guidoLaMoto

Everything reminds me of something else. The little body parts are no doubt from votives. We moderns continue the practice with little statues of the saints, for instance. Motorists often keep a small but stately St. Christopher on the dashboard of their cars....I thought bad drivers should have one where he's cringing and holding his hands & arms up to protect his face contorted in an expression of terror. The Tiberina island that sits in the river in Rome between the Forum Boarium and Trastevere district is actually man made. It formed when silt built up after the king Tarquinius Superbus was deposed in 509BC. His wheat fields just across the river were devastated by the angry Romans and thrown into the river there. With low water levels, they collected silt over time....200 years later, with a plague threatening Rome, the Senate sent a delagation to Greece to get some medical advice. They brought back a snake thought to be the god Asclepius. The snake jumped ship in the river and settled itself on the Tiberina, thereafter a refuge for snakes and the sick....and it of course is a great place for quarantine separated from the general traffic of the city.

Obviously the box contained a mail ordered object from Target. The Romans didn't know what to do with all the boxes from on-line shopping either, so they just tossed it into any hole in the ground. I'm impressed with the precision with which the circles are so consistently reproduced. The artisan must have had a tool like a hole saw rather than chiseling or etching each circle out individually....Has any such instrument ever been found dating to that era? Edit: I just noticed the circles at the upper left corner of the small side facing us-- the design over laps the joint line, ergo, must have been added after assembly of the box...Odd.....A rotating saw would surely have disrupted the joint, so maybe the design features were burned into faces with a branding iron type tool?

Such a sharp demarcation suggests a barrier to interbreeding between the populations of the two areas.....Restrictions due to religion (Muslim vs Christian) or to politics (restricted travel across frontiers in the days of communism) are likely candidates. Expression of "height genes" can be modified by environmental factors (mainly diet), but I doubt there's much of a difference in diet between the northern, taller population and the shorter, southern populations to account for such a sharp demarcation.

Interesting map of average heights.... They seem to radiate out in concentric bands of gradually decreasing height to the north & west of the one small area of the tallest....except to the south & east where the shortest are located.....That suggests a gradual mixing of "tall genes" with "shorter genes" as individuals chose mates to the N & W, but apparently little mixing with the he population to the SE.... ...is that due to some social bias or to some geographical barrier? The topological map of the area seems to suggest the shorter people live at lower elevations and the taller in more mountainous regions. I'd like to see a map of the distribution of "ugly genes" to shed some light on the question. 16 emperors from one small, backwater province? What's up with that? ...something in the drinking water? This also suggests a good topic for a doctoral thesis-- How many Roman Emperors could dunk a basketball?

It certainly sounds like rickets (childhood osteomalacia). The usual cause is low Vit D caused by inadequate exposure to sunlight (UV radiation)....As he mentions-- they had plenty of milk, so inadequate dietary Ca wasn't the problem (natural milk is not a source of Vit D. Our modern milk is fortified with D as an additive) but the Brit. Isles have notoriously few days of good sunshine.... CJ Caesar, who wrote in some detail about all the ethnic groups he encountered in his exploits north of the Alps didn't mention anything about boney deformities among the Brits....but then, he wasn't there all that long....(We get our word "pixie" from Caesar describing the painted skin ( Latin- picti or pixi) of some of the Brit/Celtic warriors.) Interestingly, sub- Saharan Africans have very darkly pigmented skin and the bell shaped curve of their Vit D levels are significantly lower than that of Caucasians, yet osteoporosis is significantly lower among Americans of African ancestry compared to Americans of European ancestry.

Worm infestations were virtually universal in the past, and Giardiasis is still easily picked up from drinking water from streams. Dense population centers or poor sanitation facilities not required....Infestation rates have come down in recent years, not because of improved facilities, but simply from more universal use of shoes (!!!).. . https://www.cdc.gov/sth/about/index.html ...worms of Ascaris & Trichuris enter the host thru the soles of the feet, live & produce eggs in the host GI tract. Eggs are deposited in the soil via feces, then hatch in the soil to complete the cycle. It's a pedal/fecal transmission, not oral/fecal. Edit to add-- Because infestation was probably universal and endemic, the hosts were probably "accustomed" to sharing their nutrition with their internal neighbors ("Give me a piece of burnt toast and a rotten egg. I've got a tapeworm worm and that's good enough for him."-- Curly Howard)...They may have suffered from a relative stunting of growth and decreased strength and exercise tolerance, but everyone would have been affected equally.

The Cult of Mithras was the religion of choice among Imperial legionaries and derived from Zoroastrianism. https://www.ancient-history-sites.com/historical-insights/the-cult-of-mithras/ Because Mithraism involved sacrificial death and rebirth, I suppose, if we squint hard enough, we can see an association between Mithraism and Christianity.

