Ludovicus
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Posts posted by Ludovicus
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Headaches in my Italian family were also associated with the evil eye.
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That's it. My parents had one that was jewel-encrusted--fake stones.
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Ave Citizens,
I am writing a novel set in the Later Roman Empire (AD 390-400) and a minute, but elusive point came up.
How did Romans keep out the cold? Today we can close the window. They are made of glass, and we can still see out.
How did Romans shut out the light when they wanted a room darkened? We have shades, blinds, and curtains. What did the Romans use?
I will post this same question at Roman Army Talk.
Thank you guys. You are, as always, a great help.
Tom
Here's a video in which you see the interior of the House of the Wooden Partition. The narration describes the use of the room divider in this ancient Roman house:
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Good for you!
The Late Empire isn't covered often enough, in my opinion.
Now here goes for Roman window glass:
http://www.metmuseum...gls/hd_rgls.htm
Glass windowpanes were first made in the early imperial period, and used most prominently in the public baths to prevent drafts. Because window glass in Rome was intended to provide insulation and security, rather than illumination or as a way of viewing the world outside, little, if any, attention was paid to making it perfectly transparent or of even thickness. Window glass could be either cast or blown. Cast panes were poured and rolled over flat, usually wooden molds laden with a layer of sand, and then ground or polished on one side. Blown panes were created by cutting and flattening a long cylinder of blown glass.
Here's a site with photos of Roman window glass:
http://www.romanglas...articles.htm#No
Bona Fortuna!
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My family's roots are from the region of Molise, next to Abruzzo. My mother, on a visit to my aunt and uncle's, once cautioned me against praising the beauty of my newborn cousin. She said it would bring the malocch'. When I got to see the baby I noticed an amulet pinned to his shirt. If I remember correctly, it was a forearm ending in a hand making a fist. Later, I found the same charm around our house.
There was always a caution against bragging or predicting a good future. That would be testing the malocch'.
As a teenager, my aunt's father wanted to teach me how to cure the malocch'. We would need oil and water. It had to be done on Christmas eve. The class never took place.
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Agora is a good movie, but perhaps not for the reasons it wants to be. As a historical piece, it is mixed at best. As a political statement it works well, though with all the subtlety of a blow to the head. As a visual experience, it is glorious. Directed by a Spaniard but with a broader European production crew, it does contain an intelligence and emotional resonance all too often lacking in American made films. Alexandria in Egypt is the second largest city in the Roman Empire, with an outstanding tradition of arts and sciences in the Hellenic tradition. Hypatia is a beautiful but virginal woman. As the daughter of an intellectual, she dedicates her life to mathematics and astronomy. Her school includes both Christians and Pagans (no Jewish students; apparently they prefer their synagogues). She suffers unrequited love from two men: Orestes, a pagan aristocrat who is also her student, and Davus, her man slave....
...read the full review of Agora (2010) by Alejandro Amen
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We've debated 'authenticity' in the bible several times on various threads here before and this article fits in with my memory of some of what has been said before.
I am sure we will debate this point again but unfortuantely for detailed discussion the article doesn't make clear which 'version' of the bible was used as the basis of the comparisons, since there are significant differences between ancient and modern translations let alone the number of fragmentary and more or less complete early copies in various ancient languages
There seems to be a suggestion in the article that the promary source may have been Greek as it refers to Greek sentence structure, while the Catholic Herald is probably correct to cite 'oral tradition' as 'possibly' explaining some of the differences noted. Personally I would also have considered the possibility of someone using the services of a skilled scribe to do their writing for them as another possibility for differences in writing style even if not outright forgery.
Might be interesting to get feedback from someone who has actually read the book.
Good point about the possible switch from author to authorized scribe.
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...if you know spanish, here the article from El Mundo with much more information
"Se trata de c
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"Trump Demands to See Bin Laden's Death Certificate; Becomes Leader of 'Deathers' Movement. "
Twitter/ Andy Borowitz
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Eromenos, a novel about Antinous of Bithynia and Hadrian, the fourteenth emperor of Rome, has been published by Seriously Good Books, a new small press for historical fiction.
For more information about this new book, please visit the Facebook page,
http://www.facebook....8934051?sk=info
or the writer's website, www.melaniejmcdonald.com
Thanks very much.
What an interesting subject. Hadrian was quite open about the relationship. Thanks for sharing.
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If your novel's setting is the late empire, it's possible that the traditional names for the hours were no longer used. Didn't the Christianized empire institute the 7-day week with one named for the Sabbath and another for The Lord?
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"Sleep" and "dream" can be nouns or verbs.
As verbs:
To sleep is "dormire."
To dream is "somniare"
As nouns:
the noun sleep is "somnus."
the noun dream is "somnium".
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"Somniate in voce alta," if you are speaking to more than one person. Otherwise "Somnia in voce alta."
Latin has an economy of words. Especially for proverbs and adages.
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http://news.national...man-christians/
From the National Geographic Society News
Ancient bones found in an Italian cathedral may be those of Saints Chrysanthus (foreground) and Daria.
It appears that the extensive study confirmed the couple's social class via evidence of significant lead poisoning. Only the rich had home access to the municipal plumbing system.
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I agree with you, Bryaxis. In addition, one could make the argument that tolerance of homosexuality was a feature of Roman and Greek societies not on their way to decline, but when at they were at their peak. Let's be fair. Same sex attraction is a feature of most mammalian species. Homophobia, on the other hand, seems to be a political ploy, from the Theodosian prohibitions against homosexuality to Berlusconi's anti-gay barbs and the current push within the US Republican party to garner votes by using the red flag of gay marriage.
