Today in 117AD Hadrian, the adopted son of Trajan, became the new Roman Emperor. Trajan had ruled for nearly twenty years and had enlarged the Empire greatly. Hadrian in his twenty one year rule would be just as good for Rome. He left behind four great building works, which remain today.
The first was to rebuild Agrippa’s Pantheon, adding the 141ft diameter Dome. It has massive bronze doors and now a church, has buried two of Italy’s kings and the artist Raphael amongst others.
On the river Tiber is the Castel San Angelo, another stone dome building, this one built as his own tomb. It has been used as a fortress by more than one Pope when Rome has been threatened. It housed Pope Clement VII when the forces of the (Spanish)Holy Roman Empire sacked the city in 1527. It is well worth a visit if you ever go to Rome. A coffee from the battlements’ cafe’ is a good end to a walk around the military museum it is now.
The third monument is the beautiful Villa at Tivoli.
Lastly is the wall he had constructed in the North of England to keep out those pesky Picts(Scots). It was 15ft high and stretched 73 miles from coast tocoast and there was a fort every five miles.
Hadrian had been unwell for some time and despite seeking death and requesting it of his adopted son Pius, who refused to aid him, he died aged 62 in his villa at Baie on the Bay of Naples.
Lee takes over command of the ANV today in 1862
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On the 1st June 1862 Jeff Davis appointed his military advisor, general Robert E Lee, to lead the Confederate Army in Virginia. The former commander and joint victor of the earlier(Summer 1861)1st Manassas battle, General Joseph E Johnston, had been seriously wounded the evening before. The 31st May had seen the Confederates given a good opportunity to wreck a part of the Union Army of Potomac as it straddled the Chickahominy river, just a few miles East of the Confederate capital of Richmond. Johnston’s plan had been good: he had planned to throw 22 of his 29 Infantry Brigades at the two Union Corps South of the river. Here he outnumbered the Northern forces, who would have been defeated before the other larger half could have come to its aid. Unfortunately for the South, General Longstreet commanding the attacking force took the wrong road and never got his attack coordinated with the other Division heads and both sides ended up losing about 5000 casualties apiece and the Northern army escaping relatively unscathed.
General Lee would push the Northern Army of Potomac, commanded by General George B McClellan, back from the gates of Richmond, bottling him up on the Peninsular, then defeat another Northern army under a bombastic General Pope in Northern Virginia and invade Maryland all in the next three months. Johnston’s wounding at the battle of Seven Pines was the best and most significant thing to happen that day. The South would never look back after the 1st June 1862 as Lee took them from seeming defeat to victory after victory. As the South’s fortunes waned over the next two years, it was Lee’s command of the Army of Northern Virginia and his hold over the state and threat to Washington, that gave it and its people hope.
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Friend you should moved to the Southern U.S. Come live in Dixie.
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Would do if I was paid to study your war and battlefields, but I would not be able to work there otherwise. I now have no skills: university is a long 22 years ago.
I will visit and meet you and others, but I will be walking with a stick and grumpy because it is too hot for me and I left it too late. I would buy a cool hat though, as I am thinning and would need to shade my beer.
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WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT WITTMAN!?!?!
Doesn’t the south need a good Italian Restaurant? :P
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How do you know our restaurant is any good?
My wife is the chef and she is stopping working as a chef on the 31st August.
There lies the problem. -
When I saw “Lee takes command of the ANV” I thought this was going to be about some high ranking shake up in Vietnam in the 60’s, I was so confused when I saw the year 1862 :-P
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Sorry Clyde. I have never been interested in Vietnam, so was unaware my reference to ANV and Lee could have been misconstrued.
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Mail order?
45 days or your money back? :P
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Four weeks and counting. My brother says he will take over, but he has his children on Monday and Tuesdays. Opening just four days will not leave me much to buy A&A games!
Kind of him to offer.