guy

The reverse of the fourth coin has the inscription of the goddess Laetitia's name, but an image of a boat instead of her image. This deserves further examination: Another example of the coin: Caracalla Denarius. 206-210 AD. ANTONINVS PIVS AVG, laureate head right / LAETITIA TEMPORVM, ship from which a variety of animals run; above, in background, four quadrigae. (Pictures and attribution from wildwinds.com) Why the boat, but no image of Laetitia? This explanation is taken from the article quoted above: This quote explains the reason of the image of the boat and animals, along with the inscription (but no picture) of Laetitia. Good stuff. guy also known as gaius

On a discussion at the excellent numismatic site cointalk.com, a member presented a recently purchased, relatively inexpensive, but beautiful example of a coin of Gordian III: Gordian III Struck 238-239 A.D. AR Antoninianus. (4.10 gm) Obverse: IMP GORDIANVS PIVS FEL AVG, Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right. Reverse: LAETITIA AVG N, Laetitia standing half-head left, holding wreath and rudder Although a fascinating coin, I was most interested in the goddess Laetitia on the reverse of the coin. This coin inspired me to delve more into this lesser known figure of Roman mythology. Laetitia is the goddess of joy, gaiety, and celebration. According to this post, this minor goddess had many aspects: http://www.thaliatoo...D/laetitia.html Laetitia Augusta: Joy that the Emperor brings to the empire. SEE above image. Laetitia Fundata: Established joy brought on by the empire

There are three other areas of history that I focus my energies: 1. Italian Renaissance political history: It is very difficult to understand the machinations of the various city-states and the Roman church. I recommend the Showtime series "The Borgias" to anyone interested in this period. It is from Renaissance Italy that modern concepts of humanism, reason, and scientific study first appeared. Unfortunately, unlike the study of Renaissance art, the scholarship on Renaissance political history is very poor. 2. Dutch history and culture in the 1500s and 1600s. Without the Dutch, European history would have been very different: bleak, intolerant, and more violent--much like the Middle East today. 3. British history from the Glorious Revolution (1688) to the Act of Union of Scotland with England (1707) thru the reign of the Hanoverians till the time of Queen Victoria (1837). Anything before that time was too brutal; anything after is too modern. guy also known as gaius

Wow. The post in almost six years old. As has been written before, malocchio, is the evil eye. The evil eye is look or stare thought to have evil intentions or powers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malocchio My Italian relations and friends would wear an Italian horn to protect themselves: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornicello Also for protection is the sign that is discussed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mano_cornuta Caution, however, although popular among rock metal audiences, the sign also suggests one is a cuckold in many Latin cultures. As an aside, however, I just wanted to thank the original poster for the link that now includes a rare interview with Neil Peart, drummer for the group Rush. He is a brilliant, but tortured musician. I'm going to see them in Las Vegas in a few weeks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpCASVFyQoE guy also known as gaius

Reading the author Robert Harris' Wikipedia article, I found out about the aborted plans of a movie bases on his novel, "Pompeii": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Harris_(novelist) Now, that would have been interesting no matter what the political overtones would have been. guy also known as gaius

I'm not sure that really is a bust of Probus. Coins are among the best sources of information (including portraits) about the emperors from the poorly documented third century: http://www.dirtyoldcoins.com/roman/id/Coins-of-Roman-Emperor-Probus.htm The bust found in the Wikipedia page possibly resembles the numismatic evidence better, but I can't be sure. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius_Probus guy also known as gaius

On this site, we have discussed before the coins of Suetonius' twelve caesars. Here's an article by David Vagi from NGC-Ancients with excellent pictures of gold coins (aurei) of the "twelve caesars" and some background information: http://www.ngccoin.com/gallery/twelve-caesars/gallery.aspx Here's a link to the previous post: http://www.unrv.com/forum/topic/10818-suetoniuss-twelve-caesars/ guy also known as gaius Note: I want to thank Mat from cointalk.com for alerting me to this post by David Vagi.

I agree! It was very well written. Not wanting to hijack this thread, I found this quote thought provoking: The quote is why I am among the few who feel that the figure of about 10% of the empire being Christian at the time of Constantine's "conversion" is probably an underestimation. I've written about this point before, but the question remains: "How do we know what the poor, females, and slaves believed since their points of view and beliefs are so poorly documented throughout history?" I think the movie gave some insight behind the potential motivations and beliefs of the poor and dispossessed who embraced the Christian movement. Once again, excellent review: guy also known as gaius

