The Attack On Vetera

The Attack On Vetera: "The besieged were torn between heroism and degradation by the conflicting claims of loyalty and hunger. While they hesitated, all normal and emergency rations gave out. They had by now consumed the mules, horses and other animals which a desperate plight compels men to use as food, however unclean and revolting. Finally they were reduced to tearing up shrubs, roots and the blades of grass growing between the stones - a striking lesson in the meaning of privation and endurance.
But at long last they spoiled their splendid record by a dishonorable conclusion, sending envoys to Civilis to plead for life - not that the request was entertained until they had taken an oath of allegiance to the Gallic empire. Then Civilis, after stipulating that he should dispose of the camp as plunder, appointed overseers to see that the money, sutlers and baggage were left behind, and to marshal the departing garrison as it marched out, destitute. About 8 kilometers from Vetera, the Germans ambushed the unsuspecting column of men. The toughest fighters fell in their tracks, and many others in scattered flight, while the rest made good their retreat to the camp.
It is true that Civilis protested, and loudly blamed the Germans for what he described as a criminal breach of faith. But our sources do not make it clear whether this was mere hypocrisy or whether Civilis was really incapable of restraining his ferocious allies. After plundering the camp, they tossed firebrands into it, and all those who had survived the battle perished in the flames."

Cypriots in the Roman Army

When Cyprus was incorporated into the Imperium Romanum in 30 BC, the island became a potential recruiting-ground for the Roman army, and military service a potential career for male Cypriots. Two classes of fighting men made up the Roman army. The legions were composed of citizen soldiers and recruited among holders of the Roman franchise, while the auxilia were recruited from non-citizens but received Roman citizenship when they were discharged after twenty-five years' service. To date, no legionaries of Cypriot background have been found in the literary or epigraphical record, but an auxiliary cohort of Cypriots saw service in Romania and the Black Sea region.

After the battle of Actium and the military reforms of Augustus, auxilia came to play a significant role in the Roman army, especially in the north-west border provinces. Previously, auxiliary units had been of varying size; now they were divided into cavalry alae and infantry cohortes of c. 500 men, each cohort subdivided into 6 eighty-man centuriae. Under Augustus, auxiliaries generally served in the area where they had been recruited,[1] often as ethnic units under their own commanders. This policy was gradually abandoned[2] and completely reversed after a series of mutinies and separatist uprisings that shook the Rhine frontier in AD 68-69: cohorts were henceforth stationed outside their area of origin and vacancies filled by local recruitment. By the second century, the auxiliary units had lost much of their ethnic character, but retained their traditional appellations.[3]

Until the mid-first century AD, Roman policy in the Black Sea was based on indirect control of the shores through client-kings. In 61, Scythian forces were besieging Chersonesos (Sevastopol) in the western Crimea, but Kotys, ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom in the eastern Crimea, was unable or unwilling to come to the aid of Chersonesos, and his Roman masters had to intervene directly. An expeditionary force under the command of Ti. Plautius Silvanus, legate of Moesia, forced the Scythians to abandon the siege.[4] Subsequently, Roman control of the Bosporan Kingdom was tightened, and the kingdom of Pontos was made a Roman province. When the expeditionary force returned to its bases in Moesia, a sizeable contingent?according to Josephus, 3,000 men and 40 ships[5]?stayed behind to safeguard Roman interests. Guard duty on the frontier was a typical task for auxiliary units, and it may well be in this context that a unit of Cypriot auxiliaries was raised: Greek-speaking and familiar with the sea, Cypriots were well suited for garrison duty in the northern Black Sea ports.

A generation later, around AD 85, Moesia itself was attacked by Decebalus. Rome was forced to divert forces from the Black Sea coast to the central Balkans.[6] The participation of a Cyprian cohort in the Dacian wars has long been known from a military diploma dated February 110,[7] recording the granting of Roman citizenship and other privileges to veterans of the Dacian wars.[8] A similar diploma, dated to October 109 and found at Ranovac in north-eastern Serbia, was published in 1987.[9] Both diplomas list a number of units, veterans of which benefit from the emperor's decree, and in each list, the cohors IIII Cypria c(ivium) R(omanorum) appears

HBO.com to offer indepth information about the production of sets, costumes and props for popular "Rome" miniseries

I'm really enjoying HBO's miniseries "Rome" that portrays inhabitants of a realistically gritty, thriving city of the ancient world. I was excited to see this announcement that an indepth look at the production of costumes, set pieces and props was going to be provided on their accompanying website HBO.com.

"Coming soon to HBO.com, a look at the elaborate costumes, set pieces and props authentically recreated for Rome, including lushly painted murals, sumptuous gowns, beautiful crests and detailed daggers, entire streets of blown glass, even ornately displayed Roman meals of snails and feathered birds. Go behind-the-scenes for a close-up look at the rich tapestry that made up the backdrop of Rome. "

Complications of Marriage in the Roman Empire

I've just finished reading "Course of Honour" by Lindsey Davis. For some reason I was under the impression that a Roman male citizen could marry a freedwoman and that manumitting a female slave was commonly done for this purpose. However, in Davis' book, Antonia Caenis could not marry Vespasian, even after she was freed, because he was a senator. I wondered about this but found this reference describing the points of Justinian's law to support her research:

A Senator cannot marry a freedwoman except with imperial permission. The daughter, grand-daughter, great-granddaughter of a Senator cannot marry a freedman or an actor. Justinian relaxed this rule briefly but then changed his mind and reinstated it. (Since Justinian reinstated this law, it must have already been in existence at the time of his reign)

A patron cannot marry a freedwoman against her will, unless he manumitted her for the purpose of marriage.

I was also interested to note that this reference points out that:

If a wife absents herself for three days every year she will remain in the power of her father (or other male kinsman) rather than fall under the authority of her husband. Normally a father or brother could be counted on to be more benevolent and were certainly more remote. This marriage ?without manus? was the norm throughout the time of the Empire.

A daughter married "with manus" passed into the power of her husband. Such a marriage was quite rare, however, and daughters usually remained in the power of their birth family. (Note: this meant that any property the wife owned outside of her dowry and prenuptial donation remained in her family. Her husband administered the dowry and prenuptial donation and was certainly the "head of the house" on a day to day basis.

Things apparently really got complicated if you were a Roman in Alexandria:


Marriage and inheritance. Alexandria, 2nd cent. A.D. (Berlin papyrus 1210. Tr. J.G. Winter. G)
The idiologus, the chief financial officer of Roman Egypt, administered the imperial account, which consisted of funds acquired form means of than taxation (fines and confiscations, for example). The papyrus from which these extracts are taken contains a summary of the rules by which the idiologus carried out his duties. This document reveals fiscal oppressions not only of women but of an entire province.


6. An Alexandrian, having no children by his wife, may not bequeath to her more than one quarter of his estate; if he does have children by her, her share may not exceed those of each son.
23. It is not permitted to Romans to marry their sisters or their aunts; it is permitted in the case of the daughter of brothers. [The idiologus] Pardalas, however, confiscated the property when brothers and sisters married.

24. After death, the fiscus [40] takes the dowry given by a Roman woman over 50 to a Roman man under 60.

26. And when a Latina [41] over 50 gives something to one over 60 it is likewise confiscated.

27. What is inherited by a Roman of 60 years, who was neither child nor wife, is confiscated. If he have a wife but no children and register himself, the half is conceded to him.

28. If a woman is 50 years old, she does not inherit; if she is younger and has three children, she inherits;[42] but if she is a freedwoman, she inherits if she has four children.

29. A free-born Roman woman who has an estate of 20,000 sesterces, so long as she is unmarried, pays a hundredth part annually; and a freedwoman who has an estate of 20,000 sesterces pays the same until she marries.

30. The inheritances left to Roman women possessing 50,000 sesterces, who are unmarried and childless, are confiscated.

31. It is permitted a Roman woman to leave her husband a tenth of her property; if she leaves more, it is confiscated.

32. Romans who have more than 100,000 sesterces, and are unmarried and childless, do not inherit; those who have less, do.

33. It is not permitted to a Roman woman to dispose of her property by will without a stipulated clause of the so-called coemptio fiduciaria. [43] A legacy by a Roman woman to a Roman woman who is a minor is confiscated.

38. The children of a woman who is a citizen of Alexandria and an Egyptian man remains Egyptians, but inherit from both parents.

39. When a Roman man or a Roman woman marries a citizen of Alexandria or an Egyptian, without knowledge (of the true status), the children follow the lower class.

46. To Roman men and citizens of Alexandria who married Egyptian women without knowledge (of their true status) it was granted, in addition to freedom from responsibility, also that the children follow the father's station.

