Changes in Urban and Sacred Landscapes of Memphis in the Third to the Fourth Centuries ad and the Eclipse of the Divine Apis Bulls

2018 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-204
Author(s):  
Nenad Marković
Keyword(s):  
Economic Capital ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Gradual Decline ◽  
Sacred Landscapes ◽  
The Third ◽  
Administrative Practice ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
The Military

Memphis served as a main royal residence and the military, administrative, and economic capital of Egypt for much of its history. The city’s gradual decline had begun already under the Ptolemies, whose true capital was at Alexandria, and important changes in administrative practice during the Roman period diminished its traditional status further. The god Ptah and his earthly manifestation, the divine Apis bull, certainly continued to enjoy both religious and socio-political importance until the first decades of the third century ad at the latest, as will be discussed in the article. Given the fragmentary and haphazard nature of surviving evidence on the site, it is almost impossible to trace a coherent history of traditional Memphite cults beyond this date. This article aims to discuss the decline of the divine Apis bulls in the context of broader historical developments of the third to the fourth centuries ad.

The Provincial List of Verona

1923 ◽  
Vol 13 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 127-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. B. Bury
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Provincial Government ◽  
The Other ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Military Organization ◽  
The Third ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Military

§ 1. The exact measure of the originality of Diocletian's statesmanship has not yet been taken. ‘Like Augustus,’ said Gibbon, ‘Diocletian may be considered the founder of a new empire’ and these words express the accepted view. In the whole work of pulling the Empire together, which went on from A.D. 270 to 330, the three outstanding actors were Aurelian, Diocletian, and Constantine, and the part played by Aurelian was indispensable for the restitutio orbis. It was he who destroyed the Principate, notwithstanding the negligible episode of Tacitus. It was he who founded the autocracy; Diocletian who regularized and systematized it. Two new things Diocletian certainly did, one of which was a success and the other a failure though not a fruitless one. His division of the Empire into Dioceses was permanent for nearly three hundred years. His throne system led to disaster and disappeared; yet the territorial quadripartition which it involved was afterwards stereotyped in the four Prefectures, and Nicomedia pointed to Constantinople. But in many of the other changes which distinguished the Empire of Constantine from the Empire of Severus and which have generally been regarded as inventions of Diocletian, it is becoming clear that he was not the initiator but was only extending and systematizing changes which had already been begun. The separation of civil from military powers in provincial government had been initiated by Gallienus (the importance of whose reign has in recent years been emerging). Some of the characteristics which mark the military organization of the fourth century had come before Diocletian's accession. Mr. Mattingly's studies in the numismatic history of the third century have been leading him, as he tells us, to similar conclusions.

‘Vi barbarorum absumptam’

2015 ◽  
pp. 354-375
Author(s):  
Marcus Reuter
Keyword(s):  
Civil Wars ◽  
Military History ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Civilian Population ◽  
The Third ◽  
History Of ◽  
Roman Germany ◽  
The Military ◽  
Severan Dynasty ◽  
Auxiliary Unit

This chapter focuses on the military history of Roman Germany during the third century AD. It begins with an overview of the Severan dynasty, with particular emphasis on civil wars and their impact on the army and the civilian population. It then considers the conscription of a new auxiliary unit, cohors I Septimia Belgarum, during the reign of Septimius Severus, before turning to the period between AD 235 and AD 260, which was characterized by the presence of arms and Roman military objects in the civilian settlements of the hinterland of the Upper German–Raetian limes. It also discusses the period from AD 260 to the end of the third century AD, when the Upper German limes gained military importance during the Gallic Empire, and the military situation along the Rhine.

