[A bunch of general questions]

m4. Do we know what the curse-words or phrases beyond our usual ones are eg. Gods Below, Jupiter's Beard rather than cac

I don't know about this period, but typically the Romans hoped various misfortunes would fall the miscreant, and references to gods were kept personal and discrete (it wouldn't do to tempt fate, would it?)

 

The notion of fate you're referring to is typically Greek, not Roman, and unlikely to be even widely known in Rome during this time frame, even though Stoicism was already at work. More so, I doubt that the Greek notion of fate would prevent many Greeks from cursing: I cannot recall anything specific right now, but commedy and short poetry is where you should look for, for both Romans and Greeks.

 

One last thing: Hannibal was dead in 153 BC, for good thirty years already. But he left a lasting impression on the Romans, comparable to the one from Alaric's sack of Rome in 410. After all, it was the deadliest menace faced by Rome at date, which nearly annihilated its very existence: Hannibal will be a lasting subject in popular and literary culture.

[Translation of CIG 3045]

Hello, I'm having difficulties to translate this Greek inscription:

 

http://epigraphy.packhum.org/inscriptions/main?url=oi%3Fikey%3D256442%26bookid%3D529%26region%3D8%26subregion%3D29

 

I only studied ancient Greek at high school and I haven't touched it much in the last ten years or so, so I wondered if anybody with higher expertise could help out?

 

The lines I am interested in are from 11 to 17.

Can't post them here, the forum doesn't recognize the font.

 

This is a literal translation (I won't add a proper one since I am translating from Greek to Italian anyway):

 

and that

always and everywhere greatest importance we --- give

to piety towards gods, anybody could ascertain it especially

from the benevolence that happens to us,

by means of those things, from the divine; non only but also from other things

more numerous we're convinced that appeared with great evidence

our special hounours towards gods.

 

I cannot understand that 'poioumenoi diateloumen' (between lines 12 and 13; one is the verb that I rendered as 'give'), which should go where I marked with three dashes.

Any help?

 

Thanks.

[Wealthy West?]

Where do you happen to come across this idea that the West was as wealthy as the East was?

In the last thirty years or so, history of late antiquity has changed a lot, but it doesn't occur to me that anybody has seriously challenged the idea of an urbann decline in the West. The phenomenon, though, has been downsized and related to different causes than it used to be.