52. It is permitted Roman men to marry Egyptian women.

53. Egyptian women married to ex-soldiers come under the clause of misrepresentation if they characterise themselves in business transactions as Roman women.

54. Ursus [44] did not allow an ex-soldier's daughter who had become a Roman citizen to inherit from her mother if the latter was an Egyptian.

http://www.stoa.org/diotima/anthology/wlgr/wlgr-romanlegal148.shtml

Wandering the Streets of 3-D Rome

Forget the dusty guidebooks and crumbling ruins - an exhibition that has opened in the midst of Rome's Forum invites visitors to don their 3-D glasses and watch the alluring dance of a slave who has been dead for two millennia, or stroll through the streets of ancient Rome with the click of a mouse.

Imagine Ancient Rome presents about 50 multimedia projects developed around the world that show the greatest monuments of the city as they used to be, reconstructing anything from the features of long-dead slaves and gladiators to entire cities of the Roman Empire.

"These monuments were meant to be visited but now they are just a bunch of random ruins," says Bernard Frischer, from the University of Virginia, who worked on two of the projects exhibited.

"What you want to do is put it all back together" he says.

The show runs through to November 20 and is set up among the ancient "tabernae", the shops and offices that lined the section of the forum built by the emperor Trajan.

Space was at a premium in ancient Rome and the cramped rooms of what was once the city's centre for public life can only accommodate a few visitors at a time.

But the wait may be worth it to wander through the computer-generated streets of the distant town of Complutum - east of what is now Madrid, Spain - or gaze into the eyes of the "slave of Murecine", a dancing reconstruction of a young female slave based on a skeleton found near Pompeii, one of thousands of victims of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that buried the city in AD79.

Mr Frischer, who heads the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at Virginia and worked with UCLA to build models of the Colosseum and the Roman forum, says such reconstructions also are of great use to researchers.

"In making a model, we don't put in only what we know, we also discover what we don't know," he says, explaining that experts often make new discoveries when they are forced to make educated guesses to fill in the gaps to reconstruct a building from its ruins.

Once a model is complete, it can also be used as a virtual lab in which to run experiments, he says, as a screen shows two animated gladiators being cheered by the crowd in the reconstructed Colosseum.

Girls Trained in Beautiful Writing?: Female Scribes in Roman Antiquity and Early Christianity

I have been reading the novel "Course of Honor" by Lindsey Davis about the relationship between Vespasian and a female scribe named Caenis. I was curious about this woman so I did some research and found this interesting article about the existence of female scribes (both slave and freewomen) and Caenis in particular:

"That female scribes appear in urban contexts in the service of
upper-class women is supported by two?and, so far as I have been able
to determine, the only two?literary references to female scribes. First,
according to Suetonius? account of Vespasian, when Vespasian?s wife
(Flavia Domitilla) died, ?he resumed his relations with Caenis, freedwoman
and amanuensis of Antonia [Antoniae libertam et a manu], and
formerly his mistress.?30

This anecdotal description of Caenis fits well
with the information from our Latin inscriptions: a freedwoman who
was employed as an amanuensis by another woman.

The second literary reference requires more careful analysis. In his
well-known Book Six of the Satires, Juvenal catalogues with characteristic
ruthless mockery the ways of wives. In the following passage he
satirizes the well-to-do lady who idles away her days unjustly punishing
her slaves if her husband rejects her sexual advances:
If the husband has turned his back upon his wife at night, the libraria is
done for. The slaves who dress their mistresses will be stripped of their
tunics; the Liburnian will be accused of coming late, and will have to pay
for another man?s [i.e., the husband?s] drowsiness; one will have a rod
broken over his back, another will be bleeding from a strap, a third from
the cat; some women engage their executioners by the year. While the
flogging goes on, the lady will be daubing her face, or listening to her
lady-friends, or inspecting the widths of a gold-embroidered robe. While
thus flogging and flogging, she reads the lengthy Gazette, written right
across the page, till at last, the floggers being exhausted, and the inquisition
ended, she thunders out a gruff ?Be off with you!?31

30. Vesp. 3.
31. Satires 6.475?85.

Crucial for my purposes is the very beginning of the passage where
Juvenal indicates that the lady?s libraria will suffer her mistress? temper.
Scholars have been loath to translate this term as ?clerk,? or ?scribe,? or,
even less, ?copyist,? and have rather argued that here the term libraria is
essentially the same as lanipendia, the slave who was responsible for
weighing and doling out the wool to the slave wool workers. The
scholarly reluctance appears to derive from the ancient Scholia gloss in
which the term libraria is replaced with lanipendia.32 Furthermore,
scholars have argued that the context supports this interpretation. And
finally, some have pointed to etymological reasons for the gloss: it is
possible that libraria derives not from the root liber, meaning book, but
from libra, a unit of weight, and hence leads to the interpretation of ?one
who weighs out the wool? (i.e., the lanipendia).33

Each of these arguments, however, is problematic: ancient scholia
must be assessed on an individual basis, since it is just as possible that an
ancient scribe or copyist has mistakenly?intentionally or unintentionally?
glossed a word, as that he (or she) has preserved a good reading.
Furthermore, there is nothing in the context that inherently suggests one
interpretation over against another: we know that libraria were among
the personal servants of wealthy women, and this passage appears
essentially to produce a list of various slaves. And finally, most problematic
in my opinion, is that if libraria means lanipendia in this passage, it
would represent the sole instance in all of Latin literature where this
interchange is made.34 Essentially there are no controls on such a

32. The LCL translates libraria here as wool maid. According to E. Courtney?s
commentary on the Satires, S?which represents the ancient Scholia preserved in P
(the main manuscript used for the LCL text)?understood the use of libraria as the
equivalent of lanipendia (?who weighs out the pensum to the female slaves?):
E.Ê Courtney, A Commentary on the Satires of Juvenal (London: Athlone Press, 1980),
324. John Ferguson likewise adopts the lanipendia interpretation, but admits the this
interchange occurs nowhere else: ?libraria . . . the servant who weighs out the wool
for the workers, only here in literature, elsewhere called lanipendia? (John Ferguson,
Juvenal: The Satires [New York: St. Martin?s Press, 1979], 206). The OLD does not
suggest such an interchange of terms.

33. R. F. Rossi offers a useful discussion of the Juvenal passage, but he is
overconfident in his explanation of libraria as meaning lanipendia (?Librarius,?
Dizionario epigrafico di antichita romane, 4 [Rome, 1958]: 956). Part of his
argument depends on a lack of evidence for female copyists, a point that I am
contesting in this essay: ?Bisogna anche aggiungere che sembra meno sicuramente
demonstrata l?esistenze di donne copiste o scrivane designate col termine libraria?
(956).

34. John Ferguson admits this point: Juvenal, 206.
HAINES-EITZEN/GIRLS TRAINED IN BEAUTIFUL WRITING 639
replacement, and therefore I would argue that Juvenal also attests to
female slaves who were trained as clerks, secretaries, or copyists, and
were in the service of female masters.
To the inscriptions and literary references we can add one final piece of
Roman-period evidence for female scribes: an early-second-century
marble relief from Rome that preserves an illustration of a female record
keeper or clerk. The woman is seated on a high-backed chair and
appears to be writing on some kind of a tablet; she faces the butcher who
is chopping meat at a table.35 It strikes me as particularly interesting that
among the few Roman-period visual illustrations of scribes or clerks, one
depicts a woman.36 Furthermore, it suggests that the employment of
female scribes was not exclusively restricted to female employers, for
here we have a vivid portrait of a female scribe working for a male
butcher. It may well be, as some have suggested, that librariae could do
?freelance? work beyond the household in which they were primarily
employed.37

That some women, or girls, of slave and lower-class status were
trained as clerks, secretaries, and shorthand writers seems clear from the
evidence I have just discussed. These women must have had a certain
degree of literacy and training, which they probably received by
apprenticeship and/or training with a tutor in the household in which
they worked." - KIM HAINES-EITZEN

Caligula's Floating Palaces

The History Channel"Lurking beneath the blue waters of Lake Nemi lay the titans of Roman naval engineering--the Nemi Ships. These titanic luxury liners of the ancient world held inventions lost for thousands of years. But why were they built? Were they Caligula's notorious floating pleasure palaces--rife with excess and debauchery? Flagships of a giant sea force? It took the obsession of Mussolini with all things Roman to finally prise the two huge wrecks from the depths of Lake Nemi near Rome. Using an ancient Roman waterway, he drained the lake and rescued the ships, an accomplishment captured on film that we access to illustrate this astounding story. Sophisticated ancient technology was discovered in the boats that transformed the understanding of Roman engineering overnight--the Nemi ships were a breathtaking find. Yet by 1944, the adventure had turned sour and the retreating German Army torched the boats. We reveal the mysteries of the Nemi Ships and the ancient technology that made them possible."

