Ursus

28 October - November 3rd was a public liturgical event (as opposed to the private mysteries) in the Isiac cult. Myth recounted how Set, the god of Chaos, murdered his brother, the fertility god Osiris. Set then scattered the pieces of the corpse across Egypt. Isis, the sister-wife of Osiris, with the help of other gods recovered most of the parts and magically reanimated Osiris, where he became god of the underworld and the afterlife. The cult would reenact the myth by taking a statue of Osiris and scattering its pieces asunder. The cult adherents would wear black and make lamentations during this period of mourning. Then priests wearing masks in imitation of Isis' divine retinue would "find" the pieces and reassemble them, recreating the resurrection of Osiris. The lamentations would give way to joyous celebrations, for if the magic of Isis had helped Osiris conquer death, surely she would do the same for her loyal cult adherents. In exchange for submission to the cult, the followers of Isis believed they would have a better life in this world and an assured place in the life to come. The festival was thus the "Easter" of the Isiac religion. Interestingly, its place at the end of October and early November coincides with Samhain, a festival of the dead celebrated widely throughout the Celtic world, which was co-opted by the Christian Church as All Souls Day, and secularized in the modern world as Halloween.

A site for cunning linguists ... may you enjoy yourselves.

No, he will not, either. His penchant for melodrama will be kept on a short leash.

Imperial overstretch, to use a term from geopolitics. At some point the cost of maintaining an empire outweighs its benefits. Augustus' warning not to expand the empire was rather sage. I too look forward to your book review, Pertinax.

Alexandria is very tempting for the culture ... though Egypt seems insufferably hot. I imagine southern Gaul and northern Italy would also be nice .... highly Romanized, wealthy, and beautiful scenery. Not too far from Rome if you have to make a business trip or sightseeing trip.

One of the many, many reasons I try to promote the softer side of Classical civilization.

The distinct lack of comely females involved in Romanophilia has been the bane of my life. Hard to find a date, you know, that wants to talk about the Principate. I have noticed more females involved in Hellenophile and Egyptophile circles. Much of Romanophilia seems revolve around the military, which is not traditionally a female topic. I suspect that may be a contributing factor in all this.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0...ed=networkfront Maybe they're right. Maybe Halloween customes are too scary. So from now on, all women with hour glass figures shall be required to dress in something more inviting - like French maids.

The influx of Byzantine scholars did facilitate the trend, though. During the Middle Ages the Monks had neglected Greek (and Greek was furthermore the language of the Eastern "heretics" and not worth knowing), and thus the works written in those languages were inaccessible to them. There was an interesting post in the archaeological forum about two years ago that cited evidence Christopher Columbus' family were actually Byzantine Greeks before they became Italians.

I'd say it was the catalyst, yes. Oh, definitely. In fact, the official Roman pantheon expanded as gods were introduced by Greek traders from the South. Herakles the strong was a protector of traders, and came to Rome (as Hercules) by Greek traders. Castor and Pollux were protectors of seamen and horsemen and came to Rome through travellers from Great Greece. Minerva, the patron of skilled labor, was introduced by Etruscans, but the Etruscans themselves had probably modeled her on the Greek Athena. Then came Tyche (Latin: fortuna). Mercury and Neptune were recognized by the state to protect its trading interests on land and sea, respectively. And so on, etc, until Apollo came in under his own name.

The bigger question to my mind is just what other "lost" documents from Medieval history (and possibly Antiquity) are conveniently concealed within the Vatican archive, just waiting for some Pope to "discover" them when the time is right. Maybe we need to send in UN inspectors.

Hecate? Surely not. Unless you want to sacrifice puppies to the Augusta.

I'd say the Byzantine Empire owed something to Roman law, political experience and military organization.

As a non-military buff myself, I appreciated the vantage point, Doc. Given that I liked one of Maty's other books, I'm very tempted to buy this one.

As a geopolitical reality it did indeed fall. As a cultural influence it lingered on. I'm all about culture and heritage. Nonetheless I don't pretend the empire is still around just because the Pope likes to call himself Pontifex Maximus.

