Jump to content
UNRV Ancient Roman Empire Forums

Pantagathus

Equites
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    2,168

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Pantagathus

  4. Question about the Roman gods?

    in Templum Romae - Temple of Rome

    Posted

    Whilst I agree that the Roman Pantheon was adapted from Greek models - can anyone explain just why Apollo remained the same in both cultures? Of course, I know he had various Greek names, but is he alone in being the one god who was taken over by the Romans in his original guise? And if so - why? This has always interested me about Apollo. Perhaps one of our experts can enlighten us?

    In the religion of the early Romans there is no trace of the worship of Apollo. The Romans became acquainted with this divinity through the Greeks, and adopted all their notions and ideas about him from the latter people. There is no doubt that the Romans knew of his worship among the Greeks at a very early time, and tradition says that they consulted his oracle at Delphi even before the expulsion of the kings. But the first time that we hear of the worship of Apollo at Rome is in the year B. C. 430, when, for the purpose of averting a plague, a temple was raised to him, and soon after dedicated by the consul, C. Julius. (Liv. iv. 25, 29.) A second temple was built to him in the year B. C. 350. One of these two (it is not certain which) stood outside the porta Capena. During the second Punic war, in B. C. 212, the ludi Apollinares were instituted in honour of Apollo. (Liv. xxv. 12; Macrob. Sat. i. 17; Dict. of Ant. s. v. Ludi Apollinares; comp. Ludi Sweculares.) The worship of this divinity, however, did not form a very prominent part in the religion of the Romans till the time of Augustus, who, after the battle of Actium, not only dedicated to him a portion of the spoils, but built or embellished his temple at Actium, and founded a new one at Rome on the Palatine, and instituted quinquennial games at Actium. (Suet. Aug. 31, 52; Dict. of Ant. s. v. Aktia; Hartung, die Reliyion der R

  7. A scathing treatment of Hannibal

    in Res Publica

    Posted

    Why should the Carthaginian senate send reinforcements to Hannibal in Italy? He has won several major battles, most of them inflicting huge casualties upon Rome.

    My 2 cents on why they weren't sending them to Italy is becase the were sending them to Spain which is were their economic interests were actually already invested.

     

    Hannibal himself was more than likely prudent enough to concur with that decision don't you think? He probably knew more than anyone that if Hasdrubal Gisco & Mago lost Spain any major victory in Italy would be bitter sweet.

  9. Question about the Roman gods?

    in Templum Romae - Temple of Rome

    Posted

    What is the evidence of Etruscan influences on the Roman pantheon? It all seems Greek to me. :suprise:

    Chalcidian (& Corinthian) Greeks~~~~>Etruscans~~~~>Romans

     

    A good example of this flow is the cult of Hercules. If Rome had adapted the cult directly from Cumae the name *should* have been more like the Oscan which was Herekleis. Instead we find in Rome an adaptation of the Etruscan name of Hercle.

     

    What is puzzling however is how thoroughly the Etruscans embraced Greek myth & religion to express their own beliefs except for a few minor exceptions like the demoness Vanth.

     

    If indeed the Etruscans had a familial link in prehistory with the Pelasgians as suggested via the linguistic connection with Lemnian, then perhaps the similar pantheon was already in place before contact with the Euboeans & Phoenicians in the Archaic. In that case it may not be that the Etruscans borrowed the Greek pantheon in the Archaic, just that they perhaps embraced the new artistic modes of expressing those beliefs via the plastic arts?

  10. Pyramids built from concrete blocks

    in Archaeological News: The World

    Posted

    RtG:

     

    Stick this in you ear: The suprising truth behind the construction of the Great Pyramid

     

    "A year and a half later, after extensive scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations and other testing, Barsoum and his research group finally began to draw some conclusions about the pyramids. They found that the tiniest structures within the inner and outer casing stones were indeed consistent with a reconstituted limestone. The cement binding the limestone aggregate was either silicon dioxide (the building block of quartz) or a calcium and magnesium-rich silicate mineral.

     

    The stones also had a high water content-unusual for the normally dry, natural limestone found on the Giza plateau-and the cementing phases, in both the inner and outer casing stones, were amorphous, in other words, their atoms were not arranged in a regular and periodic array. Sedimentary rocks such as limestone are seldom, if ever, amorphous...."

  11. Spaniards search for legendary Tartessos in a marsh

    in Archaeological News: The World

    Posted

    Madrid - Where was the capital of Tartessos, the legendary pre-Roman civilization which once existed on the Iberian Peninsula?

     

    The culture which flourished from around 800 to 500 BC is believed to have been located mainly around the present-day cities of Cadiz, Seville and Huelva in southern Spain, but no traces of a major urban settlement have been found.

     

    Now, however, scientists have discovered surprising clues to where a major Tartessian city may have been, the daily El Pais reported.

     

    FULL STORY: HERE

  13. Puzzle from the Greek Dark Ages

    in Historia in Universum

    Posted

    Very nice connection between an arheological find a myth.

    Thanks Kosmo

     

    What puzzles me the most it's the use of antiquity goods A babylonian artifact 1000 years old at the moment of last use!!

    It really poses so many questions! Out of over 200 documented burial sites from the Greek Dark ages, absolutely none are like this one. There is no precident whatsoever.

     

    I'm really glad that the site left no uncertainty as to the context of the goods and that excavation team properly identified these particular items as heirlooms and didn't try to explain them away as coincidences or copies of older motifs.

     

    These were obviously very special people who were more than likely very connected with the non-Greek world (or the Mycenaean past) when the great majority of their Greek contemporaries were not at all.

  20. Carthage: A History by Serge Lancel

    in Reviews

    Posted

    Excellent review Pan. You make a good point about the lack of books on Carthage. I personally have never seen a book dealing with Carthage on its own

    Thank you very much, I still don't feel like I did the book justice in the review though.

     

    There is a stunning lack of books on Carthage... Every book dealing directly with Punic Carthage as a whole is out of print. Including (I think) this one!

     

    The pictures alone in this book make it worth the cost of finding a copy.

  23. Text reveals more ancient secrets

    in Archaeological News: The World

    Posted

    Experts are "lost for words" to have found that a medieval prayer book has yielded yet another key ancient text buried within its parchment.

     

    Works by mathematician Archimedes and the politician Hyperides had already been found buried within the book, known as the Archimedes Palimpsest.

     

    But now advanced imaging technology has revealed a third text - a commentary on the philosopher Aristotle...

     

    BBC

  24. Romans eating out.

    in Romana Humanitas

    Posted

    I have usually seen commentaries equate the Citron to the Persian Apple. However, why am I also wanting to say that this has also been used as a nomeclature for peach/apricots?

     

    Quick info on the peach, from the Food Network (click here)

     

    And info on the apricot, also from the Food Network (click here)

    Thanks Doc! Guess I'm not killing too many brain cells...

     

    Native to China, this fruit came to Europe (and subsequently to the New World) via Persia, hence its ancient appellation Persian apple.

  25. Romans eating out.

    in Romana Humanitas

    Posted

    Yes, why would you want to say that? :angry:

    I have a nagging feeling it's in some footnote commentary in Herodotus. I'd try to verify but Perseus is of course down at the moment.

     

    EDIT: I think I may have found one reason why my memory synapses were misfiring... At least in Strabo the peach is refered to as the persea. However, he relates that it comes from Egypt-Ethiopia.

×
×
  • Create New...