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gilius

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  1. Near Eastern Roman Towns/Cities

    in Imperium Romanorum

    Posted · Edited by gilius

    It seems the Romans founded about 5-10 colonies, otherwise administered most of it's Near Eastern Empire in a similar way to the Greek City State (polis) with client kings. Was the Roman frontier located mostly at the Euphrates, Tigris or somewhere in-between? Did Rome's Empire ever include Ctesiphon for more than a couple of years or any other towns/cities deeper into Iranian territory than those listed below? Roman prisoners of war apparently worked on building projects in Iran, including a pseudo Roman style city south of Ctesiphon known literally as "Better Antioch", though I can find no information on the Internet.

     

    SYRIA

     

    Germanicia/Germanicia Caesarea/Kahramanmara?/Germanikeia - Roman foundation

    Barbalissus/Barbalissos - rebuilt by the Romans near ruined Emar

    Arethusa/Antipatris/Tel Afek/Areth(o)usa - Roman foundation

    Danaba/Danova - Roman foundation

    Canatha/Qanawat/Kanatha/Gabinia/Septimia - Roman foundation

    Zenobia/Halabiya - probably founded by the Romans

    Antioch - Roman provincial capital founded earlier by the Seleucids

    Samosata - Seleucid foundation

    Zeugma/Seleucia - Seleucid foundation

    Cyrrhus/Hagioupolis/Nebi Huri/Mouhafazat of Aleppo - Seleucid foundation

    Alexandria Ab Issum/?skenderun/Alexandria Ad Issum - Seleucid foundation

    Hierapolis/Manbij/Hierapolis/Bambyce/Bambyke - Seleucid foundation

    Seleukeia Pieria/Seleucia Pieria/Palaeopolis/Hydatos/Potamoi - Seleucid foundation

    Apamia/Pella/Apamea - Seleucid foundation on earlier settlement of Pharmake

    Emessa/Homs/(H)Emesa/Nemesa - Seleucid foundation (possibly based on older Zobah)

    Caesarea Paneas/Banias/Caesarea Philippi - Seleucid foundation

    Hippos - Seleucid foundation

    Antaradus/Tartus/Antarados/Constantia - Phoenician foundation

    Tripolis/Tripoli - Phoenician foundation

    Doliche/Gaziantep/Antep - Hittite foundation

    Byblus/Byblos

    Europas/Europos/Europus/Jerabulus/Carchemish

    Beroea/Aleppo/Beroia/Bersera

    Resapha/Resapha/Sergiopolis/Resafa/Sergioupolis

    Palmyra

    Heliopolis/Baalbek/Col. Iulia Augusta Felix

    Berytus/Laodicea/Laodikeia en te Phoinike/Col. Iulia Augusta Felix

    Sidon/Col. Aurelia Pia

    Damascus

    Tyrus/Tyre

    Laodikeia/Laodicea/Latakia

    Epiphania/Hama/Amathe/Epiphaneia/Epitania

    Ptolemais/Ptolomaidam/Ptolomaide/Ake/Acre

     

    Nemrud Dagh/Mount Nemrud/Mount Nemrut - town or mountain necropolis?

    Chalcis/Chalcis ad Belum/Cani/Cahi/Qinnasrin

    Soura/Al Mansurah/??????? ?????, ???????

    Raphanaea/Rhaphanaea/Raphaneai/Rafniye(h)/Rafanieh - town or Legionary Fortress only?

    Phaenae/Phaine/Aenos?/al-Mismiye

    Seriane (location unconfirmed)

    Aquae (...) 67 F2/Yavuzeli

    Thvrae ItMiller 768/Thurae

    `Heracome` 67 G2/near Kizilkaya

    Platanoi/

  3. Miseducation on Roman Towns/Cities (competition and rewards!)

    in Imperium Romanorum

    Posted

    In the latest in a line of books by Ray Laurence, Gareth Sears and co., on Roman Towns/Cities, they are purporting to provide the first "Handbook To The Roman Town/City" (in the West). For such an incomprehensible, incomplete, muddled waffle of a work, they certainly have a cheek making such a claim, and if anything, are misinforming the public with a vague, erroneous and inaccurate descriptions of Roman Towns/Cities.

