Simulacra Gentium: the Ethne from the Sebasteion at Aphrodisias

1988 ◽  
Vol 78 ◽  
pp. 50-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. R. R. Smith

Series of provinces and peoples were something new in Roman art. They were a distinctively Roman way of representing their empire visually, and reflect a distinctively Roman and imperial mode of thought. Such images are most familiar to us in sculpture from the reliefs that decorated the temple of Hadrian in Rome, and on coins from the ‘province’ series of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. We know, however, from various written sources that extensive groups of personified peoples were made at Rome under Augustus. Recently, the discovery of such a series in relief at Aphrodisias, there called ethne (peoples), allows us for the first time to see what an early imperial group of this kind looked like. The new reliefs were part of the elaborate decoration of a temple complex, probably called a Sebasteion, dedicated to Aphrodite Prometor and the Julio-Claudian emperors. I have already published in this journal the reliefs with imperial scenes, which portray the Roman emperor from a Greek perspective. This article publishes the ethne reliefs which, it will be argued, set out to reproduce or adapt in a much more direct manner an Augustan monument in Rome. The use of an Augustan-style ‘province’ series in Asia Minor is a telling illustration both of some of the mechanisms in the transmission of imperial art and of a Greek city's identification with the Roman government's view of its empire.

Światowit ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 185-206
Author(s):  
Hasmik Z. Markaryan

The article is devoted to an artistic and historical study of a marble relief with a symbolic scene of Nero’s victory over Armenia from the Sebasteion sanctuary complex in the ancient town of Aphrodisias in Asia Minor. The temple complex was dedicated to the cult of the Julio-Claudian imperial dynasty. The artistic and stylistic analysis of the relief was performed in the context of the sculptural program and decoration of the whole complex, and took into consideration other images of Nero in the Sebasteion. Through a comparative analysis of the figure personifying Armenia depicted on the marble relief in Aphrodisias, as well as a series of images on coins and small statuary samples, characteristic iconographic traits of Armenia in the Roman imperial art were revealed. Along with this, the paper presents an in-depth ‘reading’ of this scene within the context of specific epi- sodes from the history of the Parthian-Roman conflict and the Roman struggle for Armenia during the period of 54–68 AD.


AMERTA ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Lisda Meyanti

The Paṇai Inscription was found in the temple complex in Padang Lawas. There is the word "Paṇai" written on the insciption. "Paṇai" is also written on the Tañjore Inscriptions and Nāgarakṛtāgama. The two written sources informed that in the past Chola and Majapahit kingdoms wanted to conquer several regions in Sumatra, including Paṇai. Both show that Paṇai was a potential and important area so that both kingdom wanted to conquer it. However, it is not known exactly where the location of Paṇai as referred to the two written sources yet. The research of this case has not been done much. Some researchers try to find the answer. Most researchers study it based on written sources from abroad. In this paper, through the Paṇai Inscription, the interpretation was made that the location was Padang Lawas. This can be seen from the contents of the inscriptions that wrote “Paṇai”and describe the natural conditions in accordance with the location of its discovery. This conclusion was obtained by conducting an in-depth study of the Paṇai Inscription using research methods commonly used in historical research, namely heuristics, criticism, interpretation, and historiography.Prasasti Paṇai ditemukan di Kompleks Candi Padang Lawas. Dalam prasasti tersebut terdapat kata paṇai. Kata paṇai juga tertera pada Prasasti Tañjore dan kakawin Nāgarakṛtāgama. Kedua sumber tertulis tersebut menginformasikan bahwa pada masa lampau Kerajaan Chola dan Majapahit ingin menaklukkan beberapa daerah di wilayah Sumatra, termasuk Paṇai. Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa Paṇai merupakan daerah potensial dan penting sehingga kedua kerajaan tersebut ingin menaklukkannya. Namun, belum diketahui secara pasti di mana lokasi Paṇai seperti yang dimaksud dalam kedua sumber tertulis tersebut. Penelitian terhadap kasus ini juga belum banyak dilakukan. Beberapa peneliti berusaha untuk menemukan jawabannya. Kebanyakan peneliti mengkajinya berdasarkan sumber tertulis dari luar negeri, seperti catatan perjalanan. Dalam tulisan ini melalui Prasasti Paṇai dibangun interpretasi bahwa lokasi Paṇai yang dimaksud, baik oleh Prasasti Tañjore maupun kakawin Nāgarakṛtāgama adalah Padang Lawas. Hal ini terlihat dari isi prasasti yang menyebutkan kata paṇai dan menggambarkan keadaan alam yang sesuai dengan lokasi penemuannya. Kesimpulan ini diperoleh dengan melakukan kajian mendalam terhadap Prasasti Paṇai dengan menggunakan metode penelitian yang lazim digunakan dalam penelitian sejarah, yakni heuristik, kritik, interpretasi, dan historiografi.


2014 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
David Harvey

At 3.60 Herodotus tells us that he has dwelt at length on the Samians because ‘they are responsible for three of the greatest buildings in the Greek world’: the tunnel of Eupalinos, the great temple, and the breakwater that protects their harbour. As successive commentators have pointed out, that is not the real reason for the length of his account. We hear about the tunnel for the first time in this chapter (60.1–3); Maiandrios escapes down a secret channel at 146.2, which may or may not be Eupalinos' tunnel; we hear about the temple of Artemis, not of Hera, at Samos in 48; dedications in the temple of Hera are mentioned in passing at 1.70.3, 3.123.1, 4.88.1, and 4.152.4, but the temple itself cannot be said to play a major part in Herodotus' narrative; naval expeditions sail from Samos (e.g. 44.2, 59.4) but there is no emphasis on the harbour or its breakwater. What Herodotus should have said is ‘I have dwelt at length on Samos, because I am interested in the island's history; and, by the way, they are responsible for three…’; but it is not our job to tell him what he ‘should’ have said. As David Asheri remarks, ‘We can explain it [the length of the Samian logos] most simply by supposing that the logos already existed before the final draft of the book’.


