Disputatio Categoriae:Romani antiqui

I think this one of those categories that preferably should not contain entries but only subcategories. --Iovis Fulmen 20:33, 10 Augusti 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think so too (but see also my comment at Disputatio Categoriae:Scriptores)! Andrew Dalby (disputatio) 21:22, 10 Augusti 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think, all the old Romans should be mentioned here, just to give an overview. In the German Wikipedia for example there is an category "Mann" (man) showing about 200.000 articles!--91.65.8.83 09:56, 25 Octobris 2008 (UTC)[reply]

What use is a category containing 200,000 articles? But if you want to see similar long lists of Vicipaedia articles, you can use CatScan. Start with Categoria:Romani antiqui or even with Categoria:Homines: it will burrow down as far as you like. Andrew Dalby (disputatio) 11:05, 25 Octobris 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that this should be divided into more categories. Categories this big are not useful, because their purpose is to group similar articles, so to help further reading/research. What use is try to find two Roma politicians or two quaestores amongst this massive amount of Romani antiqui?--Xaverius 11:09, 25 Octobris 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The category "Romani Antiqui" would be very useful to see all members of a certain family at one glance. It would be possible to create categories like to "Cornelii" aut "Iulii" (my next project after the magistrats). I don't see, where the damage is, to keep this category?--Schulz-Hameln 14:18, 25 Octobris 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Generally, once an article has been placed in a more specific category, it should be removed from the more general one. Tools like CatScan (mentioned above) permit to get a "flat view" of a category plus its subcategories if desired. While it is easy to add specific subcategories only (e. g. to Antonius Blair: Categoria:Gubernatores Regni Britanniarum and Categoria:Nati 1953) it would be a tedious nightmare to place an article in all appropriate supercategories as well: Antonius Blair would have to be put at least in Categoria:Nati 1953, Categoria:Nati saeculo 20, Categoria:Saeculum 20, Categoria:Gubernatores Regni Britanniarum, Categoria:Gubernatores civitatum, Categoria:Politicorum periti Britanniae, Categoria:Politicorum periti, Categoria:Britanni, Categoria:Britannia, Categoria:Britanniarum Regnum, Categoria:Nationes Europaeae, Categoria:Homines, Categoria:Europa, and Categoria:Res politicae, to name just a few important supercategories. And it would be nearly impossible to improve the categorization, e. g. to add Categoria:Nationes Unionis Europaeae or to improve the name of an existing category: All affected articles would have to be edited, instead of just the immediate subcategories and a few articles not (yet) placed in appropriate subcategories. In my view, it is therefore advisable to remove articles from a general category once they have been placed in a subcategory thereof.

Categories like "Cornelii" aut "Iulii": Good idea! Perhaps articles about "Romani Antiqui" should be best categorized both according to their family and according to their profession (e. g. politician/magistrate, writer, etc.) Greetings, --UV 20:56, 25 Octobris 2008 (UTC)[reply]

For the family name categories just suggested, we have already had a few like Categoria:Gens Cornelia. I think maybe Xaverius started them. I have been adding a few more. For a list of them see Categoria:Gentes Romanae. To deal with Schulz-Hameln's suggestion, I think we could go on developing this kind of category. Andrew Dalby (disputatio) 10:42, 7 Septembris 2009 (UTC)[reply]