Innholdsfortegnelse for AH 52 i Ancient History Magazine

EDITORIAL - A CORE ROMAN TERRITORY ON THE FRONTIER I don't think it is controversial to say that the region of North Africa, specifically the areas west of the western Egyptian desert, is one of the most overlooked parts of the Roman Empire. This is in spite of its continued importance after having been gradually incorporated over the second and first centuries BC. The region possibly had a greater density of official cities than any other region of the empire, save perhaps Italy; it provided much-needed grain to the people of Rome; it had a strong early Christian community; and it has some of the most impressive ruins from anywhere in the Empire. In this issue, we have endeavoured to give you a broad introductory overview to some of the…

The remains of a man, buried in the first half of the fourth century AD, have been uncovered in an early Alemannic grave by archaeologists working in southern Germany. Radiocarbon dating of one of the man's ribs has confirmed that he likely died between AD 263 and 342, aged around 60. The Alemanni were a confederation of Germanic peoples living on the Upper Rhine River during the first millennium AD. They captured the Roman Agri Decumates frontier region in AD 260, and subsequently moved into present-day Alsace and northern Switzerland. The grave was found in the village of Gerstetten during a rescue excavation on Bismarckstraße carried out by ArchaeoBW on behalf of the State Office for Monument Preservation (LAD). The wooden chamber grave was notable for its elaborate construction and…

New excavations of a necropolis in Egypt have revealed how wealthy many of the people buried there were. Archaeologists working at Tal al-Deir in Damietta, Egypt, have uncovered 63 ancient tombs. They date back more than 2500 years, spanning Egypt's 26th Dynasty (664–525 BC) right through to the Roman and Byzantine periods (AD 284–641). Gold artefacts, coins, and pottery were found in the tombs. Among the discoveries were funerary amulets and ushabti statues designed to accompany the dead in the afterlife. The excavation also revealed 38 bronze coins from the Ptolemaic era (305–30 BC), stored within a ceramic vase. The funerary techniques used in the cemetery ranged from simple pit burials to more elaborate mud-brick structures. This, coupled with the range of finds – including gold objects – hints at…

SPECIAL SUN WORSHIP IN BRONZE AGE DENMARK The Trundholm Sun Chariot is relatively small. The two bronze discs that the horse is pulling are only 25 cm in diameter, rising to 29 cm when lifted between a pair of spoked wheels. The two discs are decorated in a nearlyidentical pattern that alternates between decorated bands and rings composed of concentric circles. Each of these circles can be seen as miniatures of the disc as a whole, since they are also filled with spirals. The disc gilded in gold leaf amplifies this sense of movement. It is hard not to see the repeated patterns of circles and rings winding out and back in on themselves as a reflection of the sun's course through the days and seasons of the year. However, the…

The ancient sources paint a varied picture of the land of North Africa. Herodotus, for example, writing in the mid-fifth century BC, tells of how the western regions of Libya (that is, North Africa) was a wooded land home to farmers and wild beasts (4.191). The latter of which, by the late first century BC, appears to have become North Africa's most famous feature. According to Vitruvius, Africa was the “mother of wild animals” (On Architecture 8.3.24), while Horace calls Mauretania “the dry-nurse of lions” (Odes 1.22.15–16). This reputation was almost certainly the result of the Romans’ desire for beasts to appear in the arena (see Ball in AH 48). An anonymous fragment of the Palatine Anthology, dated to the early Empire, rejoices at how Africa was emptied of dangerous…

Ramesses III was the second king of the 20th Dynasty and ruled for 31 years, from approximately 1184 to 1153 BC. He inherited the throne upon the death of his father, Setnakht, who was not related to the family line of Ramesses II in the preceding Nineteenth Dynasty. Instead, Setnakht had seized power during the declining years of Queen Tausret's rule, or possibly during a brief period of unrest after her death, thus establishing the 20th Dynasty, but he did not live long after taking the throne. Upon coming to power, Ramesses III had to squash threats at Egypt's borders, beginning with fighting back the Libyans in his fifth regnal year. His numerous victories are displayed on his impressive mortuary temple and portray him as a mighty and heroic king.…

SPECIAL VOICES AND REPRESENTATION In the Odyssey, when Calypso and Circe – two women connected with Odysseus’ journey home – are introduced, they are weaving on their looms and singing (5.61, 10.221). Although we don't have any reference to what their songs would be like, this becomes one of the earliest references to weaving songs and the centrality that music would have to women's daily lives. Similarly, when Nausicaa and her companions first meet Odysseus, after they go out to wash clothes, the Odyssey makes a reference to this ‘down time’ when the girls would wait for their clothes to dry, a time when Nausicaa started a song and dance (6.101). In a fragment that etymologizes the origin of iambic poetry, Hipponax coined the term from a certain Iambe, an old…