     

     

    >The City in the Roman West, c.250 BC-c.AD 250

     

     

    Concentrating mostly on classical authors as the gospel truth and leaving out Civitas (notwithstanding 2 brief mentions out of context) is a big mistake and greatly undermines their work and what useful info there is in the book, namely the evolution of the City of Rome, Regional Centers, Fora, and info on public buildings with published town plans.

     

    There are many problems with this book, but I will only highlight some of them rather than delve too much into them:

    *Not enough discussion about Greek and Estruscan influence on town foundation.

    *Repetitive evolutionary descriptions of Roman colonies disjointed inside the main text.

    *Introduction of technical latin legal terms without definition, i.e. aedileship (some however do get explained a few chapters into the book)

    *Quotes from previous publications taken as truth without any checks made for validity, i.e. 400 towns in Italy.

    *impression given that all Colonia in Italy were for retired veterans, but fail to mention that the empire was expanding and founding colonia in conquered territory freed up by the military (and not just for them).

    *East (including Greece) ignored as being different due to towns already having been established by previous empires.

    *Very vague descriptions of markets in towns.

    *No mention of "high-level" town administration, ie. who collected the taxes and how the territories was subdivided (actually into vici), but does mention ""low level" administration (ordo and below).

     

    Here's the big problem:

    *Amalgamation of Roman settlement descriptions and legal/latin terms (official and unofficial)--all categorised as being towns without any comparison--might even brainwash an unsuspecting student into thinking all settlements in the Barrington Atlas are no less than towns!

     

    This problem goes back to Laurence's 1999 work The Roads Of Roman Italy, and The Citiy In The Roman West is like a larger version of one chapter of the former, albeit further expanded by waffle. The chapter in question is "Town Foundation in Roman Italy 300-30 BC":

     

    However, it needs to be stressed that the colonies and municipia do not represent the total sum of urban foundations in the period of Roman colonisation in Italy

    Fair enough, but then...

     

    ...fora, along with vici, castella, conciliabula, with rural markets of a similar nature (e.g. a conciliabulum...
    ...listing the other towns under a general category of oppida...

     

    In his latest book, other descriptions of towns by classical authors are also thrown into the mix:

    Praefecturae
    Pomerium
    Poleis

    Pomerium, being the territorium of a town.

     

    Laurence is seemingly not confused by all these terms he's come across in classical works, but takes them literally as being an official type of town, relaying them to the public as factual categories when really they are a fancy collection of uncollaborated pigeon holes; Ray really doesn't know what he's talking about!

     

    Ray nearly found his way when researching his earlier book, but failed to take the hint:

    Sometimes the Antonine Itineraries provide clarification of the status of a specific fora: Forum Corneli on the Via Aurelia is labelled as a "civitas", whereas Forum Flaminia on the Via Flaminia is labelled as a "vicus"

     

    Perhaps I'm wrong to criticise Ray Laurence and co.? Therefore, I'll put my money where my mouth is: I'll offer cash rewards via Paypal for any translated inscriptions you can provide inside this topic from Italian towns mentioning *any* of these Latin words:

     

     

  6. Drill Hall!?

    in Provincia Britannia

    Posted

    The Birdoswald guidebook states that one building within the fort (with visible remains) was a Drill Hall. Is there any other examples of this building type from Romano-British forts or could they be mistaken in their identification?

    I think the guidebook is refering to the cross hall of the Principia. Although probably correct, it is still an assumption, as I believe their is no direct evidence that cross halls were used in this manner. Although cross halls in legionary fortresses were probably large enough to fulfil this role, IMHO the cross halls of auxilliary forts may be a bit on the small side.

     

    I don't think the remains are in the right place to be the Crosshall/Principia. I think the guidebook is referring to a completely different building. I will check again later to confirm, but the building in question is pretty much in the corner, behind the granaries, away from the middle.

  7. Drill Hall!?

    in Provincia Britannia

    Posted

    The Birdoswald guidebook states that one building within the fort (with visible remains) was a Drill Hall. Is there any other examples of this building type from Romano-British forts or could they be mistaken in their identification?

