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Melisende

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Posts posted by Melisende

  1. ORBIS - Travelling in the Roman Empire

    in Res Publica

    Posted

    From a shared FB post, I thought this may be of interest to members:

    Quote

    ORBIS: allows us to express Roman communication costs in terms of both time and expense. By simulating movement along the principal routes of the Roman road network, the main navigable rivers, and hundreds of sea routes in the Mediterranean, Black Sea and coastal Atlantic, this interactive model reconstructs the duration and financial cost of travel in antiquity.

    Link here @ http://orbis.stanford.edu/

  2. Did Caligula Actually Make His Steed A Consul?

    in Romana Humanitas

    Posted · Edited by Melisende

    We've all heard the story of that mad Roman Emperor Caligula making his horse a Roman Consul, Ancient Origins, however, questions whether that may really have been the case or was Caligula's words actually taken out of context and re-purposed.

    Quote

    While the ancient evidence mentions a plan for making Incitatus consul, the repeated retelling of the story over centuries (in particular, as a snide way to suggest that a politician might be out of his or her depth) means we often forget that Caligula’s horse never actually sat in the senate at all.

    The story therefore probably owes its origin to an off-hand remark made by Caligula that he would make Incitatus a consul (though he never followed through with it).

    One of the most popular theories is that the emperor was criticising the consuls: they were such “asses” that he might as well include his horse in this elite group.

    A joke by Caligula the comedian has been interpreted as historical fact.

    What are your thoughts on this.  We all know how words and their meanings can be misconstrued in our own times.  I make a comparison to this with the story of King Arthur whereby I made mention (obviously not on this site but elsewhere) of how an oral tradition was extended and added to each time it came into contact with other culture (thus giving us the story and legends as we know them today).  Could the same be said for the story of Caligula's Senatorial Equine - a case of Chinese whispers or of a good story getting in the way of the facts?.

  3. Rome’s Sunken Secrets

    in Colosseum

    Posted

    From the Daily Mail:

    Quote

    Back in the 1st century it was the Las Vegas of ancient Rome, a ‘den of licentiousness and vice’, according to contemporary accounts, where the super-rich and powerful came to party and indulge their wildest desires. 

    And while many of the city of Baiae’s scandals have been lost over time, a new documentary about the resort on the west coast of Italy that largely disappeared beneath the waves 1,700 years ago gives us fascinating glimpses into the opulence, debauchery and backstabbing it was renowned for.

    Rome’s Sunken Secrets follows a series of dives led by underwater archaeologist Dr Barbara Davidde and involving historians and scientists from across the world. 

     

  4. Exhibition: Hadrian's Cavalry

    in Vacatio

    Posted · Edited by Melisende

    From News Guardian comes this item on a new exhibition dedicated to:

    Quote

    .... the cavalry regiments that once guarded the famous North West 150-mile frontier of the Roman Empire, which stretched from the west coast to the east coast.

    The exhibition explores the role and daily life of the Roman army’s cavalry forces in a unique wall-wide exhibition that stretches the full 150 miles of the Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site area – from Maryport in the west to South Shields in the east.

    Exhibition runs "until September 10, across 10 sites in the North, including Wallsend’s Segedunum Roman Fort, Baths and Museum and the Hancock Museum in Newcastle."
     

    • Like 2

  5. Funerary Altar Of Maximus of Rome

    in Romana Humanitas

    Posted · Edited by Melisende

    The Scarlet & Black has an article on a presentation made by Harvard Classics profession, Kathleen Coleman, of the short life of Q. Sulpicius Maximus of Rome.  

    Quote

    Coleman has worked to put together what life would have been like for Q. Sulpicius Maximus of Rome based on his funerary altar.  Maximus won a poetry contest after improvising a poem in front of the Emperor Domitian, a fact that is prominently displayed on the oversized altar.

    An interesting snippet into the daily life of Rome's ordinary folk.

  6. Finds from Caesarea

    in Archaeological News: Rome

    Posted

    The Japan Times reports on finds at the Roman port of Caesarea:

    Quote

    Israeli archaeologists working on a major Roman-era port city on Wednesday unveiled new discoveries including an altar dedicated to Augustus Caesar and a centuries-old mother-of-pearl tablet inscribed with a menorah.  Archaeologists said it likely dates to the fourth or fifth century A.D.

     

  7. Summer Home of Marcus Aurelius??

    in Archaeological News: Rome

    Posted

    An article in Haaretz online reports on the discovery of what is alleged to have been the summer home (palace / estates) of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161–180 C.E.).

    Quote

    Now the discovery of 1,900-year-old rural estates that they owned in today's southwestern Turkey shows how they lived in pastoral retreat, surrounded less by sycophants than slaves, and making money in the Eastern Provinces of the Roman Empire by exporting wine and manufacturing pottery.

    Quote

    The inland region of the Kibyratis had been relatively unexplored until an extensive archaeological survey began in 2008. The digs revealed large rural estates by the city of Kibyra that had hitherto only been known from inscriptions. Four of them belonged to local and Roman nobles, including the imperial family, according to the analysis by the institute.

    I thought this may be of interest.

  8. Real Romans Don't Wear Pants

    in Romana Humanitas

    Posted

    Came across this intriguingly titled article in Forbes, discussing aspects of dress code for Rome during the 4th century as an indicator of stereotype (even a little Game of Thrones references thrown in for good measure - once you get past that the article is quite interesting);

    Quote

    Within the city of Rome, no one shall wear pants or boots. But if any man after the issuance of this regulation of Our Clemency should obstinately persist in such contumacy, he shall be punished accordingly as his legal status permits and expelled from our sacred city (Codex Theodosianus,14.10.3 [June 6, 399 CE])

    The link to the article is here @ Forbes

  13. Crimes of Elagabalus

    in Libri

    Posted

    Has anyone else read "The Crimes of Elagabalus" by Martijn Icks??

     

    The book is sub-titled "The life and legacy of Rome's decadent boy emperor" and so I was really looking forward to an indepeth (well as much is is possible) biography of this enigmatic young ma, the circumstances that brought him to the Purple and the events that lead to his downfall.

     

    However, whilst this was albeit covered, I was disappointed, finding the book to be more a dicourse on the historical literary representations than a study or history of the man (boy) and his reign.

     

    What did others think?

     

  14. The Wedding Shroud by Elisabeth Storrs

    in Libri

    Posted

    I really enjoyed this book by Elizabeth and intend on getting my hands on the next instalment in the saga - The Golden Dice.

     

    It was nice to read something of Rome before the time of the Republic and the Empire, especially as this was a period that I was not totally familiar with.  Elisabeth's style of writing does not impinge on the readers enjoyment of the the story - in fact it enables the reader to become part of the story itself.

     

    Highly recommended.

     

     

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