Bread and Circuses

Chris Wickham's Inheritance of Rome, part 2

Another review of Chris Wickham's Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000, this time by Allan Massie in the Scotsman:

Many traditional ideas have been revised or discarded as new information has come to light in the last 50 years. The Germanic tribes – "Barbarians" – who moved into the western Empire did not come as destroyers. Many of their chiefs had served in the Roman army. and wanted to make themselves into Romans. Professor Chris Wickham argues that the most important development was the slow move from a tax-based administration to a landowning one: the army, no longer supported by taxation, gradually became what we call feudal – military service being required from landowners instead of a money-rent.

In Italy, Spain and Gaul (which would become France) the Roman or Romanised elites adapted to the new regime, and served it. Continuity was also maintained by the Church, for all the Germanic tribes accepted Christianity. In these three countries, it was the incomers who lost their language, and came to speak a Latin tongue. (Gaulish – one of the group of what we call for convenience "Celtic" languages – had been superseded by Latin in the second century AD.)

In Britain, where The Empire's roots had never gone deep, Roman influence disappeared quickly. Though nobody now believes that the existing British inhabitants of England were either massacred or driven into Wales, nevertheless England was the only part of the Western Empire where a Germanic tongue prevailed, ousting both Latin and the native language. This happened though Wickham suggests that the ratio of Anglo-Saxon invaders to native Britains was no more than 1:10.

If the inheritance of Rome survived only patchily in the west, the Empire itself flourished in the East, with its capital in Constantinople. Not until the Arab invasions of the seventh century did it lose territory – its granary in Egypt, all the north African provinces, and what came to be called the Levant: Syria and Palestine. Increasingly Greek (though its inhabitants continued to call themselves Romans), it would nevertheless enjoy periods of resurgence and even expansion, surviving until the 15th century.

Full review here. It is interesting to compare it with Ian Mortimer's review here. Note especially the additional comments by Dr Mortimer on my comments to his review at the bottom on the page.

Chang'an: four times the size of Rome

It is hard to remember sometimes, that Rome was not the only game in town. In fact, it wasn't even the largest game in town. The Chinese newswire Xinhua has a report of a dig at Chang'an. Not only was it the capital of the Western Han Dynasty from 202BC to AD8, at its peak it was four times the size of Rome and home to 240,000 people:

"After about five decades of work, we can map out the city's clear layout now, but we still know little about how its 240,000 residents lived," said Liu Zhendong, the head of an excavation team from the Institute of Archaeology under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), in an interview with Xinhua here.

The 12-gate, walled city had eight avenues, each of which were 45 to 55 meters wide and lined with trees.

Its wall was 12 meters high, 25,700 meters long and surrounded by an eight-meter-wide moat. To run around it would be equal to take running half marathon.

"Archaeologists have excavated several major palaces and city gates but have not discovered the residences of ordinary people," Liu said. "Did they live in courtyards like those in old Beijing? We do not know."

The city was divided into 11 neighborhoods. Those of royal families and nobles were in the city's southern part while shops, workshops and houses of common people were situated in the northeast.

Liu and his colleagues have been working in that area for months.

"Some construction material was unearthed, such as stone slabs with inscriptions of names of locations, or their owners," he said. "This area will be our focus in the coming years."

Meanwhile, the archaeologists will work on the later relics that laid upon the Western Han ruins as Chang'an remained the capital of several later kingdoms.

Full story here. More on the history of the city here. A poem, written at the end of third century, shows what the city was like after it had been abandoned for almost 300 years. It reminds me of Gildas:

Street wards are deserted and desolate;
Town dwellings are sparsely scattered.
The buildings and offices, stations and bureaus,
Shops and markets, official storehouses,
Are now concentrated on a single corner of the wall--
Of a hundred, barely one survives...
Great bells have fallen in the ruined temple;
Bellframes have collapsed and suspend no more...

Terracotta Han horse head, 1st-2nd century AD, Wikipedia.

Asterix besieged by barbarians, part 2

The Uderzo family punch up is getting nastier. A couple of weeks ago Sylvie Uderzo, the daughter of Albert Uderzo, who created the characters Asterix and Obelix in 1959 with the late writer Rene Goscinny, had a pop at her father in Le Monde for selling his stake in Editions Albert Rene, the Asterix publishers, in December. She was concerned that the quality of the stories would decline under new owners, the behemoth Hachette Livre. Previous story here.

The argument has moved up a gear. Albert Uderzo has responded (big thanks to Pobrecita for the link):

Albert Uderzo, le dessinateur d'Astérix, estime que les accusations portées par sa fille Sylvie à la suite de la cession d'une participation majoritaire des Editions Albert-René au groupe Hachette Livre "vise à abuser les lecteurs d'Astérix".

"Se voir accuser par sa propre fille, dans les colonnes du +quotidien de référence+, d'être un vieil homme manipulé et flatté dans sa cupidité insatiable par les gnomes de la finance, est déjà assez indigne", écrit-il dans un texte dont il a adressé lundi une copie à l'AFP.