LIVING LIKE AN ANCIENT BROTHELS IN ANCIENT ROME Prostitution in Rome suffered from the same double standard as other professions whose members were socially branded with the stigma of infamia. Just as the owner of a squad of gladiators suffered no social penalty for owning his troupe, brothel owners, who were often wealthy aristocrats, were likewise exempt from such stigma. Those who patronized brothels also suffered no stigma, as Cicero argued in his Pro Caelia. However, the prostitutes themselves, as well as those employed to run the brothels for the owners, were infames. Selling sex Sex was sold like any other merchandise in the commercial area of the city. One such establishment in Pompeii was a two-story building with tavern-like facilities on the lower floor. The prostitutes worked from small windowless…

What is being described as the first known painted throne room of a powerful seventhcentury-AD Moche woman has been discovered at Pañamarca in Peru. The room, dubbed the ‘Hall of the Moche Imaginary’, is adorned with intricate painted scenes on its walls, pillars, and throne. According to Lisa Trever, associate professor at Columbia University, who is part of the team studying the site, the artwork depicts a Moche hero, likely the god Ai Apaec, fighting monsters, along with scenes of spinning, weaving, and a powerful woman, who is associated with the crescent moon. The prominence of the woman's image, particularly one seated on a ceremonial chair similar to the actual painted one, suggests that the throne was used by a real woman – or a lineage of women – who…

SPECIAL PASSPORTS FOR THE DEAD OR RITUAL TOOLS FOR THE LIVING? Ovid recounts the story of Orpheus’ love and loss of Eurydice, his wife, in the Metamorphoses. Orpheus loves Eurydice so much that, after she dies from a snake bite, he follows her down to the underworld to bring her back. He plays the lyre so exquisitely and movingly that the rulers of the afterlife, Hades and Persephone, allow him to lead Eurydice back to the world of the living on the condition he doesn't turn back to look at her. But he breaks his promise and loses her forever. This romantic, tragic story has never quite gone out of style. Mosaics featuring Orpheus have been found across the Roman world, generally depicting him pacifying wild beasts with his sweet music.…

Surviving in a number of inscriptions from the Bagradas valley, near Carthage, dating from the reign of Trajan to Septimius Severus, the lex Manciana is a law governing lease agreements in Roman Africa. According to the law, tenants were in a sharecropping agreement in which they must pay one third of their agricultural output, an amount that could not be increased; the tenants were also expected to assist tax collectors in clearing new land for cultivation. The precise origins of the lex Manciana are unknown, but there are several theories. The most likely candidate for the man responsible for the law is one Curtilius Mancia, although in what capacity he formulated the law is disputed. It is possible that Mancia was sent by Nero or Vespasian to Roman Africa to…

As impressive as the building record of Lepcis Magna is, the many villas that line the coast nearby are a better indicator of the city's wealth. The most famous of these villas – the Villa Nile and the Villa Selene – were built in the early second century AD, just after Trajan had made Lepcis Magna a colonia, possibly indicating a new influx of wealth with the city's new status. These villas house some of the most well-preserved mosaics and wall paintings from anywhere in the Roman world. The prevalence of fishing and gladiatorial scenes in these villas possibly highlights two important elements of daily life in the city.…

The term ‘harem’ conjures images of veiled women lounging in incense-filled rooms, often dressed in revealing clothing, segregated from the outside world. However, this image, if it can be applied to any historical period without being stripped of its elements of Orientalist fantasy, most closely pertains to the Ottoman harem. As such, there is good reason to question the use of ‘harem’ in reference to ancient Egypt. There was, of course, a royal women's quarters in ancient Egypt, referred to as ipt nsw, and Egyptian pharaohs were polygamous, taking multiple wives. Yet the Egyptian ‘harem’, while housing the pharaoh's wives and children, among other women,, was also an administrative unit, nor were the women isolated from the outside world. Given the connotations the term carries, as well as its differences…

SPECIAL THE ARABIAN PENINSULA'S RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY The Arabian Peninsula is an enormously large land mass. Despite its vastness, Arabia was not cut off from the wider world. Trade routes crisscrossed between Arabia's most important settlements and beyond, bringing new goods and ideas into the region. Who was an Arab? Arabia on the eve of Islam was a multiethnic and multilingual place. Many inhabitants of the Peninsula spoke Arabic, but there were also speakers of South Arabian languages, Aramaic, Greek, and Ethiopic (to name only those which we have tangible evidence of). The definition, and extent, of Arab identity before Islam remains somewhat unclear. However, we can say, based on the surviving evidence, that it was not common in pre-Islamic times to self-identify as Arab; instead, tribal and regional social identifications appear…

Between Sahara and Sea Africa in the Roman Empire By David J. Mattingly ISBN: 978-0472133451 University of Michigan Press (2023) - $44.95 www.press.umich.edu North Africa, despite not having nearly so great a modern cultural footprint as, say, Britain, was an incredibly important part of the Roman Empire. Its grain fed the Roman people, its horses raced in the Circus Maximus, its people served in the Roman army and ascended to the upper echelons of imperial administration. It was, in Mattingly's words, “a critical driver of the Empire” (p. 3). However, according to Mattingly, discussions of the region and its role in the Roman Empire have been lacking, and “tended to present a view of Africa seen from an outside, essentially Roman, perspective” (p. xix), favouring the military communities and a…

