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Showing content with the highest reputation on 12/14/2023 in Posts

  1. Thank you for bringing this ongoing research to my attention about the Interamna Lirenas Project. Two aspects of this find stand out to me: First, the finding of a roofed enclosed theater was unusual in Ancient Rome. (One suggestion that this theater had a roof is the presence of gutters on the side of the building.) According to the video, there are around 100 known Greek and Roman theaters in the Peninsula of Italy, but only ten are thought to have been covered. Second, the finding of an inscribed sundial at the site was absolutely fascinating. I learned a lot about precision time keeping in Ancient Rome (both sundials and water clocks). I had never thought about it but I learned from the videos below that the Roman hour during the summer was about 80 minutes; the winter, 40 minutes. This sundial was a nice bit of self promotion. According to the video, there are 600 sundials known from Roman history. About thirty are inscribed and less than half of them have a person’s name inscribed on them. According to the video, the inscription on this sundial reads “Marcus Novius Tubula, son of Marcus, tribune of the plebs who donated this from his own funds.” This sundial dates to the end of the 1st century BCE to the start of the 1st century AD. The office of tribune at this time was held in Rome. It appears from the presence of another inscription with a similar name at Interamna Lineras that this man was probably a local benefactor. This individual possibly made a successful career in Rome and he wanted to celebrate his success with his home town. A short summary video of the find: A more thorough video on the find with emphasis on the roofed theater, numismatic finds, and the inscribed sundial. An excellent video on timekeeping in Ancient Rome.
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