The responsibilities related to public religion in Rome – and more precisely to the sacra publica – are carried out by different actors. Magistrates – especially consuls – play an essential role as ...actors of the rites and also because they bring the Senate together to discuss religious issues and are thus at the origin of major religious initiatives and decisions. As for the priests of the major colleges, they also celebrate certain festivals and assist magistrates in their religious functions, but they mainly exercise a specific competence in sacred law jurisprudence.
In this book Philip Bes summarises the results of his PhD thesis (Catholic University of Leuven) on the analysis of production trends and complex, quantified distribution patterns of the principal ...traded sigillatas and slipped table wares in the Roman East, from the early Empire to Late Antiquity (e.g. Italian Sigillata, Eastern Sigillata A, B and C, Çandarli ware, Phocean Red Slip Ware/LRC, Cypriot Red Slip Ware/LRD and African Red Slip Wares). He draws on his own work in Sagalassos and Boeotia, as well as an exhaustive review of archaeological publications of ceramic data. The analysis compares major regional blocks, documenting coastal as well as inland sites, and offers an interpretation of these complex data in terms of the economy and possible distribution mechanisms.
Cette étude permet de déceler par les unités analytiques du paratexte, certains traits idiosyncrasiques des sociétés romanesques cibles. Ils précisent l’arrière fond d’espace et de temps, permettent ...ainsi d’atteindre la socialité. Ces deux structures externes précisent la lutte de ces auteurs pour l’instauration de la vie des valeurs socio-politico-économiques pour le progrès de tous.
Environmental concerns are relatively recent. Ancient armies would have little or no concept that they caused environmental damage. Such armies were ‘eco-warriors’ nevertheless, but in the sense of ...against the ecosystem, not for it. An army’s success may result from marching on its stomach, but what those stomachs produced could also conduct environmental warfare. Surprisingly little has been published about ancient armies’ daily bodily waste – urine and faeces – or the environmental impact where they encamped. An encamping army would cause rapid local and increasingly extending environmental change and devastation. Woodland would be steadily consumed, water security a constant concern, disease from pollution a threat. Food supplies would be sucked into camps from nearby and increasingly further afield. As for a camp’s growing smell, an enemy’s nose would have been more than adequate to find their foe. Using the example of Roman armies in the succession of camps mainly associated with the 2nd century BC campaigns against the Celtiberian city of Numantia, Spain, eye-watering sewage statistics emerge for when an army encamped, and its general environmental impact.
La moneda romana presenta una gran variedad de mensajes iconográficos que muestran la gran relación que hubo entre la religión tradicional, la transmisión de mensajes por parte del Estado y la ...moneda. En este artículo se analizan algunos de estos mensajes y la vinculación existente entre la moneda y el sacrilegio. Para ello se han seleccionado piezas clave dentro de la amonedación romana tardorrepublicana y altoimperial, abarcando un marco cronológico que data, de manera aproximada entre el 133 a.C. y el 192 d.C. y se ha estudiado la vinculación existente entre los tipos expuestos y su contexto sociopolítico.
A programme of archaeological trial trenching and excavation was undertaken by CFA Archaeology Ltd between Maryport (Alavna) Roman Fort and Netherhall Road on the north-eastern outskirts of Maryport ...from 2010 to 2016. The work confirmed the presence of a large sub-square ditched enclosure with two phases of construction, which is interpreted as a Romano-British rural farm site. It contained a variety of pottery deposited in its ditches, dating from the 1st to the 4th century CE. A linear feature, thought to be the line of a Roman road, did not produce definitive evidence of being a Roman road, but a Roman-period cremation cemetery was uncovered adjacent to it. One of the burials excavated held two pottery vessels of mid-3rd-century CE or slightly later date, one of which contained the cremated remains of an adult female along with other finds, while a second burial contained the cremated remains of a young child within a decorated Rhenish beaker.
This paper examines the evidence for climatic changes in the Eastern Mediterranean for the period 200–800 AD and offers hypotheses on the role of climatic fluctuations in the societal developments ...that occurred in this region at the end of Antiquity. The geographical focus of the paper includes Anatolia and the Levant, two major regions of the Eastern Roman Empire that are rich in environmental, historical and archaeological data. The paper starts with the review of current research on the economic, settlement and vegetation history of the Eastern Mediterranean in Late Antiquity, which provides the necessary framework for the study of potential climate impacts. The core of the article is devoted to the analysis of the palaeoclimatic evidence, which is divided in two groups. The first one encompasses the direct evidence, that is palaeoclimate proxies and the textual record of extreme weather events, while the second includes indirect information on climate, in particular multi-proxy studies that include pollen analysis, archaeological evidence, and the historical evidence of subsistence crises. We conclude that during our study period there occurred three periods of substantially different climatic conditions. A late Roman drought ∼350–470 AD was followed by a dramatic shift to much wetter climatic conditions. These in turn changed into increasing dryness after ∼730 AD in Anatolia and ∼670 AD in the Levant. The lack of chronological precision in the dating of the archaeological evidence and of some climatic records makes it impossible at present to make conclusive observations regarding the societal responses to these climatic fluctuations. Nonetheless in all probability, the extended and – in some areas - severe late Roman drought did not cause any major social upheaval or economic decline in Anatolia or the Levant, although it appears to have contributed to a change in patterns of water use in the cities. In contrast, the increased availability of moisture after ∼470 AD does appear to have contributed to the expansion of rural settlement and agriculture into environmentally marginal terrain, including semi-arid areas such as the Negev. In this way climate probably contributed to the general economic prosperity of the late Roman Empire in the east of the Mediterranean basin. The end of this late Roman world system came about finally in mid-7th c. and, at least in Anatolia, is not directly associated with any shift in climatic conditions. Aridity during early Medieval times may be one of the main factors behind the gradual long-term decline of settlement on the marginal lands in the Levant following Islamic conquest.
•We review different types of evidence for climate change in Anatolia and the Levant.•A drought (~350–470AD) contributed to local famines and a change in urban water use.•A wetter period after ~470 AD correlates with settlement expansion in arid lands.•Another drier phase occurred already after the crisis caused by the Arab invasions.•It contributed to the long-term settlement decline in some parts of the region.
In ancient Rome, it was believed some humans were transformed into special, empowered beings after death. These deified dead, known as the manes, watched over and protected their surviving family ...members, possibly even extending those relatives’ lives. But unlike the Greek hero-cult, the worship of dead emperors, or the Christian saints, the manes were incredibly inclusive—enrolling even those without social clout, such as women and the poor, among Rome's deities. The Roman afterlife promised posthumous power in the world of the living. While the manes have often been glossed over in studies of Roman religion, this book brings their compelling story to the forefront, exploring their myriad forms and how their worship played out in the context of Roman religion’s daily practice. Exploring the place of the manes in Roman society, Charles King delves into Roman beliefs about their powers to sustain life and bring death to individuals or armies, examines the rituals the Romans performed to honor them, and reclaims the vital role the manes played in the ancient Roman afterlife.
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