  12. Sepphoris / Diocaesarea

    in Imperium Romanorum

    Posted · Edited by gilius

    As you know, Nazareth (where Jesus lived), was a satellite village (vicus) of a Roman Town 4 miles away, Sepphoris (Latin: Diocaesarea), where mosaics among other things have been unearthed by archaeologists. It's likely that Diocasaerea is where Jesus worked as a Carpenter or traded there. Since this important settlement does not appear in the Antonine Itineraries or Peutinger Map (see below), what sources have scholars used to determine it's existence as a town?

    36175625.jpg

    79862784.jpg

  13. Towns of Roman Italy

    in Imperium Romanorum

    Posted

    Of course the maps don't show all settlements, they're not meant to be as they are maps of Roman colonies.

     

    They don't show all settlements (we've got the Barrington Atlas for that), but I would expect them to show all Colonia and Municipia. This work was completed a long time ago for Roman Britain, but all the other countries seem behind in terms of Roman scholarship. I was reading a book called Cities of Roman Africa, which is so vague it's untrue, and of course there is no proper town map available. You know there is a big difference between a town and village/vicus (small town) or stopping station? London didn't naturally develop into a big Medieval settlement; it was officially re-founded as a town/burgh by Alfred the Great in 886 with it's own Guild and town hall (Guildhall), otherwise it would have been against the law for so many people to be trading in that spot. Likewise when London was a Roman town it would have had an administrative hierarchy--the nearest settlements (vici) had none! It's blasphemous to show towns and villages on the same map without differentiating the status between them where known IMO; it's ignorance at it's highest form!

  14. Towns of Roman Italy

    in Imperium Romanorum

    Posted

    Unfortunately the above map may still be incomplete as it's missing a number of colonies shown in the other maps. Also, all the above sources are missing Forum Alieni as well as other towns like Falerri Novi, so I guess we could be passing the 200 mark and getting closer to the 400?

    faleriinovi.th.jpg

  15. Forum Alieni

    in Imperium Romanorum

    Posted

    It's the actual gallery, the walls have maps painted on them.

    I'm not sure they have individual names, but iirc there's only one map of Roman Italy.

    That map is unique so it must have it's own name... I'll see if I can track down the guidebook to the galleries, though this map probably is well known in isolation.

    There can't be too many sources with "Forum Alieni".

  20. Towns of Roman Italy

    in Imperium Romanorum

    Posted

    BINGO!

    romanitalytn.jpg

    It's an absolute miracle that I've found this map after searching for 5 hours... I can confirm that town maps of Roman Italy are *extremely rare* compared with, say, Iberia, Gaul and Britain.

     

    c.L = coloniae Latinae

    c.c.R = coloniae civium Romanorum

    sonstige Stadt = "other City"

    The above terms are not even mentioned in the book "Cities of Roman Italy", which leads me to suspect that the author (Guy D. L. B.) doesn't know the basics when it comes to this subject.

     

    Was Herculaneum not a town then? Only a "small-town"/village? I wonder how accurate the map is, as there might be a few towns missing still...

    46680751.jpg

     

    33577343.jpg

  24. Roman Wall Decoration comparison

    in Provincia Britannia

    Posted · Edited by gilius

    When there are layers of tiles/brick at not-so-regular intervals, say, every 5-6 layers of flint or ragstone, then they are there for structural reasons--to even out the next layer for added masonry. However, when the tile courses are so regular, or as at Rome, with only brick and tiles, then it's purely decorative. The mint wall and jewelry wall are of a different type of Opus vittatum mixtum with more layers of stone and fewer layers of tiles (though it's a shame this type of wall decoration has no strict definition or sub-types). To me, the decoration at Faversham is unique in Britain with no parallel. Even parallels to Rome are difficult to find (Billingsgate Bath-house in London and a reservoir in Colchester to name a few buildings built entirely of tiles). Please take another look at the comparison pics above and note:

    1) Thickness of the bricks/tiles

    2) Thickness of the facing stonework

    3) Regularity of the brick/tile courses (1:2)

    Can anyone post a wall pic from a different Romano-British site that looks distinctively anything like the above?

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