Rome’s declaration of war was contingent on Carthage’s acceptance of Hannibal’s taking of Saguntum, where Carthage could have disavowed Hannibal and maintained peace. However, to even engage with this prospect, Carthage would have had to accept the terms of the offence and the interpretation presented by the Roman embassy of the treaty they held together. According to Polybius, the Carthaginian senate threw out the offence as a misinterpretation of the treaty, as well as arguing over which treaty was in place at that time.
Author Archives: Nicholas Watson
Holistic Education from Indigenous Australia
This essay was originally written as Education by and for Indigenous Australia in Semester 2 of 2020 for ABOR1110, Introduction to Aboriginal Studies, at the University of Newcastle. It has been reformated and slightly revised for this website. The state of education in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Isander communities prior to European colonisation can be inferred toContinue reading “Holistic Education from Indigenous Australia”
Semantic Categories
A lexeme is a lexical unit, usually a word, that has semantic meaning. Conceptual/Denotative meaning is the literal meaning of a lexeme. These meanings might be easily definable or not, especially when compared with similar lexemes. One would expect to see conceptual meaning represented in a dictionary. For example, the conceptual meaning of the lexemeContinue reading “Semantic Categories”
Savings Account
I recently finished listening to the Barefoot Investor. It’s given me the impetus to put a personal security fund (what he calls MOJO) in place. Additionally, I’ll be turning 25 in January, so my under 25’s savings account will be converting to a regular savings account and dropping down to a variable rate of 1.05%.Continue reading “Savings Account”
Italian and English: Passive voice compared
The passive voice is a syntactic relationship that foregrounds the undergoer of an
argument and backgrounds the actor, compared to the active voice which does the
opposite. Italian and English both use periphrastic passives, utilising an auxiliary
verb and conjugating the main verb into the past participle form.
The accession of Darius the Great
Darius’s accession to the throne follows from a few major plot points. Firstly, that Cambyses, son of Cyrus and king of the empire, kills his brother Bardiya. Secondly, that the Magian Gaumata installs a monarch on the throne pretending to be Bardiya rebelling from Cambyses. Thirdly, that Cambyses dies. And fourthly, that the Persians retake the empire and Darius is installed as monarch.
Variation in Fijian: Boumaa and Standard Fijian compared
Boumaa is a variety of Fijian spoken primarily on the island of Taveuni off the coast of Vanua Levu. Taveuni is quite geographically removed from the island of Bau from where Standard Fijian originally emerged, but the Eastern Fijian dialect chain, of which Boumaa and Standard Fijian are both part, distinctly crosses the archipelago.
Roman Founding Mythology
The history of Rome is seated in surprisingly specific myth. If it weren’t for the fanciful and supernatural nature of the stories, one might even regard them as historical account. I suspect there’s some significant reality in the stories that make up the Roman establishment myth, but it’s impossible to say.
Who am I?
If you’re on this website, you probably know my name. It’s in the URL. Nicholas K Watson. Australian national. As of writing this, I am halfway through a Bachelor of Arts (Linguistics) at the University of Newcastle. I’m getting to a point where I realise that I need to write more to understand what I’mContinue reading “Who am I?”
Nicholas K Watson 