They should have also mentioned that they were looking for a cure for cancer to double ensure their next grant of research funds. GW and cure for cancer -- two key phrases in the grant application process. How does a volcano eruption cause increased trade?.....There was a volcano eruption AND the Age of Exploration was advancing. Where's the cause-&-effect? New epidemics occur when new mutations increase the infectivity&/or virulence of a bug, or (more likely) population dynamics in the host/pathogen system reach the critical stage for a "break out." Every once in awhile, changes in weather may be a factor in population numbers, but no need for the extra layer of complexity.

Amazing....and I appreciate the effort you put into your posts. Thanks. Judging by the arrows carved on the beam, I have to wonder if it was built from a kit bought at Ikea?

Slaked lime is basically plaster and "hot mixing" is concrete. The main dif between Roman concrete and modern concrete is the volcanic ash. You don't use concrete to finish your interior walls and you don't use plaster to build columns to hold up your aqueducts. Lime is Calcium hydroxate, while cement is a combination of Calcium silicates, aluminates and ferrites. Add sand & gravel and you get concrete. It was no great feat of genius to see the different uses for the two materials. Mixing lime and water releases only the small amount of heat of solution, while setting concrete is a chemical reaction that releases quite a bit of heat as things crystalize. It can burn skin. Modern concrete can take months to years to completely cure. Once cured, it's fairly inert. Roman concrete has more of a tendency to re-dissolve when moisture gets into cracks and then re-set, hence the "self healing" attribute.

In reading The Aeneid again recently, in particular the end of Book IV where Dido kills herself with Aeneas' sword. Vergil doesn't use the word "gladius."...and as I thought about it, it was apparent he rarely uses the word gladius in the whole work..... The Perseus site has a tool showing word frequencies among the common Latin works of lit.... https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/wordfreq?lookup=Ensis&lang=la Vergil usually uses words like "ensis," "ferrum" (cf- our "steel") or "arms" (arms). More rare words like pugio (dagger), sica (knife as a murder weapon) or culter (cutting edge, as in our cultivate) occur only once or twice in every 10-20,000 words. According to the Perseus tool, Vergil uses gladius only 9 times in the whole Aeneid. Livy uses it 96x in Ab Urbe Condita (Books 1-10) while Caesar uses it 24x in his Gallic Wars, a shorter work. For the word ferrum-- Livy 169x....Vergil 174x....Caesar 43x Arma-- Livy 750x ...Livy 554....Caesar 182 and Ensis-- Livy only once...Caesar not at all....and Vergil 63 times....so I guess we're justified in calling "ensis" a poetic word for sword.

Certainly an impressive curriculum vitae.....but we could turn this into a discussion like the classic one in American baseball history-- who was the best center fielder, Mickey, Willy or The Duke? If you were chosing up sides for a stick ball game in the street, you couldn't go wrong no matter who you chose. Other Roman soldiers of notable bravery mentioned by Livy-- Horatio Cocles, Gaius Mucous Scaevola, Marcus Furious Camillus, and even a woman, Cloelia, who bravely led other women & children hostages to freedom back across the Tiber. Eg- https://pjmedia.com/spencer-klavan/2014/08/11/the-10-most-badass-roman-war-heroes-n154853#google_vignette In the account given by Guy above, Livy at least has the honesty to state that the speech is reproduced "as handed down to us" (a more direct translation from the Latin "fertur" in the original)....Livy says in his introductory remarks to Ab Urbe... that perhaps we should regard the stories coming from ancient authors as works of poetry rather than factual documents. Pretty smart cookie. Dionysius of Halicanarssus, OTOH, reproduces speeches on a regular basis that are pages long as if a stenographer were always present to record things in a Congressional Record. His work reads more like an historical novel than a credible history.

The Rosetta Stone is probably viewed by and impresses more tourists in a week at the British Museum than would see it in Egypt in a year. Artifacts from the origins of human civilization belong to the world, not just the local govt of the week club. "Vae victis."-- Brennus

Impressive, but then I'm from Chicago where the oldest building is that grotesque Water Tower, only about 150 years old. I wonder if they'll try to restore it/save it? ...Actually, most of the ruins we see in and about the forum are the remains of late Empire restorations, not the originals of the early Empire. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7560/760783 ....kinda reminds me of seeing George Washington's original hatchet with which he chopped down the cherry tree. Of course, after 300 years, the head had been replaced twice and the handle three times. Thanks for posting.

We also have to question the method and precision of their measurements-- while a football pitch is a standard size, the dimensions of the arena in the stadium in which it sits is variable. Are they measuring wall to wall, moat to moat (the Maximus arena was surrounded by a most to protect the spectators from the wild beasts) or arena plus cavea, etc? As an aside-- a two horse chariot was a biriga, four horse a quadrariga. Although I've never seen the word "riga" used independently, I think it must be the source of our word "rig" used commonly in cowboy movies for a horse and wagon. Addendum:

I wanted to hold off commenting here until I had seen the video, but I've been pretty busy (for instance, my wife is due home shortly with some packages and I'll have to hold the screen door open for her) but It should be pointed out that there's a difference between propaganda and celebration. Propaganda is the Latin word for "things to be propagated." The construction in Latin usually implies the imperative- cf. Cato's famous "Carthago delenda est"- Carthage MUST be destroyed...In English, the word is usually used in the context of deceitful advertising to advance an agenda.... ...as opposed to celebration. For example, the Romans erected an equestrian statue to celebrate the heroics of Cloelia in 508 BC when Rome was little more than a village of shepards & farmers- hardly an act of propaganda. Who would see it but a few hundred Romans? Rome spread her culture throughout the conquered lands, building theaters, temples, baths and arenas, etc- all part of that culture. If those things impressed the vanquished, it was secondary gain, not primary intention. The one episode that does come to mind is Caesar building a bridge to cross the Rhine- certainly intended first to be impressive and secondly to be utilitarian.

