Roman Water-Power

2020 ◽  
pp. 147-194
Author(s):  
Andrew Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
The Body ◽  
First Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Water Power ◽  
The Third ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Grain Milling ◽  
Over Time

This chapter summarizes the archaeological evidence currently known for Roman water-mills, tracing the development and spread of water-powered grain milling over time across the Roman Empire. Problems of quantification and evidence bias, both documentary and archaeological, are addressed. In particular, it is argued that large discoidal millstones, formerly thought to derive either from animal-powered or water-powered mills, must come from water-mills, and that the idea of Roman animal-driven mills with discoidal millstones is a myth. This dramatically increases the amount of evidence available for water-powered grain milling, although very unevenly spread across the empire, and heavily dependent on the intensity of research in particular regions—good for Britain, parts of France, and Switzerland; poor everywhere else. The chapter also summarizes the state of knowledge on other applications of water-power—for ore-crushing machines at hard-rock gold and silver mines (by the first century AD), trip-hammers, tanning and fulling mills, and marble sawing (by the third century AD). The picture is fast-changing and the body of evidence continues to grow with new archaeological discoveries. The chapter ends with some thoughts about the place of water-power in the overall economy of the Roman world, and on the transmission of water-powered technologies between the Roman and medieval periods.

The Roman Empire and the Kushans

1979 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Thorley
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Economic Importance ◽  
Roman History ◽  
First Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
The Third ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Ganges Plain ◽  
The Ganges

It may seem strange to link the Roman Empire with a Himalayan kingdom which hardly gets a mention in most standard works on Roman history, but in fact during the second and early third centuries A. D. these two powers enjoyed a cordial and mutually profitable relationship which was of considerable economic importance to both. From the end of the first century A. D. to the middle of the third century the Kushans controlled what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, parts of Soviet and Chinese Central Asia, and much of the Ganges plain. Their history has proved difficult to reconstruct, since they left no historical writing, and even the chronology of their kings is still disputed, but enough is now known for us to begin to piece together, though still somewhat tentatively, the strange and exotic relationship between this distant state and the Roman world, and perhaps in the process to contribute from Roman history to the problems of Kushan dating.

Law in the Roman Provinces

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Regional Variation ◽  
First Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Top Down ◽  
The Third ◽  
Roman Provinces ◽  
Intrinsic Component

The study of the Roman empire has changed dramatically in the last century. Emphasis is now placed on understanding the experiences of subject populations, rather than focusing solely on the Roman imperial elites. Local experiences, and interactions between periphery and centre are an intrinsic component in our picture of the empire’s function over and against the earlier, top-down model. But where does law fit in to this new, decentralized picture of empire? This volume brings together internationally renowned scholars from legal and historical backgrounds to study the operation of law in each region of the empire from the first century BCE to the end of the third century CE. Regional variation and specificity is explored alongside the emergence of common themes and activities by historical agents. When brought together, a new understanding of law in the Roman empire emerges that balances the practicalities of regional variation with the ideological construct of law and empire.

A Cancelled Marriage Contract from the Judaean Desert (XHev/Se Gr. 2)

1994 ◽  
Vol 84 ◽  
pp. 64-86
Author(s):  
Hannah Cotton
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Near East ◽  
First Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
The Third ◽  
Marriage Contract ◽  
Roman Near East

With the publication of the Greek part of the Babatha Archive in 1989 and some of the documents from the Greek-Syriac archives of Mesopotamia and the Middle Euphrates in 1989–1991, the contribution of perishable material from places other than Egypt to the study of the Roman Near East and the Roman Empire in general has become obvious. But this is just the tip of an iceberg that has been surfacing for a while. The parchments and papyri from Dura Europus, discovered in the 1920s, were published in final form in 1959: they range from the first century C.E. to the middle of the third century C.E. with texts mainly in Latin and Greek, a few in Aramaic and Iranian and one in Syriac.

Building a Roman Funeral Pyre

Antichthon ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 30-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Noy
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Roman Art ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Roman Literature ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Cultural Homogenisation ◽  
Over Time

Until the second century A.D., the bodies of most people who died at Rome and in the western provinces of the Empire ended up on a funeral pyre, to be reduced to ashes which would be placed in a grave. The practical arrangements for this process have attracted some attention from archaeologists but virtually none from ancient historians. In this paper I shall try to combine literary and archaeological evidence to reconstruct how the pyre was prepared. I hope that this will provide a fuller background than currently exists for understanding the numerous brief references which can be found in Roman literature and the two surviving representations of a pyre (other than an emperor's) in Roman art. Cremation had different traditions in different areas, e.g. as an elite practice in parts of Gaul, even if ultimately it ‘may have been thought of as a sign of allegiance to Rome.’ There clearly were local differences, not just between provinces but between places quite close together, as well as changes over time, but many of the rites of cremation appear to have been similar throughout the Western Roman Empire, illustrating what Morris calls ‘a massive cultural homogenisation of the Roman world at a time when political and economic regionalism was increasing’.

SOME CASES OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY? PANTOMIME MASKS AND THEIR CONTEXT

2001 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN JORY
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Mistaken Identity ◽  
The Third ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Hellenistic World

Abstract Pantomime, a form of masked mime, is known in the Hellenistic world from the third century BC. In a modified form it was the most popular type of performance on the stages of the Roman empire. The masks worn differed from the masks of drama in that they had closed mouths. The first part of the paper demonstrates that it is possible to classify types of pantomime mask in the same way that the masks of drama have been classified. The second part looks at the chronology and provenance of the surviving representations of pantomime masks and suggests reasons for the different dates at which they were incorporated into the theatrical iconography of various areas of the Roman world.

