Bryaxis Hecatee

Also don't forget that the imperial court was interested in the "strange, new and esotheric" : Simon the Magician came to court, and thus so were invited apostles of this strange jewish magician : this his probably how Nero heard of those christians that could make such wonderfull scapegoats later on...

Ancient attitude toward the past, especially roman attitude, was indeed always a view that the past was better, men of then better than those of the days, and that the great teachers of bygone times held truth over more modern ones : this later attitude was more and more reinforced in the late empire and led to the mind spirit that dominated until the Renaissance's philosopher who began to think by themselve and not out of ancient lights anymore. This attitude translated itself in many ways, but constant references to elder writers was one of the most comon. In Rome the notion of Mos Maiorum (customs of the elders) was also one of it's main form, and Cato the elder's texts are a good exemple of this attitude in the Republican period. Cicero did also use the concept, but Augustus archaising politics and esthetics are probably one of the best exemple of how it was used in rethorics (while the actions were much more radicaly modern, instituting a new way of governement). Also think to the traditional "4 ages" with the oldest one being the best, a theme that found great resonance in the 1st century BCE and CE. For later periods, you may want to take a look at Plutarch's works (exemple from the past to educate the modern men of his time (some 50 years before Tertulien), and also to some of the discourses of Julian II (so called "Julian the apostate" in christian litterature) who did also promote in a way a taking of the past as exemple. In christian litterature (admitedly not my best area of knowledge) this view that the earlier men were better and that the elder customs were to be prefered is commonly found.

I have not read them end to end but read parts of each and they all offered excellent quality and the information given in both lateral notes and annexes is of very good quality and does help put things in context for a better reading. Bryn Mawr Classical Review has only reviewed two of the books : Xenophon (http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2011/2011-10-17.html) and Arrian (http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2011/2011-05-58.html). I most eagerly await their Polybius !

I'd be too ! Still, I wonder what they could offer that would be so different from what others did before in order to be worth the amount of pages.

I would even add that I might well be the statue in Istanbul's Archeological Museum (cf. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-PwKSlHFFuuM/Tr7QMZP_pgI/AAAAAAABGmg/aPDXFzXXqoQ/s512/P1090719.JPG )

Indeed, quite realistic, and quite a few roman monuments are shown, including the Constantine column (aka "burn column") in the end scene, truly a fine sight for one who's just come back from there... I wonder if they set some scenes in the subteranean cistern ?

With the family origins that Trajan had, one must presume that most of the brides of his family in the last century (or at least since they got the equestrian rank) would have been found in Rome or at least Italy, while his ancestors made their career : their wifes would mostly be the sisters or daughters of officers they met in the army, of roman officials based in the province, or members of roman families who would only be wed to such as mentionned above. I would see very little indigeneous blood in those families.

And you are right Ummidia, it is a place I visited on monday : Troy's roman odeon, one of the latest buildings one may see on the fabled site. You own the game

I must confess i had doubts but finally was sure after i combared with other pictures of the bridge... And now an ode to ancient litterature...

Could this be the 1st century AD bridge at Vaison la Romaine, France ?

I was in the place no longer than 10 hours ago, only the column remains, without it's top level, burned by a fire, cracqued in part and circled by metal bands, about half of the forum still there in it's circle form and the rest having been transformed into a large avenue in the middle of which the tram goes... Glory and decadence they say... (and I don't even speak of the arch of Theodosius further down the main street, a heap of stone blocks alongside the road, partly overgrown by weeds, not seen by anyone anymore )

Well you have of course the temple of Venus and Rome, the Pantheon is almost as good as new built, and one might consider his Mausoleum a religious place if not truly a temple.

Try to get a look at "Magistrates of the Roman Republic" by Broughton, which is still one of the main ressources for such enquiry.

A very fine study of this interesting coin, which does also show why coins should'nt be illegaly dug up : the information on coin distribution in sanctuaries would have been destroyed had this coins been so dug up. I'm sure our UNRV member Guy will be thrilled when he reads your article, for it is indeed his passion too !

This articles remembers me of a blog post I read yesterday on a spectacles which religious extremists claim "defile Christ" because supposedly excrements are thrown to an image of said Jesus. As the article well pointed, the value of the image of Christ is that of an image, and only an image : the image is not the Christ himself. In the ancient world thing evolved : at first the image was considered as equal to the god, as his shown in the story of the statue of Juno Moneta that was taken from a captured city to the Capitol and which aproved of it's transfer by noding to it's transporters. But in the Hellenistic period, when art was sought for private enjoiment, this vision was no more true. Hercules, through his numerous travels, was associated with almost every places in the ancient world, from the west to the far east, and could be described as the link between all hellenized places in the world. Having his portrait was thus no necessarily a proof of worship but could simply be a proof of hellenism. And it turns out when you look at the history of the site that it was an hellenistic foundation of around 200 B.C. named Antiochia-Hippos (site on Hippos), part of a larger seleucid attempt to hellenize the area, and part during the roman period of the so-called Decapolis, an ensemble known to have been the hellenized anchor in a jewish sea and a defense against eastern powers up to the roman perdiod. Look also at the place it was found : a bath. A place where men showed their virility and where the arch-virilous Hercules could be seen as an ideal body. So all those elements make me think that the presence of an Hercules is nothing exceptional and that only the pitch of the magazine, "Biblical archeology" tries unnecessarily to spin it in a religious way.

