Bread & Circuses

Interview about Emperors of Rome

A very kind interview by Hamish Hutchinson about Emperors of Rome, my book on the seventy-eight Roman emperors who ruled in the West, from Augustus to Romulus Augustulus:

Murdoch told the Advertiser, “If you’ve ever done history at school it focuses on the impact on society and you forget about the people involved. Everybody does Augustus and knows who Caligula is and at university they do term-sized chunks but you never do how you get from A to B to C. I wanted to get an idea of the men behind the throne.”

His idea to humanise the figures leads to some surprisingly odd revelations – among them, the hair facts.

Adrian went on, “Lucius Verus was so vain that he put highlights – gold dust – in his hair. He didn’t want anyone to think he was going grey. A lot of emperors were very touchy when they started going bald. They went out their way to stop statues showing their balding heads – that’s why Julius Caesar would be posed with a head wreath.

Full story here.

 

Fifth Century Treasure Found in Germany, Part 3

The late Roman, fifth century hoard found in Rhineland Palatinate a couple of weeks ago appears to have sparked the imagination of the international press. The story is still running. Nice to see that the Archaeological Institute of America has finally caught up, though at least it did not call it the Nibelungen treasure. There was a brief note in Archaeology yesterday - read it here.

The haul was found by a metal detectorist/looter next to a Roman road near Rülzheim and only discovered when he started to sell the pieces on the black market.

The meat and potatoes remains in the German press. Yesterday the discussion was about the legal status of Benny C, the metal detectorist who, it is claimed found the treasure. He is pretty much going to get off with only a slap on the wrist. In Rhineland Palatinate, such looting is a misdemenour (eine Ordnungswidrigkeit).

There is a nice touch of Schadenfreude in the reporting which suggests that he would have been able to claim a hefty finders fee had he reported the find straight away. The Focus report is here. See previous discussion here and here.

UPDATE: Paul Barford's comments.

Fifth Century Treasure Found in Germany Follow Up

More on the late Roman, fifth century hoard found in Rhineland Palatinate that has been dubbed the legendary Nibelung treasure and that I wrote about a couple of days ago.

The haul was found by a metal detectorist/looter next to a Roman road near Rülzheim and only discovered when he started to try to sell the pieces on the black market. Police are currently investigating.

The German tabloid, the Bild has now identified the metal detector looter as Benny C, 22, from Speyer along with a picture that will do little to dispel illusions of what nighthawks look like. It has the full story here. Focus magazine also has a pickup, here.

Fifth Century Treasure Found in Germany

It has taken a few days for this to filter into the British press, but the Independent has the story of a fifth century hoard found in Rhineland Palatinate that includes silver bowls, jewellery and small statues that might have adorned a grand chair.

The haul was found by a metal detectorist/looter next to a Roman road near Rülzheim and only discovered when he started to try to sell the pieces on the black market. Police are currently investigating.

The pieces will soon go on display in Mainz and Speyer, according to state archaeologist Axel von Berg.

The Local has a long piece with a good set of photos. The Independent has a Reuters article which crowbars in a totally spurious link to the Nibelungenlied.

For those with German, this was first reported in Die Welt last Friday and it did a good update on Tuesday. SpiegelOnline is solid, as is Süddeutsche.de and there is a good tabloid version in the Bild. Good to see that so many of the German articles focus on the illegal nature of the looter's activities.

There is a nice video report at SWR Fernsehen.

Early Second Century Marble Bear

Today from the J Paul Getty Museum, an impressively life-sized marble bear. The depiction of bears this size in Roman art is comparatively rare and this piece, probably from a larger group, dates to the beginning of the second century. 

What Did Augustus Ever Do For Us?

Under Fraser Nelson, the Spectator has been much less clasically oriented than it had been under his predecessor, but there is a nice piece in this week's issue by Roderick Conway Morris ahead of the Moi, Auguste, Empereur de Rome exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris.

Mark Antony sought contemptuously to dismiss the upstart — small in stature, with sandy hair, bad teeth and delicate health — addressing him as ‘you, boy, who owes everything to your name’. But Octavian bided his time, and having disposed of his other rivals, this ‘boy’ provoked a war with Antony, defeated him at Actium in 31 BC, drove him and his lover Cleopatra to suicide, and annexed Egypt as a personal fiefdom. With the wealth of Egypt and other provinces now pouring into his own coffers, he became by far the richest man in the Empire. In Rome itself he created a staggering dependency culture by paying out of his own pocket for the regular corn-dole, with additional periodic distributions of wine and oil, for a quarter of a million plebs, thus guaranteeing their perpetual devotion.

It is a very good read.

