Ancient Rome Policy of Bread and Circuses
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Roman Architecture Mini Guide
ROMAN ARCHITECTURE GUIDE AMPHITHEATRE THEATRE CIRCUS The Ancient Rome civilization grew from a small village in Rome to an Empire domi- Theatres were nating vast territories around the Mediter- similar to Amphitheatres ranean Sea in Europe, North Africa and Asia. Amphitheatres but had a semicircular form, which enhances the The Roman circus was a large open-air venue were open air venues with raised seating which natural acoustics. They were used for theatrical used for chariot & horse races as well as com- Roman Architecture covers the period from were used for event such as gladiator combats. representation, concerts and orations. memoration performances. 509 BCE to the 4th Century CE. However, most of the structures, that can be admired What you may see: remains that look like What you may see: similar to Amphitheatres What you may see: an extremely large and today dates from around 100 CE or later. concentric stairs ; a downward hill which forms a circular or an oval basin ; Remains of arches or remains; raised flat area used as a stage with a high elongated field ; encircling walls or remains of back wall what look like stairs (seating area) ; a central When looking at Roman ruins, it’s not always passages ; strong walls pointing toward the center (scaenae frons) thin and elongated structure (the spina). easy to recognize what you are looking at & of the basin ; a flat central area. supported by to know how grandiose such structure was. In that case, think of the columns. What it looked like : Colosseum in Rome! With this mini guide, it is a little bit easier! What it The top drawing shows you what a structure looked like : might look today. -
A Contemporary View of Ancient Factions: a Reappraisal
A Contemporary View of Ancient Factions: A Reappraisal by Anthony Lawrence Villa Bryk A thesis presented for the B.A. degree with Honors in The Department of Classical Studies University of Michigan Spring 2012 i “Ab educatore, ne in circo spectator Prasianus aut Venetianus neve parmularius aut scutarius fierem, ut labores sustinerem, paucis indigerem, ipse operi manus admoverem, rerum alienarum non essem curiosus nec facile delationem admitterem.” “From my governor, to be neither of the green nor of the blue party at the games in the Circus, nor a partizan either of the Parmularius or the Scutarius at the gladiators' fights; from him too I learned endurance of labour, and to want little, and to work with my own hands, and not to meddle with other people's affairs, and not to be ready to listen to slander.” -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 1.5 © Anthony Lawrence Villa Bryk 2012 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Professor David S. Potter for his wisdom, guidance, and patience. Professor Potter spent a great deal of time with me on this thesis and was truly committed to helping me succeed. I could not have written this analysis without his generous mentoring, and I am deeply grateful to him. I would also like to thank Professor Netta Berlin for her cheerful guidance throughout this entire thesis process. Particularly, I found her careful editing of my first chapter immensely helpful. Also, Professor Sara Ahbel-Rappe’s Pagans and Christians seminar was essential to my foundational understanding of this subject. I also thank her for being a second reader on this paper and for suggesting valuable revisions. -
Fik Meijer, Chariot Racing in the Roman Empire (Translated by Liz Waters)
Fik Meijer, Chariot Racing in the Roman Empire (translated by Liz Waters). Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010. Pp. xiv, 185. ISBN- 13:978-0-8018-9697-2 (HB). $29.95 (pb). This book is an accessible and interesting introduction to the topic, which for the most part is grounded in good scholarship. Meijer’s introduction brings to life the Roman love of chariot racing exhibited by both elites and the common people. Just as successful in this regard are Chapters 5 (“A Day at the Circus Maximus”) and 7 (“The Spectators”). In the former, translated passages from Ovid and Sidonius Apollinaris put the reader in a seat in a Roman circus, while the latter deals with other aspects of the spectators’ experience: for example, their communications with the emperor, their fanatical identification with the colors of the four racing factions, curse tablets inscribed by fans asking demonic gods to harm opposing charioteers and horses, gambling, and crowd violence. Chapters 3 (“The Circus Maximus”), 4 (“Preparation and Organization”), and 6 (“The Heroes of the Arena”) complete his discussion of the Circus Maximus. Chapter 2 (“Chariot Races of the First Century BC and Earlier”) begins with the military use of chariots by the Egyptians, Hittites and Mycenaeans. M. points out that it is not clear whether these peoples ever used chariots for racing. He then proceeds to the first unambiguous appearance of the sport, in archaic Greece (Homer and the Olympic Games), and finishes with the earliest evidence for it at Rome from the regal period down to the late Republic. -
