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The node centered by the volume deals with the political-cultural ties between the late medieval german emperors and the plural world of the Italian humanists. Particularly, conveying a double and corresponding line of exchanges between North and South of the Alps, the point was re-focused over emperor’s presence and their retinues in the peninsula as the fulcrum of this long-term exchange. Thus, new perspectives open up regarding spaces and men involved in this political experience. Regional spaces more in contact than others with the imperial presence and the collection of sources, on the basis of macro-areas in the wake of Peter Moraw’s scheme, are very useful tools to adapt our knowledge of the multiple links between emperors and Reichsitalien, not only in the 14th century and in the previous two centuries (12th-13th) but also for the crucial subsequent period (15th-16th) – considering the entire autumn of the Medieval Empire and, at the same time, the Renaissance – still relatively little focused on by the new research fields. In order to include these centuries as well, Moraw’s thesis should be proficiently reconsidered,

This essay responds briefly to contributions by Éloïse Adde-Michel Margue, Étienne Doublier and Giovanni Francesco Contel discussing the volume Emperors and imperial discourse in Italy.

When Augustus died, the imperial cults were wide spread all over the Mediterranean. Considering that point, it is important to recall how the divine and divinizing words were produced to the princpeps and the imperial family, and, if these words can be seen as a sincere expression of divinity (even in life) or just a mere adulation form. This is an interpretative study of some Greek and Latin inscriptions, that seeks to establish various elements that make some differences and bring new suggestions to the concept of imperial cults because this religious manifestation was not the only one form of cult with continuations and additions. In fact, it had some marked differences that the evidences could demonstrate with the other ruler-cult forms. The importance of words is unique: they can show literally and figurative the expressions of one person and some individuals. In this point it is important to note that inscriptions can even be exaggerating individuals’ rhetoric and it cannot be forgotten the language-game as Wittgenstein pointed out. Furthermore, the geographical locations and the cultural manifestations are important to note because depending the place, usually it can be found more or less powerful words to the imperial cult. Using the religious and political epigraphical monuments and the literature of the period some ideas can be tracked about the titulature of the imperial cult and the problems that still arise. Keywords: Imperial Cults, Divinity of Roman Emperors, Greek Inscriptions, Latin Inscriptions, Interpretations.

The article reports on a conference on Renaissance numismatics and its interest in ancient coins, held in Berlin, Germany, from November 16-18, 2011. Topics of discussion included the works of several Renaissance scholars, including Hubert Goltzius, Laevinius Torrentius, and Sebastiano Erizzo, the influence of classical coin designs on Renaissance architecture and ornamentation, and Renaissance iconographic studies.

Especially in regard to the multitude of depictions on coins and medallions referring to the history of Rome in the early 140s, the omission of corresponding depictions in the year 147/148, when Rome's birthday was celebrated for the 900th time, is remarkable. Instead of referring to this important event, the coins and medallions of Antoninus Pius present themselves entirely under the sign of his decennalia. Apparently, the reference to the anniversary of the reign was considered more important than Rome's birthday. Reasons for this decision could have been problems of acceptance, which are only hinted at in the literary sources, which are consistently friendly to Antoninus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Studii de Ştiintă şi Cultură is the property of Studii de Stiinta si Cultura and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article reports on a conference on the ritual of the triumph in Imperial Rome, held in Berlin, Germany, from October 4-6, 2012. Topics of discussion included symbolic aspects of the representation of the Roman emperor and of successful military leadership, the depiction of the triumphs of the Roman emperors of the Flavian dynasty in the book "Bellum Iudaicum" by ancient Roman historian Flavius Josephus, and urban planning in ancient Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey).

