Roman History Quiz (4 September 2024) - PDF

Living in the Roman world Reminder ** Quiz I (20 marks) 4 September 2024 Multiple choices Don’t forget to bring 2B pencil ** Corrections **  Entertainment in the Roman world Roman interregional trade Cultural legacy Entertainment in the Roman world Gladiatorial fights Beast...

Living in the Roman world Reminder ** Quiz I (20 marks) 4 September 2024 Multiple choices Don’t forget to bring 2B pencil ** Corrections **  Entertainment in the Roman world Roman interregional trade Cultural legacy Entertainment in the Roman world Gladiatorial fights Beast hunt (venationes) Naval combat (naumachia) Chariot races Athletic contests Bath Gladiator Dodge (2002), 224. Life, death and entertainment in the Roman Empire: ‘Gladiatorial games (munera) had a completely different origin from the ludi. They seem to have developed in connection with aristocratic funeral games. Tertullian wrote at the end of the second century AD that ‘men believed that souls of the dead were propitiated by human blood, and so at funerals they sacrificed prisoners of war or slave of poor quality bought for the purpose’ The first recorded gladiatorial show in the city of Rome is attributed to the ex-consul D. Iunius Brutus Pera and his brother in 264 BC. They held games in the forum Boarium in honor of their father; three pairs of gladiators took part (Velerius Maximus Memorable Deeds and sayings 2.4.7)’.  Gour nin Ludi: a public show staged as the fulfillment of a vow to deity (public event) organized by the state. Show including horse races, animal exhibitions and theatrical performances Thai Ine Munera: private event organized by individuals, the show ↳ including gladiatorial fight. Funeral games enoese metto , , Ad In Gladiator  Gladiatorial fights Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum 4.4999 (Pompeii): ‘Marcus Cesellius Marcellus, a W v good aedile and a great sponsor of gladiatorial games’ Plutarch, Julius Caesar 5: ‘As aedile, he put on a show involving 320 pairs of gladiators … The result of all this was to make the populace so favourably disposed towards him that every man among them was trying to find new offices and new honours to bestow upon him in return for what he had done’. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/gladiators/gladiators.html  Beast hunt: The Great Hunt Mosaic · us i , I us on brin sim Villa Romana del Casale di Piazza Amerina namipunan = Connection Authority Ads Ability https://mused.com/items/9321/la-caccia-the-great-hunt-mosaic/ Bath Fagan (2002), 45. Bathing in public in the Roman world: ‘For the Romans, bathing was a social event. The abundant physical remains of public baths stand in eloquent testimony to this fact and are found in almost every type of Rome settlement, from cities, towns, and hamlets to religious sanctuaries and frontier forts’. Fagan (2002), 45. Bathing in public in the Roman world: ‘In several passages, Plautus – whose plays constitute the earliest body of extant latin literature – refers to baths and bathing as habitual elements in the day-to-day life of Rome. The playwright alludes to slaves waiting for their masters to return from the baths, the danger of thievery at the baths, and renegade slaves squandering their master’s money on bathing’.  Stabian bath: Pompeii (2nd century BC) Turn minzig was https://pompeiisites.org/en/archaeological-site/stabian-baths/ CIL 11.720 win Bath anntturmte The spread of baths in Italy during the Roman period A 30BC BS0 BC Fagan (2002) Bathing in public in the Roman world Roman long- distance trade O Rome and its long-distance connections https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo- Roman_trade_relations#/media/File :Indo-Roman_trade.jpg Long-distance connection The Periplus written in Greek (first-century AD): logbook describing about sailing itineraries, where to exchange products in the East and when to set sail India Pliny’s the Natural History (first-century AD): trace the origins of eastern products ie. Pepper, cinnamon, ginger Strabo’s the Geography (first-century AD): geographer from Asia Minor, encyclopedic guide to the ancient world Miscussion Now. Ptolemy’s the Geography (second-century AD): compiling world geographical knowledge, cartography Hou Hanshu (second-century AD): describe about the arrival of the Roman ambassadors to China, Roman products imported to China wonmrivisati The Periplus (first-century AD) The Periplus 55: ‘There is another place at the mouth of this river, the village of Bacare; to which ships drop down on the outward voyage from Nelcynda, and anchor in the roadstead to take on their cargoes; because the river is full of shoals and the channels are not clear. The kings of both these market-towns live in the interior. And as a sign to those approaching these places from the sea there are serpents coming forth to meet you, black in color, but shorter, like snakes in the head, and with blood-red eyes’. Pliny’s the Natural History (first-century AD): cinnamon Pliny Natural History 12.63: ‘In Syria, too, is produced that kind of cinnamon which is also