FREE Course - Hadrian's Wall: Life on the Roman Frontier

[guy]

The third week of the course is now up and running. Good stuff.

 

This week is a description of everyday life in a frontier community.

 

Someone posted a link to the BCC show Time Team's visit to Hadrian's Wall. It's very interesting.

 

Tony Robinson and the Team travel to the Roman fort of Birdoswald in Cumbria to carry out the first ever excavation of a Roman cemetery near the wall.

 

 

 

 

guy also known as gaius

Edited October 5, 2014 by guy

[Viggen]

...thanks guy for keeping us up to date

[guy]

Discussed in lesson three is the very poignant tombstone of Regina found near Hadrian's Wall:

 

 

 

 

 

http://www2.cnr.edu/home/araia/regina.html

 

http://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/1065

 

Regina was a freed slave born into the British tribe of Catuvellauni. She married Barates, her former master from Palmyra. She died young, beloved and mourned by her husband.

 

The majority of the epitaph is in Latin

 

The last line of her epitaph, however, is Barates' final heartbreaking lament in his native Palmyrene and reads:

Regina, freedwoman of Barate, alas.

 

Line 1: D(IS) M(ANIBVS) REGINA LIBERTA ET CONIVGE
Line 2: BARATES PALMYRENVS NATIONE
Line 3: CATVALLAVNA AN(NORVM) XXX
Line 4: (Palmyrene script) RGYN’ BT HRY ‘T’ HBL


Line 1: To the spirits of the departed (and to) Regina, his freedwoman and wife
Line 2: Barates, a Palmyrene (set this up)
Line 3: (Regina was) Catuvellaunian by tribe, aged 30
Line 4: Regina, the freedwoman of Barate, alas

 

These two people, separated by birth (Syria and Britannia) and class (a former slave and a wealthy merchant or soldier) were united by love in a very diverse Roman Empire. This touching tombstone to Regina is a lasting monument to their love.

 

 

 

guy also known as gaius

Edited October 11, 2014 by guy

[guy]

The fourth week of this six week course is now underway.  This week's subject was "Ritual, Religion and the Roman Wall."
 
Of course, the presentation has to be somewhat superficial given the time restraints.
 
That said, there was an interesting presentation about the alters to the cult of Mithras found at Hadrian's Wall.
 
I presented this video and link for further background:

The sacrifice of bulls was also important in the other great Eastern mystery religion of the Roman Empire known as the cult of Magna Mater (Cybele or Great Mother). Here's a powerful depiction from HBO's "Rome" series of the religious rite of Magna Mater called taurobolium, the baptism in the blood of a sacrificed bull :

(Click on the link in the video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUdxy836WY4

Here's an interesting summary of these two mystery religions:

http://courses.ttu.edu/gforsyth/3302cp/20.htm



guy also known as gaius

Edited October 25, 2014 by guy

[Viggen]

very impressive guy! thanks

[Artimi]

I am enjoying this course much more that the Portus course.  Could be I now know what to expect but also because Hadrian's wall has more of a mystique(???) to it. 

[Viggen]

...do you guys now if this is a one time thing or if this course will be repeated in the future?

[guy]

I completed week five "Conflict, consolidation and renaissance: life on the Wall in the 3rd and 4th centuries."

This week was a little disjointed. Then again, any study of the turbulent and unstable third and fourth century would be a little confusing.

Topics ranged from the Romano-Gallic Empire of Postumus to the Britannic Empire of Caruasius. To add to the diversity of topics, there was an interesting 4th century banquet and a section on numismatics.

