Faces From the Past: A Study of Roman Face Pots from Italy and the Western Provinces of the Roman Empire

Author(s):  
Gillian Braithwaite
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Saul Smilansky

History is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind. Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire I argue that there are duties that can be called ‘Moral duties due to history’ or, in short, ‘Duties to History’ (DTH). My claim is not the familiar thought that we need to learn from history on how to live better in the present and going forward, but that history itself creates moral duties. In addition to those obligations we currently recognise in response to the present and the future, there also exist special obligations in response to the past. If convincing, this means that our lives ought to be guided, in part, not only by our obligations to the living but by our DTH. This is a surprising result, with significant and sometimes perplexing implications. My focus is on the obligations of individuals in the light of history rather than on collective duties. I argue that there are duties that can be called ‘Moral duties due to history’ or, in short, ‘Duties to History’ (DTH). My claim is not the familiar thought that we need to learn from history on how to live better in the present and going forward, but that history itself creates moral duties. In addition to those obligations we currently recognise in response to the present and the future, there also exist special obligations in response to the past; such as obligations to good people in the past, but going beyond them. If convincing, this means that our lives ought to be guided, in part, not only by our obligations to the living but by our DTH. This is a surprising result, with significant and sometimes perplexing implications. My focus is on the obligations of individuals in the light of history rather than on collective duties.


1996 ◽  
Vol 76 ◽  
pp. 31-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksander Bursche

The concept of Central Europe is understood here to cover the geographical centre of the European continent (i.e. the territory between the Elbe, Bug and Neman rivers, that is, eastern Germany, Poland, Bohemia, Slovakia and Lithuania), formerly treated in much of the English-speaking world as ‘Eastern Europe’. In the past six years, however, this area has been moving closer to the West. This paper shall concentrate on the region north of the Carpathian mountains, particularly the Vistula river-basin and Scandinavia (without Norway), in other words the territory round the Baltic Sea.


2019 ◽  

This volume approaches three key concepts in Roman history — gender, memory and identity — and demonstrates the significance of their interaction in all social levels and during all periods of Imperial Rome. When societies, as well as individuals, form their identities, remembrance and references to the past play a significant role. The aim of Gender, Memory, and Identity in the Roman World is to cast light on the constructing and the maintaining of both public and private identities in the Roman Empire through memory, and to highlight, in particular, the role of gender in that process. While approaching this subject, the contributors to this volume scrutinise both the literature and material sources, pointing out how widespread the close relationship between gender, memory and identity was. A major aim of Gender, Memory, and Identity in the Roman World as a whole is to point out the significance of the interaction between these three concepts in both the upper and lower levels of Roman society, and how it remained an important question through the period from Augustus right into Late Antiquity.


Mnemosyne ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 423-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophia Aneziri

This article examines strategies that made it possible for Greek contests and the professionals who were engaged in them to retain their identity in the Roman Empire while they adapted to the circumstances of the new era. In their efforts to preserve and to enhance existing prestige and privilege, the organizers and others who were involved in the contests attempted both to exploit the past and to establish links to the new Roman power. The consequent linking of the Imperial cult with festivals, artists, athletes, and their associations provided tools that assisted the promotion of Imperial power and ideology.


2020 ◽  
pp. 135
Author(s):  
Vitor Manuel Fernandes Pereira ◽  
Tiago Pinheiro Ramos

<p>Accidentalmente descubierto en 1951, durante la construcción de la carretera de enlace entre la ciudad histórica y la estación de ferrocarril, el yacimiento arqueológico de Mileu se convirtió rápidamente en uno de los yacimientos arqueológicos más emblemáticos de la Beira Interior. En este artículo, tenemos la intención de presentar<br />los resultados de la investigación que hemos desarrollado en el sitio en los últimos 15 años, destacando el análisis del material cerámico como elemento de datación de las diferentes fases de ocupación de Mileu. Su análisis confirma una secuencia ocupacional desde la primera mitad del siglo I A.D hasta los siglos XII / XIII. Los materiales romanos analizados son principalmente de importación, permitiendo no solo una datación de contextos, sino también comprender su origen, el contexto de su uso o cuestiones relacionadas con las rutas comerciales dentro del Imperio Romano y el cruce del territorio de la Beira Interior. En cuanto a los materiales medievales, de producción local, muestran la continuación de la ocupación del yacimiento en épocas pos-romana</p><p>Accidentally discovered in 1951, during the construction of the link road between the historic city and the railroad station, the archaeological site of Mileu quickly became one of the most emblematic archaeological sites of Beira Interior. In this article we plan to present the results of research that we have developed on the site over the past<br />15 years, highlighting the analysis of the ceramic material while dating element of the different occupation phases of Mileu. Their analysis confirms an occupational sequence from the first half of the century A.D. to the XII / XIII centuries. The analyzed Roman materials are primarily imported, allowing not only a dating of contexts, but also how to understand their origin, the context of its use, or issues related to the trade routes within the Roman Empire and crossing the territory of Beira Interior. As for the medieval materials, local production, show the continuation of the occupation site in post-Roman times</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-324
Author(s):  
Sergei J. Maslikov

Experts studying antique astronomic instruments are well aware of a small class of so-called portable sundials from the Roman Empire. Over the past few decades, they have been considered in several important publications, including a recent book by Richard J. A. Talbert, in which he systematized the available information. Talbert and earlier J. V. Field described eight portable sundials of a “geographical” type, dating from about 2nd–4th centuries. Five are inscribed in Greek, the other three in Latin. The list of Greek dials also contains a dial from Memphis, information about which has been very scarce so far. Some authors even considered it lost. Fortunately, this instrument is stored in the collection of the State Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg) and now we have an opportunity to study it more closely.


