History of Medieval England - Thursday 6th Period: Discussion 1: Introduction and Pre-history to 500

[prof-methos.livejournal.com]

Good afternoon, class. Now I get to torture you all by making you all stand up and introduce yourselves to your classmates. This is because I'm sadistic want to get you used to the concept of talking during our discussion sessions. Please give your name and what one thing you'd like to find out in this class.

Your homework, due next Tuesday but to be posted in this post is to pick a topic from the once-optional-now-mandatory reading list I gave you on Prehistoric Britain and Roman Britain and give me ETA a minimum of one hundred Wikipedia words on it. Got it? Good.

[[OOC comment threads are done!]]

[[ETA: OOC: At some point I stopped receiving comment notifications for this post. I'm scanning and trying to jump into discussions. But since I'm trying to foster discussion *amongst* all of you, I try not to jump in everywhere.]]

Comments

DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

[prof-methos.livejournal.com]

Boadicea? Hadrian's Wall?

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

"Okay, you know I read the material and I just keep wondering why they even went to the place to begin with. They got nothing but trouble there. They got harassed by pretty much all of the natives, even had to copy the Chinese and build walls to keep them out instead of taking over the entire land to begin with. In the end, they just end up leaving the place anyway." Cameron rambles on a bit.

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"I read the myth of Maximus, having a 'dream' to go there, and I read part of the history of Claudius, and all I can think of is it was a status thing. Our empire is better than yours, it has more acreage. Even if we can't hold it or tax it effectively or do anything except style ourselves Britannicus," Parker said dryly. "It's not like they needed the resources, and England was hell and gone away from Rome. So I can't figure it out either."

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

"Wasn't there anywhere else to expand, though? It kinda messed with the natural border thing they had going on, which clearly bothered them as they thought they had to build two walls."

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Persian Empire in the east, Sahara south of their empire, wild barbarians to the north-- I guess they did have to go west. Though it sounds like they shouldn't have bothered, and have worked on consolidating Rome." Parker blinked. "Hadrian's Wall, and...?"

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

"Antonine Wall, it was actually more to the North of Hadrian's Wall but they couldn't keep it under control for long." He shrugs.

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Romans like to build things almost as much as they liked to conquer them." Parker made a face. "Okay, so, I guess they could have gone to Iceland, or explored even further west, and I know there are theories that the Romans hit the New World first. Still. They were there about, what? Three hundred years or so? Before the Roman Empire collapsed and left the British to get on with it themselves. England must have been worth something to them to begin with."

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

"Sheep and land? Britain isn't exactly strategically placed there. Ores? Did they have gold and silver?" He really doesn't know.

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

"Caesar was pis... um, cross with the Britons for helping the Gauls to fight the Romans. And to the Romans, Britain was this sort of mythical place with treasure that they weren't sure existed.

Like Atlantis is to most of you us."

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

"But the walls weren't necessarily just for defense," Elizabeth says. "It was a symbol of Roman power, showing the local tribes that they could build this wall eighty miles long, whilst they still lived in round huts. There's also been recent research that it was a customs line, so that they could charge tax on anyone coming in wanting to trade."

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

"Oh, that makes sense. Money usually figures into it somewhere. I'm not sure if the impressing worked a lot if they kept getting attacked regardless of the wall, though."

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

[aka-vala.livejournal.com]

"You said Boadicea lead a revolution against these Ro-mans? Did it work?"

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"The article I read said no. But then again, it was written by a contemporary Roman." Parker made a face.

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

"I think the Roman wasn't lying. It's not like they had anywhere to go on that island and Roman troops were pretty impressive... Maybe they should have tried to make a run for the wall."

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"It's not the final outcome, it's the numbers of dead on each side I question. 400 dead Romans, a couple hundred thousand dead Britons? What the hell?" She grinned. "A run for the border?"

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

"Well yeah, the romans were a bit more organised in their fighting. I can imagine that they also didn't let the Britons hold a nice full body armour," Cameron shrugs. "Heck, we run for Mexico. It might have worked for them too."

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

[aka-vala.livejournal.com]

Vala frowns, "There was a wall?"

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, a bit higher up in the country to keep the Scots out. Okay, not the Scots exactly but the natives who didn't like the Romans so much."

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

[prof-methos.livejournal.com]

"Ah, but Parker, calculate the percentages. A few thousand dead Britons, out of a population of, say, one million? 400 dead Romans when there were only, say, ten thousand Romans on the island? Which group lost more percentage of their population?

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

Parker did the math in the margins of her notebook and made a face. "Four percent of Romans, seven percent of Britons, assuming the numbers were right, and there's no reason to think they're absolutely on-target, so... point taken. And I suppose, again, a tribute to superior firepower, since this is the same thing that happens at Agincourt later, isn't it."

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

[swerval_zero]

"No, I think she got her arse handed to her. S'pretty swerval, though, a woman that far back in history takin' charge and fightin' The Man like that."

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

[prof-methos.livejournal.com]

"She *eventually* got her arse handed to her. What was extraordinary about Boadicea is that she was successful at all. The Romans had gotten complacent about the local population, and this was a sharp reminder that they were ruling a conquered people."

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

[aka-vala.livejournal.com]

Vala nodded at Zero. A female ruler taking on a rebellion against invading male forces sounded pretty impressive and cool to her too. She made a note to look this up.

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

I rather liked the idea that they needed a way to keep their soldiers busy as well as delineate where they would stop their expansion - thus the wall.

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

[prof-methos.livejournal.com]

"That's an excellent point, Ms. Lang. Standing armies need to be kept occupied, or they start... bleeding off excess energy. We'll actually touch on that again during the Crusades."