A special seating area in the Curia will allow spectators to join in the moderated discussions.

More detailed information about the changes can be found on our blog: http://romacitizens.blogspot.com/2010/01/announcing-new-roma-curiate-assembly.html

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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/

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 *****

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