I like that that book gives copious references to the sources of their info. Following up on several that go back to Livy, it's remarkable how much they extrapolate from what are actually very scant references in the original sources. Eg- They give us the impression that Tarquinus Priscus built an elaborate stadium when Livy merely says in effect that he assigned places to the senators and equities and some built platforms 12 ft tall from which to view the games.

I had to smile looking at the pic you posted above-- that tan area to the right of the circus is Mons Palatinus (Mons = mountain). Looks pretty flat. Probably an ambitious, ancient real estate agent's idea for good advertising. Maybe "collis" (hill) or even "collinus" would be more accurate. That's an interesting site....it was footnote ref on the Wiki article about the circ var....It has an aerial shot of The Vatican with the superimposed plan of Vatican circus, which looks to be about 500m long. http://www.circusmaximus.us/vatican.html I thought the Vatican was built on an old cemetery. It was the site of St Peter's execution-- apparently a spectator attraction at the circus? In regards the Aurelian wall cutting thru the circus-- you know how quickly new emperors often disregarded their predecessors. Maybe Elagabulus, already gone for a half century, was just old news and had to move over to make room for progress. Was the circus still in use by then of had the domus & track been abandoned?

http://www.circusmaximus.us/varianus.html If we assume the width of the modern streets, from building to building, is 10m, then it looks like the length of the superimposed circus varianus in the aerial photo paces out to be ~ 600m...just about the length of the C Max. ...judging by the size of the cars in the photo, that's probably a good estimate. For comparison, the Stadium Domitianum (now Piazza Navona) was https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadium_of_Domitian 275m x 105m, and the Circus Flaminius (3rd cent BC) was 300m. https://books.google.com/books?id=couetXBQO9AC&pg=PA543#v=onepage&q&f=false Another comparison for perspective-- the Piazza Del Popolo, sight of Sienna's famous biennial horse race is about 150m x 250m.

Writing "Ab Urbis Condita" in the 1st century BC, Livy says "the Circus, now called Maximus...." and goes on to describe seating platforms 12 ft high. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0151%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D35

It must have been a real PITA for Roman schoolboys taking history class, having to memorize long lists of consuls' names for the years, particularly when a consul often served multiple terms, sometimes paired with the same guy as before, sometimes not....It was probably tough enough figuring out the day of the month, what with the Kalends and the Ides falling on different days in different months, and they had no names for days of the week.....and then there's that problem of Roman numerals.....Many people don't realize it, but the reason Michaelangelo took four whole years to paint that one lousy ceiling was because it was actually a Paint by Numbers Kit but it was in Roman numerals and he kept getting confused: "Let's see now. IX. Is that 11, burnt sienna, or 9, cerulian blue?" As long as we're at it about confusing things in ancient Rome- Latin is one of many languages for which there is no word for yes or no. They had to say "Ita est" (So it is) or "Non est verus" (It is not true)

It's all a metter of inductive reasoning. Given an outcome, assign reasonable weights to the possible explanations. (Deductive reasoning is rarely possible in real life situations because rarely is only one explanation possible). Because a computer has perfect, almost instantaneous recall, it can quickly search the memory bank and assign those weights to all pertinent material. I have one of those pornographic memories. I remember everything I:ve ever heard or read....How quickly & completely I retrieve that material is another matter...A couple years ago, I was discussing ol time movies with my uncle. At one point, I just couldn't remember a certain star's name and we just let it drop....Two days later the name suddenly popped into my head. I dialed my uncle's number. He picked up. I blurted out "Hedy Lamar!" And hung up... He call back and said "Oh, right." and hung up.

A pryroclastc flow is a high velocity thrust of hot, noxious gases (up to 1000⁰C). Citizens of Herc didn't have time to escape once the flow approached. It killed them on the spot by frying their lungs. They weren't buried immediately, hence had time to decompose slowly,thus leaving behind skeletons....BUT..the flash point of wood is in the 250-400⁰C range, so it must have been a so-called "cold pryroclastc flow" (gas temp "only" 250⁰C). As we've discussed here before, most Pompeians had some warning and were able to escape. Those that stayed were eventually inundated by the heavy rain of volcanic dust, probably suffocating as they were buried alive. Those bodies decayed more slowly and left hollows in the ash probably harded by eventual rainfall. The chart in Guy's first post is a little misleading. It implies there were no skeletons at Pompeii. There were, but they're inside the hollows/casts.