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Ludovicus

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Posts posted by Ludovicus

  1. Had the secessionist states been successful in leaving the Union they not only would have continued the practice of slavery, they would have fought to extend slave holding into the western territories and beyond. The defense of slavery was key to the secessionist fever.

    Interesting link .. even if I hate The Civil War. ;)

     

    While I obviously abhor slavery, it seems The South had others issues as well. They basically felt that the North was trying to exercise economic hegemony over them, and given some of the tax debates at the time, I think their accusations were not totally unfounded. A few decades earlier New England had lodged some secessionist quibbles over economic concerns as well.

     

    Was the North justified in forcefully bringing the secessionist states back in line, to prevent a hostile power, possibly aligned with France and and the UK, arising on its southern border? I can see a geopolitical argument for it. On the whole though, I think if the Southerners wanted to leave the Union, they should have been left to do so.

  2. The Curia itself (Roman Senate House located in the Roman Forum) was converted into the St. Hadrian's Church, Sant Adriano (in Italian).

    http://www.romeguidedtour.com/home/Monument.asp?ids=289&artist=CURIA%20JULIA

     

    CURIA JULIA

    The big stone construction of Curia Julia was brought to the light in 1930's, after the 7th century church of St. Adriano, erected over it, was destroyed. Caesar built it to substitute the Curia Hostilia which was destroyed by a fire. Curia Julia was completed by Augustus in 29 B.C. and reconstructed in 94 A.D by Domitian. The interior 27m long, 18m wide and 21m high was discovered and restored in 1930-1934 by Alfonso Bartoli; the pavement of the hall still preserves the original marbles. The three broad marble-faced steps on the two long sides provided seats for some 300 senators. The existing doors are copies of the original ones removed by Alexander VII to the Basilica of St John Lateran. Two big marble relieves exposed here represent the scenes from the epoch of Trajan. In front of the Curia there are numerous bases of honor statues erected here in the imperial epoch. Lapis Niger: close to the Curia, under the tract of the 6th century B.C. pavement of black stones, in 1899 was discovered a complex archaic monument, with an ancient inscription on a square stele on all four sides (providing the most ancient example of the Latin language), a warning against profaning a holy place. Here the tomb of Romulus or of some other deified founder of the city was identified.

     

     

     

    I did not mean to say that there was a direct continuation between the two senates, sorry if I've been unclear. So if there was a period during which SPQR might have fallen into disuse it would have been between 580 and 1144... A period during which there was little building activity outside of churches and private houses, and a lot of re-use of previous building material.

  3. The Medieval Roman Senate was not a continuation of the former body that ruled the City and the Empire.

     

    From allexperts.com:

    the Roman Senate continued to exist after the end of the Empire in 476: even though it lost much of its importance after the capital was moved to Constantinople, the Senate was never abolished, and continued its work well after christianity became the official religion of the state. It regained some importance when Justinian conquered Italy during the Ghotic Wars (535-554), and the last known record of Senate activities was an embassy sent to the emperor in Constantinople in year 580.

    It's not very clearly what happened afterward, but we know an homily by Pope Gregory the Great around the year 590, lamenting the disappearance of such an ancient institution.

    However, during the 12th century the people of Rome struggled against the Papal authority to re-create a Republic, and in 1144 a new Senate was created, as a consultory body for the civic government; the Pope regained full control of Rome in 1155, abolishing the Commune, but the Senate continued to exist, and has existed since then, becoming finally the city council of Rome, housed in the so-called Palazzo Senatorio (Senatorial Palace) on the Capitol Hill.

    When Constantinople was chosen as the new capital of the Empire, a Senate was created there, and it continued to exist till the 12th century. After the Fourth Crusade (1204) Constantinople became the seat of the Latin Empire of the East, without a Senate, and when the Byzantines reconquered the city in 1261, they didn't re-establish a Senate.

    http://en.allexperts...oman-senate.htm

     

    well S.P.Q.R. is still being used today by the city council of Rome, as it was during the Middle Ages in order to mark the Senate's difference from the pontifical administration. In fact I'm not sure it ever really stopped being in use, except maybe during tthe Gothic, Byzantine and/or Lombardian periods.

  4. Wasn't the control of this acronym the prerogative of the Roman Senate?

    If so, the last official use, in the West, would have ended with the demise of that body sometime in the sixth century CE.

  5. What an interesting piece of news about this British find. The report link is well worth the effort to download the detailed photos and descriptions of the helmet(s).

    Thanks, Melvadius.

     

    ArchNews is carrying an intersting report about some of the iniital discoveies resulting from conservation work by the British Museum on this cavalry parade helmet found at Hallaton in close association with a hoard fo Iron Age period coins apparently back in 2000 (although the first article quotes 2002 as the find date). One intriguing aspect of the work is that more than one cheekpiece has been found in association with the helmet leading to some interesting speculation about why.

     

    A silver and gold Roman cavalry helmet unearthed together with a hoard of 5,000 silver and gold coins in a field in Hallaton in 2002 is beginning to reveal secrets that have lain hidden for more than 2,000 years.

     

     

    Painstaking work on the ornate but fragile parade helmet, which was lifted from its field in a protective plaster of Paris block, has been taking place at the British Museum.

     

    For the past two years conservators Marilyn Hockey and Fleur Shearman have been excavating the remains and piecing them together. Another year of work will see the helmet stabilised and prepared for display in 2012 at Harborough Museum alongside the other finds.

