Myth and eponymy on the tetrarchic frieze from Nicomedia

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 417-431
Author(s):  
Tuna Şare Ağtürk
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Political History ◽  
Urban Centre ◽  
Ancient City ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Major Urban Centre ◽  
Shed Light

Situated at the NE corner of the Propontis, Nicomedia (modern İzmit) was a major urban centre throughout history. Since the ancient city is buried directly beneath the modern industrial Turkish one, little was known archaeologically until recently1 when a series of painted reliefs, part of a continuous marble frieze of which c.55 m in length have been uncovered, was discovered in the Çukurbağ district. They contain a remarkable combination of imperial, agonistic and mythological scenes.2 The depictions on the frieze, precious examples of tetrarchic art, shed light not only on the socio-political history of the Later Empire but also on the creation, self-identification and reception of a new tetrarchic capital.3 The marble frieze seems to have decorated an imperial complex dating to the late 3rd and early 4th c. when Nicomedia was Diocletian‘s administrative capital for the eastern Roman empire. Among the scenes on the frieze, the group of blocks representing an adventus with Diocletian and Maximian has been published in detail, and a monograph on the Diocletianic complex is under preparation. The present article will examine the mythological depictions on the frieze.

BEYOND BUTRINT: THE ‘MURSI SURVEY’, 2008

2016 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 269-297
Author(s):  
Richard Hodges ◽  
Erika Carr ◽  
Alessandro Sebastiani ◽  
Emanuele Vaccaro
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Short Report ◽  
Mediterranean Landscapes ◽  
Ancient City ◽  
History Of ◽  
Byzantine Period ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Town

This article provides a short report on a survey of the region to the east of the ancient city of Butrint, in south-west Albania. Centred on the modern villages of Mursi and Xarra, the field survey provides information on over 80 sites (including standing monuments). Previous surveys close to Butrint have brought to light the impact of Roman Imperial colonisation on its hinterland. This new survey confirms that the density of Imperial Roman sites extends well to the east of Butrint. As in the previous surveys, pre-Roman and post-Roman sites are remarkably scarce. As a result, taking the results of the Butrint Foundation's archaeological excavations in Butrint to show the urban history of the place from the Bronze Age to the Ottoman period, the authors challenge the central theme of urban continuity and impact upon Mediterranean landscapes posited by Horden and Purcell, inThe Corrupting Sea(2000). Instead, the hinterland of Butrint, on the evidence of this and previous field surveys, appears to have had intense engagement with the town in the Early Roman period following the creation of the Roman colony. Significant engagement with Butrint continued in Late Antiquity, but subsequently in the Byzantine period, as before the creation of the colony, the relationship between the town and its hinterland was limited and has left a modest impact upon the archaeological record.

Two ‘Virtues’ of Tiberius: A Numismatic Contribution to the History of his Reign

1939 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. H. V. Sutherland
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Roman Emperor ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation

Mr. M. P. Charlesworth's Raleigh Lecture, ‘The Virtues of a Roman Emperor: Propaganda and the Creation of Belief,’ serves admirably to illuminate a new aspect of the history of the Roman Empire, in which the debt of pure history to numismatics (and notably to the work of Mr. Mattingly in the British Museum Catalogues) will be plain. From the numismatic point of view there is, indeed, one curious omission in Mr. Charlesworth's argument; and attempts to make good the omission have opened up a series of speculations which are here discussed.

Who were the ‘Viri Militares’?

1975 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 11-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brain Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Political History ◽  
The Political ◽  
History Of ◽  
Selection Of

It has become the accepted view that a certain group of ‘viri militares’ can be identified among the legates who governed the consular military provinces in the Roman empire. The question of these ‘specialist soldiers’ is relevant to the understanding of how appointments to military commands were made, and, more generally, to the political history of the empire. For it can be argued that ‘viri militares’ were important not only because they were responsible for the defence of the empire and could raise revolts with their armies, but also because, as a group, they were particularly influential with the emperor. And so Professor Sir Ronald Syme, to whose work we owe most for the concept of ‘viri militares’, speaks of a ‘paramount oligarchy’ that was ‘drawn in the main from the men who govern the armed provinces of Caesar’. Now, Syme recognized a wide variety of factors that might influence the selection of consular legates. However, his theory of ‘viri militares’ tends to be repeated without qualification as accepted doctrine, and in the hands of those who do not mark his caution lends itself to a rather schematic approach and mechanical solutions. This incurs the danger to which Syme himself has adverted: ‘Historians in all ages become liable through their profession to certain maladies or constraints. They cannot help making persons and events more logical than reality’.