I watched this program last night and found it fascinating. I was particularly impressed with the water management systems aboard these huge vessels. The program discussed a massive chain-drive bilge pump system and an intricate piston-driven pumping system that used gravity to distribute running water throughout the vessels. I also found it interesting that archaeologists found that the Romans used ball bearings, originally thought to be "invented" in the 14th century. Of course, as a lover of ancient sculpture, I found the bronze figures used for mooring ropes breathtaking as well.

I also was interested in the discussion of Caligula's probable conversion to the Isis cult. The narrator mentioned that the cult would have appealed to Caligula because of the brother/sister relationship between Osirus and Isis. The narrator said that cult worhsippers engaged in ritual sex and human sacrifice, both activities that would appeal to Caligula and make him rationalize some of his actions as religious practices. I found this comment a little surprising since I was unaware of human sacrifice being a part of Isis worship, especially considering the Roman aversion to ritual human sacrifice except in the most dire of circumstances - to the point of official prohibition of it by senatorial decree in 97 BCE under the consulship of P. Licinius Crassus.

See also: http://www.abc.se/~pa/mar/nemships.htm; http://www.novanet.it/com/personale/togliard/nemi/ship_e.htm;

Rome: Engineering an Empire to premiere Sept 5 on The History Channel

NIAF & The History Channel(R) Offer Grand-Prize Trips to Rome: "Rome: Engineering an Empire chronicles the rich history of the Roman Empire, from the reign of Caesar in 44 B.C. to its eventual fall around 537 AD, detailing the remarkable works of architecture and technology that helped create Rome's indelible mark on the world. Highlights include digital re-creations of some of Rome's greatest engineering feats, from Caesar's bridge across the Rhine River to the creation of the Roman Highway, or Via Appia, the world's first modern highway and the passageway that laid the foundation for Roman expansion.

The National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) is partnering with The History Channel (THC) to offer grand-prize trips to Rome for the sweepstakes promotion of Rome: Engineering An Empire, premiering Monday evening, September 5th at 9:00 p.m./8c."

I see this new program is timed to coincide with the new HBO miniseries "Rome" that will premiere August 28.

Teaching Company Offers Great Battles of the Ancient World Course

Great Battles of the Ancient World: "'Battles, for all their madness, are worthy of study if for no other reason than that they are the crucibles of history,' says Professor Fagan, who notes that a few hours of hard fighting can determine the fates of entire empires.

This course focuses on warfare in the ancient Mediterranean world, encompassing the region from Mesopotamia to Western Europe, including Egypt and North Africa.

The first eight lectures chart the development of warfare from prehistoric times down to the glory days of the great states of the ancient Near East and Egypt. After examining theories about how to define war, you survey different models for the origins of warfare in the Upper Paleolithic (c. 37,000?12,000 years ago) and Neolithic (c. 10,000?5,000 years ago), testing them against the archaeological evidence, which provides our only clues to organized violence among prehistoric peoples.

Then you move into the historical era, starting with the first battles for which we have written accounts. These took place between the city-states of early Sumer (c. 3000?2350 B.C.), with armies of infantry using rudimentary chariots clashing over honor, irrigation rights, and boundaries. Next you travel to Egypt and survey the changing nature of warfare in the Old to New Kingdoms (c. 2700?1070 B.C.), including the first fully recorded battle in history: the Battle of Megiddo between Pharaoh Thutmose III and a coalition of Syrian lords, fought outside the walls of a town in Palestine. You examine the fearsome Assyrian war machine as it developed ca. 900?612 B.C., and the sophisticated army that allowed the Assyrians to forge the largest empire yet seen in the region. You also address disputed matters of the Trojan War and Homeric warfare.

In the next eight lectures you cover warfare among the Greeks and their distinctive form of combat using hoplites, a type of armored infantryman who fought in a close formation called the phalanx. You study the Persian invasions of Greece (490?479 B.C.), examining the battles of Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea that decided this titanic clash. The disastrous Athenian expedition against Sicily (415?413 B.C.) during the Peloponnesian War is next, followed by the military revolution in the 4th century B.C., which saw the creation of a new and formidable fighting unit spearheaded by the cavalry and a reformed phalanx. This integrated and flexible army reached its pinnacle of efficiency under Alexander the Great, and you survey the battles at the Granicus River, Issus, and Gaugamela that made Alexander king of Persia.

In the third part of the course you study the legions of Rome, which evolved brutally effective tactics that gave them dominion over the entire Mediterranean basin. It is unclear how Roman legionary armies actually fought, and you explore various theories before following the legions into combat in their colossal struggle with Hannibal in the Second Punic War (218?202 B.C.). Then you compare the Roman legion and Macedonian phalanx?the two most efficient killing machines of the day?in duels fought in Italy in the 3rd century B.C. and in the Balkans and Asia Minor in the 2nd century. Next you consider Roman skill in siege warfare as exemplified by Julius Caesar's siege of Alesia (52 B.C.) and the siege of Masada in Judea in 72?73 A.D. The final two battles covered are Roman defeats and introduce the German tribal warrior. These are the battles of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 A.D., considered one of the most important battles in European history, and Adrianople in 378 A.D., which heralded the decline of Roman imperial power.

In the final lecture, Professor Fagan considers the recent proposal by scholar Victor Davis Hanson that there is a distinctively "Western way of war," traceable from the Greeks to the modern age. This intriguing view represents hoplite warfare as a unique development of Greek conditions that casts its shadow down to the present. Despite the theory's attractive simplicity, it has problems that Dr. Fagan details in a fascinating glimpse of scholarly debate in action."

The Roles of Patrician and Plebeian Women in Their Religion in the Republic of Rome

by Lesa A. Young
East Tennessee State University

This paper investigates the roles of Roman women in their religion. It includes both
patrician and plebeian women, as well as public and private roles and focuses on the
period of the Republic (509-30 BCE). Some of the questions to be looked at are: To what
extent were mothers responsible for private rituals at home? What type of activities did
they participate in as private citizens in the public festivals? How extensive were public
religious positions held by women? What role did the Vestal Virgins play in Rome?

The paper is divided into five chapters: The Period of the Republic, Private Rituals,
Life Rituals, Public Rituals, and Public Roles. The Period of the Republic gives
background information about the history, politics, and the role of women in these areas
throughout the Republic. During the Republic wars, droughts, famines, and other crises
made an impact upon the laws pertaining to women and the roles they played. As many
men were killed or away from Rome, women had to take a more active leading role in
affairs. This impacted attitudes, as well as events, and knowing this helps to understand
the women in the Republic. Also included in the first chapter are the mythological stories
from Rome?s pre and early Republican days. The Rape of the Sabine women, the Rape
of Lucretia, and the story of the mother of Coriolanus all represent the traditions of ?good
Roman women?. Then looking at the passage of the lex Oppia and eventual repealing, it
becomes evident that women moved from the secondary position of coercing the men to
achieve their goals, to having the courage and ability to speak out somewhat directly for
their own desires. It never evolves into women having full male rights, but steps are made
toward women being responsible for their own interests and welfare.

The chapter on Private Rituals investigates the rituals, roles, and practices of a Roman
matron in her own home. As the mater, she is responsible for carrying out the requests of
the paterfamialias and for educating her children in the religious rituals, especially her
daughters. Particularly the religious tasks that are typically related to women?s work fall
to the mothers and daughters, such as weaving wreaths, preparing the salt-cakes, reciting
prayers for specific tasks, etc. Numina, Lararium, Lares, Penates, Vesta, Parilia,
Lemuria, and Ambarvalia are discussed in this chapter. Explanations of the rituals and the
tasks of women are given for each.

The chapter on Life Rituals explores the rituals and beliefs of the Roman women
concerning her major life occurrences. These include birth, marriage, and death. Also
included are brief descriptions of divination and dream interpretations. As women, they
were not allowed to read the auspices or interpret dreams. But as superstitious people,
the outcome of these practices definitely impacted women as Romans. The
interpretations would define how/what she could do.

The Public Rituals includes the women?s roles in public festivals. How they could
participate is explored, as well as a number of the festivals. By the end of the Republic,
there were so many festivals and holidays that it was a daily occurrence. The men
brought foreign beliefs and practices back from wars and included them in the religious
calendar so as to not offend any gods. Those investigated in this chapter are the
participation in sacrificial rituals, temple/shrine worship, feasts/festivals, circuses, and
ludi.

The chapter on Public Roles looks at the role of the Vestal Virgins and also at the few
other minor public positions, such as the wife of the flamen of Jupiter. These leading
religious positions were few in number but played a powerful role as far as women were
concerned. The Vestals had more independence than any other women, although they
still answered to the Pontifex Maximus. He played the role of the paterfamialias for
them. And they walked the line between the genders, being women, having some typical
female tasks to do for Rome?s hearth, but also having some of the legal rights normally
reserved for the males.

