scholarly journals CARACALLA AND ‘ALEXANDER'S PHALANX’: CAUGHT AT A CROSSROADS OF EVIDENCE

2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-238
Author(s):  
Alex Imrie
Keyword(s):  
Alexander The Great ◽  
Roman Emperor

It is well known that Alexander the Great offered inspiration to successive monarchs and autocrats. Few of these, however, could claim to match the affection shown by the Roman emperor Caracalla (198–217 ce). Caracalla is said to have been an almost pathological aficionado of Alexander, constantly promoting a public association between himself and his idol. One aspect of Caracalla's imitatio Alexandri was allegedly the levy of a peculiar phalangite formation based on the arms and equipment of Alexander's time. For years it was impossible to gauge whether this was a real development or a hostile literary fabrication, but the discovery of funerary remains at Apamea in Syria, which appear to memorialize phalangites and lanciarii, confirmed to some the historicity of Caracalla's bizarre levy. This article argues, however, that the apparently convincing combination of evidence is illusory, and that Caracalla's ‘phalanx’ was rather a convenient label applied to an inherently Roman formation.

Panhellenic Program of Hadrian

2020 ◽  
pp. 59-63
Author(s):  
Georgiy D. Gabarashvili
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
Alexander The Great ◽  
Roman Emperor ◽  
Greek Tradition ◽  
Full Analysis ◽  
Jewish Revolt ◽  
The Ideal

The Panhellenic project of the Roman Emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD) to unite the Greek Polis into a single organization is considered. It is noted that Hadrian's policy was based on the romanticized idea of reviving the classical Greek tradition. In particular, the ideal of the new Union was Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and other cities of mainland Greece, which preserved the foundations of their Polis organization and self-government until the second century. It is assumed that the Union was not all-Greek, since it did not affect the Hellenistic cities founded after the campaigns of Alexander the Great. In addition, the article examines the negative manifestations of Hadrian's Philhellenic policy, which are observed in a major Jewish revolt caused by the forced Hellenization of the Eastern provinces of the Empire. The works of foreign researchers are involved for the full analysis of the issue.

Pre-Linnaean pictures of the secretarybird, Sagittarius serpentarius (J. F. )

2008 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
RAGNAR K. KINZELBACH
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Rain Forests ◽  
Roman Emperor ◽  
Persian Language ◽  
The Family ◽  
Other Information ◽  
Sub Saharan

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.

Archaeology, Historicity, and Homosexuality in the New Cultus of Antinous

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-259
Author(s):  
Ethan White
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Gay Men ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Roman Emperor ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

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.”

The Issues and the Adversaries

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. R. Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Dutch Republic ◽  
Roman Emperor ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
Ideological Conflict ◽  
War Aims

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.

Caligula, tyran dérisoire dans le Caligula d’Alexandre Dumas

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-95
Author(s):  
Rémy Poignault
Keyword(s):  
Roman Emperor ◽  
Alexandre Dumas ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
The One

"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."

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