The paper analyses and compares two italian librettos written in the 1st half of the 18th century: Agostino Piovene' libretto of the opera Porsena, performed in Venice during the carnival seasons of 1712 and 1713; and the libretto by Pietro Pariati written for the festa teatrale Costanza e Fortezza, performed in Prague in 1723 at the coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI as King of Bohemia. Both librettos are inspired by historical events documented by the Roman historian Livy (59 BC - AD 17), recounting the overthrow of the last Tarquin king and the subsequent siege of Rome by Porsenna who tried to help restore the Tarquin dynasty and, according to Livy, failed to do so. Before arriving at the Vienna court in 1714, Pariati lived in Venice and thus was probably familiar with Piovene's libretto. The paper argues that the differences between the two librettos are caused also by the fact that Pariati in his Costanza e Fortezza from 1723 adapted the characters as well as the overall tone of certain episodes to serve the current dynastic and political interests of Charles VI. The paper is based on the close reading of selected character lines, the main points of comparison being the characters and their portrayal, as well as different adaptations of particular episodes in both librettos. The most apparent differences between the two adaptations are understandably caused by the different genres (Piovene's dramma per musica being an opera seria, while Pariati's festa teatrale was rather a form of courtly entertainment written in celebration of a ruler). The deeper and more fundamental difference, though, lies in Pariati's implicit defence of the Pragmatic Sanction expressed through allegorical nuances in the dialogue. One of the key differences, which upholds Charles VI's politics, is the Romans' adamant refusal of peace secured through marriage between the enemies of Rome and Roman girls in Costanza e Fortezza; while in Piovene's story, the Romans are willing to negotiate with their enemies about a marriage offer. The other key difference, perhaps surprising in the context of the Habsburg rule, is the Costanza e Fortezza's greater emphasis on the concept of republican freedom that the Romans gained in opposition to the tyranny of the Tarquin dynasty. The paper will explain the particular emphasis on these themes in Pariati's work, in light of the political situation in which it was written. The paper builds upon the authors previous study The Giovanni Bononcini's Opera Muzio Scevola (1710) and the Johann Joseph Fux' Festa teatrale Costanza e Fortezza (1723). From a Music Dramma to an Allegory published in 2018 in the Supplementum to the journal Musicologica Brunensia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neither the concept of “imperial policy” nor of “religion” are easily applied to antiq­uity. Yet the activities of Roman emperors often did have consequences for religious activity, and their behaviour was not neces­sarily chaotic or random. Hadrian provides a good case for examining how religious activity was incorporated into ancient biog­raphy and historical writing, and how it was related to other fields of imperial conduct. A good deal is recorded about Hadrian’s conduct of religious offices, his building projects and his engagement with older tradition, Roman and foreign. The dossier of testimonia does reveals some consist­encies in his behaviour but these seem to derive less from policy than from habits of thought and action. Many of his actions can be interpreted as conventional, even if sometimes performed on an unconvention­al scale. Hadrian certainly exercised agency, and he had particular dispositions as a rul­er. But religious policy seems an anachro­nistic term to apply to his conduct.

The article presents a discussion on the political and communicative aspects of Holy Roman Emperors' public displays of piety and humility. Reflections are given on the differences in church and state relations in England, France, and Germany during the Middle Ages. Special attention is paid to the rule of 14th century Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, with a focus on his religious activities during travels to Italy. Further comments are included regarding the Emperor's expression of piety through his choice of clothing.

The article presents a report on a conference about Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, held in Aachen, Germany, from September 15-16, 2014. Topics of discussion included political self-representation and propaganda, Antoninus' efforts to distance himself from his predecessor, Roman Emperor Hadrian, and Greco-Roman coins minted with Antoninus' portrait.

The epigraphic display carved on the north wall of the stage building of Aphrodisias’ theatre in the 3rd century CE, commonly referred to as the “archive wall”, is usually assumed to have been designed based on the chronology of the documents it includes. This paper argues instead in favor of a centripetal design, which placed in the center of the composition the most important documents in terms of their honorific value for Aphrodisias and its citizens. It is argued, here, that form and content, as expressed in the documents’ rhetoric, and the concrete privileges which the documents attested to, were more important than chronology to the designers of this dossier.Further, it is argued that there were two epigraphic phases, with the original phase most likely dating from 224 CE and including all documents carved above the orthostate course, and a later phase dating from 243 CE or slightly later, in which the inscriptions were extended to the orthostate course. Finally, it is suggested that the earliest letter of the dossier (document 4), may have been a letter by Cornelius Sulla.