Cash issue finaly meant that the large trip shall be done in the spring with two friends who can drive (and share the costs of the car), thus after thinking long and hard about going to either an European city (Vienna was in my list) or another place, I decided for a week in Istanbul to keep Turkish. At 411

Priests were often the sion of great families, priestly charges being for a large part hereditary. The same was true for other religious offices, like the great seers. Most priesthood were granted for life, and priestess existed alongside priests. Surprisingly more is known about the priests and priestess of the Roman period, notably because the period left us more epigraphic evidence of sanctuaries' laws that defined who was to be a priest and what his duties might be. Mostly, the job of the priest was to make sure the Gods did support the city, dirige sacrifices and manage the vast riches of the temples, including in bank-like functions. Appart from some ritual tasks, priest had a lot of time availlable to themselve as is shown by Plutarch, himself a priest at the Delphi sanctuary in the first and second century A.D. : you might want to read some of his non-historical texts to learn more about his responsabilities. You might find some references to sacred prostitution in some Greek cults, especialy those from the island of Cyprus (island of Aphrodite), were the priestess were supposed to care for the sexual need of any pilgrim, but mostly those are exagerations and modern feminists fantasms, although they do indeed have some truth at their basis.

No, probably not It is on the right island, but can't be the Artemision linked to the monument searched for by Scott Oden for it is not linked to the sea battle : we know that the Artemision we're looking for is on the northern tip of the island, somewhere around a place called today Artemisio. All the ancient sources do indeed put the battle there, as well as the commemorative building that was later erected on the spot. The site your article speaks of is much too far to the south : Thermopylae would have been flanked if that were the spot of the sea battle, and the Persian would not have needed to go around the island and fall prey to the tempest otherwise. cf. too : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Artemisium

No, the area of your link is the southern tip of Attica (the Athens area) while we speak of the northern tip of Euboea, the long, slim island which goes from the north-eastern coast of Attica up toward Macedonia.

No Tribunicus, you speak about Ephesus' Artemision, in Turkey, while we were looking for a place of the same name in Euboea (Greece) famous for the naval battle that took place there.

Don't forget that the other issue is that a few non state peoples in so called ranking agencies play both side of the games, giving "opinions" that change the market in ways that benefit other departements of their groups, like when Goldman Sacks organized the debt raising by the Greeks, taking options against a default and now making their best for this default to happen so they may make billions. Are there troubles with some countries economies ? Yes, sure. With some banks ? Indeed there are. But one can also see that the only country which did not make any crisis decisions, Belgium (by lack of governement...) is also the one which has had the most growth of the european union those last few years. And while our inflation can be rated rather high (somewhere around 3% I think) it's mostly due to one factor, namely the rise in fossile fuels (either oil or gaz). The crisis of those affected banks and states is mainly due to a bunch of guys and computing programs with no interest other than money and their own little personnal job doing everything to achieve their goal without any thought about the society and the people they live with, and governements doing their best to satisfy the ego of those so-called "traders", be they human or virtual. And while it is in my opinion a good thing to see the EU get more centralization (at least if it goes toward more Federalism and not more inter-state management), it shall be the only good thing to come out of this mess.

That movie sounds awfullly like the French one called "Bienvenue chez les Cht'i" (where a postman from the south gets reallocated to the northern, economically devastated, culturally alien, region.) I presume we could do the same with wallonians and flemish over here (and probably did, with our surrealistic country's large movie making community)

And one point for Melvadius ! It is indeed the albanian site.

So, still no other guess ? Truly ? Despite knowing the coast this place belongs to ?

Hi everyone, I'm begining to have a plan for my trip : unrv.xls Since I'll have to go to Copenhague a bit later in the month I'll have to cut my trip short, I would have loved to add one week for the Bodrum to Ismir part of the coast (and yes that would have meant leaving Aphrodisias and Sagalassos and Pamukkale/Hierapolis. What I have to check is wheter or not I'll have to take a connection in Istanbul (in which case I might take 3 days to visit the city too, and a night bus to Antalya to save one hotel night). What do you think ?