Dans Le Monde du 14 janvier, Sylvie Uderzo avait dénoncé les conditions de la prise de contrôle par Hachette Livre des Editions Albert-René, qui publient les albums d'Astérix. Elle affirmait alors entrer "en résistance", en évoquant "une manipulation" dont son père aurait été victime de la part d'"une poignée de conseillers de l'ombre".

"Ce qui a été cédé n'est rien de plus que des actions d'une société d'édition, les Editions Albert-René, que j'ai créée en 1979", écrit notamment Albert Uderzo, âgé aujourd'hui de 81 ans. "L'accusation dirigée contre moi n'est pas seulement inspirée par l'appétit de pouvoir, elle vise à abuser les lecteurs d'Astérix en confondant de manière perfide ma qualité d'auteur et celle d'actionnaire d'une maison d'édition", poursuit-il.

Le dessinateur souligne qu'il a décidé de céder à Hachette Livre ses participations dans Albert-René "dans le seul objectif de préserver l'oeuvre entreprise avec René Goscinny et de l'asseoir dans la durée".

"J'ajoute que l'usage de la formule +j'entre en résistance+ avec toutes les références héroïques auxquelles elle renvoie, au soutien d'une campagne ou l'indignité filiale le dispute à l'esprit de lucre, a de quoi choquer le vieil homme que je suis qui croyait que plus rien ne pourrait l'étonner", conclut-il.

Ancienne directrice générale d'Albert-René, Sylvie Uderzo détient toujours 40% de la maison d'édition.

Lors de la cession à Hachette Livre, Albert Uderzo a encore accepté qu'Astérix lui survive et que la série puisse se poursuivre après sa disparition, ce que dénonce également sa fille.

The link is here. AFP English has a slightly different version of the story here. And the Telegraph has a lightly edited (doesn't the paper generate any copy any more? Not I suppose since it closed all of its European bureaux) version here.

Battle of Teutoburg Forest 2009, part 8

The special exhibition Plattdeutsch macht Geschichte runs at the Stadtmuseum in Münster until February 8. One of the treats is a text of Schlacht im Teutoburger Wald, written by Johannes Cincinnius and printed in low German in 1539. It is a corrected update/translation of Tacitus' Germania.

Photo copyright: Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Düsseldorf.

Chris Wickham's Inheritance of Rome

A slightly bad-tempered review of Chris Wickham's Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000 by Ian Mortimer in the Guardian:

Wickham's careful, measured approach to the evidence results in such an ambiguous interpretation of the past that the reader inevitably ends up doubting the historian's authority. At one point he states: "The previous two paragraphs use the words 'seem to have', 'may have', 'likely' and 'probably' in nearly every sentence: this faithfully reflects the surviving documentation. Everything is guesswork." This goes for a great deal of the book. Of course, academics often stress that one should err on the side of caution; but they forget that this is still to err. Most readers are looking for a complete and coherent portrait of the age, not an abstract set of possible textual readings. We want our leading thinkers, including historians, to go out on a limb, to take risks; but sometimes one feels that this book is more concerned with safeguarding the author from accusations of misinterpreting the evidence than with people in the first millennium.

He finishes with a complaint that Wickham does not have a "grand narrative". It strikes me as a little unfair. One of the difficulties of writing about the end of the Roman empire is that too many historians are too definite about too little evidence. A more cautious approach is what is needed. Full review here.

Conferences in Late Antiquity in 2009

Over at Research News in Late Antiquity, a newly discovered blog that, as the name suggests, covers late antiquity, a handy round up of conferences devoted to late antiquity this year. The list is here. There are some interesting posts. Go pay them a visit.

The Libraries of the Neoplatonists

Review in BMCR of Cristina D'Ancona Costa (ed.), The Libraries of the Neoplatonists. Proceedings of the Meeting of the European Science Foundation Network "Late Antiquity and Arabic Thought: Patterns in the Constitution of European Culture", Strasbourg, March 12-14, 2004. Philosophia antiqua, v. 107. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2007. The review is by Cambridge's Christophe Erismann, University of Cambridge:

The Neoplatonists held a central role in the transmission and survival of philosophical texts from Greek Antiquity. As interestingly established by Richard Goulet in one of the articles in this book, the texts which are conserved to the present day in direct tradition are those which were read and commented upon in the Neoplatonic school from the fourth to the sixth century, or which set out its doctrine, to the quasi systematic exclusion of other schools of thought. Plato, Aristotle and their commentators constitute almost the entire corpus of philosophical texts which is extant from Antiquity in direct tradition. The French scholar estimates at 4% the proportion of philosophical texts which are extant and do not belong to this Platonic-Peripatetic mainstream. Philosophical currents such as Stoicism or Epicureanism are almost all completely lost in direct tradition, despite the large number of their texts (for example, according to Diogenes Laertius (VII, 180), Chrysippus wrote more than 705 books, yet none are extant), let alone the writings of the Pre-Socratic philosophers. This fact amply justifies the interest which can be taken in the role of Neoplatonic scholars in the circulation and conservation of the written heritage of Greek philosophy, which the present volume proposes to study.