There was also a section on the presence of Septimius Severus at the wall. There was a mention of this famous anecdote:

 

...[T]he imperial family’s presence on the northern frontier only highlights the sense that over 80 years after the building of Hadrian’s Wall, Roman ideas still clashed with many local ones. In a fascinating anecdote (or another literary fiction?), Dio (76.16.5) describes an encounter between the empress Julia Domna and the wife of Argentocoxus, a Caledonian leader. The empress enquired about the sexual conduct of British women. This was seemingly spurred by her fascination with the mores of a society in which a woman could have more than one partner simultaneously. She received the stinging retort that the local way was the best. At least the native women could openly consort with the best men. Meanwhile, in Roman society women allowed themselves to be debauched in private by the vilest.

 

This lack of focus may have created some confusion. Nevertheless, this has been an interesting course.

 

The last week will soon be available to be reviewed.

 

In answer to the above question, it seems most these courses are offered again. I recommend this course (and others) as a quick and inexpensive (free) review of Roman history.

 

 

 

guy also known as gaius
 

Edited October 25, 2014 by guy

[Viggen]

fantastic guy,

thanks for keeping us up to date

[Artimi]

I finished the course this week..  I quite enjoyed it and it was nice to as active as I wanted to be or not.  I started the course Exploring the Oceans this week.   I found it very interesting and informative.   Again a lot extra links to click if you should want to pursue a subject.  Saw pictures of the dumbo octopus.  boy what a cute little creature.

[guy]

I finished the course this week..  I quite enjoyed it and it was nice to as active as I wanted to be or not.

I, too, finished the sixth (and final) week of the course.

 

I thought it was a fine review about the scholarship and research involving Hadrian's Wall.

 

The final week initially dealt with Hadrian's Wall during the late fourth and fifth century. A video showed the commanding officer's residence in a fort along the Wall having been converted to a church during this period.

 

The course then followed the fate of the Wall after the fall of the Roman Empire. It also described the research involved in the Wall's excavation and scholarship.

 

Overall, it was a light, usually entertaining review of Hadrian's Wall.

 

 

guy also known as gaius

Edited November 1, 2014 by guy

[GhostOfClayton]

I signed up for this course, but unfortunately the first, second and third weeks coincided with a stint I was spending in New York.  I made a start, but really had no time to give it the attention it deserved.

 

My job in the warehouse has now finished, and I'm starting the course again - it is still available to me.  It will be available again next year as well.

 

So far, I've completed the first 3 weeks and am into the fourth.

 

If I'm honest, I'm slightly disappointed by the level it's pitched at - I was hoping for something a little more in depth.  I'd hoped for more about the wall itself, the extant remains, various theories about them, etc.  It hasn't taught me an awful lot about that area that I didn't know, in fact it hasn't taught me an awful lot I didn't already know in any aspect.  What it did do was offer a fresh perspective to life on the wall, tied together and reinterpreted the things I already knew in ways I hadn't before.

 

I'm enjoying it very much, but for those without a professional interest who missed it last time, my recomendation is to wait for the next time (presumably September again).  I'm missing out on the community, commenting and such like, aspects of it, which would've been really good, I think.

Edited January 2, 2015 by GhostOfClayton

[GhostOfClayton]

I really don't understand the logic behind the answer to 5.13 question 2. Can anyone explain?

[guy]

I really don't understand the logic behind the answer to 5.13 question 2. Can anyone explain?

Was this the question?

 

 

Coin with reverse showing Victory © Portable Antiquities Scheme CC-BY-SA 3.0

 

This coin is probably related to:

 

A. Theodosius’ concerns over the health of his son and heir Arcadius

 

B. An oblique reference to the costs of the civil wars with the usurpers Magnus Maximus and subsequently Eugenius

 

C. An allusion to the dangers of resurgent paganism to the state religion of Christianity

 

D. A reference to the young age of Theodosius heirs, Arcadius and Honorius

 

Both A. & B.

 

Both B. & D.

 

None of the above

 

guy also known as gaius

[GhostOfClayton]

I'm so pleased it wasn't just me.  With all due modesty, I was whizzing my way through all the questions with confident ease, and this one baffled me.  And then I looked at the answer and the explanation . . . and i was still baffled.