Pertinax
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Posts posted by Pertinax
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Season 2 of Rome finally arrived today, after I'd been patiently waiting for it to arrive for several months. It should have arrived yesterday, but the damned post got delayed. I will be watching it in the next few weeks, to see if they have left out any scenes from the television broadcast.
On initial inspection are there a lot of extras , (like the first series collection)?
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I can only describe that verse as " terrifying".
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Is he recorded as having a big nose himself?
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For differential diagnosis, the most important symptom described by Galen is an exanthem, which strongly indicates smallpox.
Indeed yes, or possibly measles or rubella, sometimes ( in a situation where personal cleanliness is hampered by heat and proximity of persons) a staphylococcus infection causing toxic shock . All these are very straightforward pathogens .
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Once again proving the pivotal role of dairy produce in history.
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A vexed question indeed. I have blogged on site (March 8th..Plague and Rye) regarding possible co-factors in population morbidity. I also have a pending review regarding the book "Justinian's Flea" (no explanation needed given the title and the well known episode of "plague").
My tentative suggestion is that all plagues (regardless of what the actual "plague") was , any disease that targets a population with immune defence deficiency would do and smallpox is nicely contagious (speaking from the point of view of the efficiency of the bacillus), this doesnt dismiss bubonic plague as such , but perhaps widens the scope of multiple disease vectors hidden by more marked physical affliction.
Microbial survivals are rare in the extreme and as far as I am aware few records survive from the Antonine episode.The Justinian plague is perhaps the most disastrous in cultural terms for Romanophiles, cohort mortality was such that men could not be found to serve or be impressed to keep the army in a functioning condition.
Christine Smith has this essay :
http://www.loyno.edu/~history/journal/1996-7/Smith.html
not directly what you are hoping for , but food for thought at least.
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Ah yes we see the medicinal wines in the bottom part of the list
Marubii is Marrubium vulgarae based -horehound herb chest medicine, the active principles are vasiodilatory as well .
Absinthiates are as in Artemisa absinthum (the various wormwoods)- a digestive/anti-parasitic/worm mix which might also function as a puge in high doses.So this is a distant cousin of Absinthe (well not that distant).
Myrtites are any of the myrtle family , bog myrtle being a key ingredient (and semi-psychoactive) in gruit ale as well.In a medicinal context they are for deep seated urinary infections.
Scilites could cover quite a range, nettle , yarrow (another component of gruit), fenugreek ,fennel ,gum mastika from Chios, angelica and dill.
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A couple of precis:
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It struck me that my previous note regarding lime might mean that substance had two functions in wine making, helping to seal a porous surface and as an alkalising medium for acidic wine .The presence of lime traces in the amphorae might be solely due to its use as an alkaline medium.
I found this interesting resume:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/72p67180lrx40258/
Obviously other people are just as obsessive as we are here!
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There were considerable differences in the actual and perceived qualities of garum/liquamen/muria (or the cooking paste equivalent ):
aha here we have it from the horses mouth , I was going to say that I beleive the head and gills of the tuna were consdered to be the "top end " of the market .This post stresses the anaeorbic nature of the fermentation process (ie: no rotting) :
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But How did they seal amphorae?
With pitch as you mentioned? or perhaps wax?
Apparently the mix is pitch , mixed with oil and lime. The latter additives improving the seal. I dont know the technology/chemistry here , lime to give a clean surface, oil to fuse with the pitch? Wheres NN he could help!.
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Ordinary country wine was also the main medium for transportable liquid medicines , I have mentioned elsewhere the straightforward making of a medicinal tincture by maceration of chosen herbs in a wine base. The longevity of such medicines is excellent, they mature and potentiate with the wine. Survivals of horehound herb in wine , as a cough medicine are attested in Britain (rightly so Marrubium is an excellent expectorant for troops getting chesty coughs in a damp bogy place). Jashemski (Pompeiian Herbal), lists finds of dried herbs and others found as a preserved residue from damaged amphorae.
When I was asking AD about a suitable modern substitute to replicate the Roman "taste" he suggested a sweetish cooking grade Madeira (if my memory serves me correctly..does it AD?) .
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Pertinax I believe the reason you have -5 messages is because someone is sneaking into your PM box at night and making off with them one by one...
Ninjas?