Eclecticism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Mcclellan
Keyword(s):  
Roman Period ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Entire Period ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Considerable Influence ◽  
History Of Thought ◽  
The Third ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
History Of ◽  
Entire History

Eclecticism in philosophy is the construction of a system of thought by combining elements of the established systems of a previous age. The term ‘eclecticism’ is derived from the Greek verb eklegein / eklegesthai: to pick out, choose, or select. Diogenes Laertius (c.ad 300–50) attributes an ‘eclectic school’ to Potamo of Alexandria (c. early 3rd century ad) ‘who made a selection from the tenets of all the existing sects’. Many philosophers of the Greco-Roman period are known as ‘eclectics’, and one can find the entire period of philosophy from the second century bc to the third century ad referred to as an age of ‘eclecticism’. In such cases the term is often used pejoratively to designate a discordant collection of unoriginal ideas. More recently, however, the French philosopher Victor Cousin (1792–1867) expressed an optimistic view of eclecticism while using the term in reference to his own philosophy. Cousin viewed the entire history of thought as dominated by the two competing philosophies of empiricism (or sensualism) and idealism (or rationalism). The true philosophy would eliminate conflicting elements and combine the remaining truths within a single, unified system. Cousin’s eclecticism, with its strong historical orientation, was the predominant school of thought in France throughout most of the nineteenth century and was also of considerable influence in Brazil.

The Plateau Zone West of G St

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon James
Keyword(s):  
Wall Painting ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Third Century ◽  
City Wall ◽  
Base Area ◽  
The Third ◽  
Military Community ◽  
Roman Military ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Temple

One of the first structures explored at Dura in 1920, this temple (or perhaps better, sanctuary: Buchmann 2016, 116) was subsequently completely excavated but never fully published. Preliminary accounts were written by the excavators (Cumont 1926, 29–41; PR 2, 11–12, 67–9 (Pillet), PR 4, 16–19 (Pillet); Rostovtzeff 1938, 68–75 and pl. VI) and it has been much discussed since (Downey 1988, 105–10 for overview and references; Dirven 1999, 326–49 for the Palmyrene evidence; Leriche et al. 2011, 28). It remained a temple through the Roman period, apparently no part of it other than, presumably, the upper levels of city wall Tower 1 being used for secular military purposes. However, its continued existence in the farthest corner of the military base, and its attested use for worship by the Roman military community, demand discussion here. Indeed one of the very first military discoveries was the Terentius wall painting on the N wall of the temple’s room A, depicting a Roman military sacrifice by cohors XX Palmyrenorum before a triad of its national deities and the Tychai of Dura and Palmyra (Pl. I; Breasted 1922; Cumont 1923; Breasted 1924, 94–101, pl. XXI). Cumont consequently called the sanctuary the ‘Temple of the Palmyrene Gods’ (Cumont 1926, 29). In recent decades it has been more usually known as the ‘Temple of (i.e. Palmyrene) Bêl’, following Rostovtzeff (1938, 51), although in Parthian times it was probably dedicated to Zeus (Welles 1969, 63; Millar 1998, 482; Kaizer 2002, 122). No evidence indicates Palmyrene worship in the Parthian-era temple (Dirven 1999, 327–8). There is no consensus on the name for the sanctuary, so I follow MFSED’s ‘Temple of Bêl’ (Leriche et al. 2011, 28; also now Kaizer 2016b, 37–41). Described as laying in ‘J3/5’ by the Yale expedition, it actually lies N of these blocks in an area MFSED has labelled J9 (Leriche et al. 2011, 28–30). During the third century when the temple lay within the Roman base area, it did become the focus of Palmyrene cults, likely ‘related to Palmyrene soldiers or people associated with them’ (Dirven 1999, 328).

Letters from High to Low in the Graeco-Roman Period

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willy Clarysse
Keyword(s):  
Roman Period ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Test Cases ◽  
The Third ◽  
Total Lack

In this chapter, papyrus letters sent from superiors to their inferiors are studied on the basis of test cases ranging across the Graeco-Roman period in Egypt, from the third century BCE to the third century CE. This correspondence is drawn from four archival groups of texts: the archive of Zenon; the letters of L. Bellienus Gemellus and the letters of the sons of Patron; and the Heroninus archive. The letters are usually short, full of imperatives, and characterized by the absence of philophronetic formulae. Recurrent themes of the correspondence are urgency, rebukes, orders, and interdictions, and there is an almost total lack of polite phrases.