Author(s):  
Stephen E. Maiden ◽  
Gerry Yemen ◽  
Elliott N. Weiss ◽  
Oliver Wight

This case examines the queueing issues caused by the growth in popularity of one of the most visited Hindu temples in the world. On January 2, 2015, Ramesh and Vasantha Gupta visit Tirumala Venkateswara Temple, just a day after some 210,000 people crowded the 2,000-year-old site. The case describes the many enhancements that the temple administrator, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), has implemented since its management of the temple complex began in 1932. The soaring popularity of the temple, however, has led to safety and comfort concerns for pilgrims. While challenging students to consider additional improvements that might benefit pilgrim throughput rate and time in the temple system, the case highlights the tension TTD must manage between maximizing efficiency and maintaining religious traditions. Additionally, the case demonstrates the importance of perceived waiting times in the management of queues.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Jonathan R. Trotter

Abstract Many diaspora communities identify not only with a distant homeland but also with others distant from the homeland. How exactly do these intercommunal connections take place and contribute toward a shared identity? What specific aspects of diasporan identity are created or strengthened? What practices are involved? This study will begin to answer these questions through investigating two practices which were widespread among diaspora Jewish communities during the last two centuries of the Second Temple period (1st cent. B.C.E.–1st cent. C.E.). First, we will show how sending offerings and making pilgrimages to the Jerusalem temple from these communities enabled regular intercommunal contact. Then, we will suggest some ways in which these voluntary practices reinforced a cohesive Jewish identity and the importance of the homeland, especially the city of Jerusalem and the temple, for many diaspora Jews, whether they lived in Alexandria, Rome, Asia Minor, or Babylonia.


Archaeologia ◽  
1817 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 340-343
Author(s):  
Edward Daniel Clarke

It is not attaching too high a degree of importance to the study of Celtic antiquities, to maintain, that, owing to the attention now paid to it in this country, a light begins to break in upon that part of ancient history, which, beyond every other, seemed to present a forlorn investigation. All that relates to the aboriginal inhabitants of the north of Europe, would be involved in darkness but for the enquiries now instituted respecting Celtic sepulchres. From the information already received, concerning these sepulchres, it may be assumed, as a fact almost capable of actual demonstration, that the mounds, or barrows, common to all Great Britain, and to the neighbouring continent, together with all the tumuli fabled by Grecian and by Roman historians as the tombs of Giants, are so many several vestiges of that mighty family of Titan-Celts who gradually possessed all the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, and who extended their colonies over all the countries where Cyclopéan structures may be recognized; whether in the walls of Crotona, or the temple at Stonehénge; in the Cromlechs of Wales, or the trilithal monuments of Cimbrica Chersonesus; in Greece, or in Asia-Minor; in Syria, or in Egypt. It is with respect to Egypt alone, that an exception might perhaps be required; but history, while it deduces the origin of the worship of Minerva, at Sais, from the Phrygians, also relates of this people, that they were the oldest of mankind. The Cyclopéan architecture of Egypt may therefore be referred originally to the same source; but, as in making the following Observations brevity must be a principal object, it will be necessary to divest them of every thing that may seem like a Dissertation; and confine the statement, here offered, to the simple narrative of those facts, which have led to its introduction.


1973 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. H. Baker
Keyword(s):  
The Law ◽  

The surviving image of the Elizabethan and Jacobean solicitor was created for us by the pamphleteers and playmongers, who could be sure of immediate applause or popular sympathy by introducing into their work a few caricatures drawn from the seamier recesses of the legal world. We are encouraged by these writers to imagine a London plagued by these vermin of the law, scurrying in and around the Temple and lurking in the shadows of Westminster Hall, waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting bumpkin who had the misfortune to wander near their reach. Whether and to what extent these portraits bear any relation to reality are questions which social historians have yet to answer. Legal historians have made but a slight contribution to the history of solicitors during the period which, for them, was the most critical of all. To this period may be assigned the beginning of a process of demarcation between the functions of barristers and solicitors, and when we understand how this came about we shall have traced for the first time the origin of the solicitors' branch of the profession.


2019 ◽  
Vol 109 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-89
Author(s):  
Peter Zilberg ◽  
Yuval Levavi
Keyword(s):  

Abstract The legal compendium from the Eanna archive, published in this article for the first time, records thirteen separate cases all concerning sheep deficits (miṭītu) of herdsmen tending to the flocks of the temple. The following study of the text places it in the wider setting of the Eanna temple and discusses the rare format of the text, which should be placed in a legal, rather than an administrative, context.


2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
HANNAH M. COTTON-PALTIEL ◽  
AVNER ECKER ◽  
DOV GERA

Abstract This article was prompted by the recent discovery of two more copies of the so-called ‘Heliodoros Stele’ from Maresha. A second one from Byblos was published in 2015. The third one, re-discovered recently and published here for the first time, also comes from Maresha. The steles bear Seleukos IV's epistolary prostagma from 178 bc to his vizier Heliodoros, and forwarded to other officials with the instruction to display it in public. It contains an appointment of one Olympiodoros to be high priest in Koele Syria and Phoenicia. Both Seleukos IV and Heliodoros also appear in the story of the plundering of the Temple related in II Maccabees 3. The existence of multiple copies, though hardly surprising, made us suspect the king's apologetic tone and identify the ‘reform’ as an attempt to embellish the withdrawal of previously bestowed privileges on the Jews (so Josephus) as well as on others.


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