Wall Fragment with a Peacock

Today from the J Paul Getty Museum, a delicate first century fresco of a peacock.

Not Such a Crisis in the Third Century

The traditional view is that the third century was one both of militarism and of urban decline. Modern historians, scarred by their own political experience in the first half of the twentieth century and a paucity of classical sources, viewed that period of the Roman empire pretty much entirely in negative terms. That view was backed up by archaeology of increasing fortification and burned layers.

Simon Esmonde Cleary's The Roman West, AD 200-500: An Archaeological Study. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013, is a useful antidote to the "crisis of the third century" and provides a different perspective. Reviewed in BMCR:

Regarding Northern Gaul, Esmonde Cleary suggests that changes in the use of urban spaces from the late second century, such as the abandonment of fora and bathhouses, and the erection of defensive circuits, do not signal continual military crisis. Rather, he argues, they show a development in the kind of citizen the region was attempting to produce: under the high empire, the region could concentrate on producing citizens versed in the niceties of the Graeco-Roman lifestyle; under the progressive militarisation of the late second century onwards, their architectural focus adapted to the circumstances, adopting an increasingly militaristic flavour. The shift to militarisation was not absolute, and the 'function' of cities varied.

See full review by the University of Manchester's Steven Spiegl here.

 

Romans in Clackmannanshire, Part II

Thanks to the wonderful Susan Mills, museum and heritage officer for Clackmannanshire Council, for clearing up the mystery of the Roman sword found on the Harvistoun Estate in 1796. I wrote about it yesterday and wondered both what had happened to it and whether there had been any write up of the find. As I said at the time, Roman discoveries in the county are few and very far between.

The good news is that the iron sword is both in good condition and safely in the National Museums of Scotland.

The less good news (from some perspectives) is that it is not Roman. The SCRAN description has it

This iron sword was found at Harvieston in Clackmannanshire. The sword is of a type found in Anglo-Saxon England. It was used between 800 and 1100.

The upper guard curves upwards, the lower guard downwards. The guards and the pommel are damaged.

The period between 850 and 1050 saw the gradual formation of a unified Scottish kingdom. However, there were outside threats: from Scandinavians settled in the northern and western Isles, from the Strathclyde Britons and the Anglo-Saxon kings.

 

Romans in Clackmannanshire

A question this morning that I was hoping someone might be able to answer. Clackmannanshire, just north of the Antonine Wall in Scotland, is Scotland's smallest county. Roman remains in the county are few and far between - predominantly coins - even though Roman soldiers must have been fairly active in the area.

What intrigues me particularly is a Roman sword that was found on the Harviestoun estate in 1796. It is not surprisingly that one was found there. The estate sits close to what is now the A91, the main east west route along the base of the Ochil Hills and parallel to the Antonine Wall. I first came across mention of the sword in JP Day's Clackmannan and Kinross, CUP, 1915:

It seems probable that, during the Roman occupation, some of the expeditions beyond the Antonine wall may have passed through Clackmannan. Roman coins have been discovered; a double-edged straight iron sword, 31 inches long, was dug up near Harviestoun in 1796; cinerary urns have been found at Alva, Tillicoultry and elsewhere. In 1828, while an old road at Alloa was under repair, a supposed Roman burial-ground was discovered. Twenty cinerary urns of coarse pottery, rudely ornamented, were found, along with two stone coffins and a pair of gold penannular armlets.

An early mention of the discovery is in The New Statistical Account of Scotland: Dumbarton, Stirling, Clackmannan (Blackwood) from 1845:

In 1796, when digging a drain behind Harviestoun House, a sword was found; and in 1802, when making the west approach to Harviestoun, an urn; both of which are now in the possession of John Tail, Esq. Sheriff of Clackmannanshire. The sword is iron, but totally oxidized. It appears to have been double-edged, and is perfectly straight. It is 31 inches long, including the handle, which is remarkably small, not large enough for an ordinary-sized man's hand. There is no basket at the handle, but a small narrow piece of iron, curved outward in a semicircular form, at each extremity, one of which serves as a guard, separating it from the blade. It is thought to be Roman, as the Romans were certainly in this part of the country, and as it resembles some of the swords used by them.

There is a little more more detail in Reminiscences of Dollar, Tillicoultry and other Districts adjoining the Ochils by William Gibson (Andrew Elliot, 1883):

From several urns containing human bones having been dug up at the north end of the Cunninghar Hill, it is supposed the Romans had a station here; and an old rusty sword, evidently of Roman make, was dug up a little farther east, near to Harviestoun Castle.

But I have been unable to find any modern mention of the discovery. Can anyone help?