Bread and Circuses

Distribution of Militaria at Kalkriese

A large press release last week presented the latest research from Kalkriese. It focuses predominantly on the military equiment found at the site. The main conclusion - long expected but here detailed - is that Roman military equipment was taken from fallen soldiers after the Battle of Teutoburg Forest and then displayed at the site of the battle:

Auffällig ist die Verteilung von Resten bronzener Schildrandbeschläge, die ausschließlich am Wall beobachtet wurden. Sie sind wohl auf die Zerlegung römischer Schilde zurückzuführen, die von den Germanen nicht als Waffen weiterverwendet wurden und bei denen deshalb nur die Metallteile als Rohmaterial interessant waren.

»Die Analyse weiterer Objekte legt nunmehr auch den Schluss nahe, dass die Germanen vor der Verschrottung und der Aufteilung des Beutegutes unter den beteiligten Stämmen die Waffen der unterlegenen Römer zu einer Beuteschau am Wall zusammengetragen haben«, führt Dr. Achim Rost vom Fachgebiet Archäologie der Römischen Provinzen an der Universität Osnabrück aus: »Mit solchen Ergebnissen haben wir bisher nicht gerechnet.«

The full press release here. It is also worth noting the thoughts on the use of Roman lances during the attack against the Germanic tribes who were protected behind defensive ramparts. Download the official report (pdf) here. Clearly this has been picked up by the German press in some detail. The best report is in Die Welt, but also at ShortNews and  Archäologie Online.

Ctesiphon Rebuilt

The Arch of Ctesiphon, Taq-I-Kisra in Iraq, has been trashed in recent years by conflict and weather. It bears little resemblance to this picture from 1864 when the right facade was still standing.

And any enthusiasm for reconstruction has been hampered by the fact that after 2003 it became an Al-Qaeda stronghold. But good news. Czech company Everis has been brought in to help secure and restore the site, reports in Al Arabiya:

Iraqi authorities have contracted a Czech firm to carry out a 10-month restoration of the ancient Arch of Ctesiphon as part of a plan to boost tourism to the once-popular site.

Through the decades of conflict that have wracked Iraq, the famed 6th century monument, which is the world’s largest brick-built arch and the last structure still standing from the ancient Persian imperial capital Ctesiphon, has fallen into disrepair.

A massive slab fell off late last year as a result of damp caused by heavy rains.

It lies south of Baghdad, just a short distance from the tomb of Salman Pak, one of the companions of the Prophet Mohammed.

Together, the two sites form what was once one of Iraq’s main tourist attractions in the town of Madain.

Full story here. See also a more detailed report from AFP in Naharanet.

Digging on the Harzhorn

I missed this TV report from earlier in the month about the dig on the Harzhorn in Germany - the site of the battle between the Romans under Maximinus Thrax and Germanic tribes in cAD235.

 

Report from HNA.de.

The Boy Orestes

Late antiquity has not been especially well-served by the novelist. I have a fondness for Manfredi's The Last Legion, despite the film and the dreadful English translation. Probably the best evocation of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire remains Iain Pears' The Dream of Scipio.

It is now worth flagging up The Boy Orestes a new novella by Gareth Power. It is the first of a series that wil continue until the resignation of Romulus Augustulus. The Boy Orestes is set in Pannonia in AD433 as Orestes, better known as the father of Romulus Augustulus, turns 16. Researched in some detail, characters of the period - Aetius and Avitus to name just two - make appearances. Worth a read!

 

Battle of Mons Graupius Found?

Forgive the scepticism, a claim is made on a yearly basis, but there is a story in today's Herald that the site of the Battle of Mons Graupius, the first recorded battle in Scottish history, between the Romans under Agricola and the native tribes under Calgacus in AD83/84, has been found.

Despite stringent efforts by experts, the site of the battle between the Romans and the Caledonians – in either 83AD or 84AD – has never been conclusively identified.

However, Mr Haseler believes his research strongly points to the battle taking place near Elgin, at Quarrelwood Hill to the north-west of the town.

He is now asking that experts pay closer attention to the site and examine what he believes to be a possible Roman fort a short distance away.

From his research and examining the formation of aerial crop circles, Mr Haseler believes he has discovered the fort just south of Elgin.

"I knew the site was a really good candidate from looking at old maps, but I never thought I would find what appeared to be the ditches of a Roman fort staring out at me from the computer screen," he said.

"I have looked and looked at the evidence, and everything fits.

"I have been to the site, and it is just as described by the Roman writer Tacitus and, barring going up with a metal detector, which is clearly illegal, there is nothing else I can do but present the evidence I have for the public to decide."

Hmmm. Anyway, full story here. More about the battle here.

UPDATE More from the Northern Scot here.

