Innus: A God of Archaic Latium and His Sanctuary at Fosso dell’Incastro (Ardea)

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-286
Author(s):  
Mario Torelli
Keyword(s):  
Sand Dunes ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Fourth Century Bce ◽  
Ancient Site ◽  
The Temple

Abstract In 2006, the Soprintendenza Archeologica del Lazio began an excavation at the site of Fosso dell’Incastro on the coastline of Ardea. A well-preserved settlement buried under huge sand dunes was discovered, featuring a Roman castrum created in the fourth century BCE around a sanctuary dating back to the mid-sixth century BCE. Its characteristics not only suggested that the ancient site was Castrum Inui, previously known only through the ancient literary sources (e.g., Virgil, Servius and Macrobius), but also that its sanctuary could be attributed to an inconspicuous local deity, Inuus—often correlated with Pan and Sol. In its final phase (the early Imperial period), the sanctuary housed three sacred buildings: Temple A, Temple B, and a small shrine dedicated to Aesculapius. Temple B, the site of Inuus’ worship, was constructed in the Etrusco-Italic style during the first quarter of the fifth century BCE, while Temple A was built during the mid-second century BCE. Temple B was oriented to the southwest, one typical for religious buildings connected to chthonic cults; two altars built during the fourth century BCE were placed along the façade of the temple, one facing the east and on the axis of the temple, the second close to its southwest corner. It was also enhanced with an acroterion depicting the head of a warrior with the skin and horns of a goat or cow over his helmet, a motif that establishes a connection between Innus, Pan and Faunus. Temple A, on the other hand, faced the northeast and was enhanced with a sculpted pediment in high relief showing an assembly of gods and possibly Aeneas. Both its orientation and the iconography of the pediment suggest that it was dedicated to Aeneas Indiges, a pan-Latin version of the old cult of Inuus.

The Aftermath of Paracomedy

Paracomedy ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 248-264
Author(s):  
Craig Jendza
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Fourth Century Bce

This chapter explores three cases where authors engage with paracomedy after the fifth century BCE. It proposes that the anonymous fourth-century BCE tragedy Rhesus employs paracomedy and that it does so either because the author was indiscriminately copying from fifth-century drama or because he wanted to imitate Euripides’s penchant for paracomedy. It investigates the highly fragmentary evidence for Rhinthon’s third-century BCE hilarotragedies, normally thought to be theatrical farces, and posits that Rhinthon was utilizing a more explicit type of paracomedy than in the fifth century. It also provides an explanation for the surprising assertion from the second-century CE scholar Pollux that Euripides and Sophocles frequently employed a comic parabasis. The chapter argues that these cases of reception highlight paracomedy’s importance in antiquity and indicate that paracomedy was a noted hallmark of Euripidean stagecraft that had an indelible effect on the genre of tragedy.

scholarly journals From Commentary to paribhāṣās: Kātyāyana and Patañjali vis-à-vis Vyāḍi

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 515-566
Author(s):  
Maria Piera Candotti ◽  
Tiziana Pontillo
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Integrative Approach ◽  
Fourth Century Bce

Abstract The present paper is targeted on three landmarks in the long story of the paribhāṣās’ development. Two of these landmarks descended from the earliest testimony of Vyākaraṇa meta-rules, i. e. those included in Pāṇini’s grammar (fifth–fourth century BCE), and one which has been handed down as the first independent collection of paribhāṣās and attributed to Vyāḍi. In particular a shift is highlighted between Kātyāyaṇa’s (third century BCE) integrative approach (vacana) and Patañjali’s (second century BCE) recourse to implicit paribhāṣās in the Aṣṭādhyāyī as a powerful hermeneutical tool. A shift that helps in interpreting the need for a validation and collection of implicit pāṇinian paribhāṣās as carried out by authors such as Vyāḍi.

scholarly journals The Groma and the Gladius: Roman Surveyors in the Later Republic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jason C Morris
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Roman Republic ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Roman Army ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
The Social ◽  
Land Surveying