German Die Popmusik ist als Gegenstand der altertumswissenschaftlichen Rezeptionsforschung bisher weitestgehend unbeachtet geblieben. Die Gründe hierfür sind zum einen die grundsätzliche wissenschaftliche Vernachlässigung popkultureller Kunstformen und zum anderen der Modus der historischen Erinnerung der Popkultur selbst, der nicht auf ‚authentischem Wissen‘ basiert und damit traditionelle altertumswissenschaftliche Rezeptionsforschung erschwert. Diese speist sich vielmehr aus einem transkulturellen, globalen und selbstreferentiellen Zeichenvorrat, in dem antike Traditionen unter vielen anderen in ikonenhafte und wiedererkennbare Codes überführt werden. Am Beispiel der in der Popkultur produktivsten antiken Gestalt, Julius Caesar, wird gezeigt, wie dessen Codes in die Genres und Songs der zeitgenössischen Popmusik inkorporiert und in diesen Kontexten funktionalisiert werden. Nach der knappen Vorstellung einiger exempla der popmusikalischen Caesar-Rezeption, z.B. von AC/DC, Wolf, Reverend Bizarre und Finn, werden zwei Songs näher untersucht: Iggy Pops Punk-Song Caesar, in dem Caesar/Iggy Pop als römisch-amerikanischer Punk-Kaiser auftritt, und Lamyas R&B-Song Judas Kiss (Brutus Diss), in dem die Caesar-Codes in die Personenkonstellation eines sentimentalen Songs über Untreue überführt und damit romantisiert werden. English Pop music has remained largely unnoticed by classical reception studies. The reasons for this are (1) the general disregard of popcultural art forms in classical scholarship and (2) the workings of historical memory in the pop culture itself, which is not based on ‘authentic knowledge’ and thus is not suitable for traditional reception studies. This memory rather feeds from a transcultural, global and highly self-referential repertoire, in which ancient traditions, among many others, are formed into iconic and recognizable codes. Using Julius Caesar, still the most productive ancient figure in the pop culture, as example, this article shows how his codes are incorporated into the genres and songs of contemporary pop music and are functionalized in these contexts. After a brief presentation of some exempla of Caesar’s pop musical reception, e.g. by AC/DC, Wolf, Reverend Bizarre and Finn, two songs are investigated in more detail: Iggy Pop’s punk song Caesar, in which Caesar/Iggy Pop fashions himself as a Roman-American punk-emperor, and Lamya’s R&B song Judas Kiss (Brutus Diss), which transfers the codes of Caesar into a sentimental song about infidelity, thereby romanticizing them.