Strange it comes at a time when tunisian migrants are flooding the italian coast, those "pesky non-UE muslims who dare try getting a better life in Europe when we have so many troubles" (as shown by the Irish, Portuguese and Greek budgetary crisis). After all the only thing those migrants are good for is providing young flesh to Berlusconi's "bonga bonga" intimate parties, as shown by the marrocan girl Ruby...
While Berlusconi and friends can't blame allies and friends like the other members of the UE (especially with their own budget issues which might make them fall too), they've found an easy target in those former colonies which were much better behaved at the time of Il Duce Mussolini and are now revolting and where people fleeing their own countries...
A quick research on the web shows the close links of Mattei with the catholic church (he received medals from the Vatican for his defense of hardcore christinism) and Gianfranco Fini, leader of a far right political party : Mattei has been described as "the eminance grise" of Fini, who began his carreer as chairman of the MSI youths, the MSI being the direct heir to Mussolini's party.
This line of thought on homosexuality and carthage might very well stem from a corrupted memory of the senate's accusations against Scipio Africanus while he was in Sicily, planning to land in Africa... the link with the current situation being Carthage.
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Il Paese d'ombre--the story of one Sardinian town in post-unification Italy. This is good historical fiction by award winning Italian author Giuseppe Dess
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Fascinating post, Melvadius! Don't miss the link to the report. Love the work of Pistillus. How beautiful his signature on the clay figurines.
Past Times is carrying a report here on the discovery of a major cache of around 10,000 'necessity' coins minted as an local expedient to replace 'officially' minted coinage which were scarce during much of the troubled third century
Archaeological excavations carried out in Autun, a suburb of Arroux, in France revealed an ancient quarter composed of craft workshops and fine residences. The workshop of the famous coroplath (figurine maker) Pistillus was discovered, along with a pottery kiln and moulds, complete figurines and failed ones, and signed with the name of the figurine maker.
During the final weeks of the excavation the archaeologists also found a cache of Roman coins dating to the end of the 3rd century AD which were buried in a pit sealed with tiles.
The small bronze coins were of an
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Archaeologists hope a major find in a spring an hour and a half south of Tampa helps piece together how Florida's (USA) earliest inhabitants lived. Dive teams from the Florida Aquarium and the University of Miami exploring and excavating Little Salt Spring in southern Sarasota County carried to the surface a spear that dates back about 10,000 years, which led archaeologists believe they have found the remains of camp sites or prehistoric garbage dumps.
For more:
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Interesting titles. The first has a bad link.
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The Romans certainly were driven by material acquisitions and money, but other things drove them, too. Perhaps in addition to picking up properties: villas, ships, mines, tax concessions, etc. there would be a way for the players to also acquire clientes. Sometimes your money wouldn't save you, but your connections would.
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From Canada.Com News:
For the complete article and an interesting photo of the mosaic floor:
http://www.canada.co...2146/story.html
A group of grave robbers led to the discovery of the burial place of the biblical prophet Zechariah. Israeli Archaeologist with the Israeli Antiquity Authority Amir Ganor, shows a Byzantine period church decorated with an impressive mosaic floor.
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Cheers! Salud! Cent'anni! and many happy returns.
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A destructive tidal wave is recorded here, posted on Bread and Circus: Adventures in the Later Roman Empire
http://adrianmurdoch.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/03/tsunami-in-late-antiquity.html
I like the idea that my favorite period of Roman history, late antiquity, has an online presence, which is still rather new for me.
In any case, let's wish the Japanese well in the long struggle to rebuild.
The best-known classical account of an earthquake and tsunami is that of 21 July 365. Ammianus Marcellinus writes about it (26.10.16-19):
Slightly after daybreak, and heralded by a thick succession of fiercely shaken thunderbolts, the solidity of the whole earth was made to shake and shudder, and the sea was driven away, its waves were rolled back, and it disappeared, so that the abyss of the depths was uncovered and many-shaped varieties of sea-creatures were seen stuck in the slime; the great wastes of those valleys and mountains, which the very creation had dismissed beneath the vast whirlpools, at that moment, as it was given to be believed, looked up at the sun's rays. Many ships, then, were stranded as if on dry land, and people wandered at will about the paltry remains of the waters to collect fish and the like in their hands; then the roaring sea as if insulted by its repulse rises back in turn, and through the teeming shoals dashed itself violently on islands and extensive tracts of the mainland, and flattened innumerable buildings in towns or wherever they were found. Thus in the raging conflict of the elements, the face of the earth was changed to reveal wondrous sights. For the mass of waters returning when least expected killed many thousands by drowning, and with the tides whipped up to a height as they rushed back, some ships, after the anger of the watery element had grown old, were seen to have sunk, and the bodies of people killed in shipwrecks lay there, faces up or down. Other huge ships, thrust out by the mad blasts, perched on the roofs of houses, as happened at Alexandria, and others were hurled nearly two miles from the shore, like the Laconian vessel near the town of Methone which I saw when I passed by, yawning apart from long decay.
The translation is Gavin Kelly's in "Ammianus and the Great Tsunami," JRS 94 (2004), pp. 141-167. See also Rogueclassicism today (or rather from three years ago - click and it will make sense).
Windows and Blinds
in Romana Humanitas
Posted · Edited by Ludovicus
The Romans used glass extensively, so much so that you could call it their Tupperware