<p>Boundaries have been a concern for all settled peoples in all times and places. The Romans  were no exception to this rule. Literary documents from the second century B.C. right  through to the end of the Western Empire in the fifth century A.D. show a continuous  preoccupation with the delineation of boundaries and the ownership or control of land. As part of this preoccupation, the Romans developed a complex legal framework for coping with property ownership. To accompany this legal framework, they developed a sophisticated system of boundary marking and land surveying known as centuriation. A great deal of scholarly attention has been expended on understanding both the system of centuriation and the legal framework governing Roman land use. Far less attention has been paid to the social development of the agrimensores or land surveyors who actually carried out the operation of centuriation and dealt with the problems of property disputes in the Imperial period. This thesis will focus on the social identity of the Roman land surveyors with a particular emphasis on understanding their origins in the surveying institutions of the later Republic. To accomplish this study, the thesis will be broken down into three broad chapters, each chapter containing two or three subsections. The first chapter will examine the social identity and evolution of the finitor, who has traditionally been considered the surveyor of the Roman Republic. The second chapter will examine the identity of the agrimensores or mensores in the particular context of the Roman army in an effort to distinguish them from the metatores, three names which have been considered to refer to the same or a similar occupation. The third chapter will examine the mensor in the context of the Roman Republic and trace the social forces that shaped their identity as specialists in land law and surveying.</p>

The Archeology of Divine Guidance in Corinth

2020 ◽  
pp. 31-45
Author(s):  
John A. Jillions
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Divine Intervention ◽  
Fourth Century Bce ◽  
Healing Cult ◽  
Household Shrines ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Divine Guidance

This chapter looks at some of the archeological discoveries in Corinth that reflect popular attitudes toward the gods, religious experience, and divine guidance. The most prominent was the healing cult centered in the Temple of Asklepios, where interpretation of dreams was a key feature. Other sites and household shrines would have brought to mind Fortuna, family ancestors, the oracle of Delphi, and mythical stories of divine intervention with a Corinthian slant (Venus, Medea, Glauce, Bellerophon, Sisyphus, Dionysus). But for an alternative point of view, there was the tomb of Diogenes the Cynic (fourth century BCE), who settled in Corinth “to be where fools were thickest.” He was highly critical of superstitious piety and advised instead to follow the inscription at Delphi, “Know Thyself.” He concluded that oracles are deceptive not because the gods are deceitful but because human beings are incapable of properly understanding the gods.

Amulets and the Ritual Efficacy of Christian Symbols

2019 ◽  
pp. 349-366
Author(s):  
Rangar H. Cline
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Body And Soul ◽  
Insight Into

Although “magical” amulets are often overlooked in studies of early Christian material culture, they provide unique insight into the lives of early Christians. The high number of amulets that survive from antiquity, their presence in domestic and mortuary archaeological contexts, and frequent discussions of amulets in Late Antique literary sources indicate that they constituted an integral part of the fabric of religious life for early Christians. The appearance of Christian symbols on amulets, beginning in the second century and occurring with increasing frequency in the fourth century and afterward, reveals the increasing perception of Christian symbols as ritually potent among Christians and others in the Roman Empire. The forms, texts, and images on amulets reveal the fears and hopes that occupied the daily lives of early Christians, when amulets designed for ritual efficacy if not orthodoxy were believed to provide a defense against forces that would harm body and soul.

