Roman Resources

[phlebas]

That was what his Christian enemies accused him of - in fact, what he attempted to introduce
was a sophisticated monotheism rooted in the Neoplatonism of Plotinus -
a very different matter from the old Roman gods. That article is amusing,
but I think it exaggerates that 'eccentricity' of Julian's beliefs,
as they are expressed in his surviving writings as opposed to the propaganda of his enemies,
and it uses 'paganism' as a catch-all term for any beliefs and religious pracitces
other than Christian or Jewish.

Eul, didn't you get the memo? We no longer live in rational, evidence based times.

On a separate note, I found this little pic interesting, the contrast between (recruitment) propaganda and reality

 

[phlebas]

Another crucifixion victim may have been found

https://weirditaly.com/2018/06/05/c...nd-case-in-the-world-was-discovered-in-italy/

 

[Eulalia]

As often, the abstract of the report suggests a shift from the very cautious 'a possible cause... but...'
to a confident assertion that the finding 'provides insight...'

'Crucifixion is a cruel method of execution. This capital punishment was perfected during the Roman Empire. Despite being a frequent practice, there is only one well-documented anthropological case of crucifixion in the world at the Jerusalem burial cave (Giv’at ha-Mivtar, first century AD). We found a particular lesion on the foot of a skeleton from an isolated Roman burial discovered by excavation in 2007 in northern Italy. Here we suggest crucifixion as a possible cause of the lesion, but this interpretation is complicated by the poor preservation of the bone surfaces and the damage and holes in other skeletal parts. To assess the biological identity of the deceased and the possible effects of ante-mortem violence on this subject, we performed an integrated (anthropological, taphonomic, and genetic) analysis of the remains. Burials showing evidence of violence or deviant burials may shed new light on past human societies. In this case, our interdisciplinary approach provides insight into a particular form of capital punishment.'

As with the Jerusalem find, I'd reserve judgement, it may 'provide insight' - but anyway it's certainly interesting.

 

[Apostate]

Another crucifixion victim may have been found

https://weirditaly.com/2018/06/05/c...nd-case-in-the-world-was-discovered-in-italy/

There hasn’t been a rush to produce reconstructions of how this poor sod looked on a cross. But if memory serves it took several years before they came out with the first drawings of the luckless Jehohanan, and those have been revised considerably since.

 

[Praefectus Praetorio]

Can anyone recommend any mainstream novels set in Ancient Rome that feature graphic depictions of crucifixions or slave punishments? Or maybe just Roman novels that are generally very realistic and graphic?

The Roma Sub Rosa series by Steven Saylor. Interesting detective/mysteries set in late Republican Rome with decent attention to authenticity. Not particularly graphic, but good detail of Roman life. The first in the series, Roman Blood, details the punishment for patricide, a scary description for most males!

 

[phlebas]

Not quite Roman, but classical - an amazing find and great photo

https://www.theguardian.com/science...cient-greek-discovered-at-bottom-of-black-sea

 

[windar]

All those classical white marble sculptures weren't really white, they were painted. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/29/the-myth-of-whiteness-in-classical-sculpture?

 

[Apostate]

All those classical white marble sculptures weren't really white, they were painted. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/29/the-myth-of-whiteness-in-classical-sculpture?

I liked one of the comments in that article.

For many people, the colors are jarring because their tones seem too gaudy or opaque. In 2008, Fabio Barry, an art historian who is now at Stanford, complained that a boldly colored re-creation of a statue of the Emperor Augustus at the Vatican Museum looked “like a cross-dresser trying to hail a taxi.”

 

[thehangingtree]

I liked one of the comments in that article.

For many people, the colors are jarring because their tones seem too gaudy or opaque. In 2008, Fabio Barry, an art historian who is now at Stanford, complained that a boldly colored re-creation of a statue of the Emperor Augustus at the Vatican Museum looked “like a cross-dresser trying to hail a taxi.”

We have a few of them in certain areas of the flight-over state...

 

[Apostate]

We have a few of them in certain areas of the flight-over state...

