Roman History Books and More

for military history buffs: the roman legions …

… all you wanted know and more

Just a few days ago I came across these excellent pages at livius.org:  The Roman Legions, and Geographical Overview of same.  Jona Lendering has put together an extensive catalog:

On this site, you will find an alphabetical and chronological catalogue of the imperial legions. An overview of the armies in certain provinces is here.

Don't miss the New at Lacus Curtius & Livius blog by Jona Lendering and Bill Thayer.

Irene's photo:

Titus Flavius Bassus Stele 2nd half of 1st century CE
Top section of the funerary monument for T. Flavius Bassus Mucalae, an eques of an auxiliary troop from Noricum Province, of the tribe of the Desenter. Romano-Germanic Museum, Cologne.

timelines of art history, metropolitan museum roman republic and roman empire

An e-mail from the MetMuseum today led me to its Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, and the subsections Roman Republic and Roman Empire.  Both pages have related timelines and links to Thematic Essays.

They are interactive in many ways, as the Fresco wall painting from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale shows.

Fresco wall painting in a cubiculum (bedroom) from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale
ca. 40–30 b.c., Late Republican Roman, Pilaster

Image courtesy www.metmuseum.org, click on it for interactive page.

musica romana

The Ensemble Musica Romana

…is bringing sounds of times long past to life again. By research of ancient music and reconstruction of ancient instruments they successfully revive archaic sounds and forgotten melodies.

The group Musica Romana was founded in 2001 and unites archaeologists, historians,ethnologist, musicians and interested technicians sharing an interest in Experimental Archaeology, Living History, museal paedagogics and of course, music and dance. We are having a lot of fun researching, planning and reconstructing our instruments correctly in detail, as well as studying, composing and rehearsing our music. We aim to make the music of times long gone comprehensible to our modern audience, to express our love for unconventional and non-commercial music and to respect scientific correctness towards the ancient sources of musical theory as well as towards contemporary research.

German site

Hat tip: Caroline Lawrence

play what the romans played, on your mac (sorry, windows users!)

hat tip Caroline Lawrence

Now you can play what the Romans played on your Macintosh computer.  Using the latest in Artificial Intelligence, we’ve recreated this ancient game for your enjoyment.  It’s completely free, and is licensed under an Open Source license.

Welcome to Latrunculi for Mac OS X

Latrunculi at Smith's Dictionary (LacusCurtius)

LATRUʹNCULI (πεσσοί, ψήφοι), draughts.  The invention of a game resembling draughts was attributed by the Greeks to Palamedes (Abacus, § 5).  The game is certainly mentioned by Homer, who represents the suitors of Penelope amusing themselves with it (Od. I.107). Others ascribed the invention to the Egyptian Theuth (Plat. Phaedr. p274d);  and the paintings in Egyptian tombs, which are of far higher antiquity than any Grecian monuments, not unfrequently represent persons employed in this recreation.   read on

public libraries in ancient rome

Robert blogged this yesterday and I find this very appropriate for our blog and reading group: we do rely heavily on public libraries. Robert writes:

Although Julius Caesar had planned to build a public library in Rome, he was assassinated before he could put his plan into operation. It fell to one of his adherents, Asinius Pollio, to build a public library in the Atrium Libertatis financed from the spoils of his 39 BC war against an Illyrian tribe, the Parthini. His library contained both Greek and Latin works, possibly in separate wings. Augustus, Octavia, and Tiberius also founded public libraries.

Unfortunately, we don't know precisely how the libraries worked: whether people were allowed to borrow books or only read them in the library, who was allowed to use the libraries and many other details. We do know that an east facing room was recommended to take advantage of the light, so presumably opening hours were in the morning rather than the late afternoon or evening.

Two general articles on libraries in the ancient world, one in French and one in English. An article on the location of the public libraries in Rome.