Evaluating a civilization's perceived "greatness" is indeed subjective, as it depends on how one defines and measures "greatness." Nonetheless I think one can, on some level, objectively trace a given culture's influence on modernity. Rome's legacy on the European, especially Western European, development is rather critical. I see a measure of influence there I don't see from other cultures. Whether one perceives that influence as being beneficial or not is entirely a subjective thing - some rabid Celtophiles I know feel it is where Western Civilization made a wrong turn. As for me personally I rather enjoy it. But I think the original poster was deploring the fact that Rome's legacy, whether perceived as good or bad, has at times been downplayed in our post-colonial intellectual atmosphere. On that note I would agree that ignoring the full measure of our heritage is a mistake.

To get a comprehensive list of deities recognized by the Roman state you would have to look at the surviving list of calendar festivals (I don't have a link offhand). But, yes, Epona and Isis were among those adopted into the liturgical calendar.

I think you have to make a distinction here. Roman soldiers serving in foreign lands would often honor the local gods as a sign of respect, and to entreat their good graces (because soldiers need all the help they can get). Germany, Britain, Egypt, Syria - wherever Roman soldiers went there is evidence of them honoring two-bit local gods that people in other parts of the empire had never heard of. However, only a few of these were formally adopted into the Roman pantheon - i.e., formally recognized by the State with its own funded cult. So it's entirely possible a Roman legion serving along the Rhine frontiers would honor some local Celto-German deity without it being formally acknowledged by the Senate.

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/news/story/0,,2187310,00.html "The exhibition begins with the "secret cabinets" of the British Museum and the Naples Museum - reserved areas where material deemed too saucy for general consumption was placed to protect delicate nerves and impressionable minds from the late 18th century. Here is an amber, life-size carving of male genitalia, and a tintinnabulum, a Roman bronze windchime featuring a winged phallus. "These are absolutely wonderful objects," said Prof Wallace. "They are good luck charms: the idea is that the penis is the only part of the body that moves up and down without control. That links it to fate or fortune, which also moves up and down of its own volition.""

There are several on this list I may read .... but my "must have" is Roman Life, from the same author that brought us Roman sex.

For rule of what? The whole point of the republican system was to prevent anyone from being ruled by their magistrates. The magistrates were there to be ruled by the laws, not for the citizens to be ruled by the magistrates. Look, I'm not going to get into another woe-is-the-end-of-the-Republic-and-the-death-of-democracy argument. This is the imperium folder, not the res publica folder. The Republic fell, for better or for worse. I prefer to value or devalue Augustus and his successors based on their own merits. And getting back to topic, I find Augustus a rather shrewd administrator, autocratic powers and all.

Everyone, The topic is about modern perceptions of Rome's legacy. Topics such as British influence on America, or which language the Gospel was written in, is better reserved for the Univeral History folder. Thanks.

An outside of a narrow timeframe in Ancient Athens, exactly how many people anywhere could claim this as a mandate for rule? I think most people acknowledge his warlord period, and I fail to see how he could have been anything else given the times and the situations post-Caesar assassination. My problems with him are three: 1) On domestic policy, his legislation on family and marriage turned out to be highly ineffective - and hypocritical, given his own family problems. 2) On strategic policy, he failed to create a central reserve of troops, which was the major weakness of the Principate's defenses .... although this didn't seem to be a major issue until the rise of Sassanid Persia 3) His failure to find a more secure mechanism for the succession of the Princeps was the pseudo-monarchy's great undoing and the cause of much future grief. Still, all in all his reign set the stage for a more or less healthy Empire for several generations, building ingeniously upon the rubble of the Republic. It helped cement Roman rule and Roman culture in a greatly expanded empire. And thus he has been rightly called "the godfather" of Europe. Thus I am a dues paying member of the fan club.

After completing "Latin Via Ovid" which I reviewed for the site, I'm able to read simple sentences, and pick up things here and there. But beyond that, no dice. It was never part of my schooling, and I don't have time to teach myself further.

Really, if you guys switch off the higher thinking sections of your brain, and just enjoy the visual feast, I think it will work for you on that level. As I said, it was designed to be costumed drama light *or* - such is the nature of American cable productions.