Ludovicus

Late Emperor, Thank you for the link to "Byzantines in the Renaissance" in your post above. It introduced me to Byzantine refugee scholars I hadn't heard of before.

This is one of the best books about the Late Roman Empire. Here is my review from several months back: http://www.unrv.com/...?showtopic=9493 Enjoy. guy also known as gaius Thanks for the reminder! I'm amazed at how well 428 AD reads, almost literary. And it's a translation from Giusto Trana's original in Italian. Here's a wiki entry on him with a list of his other works, all in Italian. http://en.wikipedia....i/Giusto_Traina

From the Sunday Morning Herald, Sydney: The biggest temple of ancient Rome re-opened to the public on Thursday after more than 20 years amid heavy criticism of Italy's management of its artistic heritage after the collapse of a house in Pompeii. http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/ancient-romes-biggest-temple-reopens-20101111-17plf.html In Italian, from the Italian Cultural Ministry: Usually there's an English version of this website. At least now it's not posted: http://www.beniculturali.it/mibac/export/MiBAC/sito-MiBAC/Contenuti/MibacUnif/Comunicati/visualizza_asset.html_682381600.html

Definitely not a DIY (do it yourself) culture! Working with your hands was for slaves. Also I think the Romans would find the lack of strong patron-client relations in modern society quite unbelievable.

There's not much text here, but the images are interesting. Perhaps someone can find a better link. http://www.huffingto...91.html#s180656

The Arabs discovered ancient culture by conquering most byzantine territories and dealing culturally with the surviving Byzantine Empire. The survival of ancient culture in Early and High Medieval Europe happened also thanks to the Catholic Church that saved and copied the ancient sources in the medieval abbeys spreaded throughout the continent. The european rediscovery of the ancient culture started in late medieval Italy thanks to those byzantine refugees (which left the Balkans and Anatolia since the XIVth century) which started to teach and spread it in their new motherland (which at the same time was opening the first universities). It seems to me that while the contribute of the Arabs in transfering to us the greek-roman culture can't be discarded, it has become overrated for PC reasons. The Arab contributions to European civilization precede the arrival of Byzantine refugees from Anatolia and the Balkans by more than a hundred years. Perhaps you are referring to Byzantines who worked along with Arabs and with Latin Christians at the Norman royal court in 12th century Sicily. Here classical and religious texts were shared in translation. The translation school in Toledo, soon after the city's recapture by Christians, saw a very large output of Arab, Christian, and Jewish scholarship. Here many important Arab translations of Latin and Greek works---works lost to the West--- took place. Visiting Italian scholars returned to Italy with (for them) newly found classical works and original Arab discoveries in optics, astronomy, medicine, physics, and mathematics in hand in Latin translations. It was these new discoveries along with the rescued texts of the classical world that helped make possible humanism and the Renaissance.While Byzantines shared their classical heritage with the West at a few points during the Middle Ages, they had little or nothing to offer Europe in the area of new scientific discoveries. That was the Arab advantage. See here for Latin translations of the 12th Century: http://en.wikipedia....he_12th_century

I just saw the movie recently. I found it interesting even though it was not entirely correct historically. nevertheless, I believe that it captured the hostility that went on back then between the former establishment (pagans) and the fanatical side of Christianity. Some individuals have criticized the movie for being anti-christian, and i don't agree with that perspective. Christians are portrayed as a rather diverse group: a spectrum ranging from moderates such as Orestes to fanatical terrorists such as Ammonius. Here's an example of a somewhat negative review of the film: http://armariummagnu...gora-redux.html I agree. As a Christian, I am pleased that the movie shows what happens when Christianity assumes state power. It loses its soul. This is an apt lesson for present day USA, where so many politicians are using sacred texts to justify purely political goals.

Ghost of C, The title is so apt. Let us know when you've finished seeing the film.

Glad you like the images. This website never fails to intrigue me. And it's updated at least three times a year. The creators have done a great job recreating the monuments as they looked when first erected. Tenth century Cordoba, in Muslim ruled Spain, was possibly even more spectacular with palaces, libraries, and advanced water systems. It was a leading cultural and scientific center with a population of 500,000.

This recent article from the Wall Street Journal contends that our view of Cleopatra has been seen mainly from the Romans' prejudiced perspectives on the East, wealth, and women. A good read here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510704575562194068357552.html I'm interested in what might be a new take on the Egyptian queen in this upcoming film.

Byzantium 1200 is the award wining site dedicated to creating vibrant reconstructions of Constantinople prior to the year 1200 C.E. Enjoy the following recent additions to this large website: The sea walls of Constantinople: http://www.arkeo3d.c...00/seawall.html The forum of Constantine: http://www.arkeo3d.c...00/forum-c.html The Hippodrome: http://www.arkeo3d.c...0/hipodrom.html The Hagia Sophia: http://www.arkeo3d.c...gia.html#atrium

Here's today's New York Times article on the second garbage crisis in two years to hit the Naples to Pompeii area: For years, Mr. Berlusconi has been able to survive with jokes and grandiose promises. But now, as he struggles to keep a grip on his unruly center-right coalition, his popular consensus is plummeting as Italians grow weary of government infighting that seems at odds with their everyday concerns. Here in Terzigno, a grim town of concrete houses just miles from Pompeii, there may be the first stirrings of a Nimby problem with national ramifications: Not only do residents in the area not want garbage in their backyard, but for the first time since they first helped elect him in 1994, they also do not appear to want Mr. Berlusconi there.

