fuckyeahhistorycrushes: Marcus Aurelius is one of my ‘intellectual’ history crushes, and his Meditations is like THE GREATEST BOOK EVER, for me. He was called a philosopher king while he was alive and is still considered so. I love how Herodian said he is the sole emperor who “gave proof of his learning not by mere words or knowledge of philosophical doctrines but by his blameless character and temperate way of life.” That is total badassery only attained by virtuous. Cool or what? 1 de septiembre de 2012 Contorniatos con imágenes de escritores - Mi presentación en las jornadas de SAEMED Desde el próximo lunes asistiré en Buenos Aires a las Jornadas de la Sociedad Argentina de Estudios medievales (SAEMED), un evento muy interesante del que participan investigadores de diversos países de América y algunos de Europa. El trabajo que presentaré no se relaciona directamente con la numismática, pero recurre a un grupo muy particular de medallones en su argumentación sobre el público literario de la Antigüedad Tardía. Se trata de los contorniatos con representaciones de grandes autores clásicos. Como ya expliqué en otra entrada sobre el tema, se designa como contorniatos a cierto tipo de medallones de bronce acuñados (algunos eran también fundidos o grabados) en Roma durante los siglos IV y V d.C. El nombre hace referencia a la delgada línea hundida que marca el borde de sus tipos en el anverso y el reverso. Sus motivos responden a temas diversos, siendo el más frecuente las referencias al circo, pero uno de los grupos más enigmáticos es el de los contorniatos con imágenes de grandes autores clásicos. Como podemos ver en la imagen que encabeza esta entrada (una lámina del importante estudio sobre los controniatos de Peter Franz Mittag) los cuños de anverso con representaciones de autores no son muy numerosos. Con la excepción de aquellos que representan a Homero y a Horacio, del resto se han conservado pocos ejemplares y de muchos uno sólo, por lo que podemos deducir que el número de piezas producidas fue relativamente reducido. Por ello no podemos dejar de lado la posibilidad de que haya habido otros tipos distintos que no han llegado hasta nosotros. Si aceptamos la convincente argumentación de Peter Franz Mittag de que los contorniatos regulares habrían sido producidos por talleres privados de la ciudad de Roma y comercializados para ser usados como pequeños presentes y amuletos de escaso valor económico, entonces los mismos representan una ventana hacia los intereses y preferencias de amplios sectores de la población urbana fuera de las elites. El predominio de temas del circo y el teatro coincide con lo que seria esperable, pero la existencia de estos medallones con retratos de autores demuestra que el mundo de la literatura no era completamente ajeno a estos sectores sociales. collective-history: Glass cup, Roman, 251-450 CE Cupping is the practice of placing heated cups or vessels like this on the body to draw out any impurities and bring blood to the surface of the skin. This is known as dry cupping. Wet cupping is when the welts left on the body are cut to let blood flow out. It was believed that this would re-balance the humours and restore a person to health. There is also a possibility that this glass was used for drinking, although it may have been used for both purposes. Previous Next HBICs of history » Boudicca The Roman writer Cassius Dio described Boudica as: “very tall. Her eyes seemed to stab you. Her voice was harsh and loud. Her thick, reddish-brown hair flung down below her waist. She always wore a great golden torc around her neck and a flowing tartan cloak fastened with a brooch.” Boudicca was an ancient British queen. When her husband, a Roman client king of the Iceni, died in 60 AD, he left his estate to his daughters and the emperor Nero, hoping for protection. Instead the Romans annexed his kingdom and mistreated his family and tribesmen. Boudicca raised a rebellion in East Anglia, burning Camulodunum (Colchester), Verulamium (St. Albans), and part of Londinium (London) and military posts; according to Tacitus, her forces massacred up to 70,000 Romans and pro-Roman Britons and destroyed the Roman 9th Legion. She is thought to have taken poison or died of shock when the Roman governor rallied his troops and destroyed her huge army. collective-history: The Mithraic Mysteries were a mystery religion practised in the Roman Empire from about the 1st to 4th centuries AD. The name of the Persian god Mithra, adapted into Greek as Mithras, was linked to a new and distinctive imagery. Romans also called the religion Mysteries of Mithras or Mysteries of the Persians; modern historians refer to it as Mithraism, or sometimes