Go to Matters Arising

clickable plan of trajan's harbour in portus (ostia antica)

Ostia Antica presents a clickable plan of Trajan's harbour in Portus

… accompanied by a text-menu (main entry: Portus). The plan that we chose was made by Italo Gismondi and published by Lugli in 1935. We added short descriptions of many buildings and improved the descriptions of buildings that were already online. The ruins of Portus are mostly covered by earth today, after centuries of what we would call today plundering. It is extremely difficult to understand the site, and we hope that the clickable plan will make it a bit easier for you. Clickable plans will be added in the near future for the basin of Claudius and the north part of the Isola Sacra. We will keep consulting the recent publications by the Soprintendenza and the Portus Project, and summarize the results for you. Use Google Earth to get an idea of the tremendous challenge that the Soprintendenza is facing. Portus is "in the shade" of Leonardo da Vinci airport and "strangled" by roads, highways and railways. It is virtually impossible to visit the site on foot. There have been successful protection orders by the Italian State, but part of the site is still private property of the Torlonia family, part of it is rather unprotected. For an analysis of the current situation see especially Lidia Paroli writing in Keay 2005, p. 56.

(from Yahoo Group Ostia-L)

stuff you usually only find on jstor: 'the antiquary's shoebox'

The Antiquary's Shoebox
A Selection of Articles from Various Journals in the Fields of Classics and Archaeology

Courtesy Bill Thayer, who writes:  "The thumbnail I use to indicate this subsite is a colorized version of a drawing that seemed appropriate to me; I found it in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, on p978, s.v. Pyxis."

Hat tip Adrian Murdoch

'encyclopaedia romana'

Bill Thayer gently chided me in two comments of his that I mistook him for Jim Grout in posts of mine. 
So here are my apologies and Jim's website, which has the same host as Bill Thayer's:

ENCYCLOPÆDIA ROMANA
ROME. THE HOME OF EMPIRE AND ALL PERFECTION

Enjoy the site and the photos!

ostia antica

David Meadows tweeted Berlin-Kent Ostia Excavations, a nice blog, whence I got to this extensive and very active site:

Ostia, Harbour City of Ancient Rome (Ostia antica)

This website is dedicated to Ostia, the harbour city of ancient Rome.  Here you will find information for professional archaeologists and historians, for students of Roman archaeology and history, and for interested lay-people. The site is maintained by the Internet Group Ostia.

There are lots of things to explore, from the introduction with time line, history and maps to ancient texts, an amazing topographical dictionary, computer reconstructions, virtual museum, videos, Yahoo group, and more.

wikipedia and weasel words

Looking at Catiline on Wikipedia, I came across the term Weasel Words, very helpful for all of us who do look at Wikipedia but with the proviso "handle with care."

Weasel words are words or phrases that seemingly support statements without attributing opinions to verifiable sources. They give the force of authority to a statement without letting the reader decide whether the source of the opinion is reliable. If a statement can't stand on its own without weasel words, it lacks neutral point of view; either a source for the statement should be found, or the statement should be removed. If a statement can stand without weasel words, they may be undermining its neutrality and the statement may be better off standing without them.

archaeological roman presence in germania east of the rhein

Update 1 (for German speakers mainly, but nice photos): Römerlager Hedemünden, for which I could not find a link before. Hat tip Adrian Murdoch.

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Both authors of the books in our upcoming book chats on the battle in the Teutoburg Forest, The Battle That Stopped Rome: Emperor Augustus, Arminius, and the Slaughter of the Legions in the Teutoburg Forest and Rome's Greatest Defeat: Massacre in the Teutoburg Forest, as well as the German book Die Schlacht im Teutoburger Wald: Arminius, Varus und das römische Germanien, discuss to a greater or lesser extent the Roman presence in Germania east of the Rhein in Augustan times (more on provincia later).  Jona Lendering has useful pages on most of them on his Germania Inferior site map.  I list them here more or less geographically, beginning closest to the Rhein and going east and south (the names are modern, the map image is from Jona's site, click to enlarge). Other than that, I found only German language sites.

Dorsten-Holsterhausen (livius.org)
Holsterhausen und die Rőmer (nice pics)
Haltern (livius.org)
Altertumskommission fűr Westfalen (scroll down to Haltern)
Oberaden (livius.org)
Altertumskommission fűr Westfalen (scroll down to Oberaden)
Römerlager Beckinghausen
Uferkastell (PDF, nice pics)

honorable mention

I'm happy to report that the reading group is mentioned here:

Roman history reading group

(hat tip to Robert Greaves)

mainly for german speakers: mainz/moguntiacum on wikipedia …

… but non-German speakers might enjoy the images

In the book chats we recently talked about Roman Mainz – see my web page – when we discussed Eagle in the Snow by Wallace Breem, and earlier this month The Iron Hand of Mars by Lindsey Davis.

