Klingan

This topic perhaps?

I'v never researched this myself, but I've repeatedly seen arguments that stress the defensive nature of the later capitals, either to make it easier to repel invaders or to function as a lock, preventing the enemy to advance further into the Empire. This was simply a function that Rome could never have. This theory would, on the other hand, not be able to explain why Ravenna and Milan were chosen as capitals. On Rome being in the centre of the empire; yes, this is true, geographically speaking. But the east was always richer than the west and I believe that you would get a completely different picture if you drew up a socio-economical map of the empire. Rome would all of the sudden be quite far off.

I'm glad! I could not agree more. You should confirm those kind of facts with old (but in a sense modern, say from the late 19th century and onwards) sources that are cited in modern literature. I reckon that the Swedish bible 2000 has a quite good reference system.

No, he is also mentioned in other texts from the same period (see below). It is certainly not bad scholarship, you simply need to know how antique text corpora works (and the bible is, religious or not, an antique collection of texts) and under what circumstances the text in question was produced. Religious texts are as useful for historical studies as the "real" ancient annals and histories are. I would guess that The Bible and Herodotes histories contain about the same amount of facts. Not to mention the early history of Rome in Livy. Anyway, on Jesus and Christianity; there are actually many and surprisingly early references to the Christians - only a couple of decades after his death - in the Roman literature (too many to be listed here) although references to Jesus himself are rare. He is, however, mentioned in Josephus history of the Jews: "Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrim of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, [or, some of his companions]" Josephus - Antiquities of the Jews XX. 9. This event is said to have taken place under the rule of Herod Agrippa I, i.e. 37-44 AD, not long after Jesus death. And on the brother thing, take a look at the dead sea scrolls for more information on Jesus brothers (e.g Thomas). It is, in the end, quite inconceivable that a small cult would spring out of nowhere in the 30's-50's AD by inventing a characters life, describe it in several gospels and tie them to historical events and characters. Then add that the main character, i.e. Jesus, would also be mentioned in other texts - and we know for a fact that there were several Messiahs in Judea during the period, so the though of one of them actually becoming famous is not far fetched. It would have been, had Christianity been a cult invented by the ruler, possible that Jesus was fictional, but it wasn't. Christianity came from "middle-class" Jews with no major influence and no aim but to spread the faith, there are no indications of the Apostels getting rich so to speak (getting killed under horrible circumstances seems to have been likelier). And they were not trying to create a uniting religion for the empire (as some later emperors), they had no such interests.

I have to agree and Jesus is, as far as I know, generally considered at least based of a historical person (although that doesn't mean that any of the miracles ever happened) even by non Christian scholars. There must simply have been something to inspire the writing of the gospels at roughly the same time.

Most certainly the stratigraphical context, that's how almost all find that can't really give you any exact (or even inexact) datable information is placed in more or less certain time frame.

I might be able to check the Oscan/Umbrian tomorrow as they have the absolutely most recent (2009) comparative grammar (latin, Oscan Umbrian) at the library here. On a side note about the spear - wasn't the spear the normal weapon, not something special during the pre-Roman times?

Pilus, pili (chief) and Pilum, pili (the old good fellow javelin) are actually not the same words, although it certainly looks like they had a common origin.

It looks like I will be able to get some first hand information about this find in the coming days, as I pitched the article to a friend who's going to try to get an interview with L

Yes, that is certainly what he, if nothing else, wants it too look like, it's quite common here. I actually own a (perfectly legal) collection of stone axes that my grandfather gave to me.

From the original Swedish article.

Happy birthday!

Well being in Athens forces me to find something to laugh at now and then (and trust me, the heavily armed polices are not funny, I know that first hand by now) and I thought that I could share my greatest source of random jokes: Wulffmorgenthaler And as I live in Greece at the moment:

Damn, I wonder where that piece is now!

I'm not quite sure that I believe the heirloom story. Sure, it might be true, but Gotland is known for it's rich finds in antiquities and it attracts a great deal of looters. I reckon that they've even forbidden metal detectors there. The guy could have been looking for something and just stumbled on the mask, which he figured that he couldn't sell in the domestic marked (in contrast to the coins normally found). Or he could just be an honest guy giving a way a 2000 year old equestrian mask that has been in the family for generations.

I find it very interesting that there's no word on this in the bigger Swedish news papers - any major find would normally be given some rather nice headlines.

This article is more or less saying the same thing as the other one, simply adding that the mask probably wasn't used in battle, that it was once accompanied by a helmet and that the guy who handed it in my get a small reward. It is at least, with certainty, not going to get sold of as the one in the UK.

You guys are just about right, here's what it reads: Roman equestrian mask handed in A unique antique has been handed in to the local authorities [L

Argh, I wish that I could watch this from Greece

Athenaeus - The Deipnosophistae

Agora 2009

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Here's a guide on how to use CIL and ILS efficiently.

Happy birthday!