‘At last Roman, at last restored to the true light of Empire’

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrastos Omissi
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
Economic Reforms ◽  
Third Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Military ◽  
Late Roman

This chapter begins by considering what made the late Roman state distinctive from the early Empire, exploring the political developments of the later third century, in particular the military, administrative, and economic reforms undertaken by the tetrarchs. It then explores the presentation of the war between the tetrarchy and the British Empire of Carausius and Allectus (286‒96), taking as its core sources Pan. Lat. X, XI, and VIII. These speeches are unique in the panegyrical corpus, in that two of them (X and XI) were delivered while the usurpation they describe was still under way, the third (VIII) after it was defeated. In this chapter, we see how the British Empire was ‘othered’ as piratical and barbarian, and how conflict with it helped to create the distinctive ideology of the tetrarchy.

The history of a “primary source”: The making of Tûghî's chronicle on the regicide of Osman II

2009 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-62
Author(s):  
Baki Tezcan
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Collective Responsibility ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Political Sophistication ◽  
History Of ◽  
Initial Attitude ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Way

AbstractA short chronicle by a former janissary called Tûghî on the regicide of the Ottoman Sultan Osman II in 1622 had a definitive impact on seventeenth-century Ottoman historiography in terms of the way in which this regicide was recounted. This study examines the formation of Tûghî's chronicle and shows how within the course of the year following the regicide, Tûghî's initial attitude, which recognized the collective responsibility of the military caste (kul) in the murder of Osman, evolved into a claim of their innocence. The chronicle of Tûghî is extant in successive editions of his own. A careful examination of these editions makes it possible to follow the evolution of Tûghî's narrative on the regicide in response to the historical developments in its immediate aftermath and thus witness both the evolution of a “primary source” and the gradual political sophistication of a janissary.

scholarly journals The Battles of Andros and Cos

1909 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. W. Tarn
Keyword(s):  
Third Century ◽  
Subsequent Paper ◽  
The Third ◽  
History Of ◽  
Working Out ◽  
Important Evidence

No apology should be needed for treating afresh these much-discussed battles, if only because the last two years have produced new and important evidence from Delos; though in fact the literary allusions, scanty as they are, have hardly even yet been sufficiently elucidated. I hope in this paper to fix the dates of Andros and Cos by the Delian archon-list, and to consider what that means in terms of B.C. In a subsequent paper, to be published in the next number of this Journal, I hope, by working out the history of the ship which Antigonus Gonatas dedicated to Apollo, to confirm the date assigned to Cos in this paper. If these two dates could really be fixed, they would be invaluable for our understanding of Aegean history in the middle of the third century.

scholarly journals Los mártires de Libisosa: origen, transformación y pervivencia de una tradición hagiográfica

2020 ◽  
pp. 45-62
Author(s):  
José Antonio Molina Gómez ◽  
Héctor Uroz Rodríguez ◽  
José Ángel Munera Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Third Century ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
The Third ◽  
Local Tradition ◽  
History Of ◽  
Local Traditions

En el presente artículo los autores estudian las tradiciones hagiográficas sobre los mártires del siglo III Vicente y Leto, quienes murieron en Libisosa (Lezuza, Albacete). El estudio se centra en la relación entre tradiciones martirológicas, la evidencia arqueológica y las tradiciones locales. Escritores modernos como Higuera y Requena podrían haber usado fuentes antiguas para (re)escribir la historia de Vicente y Leto. De acuerdo con la tradición local ambos fueron ejecutados en un lugar llamado hoy en día Vallejo de los Santos, en las inmediaciones de Lezuza, donde habría sido levantado un templo para rendirles culto. In the following article, the authors study the hagiographic tradition of the Third Century Christian Martyrs Vicente and Leto, both of which died in Libisosa (Lezuza, Albacete). Said study shall focus upon the link between the matyrological tradition, archaeological evidence and local traditions. Modern writers such as Higuera or Requena may well have employed these ancient sources while (re)writing the history of Vicente and Leto. According to local tradition, both were executed in a place now called Vallejo de los Santos, in the outskirts of Lezuza, where a temple would have been built for their worship.

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