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[Tails82]

Diocletian for the XXVIIth time

[Tails82]

...XXVIII

[Tails82]

Finished reading that commentary.

L'Orange, Art Forms and Civic Life. Looking at a lasting change in architecture and artwork during Diocletian. Diocletian was very systematic with things. He wanted Latin to be used universally in the judicial realm, which was used to using Greek in the east. He outlawed incest and opposed certain religions. His palaces were organized as well, symmetrical and practical. The structures reflected a military character. In art it was all about elevating the emperor to godlike status. Christians would adopt these techniques in churches, using Jesus instead.

[Laharls_Wrath]

finished The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
was more Lovecraft and was quite good

[Tails82]

Augustus does frontier defense well, later emperors don't, Diocletian does.

[Tails82]

Two negative views of Diocletian: Gibbon and Rostovtzeff. Gibbon, writing back in 1776 Britain, saw him as contributing to Rome's decline. He wasn't an enlightened ruler, built too many palaces, got rid of what remained of republican influences like the senate and made them entirely symbolic, but did voluntarily resign. Rostovtzeff is a 20th century Russian critical of Diocletian as one would expect from someone who is ant-totalitarian. He says Diocletian didn't really reform anything, but legitimized a system of oppression and expanded state power at the expense of the proles, who had their mobility limited and couldn't be too prosperous without getting drawn up into ruinous council positions. When I originally searched Rostovtzeff he showed up getting quite a few citations from a Heritage foundation paper. This is the hardest one to rebut since I can see myself agreeing with him.

[Tails82]

I read things on...Cunobelin, British king (misspelled it a lot). He increased ties with Rome until he had dynasty problems and one of his sons asked Caligula to invade Britain. Caligula makes plans but doesn't do it. Then Cunobelin dies and Claudius, the next emperor goes in and defeats his other sons, setting up a province.

[Tails82]

More on economy book, had some good parts to it.

Map skills and patrolling procedures.

[Chromeo]

Never trust an economist.

[Tails82]

I wouldn't trust this one, too liberal

[Mastery]

www.sirlin.net/ptw

I only read the 4 "original" articles on the bottom, not the entire book. Actually, I'm rereading them though I think I only read the first two the first time around, so it just reaffirmed some of my ideas and exposed me to new ones. Which is good because I realized my style conflicted with some stuff in the second article (specifically choosing only one character to be good with no matter how bad others say he is) then the third article proved this was ok

I think all of you should read the first one

I'll get around to reading the book later, but I'd prefer it in physical form.

Speaking of books:

Level Up! The guide to Great Game Design

Game design is where I really want to head into. All my writing can go jump off a cliff if it means I can make good games. This book really helps, and isn't written in boring manner, so it's awesome

[Chromeo]

Forums, the guy who made Democracy (the game >_>) is a brat, I don't regret pirating it especially.

[Mastery]

Oh and the last article is really interesting

[Chromeo]

Oh god no, I hated that playing to win shit.

[Mastery]

Ho ho, you fall under the very first (actually second I think) definition of scrub, ha HA!