That, or GO has been entering our realm and sneaking off with our messages...
Even scarier than Ninjas.
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Defrutum, Faas defines this as the must syrup which has been nicely reduced in a lead pan. The consistency need sto be near that of treacle (as described by Palladius) ,Pliny suggested a 50 percentum reduction off the original must to achieve a decent consistency.Faas says "not the same a s grape-juice syrup we get today , though that makes an adequate substitute". Faas also remarks that it is not the same as the savoury residue from reduced wine used in France (again he says "a decent substitute" , and the version I use in my own food)
Rue is Ruta graveolens a bitter herb , actually an abortefactant if used in a significant quantity . It was placed in the marital bed post partum to sign to an over amorous husband to desist from libidinous advances. It smells pretty "robust".This is where "Rutin" comes from for capillary fragility (ie: keeps your pipework nice and bendy), otherwise called vitamin P.
http://www.gfmer.ch/TMCAM/Atlas_medicinal_...ages/mp0095.jpg
Asafoetida ( Ferula asafotida) resin is very pungent, sulphorous (technically "alliaceous") in fact. Its common name "Devil's Dung" gives the game away.I believe it is "Heeng"or hing in a lot of Indo-Aryan languages , (Doc does that hint at its properties or odour?).Its normal medicinal use is as a digestive aid for bad bloating and poor digestion.The resin is a pathological product of the incised roots.Chemistry wise we are talking a collection of sulphides and coumarins.
So we have a sweet and sour mix in fact.
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For a "plain" dish I was able to find a lentil potage recipe from Grainger (but no reference to barley as a side dish):
250g red lentils
3 medium leeks
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp defrutum
20g coriander
pinch asafoetida resin
3 tsp fresh mint chopped
bunch of fresh coriander (nice)
1 tsp (!) take care , of rue
pepper to taste
soak the lentils overnight, drain cover with water or white wine . Boil and simmer till just softening.Add sliced leeks, continue to boil. Add oil, vinegar, honey and defrutum.Dry roast the coriander seed and asafoetida, grind up and add to mix.Add the mint next.When fully cooked add the fish sauce and coriander leaf , rue and fresh mint.
So a basic foodstuff with lots of spicey additives.
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Caldrail , now you know why garum was so popular.
Quite a lot of people find barley a taxing food, certainly it can "clean" the kidneys .It does have the very beneficial effect of keeping the gut wall free of mucoid plaque, somewhat like eating plenty of linseed. The digestion should therefore proceed "steadily" one might say, nutrients readily absorbed ,exhausted matter excreted .So ulcerative colitis would be minimised , and general levels of alkalinity enhanced (again general digestive wellness).Barley is also vitamin rich , the protein content being roughly 15 times greater than milk.
So we can at least suggest that a man fed on barley has decent digestion and is more likely to ingest and retain other nutrients from his food.Ironically its one food that obese westerners should try and use as a substitute for all the corn starch syrup filled trash they swallow.
btw, I sampled a dish by Sally Grainger (Cooking Apicius) and I will post on this and give gallery illustrations, there was nothing bland about it! The care given to mixing and adding strong spices was most illuminating.
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Pertinax I believe the reason you have -5 messages is because someone is sneaking into your PM box at night and making off with them one by one...
Ninjas?
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I seem to have minus 5 messages. Having cleared my message inboxes the situation still obtains. I have never seen this before so I thought i would post in case some weird glitch was occurring.
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Ah , you are heavy with years and learning!
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Excellent. Thats exactly the roman depiction I was thinking of.
Exuberantly fertile (clad in vineyards) and rustic. Regrettably with a solidifed magma plug firmly emplaced.
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My remark sounds more trite than intended, we have a similar soil ecosystem here despite the distance. Indeed we have similar topography and weather systems also.
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No, No this is exactly what I thought might be the issue..the question is do we have anaerobic ground conditions (where organic objects will survive) or do we have strong sub soil acidity which tears apart the apatite bone matrix.If the sub soil is deep black and foetid then it hints at boglike conditions which would preserve material. The problem is although the decay of human remains is reasonably predictable , the inclusive matrix is the key variable.