So it would seem.

https://www.crossdressers.com/arkansas-crossdressers

 

[Praefectus Praetorio]

error

 

[thehangingtree]

So it would seem.

https://www.crossdressers.com/arkansas-crossdressers

 

[Praefectus Praetorio]

I liked one of the comments in that article.

For many people, the colors are jarring because their tones seem too gaudy or opaque. In 2008, Fabio Barry, an art historian who is now at Stanford, complained that a boldly colored re-creation of a statue of the Emperor Augustus at the Vatican Museum looked “like a cross-dresser trying to hail a taxi.”

Notice my, mostly White uniform is stately with touches of gray and purple. "Praetorians, not a cross-dresser in the Guard"

 

[Marcius]

So it would seem.

https://www.crossdressers.com/arkansas-crossdressers

'Romance Crossdressers, Rose Bud Crossdressers, Rosie Crossdressers' -- gotta love the alphabetic order and porny Arkansan toponymics.

'Story Crossdressers, Strawberry Crossdressers, Strong Crossdressers'. No doubt.

 

[Eulalia]

It's certainly true that sculptures and other monuments and architectural features were brightly coloured in Classical times -
and in medieval churches too, which would probably look as alarmingly gaudy to modern western, especially Protestant, eyes
as Hindu temples often do. I think the charge in the article that the assumption of whiteness was due to white racism is a bit facile,
it's trotted out so readily at every excuse to signal political correctness. In any case, not all the statues were white marble,
although that was favoured, other colours of marble, as well as bronze, were popular at different times.
I think it may be more to the point that museums and art schools (often closely linked in the 18th - 19th centuries)
were stocked with replicas made from plaster casts, and these were left uncoloured, so that's what students and the general public got to see.

 

[Eulalia]

Incidentally, I've seen today notice of publication of a new volume
of the Journal of Medieval Clothing and Textiles. Among the articles in it,
' revelations that fashions in body hair were an important feature of women's appearance.'
Again, not strictly Roman, but it suggests that full Brazilians and suchlike
have been around longer than you might suppose!

 

[Praefectus Praetorio]

Incidentally, I've seen today notice of publication of a new volume
of the Journal of Medieval Clothing and Textiles. Among the articles in it,
' revelations that fashions in body hair were an important feature of women's appearance.'
Again, not strictly Roman, but it suggests that full Brazilians and suchlike
have been around longer than you might suppose!

I read that archaeologists found the first animal bone comb carved by Neanderthals was encrusted with female pubic hair. I'll have to find and post the article.

 

[Praefectus Praetorio]

Again, not strictly Roman, but it suggests that full Brazilians and suchlike
have been around longer than you might suppose!

I believe that there is good archaeological evidence of Brazilian people well before the Rise of Rome. Geeze, Eul, I thought you knew history better.

 

[Marcius]

Incidentally, I've seen today notice of publication of a new volume
of the Journal of Medieval Clothing and Textiles. Among the articles in it,
' revelations that fashions in body hair were an important feature of women's appearance.'
Again, not strictly Roman, but it suggests that full Brazilians and suchlike
have been around longer than you might suppose!

A few words on the subject by Mireille M. Lee in Body, Dress, and Identity in Ancient Greece (Cambridge University Press, 2015), pp. 79, 81.

Marilyn Skinner has argued that “it was customary for Greek and Roman prostitutes to depilate their pubic areas, in contrast to other women, presumably respectable matrons, who did not do so. In both cultures, the practice thus becomes a regular source of bawdy humor.”210 On the other hand, D. M. Bain contends that “depilation of the pubic region, whether complete or virtually complete, was part of the toilet of any Greek woman who had pretensions to smartness or glamour.”211 On a functional level, depilation may have been employed to combat pubic lice (crabs), which are mentioned by various medical writers, and which have been preserved archaeologically in Roman Britain (though not in early Greece).212 Perhaps depilation was first practiced by hetairai, and spread (together with the lice?) to housewives.213

 

[Eulalia]

I believe that there is good archaeological evidence of Brazilian people well before the Rise of Rome. Geeze, Eul, I thought you knew history better.

Yeah, but did they shave their pubes?