This is a rather silly and sophomoric rendition of history. Pompey's successful campaign against the pirates, which assured both the grain trade to Rome and the unfettered trade throughout the Republic, had far less to do with the collapse of the Roman Republic than the dictatorial actions of his predecessors Marius and Sulla. Continuing with the analogy, however, perhaps the author is suggesting that Bush so weakened this republic's long held institutions and respect for freedom that it allowed a pernicious demagogic upstart successor to further subvert freedoms by waging class warfare and claiming extra-constitutional powers to deal with crises--both real and fabricated. Wow. Even I wouldn't go that far with my rhetoric. guy also known as gaius

As the series "The Borgias" comes to the conclusion of its first season, I have to recommend this series highly (again!). Like the HBO series "Rome," there are many layers of interest in the series: politics, love, war, art, etc. Unlike the "Rome" series, however, the pace so far has been less rushed, allowing for greater character development. Learning about the politics of the Italian Renaissance can be very difficult. The many cities and city states (Milan, Venice, Naples, Florence, Rome, etc.) and personalities (Visconti, Sforzas, Venetian doges, the confusing cavalcade of Roman popes, etc) make grasping Italian Renaissance history and politics difficult for anyone. From this series, many of these Renaissance personalities now come into sharper focus: the ruthless Charles VIII of France, the bizarre King Ferrante of Naples, the scheming Medici and Machiavelli, self-righteous Savonarola, and of course, the ambitious Borgia family (Pope Alexander VI and Cesare, with the tragic Lucrezia). I admit my simple mind sometimes requires a TV series like

Thanks for the link. I love the Netherlands and enjoy the Dutch people. That said, the strong guttural Dutch spoken by a tall and beautiful woman in Amsterdam is very disturbing. I always thought that Dutch should be used in movies as the barbarian Germanic language. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlhbT2kjCro&feature=related guy also knwon as gaius

For the Ancient Romans, the Germanic tongues (and the relatively large Germans) must have been very intimidating: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEuyYDtnDyE&feature=related This is a very sweet McDonalds Commercial with the even more gutteral and intimidating Dutch: guy also known as gaius

Here's another Iron Maiden song with a Roman theme, "The Evil Men Do." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Evil_That_Men_Do_(song) guy also known as gaius

Here's a great Iron Maiden song with a Roman theme, Wicker Man : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeXO7AqKGOQ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicker_man I'm not a big metal fan, but you have to love this song. http://classics.mit.edu/Caesar/gallic.6.6.html From Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars. guy also known as gaius

Here's a rendition of Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" played by the descendants of Rome's sworn enemies--the Parthians and Sassanians. I like it. The strange looking instrument is the Persian tar. guy also known as gaius

Nice clip. Have your friend do a youtube clip of us here at UNRV. That might bring a few eyeballs our way. guy also known as gaius

I've watched the first couple episodes. So far, so good. guy also known as gaius

This is a link to the excellent review article by David Vagi from NGC Ancients: http://www.ngccoin.com/news/viewarticle.aspx?NewsletterNewsArticleID=1152 I found the article very helpful. guy also known as gaius

I was going to write a post on the series, too. I enjoy historical series if they have any semblance of reality. This helps me slog through non-fiction books about the period. Correctly or not, it helps me keep the true historical characters of any time period straight in my simple mind. Anyway, the series looks interesting. It might rekindle my interest in renaissance Italy. http://www.sho.com/site/borgias/home.sho (You can watch the first episode through the above link or click below.) http://www.sho.com/site/order/preview.do#/Borgias_s01_e01 guy also known as gaius

Well, at least both Noricum and Pannonia were partially in Austria. I've always been confused by ferrum noricum, however. If I read correctly, the iron in that region naturally contains manganese, which creates an alloy steel that is harder than the usual pure iron. This explains the popularity of the iron from that region. (I think even the Roman physician Galen mentioned a preference for scalpels made from ferrum noricum.) Is my understanding correct? http://www.alpine-space.org/uploads/media/IRONROUTE_Abstract_of_the_research_activities_WP5_PP3.pdf guy also known as gaius

No society exists in a vacuum. Remember, those areas of the Arabic Empire had previously been part of a greater Greco-Roman and Parthian-Sassanian axis of intellectual and cultural achievement. These ancient cultures and their intellectual traditions were subsumed by a conquering military force and its ideology. Did these ancient traditions and driving intellectual forces immediately disappear with the advent of a new ideology? Of course they didn’t.

It is, definitely. You didn't comment on my initial guesses of Carus or Decius (from post #481). guy also known as gaius

I still think it was one of the "third century crisis" emperors. Interestingly, it was only through numismatic evidence that historians were able to determine the images of many otherwise obscure emperors. They were able to match up the images on coins with unidentified busts. guy also known as gaius

Am I in the correct time period? Let me add Gordian I to the list of possibilities. guy also known as gaius

This might help to confirm Pliny's statement: This was written by Pliny the Elder and published between AD 77-79. If this coin traveled to India around that time, it is a nice confirmation of Pliny's statement. guy also known as gaius