I will seek out any available info on Batavian funerary customs, LEG GEM XIII might be able to tell us. This is gruesome stuff,, but I do know that the thigh bones are the likeliest survival in any situation indeed in modern cremation they are the remains which require heavy mechanical maceration . The only suggestion I have at present is that with sufficently high temperature any organic matter will be consumed, if charcoal were used as a funerary fuel such a temperature would be achieved..As charcoal was the fuel of choice for quality smelting is this a possibility?
Post Scriptum: the soil at Vindolanda is similar to the ground here (i'm about 100 miles from the site) , did Birley make any comment to you regarding the subsoil acidity?
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MPC quote "For historical perspective, this mini-series should be packaged with Life of Brian".
Gross libel, "Brian" is far more accurate!
"Mockery of the Jews and their One God should be kept to an polite minimum" quoth the newsreader in HBO Rome II.
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Here is Fiona Petchey on bone degradation :
"Little attention has been given to the environmental conditions of bone preservation (Sobel and Berger 1994), however, the quantities and composition of surviving organic materials in a specimen are dependent on their burial environment Environmental factors which have been suggested as influencing the rate at which collagen degrades include the composition, pH and hydrology of the matrix; oxygenation; temperature; and changes brought about by soil flora and fauna (Henderson 1987; Shiffer 1987).
In a generalised view of bone degradation the protein component undergoes relatively slow hydrolysis to peptides, which then break down into amino acids. At the same time there is spontaneous rearrangement of the inorganic crystalline matrix which weakens the protein-mineral bond and leaves the bone susceptible to dissolution by the action of internal and external agents (Henderson 1987:44). Alterations during diagenesis are believed to include random cross-linking, humification of parts of the molecule, attachment of exogenous humic materials, and hydrolysis with preferential loss of some amino acids ."
which can mean that very variable rates of breakdown occur betwixt a very wet and acidic place like Vindolanda and (say) a dry dessicating desert environment where partial mummification may take place naturally.That is of course if bodies were deposited near the various reincarnations of the Fort , but of course immolation rather than inhumation might account for a lack of evidence . Longshot do you have any plans of the burial sites surviving (or a link to same)?
Water is omnipresent at Vindolanda and deep burials decompose fast in such soggy environments with high acidity .Burial without benefit of a coffin will speed decomposition, a shrouded corpse will decompose quickly.I feel queasy now.
Another Roman Recipe To Delight All
in Romana Humanitas
Posted
Guinea fowl in the style of Vardanus, as performed "in the field" by Sally Grainger author of Cooking Apicius.
Firstly , this is quite a creamy dish without heavy use of spices.The basis of the sauce is the use of egg white rather than flour.As Mrs Grainger says "the original recipe calls for chicken , but early chickens were likely to be much tastier than our modern breeds "Amen to that. So a nice fatty guinea fowl will do the trick.The robust hint of game that comes from a guinea fowl is a usefel property in this recipe.
you require:
a guinea fowl
500 ml sweet wine
40 ml olive oil (extra virgin cold pressed)
2 tbsp fish sauce (nam pla will do).
a bunch of fresh coriander leaf
a leek
3 sprigs thyme
plenty of ground pepper
75 g of pine kernels (do not stint on this one)
60 ml goats milk (camel if you are of noble birth)
1 fresh egg white
300 ml stock
http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?automo...si&img=1920
your stock is on the boil here
Now cook the fowl, pull it to bits .
http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?automo...si&img=1919
this is your pot on the stone oven bench , a decent bird will be falling off the bone in an hour at this heat.
Wine, oil and garum in a pan with the flesh.The flesh must be covered by liquid.
Take the leek and separate the white flesh, produce 4 evenly cut flattened pieces .Now pay attention. Take two of these pieces and lay on a board with cooking string underneath, fold the coriander to sandwich into the same length as the leek, place the thyme on the coriander then close the "sandwich" with the remaining leek and bind it up.Pop this into the simmering pan with the fowl.
Grind pepper and pine kernels:
http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?automo...si&img=1921
using a very rough surfaced mortar with protruberant grit , not the soft barbarian things with a shiny surface.
Add milk to the ground powder, then slowly add the milk.This should now be a soft paste , then fold in the egg (no air!).When cooked pour over the fowl which is now floating in bits of leek and herb, sprinkle with pepper and coriander.
http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?automo...si&img=1922
Delicious.