The Role of Government in Ancient Rome and Legionary Capitalism

By Karl Moore
Winnipeg, Manitoba Faculty of Management
McGill University

David Lewis
Citrus College

We argue that the government of the Roman Republic and Empire played a
centre role in the development of business of that era. The form of economy
of Rome was what we label Legionary Capitalism, where considerable
business activity arose in order to fulfil needs of the Roman Legions.

The role of government in the economy is a controversial one in today?s world. At one
end of the spectrum we have the lassie fare capitalism of Hong Kong with little government
involvement and on the other, the intertwining of government, business and other societal
institutions found in Japan and France. We believe that a historical perspective is a useful one to
consider the question of whether governments matter? In this paper we take the long view and
focus on the history of Roman and examine the role of the government during first the Roman
Republic and later the Roman Empire. We will show how the role of government evolved over
time and how government was central to the way Roman business operated, organized, expanded and interacted with the rest of society. By considering an exemplar of a society which lasted many centuries and controlled and/or highly influenced the majority of the known world we believe that the current debate is enriched and given greater perspective.

THE ROMAN REPUBLIC

In 509 BCE a patrician revolution created a constitutional republic in Rome. Prior to the
revolution key foundations of the Roman world: the Roman legion, the aristocratic Senate and an
assembly of freemen, with very limited powers, had been laid. During the 600 and 700?s the
monarchy presided over Rome's transformation into a city-state, in which streets were paved and a number of public buildings constructed. However, enough chaffed under the rule of the King to desire a republic (Tacitus, 1971).

The Roman Republic was based upon checks and balances designed to prevent the
installation of another king. The Republic would be administered by two elected Consuls who
could veto one another's actions. Real power lay with the patrician landowners of the Senate. It
was in the context of the new Roman constitution and government which provided a stable social
framework that permitted Roman business to develop in a way it had not been allowed under the monarchs (Freeman, 1996).

As important as the stability of the Roman constitution it was the increase of the role
Roman legions which was more critical to our story. Despite its excellent locational advantages
along the Tiber and the roads of Italy, Rome was still largely an economic backwater selling grain to nearby hill tribes. The same hill tribes such as the Aequi and Volsci Rome sold grain to wanted her farmlands and Rome had to defend them. This led Rome's citizens to war, and it is from war that Roman capitalism received its greatest impetus (Moore and Lewis, 1999, 2000).

Caesar, Pompey, and the Collapse of the First Triumvirate

Caesar, Pompey, and the Collapse of the First Triumvirate
Honors Thesis
by Kristopher Stenson
2002

The creation of the the ?First Triumvirate? of Gaius Julius Caesar, Gnaius Pompeius Magnus, and Marcus Licinius Crassus certainly stands as one of the most pivotal events in Roman Republican history. Ironically, its inception, and the resulting power swing that it created, was the beginning of the end for that very republic. Where as the men had weaknesses while
separate, together they were nearly untouchable by the optimates that sought to reduce the ?Triumvirs?? influence. What, then caused the breakup of these men? The alliance seemed, at least at the beginning, to be the perfect combination for controlling Roman politics, but ultimately the personalities of the three led them in different directions. While the destruction of the Triumvirate is frequently blamed upon the deaths of Crassus and Julia,2 this is an overly simplistic explanation.

To understand the reasons for the rift one must first understand the men who comprised the amicitia. It brought together three powerful men who all wanted to be in ultimate control. Pompey was the hero of the past, Caesar the hero of the future, but both wanted to be the hero of the present. Crassus was the man whose own significant achievements were overshadowed by
both. His drive to show up Pompey was his undoing, as he met an ignoble death in a catastrophic defeat. The alliance among them was thus doomed from the beginning, with three men clambering for the same place; to be First Man in Rome. Caesar proved to be the most cunning, as Pompey was far too prone to believe the flattery constantly heaped upon him by those who
would sway him to their interests, namely the optimates who so vehemently hated Caesar. To Caesar, the Triumvirate was a tool to be utilized, and he was a master at using that tool as best he could, even when the situation was adverse. The civil war that followed the men?s split was unfortunate, but was merely the final step in Caesar?s rise to the top of the Republic.
The success of the Triumvirate, at least in the beginning, was based upon a mutual need for support among the three.

For one, the money of Crassus and Pompey, by the 60?s BC the two richest men in Rome, allowed for plenty of ?greasing the gears of state?. There were few things or people that these two men could not buy, and their money was used extensively in the securing of friendly Tribunes and other magistrates throughout their alliance. The money was also lavishly spent to secure the Consular elections of Caesar and Pompey. While Caesar did not contribute a great deal of money to the cause, what he did bring was a noble family name combined with a formidable political presence that gained the support of the populus with ease.

Especially in its early incarnation, the alliance among these men was seen by contemporaries as being dominated by Pompey, not Caesar, as would become the dominant belief among later historians. Certainly Pompey and Caesar were the leading figures of the three, with the aging Crassus definitely the ?third wheel?. Given that the purpose of this study is primarily to
examine the relationship between Caesar and Pompey, Crassus will not be scrutinized in great detail.

Though my aim is not to give a biography for these three men, a small amount of background on each is nonetheless necessary, so that one can better understand their dynamic together. I will focus primarily on their lives as they neared their pact.

Gnaius Pompeius Magnus was a living legend in his own time, and even more so in his own mind. During his rise to the top of Roman politics he made his mark as both a capable general and a brilliant administrator. As a young man he took it upon himself to levy troops in support of Sulla during the civil wars, meeting the latter as he entered Italy in 83. He was merely 23 at the time, but this movement on his part catapulted him to the forefront of Roman politics. He served for several more years under Sulla, and accounted for himself quite well in actions in Africa and Spain against the Marians. His success garnered him high praise from Sulla, who showed the young man respect that he scarcely ever showed to older, more experienced commanders.

Following his successes in Africa Pompey, who had yet to even enter the Senate, was granted
proconsular imperium and was given the task of taking on Sertorius in Spain. I do not wish to labor through every single engagement or command that Pompey was involved with, but these early posts were pivotal in creating the man that Pompey would become in later years.

The Interactive Nolli Map Project

I was so excited to read the local paper that described a research project right here at my own University where a group of Architecture professors collaborated with cartographers and computer graphics specialist to product an online, interactive map of Rome based on the Nolli map of 1748.

"The 1748 Nolli map of Rome, regarded by scholars and cartographers as one of the most important historical documents of the city, serves to geo-reference a vast body of information to better understand the Eternal City and its key role in shaping Western Civilization. The Nolli Map Web Site introduces students to Rome and the structure of its urban form; it illustrates the evolution of the city over time; and it reveals diverse factors that determined its development. Above all the Nolli Web Site is intended to provide a vehicle for students and teachers around the world to explore and facilitate creative thought.
Background

Giambattista Nolli (1701-1756) was an architect and surveyor who lived in Rome and devoted his life to documenting the architectural and urban foundations of the city. The fruit of his labor, La Pianta Grande di Roma ("the great plan of Rome") is one of the most revealing and artistically designed urban plans of all time. The Nolli map is an ichnographic plan map of the city, as opposed to a bird?s eye perspective, which was the dominant cartographic representation style prevalent before his work. He was not only one of the first people to construct an ichnographic map of Rome, but his perspective has been copied ever since.
The map depicts the city in astonishing detail. Nolli accomplished this by using scientific surveying techniques, careful base drawings, and minutely prepared engravings. The map?s graphic representations include not only a precise architectural scale, but also a prominent compass rose, with both magnetic north and astronomical north carefully noted. The Nolli map is the first accurate map of Rome since antiquity and captures the city at the height of its cultural and artistic achievements. The historic center of Rome has changed little over the last 250 years; therefore, the Nolli map remains one of the best sources for understanding the contemporary city.

In the last half of the 20th century a renewed interest in the map by architects and urban designers has flourished and led to new urban theories that present a model for the study of all cities and their urban patterns. The intention of this website is to both reveal the historical significance of the map and the principles of urban form that may influence city design in the future.

Features of the Nolli Map

The Nolli map consists of twelve exquisitely engraved copper plates that measure approximately six feet high and seven feet wide when combined (176 cm by 208 cm). The map includes almost eight square miles of the densely built city as well as the surrounding terrain. It also identifies nearly two thousand sites of cultural significance. Nolli?s map is an extraordinary technical achievement that represents a milestone in the art and science of cartography. Modern surveys and sophisticated satellite images have confirmed the accuracy of Nolli?s map within the very smallest margin of error. The map not only records the streets, squares and public urban spaces of Rome, but Nolli carefully renders hundreds of building interiors by way of detailed plans. The detail of the map representation ensures the map's continuing value as a unique historical document, and it gives the viewer a glimpse into the ancient metropolitan center during one of its most illustrious periods.

