ASPECTS OF ROMAN EMPEROR CULT - (C.) Letta Tra umano e divino. Forme e limiti del culto degli imperatori nel mondo romano. (La Casa dei Sapienti 3.) Pp. xviii + 204, ills. Sarzana and Lugano: Agorà & Co, 2020. Paper, €30. ISBN: 978-88-89526-73-6.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Francesco Camia
Keyword(s):  
2008 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
RAGNAR K. KINZELBACH

The secretarybird, the only species of the family Sagittariidae (Falconiformes), inhabits all of sub-Saharan Africa except the rain forests. Secretarybird, its vernacular name in many languages, may be derived from the Arabic “saqr at-tair”, “falcon of the hunt”, which found its way into French during the crusades. From the same period are two drawings of a “bistarda deserti” in a codex by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (1194–1250). The original sketch obviously, together with other information on birds, came from the court of Sultan al-Kâmil (1180–1238) in Cairo. Careful examination led to an interpretation as Sagittarius serpentarius. Two archaeological sources and one nineteenth century observation strengthened the idea of a former occurrence of the secretarybird in the Egyptian Nile valley. André Thevet (1502–1590), a French cleric and reliable research traveller, described and depicted in 1558 a strange bird, named “Pa” in Persian language, from what he called Madagascar. The woodcut is identified as Sagittarius serpentarius. The text reveals East Africa as the real home of this bird, associated there among others with elephants. From there raises a connection to the tales of the fabulous roc, which feeds its offspring with elephants, ending up in the vernacular name of the extinct Madagascar ostrich as elephantbird.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-259
Author(s):  
Ethan White

In the second century, the Roman Emperor Hadrian deified his male lover, Antinous, after the latter drowned in the Nile. Antinous’ worship was revived in the late twentieth century, primarily by gay men and other queer-identified individuals, with Antinous himself being recast as “the Gay God.”


Author(s):  
R. R. Palmer

In April 1792, France had declared war on the “King of Hungary and Bohemia,” that is the House of Austria or Hapsburg, which, since it possessed most of Belgium, was the most important of the powers that adjoined the French frontiers. By the following summer the French were also at war with the kingdoms of Prussia and Sardinia, and by 1793 with Great Britain, the Dutch Republic, and the Bourbon Monarchy of Spain. Despite occasional appearances, or stated war aims, the war that began in April 1792 became an ideological conflict between new and old—between “democratic” and “aristocratic” forms of society in the sense explained in the preceding volume. This chapter focuses on this complex story and nations involved. It begins with a tale of two cities, involving ceremonial events in Frankfurt and Paris on July 14, 1792. It was, of course, Bastille Day, but it was also the date of the imperial coronation of Francis II, a young man of twenty-four who proved to be the last Holy Roman Emperor.


2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-95
Author(s):  
Rémy Poignault

"Tyranny and Derision in Alexandre Dumas’ Caligula. This paper studies the character of Caligula in Alexandre Dumas’ Caligula (1837) in comparison with the image left by the Roman emperor in ancient literary sources. Dumas highlights a tyrannical regime based on denial and flattery, shows the emperor as a tyrannical lover and mocks aspirations to the divinity of the one who takes himself for Jupiter, but is afraid of thunder, who wants to be the master of the destiny of all, but doesn’t master his own, falling under Messalina’s machinations. Keywords: Latin historiography, drama, destiny, machinations, tyranny."


Author(s):  
Svante Fischer

In this paper, I discuss the context of a Late Roman solidus hoard found in the Casa delle Vestali on the Forum Romanum in Rome. The hoard consists of 397 solidi, Late Roman gold coins. Most of the hoard consists of uncirculated solidi struck in the name of the Western Roman emperor Procopius Anthemius (AD 467–472). By means of situating the hoard within the context of the reign of Anthemius and the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the aim of this paper is to determine if the coins in the Vestal hoard can be related to other contemporary coin hoards by means of numismatic typology; this information could add to our understanding of why Anthemius’ reign is considered such an unmitigated failure and why the Empire collapsed soon after his murder. In this article, the composition of the hoard is examined, and the contents are compared to other contemporary solidus hoards in the Mediterranean, Gaul, Poland and Scandinavia. I argue that this comparison shows that the Vestal hoard is not part of a larger network but that the hoard constitutes the remains of an isolated occurrence—as initially suggested by its unusual composition and location.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 7-22
Author(s):  
Arseniy Bogatyrev

