Thanks a lot!

Hello! I would love an invite if anyone has any spare... Thanks in advance!
thinduke(gmail)

The roman empire didn't "fall", it lost its western half. The byzantine empire is the roman empire. For more than a century, the scientific and cultural center was already Constantinople, not Rome, and everything was preserved there. Out of the roman realm, western Europe couldn't benefit from well-maintained roman infrastructure and administration, life was much, much harder for a long time, but civilization did not go backward,

Myrtle is also used in the zoroastrian religion, which was the state religion in Iran before islam, and is still very present in today iranian traditions (like Noruz).

If there really is something about this "myrtus", maybe it's more about the target than the origin. As others have noted, it's a bit far-fetched to think that the authors would leave a clue about themselves like Hollywood villains.

In french:

Me: est-ce que...
Google: ... Google nous rend idiot?

(Does... Google make us stupid?)

Already done: http://slashdot.org/pollBooth.pl?qid=1677&aid=-1