Edilizia residenziale nel paesaggio urbanistico di Tolemaide in Cirenaica

2020 ◽  
pp. 123-152
Author(s):  
Jerzy Żelazowski
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Urban Development ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
The Third ◽  
Ancient City ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Military Administration ◽  
History Of ◽  
Jewish Revolt ◽  
The City

The article presents the private houses of Ptolemais’ inhabitants in the context of the history and urban development of a city with a thousand-year-long history. Four periods can be distinguished in the history of Ptolemais: the first since the creation of the city’s final spatial development plan in the 2nd century BC until the Jewish Revolt in 115–117 AD; the second in the 2nd–3rd centuries AD under the sign of development and growing aspirations of Ptolemais; the third in the 4th century AD until the first half of the 5th century AD, when the city served as the capital of the province of Libya Superior; and the fourth, from the end of the 5th century AD until the mid-7th century AD, in which Ptolemais, after a short period of crisis related to the nomad invasions, flourished again until the appearance of the Arabs, marking the end of the ancient city, although not the end of settlement in its area. Within this historical framework, changes in the city’s buildings and the transformation of private houses can be identified, and various cultural influences associated with the arrival of new residents at different times with their baggage of experience or with the more or less significant presence of representatives of the civil and military administration of the Roman Empire can be seen.

scholarly journals Landscape archaeology and urbanism at Meninx: results of geophysical prospection on Jerba (2015)

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 357-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Ritter ◽  
Sami Ben Tahar ◽  
Jörg W. E. Fassbinder ◽  
Lena Lambers
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Urban History ◽  
Landscape Archaeology ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Main Production ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The City ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Geophysical Prospection

This paper presents the results of the geophysical prospection conducted at the site of Meninx (Jerba) in 2015. This was the first step in a Tunisian-German project (a cooperation between the Institut National du Patrimoine, Tunis, and the Institut für Klassische Archäologie der Ludwig-Maximilans-Universität München), the aim of which is to shed light on the urban history of the most important city on the island of Jerba in antiquity.Meninx, situated on the SE shore of the island (fig. 1), was the largest city on Jerba during the Roman Empire and eponymous for the island's name in antiquity. The outstanding importance of this seaport derived from the fact that it was one of the main production centers of purple dye in the Mediterranean. With the earliest secure evidence dating to at least the Hellenistic period, Meninx saw a magnificent expansion in the 2nd and 3rd c. A.D. It was inhabited until the 7th c. when the city was finally abandoned.

scholarly journals THE “CYROPAEDIA” OF XENOPHON AND THE “HISTORY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE” OF HERODIAN: STRUCTURAL SIMILARITIES THROUGH CENTURIES OF ANCIENT GREEK HISTORIOGRAPHY (A REVIEW OF THE RECEPTIONS IN MODERN CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY)

2019 ◽  
pp. 40-52
Author(s):  
Fedir Dovbyshchenko
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Classical Philology ◽  
History Of ◽  
Greek Historiography ◽  
Narrative Techniques

The present article is an attempt to analyze the narrative strategies and scope of Xenophon’s “Cyropaedia” and Herodian’s “History of the Roman Empire” as viewed within the modern reception in classical philology. This paper presumes that the narrative techniques of writing historiographical biographies in antiquity might be the same across the whole period which separates the two works in question. The distance in time did not result in radical changes of the narrative structure in historiography, as the example of Xenophon’s “Cyropaedia” and Herodian’s “History” shows. The analysis of the ancient histories, as this article argues, can be conducted not only to understand the level of their factual reliability, but also to describe their possible impact on contemporary readers or listeners. It is also shown in the present article that the narrative structure of the two histories is far from being that of the non-fictional prose, and that modern classicists tend to consider them as fictional texts. Moreover, the whole ancient historiography, unlike the modern one, has to be treated as fiction, for the strategies of creating it were similar to the narrative strategies of other genres.

scholarly journals Newspapers as Sources for African History

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Hunter
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Political History ◽  
African History ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation

Newspapers have become increasingly important as a source for African history, and the range of historical questions newspapers have been employed to address has expanded dramatically. Newspapers are not only sources for political history, they also have much to teach us about the social, cultural, and intellectual history of Africa. They were spaces of literary and textual experimentation. They also played an important role in the creation of new identities. It is essential, however, that we approach newspapers critically as sources and think carefully about their limitations, as well as the opportunities they present to the historian.

Couplets, commonplaces and the creation of history in The Famous Tragedie of King Charles I (1649) and Cromwell’s Conspiracy (1660)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marissa Nicosia
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Political History ◽  
History Plays ◽  
Charles I ◽  
Current Events ◽  
King Charles I ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation

This essay tracks the shift from Republic to Restoration through two play pamphlets, The Famous Tragedie (1649) and Cromwell’s Conspiracy (1660). As short plays retelling current events, these play pamphlets are like brief history plays that document the Stuart reign in an era of crisis. Moreover, these playbooks include typographically distinct couplets that encapsulate parliamentarian and royalist positions on history and governance. In particular, the royalist couplets in The Famous Tragedie mourn Charles I and gesture to future readers. These couplets are also marked as commonplaces, or sententious material intended for later use in other contexts. This chapter argues that these plays use couplets and commonplaces to create a royalist political history of the mid-seventeenth century.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document