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Pertinax

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  1. Pertinax

    A Roman Herbal

    By Pertinax,

    I was cross checking the contents of the "Roman Herbal Gallery" and I see that a fair amount of information has built up . For quick reference I am now adding a list of names versus main properties:
     
    Orchis-aphrodisiac/mucilage-(Roman amatory stimulant)
     
    Ruta graveolens (Rue)-antaphrodisiac/bitter (Roman "cold shoulder", stomach medicine)
     
    Absinthum (Wormwood))-anthelmintic/hallucogen (and to counteract Hemlock by the Greeks)
     
    Convolvulous (morning glory)-purgative/abortifactant
     
    Primula (Freya's Keys )(cowslip) -sedative/asthenic (possible Ligurian usage/certain Norse/Medieval)
     
    Digitalis (foxglove)-cardiac tonic/poison (early usage for cardiao insufficiency)
     
    Hyosccymaus (henbane)- anaesthetic/poison (Medicus herb) please note the henbane administered to Pullo after Vorenus rescues him.
     
    Conium (hemlock)-sedative/poison (greek usage of course/Roman anaesthesia)
     
    Atropa (belladonna)-narcotic/sedative -its milder cousin Mandrake was a Medicus herb (alleged to have poisoned the troops of Marcus Antonius during the Parthian Wars)
     
    Papaver (poppy)-narcotic/sedative (Medicus herb)
     
    Achillea (yarrow)-vulnery/wound salve (Medicus herb key Soldiers Herb )
     
    Viscum (mistletoe)-cardiac tonic/sedative/poison.(key sacred Druidic herb )
     
    Hypericum (St John's Wort) anti depressant/ urinary tonic ( Roman urinary herb)
     
    Passiflora-mild sedative (American provenance only)
     
    Althaea (mallow)-mucilage/expectorant (Roman cough lozenge and foodstuff)
     
    Lilium (Lily)- nice for chatting up the Girls ( Now and Then)
     
    Arum (cuckoopint)-aphrodisiac/starch (Roman starchy food and amatory stimulant )
     
    Ricin (castor bean)- anthelmintic/purge/nerve poison (key Egyptian herb-as an oily purge-they already used the peach kernel (cyanide) as a state poison, as the greeks used hemlock )
     
    Symphytum (comfrey)-wound salve/pulmonary health ( european alternative to mallow)
     
    Ekballium (squirting cucmber)-abortifactant (Roman birth control-both pre//post coital)
     
    Datura (stramonium) -respiratory aid/hallucogen/narcotic (widespread Early Med. use)
     
    Pyrus (Rowan)- gargle (sacred herb of Greek Mythology and secret beer brewing ingredient of the Welsh )
     
    Stachys (Lambs Ears) wound dressing-literally the leaf itself (celtiberian key herb)
     
    Alchemilla (lady's mantle) astringent , styptic ( brigantian range)
  2. Pertinax
    I have just returned from another photo recce on Hadrian's Wall . This time I moved from the Western extremity of Luguvallum (Carlisle) to meet up with the images already posted for Vindolanda and Vircovicium.
    http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?act=mo...&cmd=si&img=436
    Bana is the first major survival to the east of Brampton (eight miles east of Carlisle). It is the present day museum of Birdoswald , housed in an old water mill attached to an austere victorian house. This is the only fort in britain to have a positivley identified training gymnasium (basilica exorcitatoria) for mock combat indoors, given the driving sleet in early April the use of such a facility is hardly surprising. As usual attempts have been made to identify site buildings and mark out the overall fort area. The museum is much smaller than Vindolanda with few exibits of note.
    I posted a shot of the site of Bana, http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?act=mo...&cmd=si&img=652
     
    hardly surprising that it was utilised given its elevation.
     
    I moved along to milecastle 41, the best preserved of all the milecastles.I will be adding shots of this soon.
    Camboglanna has no real excavated remains but is the site of the "Roman Army Museum" , again a reasonable museum but not on the scale of Vindolanda .Camboglanna links us to the Steel Rigg photos previously posted.The fort is unusual as having been the home of a Cohort of Syrian archers A Dacian and Tungrian Cohort are also attested.
     
    http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?act=mo...&cmd=si&img=438
     
    Procolita lies a few miles East of Vircovicium but behind the Wall as opposed to on it. Only the Mithraic cult ruins survive. By the time I had photographed the cult ruins the hail was so bad I was forced to retreat to the car.The finding of the Mithraium is another accident of survival , in 1949 Britain had a very dry summer-the upper parts of the surviving walls showed above ground in the dessicated earth -nearly two millenia after this solemn building fell into ruin.
     
    Viggen is ,despite much other important work , fashioning a report format for the previous Vindolanda journey, once this is built I will endeavour to guide members through the various photographs in sequence.
    I acquired the Vindolanda "Band of brothers" book , and another on roman remains in NW Britain.
     
    Bulk upload of Madame Pertinax's Roman Forum pics-click my profile and head for my blog on msn
     
    (look for Gallery "Forum Romanii").
     
    A bulk file exists for Vindolanda as well showing many additional small scale exhibits
     
    Bana is in but unedited as yet, the Mithraic temple ruins are shown.
     