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
http://www.servantofmessiah.org THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE http://www.servantofmessiah.org THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE James W. Ermatinger Greenwood Guides to Historic Events of the Ancient World Bella Vivante, Series Editor GREENWOOD PRESS Westport, Connecticut • London http://www.servantofmessiah.org Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ermatinger, James William, 1959– The decline and fall of the Roman Empire / by James W. Ermatinger. p. cm.—(Greenwood guides to historic events of the ancient world) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–313–32692–4 (alk. paper) 1. Rome—History—Empire, 284–476. 2. Rome—History—Germanic Invasions, 3rd–6th centuries. I. Title. II. Series. DG311.E75 2004 937'.09–dc22 2004014674 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright © 2004 by James W. Ermatinger All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2004014674 ISBN: 0–313–32692–4 First published in 2004 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.greenwood.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10987654321 Copyright Acknowledgment The author and publisher gratefully acknowledge permission for use of the following material: From Roman to Merovingian Gaul: A Reader, edited and translated by Alexander Callander Murray (Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2000). Copyright © 2000 by Alexander Callander Murray. -
The Mini-Columbarium in Carthage's Yasmina
THE MINI-COLUMBARIUM IN CARTHAGE’S YASMINA CEMETERY by CAITLIN CHIEN CLERKIN (Under the Direction of N. J. Norman) ABSTRACT The Mini-Columbarium in Carthage’s Roman-era Yasmina cemetery combines regional construction methods with a Roman architectural form to express the privileged status of its wealthy interred; this combination deploys monumental architectural language on a small scale. This late second or early third century C.E. tomb uses the very North African method of vaulting tubes, in development in this period, for an aggrandizing vaulted ceiling in a collective tomb type derived from the environs of Rome, the columbarium. The use of the columbarium type signals its patrons’ engagement with Roman mortuary trends—and so, with culture of the center of imperial power— to a viewer and imparts a sense of group membership to both interred and visitor. The type also, characteristically, provides an interior space for funerary ritual and commemoration, which both sets the Mini-Columbarium apart at Yasmina and facilitates normative Roman North African funerary ritual practice, albeit in a communal context. INDEX WORDS: Funerary monument(s), Funerary architecture, Mortuary architecture, Construction, Vaulting, Vaulting tubes, Funerary ritual, Funerary commemoration, Carthage, Roman, Roman North Africa, North Africa, Columbarium, Collective burial, Social identity. THE MINI-COLUMBARIUM IN CARTHAGE’S YASMINA CEMETERY by CAITLIN CHIEN CLERKIN A.B., Bowdoin College, 2011 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS ATHENS, GEORGIA 2013 © 2013 Caitlin Chien Clerkin All Rights Reserved. THE MINI-COLUMBARIUM IN CARTHAGE’S YASMINA CEMETERY by CAITLIN CHIEN CLERKIN Major Professor: Naomi J. -
A Roman Circus in Corinth 587
HESPERIA 74 (2005) A ROMAN CIRCUS IN Pages 585?611 CORINTH ABSTRACT area a During the 1967-1968 excavations of the Gymnasium in Corinth, long narrow was and structure (the "Apsidal Building") discovered. It is argued here that the structure the eastern meta and a of the represents portion spina a races were of circus, where chariot held. The circus appears to have been as an con planned integral component of the Caesarian design of the city, structed the renovated in the late 1st during Augustan period, century a.D., and refurbished as late as the 6th century. Furthermore, the circus was often the site of the equestrian contests of the Corinthian Caesarea festival and at times of the Panhellenic Isthmian Games. was b.c. When Colonia Laus lulia Corinthiensis founded in 44 by Julius new was on Caesar, the Roman colony built the site of the former Greek polis that had been destroyed by the consul Lucius Mummius in 146 B.c.1 was During the interim period of 102 years, the Greek city deprived of was its civic and political identity and largely deserted until the arrival of the earliest Roman colonists, a combination of freedmen and veterans.2 were Although certain architectural elements of the Greek city retained new in the foundation, the Roman architects and engineers brought with a over them plan for the colonial city and proceeded time to build new of 1.1 thank John H. Humphrey, the University Pennsylvania Muse "Corinth NB" throughout. um of David R. Jordan, Guy D. R. Sanders, Archaeology and Anthropology. -