Roman Mithraism. The mysteries were popular in the Roman military. Worshippers of Mithras had a complex system of seven grades of initiation, with ritual meals. Initiates called themselves syndexioi, those “united by the handshake”. They met in underground temples (called a mithraeum), which survive in large numbers. The cult appears to have had its epicentre in Rome. Shipwreck in 'exceptional' condition discovered by archaeologists in France Wreck discovered in Antibes, on the site of the Roman city of Antipolis, thought to have sunk in the second or third century • Share 59 • • • Email • Stéphane Foucart • Guardian Weekly , Tuesday 4 September 2012 14.01 BST • Jump to comments ( 0 ) Ancient amazement ... the merchant vessel’s cargo will likely remain a mystery. Photograph: Rémi Bénali/Inrap It looks like the rib cage of a large marine mammal, whose bones turned black as it was fossilised. The wreck was discovered in May during a dig in Antibes, on the French Riviera, prior to construction of a car park on the site of the Roman port of Antipolis. Archaeologists have gradually uncovered a 15-metre length of hull and structural timbers, in "exceptional" condition, according to Giulia Boetto, a specialist in ship design at Aix-Marseille University who is involved in the dig. Saw and adze marks are still visible on the wood. Luckily the ground in which it was found is always waterlogged so this prevented the timber from rotting and decomposing. Sprinklers have kept the hull and its structure moist since its discovery. "Otherwise, in just a few weeks we would lose everything," says Isabelle Daveau, an archaeologist at France's Rescue Archaeology Research Institute (Inrap) and head of the project. The ship – a merchant vessel from the imperial period – was probably about 22 metres long and six or seven metres across. It is thought to have sunk in the second or third century in the port at Antipolis. "It has a typical Graeco-Roman flat-bottomed design," Boetto says, with a hold three metres deep and a square sail to drive it, suspended from a mast, which has not been found. The archaeologists have made some touching discoveries, including a little 15- centimetre brush that must have been dropped by a shipwright busy caulking the hull. It most likely fell through a gap between the floor of the hold and the outer shell, only to be discovered 19 centuries later. "A ship like this could carry a cargo of up to about 100 tonnes," Boetto says. This may seem a lot, but it is well below the tonnage reached by other vessels. "At the time, the boats transporting Egyptian corn back to Rome could be as long as 40 to 50 metres, loaded with up to 400 tonnes of grain," she adds. The remains of the ship, which will be donated to Antibes by the state, will be dismantled and the timber treated for lasting conservation. "Just the process of treating the timber will take two years," says Jean-Louis Andral, head of the Antibes museum. "Then the wreck will be reconstituted and set up in a centre for study and preservation, where it can also be seen by the general public." It should be ready in three or four years. How did the ship come to be lying at a depth of barely two metres in the port of Antibes? "We can't be absolutely sure, but it's possible, as sometimes happened, that it was deliberately scuttled to serve as a landing stage," Daveau suggests. "It may also have been swamped by a freak wave." Another possible explanation is that it sank at its mooring, but this seems unlikely. Nowhere on the section of the vessel that has been uncovered have archaeologists found any signs of repairs, suggesting that it was not particularly old when it sank. In due course the timber itself will be properly dated. The team of 20 or so archaeologists working on the dig have found no evidence of any cargo. When a ship went down, efforts would be made to salvage as much as possible. "At a depth of less than two metres it would have been fairly easy to raise goods," Boetto says. "On the Roman shipwreck discovered in the 1970s off Madrague de Giens, at a depth of 20 metres, part of the cargo had been recovered." At the time underwater excavation of the great wreck, led by maritime archaeologists André Tchernia and Patrice Pomey, revealed gaps in the cargo. Heavy stones had been placed alongside the missing amphorae. It is thought that they were used to weight the divers who specialised in salvaging ship-wrecked goods. Such divers were often mentioned in ancient texts but the Madrague de Giens wreck provided the first material proof of their activity and daring. In excavating the 5,000-square-metre site the archaeologists have uncovered more than just the remains of the vessel.