Author(s):  
Eduard E. Meyer ◽  

The paper analyzes the poetic work of a late antique court poet from Western Roman Empire Claudius Claudianus. The key verbal construc - tions describing the situation on the Lower-Danube region after the Goths have settled are identified. The analysis of the Claudianus’ discourse shows the state of alarm of the Honorius court looked at the Balkan region. The high officials of Western Empire sought to establish Roman authority over the Danube region, regardless of whether the Eastern or Western court would rule there. Claudianus conveys to the readers that desire to see those lands under Roman rule. The study of contexts in which the Danube is men- tioned by Claudianus allows to assume that in the official discourse at court of the Western Emperor Honorius the Lower-Danube lands were pronounced pacified. They were beginning to recover from the destruction of the past wars, although still being perceived as a hotbed of instability. It was supposed that after Theodosius I first concluded the Treaty with the Goths in 382, and then Alaric and his people left Thrace in 395, the Danubian lands returned to Roman rule regardless whether the Roman institutes of power there functioned or not.


2002 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 159-174
Author(s):  
David Sedley

One of the reasons why the past three decades have been an exciting time for historians of Epicureanism has been the revival of work on the Herculaneum papyri – very much a team effort. But another equally good reason has been provided by a remarkable solo act, Martin Ferguson Smith's pioneering work on the second-century AD Epicurean inscription of Diogenes of Oenoanda – the largest of all Greek inscriptions to survive from the ancient world, a key text in the history of Epicurean philosophy, and an extraordinary snapshot of the (literally) monumental scale on which philosophical evangelism could be practised in the Roman empire.Smith has, almost single-handed, discovered and edited well over 100 new fragments of the inscription. This enabled him in 1993 to publish his comprehensive edition of the augmented inscription. But that was not the end of his labours. Returning to the site of Oenoanda, he has unearthed a substantial body of new ‘new fragments’, and has hopes of uncovering more in future seasons. A recent batch was published in a 1998 article. In this paper I want to consider just one of them, New Fragment 128, which fills a hole in the existing fr. 33 of Smith's edition. Thanks to this discovery, Smith has been able to supply the line-ends of the missing col. IV, and likewise to join the previously lost line-beginnings of col. V to the already surviving line-ends of that column. In addition, he has been able to make very convincing improvements to his previous readings of column III.


2000 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-243
Author(s):  
John Castell

Aquaculture has a long history, with carp culture in Asia starting before 2000 BC and oyster culture in the Roman Empire before the time of Julius Caesar. However, it is clearly the past 40 yr that have seen the most dramatic expansion of aquaculture. The world's population now exceeds 6 billion people and is still growing at an alarming rate. The world's wild fish harvest has clearly peaked at or above the maximum sustainable yield of about 90 million t. Many fish stocks are suffering from over-fishing and there is little hope of any increase in the capture fisheries production. Though modern agricultural practices have been very efficient at increasing the per acre yields, the world is experiencing an alarmingly steady decrease in the amount of agricultural land devoted to food production. In the past 20–30 yr production of fish, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants (aquaculture) has become an increasingly important means of producing food, and in some countries aquaculture production accounts for more than half of the total fishery harvest and is even as high as 90% in a few countries. I have reviewed the historical growth of aquaculture, compared the product value in various countries and reviewed aquaculture practices for a number of plant, molluscan, crustacean and fish species around the world. These culture technologies were compared and contrasted with agricultural practices. Finally, some predictions for the future of aquaculture development in Canada and the world have been made. Key words: Canadian aquaculture, history, salmon, fish farming, production statistics, fish culture technology


1966 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-187
Author(s):  
John Ferguson

One of the incidental advantages of working in Ibadan is the wide variety of legitimate routes between Lagos and London. These have enabled us to explore the Roman Empire in some thoroughness; we have in the past visited Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Sicily, Tripolitania, Tunisia, and Spain. But we had long had our sights set on Algeria; only the political situation kept us away. By 1965 we decided that the political situation was settled. In fact our bookings came through on the day of Ben Bella's deposition. Equally when we were there in September 1965 the country gave every sign of being tranquil, and we had a time so thrilling that it seemed right to share it publicly in the hope of encouraging others to follow. For the welcome we received was warm beyond belief, and the Roman remains are wonderful, and wonderfully situated in beautiful country.


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