Key Features of the Web Site

The website features a digitally mastered, high resolution interactive Nolli map, designed for broadband connections. The Map Engine may be accessed from any page of the website, allowing you to navigate through the city at a variety of scales. Using the Map Engine, the user can pan in any direction and zoom in or out from the macro-scale of the city to the micro-scale of the building. Layers have been created to focus on particular topics, for example " gardens.? The layers in this first edition will be updated and expanded to include many more topics. The topics that will be added include topographic and hydrographic information, specific building types, and census data by Rioni. Layers may be turned on and off, and blended with map below to provide for the best viewing conditions."

Check it out! http://nolli.uoregon.edu/default.asp

Magic in Roman Law

by James B. Rives

As Book 4 of The Aeneid draws to its climax, Dido begins to make plans for her
self-immolation and enlists her sister?s help with the preparations. In order to hide
from Anna the true significance of her requests, she explains that she has found
a way either to get Aeneas back or to loosen the hold of love: a female sacerdos of
the Massylii can by means of carmina free her mind from cares. But before giving
Anna her instructions, Dido makes a short but emotional apology: ?Dear sister,
I call the gods to witness, and you and your sweet life, that unwillingly do I resort
to magical arts? (Aen. 4.492?93). An innocent reader might wonder why she
feels the need to apologize in this way.

The ancient commentator Servius, writingprobably in the early fifth century ??, provides a plausible answer: ?because, although the Romans adopted many rites (sacra), they always condemned those of magic (semper magica damnarunt); for that reason she excuses herself? (ad
Aen. 4.493). Since Servius was writing as an ancient grammaticus, concerned above all with the linguistic exposition of his text for young students, it is not surprising that his comment is somewhat lacking in nuance. It is not, however, inapposite: if we understand that both the author and his readers condemned magical rites, a character who was meant to appear sympathetic would naturally express shame at recourse to them.

Nor did Servius? observation lack historical basis. By using the verb damnare,
with its strong legal connotations, Servius almost certainly meant to suggest that
sacra magica were not merely improper but actually illegal. At the time that he
was writing, this was indeed the case.1 Moreover, Servius had good reason to
believe that it had in fact ?always? been the case, for he knew of a law from
the XII Tables, the ancient compilation of Roman laws written some eight and
a half centuries before, that concerned a specific magical rite. Commenting on the
second half of Vergil?s eighth Eclogue, a poem in which a young girl attempts
by ritual means to bring her lover back from town, he elucidates her claim that
certain herbae and venena can be used to transfer crops from one field to another
(Ecl. 8.99) by remarking that ?this came about by means of certain magical arts;
hence in the XII Tables there is the clause ?nor entice the crop of others.??2 It
was therefore with some justification that he could assert that the Romans had
?always? condemned magical rites.

The Two Republicae of the Roman Stoics: Can a Cosmopolite be a Patriot?

By Lisa Hill

"Marcus Aurelius argued in the Meditations that ?since we are all rational
beings so the law which governs us must be universal ? we are all fellow
citizens and share a common citizenship ? the world is a single city? (Marcus
Aurelius, 1964). Epictetus recalls the famous story of Socrates who, when asked
to which country he belonged, refused to say ?I am an Athenian? or ?I am a
Corinthian? but replied: ?I am a citizen of the universe? (Epictetus, (1989). Our
species is by nature social and ?fellowship? is the end for which all ?rational?
creatures exist (Stanton, 1968, pp. 187?188). It is our duty, Cicero tells us, ?to
respect, defend, and maintain the common bonds of union and fellowship
subsisting between all members of the human race? (Cicero, 1990)."

The Heroic Age: Lucius Artorius Castus

by Linda A. Malcor

The Heroic Age: Lucius Artorius Castus: "While some scholars over the last century have tried to derive the name 'Arthur' from Celtic sources, such attempts at etymology have yielded unsatisfactory results.11 Zimmer (1890:785 ff.) was the first scholar to propose that the name 'Arthur' actually derived from the Roman gens nomen 'Artorius,' and many modern scholars have followed his lead.12 Although most scholars claim that the name 'Arthur' is unattested in Britain prior to the late-sixth century, there was one notable exception: Lucius Artorius Castus, who lived and fought in Britain in the late second-century.

Prior to the writing of the Historia Brittonum, the name 'Arthur' started cropping up among late-sixth-century and seventh-century Irish immigrants to Wales and Scotland (Green 1999; Ziegler 1999). Padel (1994:24) suggested that the reason the name Arthur did not appear in Britain prior to the use by the Irish was because the name was regarded 'with exceptional awe' by the Britons, while the Irish 'when they came into contact with the folklore as a result of their settlements in western Britain, need not have felt such reverence or reluctance' and so had no taboo against the use of the name. This hypothesis certainly fits the pattern for legend transmission as we know it in Britain.13 That so many people would suddenly start naming sons 'Arthur' and making comments such as 'although he was no Arthur' (the infamous reference to Arthur in Y Gododdin, ca. 600), indicates that the cycle of legend was no longer in its simple formative stage but rather at a point that the core stories were so well known that Arthur's name had become proverbial in its usage.14

Yet the name 'Arthur' is not the only onomastic parallel between Arthur and Castus. The Historia Brittonum (ca. 800),15 which was probably compiled by, rather than written by, Nennius, has the dubious honor of being the oldest work to record legends of Arthur.16 As such, this text is important for estab"

Biography of Titus Labienus, Caesar?s Lieutenant in Gaul

by
Wm. Blake Tyrrell
Distinguished Professor of Classics
Michigan State University

The primary interest that scholars have in the life of Titus Labienus concerns his reasons for leaving Caesar after his service in Gaul to Caesar during the near-decade of the fifties. In January 49 B.C.E., Labienus crossed to Caesar?s enemies. Historians usually followed Dio Cassius (41.4.4) in attributing his departure to pride and frustrated ambition. Since the appearance in 1938 of Ronald Syme's "The Allegiance of T. Labienus" in the Journal of Roman Studies, scholars have generally accepted his view that Labienus thus made manifest an allegiance to Pompey that he had held from the outset. Syme's explanation has made Labienus the touchstone, as it were, upon whom rests the validity of prosopographical study of Roman politics. This assumption imparts to Labienus?s departure a significance for modern scholars apart from the act itself. Syme bases his interpretation upon Labienus's birth in Cingulum in Picenum where Pompey's family had extensive estates and a large following and upon Labienus's cooperation with agents of Pompey during his tribunate in 63 B.C.E. This biography of Labienus assumes that personal and hereditary ties served, not dictated, Labienus's policies and concludes that other motives than those proposed by Syme
caused Labienus to leave Caesar rather than go to Pompey.

The Calculus of Conquest: The Spoils of War and the Evolution of the Roman Republic

Previous authors have analyzed the State as a tax-maximizing corporate entity. The historian Edward Gibbon (1776) treated the Roman state as maximizing the returns from warfare when he described the role that increasing costs and declining benefits had in shaping Roman history. Gibbon, though, undoubtedly drew his analysis from the statements of Caesar Augustus himself, who likened conquests to fishing with a golden fishhook, where the expected payoff had to be measured against the risk (Starr, 1982:19). 4

In The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Gibbon (1984:1) wrote:

The seven first centuries were filled with a rapid succession of triumphs; but it was reserved for Augustus to relinquish the ambitious design of subduing the whole earth, and to introduce a spirit of moderation into the public councils. Inclined to peace by his temper and situation, it was easy for him to discover that Rome, in her present exalted situation, had much less to hope than to fear from the chance of arms; and that, in the prosecution of remote wars, the undertaking became every day more difficult, the event more doubtful, and the possession more precarious, and less beneficial. (italics added) Gibbon presented a marginal economic analysis of territorial expansion, a theory of the "optimal" level of conquests, approximately 100 years ahead of marginal analysis in economics. Almost all necessary ingredients of a modern economic theory of conquests are included here, with rising marginal costs of conquests, falling marginal benefits and even falling probabilities of success. The rising marginal costs and the falling marginal benefits are due primarily to the natural heterogeneity of the world and the logistical problems of conquest and control over greater distances from the home base. The potential conquests were at different distances from Rome, had different amounts and types of wealth to be taken, and had varying degrees of military capability. With wars fought for gain, the first countries to be invaded were those with great wealth, those nearby and those that were relatively weak. Once those were defeated, the remaining countries were obviously less profitable.

