scholarly journals A Late Roman Luxury Villa in Nagyharsány, at the Feet of the Szársomlyó Mountain

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-21
Author(s):  
Zsolt Mráv
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
High Status ◽  
Interior Decoration ◽  
Tourist Attractions ◽  
Classical Education ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Roman Villa ◽  
Roman Glass ◽  
Late Roman

Those who visit the tourist attractions of the Villány–Siklós wine route may not even suspect that a ruin of a high-status Roman villa is hiding under the picturesque landscape with vineyards at the foot of the Szársomlyó Mountain. The Mediterranean beauty and climate of this region attracted the late imperial elite of the Roman Empire, among whom an influential, senatorial family built its luxury villa here. This villa only revealed its significance and treasures slowly. After the excavation of its bathhouse, an unfortunately commissioned deep ploughing twisted large pieces of the mosaic floors out of the ground. After a long pause, the Hungarian National Museum continued the investigation of the site in 2016. The excavations brought to light the villa’s banquet hall, the floor of which was once covered with colourful mosaics representing the highest quality of Roman mosaic art. Masterpieces of Roman glass craftmanship – pieces of a wine set – were also found here. The villa of Nagyharsány plays an important role in the research of the Seuso Treasure too. The luxury reflected by the interior decoration and the artefacts of the banquet hall proved that the educated and wealthy imperial aristocracy was present in late Roman Pannonian provinces, the members of which could afford a set of silver tableware comparable to the Seuso Treasure in quality, understood the literary and visual culture based on the classical education of the elite, and spoke its sophisticated language.

The solidus hoard of Casa delle Vestali in context

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 107-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svante Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Roman Emperor ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Gold Coins ◽  
Late Roman

In this paper, I discuss the context of a Late Roman solidus hoard found in the Casa delle Vestali on the Forum Romanum in Rome. The hoard consists of 397 solidi, Late Roman gold coins. Most of the hoard consists of uncirculated solidi struck in the name of the Western Roman emperor Procopius Anthemius (AD 467–472). By means of situating the hoard within the context of the reign of Anthemius and the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the aim of this paper is to determine if the coins in the Vestal hoard can be related to other contemporary coin hoards by means of numismatic typology; this information could add to our understanding of why Anthemius’ reign is considered such an unmitigated failure and why the Empire collapsed soon after his murder. In this article, the composition of the hoard is examined, and the contents are compared to other contemporary solidus hoards in the Mediterranean, Gaul, Poland and Scandinavia. I argue that this comparison shows that the Vestal hoard is not part of a larger network but that the hoard constitutes the remains of an isolated occurrence—as initially suggested by its unusual composition and location.

Christograms as Signs of Authority in the Late Roman Empire

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ildar Garipzanov
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Rhetorical Device ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Courtly Culture ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
Late Roman

The first section tests the main interpretations of Lactantius’ passage on Constantine’s victorious sign in 312 against existing graphic evidence from the 310s and early 320s, and consequently supports the interpretation of Lactantius’ description as a rhetorical device invented or modified by the Christian narrator. The next two sections support the argument that the perception of the chi-rho as Constantine’s triumphant sign became entrenched in courtly culture and public mentalities from the mid-320s onwards, and trace the diachronic change of the chi-rho from its paramount importance as an imperial sign of authority under the Constantinian dynasty to its hierarchic usage alongside the tau-rho and cross in the Theodosian period. The final section presents a contextualized discussion of the encolpion of Empress Maria and mosaics from several early baptisteries, illustrating the paradigmatic importance the chi-rho and tau-rho for early Christian graphicacy around the turn of the fifth century.

Monumentality and the Roman Empire

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edmund Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Full Length ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Close Link ◽  
The Public ◽  
Roman Italy

The quality of "monumentality" is attributed to the buildings of few historical epochs or cultures more frequently or consistently than to those of the Roman Empire. It is this quality that has helped to make them enduring models for builders of later periods. This extensively illustrated book, the first full-length study of the concept of monumentality in Classical Antiquity, asks what it is that the notion encompasses and how significant it was for the Romans themselves in molding their individual or collective aspirations and identities. Although no single word existed in antiquity for the qualities that modern authors regard as making up that term, its Latin derivation--from monumentum, "a monument"--attests plainly to the presence of the concept in the mentalities of ancient Romans, and the development of that notion through the Roman era laid the foundation for the classical ideal of monumentality, which reached a height in early modern Europe. This book is also the first full-length study of architecture in the Antonine Age--when it is generally agreed the Roman Empire was at its height. By exploring the public architecture of Roman Italy and both Western and Eastern provinces of the Roman Empire from the point of view of the benefactors who funded such buildings, the architects who designed them, and the public who used and experienced them, Edmund Thomas analyzes the reasons why Roman builders sought to construct monumental buildings and uncovers the close link between architectural monumentality and the identity and ideology of the Roman Empire itself.