There is an opinion that the fi rst detailed description of certain aspects of the Western (royal) funeral rite appeared in Russia along with a description of the funeral procession in 1558-1559 of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Much more information contain reports of the Russian diplomat Vasily M. Tyapkin, who visited the burial of Kings Jan II Kazimierz and Michał Wiśniowiecki in Rzeczpospolita (1674, 1676). A unique example in Russian diplomatic practice of the age, these recordings expanded the ideas of the anatomical aspects of the funeral ritual, its public character, the use of state symbols, military paraphernalia, music, etc. Many of the things listed by the resident were used later in the Western-style funerals of Peter the Great’s associate Franz Lefort, in the “sad ceremonies” as a whole of the eighteenth and partly nineteenth centuries. This Moscow diplomat’s information also complements sources, in particular, on some aspects of the action with the heart of King Michał. The thoroughness of fi xing all the procedures suggests that Tyapkin used some ready-made sources of information, which really existed. Tyapkin’s reports, which were abundant in details, anticipated many innovations of Peter I and his followers, showed that Peter’s reforms of the funeral ritual could have a Polish-Lithuanian source.


Author(s):  
Barbara K. Gold

This chapter discusses the rise, development, and Romanization of ancient Carthage in the early Christian period after the formation of the province of Africa Proconsularis in the Augustan period; the physical topography of the city of Carthage, including the Byrsa, the Antonine Baths, and the amphitheater; and it describes the tophet or outdoor sacrificial area and whether human sacrifice was practiced among the Carthaginians. It also covers the life, influence, and African roots of Septimius Severus, the Roman emperor during Perpetua’s life and death. Also discussed are the social, religious, and intellectual conditions for pagans in Roman Carthage, who their local gods were (Tanit, Saturn, Juno Caelestis, Baal Hammon), and the connections between civic and religious life.


Author(s):  
Davina C. Lopez

This chapter discusses several aspects of Roman imperial culture that offer resonances with the study of the New Testament. Herein several gendered and sexualized tropes of Roman imperial ideology, which serve to discursively naturalize power relationships and differences in hierarchy, are considered. These include the impenetrable manliness of the Roman emperor, the link between military conquest and sexual violence and feminization of conquered barbarian “others,” and the characterization of the Roman Empire as an endlessly fertile family. Special attention is given to the rhetorical and representational dimensions of Roman imperial culture, and particular emphasis is afforded to visual representation. Finally, the article considers several areas wherein the intersection of gender, sexuality, Roman imperial culture, and the study of the New Testament might further be explored.


Acoustics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-96
Author(s):  
Javier Alayón ◽  
Sara Girón ◽  
José A. Romero-Odero ◽  
Francisco J. Nieves

In Hispania (present-day Spain and Portugal), there are 25 structures documented of classical Roman open-air theatres, of which 10 are in the south, in the Roman Baetica (Andalusia). The Baetica embraced the progress of urbanisation in the time of the Roman emperor Augustus, where theatres, built in stone, were the foci of entertainment, performance, and propaganda of the empire. The Roman theatre in Malaga presents the archaeological remains of the main vestige of the Roman Malaca. It is located in the historical centre of the city, at the foot of the hill of the Muslim Alcazaba and was discovered in 1952. It is a medium-sized theatre whose design corresponds to a mixed construction that combines making use of the hillside for the terraces, in the manner of Greek theatres, with a major construction where rock is non-existent, thereby creating the necessary space for the stands. In this paper, the production process, adjustment, and validation of the 3D model of the theatre are analysed for the creation of a numerical predictive model of its sound field. Acoustic properties of the venue are examined and the effect of the Muslim Alcazaba and the hillside on the various acoustic descriptors is analysed. The results highlight the influence of this large stone surface mainly on the time decay parameters.


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