While Gibbon?s calculus of conquests presents an excellent explanation of the end of Rome?s expansion, Gibbon does not examine how these benefits and costs affected individual decision makers. In this paper, the familiar social vs. private costs and benefits approach helps to explain Roman expansion and the very costly transitional civil wars.

Jerash once again alive with Roman Gladiators

"After a 2,000-year lull, games have again hit the sands of Jordan's famed Roman-ruin city of Jerash, 30 miles north of the capital, Amman, as a group of Jordanian investors and a Swedish history buff are re-creating gladiator matches and chariot racing at Jerash's 2nd Century hippodrome.

In 1806 Ulrich Jasper Seetzen, a German traveller, came upon ruins that he thought might be those of an ancient city buried under centuries of sand. It was in 1925 that excavations began on the site and as layer upon layer of civilisation were revealed, a well-preserved Greco-Roman city began to emerge.

Jerash rose from the rubble, awakened from its long repose ? its ancient city walls enclosing colonnaded paved streets with chariot tracks worn in the original stone, a dramatic oval plaza defined by a colonnade of Ionic columns, a complex of baths, theatres, the temples of Dionysus, Artemis and Zeus, and a superb hippodrome."

Introduction to Roman Stagecraft

Didaskalia : "Roman drama has several origins, some native to Italy, some imported. One of the most important influences on Roman Comedy (called the fabula palliata in Latin, after the 'Greek' cloak or pallium worn by the actors) was the Atellan Farce, a non-scripted theatrical form which made use of stock masks (characters) and slapstick gags. It was very similar to the Commedia dell'arte of the Italian Renaissance.

These slapstick characters and pratfalls were welded onto the tradition of Greek New Comedy, which was imported into Rome after its conquest of Greece. New Comedy is the ancestor of sitcoms, with plots focusing on domestic issues, usually involving boy-meets-girl-parents-forbid-marriage and the intervention of a clever slave to save the day. The Greek versions were fairly genteel, but Plautus and the other early Roman comic playwrights added lively action, ferocious puns (in Latin and Greek), rude jokes, and lots and lots of physical comedy."

School Adopts Ancient Trivium Curriculum

blackenterprise.com: "For the Ancient Greeks, paideia was the process of educating man into his true form, preparing him to be a competent citizen. But as years passed, these classical methods of education gave way to, and were eventually replaced by, more contemporary teaching methods."

Now a new school in West Knoxville (TN), Paideia Academy, has structured its curriculum around the ancient classical methods.

The heart of the school's curriculum is based on the Trivium, which is an ancient concept involving grammar, logic and rhetoric. A student starts out at the grammar level, which is the most basic, and throughout his education, progresses to the rhetoric level.

'Young children are sponges,' headmaster Scott Taylor said. 'At the grammar stage in the trivium, students memorize fundamental facts, names and dates. As they get older, students stop accepting information, and start questioning it. So we teach them from the logic stage, where there are lots of critical-thinking exercises. In high school, there is an interest in self-expression and communication. So we teach subjects from the rhetoric perspective. They have debates, and papers are graded for logical argumentation.'"

Musonius Rufus and the rights of Roman women

WLGR:
I was reading through the catalogue of classical courses presently on sale at the Teaching Company (http://www.teach12.com) and noticed that their course on the Greco-Roman moralists mentioned a discussion of Roman philosopher Musonius Rufus. I had never studied his work so I was curious about him and was quite astonished to find that he was a supporter of the right of women to be educated in such manly activities as philosophy:

"Women have received from the gods the same ability to reason that men have. We men employ reasoning in our relations with others and so far as possible in everything we do, whether it is good or bad, or noble or shameful. Likewise women have the same senses as men, sight, hearing, smell, and all the rest. Likewise each has the same parts of the body, and neither sex has more than the other. In addition, it is not men alone who possess eagerness and a natural inclination towards virtue, but women also. Women are pleased no less than men by noble and just deeds, and reject the opposite of such actions. Since that is so, why is it appropriate for men to seek out and examine how they might live well, that is, to practise philosophy, but not women? Is it fitting for men to be good, but not women?

Let us consider in detail the qualities that a woman who seeks to be good must possess, for it will be apparent that she could acquire each of these qualities from the practice of philosophy.

In the first place a woman must run her household and pick out what is beneficial for her home and take charge of the household slaves.

In these activities I claim that philosophy is particularly helpful, since each of these activities is an aspect of life, and philosophy is nothing other than the science of living, and the philosopher, as Socrates says, continually contemplates this, 'what good or evil has been done in his house'. [2] Next, a woman must be chaste, and capable of keeping herself free from illegal love affairs, and pure in respect to the other pleasures of indulgence, and not enjoy quarrels, not be extravagant, or preoccupied with her appearance. [3] Such is the behaviour of a chaste woman. There are still other requirements: she must control anger, and not be overcome by grief, and stronger than every kind of emotion. That is what the philosopher's rationale entails, and the person who knows it and practises it seems to me to be perfectly cont"

Warner Home Video to Release 4-disk Collector's Edition Sept 13

"Warner Home Video has set a Sept. 13 release date for another movie set in ancient Rome, 'Ben-Hur.' The 1959 epic, winner of 11 Academy Awards, will debut as a four-disc collector's edition priced at $39.92.

The William Wyler film has been newly remastered from the original 65mm film elements and comes to DVD with more than 10 hours of bonus materials. The special features include an all-new documentary on the film's influence with such leading filmmakers as Scott and George Lucas, rare screen tests, a making-of documentary hosted by Christopher Plummer and commentary on select scenes by star Charlton Heston."

DreamWorks to unsheath new 'Gladiator' three-disc set August 23

D'Works unsheathes new 'Gladiator' three-disc set: "DreamWorks Home Entertainment is readying an extras-packed 'expanded' edition DVD of 'Gladiator' that will include 17 minutes of additional footage cut back into the film as well as star Russell Crowe's first-ever DVD commentary.

Director Ridley Scott oversaw production of the elaborate three-disc set, which is scheduled to arrive in stores Aug. 23, priced at about $25."

Conference slated to examine classical mythology and history

I see that the Southwest Texas Popular Culture Association/American Culture Associationare soliciting proposals for presentations at their Annual Regional Conference on any aspect of Classical antiquity in popular culture including literature and film. The conference is scheduled for February 8 - 11, 2006 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

ABC Empire Series to air June 28

ABC Empire Series: "The time is 44 B.C. and the Conqueror Julius Caesar (Colm Feore, "Chicago," "And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself") returns from triumphs in Spain to a neglected Republic and a corrupt Senate, drunk with power. Though he's hailed as a hero by the masses, the Senate is wary of Caesar's plans that might place him in a position of ultimate power. Brutus (James Frain, USA Network?s "Spartacus," "Arabian Nights") and Cassius (Michael Maloney, Kenneth Branagh's "Hamlet," "Painted Lady") attempt to enlist the assistance of Marc Antony (Vincent Regan, "Troy," "Joan of Arc") in overthrowing Caesar, but Antony is loyal to Caesar and refuses. A terrible conflict looms and the fate of an empire will fall to one man ? a gladiator named Tyrannus.

Tyrannus (Jonathan Cake), Caesar's bodyguard and confidant and Rome's finest warrior, is undefeated in the arena and considered a champion among men. A slave since he was a young man, Tyrannus impresses Caesar with his fighting prowess and his popularity, and with his dedication to Rome. Caesar offers him freedom in return for his service and friendship. However the Senate puts up a vicious fight for power and manages to separate Caesar from Tyrannus' protective grasp by sending the gladiator to one last match to the death. Cassius and Brutus have Tyrannus' son, Piso, kidnapped. Tyrannus rushes to his son's rescue and kills his kidnappers only to realize that the abduction is a diversion. He hurries to Caesar's side, but it is too late. His absence results in Brutus successfully leading a group of conspirators in assassinating the great conqueror. As he is drawing his last breath, Caesar swears Tyrannus to an oath to protect his successor, Octavius (Santiago Cabrera), his 18-year-old nephew."

"Mummy: The Inside Story" a hit at the British Museum

Science: "This short movie includes flying coffins, a morphing skeleton, a mysterious death, magical amulets, and a mistake that was kept secret for close to 3000 years. We are guided by the sonorous intonations of Ian McKellan. But he is no longer Gandalf, and the scene is not Middle Earth. It is Egypt in the middle of the 22nd Dynasty, 2800 years ago. And the story is not fantasy but is factual. Mummy: The Inside Story, currently showing at the British Museum, is about a priest at the Temple of Karnak: how he lived, how he died, and what became of his body. The three-dimensional (3D) film takes the viewer through the mummy's coffin, the layers of linens in which he is wrapped, and the desiccated remains of his skin and soft tissues to his skeleton and resin-soaked internal organs--all without opening his gorgeously decorated wooden case."