Full review here.

2nd/3rd C bearded man figurine found in Jerusalem

This story will be everywhere. The site in Jerusalem which has turned up a coin hoard and an earring, has now revealed the head of a bearded man.

People occasionally complain why the newswires/papers cover discoveries in Israel in such detail. The simple answer is that the Israel Antiquities Authority is the most efficient PR machine I have come across. It spoon feeds journalists with all of the data that they need and even includes photos. If you are a busy journalist they make your life considerably easier. And they always give a telephone number at the bottom at the release. Here is the press release in full:

In the archaeological excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is conducting at the Givati car park in the City of David, in the Walls around Jerusalem National Park:

The figurine was used as a suspended weight together with a balance scale. This is probably the only find of its kind from excavations in the country.
 
A figurine (bust) made of marble depicting a miniature image of a bearded man’s head was discovered in the excavations that the Israel Antiquities Authority is conducting in the area of the Givati car park in the City of David, in the Walls around Jerusalem National Park.

According to Dr. Doron Ben-Ami and Yana Tchekhanovets, directors of the excavation at the site on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The high level of finish on the figurine is extraordinary, while meticulously adhering to the tiniest of details. Its short curly beard, as well as the position of its head which is slightly inclined to the right, are indicative of an obviously Greek influence and show that it should be dated to the time of the emperor Hadrian or shortly thereafter (second-third centuries CE). This is one of the periods when the art of Roman sculpture reached its zenith. The pale yellow shade of the marble alludes to the eastern origin of the raw material from which the image was carved, probably from Asia Minor, although this matter still needs to be checked”.

The stylistic motifs that are manifested in the image, such as its short hair style, the prominent lobes and curves of the ears, as well as the almond-shaped eyes suggest that the object most likely portrays an athlete, probably a boxer. Boxing was one of the most popular fields of heavy athletics in Roman culture and more than once Roman authors mention the demand by the Roman public in general, and the elite in particular, for boxing matches. Besides the prestige and the substantial amounts of money the victors of boxing competitions won, they were also afforded the support of the emperor himself, as in the famous case of Melancomas who was Titus’ favorite boxer.

Dr. Ben-Ami and Tchekhanovets elucidate, “To the best of our knowledge, to date no similar artifact made of marble (or any other kind of stone) bearing the same image that was just found has been discovered in excavations elsewhere in the country; it seems that what we have here is a unique find. A few similar artifacts that were made of cast bronze were discovered at different sites in the country and they have been found in large numbers in different places throughout the Roman Empire where the overwhelming majority of them date to the third century CE (the Roman period). The bronze portrayal of a boxer that is currently on display in the Berlin State Museum (“The Boxer”) is a nearly perfect parallel of the image from the City of David”.

According to the researchers the two tiny holes that were drilled in its nape and which contained the remains of metal that was inserted in them indicate that this is a suspended weight that was used with hanging scales that are characteristic of the Roman period. Miniature bronze images of athletes, philosophers, satyrs etc were among the most popular of the suspended weights that were used in the regions that were under the control of the Roman Empire – from Pompeii to Sepphoris.

How did the Roman marble image get to the City of David?
We can assume that this marble weight belonged to a family of merchants who originally came from somewhere in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. Being a precious object the weight was passed down from generation to generation in the family until sometime in the fourth-fifth century CE when an unidentified merchant was so unfortunate as to stay in the public building (a hostel??) which is currently being uncovered in the Givati car park in the City of David. A very severe tremor that struck the building resulted in its complete destruction. While exposing the building the marble image was discovered amongst its ruins which constitute silent testimony of the drama that occurred in this impressive structure prior to its collapse.

The link to the press release is here. CNN has already picked up the story.

Picture of the figurine - Photographic credit: Clara Amit, Israel Antiquities Authority

Thomas Aquinas' handwriting

A nice review of Kitty Florey's Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting by Cullen Murphy in the WSJ:

Some years ago I spent a few weeks in the hills outside Rome with some priestly scholars who were engaged in producing the definitive Latin edition of the complete works of Thomas Aquinas. The job of checking hundreds of medieval manuscripts, looking for errors that had crept in over the centuries, was tough and exacting. At one point I asked whether any original manuscripts by Aquinas himself had survived -- and if they had, did that make the task any easier. One of the Dominican scholars looked at me with deep sadness and drew out some folio sheets covered densely with what looked like a monkish version of a Jackson Pollock. "Thomas Aquinas," he said, "had the worst handwriting in the Middle Ages."

Full review here.

Gong Xi Fat Choi

Bread & Circuses is on holiday for the next four days. There will be no posting and no twittering until Wednesday, January 28.

Happy Chinese New Year.