The ancients believed there was a connection between Orphism and Pythagoreanism, with some claiming that Pythagoras contributed to Orphism, even that he wrote the first teachings of Orphism. Of course, both Orphism and Pythagoreanism share certain elements in their philosophies. For example, both Orpheus and Pythagoras are said to have studied in Egypt, although this is a common motif for ‘wise men’ in ancient Greece. Additionally, both philosophies involved some kind of reincarnation. Both philosophies also had dietary restrictions. A mention of adherents of Orpheus in Euripides’ Hippolytus eating no living thing (952–4) suggests, in the fifth century BC, followers of Orphism may have been vegetarians, possibly the ‘Orphic life’ mentioned by Plato (Laws 782c); the evidence is not so clear-cut for Pythagoreans, with Pythagoras variable being said to eat…

Modern maps of North Africa offer a clear representation of the course of the Roman frontier: a sinewy defensive line stretches across it in three broken sections, across southern Numidia, with a fourth clinging to the eastern foothills of the Hodna Mountains in eastern Mauretania. Known to modern archaeologists as the fossatum Africae, this wall-and-ditch system was first established in the earlysecond century AD, and it seems to have remained in use until at least the early fifth century (when the emperor Honorius issued laws regarding its upkeep). In some stretches, especially around Maserfelta and Gemellae, the wall was studded with forts and watchtowers, and the complex as a whole was relatively close to the main base of the Legio III Augusta at Lambaesis – the principal military presence in…

THEME: Roman North Africa THEME BUILDING THE SEVERAN DYNASTY Septimius Severus was born to a Punic family in the city of Lepcis Magna in Tripolitania. While the city was on the fringes of the Roman Empire, it was fully integrated into Roman culture. His career seems to have been typical of a Roman senator, gradually occupying increasingly important positions in the Roman magistracy. In AD 191, he was appointed to govern the military province of Pannonia Superior. In AD 193, after the murder of Pertinax, he was proclaimed emperor by the legion in Pannonia Superior, and he marched on Rome, prompting the Senate and Praetorian Guard to assassinate Didius Julianus, who had bought the throne from the Praetorians, leaving Septimius to face two rivals – Clodius Albinus, governor of Britain, and Pescennius…

THEME: Roman North Africa THEME SCHISMATICS, HERETICS, MARTYRS The first of these conflicts pitted two Christian factions against each other over the election of the bishop of Carthage, the regional capital, following the death of Mensurius in the early fourth century AD. The bishopric of Carthage was a powerful position at the head of the regional church, especially since Constantine had started sending funds to reverse the effects of the recent ‘Great’ Persecution of Diocletian that targeted Christians in North Africa from AD 303 to 307 (although the chronology is unclear on exactly when it ended). Mensurius’ deacon, Caecilianus, was quickly elected as his successor, and as a result he soon had to face a coalition of opponents that proved particularly entrenched in their position. This coalition was formed of three main…

Assassination attempts on monarchs were not unheard of in Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean. Based on a literary work dating to the Middle Kingdom that presents the ghost of an assassinated king named Ameny giving advice to his son who is now king, scholars have proposed that this story refers to a real historical event. Ameny could be a shortened version of the name Amenemhat, the first king of the Twelfth Dynasty, and the son could be his progeny Senwosret I. However, there is no other known evidence that Amenemhat I was assassinated. During the Hyksos war in the Seventeenth Dynasty, it appears that king Seqenenre Tao was captured and then executed by the Hyksos soldiers. This is corroborated by his skeletal remains that show wounds from Hyksos axes that…

The conversion of the Himyarite Kingdom to Judaism in the fourth century AD was not a straightforward affair. For example, Philostorgius, a Roman ecclesiastical historian, wrote of how Theophilius the Indian, a Christian missionary, was sent to Himyar by Constantius II and successfully converted the people (Ecclesiastical History 3.4). Furthermore, the monotheism of the Himyarites shares features with early Aksumite Christianity. Indeed, scholars have termed the monotheistic religion adopted in Himyar as Rahamanism, after the term for their god, Rhmnm, which is possibly distinct from both Judaism and Christianity. It is possible that this form of monotheism evolved under the influence of Jews within the Himyarite kingdom. In the same passage that describes Theophilius the Indian's mission, Philostorgius records how Jews lived among the Himyarites. Some of these Jews, according…

SACRED VIOLENCE: AFRICAN CHRISTIANS AND SECTARIAN HATRED IN THE AGE OF AUGUSTINE By Brent D. Shaw Cambridge University Press, 2011 ISBN: 978-0521196055 Brent Shaw is one of the foremost experts on Christianity in the Roman Empire, and in Sacred Violence he turns to the Donatist Controversy, examining the literary and archaeological sources in close detail, to understand the religious, social, and political roots of this violent and long-lasting Christian conflict in North Africa. FRONTIER AND SOCIETY IN ROMAN AFRICA By David Cherry Clarendon Press, 1998 ISBN: 978-0198152354 Africa in the Roman Empire was a diverse place, both culturally and environmentally, with large cities, pastoralist groups, rich agricultural land, and arid deserts. In this book, Cherry explores the fronter in Roman Africa, the place where this diversity intersected, exploring how different…