Decisive Battles Follows up "The Goths" with "The Lost Eagles of Crassus"

It looks like Decisive Battles will follow up "The Goths" tonight with "The Lost Eagles of Crassus" on Monday:

"Carrhae 53BC: Crassus was the richest man in Rome, but to compete in politics with Pompey and Caesar he needed to equal their military glory. So as Governor of Syria, he raised an army and invaded the empire of Parthia.
He led seven legions - thirty-five thousand Romans - into the desert in 53BC, to become victims of his arrogance and ambition. The Parthian general, Surena, with only ten thousand men, met the Roman invaders at Carrhae, the modern day town of Harran, in southern Turkey.

At Carrhae, they were annihilated by the horse-warriors of the Parthian Empire. The ultimate dishonour for Rome would be the loss of their eagle standards."

Decisive Battles Returns with "The Goths"

I see that the History Channel is going to air a new (I think) Decisive Battles episode tonight, "The Goths":

"Adrianople - 378 AD: The Roman Empire is crumbling. The once-mighty power has now been split in two and the barbarians are at the gates. Literally.
The ravages of the Hunnic hordes behind them means the Visigoths are forced to beg Rome to let them cross the Danube. But this proves to be a bitter and costly mistake, as they are forced into squalid concentration camps along the imperial borders. They are degraded and starved by the Roman officers, their children sold off for slaves or traded for dog-meat.

But the Romans are unaware that the Goths have secretly kept their weapons and as starvation becomes intolerable they explode into rioting and looting against the cities of the Roman provinces. The Romans swiftly send an army under the personal command of the Emperor Valens to crush the unruly Goths.

The Emperor expects a quick and easy victory, but instead, in the famous battle of Adrianople, in modern day Turkey, it is the Roman army that is destroyed, and the Emperor Valens himself is killed. His body is never recovered - an unthinkable catastrophe for Rome.

Rome is now forced into a treaty with the Visigoths, but it is an uneasy and unfair arrangement for the Visigoths. They are quickly absorbed into the Roman army as disposable front-line troops, dying by the thousands as the sons of Rome survive.

After 13 years of this, a young Goth King, Aleric, rises to once again challenge the Empire for better treatment and for a homeland for his people. Denied this by the scheming Romans, Aleric marches on the city of Rome itself, sacking it in three days of brutal looting and murder. Aleric dies shortly afterwards of a fever, but for Rome the end has already begun.

Ironically, it is the Goths who will maintain the fading art and culture of Rome in their new Goth kingdoms as Rome itself fades away."

I really liked the episodes that aired last year. This is a series using game imagery created with the game engine from "Rome: Total War" for illustration.

Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World

The Teaching Company: I see the Teaching Company is offering an extensive new lecture series on ancient religions in the Mediterranean World:

"How did ancient people cope with the overwhelming mysteries of the universe? This course uses ancient texts and archaeological evidence to explore the religious cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world, from the earliest indications of human religious practices during prehistoric times to the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity in the 4th century of the Common Era.

You will be introduced to the religious traditions of a wide range of civilizations, including the ancient kingdom of Egypt; ancient Mesopotamia; ancient Syria-Palestine, including Israel and Judah; Minoan civilization on the island of Crete and the successive civilizations of the Greek mainland; and the city of Rome, whose empire dominated the entire Mediterranean world at the end of the ancient era."

Roman armor adapted from conquered peoples

I saw an interesting program last night entitled "What the Ancients Knew" featuring contributions by the Romans. It was pretty good but some comments were made that I wondered about. For example, it said that the Romans' lorica segmentata was adapted from a Celtic armor design. I've never heard that before.

This excerpt from a webpage on Roman armor prepared by Legio XXIV doesn't acknowledge a Celtic origin either:


"This classic armor of the Roman Army, came into use during the early First Century AD. Its origin is unknown. To the average person, this style of cuirass denotes the Roman Legionary Soldier. The term applied by the Romans to this armor is now lost to us; however, "Lorica" is Latin for armor and "Segmentata" is a medieval or modern term adopted to describe the system of segments or plates assembled with leather straps and buckles or bronze or iron hooks and eyes along with internal leather straps, hence the current name of Lorica Segmentata. The term "Laminata" is now coming into use in leu of "Segmentata" to describe this type of body armor. The plates were not laminated in the sense that there were two layers of metal laminated together. "Lamina" was the latin term for metal and thus the separate segments were termed as "Lames". The terms "Lamina" and "Lames" were also applied to "scale" or "Squamata" armor as well.

The first types of this armor were termed "Corbridge A or B", based on several partial examples found as a part of the so-called Corbridge Hoard, near Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland, England. The Type "A" was connected together by internal and external leather straps and bronze buckles. The Type "B" still utilized internal leather straps to connect the individual plates, but substituted bronze or iron hooks and eyes, in instead of external straps and buckles, to secure the shoulder units to the torso girdle sections."

http://www.legionxxiv.org/loricapage/

This article by the Legio IX Hispana acknowledges the Celts as designers of Lorica Hamata (chain mail) but does not indicate that they were the originators of the Lorica Segmentata:

"Lorica Hamata is Latin for a type of armor made up of interlinked rings, also known as mail (or, inaccurately as chainmail). Lorica Hamata was a standard armor of the Roman Military from the early Republic until the fall of the Empire. It evolved over this period of time, changing with the times and as the situation demanded. The scope covered here is the Lorica Hamata from the late Republic to the height of the Empire (roughly late 1st Century BCE to the 2nd Century CE)

The true origins of mail are unknown, and it seems unlikely they will ever be known. It is estimated that it was developed by the Celtic Gauls around 300 BCE. It took an inventive people with a superb mastery of metal working to develop such a creation, and the Celts were known as the great ironworkers of the ancient world. Even though the Celtic distaste for armor is known, they are credited with developing mail into its most successful form. "

http://www.legio-ix-hispana.org/hamata.html


The program also stated that the helmet was adapted from an Etruscan helmet. I don't think I've ever heard that before either. This article mentions that the crest featured on helmets from the 4th century BCE to the 1st century C.E. can be seen on early Greco-Etruscan pottery:

"The earliest form of helmets appear to have only had centrally mounted plumes but in the early Imperial period late 1st BC to early 2nd century AD fittings have been found indicating that removable crest boxes might have been used. The evidence for crest boxes are mainly ?U? shaped crest holders which could be attached to fixing points in the centre of the crown and at the back of helmets. The lack of other non-metal remains indicates that crest boxes may have mainly been made out of wood so have rotted away over time. There also appear normally to have been either plume or possibly feather holders positioned on either side of the helmets. If feathers were used then these might have been goose feathers as sacred to Juno.
The purposes of these plumes or crests are thought to have been either for decoration, unit identification or as an indication of rank. Evidence from sculpture and monuments indicate that by the 2nd Century AD the crests were not used during combat and are mainly depicted only in use for parades or festivals. Vegetus is quoted as stating that centurions had a different form of crest and some sculptures of centurions show them with crests mounted transversely across their helmets, while representations of legionaries normally have the crest running from the brows towards the nape of the neck.

Montefortino Helmets

The earliest forms of helmets were called ?Montefortino?, after the first major find site and were the type of helmets that the early Republican consular armies would have used. These ranged from the 4th century BC to the 1st century AD. These helmets were made from brass and domed in shape, with a small extension at the back as a neck guard. They normally have a plug-in plume holder on the crown of the helmet, which was conical in shape and in the earliest forms with a scalloped decoration on the plume holder."

It goes on to explain other helmet developments:

Coolus Helmets

The second known group of helmets, was the ?Coolus? variety, which covered the period 3rd century BC to at least 79AD. These were based on a Gallic form of helmet made in the Coolus district of Marne. In form they were a simple hemispherical bowl made out of bronze with a reinforcing peak running horizontally across the brow and with a larger extension at the back as a neck guard. Most have a simple spike as a plug-in plume or crest holder.

Imperial-Gallic Helmets

The third group of helmets was the ?Imperial-Gallic?, based on the type of helmet used by the Gaul?s. These were more decorated than earlier varieties with embossed ?eyebrows?, had a re-enforced peak and a ridged extension at the back as a neck-guard. These were initially probably made by Gallic smiths so retained the original influence in construction and design and stretched in use from the late 1st century BC through to the early 2nd century AD. These helmets were mainly made of iron with recesses for the ears and brass decoration including small circular bosses on the helmet and the cheek pieces. The crest holder consisted of a right-angled foot that slid into a tube on the crown of the helmet, although some versions found also have additional decorative plume holders at the ends of the peak.