On the Lost Circus of Aelia Capitolina
On the Lost Circus of Aelia Capitolina Joseph Patrich The circus — an arena for chariot racing — was a popular entertainment facility in the Roman world. Whether or not there was a circus in Aelia Capitolina is a matter of de- bate. Thus, in a map charting the results of the detailed study o f the Roman city by the Dominican Fathers Vincent and Abel, a circus is marked adjacent to the SW comer of the Herodian temple platform (Fig. I);* 1 such a notation is not found on the maps of Germer-Durand.2 On an early map by Avi Yonah, a hippodrome (the Greek equivalent of the Roman circus) is depicted farther to the south, in the course of the central valley — the Tyropoeon Valley.3 Bahat, in his first published version of the historical maps of Jerusalem,4 adds a question mark to Vincent and Abel’s circus, but leaves it in place. In his later versions, no trace of a circus or of a hippodrome is to be found.5 Similarly, no circus or hippodrome appears in a later map published by Avi Yonah,6 or in maps by Tsafrir7 and Geva.8 The absence of any reference to a circus in the recently published * I should like to express my thanks to Dr. Leah Di Segni for help and valuable discussions on the Greek and Latin material here, and to Professor Yoram Tsafrir for useful advice. 1 Η. Vincent and F.-M. Abel, Jérusalem — Recherches de topographie, d ’archéologie et d'histoire II: Jérusalem Nouvelle, Paris 1914, 1-39 and pi. -
Chapter 9 -- the Fate of Rome
Chapter Preview ln this chapter you will discover how people lived in ancient *{ Rome. You will also learn about '.!\ * s the birth of Christianity, its effect 'lt:. on Rome, and the collapse of the Roman Empire. $eetion t Roman Daily Life Seetiom 2 Christianity and the Roman Empire Seetism 3 The Fall of Rome Jat- ,* .# rn h . .t Taroet & \C/ ReJdtns skitl ?.+ Main ldea ln this chapter you will identify the main idea r;l of a paragraph or section. ""@.1::*;*,.-*"' * ldentifying main ideas will help you better understand what you # read. This skill also includes l4|' * identifying supporting details -fldrra---f= and implied main ideas, or ideas that are not stated directly. :'i rt E ) Romans knew the Colosseum as the Flavian Amphitheatre. ln use for almost 500 years, it held audiences of more than 45,000 for its bloody spectacles. " - ";r.:! {reffi r 250 History of Our World *itriir*pt{g5&F5xxwp-: "* KEY W Roman Empire, ffi about n.o. 120-270 . City Location The Romans extended their empire to include all those areas that would serve their political and economic interests. Use the Legend What was the northernmost province of the empire? Southernmost? What was the widest extent rco ru*nline of the empire in miles east L---+HSchool.com Use Web Code and west? How far was Judaea from Rome? Apply lnformation Which mup-0901 for step-by-step city on the map would be most difficult for the Roman Army map skills practice. to reach? Why? Objectives . A Taroet Key Terms ln this section you will \C/ neidins skill census (seru sus) n. -
Roman Amphitheatres, Theatres and Circuses Introductions to Heritage Assets Summary
Roman Amphitheatres, Theatres and Circuses Introductions to Heritage Assets Summary Historic England’s Introductions to Heritage Assets (IHAs) are accessible, authoritative, illustrated summaries of what we know about specific types of archaeological site, building, landscape or marine asset. Typically they deal with subjects which have previously lacked such a published summary, either because the literature is dauntingly voluminous, or alternatively where little has been written. Most often it is the latter, and many IHAs bring understanding of site or building types which are neglected or little understood. This IHA provides an introduction to Roman amphitheatres, theatres and circuses – the three principal classes of purpose-built entertainment structure in the Roman world, which are all represented in Britain. Amphitheatres are all either oval or elliptical in plan. Roman theatres, such as the Gosbecks Farm site near Colchester, are semi-circular structures. The Roman circus generally consisted of an elongated oval track surrounded by tiers of seating along both its long sides and one, curved, end. Descriptions of the asset type as well as its associations and a brief chronology are included. A list of in-depth sources on the topic is suggested for further reading. This document has been prepared by Tony Wilmott and edited by Joe Flatman and Pete Herring. It is one of a series of 41 documents. This edition published by Historic England October 2018. All images © Historic England unless otherwise stated. Please refer to this document as: Historic England 2018 Roman Amphitheatres, Theatres and Circuses: Introductions to Heritage Assets. Swindon. Historic England. https://www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/selection-criteria/scheduling-selection/ihas- archaeology/ Front cover Detail of reconstruction painting of the London amphitheatre. -
