[Mephisto]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
A lot of them did not do things like place the heads of all rebels on pikes in front of newly conquered cities. They did not go in and force whole villages to move elsewhere so that they would not know the land around them, and would have a harder time forming a resistance. Or was that the Macedonians (under Alexander the Great)? Probably both. They are only labelled as "barbarians" because the Romans used a word in Latin that the English "barbarian" is derived from. But, that word meant "foreigners" and not "savages". It is the original English translation that has caused a lot of misconceptions as to people assuming that all of the tribes that fought against the Romans were savage.

Actually, the Romans were quite “liberal” as someone else already posted. Give me your money and live as you like. And for that matter, it were different times. The Celts weren’t better or worse in treating their enemies. Heck, they burned the Last warrior to come to a raid to death as a sacrifices to the gods. Better not be late, eh?
You are correct, “barbarians” is a term for a foreigner but it is Greek, not Roman. It means “bearded”, which was uncommon for Greeks.

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
No, it "has to be wrong" because logical reasoning tells you that real prophesy is impossible. You simply can not see into the future. You can make guesses, but you can not see what will undoubtedly happen. As the name supposedly prophesised appears accurate, something fishy had to have taken place for it to appear accurate (that, or Isaiah was a really good guesser, but it is very improbable that he would have been able to guess the name Cyrus).

And that’s sums it up. No need to discuss any further. Fyron, you just did what you claimed the church did in the EDA. “The earth simply cannot revolve around the sun. If it seems to do so, something fishy has to have taken place.” You just rule out any other explanation because it won’t fit in your world. All the arguments I will bring forth on that matter will fall on deaf ears because what I say just cannot be true. Logic in your world says so!
The point about the prophesies is that either you think that they are possible or they are not. And as a scientist in a Hellenistic tradition you think it highly improbable that prophesy is possible. However, as long as there are indications that it might be possible (biblical texts) you cannot rule it out until you get hard proof that it really is impossible. It might be much more likely that someone tinkered with the texts but that’s no definite proof. I doubt that such hard proof will ever be available. So, I stand critical but will not rule out the possibility that the biblical texts are indeed prophecies.