I've received some great suggesti0ns in my previous posting, from which I've selected a few after due consideration of experiences, other ideas and random thoughts. Three issues are more or less 'fixed', while the theme for three others is open to the vote of the readership.

Author P. Lindsay Powell kindly sent me a review of the Varian Disaster Special which was recently published in Military Illustrated. With this review and Jona Lendering calling it "easily the best publication on this subject of this anniversary year", what are you waiting for? Get it here.

I have to say that, so far, the themes that the readership of this blog and I came up with, seem to have congealed into interesting issues. Sure, some themes cause me to go bald with worry about appropriate photography, but I seem to be genetically pre-disposed to be sparse-haired anyway.

It's always nice to get letters of appreciation about the magazine. This is an example of one of the more original ones. Many thanks Mr.Poulsen!

Narrated by The History Network's Nick Barker.

Every time I open the first box with a new issue, take out a copy and browse it, I get a knot in my stomach. Will I see something that should've been different? I almost always find something, so far remarkably few and minor. However, in our firs Special, I forgot to replace a 'For positioning only'-type map with the artwork made by Andrew Brozyna. Oddly (luckily?) the temporary one doesn't look that bad or out of place, but I'd like to apologize to Andy and Duncan, the author, for this gaffe. This is the correct map. Feel free to download it and include it in your copy.

From Reuters.com :
===============================================================

Sinai fort may hold clues to ancient Egypt defenses
Thu May 7, 2009 12:53pm EDT

By Alastair Sharp

QANTARA, Egypt (Reuters) - A military garrison of mud-brick and
seashells unearthed in Egypt's Sinai desert may be key to finding a
web of pharaonic-era defenses at the northeast gateway to ancient
Egypt, archaeologists said on Thursday.

Archaeologists who discovered the 3,500-year-old garrison, where up to
50,000 soldiers could be posted in times of heightened tensions, say
they hope inscriptions at Luxor's Karnak temple may serve as a guide
to finding other outposts.

Marc Sanders of Phalera Filmworks - and the centurio of Legio X Gemina - taped the construction of our Roman wall and ditch during the 2008 Roman Festival in Nijmegen. The video has now been re-edited (with me cut out, phew!) and has had graphics added to it, made by a member of Legio XV Primigenia. It looks totally awesome now. Just needs an English voice over, as the current version is Dutch only.

Regular contributor and webmaster of probably the best website about the ancient world in general, Jona Lendering, just posted a review of the latest issue of Ancient Warfare on his blog. Obviously Jona is not entirely objective, although I think we can trust him to say so if he doesn't like something in the magazine. Anyway, make up your own mind!

Slightly over a year ago Nik Gaukroger wrote a review of the first four issues of Ancient Warfare in Slingshot, the publication of the Society of Ancients. Mark Watson, the current editor and webmaster, very kindly posted that review on the Society's website.