Greco-Roman Surgical Instruments

2018 ◽  
pp. 554-590
Author(s):  
Lawrence J. Bliquez
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Surgical Instruments ◽  
First Century ◽  
Bladder Stones ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Fourth Century Bce

The chapter looks at Greek and Roman surgical instruments. The survival of Greco-Roman surgical instruments falls into two divisions: tools available in Hippocratic times (fifth to fourth century bce), and instruments at the disposal of surgeons, mostly Greek, from the late Republic through the Empire (first century bce to fifth century ce). From the former, most survivals are cupping vessels from graves. The texts suggest the Hippocratic physician often created his tool on the spot or had a tool prepared for an immediate need, whereas most of an Imperial surgeon’s repertoire consisted of instruments professionally made and sold by smiths. The various kinds of instruments are described, explained, and illustrated: cupping vessels, scalpels, phlebotomes (for phlebotomy), lithotomes (for bladder stones), needles, probes, cauteries, hooks, forceps, saws, drills, chisels, files, levers, tubes, douches, specula, and abortives.

The Archaeology of Beirut: A Report on Work in the Insula of the House of the Fountains

2003 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
pp. 195-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic Perring ◽  
Paul Reynolds ◽  
Reuben Thorpe
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Interim Report ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Western Margin ◽  
Post War

This insula, which lay on the western margin of the earlier Iron Age city, was uncovered during post-war reconstruction work carried out in Beirut during 1994–6. Laid out in the Hellenistic period, the insula was filled out with a series of small courtyard houses after the Roman annexation. A public portico was added along a main street in the second quarter of the second century, before a period of relative inactivity. The district was revived and rebuilt in the middle of the fourth century and was home to a series of handsome town houses in the fifth century, before being devastated by earthquake in AD 551. The site was then left derelict until the early nineteenth century. This interim report sets these findings within their broader historical and archaeological context, as well as summarizing the results of recent work on the site's ceramics and stratigraphy.

The Western Necropolis of Cyrene: the Wadi Belghadir road

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 137-146
Author(s):  
Eugenio Di Valerio
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Remote Area ◽  
Funerary Monuments ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Imperial Period

AbstractThe Western Necropolis represents one of the most monumental and spectacular sections of the Cyrene cemeteries, with rock-cut monuments, still quite well preserved, along a funerary road. The earliest examples of monumental tombs in this context date to the second half of the sixth and the beginning of the fifth centuries BC, with tombs displaying rock-cut porticos in Doric, Aeolic or Ionic styles, and with the slightly later tombs having architectonic facades characterized by false ‘contracted’ porticos and overhanging lintels ending with twoacroteria, mainly dating to the fifth century. The fourth century and the Hellenistic age, in this section of the necropolis, is attested by rock-cut chamber tombs, often with painted Doric friezes, and loculi. In Roman times, apart from a few examples of new tombs, most of the Roman funerary monuments reuse earlier tombs or are tombs that have been in constant use from previous periods. These phenomena of transformation and reuse of earlier monuments are quite well know for Cyrene, but are more evident from the middle and late imperial period; in later periods we even see the total re-functionalization of the monument. The monumental appearance of the Western Necropolis and its location in a quite remote area, are unfortunately the main reasons for the destruction of the tombs, which have been quite heavily looted: marble statues, busts and portraits have particularly suffered.

‘All the World’s a Stage-Painting’: Scenery, Optics, and Greek Epistemology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. F. Burnyeat
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Early History ◽  
Sense Perception ◽  
Phenomenal Experience ◽  
The World ◽  
Fourth Century Bce ◽  
History Of ◽  
Epistemological Debate ◽  
Underlying Reality

In the fourth century BCE, Anaxarchus and Monimus compared the world to stage-painting, to express scepticism about sense-perception and the worthlessness of human affairs, respectively. But the comparison traces back to Democritus’ discussion of Anaxagoras’ famous claim, a century earlier, that ‘appearances are a sight of things unseen’. According to Vitruvius, they were influenced by what Agatharchus had written about stage-painting, something that can be assessed properly only by considering the genre of technical treatises and the claims of those who were first to write on a subject. The comparison with phenomenal experience should ultimately be credited to Anaxagoras, though the points that he and Democritus make differ, owing to their different views of how the macroscopic world is related to underlying reality. These texts are thus not about the early history of perspectival painting, but stem from a fifth-century epistemological debate about what, if anything, sense-perception reveals about reality.

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