Heliopolitan Capitolia: from Greek Games to Christian Pilgrimage Julien Aliquot
Heliopolitan Capitolia: From Greek games to Christian pilgrimage Julien Aliquot To cite this version: Julien Aliquot. Heliopolitan Capitolia: From Greek games to Christian pilgrimage. Religion in the Roman Empire, Mohr Siebeck, 2019, 5, pp.145-169. 10.1628/rre-2019-0011. halshs-02434356 HAL Id: halshs-02434356 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-02434356 Submitted on 1 Feb 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Religion in the Roman Empire Volume Open Submissions No. Julien Aliquot Heliopolitan Capitolia: From Greek Games to Christian Pilgrimage Jonathan A. Pomeranz The Humility of God in Rabbinic Judaism. Rabbinic Myth in the Roman Empire Jason J. Ripley The Genre of John and the Rule of Rome. Imperial Readers, Johannine Testimony, and the Death of the Author Jan N. Bremmer Simon Magus: The Invention and Reception of a Magician in a Christian Context Maik Patzelt Praying as a ‘Woman among Men’. Reconsidering Clodius’ Failed Prayer in Cicero’s Speech On his House Jörg Rüpke Roman Gods and Private Property: The Invention of State Religion in Cicero’s Speech On His House Mohr Siebeck Julien Aliquot Heliopolitan Capitolia: From Greek Games to Christian Pilgrimage Abstract This article offers a comprehensive study of the Capitoline games celebrated at Heliopolis in Roman Syria. -
USS Mordechai.Qxp 009-020 DERDA
Lee Mordechai BERYTUS AND THE AFTERMATH OF THE 551 EARTHQUAKE 1. Introduction Late antique Syria, one of the most urbanised provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire, remains a point of contention among scholars. Despite numerous studies, the interpretation of its transitional phase between the sixth and seventh centuries remains debated. The sixth century in particular coincided with a period of increased environmental stress. Earthquakes, epi- demics, and climate change are all mentioned in the sixth-century sources. Historians have been quick to employ them as causes to describe the unex- pected fall of Syria in the seventh century – to Persian raids, the Persian conquest, and later the Arab conquest. Since any general discussion of a complex area such as Syria would necessarily miss much of the nuanced evidence, this paper singles out a city – Berytus (modern Beirut) and inves- tigates how it coped with both environmental and social stressors.1 At first glance, Berytus appears to have experienced the most rapid and unexpected collapse of the flourishing late antique cities in the region. 1 I would like to thank Merle Eisenberg for reviewing an early version of this paper, and Georges Abou Diwan for sharing his article about Berytus’ late antique coinage before its publication. 198 LEE MORDECHAI Scholarship often refers to the major earthquake of 551 which ‘entirely obliterated’ the city’s classical street plan and buildings as the cause for this swift decline.2 According to some, the earthquake, combined with a tsunami and a subsequent fire, reduced the city to the position of a peripheral settle- ment. -
Public Entertainment Buildings
Public Entertainment Buildings An Investigation of the Spatial Distribution of Theatres, Amphitheatres, and Circuses in the Area of the Western Roman Empire Author: Christian Stelius Supervisor: Henrik Gerding Master’s thesis in Classical Archaeology and Ancient History Spring 2016 Department of Archaeology and Ancient History Lund University P a g e | 1 Abstract This thesis has investigated the spatial distribution of entertainment buildings in the area of the Western Roman Empire. This was done by first collecting data on all known entertainment buildings and plotting it in ArcGIS. The spatial distribution was then described and a number of different approaches was used to analyze the data. Factors that were analyzed includes: where the different types of entertainment buildings were popular was established, how the number of entertainment buildings compare to the level of urbanization in different areas, the differences in the size of the buildings in different areas, when the buildings were constructed, and if the construction of entertainment buildings were connected to the change in civic status of towns. I find that there are large inter-regional differences in both the number of buildings for public spectacles and the popularity of different building types. P a g e | 2 Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ...............................................................................................................................