I find the research on the Villa Papyri papyri fascinating. Can you update us on what texts have been discovered and read in the last year or so?

The book was from a French publisher, as I remember. I don't recall the title. The next time I visit the shop I'll be sure write it down and share it with you. Glad you like the mosaics. Roman North Africa was a wealthy region with lots of villas, even through the post Roman Vandal kingdom.

On a recent visit to a mosaicist's shop in Philadelphia I found a wonderful coffee table book on Roman era mosaics of North Africa. I don't think Italia can rival the output of Roman Africa. Here is a website with some beautiful examples: http://www.tunisiaonline.com/mosaics/index.html

Yes, I agree. Here banks used to provide capital to finance production. Now they gamble on the stock market or, as in the article I quoted above, the become the tax collector. They don't seem to have an interest in creating wealth any more.

Roman mosaic ffrom Lod, Israel, September 2010 to April 3, 2011, Metropolitan Museum New York. Click on the link below to view video of the mosaics. http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={6C51E9CC-0958-4743-A2FE-4A3304C3AAD9} "First discovered in 1996 during construction on the Jerusalem

As the Huffington Post Investigative Fund reported this week, big banks and hedge funds in the U.S. have been quietly collecting taxes on hundreds of thousands of homes. The process, called "tax farming," is simple: A company goes to a local government and reimburses it for taxes that citizens aren't paying. In return, the company gets to act like an old-fashioned tax thug -- the kind rabbis condemn in the Bible -- charging up to 18 percent interest and thousands of dollars in legal fees, simply because it can. As the District of Columbia attorney general told the HuffPost Investigative Fund, there's "no oversight at all." Modern American tax farms, like their Roman counterparts, lack government oversight. But the Romans, at least, had an excuse. The republic, and later the empire, was huge, and ancient technologies made transportation and communication difficult. As Edgar Kiser, of the University of Washington, and Danielle Kane, then of the University of Pennsylvania, say in a 2007 paper, that hugeness motivated Roman governments to turn to privatized tax collection in the first place. With tax farms, the government knew it would get paid. It didn't care -- it couldn't afford to care -- how the publicani came up with the money. For the entire article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/22/tax-farming-private-collectors-rome_n_772178.html

http://news.yahoo.co...ajorromanbattle The remains of a sunken warship recently found in the Mediterranean Sea may confirm the site of a major ancient battle in which Rome trounced Carthage. The year was 241 B.C. and the players were the ascending Roman republic and the declining Carthaginian Empire, which was centered on the northernmost tip of Africa. The two powers were fighting for dominance in the Mediterranean in a series of conflicts called the Punic Wars. Archaeologists think the newly discovered remnants of the warship date from the final battle of the first Punic War, which allowed Rome to expand farther into the Western Mediterranean. "It was the classic battle between Carthage and Rome," said archaeologist Jeffrey G. Royal of the RPM Nautical Foundation in Key West, Fla. "This particular naval battle was the ultimate, crushing defeat for the Carthaginians." Rams reveal clues The shipwreck was found near the island of Levanzo, west of Sicily, which is where historical documents place the battle. In the summer of 2010, Royal and his colleagues discovered a warship's bronze ram - the sharp, prolonged tip of the ship's bow that was used to slam into an enemy vessel. This tactic was heavily used in ancient naval battles and was thought to have played an important role in the Punic fights.

In recent years science in the US has taken a back seat to a certain religious fervor. During the administration of the last president, the National Parks Service supported the sale in its bookshops of a biblical explanation for the creation of the Grand Canyon. And this despite the objections of America's leading geologists. These days it's no small matter when an American president supports science. From Time.com, November 17, 2004: http://www.time.com/...,783829,00.html At a park called Dinosaur Adventure Land, run by creationists near Pensacola, Florida, visitors are informed that man coexisted with dinosaurs. This fantasy accommodates the creationists view that the Earth is only 6,000 years old and that Darwin's theory of evolution is false. Among the park exhibits is one that illustrates another creationist article of faith. It consists of a long trough filled with sand and fitted at one end with a water spigot. Above the trough is a sign reading That River Didn't Make That Canyon. When visitors open the spigot, the water quickly cuts a gully through the sand, supposedly demonstrating how the Grand Canyon was created, practically overnight, by Noah's flood. Thats nonsense, of course, but what else would you expect at a creationist park? Certainly, one might think, this couldn't be acceptable at, say, a National Park, right? Think again.

Very well written. I agree completely.

It's curious that many news outlets are calling the hypogeum the "dungeons" of the Colosseum. Sounds farfetched to me, if not downright incorrect.

http://www.suntimes....gallery?index=8 Starting next week, tourists will be able to visit the upper area of the Colosseum and the underground, where gladiators once prepared for fights and lions and tigers were caged. Culture Ministry officials said Thursday that it will be the first time the underground has ever been open, while the upper tier had been closed since the 1970s. Both will open following a cleanup and structural work to ensure they are safe. In Italian, from the Cultural Ministry: http://www.benicultu...2033708759.html