Verulamium, Three Roman Cities

Antiquity ◽  
1964 ◽  
Vol 38 (150) ◽  
pp. 103-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. S. Frere

Verulamium was the third largest city in Roman Britain (200 acres within the walls). Its place in the Roman province was thus commensurate with the part it has played in modern assessments of the history and culture of Roman Britain. The excavations undertaken between 1930 and 19-34 by Dr and Mrs R. E. M. Wheeler were amongst the first scientific excavations of Roman towns in this country, and their report was certainly the first to interpret the results gained in the wider context of the history of the Roman Empire. Those deductions were thereupon utilized by Collingwood as a framework for the history of urbanization in Britain as a whole and have coloured interpretation ever since. Yet of the 200 acres of Verulamium only 11 had been investigated and those in an area thought to be peripheral. Today, therefore, at the conclusion of a second campaign (1955-61) when another, more central, area has been excavated and when the acreage investigated has increased to 20, it is justifiable to reassess the history of the town.

Vox Patrum ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 70 ◽  
pp. 449-469
Author(s):  
Zofia Brzozowska

The РНБ, F.IV.151 manuscript is the third volume of a richly illustrated his­toriographical compilation (so-called Лицевой летописный свод – Illustrated Chronicle of Ivan the Terrible), which was prepared in one copy for tsar Ivan IV the Terrible in 1568-1576 and represents the development of the Russian state on the broad background of universal history. The aforementioned manuscript, which contains a description of the history of the Roman Empire and then the Byzantine Empire between the seventies of the 1st century A.D and 919, includes also an extensive sequence devoted to Muhammad (Ѡ Бохмите еретицѣ), derived from the Old Church Slavonic translation of the chronicle by George the Monk (Hamartolus). It is accompanied by two miniatures showing the representation of the founder of Islam. He was shown in an almost identical manner as the creators of earlier heterodox trends, such as Arius or Nestorius. These images therefore become a part of the tendency to perceive Muhammad as a heresiarch, a false pro­phet, and the religion he created as one of the heresies within Christianity, which is also typical of the Old Russian literature.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (38) ◽  
pp. 4-12
Author(s):  
Ersin Hussein

There appears to be no ‘tail end’ in sight for academic enquiry into the worship of Mithras in the Roman Empire. Interest in this ancient religion, and its popularity and longevity as a topic of study, has no doubt been secured by its status as an elective cult and by its rich, and at times controversial, surviving evidence, which is predominantly archaeological in nature and packed with astrological symbolism. No written documentation representing a theological canon, which might outline its origins, traditions and customs, has ever been discovered. Furthermore, the few surviving literary accounts present snapshots of the cult and are written by ‘outsiders’. Though strongly associated with Zoroastrianism, an ancient religion widely worshipped across Asia Minor and Persia, the exact origins of Mithras, his identity as a god, and the development of his worship remain unclear. With the reopening of the London Mithraeum last year the spotlight has once again been cast on the spread and impact of the cult in Roman Britain. This article accompanies pieces in this volume ofJCTand the next which focus on this sacred and once exclusive space. Organised in two sections, part one will begin with a brief introduction to the history of scholarship, focusing mostly on some methodological and theoretical developments in recent studies. Following this, attention will be paid to the nature of the evidence for the mysteries of Mithras and popular interpretations drawn from it. Part two will discuss methods for bringing this rich material to life in the classroom and reflect on pedagogical issues relating to teaching Mithraism as part of the Latin GCSE syllabus. The tried and tested exercises presented in this part of the article and are applicable to a variety of classroom settings, sizes and age groups.


1976 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 153-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan K. Bowman

‘For those outside the circle of learned devotees important work by papyrologists too often remains unfamiliar’ (J. J. Wilkes, JRS 65 (1975), 187). In the past few years the contribution of the papyri to the history of the Roman Empire has been very important, and it is the main purpose of the notes which follow to provide for the historian a convenient summary of recent documentary evidence which demands his attention. This survey encompasses work which has appeared in the last fifteen years (though with reference to documents published earlier which have recently received significant discussion) and covers the period of Roman imperial history from Augustus to Constantine. The material is divided into three sections. In the first I collect items which provide new information on topics of general imperial history, mainly matters of chronology and prosopography relating to Emperors and the imperial house; to which I have added evidence for Emperors in direct contact with Egypt, relating largely to imperial visits and revolts. In the second part I discuss Egypt as a Roman province, its organization, officials, social and economic history; some of the fresh conclusions which have emerged naturally have a broader application, which I hope to have indicated in the course of my discussion. In the brief final section documents are collected which either have their provenance outside Egypt or specifically relate to places other than Egypt. It is hardly necessary to add that the overall selection of items is subjective and cannot hope to be comprehensive. It will be noticed that some important topics are intentionally excluded from systematic examination—in particular, Roman Law, Graeco-Roman religion and Christianity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (33) ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
Hatmansyah Hatmansyah

The Umayyah dynasty became a major force in the development of propaganda spread throughout the world as well as being one of the first centers of political, cultural and scientific studies in the world since the Middle Ages. At the height of its greatness, its success in expanding Islamic power was far greater than that of the Roman empire. The history of Islamic preaching in the Umayyah Dynasty can be divided into two periods in the dynasty era in Damascus and in Cordoba. Islamic da'wah at this time was carried out in three stages, first the expansion of the da'wah area, the second was the development of science and the third was economic thought.


