Temple to Jupiter Stator (and Maybe Caesar’s House too?!) Found

School is just starting so here’s the quickie, unchecked/unresearched version (you always have to double check with Carandini, I think) … from the Gazzetta del Sud:

The temple built by Romulus to celebrate the hand of Jupiter giving Roman troops their unstoppable force has been found at the foot of the Palatine Hill, Italian archaeologists say. The ruins of the shrine to Jupiter Stator Jupiter the Stayer, believed to date to 750 BC, were found by a Rome University team led by Andrea Carandini. “We believe this is the temple that legend says Romulus erected to the king of the gods after the Romans held their ground against the furious Sabines fighting to get their women back after the famous Rape abduction,” Carandini said in the Archeologia Viva Living Archaeology journal. According to myth, Romulus founded Rome in 753 BC and the wifeless first generation of Roman men raided nearby Sabine tribes for their womenfolk, an event that has been illustrated in art down the centuries. Carandini added: “It is also noteworthy that the temple appears to be shoring up the Palatine, as if in defence”. Rome’s great and good including imperial families lived on the Palatine, overlooking the Forum. Long after its legendary institution by Romulus, the cult of Jupiter the Stayer fuelled Roman troops in battle, forging the irresistible military might that conquered most of the ancient known world. In the article in Archeologia Viva, Carandini’s team said they might also have discovered the ruins of the last Palatine house Julius Caesar lived in – the one he left on the Ides of March, 44BC, on his way to death in the Senate.

Learn Ancient Greek Religion from Robert Garland

My spiders brought this one back  last week … haven’t had a chance to check it out. Here’s a bit of a blurb:

This course offers an introduction to all the main features of ancient Greek religion. It introduces students to its principal gods and heroes, and details how to contact them and gain their goodwill. It explains how to avoid offending the gods, how the gods intervene in human life, how to consult the gods about the future, how to enlist the services of the divine healer, how to look after one’s dead so that they will be able to enter Hades, what to expect in the afterlife, and much more besides.

Deciphering the Lod Mosaic

A short video from the UPenn Museum folks … here’s the tease:

Highway construction in Lod, Israel in 1996 accidently unearthed a large and well-preserved Roman mosaic that probably once decorated a large audience room. The mosaic dates to circa 300 CE and features a kind of arena of ferocious animals, including a lion and lioness, an elephant, a giraffe, a rhinoceros, a tiger, and a wild bull. In this lecture, Dr. C. Brian Rose, Curator-in-Charge, Mediterranean Section, explores why decorative motifs of this kind were held in such high esteem during the Roman Empire. That exploration leads us into the world of gladiatorial games, the wild animal export industry, and mythological charades in ancient Rome.