Innovation and Stagnation: Military Infrastructure and the Shifting Balance of Power Between Rome and Persia

2017 ◽  
pp. 241-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eberhard W. Sauer ◽  
Jebrael Nokandeh ◽  
Konstantin Pitskhelauri ◽  
Hamid Omrani Rekavandi
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Western World ◽  
Sasanian Empire ◽  
The Third ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Shifting Balance ◽  
Effective Use ◽  
Independent Design

The Roman Empire, and its eastern and western successor states, controlled the majority of Europe’s population for approximately half a millennium (first century BC to fifth century AD), holding dominant power status from the second century BC to the seventh century AD, longer than any other state in the western world in history, and it was also the only empire ever to rule over the entire Mediterranean. Its ability to integrate ethnic groups and its well-organised military apparatus were instrumental to this success. From the third century onwards, however, the balance increasingly shifted; the physical dimensions of fortresses and unit sizes tended to decrease markedly in the Roman world, and the tradition of constructing marching camps and training facilities seems to have been abandoned. By contrast, the Sasanian Empire increasingly became the motor of innovation. Already in the third century it matched Rome’s abilities to launch offensive operations, conduct siege warfare and produce military hardware and armour. Jointly with the Iberians and Albanians, the empire also made skilful use of natural barriers to protect its frontiers, notably by blocking the few viable routes across the Caucasus. By the fifth/sixth century, it pioneered heavily fortified, large, rectangular campaign bases, of much greater size than any military compounds in the late Roman world. These military tent cities, filled with rectangular enclosures in neat rows, are suggestive of a strong and well-disciplined army. Like these campaign bases, the contemporary c. 200km-long Gorgan Wall, protected by a string of barracks forts and of distinctly independent design, is not copied from prototypes elsewhere. The evidence emerging from recent joint projects between the Iranian Cultural Heritage, Handcraft and Tourism Organisation and the Universities of Edinburgh, Tbilisi and Durham suggests that in late antiquity the Sasanian army had gone into the lead in terms of organisational abilities, innovation and effective use of its resources.

From the History of the Worship of Apollo at Actium

1959 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 215-221
Author(s):  
F. Sokolowski
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Third Century ◽  
The Third ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scanty Information

Until the last few years we had scanty information on the cult of Apollo at Actium, which, after the victory of Augustus won there in 31 B.C., became very popular in the Greek and Roman world. The games of Actium, reorganized and elevated to panhellenistic rank, flourished for a long time in the Roman empire. The lucky discovery of an inscription at Olympia, from the end of the third century B.C., has now brought us new light on the earlier history of this cult.

The Euphrates as a Boundary between Rome and Parthia in the Late Republic and Early Empire

Antichthon ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 191-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Edwell
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
First Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Euphrates River ◽  
The Third ◽  
History Of

AbstractIt is generally agreed that during the first century BC the Euphrates River came to represent a negotiated boundary of Roman and Parthian power in the Near East, and that this remained the case until the overthrow of the Parthians by the Sassanians in the third century AD. It was during the first century BC that the term imperium began to be used in the context of expressions of corporate Roman power; this eventually saw an additional important usage of the term evolve to that of an expression of physical territory, that is, empire, by the end of the reign of Augustus. This paper argues that it is possible to link the development of the Euphrates as a boundary of Roman and Parthian power in the first century BC with developments and changes in the usage of the term imperium. It traces the history of Roman and Parthian agreements and conflicts throughout the first century BC in the context of the development of the Euphrates as a boundary. The paper also argues that only the upper section of the Euphrates came to play this role and that previous analyses of the middle Euphrates have produced a misleading understanding of Roman and Parthian activity on this section of the river. The analysis of archaeological evidence from the first centuries BC and AD from the middle Euphrates site of Dura Europos is employed to illuminate the analysis of the Euphrates as a boundary. We arrive at a better understanding of Dura's history during this period if we considert Dura in the broader context of the Euphrates’ role in dividing Roman and Parthian power.

Christian ‘Atheism’ and the Peace of the Roman Empire

1973 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Schoedel
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Third Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
The Third ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Marcus Aurelius ◽  
Administration Of Justice ◽  
The Common ◽  
New Religion

Sometime betweena.d.176 anda.d.180 Athenagoras, a Christian, an amateur philosopher and possibly an Athenian, wrote aPleaaddressed to the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. This document is marked by a carefully controlledapologeticaim unmarred by crude efforts to convert and is remarkable for the positive attitude it shows toward the Roman emperors and the administration of justice throughout their realm. Athenagoras' apology was lost sight of in antiquity, in all likelihood, because it contributed so little to theology; precisely for the same reason it is valuable to us in our assessment of the political and social awareness of a segment of Christians shortly before the empire plunged into the troubles of the third century. Athenagoras was obviously well trained in rhetoric; he had dabbled in philosophy; and he clearly felt himself culturally superior to the “common men, artisans, and old women” whom he praises for their simple, if unreasoned, display of Christian virtue (11.4). He is representative of a growing elite in Christian circles which was seeking to explain the new religion to the Graeco-Roman world.

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