known as comacum. This is a juice which is extracted from a nut, and very different from the extract of the real cinnamomum, though it somewhat resembles it in its agreeable smell. The price at which it sells is forty asses per pound’. Ginger Pliny Natural History 12: ‘Ginger is grown on farms in Arabia and Cave-dwellers’ Country; it is a small plant with a white root. The plant is liable to bein decay very quickly, in spite of its extreme pungency. Its price is six denarii a pound’. Pepper Pliny Natural History 12.14.2: ‘It is easy to adulterate long pepper with Alexandrian mustard. Long pepper is sold at 15 denarii a pound, white pepper at 7, and black at 4. It is remarkable that the use of pepper has come so much into favour, as in the case of some commodities their sweet taste has been an attraction, and in others their appearance, but pepper has nothing to recommend it in either fruit or berry. To think that its only pleasing quality is pungency and that we go all the way to India to get this! …Both pepper and ginger grow wild in their own countries, and nevertheless they are bought by weight like gold or silver’.  Strabo the Geography Book XV, Chapter 1: ‘Of the elephants captured, they reject those that are too old or too young for service and lead away the rest to the Strabo’s the stalls; and then, having tied their feet to one another and their necks to a firmly planted pillar, they subdue them by Geography hunger; and then they restore them with green cane and grass. After this the elephants are taught to obey (first-century commands, some through words of command and others through being charmed by tunes and drum-beating. Those AD): that are hard to tame are rare; for by nature the elephant is of a mild and gentle disposition, so that it is close to a rational animal; and some elephants have even taken up their riders who had fallen from loss of blood in the fight and carried them safely out of the battle, while others have fought for, and rescued, those who had crept between their fore-legs. And if in anger they have killed one of their feeders or masters, they yearn after him so strongly that through grief they abstain from food and sometimes even starve themselves to death’. Strabo the Geography Book XV, Chapter 1: ‘Nearchus says that the skins of gold-mining ants are like those of leopards. ursion But Megasthenes speaks of these ants as follows: that among the Derdae, a large tribe of Indians living towards the east and in the mountains, there is a plateau approximately three thousand stadia in circuit, and that below it are gold mines, of which the miners are ants, animals that are no smaller than foxes, are surpassingly swift, and live on the prey they catch. They dig holes in winter and heap up the earth at the mouths of the holes, like moles’. Map depicting ancient empires between 800 BCE – 100 CE (After Liu 2010, 2) India juzentrus Strabo II.5.12: ‘At any rate, when Gallus was prefect of Egypt, I accompanied him and ascended the Nile as far as Syene and the ①Q frontiers of Ethiopia, and I learned that as many as one hundred and twenty vessels were sailing from Myos Hormos to India, whereas formerly, under the Ptolemies, only a Slashed Roman coinage from India very few ventured to undertake the After: Turner 1989, 143. voyage and to carry on traffic in Indian merchandise’. China The Periplus 64: ‘After this region under the very north, the sea outside ending in a land called This, there is a very great inland city called Thinae [i.e. China], from which raw silk and silk yarn and silk cloth are brought on foot through Bactria to Barygaza, and are also exported to Damirica [=Limyrike] by way of the river Ganges. But the land of This is not easy of access; few men come from there, and seldom. The country lies under the Lesser Bear [Ursa Minor], and is said to border on the farthest parts of Pontus and the Caspian Sea, next to which lies Lake Maeotis; all of which empty into the ocean’ https://www.orientations.com.hk/highlights/rome-and-china-endpoints-of- the-ancient-silk-roads  ietstr https://www.orientations.com.hk/highlights/rome-and- china-endpoints-of-the-ancient-silk-roads Glass mosaic jar Provenance: Eastern Mediterranean produced between second and first century BC https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collec tion/search/245691  Sidebotham (2011), 185 Berenike and the ancient maritime spice route: ‘Artifacts, and floral and faunal evidence, indicate that Myos Hormos imported many items from the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean regions in Roman times. Some imports were for local consumption; most were for onward transit. Indian-made sailcloth and textiles, fine Indian tableware and cooking pots, coconut, black peppercorns, and rice. Residents of Myos Hormos probably included Indians who resided there for mercantile purposes’.  ‘At the very lowest computation, India, the Seres, and the Arabian Peninsula, withdraw from our empire one hundred millions of sesterces every year—so dearly do we pay for our luxury and our women’. Pliny, Natural History 12.41. ‘It is an important subject, in view of the fact that in no year does India absorb less than fifty million sesterces of our empire’s wealth, sending back merchandise to be sold with us at a hundred times its prime cost’. Pliny, Natural History 6.101. Cultural legacy  Architecture Colosseum: Construction began during Vespasian in 72 AD Roman roads ↳ ar https://www.worldhistory.org/article/758/roman-roads/  Mond wor on Etruscan Cloaca Maxima (Greatest Sewer): Rome earliest sewage system nowns https://omrania.com/inspiration/urban-water-systems-the-great-sewer-of-ancient-rome/ Roman Aqueduct vss https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/roman-aqueducts/ Religion: Christianity  Christianity Gwynn (2015), 1-2. Christianity in the later Roman Empire:‘The early history of Christianity is inseparable from the history of the Roman empire. Jesus Christ was born in the time of Augustus, the first emperor of Rome (31 bc–ad 14). He was crucified during the reign of misms Jus Augustus’ successor Tiberius (ad 14–37), at the command - of Pontius Pilate the Roman governor of Judaea’. - · m - Origin: First-century AD in Judea, part of the Roman Empire Neronian persecution (54-68 AD): Fire of Rome 18 July 64 CE, the death of saint Peter &Nus Diocletianic persecution or the Great persecution: 303 AD Diocletian Edicts Todr : Ud  Saint Peter (crucified in Rome during ⑭ Nero at the time of the great fire of Rome (64AD) Peter Paul Rubens Date: 1610 - 1612 Style: Baroque Genre: religious painting Media: oil, panel https://www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul- rubens/saint-peter-1612  Tacitus, Annals 15.44.3-6 (second century AD): ‘To get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Their originator, Christus, had been executed in Tiberius’reign by the procurator of Judaea, Pontius Pilate. But the wicked superstition, though temporarily checked, broke out again and not only in Judea where the evil had begun but even in Rome where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their cenre and become popular. First those who confessed themselves Christians were arrested. Then, on their information, a multitude of others were condemned, not so much for the crime of arson as for hatred of human race. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beats, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were crucified, or were doomed to the flames and burnt to illuminate the night when daylight failed’. Nero's Torches Artist Siemiradzki, Henryk Date: 1876 Technique: oil painting The National Museum in Krakow sus Krakow museum: https://zbiory.mnk.pl/en/catalog/269717  Pliny the Younger, Letter 10.96, to Trajan: ‘In the meantime this is the course that I have taken with those who were brought before me on the charge of being Christian. I asked them if they were Christians, and if they confessed, I Roman’s repeated the question a second and third time with threats of punishment. If they persisted, I view ordered them to be led away for execution, for what I was convinced that whatever admission they had their stubbornness and unbending obstinacy out to be punished’. Christian’s view Tertullian, Apology 50.13: ‘Nothing is accomplished by your cruelties, however exquisite. It is rather a temptation that draws men to us. The more we are cut down by you, the more we grow in number; the blood of Christians is seed’.  Gwynn (2015), 15. Christianity in the later Roman Empire: ‘the third century AD was a period of turmoil for the Roman empire. During these years of crisis and uncertainty, some began to question their faith in the traditional gods while others sought an explanation for what had brought down the god’s wrath. It was against this background that the first empire-wid attacks upon Christianity were unleashed under the emperors Decius and Valerian in the 250s’.  Gwynn (2015), vii. Christianity in the later Roman Empire: ‘The fourth century was a time of revolution for Christianity and the Later Roman empire alike. The Great Persecution, unleashed by the emperor Diocletian in 303, failed to break the Church and in 312 Constantine became the first Roman emperor to convert to the Christian faith. Constantine’s reign brought new privileges and responsibilities for the Church, and in the decades that followed Christianity established itself as the dominant religion of the empire’.  Language: Latin https://education.nationalgeogra phic.org/resource/language- family/  Wedding Ceremony (confarreatio) - Dexiosis (Greek) or dextrarum iunctio joining of right hands Ricks (2006), 432 Dexiosis and Dextrarum Iunctio: The Sacred Handclasp in the Classical and Early Christian World ‘The depiction of the dextrarum iunctio was highly popular in Roman art. In the Roman world, the right hand was sacred to Fides, the deity of fidelity. The clasping of the right hand was a solemn gesture of mutual fidelity and loyalty at the conclusion of an agreement or contract, the taking of an oath of allegiance’ Gre = Ricks (2006), 431-433. Dexiosis and Dextrarum Iunctio: The Sacred Handclasp in the Classical and Early Christian World