Roman Port Near Bonn

Archaeologists at Bonn University are looking for a Roman harbour near Bonn using sonar. Story in the General-Anzeiger:

Mit einem speziellen Flachwasser-Sonar suchen die Wissenschaftler nach Spuren von Häfen aus der Römerzeit bis hinein in das erste Jahrtausend. "Wir vermuten, dass sich Anlandestellen unterhalb des Drachenfels in Königswinter und im Bereich des früheren Legionslagers in Bonn befunden haben" sagt Archäologin Heike Kennecke. "Man darf sich das so vorstellen, dass es große Häfen gegeben habe, aber auch kleine Anleger, ähnlich dem des Bonner Rudervereins", erklärt Jan Bemmann, Direktor des Instituts für Vor- und Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie.

Full story here. It sounds likely. Not only does it fit the pattern of where Roman harbours in the area were situated, the Roman camp at Bonn was massive - around 62 acres.

The Death of the Emperor Galerius

The death of Galerius is fascinating. Diocletian's Caesar in the East has been underestimted and has only recently been deemed worthy of his own biography - William Leadbetter's Galerius and the Will of Diocletian earlier this year.

Galerius' death in early May AD311 is worth a look at and not just because he died of that imperial rarity - natural causes. Lactantius has the details in On the Death of the Persecutors 33:

And now, when Galerius was in the eighteenth year of his reign, God struck him with an incurable plague. A malignant ulcer formed itself low down in his secret parts, and spread by degrees. The physicians attempted to eradicate it, and healed up the place affected. But the sore, after having been skinned over, broke out again; a vein burst, and the blood flowed in such quantity as to endanger his life. The blood, however, was stopped, although with difficulty. The physicians had to undertake their operations anew, and at length they cicatrized the wound. In consequence of some slight motion of his body, Galerius received a hurt, and the blood streamed more abundantly than before. He grew emaciated, pallid, and feeble, and the bleeding then stanched. The ulcer began to be insensible to the remedies applied, and a gangrene seized all the neighbouring parts. It diffused itself the wider the more the corrupted flesh was cut away, and everything employed as the means of cure served but to aggravate the disease.

Lactantius then goes on at some length with even more blood and guts.

The emperor's symptoms have been analysed at some length recently by Antonis Kousoulis, Konstantinos Economopoulos, Martin Hatzinger, Ahad Eshraghian and Sotirios Tsiodras, “The Fatal Disease of Emperor Galerius,” Journal of the American College of Surgeons 215 (2012) pp890-893. it is a fascinating article and concludes that Galerius died from complications from Fournier gangrene.

The problem is that the description that Lactantius uses is literary rather than medical. It is remarkably similar to the death of Herod the Great as described by Josephus, The Jewish War, 1.656. His death has also been examined by the medical profession in some detail with the same conclusion: JV Hirschmann, P Richardson, RS Kraemer, PA Mackowiak, “Death of an Arabian Jew,” Archives of Internal Medicine 164 (2004), pp833-839.

That the death of a persecutor of Christians - which is how Galerius has been painted - and Herod the Great should share the same fate makes literary sense which is why Lactantius provides so much detail. Other accounts just suggest that Galerius died from an infected wound (Aurelius Victor, de Caesaribus, 40.9). It would be unwise to go further than that.

 

Best Classical Analogy of the Day

In today's Independent - an article about mac 'n' cheese. The introduction:

Mac and cheese, it seems to me, is the Alexander the Great of food. For in the past 12 months the dish has annexed restaurant menus with the same speed and facility which the King of Macedon cleaved his way through Persia. It is a culinary whirlwind, a phenomenon cast in molten cheese and elbow pasta.

Full story here. We salute you!

 

The Lost Legions Documentary Shows Monday

If you are in Canada, the third episode of Perfect Storms called The Lost Legions is on at 2100 ET/PT on Monday on the History Channel in Canada.

AD 9. Three Roman Legions are ambushed and wiped out in a remote German forest during a massive thunderstorm. The severed head of Roman General Varus is sent back to Rome in a box and the Roman attempt to bring Germania into the Empire is stopped dead in its tracks. The battle helps create the boundary between Latin and Germanic Europe that exists to this day.

I do a lot of talking to camera and wander around the battlefield looking pensive. Nonetheless, it is worth a look. The teaser trailer is below! It is out in the UK on Yesterday in May.

 

The Writings of Julian the Apostate

A review in BMCR of Nicholas Baker-Brian and Shaun Tougher's Emperor and Author: The Writings of Julian the Apostate by Hagith Sivan:

Three articles address the public image of the emperor as reflected in inscriptions, coins and artistic objects (Salway, López Sánchez, Varner). Salway includes a useful summary of the inscriptions that relate to Julian's reign, concluding that the genuine voice of the emperor rarely came through. López Sánchez follows Julian's coinage, stage by stage, focusing on the Arlesian mint and on the famous bull coinage, both less idiosyncratic than had been assumed. In fact, the coins conformed to established patterns of imperial coinage rather than to the emperor's personal preferences. Varner analyses the iconography of Julian portraiture on both coins and statues, tracing their artistic genealogy back to Aeneas, Numa, Marcus Aurelius and Pythagoras. The fine analysis offers a welcome corrective to the image of Julian the Hellenist. When need be, the emperor Julian knew how to conduct himself as a Roman.

Full review here.