The Wonders of Roman Concrete
Many folks have already mentioned this item at Discovery.com about the concrete used in Trajan’s Market … here’s the incipit: Sandy ash produced by a volcano that erupted 456,000 years ago might have helped a huge ancient Roman complex survive intact for nearly 2,000 years despite three earthquakes, according to research presented last week in [...]
Consular Reconstruction in Ephesus
Today’s Zaman has an interesting item: One of the biggest ancient cities of the Mediterranean, Efes (Ephesus), is now undergoing important restoration. The marble hall of the palace-like house in which the city’s Roman consul lived in A.D. 275 has begun to be restored, putting back together 350-square-meter walls that are now broken into 120,000 [...]
“King’s Grave” from Izmir
Another tantalizingly vague one from Hurriyet: A king’s grave was uncovered during construction in İzmir’s Kemalpaşa district. The area has been taken under protection and İzmir Museum Directorship officers have started an inspection of the grave and its contents. The king’s grave was found in a 211-square-meter area owned by Behçet Aktaş in Kemalpaşa’s Atatürk [...]
Sardonic Smile Origins
Homer is usually cited as the origin of the phrase, ‘sardonic smile’, specifically, from Odyssey 20.302 (or thereabouts): So saying, he hurled with strong hand the hoof of an ox, taking it up from the basket where it lay. But Odysseus avoided it with a quick turn of his head, and in his heart he [...]
Exaentus of Agrigentum
Every so often something shows up in a scan which you never, ever expect to see … in this case, the New York Times has a review of a book called Playbooks and Checkbooks: An Introduction to the Economics of Modern Sports which includes: The ancient Greeks even pioneered a form of the ticker-tape parade [...]
Envisioning the Colosseum
As long as I’m in my photo file, here’s something else I meant to post from my trip to Rome — We’ve all seen your standard touristy photo of the Colosseum, to wit: … and we are usually told that all those little arches originally had statuary in them. So, presumably, it looked something like this [...]
SPQR
I’ve got to do some photoshopping this weekend and I just remembered something I’ve been meaning to post for a couple of years now. Many of the folks reading rogueclassicism have likely been sitting in a classroom and had their teacher tell them that — even now — SPQR is written all over Rome. Usually [...]
Submerged Mycenean Site
A fair bit of coverage for this one … presumably there will be more after the dig commences. Here’s the incipit of the coverage via PhysOrg: The oldest submerged town in the world is about to give up its secrets — with the help of equipment that could revolutionise underwater archaeology. The ancient town of [...]
Alexander Statue from Alexandria?
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to lend any credence to claims of artifacts from the period of our purview being found in Egypt. After all that Cleopatra business of a few weeks ago (about which I might blog some more items that I’ve been sitting on), we get this item from the Egyptian State Information Service: [...]
Roman Mass Production?
An item/press release in Earthtimes claims: German scientists disclosed Friday new evidence that the ancient Romans used mass-production methods to make metalwares at lesser cost, just like modern factories do. A close study of a 28-centimetre-tall bronze figure of the god Mercury made in the 2nd century AD showed it was hollow – an indication of [...]
Another Thracian Tomb
Brief item from Focus-Fen: A unique Thracian tomb has been unearthed close to the northeastern village of Gagovo, in the municipality of Popovo, Plamen Sabev, director of the history museum in the town of Popovo, told Focus – Shumen Radio. The tomb dates back to the 4th century BC and is older than the one [...]
Musing About Muses
Lee Siegel writes an interesting item in the WSJ … here’s the incipit: Whatever happened to the Muse? She was once the female figure — deity, Platonic ideal, mistress, lover, wife — whom poets and painters called upon for inspiration. Thus Homer in the Odyssey, the West’s first great work of literary art: “Sing to [...]
Six (maybe) Degrees of Separation A-Rod to rogueclassicist
Okay … even though I really don’t like baseball, I did get all excited when a piece from Newsday landed in my box beginning thusly: Alex Rodriguez made his first visit since December to new Yankee Stadium on Friday night and instantly proclaimed it the finest structure since the Roman emperor Titus opened the Colosseum [...]