     

    So far conservation work has revealed that the helmet block contains the parts of at least one helmet comprising an iron core, covered with a very fine silver sheet with intricate designs hammered onto it using a technique called repouss

  6. Is there a website that has all the up-to-date info on these letters?

     

    Thanks for reading my post.

     

    The site mentioned is probably the best for reference. One needs to know the number of the tablet of interest, however. My post is based on tablet 154 and one must enter 154 to bring up the tablet in question. (Or, one can click on the "View all tablets" option and go through each tablet, one at a time.)

     

    http://vindolanda.cs.../TVII-2-1.shtml

     

     

     

    guy also known as gaius

     

    These letters are fascinating. A list of clothing that includes underwear, an invitation to a birthday party, an apparent doodle. I don't think it's possible to get any closer to Romans than these missives, incomplete and fragmentary though they maybe.

     

    I remember the site you mention (and posted link to). I spent hours there one time, it was the wee hours of the morning before I realized it. Very interesting.

  7. What a great post. With the discovery about a thousand of the ink filled tablets it will take some time before all the messages are deciphered,

    translated, and published. What more new discoveries will be made? Already the Vindolanda trove has uncovered the first example of a woman's

    writing (and in her own hand!) in Latin.

     

    Is there a website that has all the up-to-date info on these letters?

  8. Here's an interesting blog article on the issue of Caesarion's paternity, reputed offspring of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar:

     

    'Son of the avenging god, Chosen by Ptah, Dispenser of the justice of Ra, Living power of Amun' proclaims the translation of Caesarion's Egyptian name, Iwapanetjerentynehem Setepenptah Irmaatenra Sekhemankhamun. Sadly, Caesarion, Ptolemy XV, known by his Greek subjects as Ptolemy Caesar, did not live to dispense justice or avenge the death of his father. He was executed by his father's adopted son, Octavian, who would become the Roman emperor Augustus.

    Of course, with literally the control of the Roman World at stake, Caesarion's actual paternity, needless to say, was much disputed by some ancient Romans, probably fueled by Octavian's robust propaganda machine.

     

    for more:

    http://romanpresentations.blogspot.com/p/roman-times.html

  9. The Stadium of Antoninus Pius, in Pozzuoli, has apparently been abandoned--contacts in the Italian cultural scene tell me. This site was reopened in 2008, with major improvements to the ancient stadium. A lot of fanfare was made about developing the Stadium into a a major tourist destination.

     

    You can view the three minute grand reopening here, in Italian. The first minute or two shows the impressive galleries and environs. Next, government officials speechify about all they will do to support the site:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwFcXyeY5fs

     

    Two years later, the massive, lonely arches of the amphitheater are left unguarded.

     

    Here's coverage of the scandal by one of Italy's major newspapers:

    http://napoli.repubb...legrei-5692473/

     

    And coverage in English on the cheery 2008 opening of the site, restored with funds from the European Union:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/3185732/Roman-rebirth-2000-year-old-stadium-buried-in-volcanic-eruption-reopens.html

  10. This is a travesty. Even if (so I hear) a lot of Italians don't care about the ancient Roman legacy, it seems to me the economic benefit of a world renowned tourist attraction would prompt better care than this.

     

    In my experience, those Italians I know who work at the sites run by the Cultural Ministry and many others are deeply concerned by the decay of support for the country's archaeological legacy, really a patrimony of humankind. This is their bread and butter and a source of national pride.

     

    One may ask, "What's happening with the Cultural Ministry?" A better question would be "What's happening to Italy?" As the Berlusconian Era winds down, the country has gone into a spiral of crisis after crisis: political, economic, environmental, cultural, and archaeological.

     

    The national park around Vesuvius is now a dumping ground for Campania's trash. In 2007, the government sank 30 garbage leaden ships of the coast of Calabria!

  11. In the Naples area there is at least one group organizing to move the government to take action to save Pompeii from further neglect. If you're in the area and want to get in contact with them send me a message via UNRV mail.

     

    These loses to humankind's legacy in Italy must be addressed!

  12. Here we go again, sadly:

     

    ROME (AP) - A stretch of garden wall ringing an ancient house in Pompeii gave way Tuesday after days of torrential rain, the latest structure to collapse at the popular archaeological site. (Scroll down for photos)

     

    Pompeii officials said an inspection found that a 40-foot (12-meter)-long section of wall forming part of the perimeter of a garden area near the House of the Moralist gave way in several points. They said the extreme sogginess of the soil brought down the wall in an area that hasn't been excavated near the house.

     

    Italy is struggling to preserve its immense archaeological wealth for future generations.

     

    A few weeks ago, Italy was embarrassed when a frescoed house, the Schola Armaturarum, where gladiators prepared for combat, was reduced to a pile of stones and dust in seconds. Less than a year ago, another building, the House of the Chaste Lovers, collapsed in Pompeii.

     

    For photos and article:

     

    http://www.huffingto...14.html#s194749

  13. I'm sorry to say that our "agora," the intelligent discussion of issues in the public forum, is diminishing here in the US. Here's one indication:

     

    PRINCETON, NJ -- On the eve of the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, a new Gallup Poll shows that only 39% of Americans say they "believe in the theory of evolution," while a quarter say they do not believe in the theory, and another 36% don't have an opinion either way. These attitudes are strongly related to education and, to an even greater degree, religiosity.

     

    http://www.gallup.com/poll/114544/darwin-birthday-believe-evolution.aspx

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