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

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

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.]]

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

"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."

"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?"

"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."

Vala frowns, "There was a wall?"

"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."

"Who again, we don't know enough about." Parker was wearing her most discontented expression. "Except, weren't the Picts and Scots the basis of the faerie myths? I know they were nomadic long after the rest of the population had agriculture, and the Romans were building cities. So wouldn't a wall be more useful if you were fighting a concentrated force, instead of different tribes? Argh. History makes no sense."

"It makes sense to try to keep the nomadic, non roman loving tribes, from wandering into your little piece of the country by building a fence. Or in this case a stone wall..."

"And I suppose there was, as Liz said, the intimidation factor. I would've just climbed over it, but I suppose that any battlement where you can't see what's on the other side can provide a deterrent."

"Not to mention the Roman soldiers they had patrolling it."

"Sure, but like Cam said, they weren't doing the best job ever, at least at the end of the Roman occupation. Something that takes resources and manpower away from your central supply line sounds like it's always going to be the first thing cut."

"That was the first death knell of Rome though, or at least, it's certainly been considered it."

"I think most cultures have some sort of 'faerie myth'," Cordy says. "But I know what you mean, and I think the ones that we're most familiar with come primarily from ancient Scotland and Ireland. But I'm sure there are Dutch faeries and Romanian faeries and Russian faeries ~~and Caprica faeries~~."

"~~Now there's a thought.~~ Which gives us an idea of how the Romans and the British tribes there thought of them; mysterious and invisible and sometimes deadly. So I guess a big huge monument was another psychological blow." She frowned. "I get the feeling that a lot of history is about building BIG things."

"And given the fact that we mostly only ever hear about important male historical figures? At least, historical figures who were successful...Maybe it was just what a lot of men are like today...Who's got the biggest monument."

Parker coughed. "*cough*Hoover Dam*cough*. *cough*Washington Monument*cough*." Then she grinned. "Although, I need to find out more about what Queens *did* build while they reigned, to make sure that's on target. Still. You never hear about Eleanor of Aquitaine's Wall, or Queen Isabella's Monument."

"Maybe they were building tunnels or...mounds instead?" Cordy cringes as she speaks, and decides that now would be a good time to shut up.

"Many of the monuments built by men are famous for either being collosal failures or bankrupting their governments." Methos grins. "I imagine that the more practical rulers didn't waste money on status symbols."

"Sheba's dam!"

Parker raised both eyebrows at Cam, then chortled. Evilly. "Okayyyy...."

"What?" Cameron wondered why Parker was chortling at him.

Hatshepsut had a pyramid, I think, but it's not one of the big impressive ones.

"And Cleopatra had an obelisk. But that's not like having a monument." Parker cocked her head. "Hmm. Possible area for extra-credit paper at some point...."

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

swerval_zero - 2006-01-12 22:54 (UTC) - Expand

"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?

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."

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

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

Re: TALKING IN CLASS: Medieval English History

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain

Re: DISCUSSION 2: Medieval English History: Roman Britain