The German Wikipedia page Mogontiacum (as usual handle with care) is a comprehensive one, though it says that it still needs editing ("bearbeiten").  It includes a list of the legions that were stationed in Moguntiacum.

The first image on the page is a section of the Tabula Peuteringiana (see also here and at livius.org) showing the area including Roman Mainz, courtesy Wikimedia Commons:  click on image and look for the red arrow pointing to "Mongontiaco":

I'm still trying to find a list of the various types of pictorial symbols on the map.  Assistance is greatly appreciated.

the oxford roman economy project

The Oxford Roman Economy Project

A research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council for the period 1 October 2005 to 30 September 2010 and based in the Faculty of Classics, University of Oxford.

Parts of the site are restricted to members of the project only.

Research context

This research programme addresses the fundamentals of the Roman imperial economy and will provide a detailed analysis of major economic activities (agriculture, trade, commerce, mining), utilising quantifiable bodies of artefactual and documentary evidence and placing them in the broader structural context of regional variation, distribution, size and nature of markets, supply and demand.

kalkriese/varus battle museum website: an update

Again, when checking and updating the links on my website, I found a new – or in this case revised – website.  I got to the page
Kalkriese/Varusschlacht:

The project and museum website, Varusschlacht im Osnabrücker Land GmbH - Museum und Park Kalkriese, has been completely redesigned, in German, English, and Nederlands and includes an extensive sitemap, called Content.  It is worth exploring.

And take note:  2000 Years Varus Battle: What happens in 2009?

roman trier, an update

My 1999 travelogue of Roman Germania included a visit to Trier, the Roman Augusta Treverorum.  At the time, I had excellent links to pages from the Universität Trier website.  I recently discovered that they had all disappeared into cyberspace and on inquiry was told that they will not be brought back.  I had it on my to-do list to look for replacements, but before I got to it, Jona Lendering on the blog New at LacusCurtius and Livius.Org last week pointed to pages about Roman Trier which he has created and is still adding to. 

Accordingly, and gratefully, I have updated my page TRIER — COLONIA AUGUSTA TREVERORUM and linked it to Jona's pages. 

For the (non-Roman) remaining links from the Uni Trier site that had gone missing I found similar information on Sacred Sites and Religious Places in Germany.  Though some people might not consider the Karl Marx House a "sacred" site …  And I wish I had the time to rescan my photos with today's improved equipment …

Basilica, Trier, 1999

new map: the waters of the city of rome

 Very neat once one has figured out navigation.  (thanks to N.S. Gill)

Aquae Urbis Romae

Aquae Urbis Romae is an interactive cartographic history of the relationships between hydrological and hydraulic systems and their impact on the urban development of Rome, Italy. Our study begins in 753 BC and will ultimately extend to the present day. Aquae Urbis Romae examines the intersections between natural hydrological elements such as springs, rain, streams, marshes, and the Tiber River, and constructed hydraulic elements such as aqueducts, fountains, sewers, bridges, conduits, etc., that together create the water infrastructure system of Rome.

annotated justinian code online

Courtesy Adrian Murdoch:

Annotated Justinian code at the University of Wyoming. (by Fred H. Blume, edited by Timothy Kearley). Mostly as PDF files, except the Novellae Constitutiones or Novels which are scanned images.

Introduction

a sort of webmuseum

Three in One

• Roman Numismatic Gallery
• Roman Sculpture
• Roman Legions: The Roman Military Museum

As to using the images, please note the Copyright Policy.

the metamorphoses: some general resources

Ovid's "Metamorphoses" has been an inspiration to many artists down the centuries.

Larry A. Brown calls the pages from his site devoted to the "Metamorphoses":

An introduction and commentary with discussion of myths and links to sources and influences in art and literature.

This German high school site has the Latin text, broken down into sections with German, English, and Spanish headings, and copiously illustrated with artworks, mostly but by no means all, prints from early printed editions of  Ovid. In the side panel click on Ovidius Naso Edition, and then scroll down to the index of the 15 books. Those with slower connections may need to be patient.

Not specifically linked to the "Metamorphoses" but with further information about the characters, with citations from ancient sources and illustrations, are: theoi.com and Carlos Parada's Greek Mythology Link.