Author(s):  
S.M. Rubtsov

The article is devoted to the military action of the Roman Empire in the Middle-Danube valley in the early spring 170 year 2-nd centuries A.D. The main aim of this article consists in reconstruction one of the important events in Roman wars against the Germans tribe marcomanni, who lived on the territory of modern-day Czechia (ancient Boygemia). The author uses the analytical and comparative methods, analyzing the historical works of Roman authors and epigraphic facts. One of the main new aspects of article consists in chronology of events. The author tries to prove that defeat of Roman army and death of praefectus Marc Macrinius Vindex took place at the same time in early spring 170 year 2-nd centuries A.D.. This defeat had the important influence on the other military operations in the next time. Marcomanni and his allies seriously threatened the Roman province of Pannonia situated on the right bank of the Danube. The emperor Marcus Aurelius (161 — 180 A.D) waged several wars against the marcomanni and their allies quadi in 167 — 180 A.D. In winter 169 A.D. Marcus Aurelius became the sole emperor. He came back in Carnuntum in Upper Pannonia and began to complete the army for the offensive against marcomanni. The legatus Augusti Marc Macrinius Avitus Catonius Vindex with vexillationes of five Pannonia's legions and a few auxiliums forced a crossing the Danube in the early spring 170 A.D. Marcomanni defeated the Roman army and killed the legatus Augusti. The Germans captivated many soldiers from legions and auxiliums, burned several war-camps in Upper and Lower Pannonias. They reached the borders of the North Italy and besieged the Aquileja again. The author comes to the conclusion, that in result of the defeat of Marc Macrinius Vindex the Roman troops in the Middle and Lower Danube stood on the defensive.


2020 ◽  
pp. 123-152
Author(s):  
Jerzy Żelazowski

The article presents the private houses of Ptolemais’ inhabitants in the context of the history and urban development of a city with a thousand-year-long history. Four periods can be distinguished in the history of Ptolemais: the first since the creation of the city’s final spatial development plan in the 2nd century BC until the Jewish Revolt in 115–117 AD; the second in the 2nd–3rd centuries AD under the sign of development and growing aspirations of Ptolemais; the third in the 4th century AD until the first half of the 5th century AD, when the city served as the capital of the province of Libya Superior; and the fourth, from the end of the 5th century AD until the mid-7th century AD, in which Ptolemais, after a short period of crisis related to the nomad invasions, flourished again until the appearance of the Arabs, marking the end of the ancient city, although not the end of settlement in its area. Within this historical framework, changes in the city’s buildings and the transformation of private houses can be identified, and various cultural influences associated with the arrival of new residents at different times with their baggage of experience or with the more or less significant presence of representatives of the civil and military administration of the Roman Empire can be seen.


Author(s):  
John Richardson

Appian wrote his Roman history in the second century AD as a series of books arranged geographically to chronicle the rise of the Roman Empire. His Iberike, of which this is the first translation with historical commentary in English, deals with the Romans' wars in the Iberian peninsula from the third to the first centuries BC. It is the only continuous source for much of the history of this crucial period in one of the earliest regions of Rome's imperial expansion, and so fills in the gap made by the loss of Livy's later books. He describes the major campaigns of the conquest from the defeat of the Carthaginians by Scipio Africanus, the wars against the Celtiberians, the war against the Lusitanians under Viriathus and the siege of Numantia. The value of the text is not merely as a chronicle of otherwise obscure events, Appian was an historian who deserves to be studied in his own right. This scholarly edition presents the Greek text with facing-page English translation, accompanied by an introduction, historical commentary and copious notes.


1938 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-141
Author(s):  
R. E. M. Wheeler

The excavation of Verulamium in the years 1930–4 originated in a coincidence of archaeological need and local opportunity. The former, at this late date, needs no elaboration; the latter, it may be recalled, lay in the acquisition, by the Borough of St. Albans, of the southern half of the walled site, now known to have taken shape in the second century A.D. A central area within the new Corporation property accordingly remained for three years the main focus of the excavations, supplemented by an intensive examination of the town-defences, including two wall-towers and three gateways, of which two lay on property retained by Lord Verulam.Archaeologically, the problem confronting the excavators was twofold: to establish (for the first time) the outlines of the economic history of a major Romano-British town deep-set in the 'lowland zone'; and to determine the relationship, topographically and culturally, of the successive Belgic and Roman settlements. It was a familiar fact that Verulamium had held an important royal mint at the beginning of the first century A.D., and, whether the term municipium applied by Tacitus to the town in A.D. 61 be taken at face-value or no, the chance of observing the growth of a first-class Roman city out of a first-class pre-Roman one was unsurpassed on any other site. It was, therefore, essential that the exploration of a part of the Roman city should be accompanied by a systematic search for its predecessor.


2021 ◽  
pp. 55-68
Author(s):  
Phillip Sidney Horky

AbstractThis essay tracks a brief history of the concept of ‘co-breathing’ or ‘conspiration’ (συμπνοία), from its initial conception in Stoic cosmology in the third century BCE to its appropriation in Christian thought at the end of the second century CE. This study focuses on two related strands: first, how the term gets associated anachronistically with two paradigmatic philosopher-physicians, Hippocrates and Pythagoras, by intellectuals in the Early Roman Empire; and second, how the same term provides the early Church Fathers with a means to synthesize and explain discrete notions of ‘breath’ (πνεῦμα) through a repurposing of the pagan concept. Sources discussed include figures associated with Stoic, Pythagorean, and early Christian cosmologies.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document