    Also my posting on the Brigantes brings some tribal context to this area.
    http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?showto...t=0entry30946
  3. Pertinax
    I am gratified and amused by the learned interest that my image and commentary on Cuckoopint herb has stirred. At first I had thought perhaps there was an urgent cultural need to understand the starching of Elizabethen costume ruffs, I now see that it may have been more related to my initial commentary on the seminal vessels .
     
    The glycosides in this plant are of unknown structure, the other main constituent is a group of acetylated mannans.Large doses administered for sore throats have caused death. Apparently hibernating bears like to eat quantities of the stuff to "open the gut due to its windy nature" before getting down to a new seasons foraging.
    But before you try and chop the root up to agglutinise your spermatazoa remember " it choppeth blistereth and maketh hands rough and rugged and withall smarting".
     
    Its other commen name by the way is Lords and Ladies-.
     
    My goodness I notice a further surge in erudite perusal since my main entry.
     
    Also Fratres I urgently petition you to support the thread of Favonius Cornelius on "Great Artifacts" and to view the gallery images of Pantagathus and the elegant coins of antiquity.
  4. Pertinax

    Synchronicity

    By Pertinax,

    Carl Jung wrote a piece on "acausal coincidence" ie: unrelated events prompting in the observer a feeling that greater forces are at play than his or her powers of logical deduction will enable him to properly interpret. That certainly happened today , Peter Heather invoked York Minster Crypt as a place redolent with historical atmosphere (and Vindolanda, Birdoswald and Tullie) -just as I was searching for photos of the Minster in relation to the Roman Fortress and the original ground levels in Eboracum . Northern Neil had kicked a thread off about the walls of the Colonia and its possible intergration into the medieval layout, hence my delving. Meanwhile I posted another item about the analysis of remains from an apparent mass execution in Eboracum (archaeology folder),possibly due to the very unpleasant Geta.
  5. Pertinax

    Skipton Castle

    By Pertinax,

    I finally managed to get some reasonable internal photos of the Conduit Court in Skipton Castle.The Court was the well spring for the Castle. Originally built in 1090 the Castle was massivley strengthened in 1310.In the War of the Roses this was a Lancastrian House (Red Rose).The Tudor wing (1536) is attached to the NE, and bore the brunt of unsympathetic internal Victorian "improvement".In the Civil War this was the last Castle to hold out for the King in the north.Somehow the place has survived as the most complete Medieval Castle in Britain despite seeing some fierce action.
     
    The Court is very atmospheric but the light is difficult and its tricky to get the ancient yew tree and the mellow colour of the stone ,these shots seem reasonable,but I think I can get better in summer. I did try to get a shot down through the castle privy-the drop is about 200 feet-but it didnt turn out well.( I just re-read that last sentence and realised I had made an unintentional bad pun-but ill leave it in ).
     
    The present Earl was there today and I was talking to him for a while before I realised who he was, otherwise the place was deserted-except for the tea lady.
     
    additional mote: what I havent been able to show yet is the northern elevation where the Castle towers over the river to its rear, the light was too contrasty to get a clean shot-you can see how bright it was ,but the shade was pitch black.
  6. Pertinax
    The digging work at Vindolanda is an ongoing process.It must be remembered that the fort area has building remains from the Flavian period onwards, with continuous evidence of construction and rebuilding through a very active Severan usage onto the time of Constantine and beyond. So Flavius Cerealis' burning of the Vindolanda tablets is a very early episode in pre-Hadrianic years (97-105 AD). Five wooden forts and two stone ones occupied the site (in various positions ) until a wholesale rebuild in 213 for the incoming Fourth Cohort of Gauls,.
    My gallery images show the pre-hadrianic baths and a modern rebuild of the original turf wall as much of Hadrian's Wall was originally planned . Vindolanda sits about a half mile below (Stanegate road) whereas the Wall and Vercovicium are a half mile above the road. So Vindolanda is not on the Wall but nearby.
    We have images of the Severan occupation and later civilian ruins outside the fort perimeter .
    Notably we see new work on the site of one of the original Flavian Forts lying a little way to the SW of the later stone buildings. I also indicate the site of Flavius' bonfire.Other images are self explanatory, the sub-floor construction of heated rooms and the layout of granary foundations for ventilation and dryness.
    There is an image to show the relative position of the Forts and several of the Wall itself and the spectacular scenery.Vercovicium is a much more exposed site , quite what the Frisian auxiliaries thought of the wind in this area I cant imagine.
     
    The Wall itself has a long history of use, abandonment and re-occupation Salway is the best general academic contextual work (Oxford History of Roman Britain).The physical structure varied in material type and nature-in some remote spots-steel rigg (which I will show) the natural features alone are fearsome enough to deter assault. I did a short 5 mile walk on the day I took the shots -and it was no picnic!
     
    I have been fortunate to visit the Wall, Pompeii (and related sites) and Thebes. The graffiti at all three sites is the one thing that makes you root yourself in the past for a few moments, the Valley of the Kings was very dissapointing a treadmill of miserable, over heated tourists who looked like they knew they "should" be there but didnt know why-I saw Roman tourist graffiti and it was the most real thing about the whole experience. What an Empire-I havent had the good fortune to go to Leptis Magna or Palmyra-what distances they covered!
     
     
    ive posted a number of images to start, more to follow.Not everything I mention here has arrived on site yet.WE will also see some interesting "loaded dice" and re-produced fabrics and tools.
     
    I am aware that many members are non-brittanic , so if there is any confusion regarding locality I will post maps if required.
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