Letters and Communication Networks in Merovingian Gaul

2020 ◽  
pp. 530-555
Author(s):  
Andrew Gillett
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Communication Networks ◽  
Complete List ◽  
Narrative Texts ◽  
Manuscript Tradition ◽  
Letter Exchange ◽  
Late Roman

While some letters from Merovingian-era Gaul are well known—for example, Remigius’s letters to Clovis or Radegund’s letters founding her monastery—the scale and scope of extant and attested letters tell us more about the period than the sum of data from individual documents. The cumulative range of known epistolary communications indicates that Merovingian Gaul, like the late Roman Empire of the previous centuries, hosted multiple, entangled networks of social and political interconnections. This chapter considers how we can set about contemplating both the limitations and value of the evidence we have. Comparison with contemporary Egypt, from which letters are preserved both in manuscript tradition (as with Gaul) and as papyri originals, evokes the possibility of envisaging Merovingian Gaul quite differently from our received image. The extant evidence for letters is surveyed, including “literary” collections of letters, letters preserved in other types of texts, and the extensive number of descriptions of letter exchange in narrative texts. The chapter includes the first checklist of more than 500 extant letters and a list of narrative sources, including the first complete list of references to letters in the works of Gregory of Tours.

Unique Osteoid Osteoma of the Frontal Sinus From the Late Roman Empire

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 965-966 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Varotto ◽  
Maria Teresa Magro ◽  
Rodolfo Brancato ◽  
Carmine Lubritto ◽  
Lorenzo Memeo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Osteoid Osteoma ◽  
Frontal Sinus ◽  
Late Roman

Fortresses of the Tur Abdin and the confrontation between Rome and Persia

2017 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 181-229
Author(s):  
Anthony Comfort
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Satellite Imagery ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Google Earth ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Crucial Importance ◽  
Substantial Risk ◽  
Urgent Necessity ◽  
Late Roman

AbstractAlthough research is currently impossible on the ground, satellite photographs allow some further information to be gleaned concerning the region of the Tur Abdin, of crucial importance during the wars between the late Roman Empire and Sassanian Persia in the fourth to seventh century AD. This article examines the ancient sources and the reports of visitors to the area in the light of what is now visible to all via Google Earth and other suppliers of free satellite imagery. Apart from describing the remains of the fortresses and their role in defending an important redoubt against Persian attacks, it draws attention to the urgent necessity for proper ground surveys of what remains of the fortifications of various periods before these are completely destroyed by looting and reuse of building materials. Dams also present a substantial risk to some of the monuments discussed here.

scholarly journals The potential of integrated GPR survey and aerial photographic analysis of historic urban areas: A case study and digital reconstruction of a Late Roman villa in Durrës (Albania)

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 276-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Malfitana ◽  
Giovanni Leucci ◽  
Giovanni Fragalà ◽  
Nicola Masini ◽  
Giuseppe Scardozzi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Digital Reconstruction ◽  
Roman Villa ◽  
Photographic Analysis ◽  
Late Roman

scholarly journals Ruin Pubs in Budapest: Blessing or Curse?

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 51-59
Author(s):  
István Hajnal
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Housing Prices ◽  
Hedonic Analysis ◽  
Good Opportunity ◽  
Tourist Attractions ◽  
Negative Opinion

Abstract One of the most prominent tourist attractions in Budapest is the ruin pub district. Here, in ruined, rundown buildings, clubs that are mainly aimed at young foreigners, participants in party tourism, have sprung up like mushrooms. In Inner Erzsébetváros, the housing prices have significantly risen, since investors see the short- or long-term renting of the apartments as a good opportunity. Those who live in the district, however, find the noise of parties to be too loud, while the crowd and the dirt reduces their quality of life. The apartments located near these pubs are so-called “stigmatized properties”, since their value is shaped by the - positive or negative - opinion of the community. Using the method of hedonic analysis, this article examines the question of whether ruin pubs are a blessing or a curse to surrounding apartments, whether their effect increases or, on the contrary, decreases the apartments’ values.

scholarly journals Aspects of seashore protection in the Late Roman empire

2019 ◽  
pp. 71-80
Author(s):  
Adam Świętoń
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Coastal Protection ◽  
Late Roman

The article contains brief considerations on the legal aspects of coastal protection in the period of the late Roman empire. The Roman authorities of the transmarine provinces were likely to face problems such as the smuggling of illegal goods or unwelcomed persons. The question is who was in fact responsible for the prevention of and fight against unlawful activities. There are only few constitutions which indirectly refer to this problem. The laws indicate that the responsibility burdened various types of officials. only one of them – custos litorum – seems to be strictly connected to the marine duties. The origins and com- petences of custodes litorum are however unclear and should be subject to further research.

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