Imperial-Italic Helmets

The final major group, were the ?Imperial-Italic?, which were in shape similar to the Imperial-Gallic but because of their simplicity of construction technique and lack of decoration Russell Robinson placed them as being made by Italian smiths and probably based on the Greco-Etruscan and Italian helmets of the Republican period. They were in use from the late 1st BC to early 3rd century AD. Several types used twist on crests that were held in a ?T? shaped holder on the crown. The earliest known versions of these helmets have no archaeological provenance but are claimed to have been found in Herculanium, so may have been used by the Urban Cohorts or the Praetorians."

The program attributed the shield to the Samnites. (The shield depicted on the program was the oval type and did resemble the shield shown used by Samnite gladiators.) and pointed out that the pilum was uniquely Roman. However, this article attributes the oval shield to the Gauls and the pilum to the Etruscans:

Little is known about the armament of these early Roman horsemen, but a wall painting found at Paestum seems to indicate that they were armed with lances, round shields, a bronze cuirass or breastplate, and a helmet (Warry, 108). Though this image is of a Samnite, it is probable that Roman horsemen were similar because of the trading of military ideas between warring tribes and nations. The first class could afford what seems to have amounted to a Greek panoply. These units fought in the traditional phalanx formation used since the end of Dark Age Greece. These units were armed with a Greek hoplon or round shield, helmet, Greek sword, greaves or leg protection, a cuirass and a long pike that was used in the defensive manner of the phalanx. The second class was armed with helmet, greaves, and a scutum or Italian shield. The third was armed with helmet shield and spear. The last two classes were apparently skirmishers whose job was to tie up the more cumbersome enemy units. The fifth class were armed only with shields and spears, while the sixth went into battle with little more that a javelin or sling (Hackett, 136).

This army, which was effective during the sixth century BC when Rome was still fighting to break Etruscan power to the north, had difficulty fighting the many hill tribes to the east who used javelins and shields. The javelin throwers could easily outrun and outflank the cumbersome phalanx (Hackett, 137). The phalanx was already being replaced when in 390 BC, Rome suffered one of its worst defeats by the Gauls or Celts at the battle of Allia. The Romans, with all of their war experience, did not know how to react against this fierce enemy. The Roman army at that time was used to phalanx and javelin battle, where the attack often came from in front. The Gauls surprised the Romans because of their outlandish dress and battle frenzy, but the defeat of the Romans most likely occurred because the Gauls were armed with long slashing swords unknown to the Romans (Hackett, 138). The round hoplite shield proved inadequate against these attacks from the side and from above. Having no way of properly defend themselves, The Roman army was decimated and the city of Rome was sacked. Luckily for Rome, the Capitol remained untouched because of its formidable fortifications and according to the ancient historian Polybius, after several months the Gauls accepted tribute and left the city (Lewis, 79). This defeat marked the creation of new tactics and especially weapons and armor.

"The Romans began to realize the ineffectiveness of the traditional round hoplon. It was soon replaced almost entirely by the scutum. This shield was oval in shape with a metal rim and central iron boss held on by rivets that also served as a handgrip. The wood used was similar to plywood, as it was layered (Warry, 135). It was lighter and more maneuverable than the bronze hoplon and its similarity to the Gallic shield made it more effective against the three foot long slashing swords carried by the Celts. The Greek short sword that had been used was replaced by the gladius Hispiniensis (Hackett, 154), a double-edged sword with a blade length of approximately twenty inches with an eight inch handle (www.museumreplicas.com). It was a more effective weapon because of its use with the throwing spear or pilum.

The use of the pilum was instrumental in Roman infantry warfare. This weapon is thought to be of Etruscan origin. It proved highly effective against enemy shields."

http://www.barca.fsnet.co.uk/Rome-weapons-armor.htm

Physical Modelling and Human Survival in Pyroclastic Flows (Based on Vesuvius)

Natural Hazards: "Volcanic eruptions increasingly present catastrophic natural risks with hundreds of millions of people now living in areas of active volcanism and major conurbations around active eruptive centres. Interdisciplinary studies in disaster reduction have an important role in volcanic emergency management through advancing our understanding of the physical impacts of eruptive phenomena and the causes of death and injury in explosive eruptions. Numerical modelling of pyroclastic flows, amongst the most destructive of eruptive phenomena, provides new opportunities to improve the evaluation of the potential destructiveness of volcanic events and their human impacts in densely populated areas. In this work, the results of numerical modelling of pyroclastic flow propagation at Vesuvius have been analysed in terms of the physical parameters (temperature, ash in air concentration, and dynamic pressure) that are most critical for human survival. Our numerical simulations of eruptions of Vesuvius indicate that a large area exists where total destruction may not be inevitable in small to medium scale events, a finding that has prompted us to explore further the implications for human survival as part of an interdisciplinary approach to disaster reduction. The lessons of modelling at Vesuvius should be integrated into civil protection plans for other urban centres threatened by volcanoes."

Roman-period synagogue mosaics to be exhibited in Brooklyn

Artdaily.com : "Twenty-one extraordinary Roman-period mosaics from the first archaeological ruins of an ancient synagogue to be discovered in modern times will be on view September 9 through November 20, 2005, at the Brooklyn Museum. This exhibition will examine the role of these mosaics, acquired by the Museum in 1905, in the development of synagogue decoration in the late Roman Empire. Approximately thirty-eight related artifacts, such as contemporaneous textiles, marble statues, gold jewelry, and bronze ritual objects, will be included.

Tree of Paradise: Jewish Mosaics from the Roman Empire will investigate the origins of synagogues, the development of Jewish art in the Roman period, female patronage in the ancient synagogue, the differences between early Christian and Jewish symbolism in art, and the relationship between ancient and modern synagogues.

Twelve of the mosaic panels that will be on display were part of the sanctuary floor of the synagogue in Hammam Lif, Tunisia (the ancient Punic city of Naro, later the Roman Aquae Persianae), the primary subjects of which are Creation and Paradise. The Latin inscription on the floor panels indicates that Julia of Naro gave the floor to the community. Two menorahs flank the inscription. Included are depictions of a tree in Paradise, sea animals and birds in a scene portraying Creation, and symbolic birds and baskets that relate to the themes of Creation and the coming of the Messiah. Decorative motifs include birds and fruits. The remaining nine panels come from other rooms in the building and other nearby buildings. They depict animals, a male figure, and a female figure.

The discovery of these mosaics, last on view in Brooklyn in 1998, ushered in the birth of synagogue archaeology on February 17, 1883, when the French army captain Ernest de Prudhomme ordered soldiers under his command in Hammam Lif, Tunisia, to prepare his backyard for a garden. Instead of planting vegetables, Prudhomme and his men unearthed the first archaeological ruins of a Roman-period synagogue. Eventually, synagogue archaeology would revolutionize modern understanding of ancient Jewish life and religion. "

Lecturer says Nabateans fortified Petra's Great Temple to Fend off Romans

The Daily Star : "'We now know that the Great Temple represents one of the major archaeological and architectural components of metropolitan Petra, Jordan,' lecturer AUB Trustee and Brown University Professor Emerita Martha Joukowsky said recently at an illustrated lecture at the American University of Beirut Museum.

What is interesting is that some carvings in the temple columns have given archaeologists an insight into the Nabataean culture which was dominant at the time of the temple's construction.

'Interestingly, beautiful and unusual elephant heads were elaborately carved into the columns of the triple colonnades, brilliantly showcasing the wrinkled skin and relatively small ears of the Indian elephant,' she said. 'The appearance of this exotic animal in a major building in the Nabataean capital is yet another indication of the wide-ranging imagination and eclectic tastes of this remarkable people.'

At about the first century A.D., the city went through a secular phase, leading archaeologists and historians to believe that the temple was transformed into an 'agora' where people would meet for business, marketing or gossip. Alternatively, the temple may have served as a law court or royal audience hall, seating 600 people.

Later, in the second century A.D., Joukowsky said that the temple underwent an attack by Roman general Cornelius Palma, thus causing the temple to be transformed into a defendable fortress. Nearly two centuries later, in 363 A.D., the temple suffered through a series of earthquakes, which finally led to its destruction and 'disappearance beneath desert sands.' "

Cardini's Finds While Excavating The Palatine to be exhibited.

Roman ruins dig up debate I see that the controversial discoveries of Italian archaeologist, Andrea Carandini, will be the center of a new exhibit in Rome this summer:

"Carandini's most recent discoveries have not yet been published formally -- a fact that in itself raises some scholarly eyebrows. But over the last two years, he has uncovered what he says is a giant aristocratic house, with two big wooden beams, a banquet hall, seats, pottery and a large courtyard. Just outside the palace, he says, are other important and related discoveries, notably a house that he thinks held the household fire of the Virgins of Vesta, the goddess of the early Romans."