In accordance with the precepts of Aristotle and state doctrines such as Giovanni Botero's Della ragione di stato, princes of the early modern period were presented as virtuous benefactors descending from venerable families. At the Viennese imperial court around 1700, particular importance was obviously attached to panegyric music theatre for image cultivation: the task of the court librettists, the poeti cesarei, was to compose libretti (componimenti per musica, serenate) on the birthdays and name days of the ruling couple, in which homage and Habsburg propaganda were in the foreground; these were often peppered with allusions to current events such as fighting in the War of the Spanish Succession. Through a comparison of the two opposite poetic personalities of Silvio Stampiglia and Pietro Antonio Bernardoni, this article examines the different strategies of the librettists to portray the emperor, Leopold I and Joseph I respectively, as infallible descendants of Roman emperors qua translatio imperii. The basic message of these libretti is often hardly different from that of a panegyric; it is therefore hardly surprising that there are often personal overlaps between the professional groups of librettists and panegyrists, which are by no means always clearly distinguishable from one another. It was not uncommon for such occasional librettists and panegyrists to have no permanent position at court. A striking example of a precariously employed panegyrist is Giacomo Filippo Cyni, a prelate and panegyrist, diplomat, and spy, who sang the praises of three emperors (Leopold I, Joseph I, Charles VI) in Vienna, maintained an academy to whose discussions Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz also contributed, and who, like many of his colleagues, made his way through life in an almost ambiguous way with various short-term jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Quellen und Forschungen aus Italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Vita Karoli Magni (The Life of Charlemagne) was the first medieval biography. It was written by Einhard, a prominent figure of the Carolingian era, who used some biographies of Roman emperors by Suetonius. This article introduces a comparative analysis of Einhard’s Vita Karoli Magni and Suetonius’ biographies in terms of structure and composition. The main research objectives were to define to what degree Einhard followed the chosen pattern, as well as to identify the new features the medieval biography acquired as compared with the texts by Suetonius. The study involved descriptive, cultural-historical, comparative-historical, historical-genetic, and formal methods. The author questioned the generally accepted opinion that Einhard relied on Suetonius’s texts. The texts by Einhard and Suetonius are similar in macro-composition, but the former was affected by the Christian tradition of heroic narrative. Suetonius’s stories resembled a friendly conversation that could embrace different points of view. However, Einhard wrote an encomium that was to offer its readers an ideal image of a king. His biography was compiled according to the three-part scheme, typical of hagiographies.

The paper has the task of analyzing the relationship between religion and medicine in the ancient city of Pergamon, primarily in the early days of the Roman emperors, analyzing the cult of Asklepios, one of the central cults, also known for its widely visited pagan sanctuary, located in the seat of this ancient center. In Greek mythology and religion, Asclepius was the god of medicine, descended from Apollo and Koronis. He got his name because of his birth, as his mother had to undergo an opening of the uterus in order to give birth, which is known today as a cesarean section. Asklepios actually means “open”. According to Greek mythology, he was taught in the art of medicine by the centaur Chiron. Through his studies, he was so skilled in the art of medicine that he could raise the dead and bring them back to life. His famous symbol is a snake wrapped around a stick, which can be seen in all medical institutions in modern times. This is reminiscent of the staff that Asclepius was always carrying. In ancient Greece and Rome, an Asklepieion (Ἀσκληπιεῖον) was a healing temple dedicated to the god Asklepios, the Greek god of medicine. These healing temples were places where patients went to receive healing or any other kind of treatment, whether mental or physical. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to examine the main features of the Asklepieion, especially the contemporary cultural and religious history and ancient medicine associated with it, in the context of new archaeological findings at this site.

There are abundant examples of negative assessments of cultic honors to Roman emperors by nineteenth- and twentieth-century researchers. In the minds of historians raised in modern societies, in which monotheistic Abrahamic religions usually reign supreme, this is a completely understandable a priori approach; nevertheless, it hinders a correct understanding of Roman society in antiquity. This paper examines the need to provide a complex answer to the question of whether the inhabitants of the Roman world really believed in the divinity of their rulers. A complex answer to the question can only emerge from a historical contextualization of the phenomenon under analysis, an examination of the imperial cult within the wider changes that were taking place in Roman religion at the time, and application of the necessary empathetic approach.

Relationes 10−12 stand out from Q.A. Symmachus’ reports written to give an account of his activities at the position of the prefect of Rome (praefectus urbis Romae). These three relationes were written and sent by Symmachus to Roman emperors to inform them of the death of V.A. Praetextatus, who was a famous and influential Roman dignitary as well as Symmachus’ close friend. Rel. 10−12 are not only thematically related, but also – unlike the rest of the reports − clearly marked with personal and laudatory accents and thus their nature significantly differs from the formal documents sent to emperors from the chancellery of an imperial administrative dignitary. In this paper, we aim at presenting Rel. 10−12 as an elogium, in which in three separate reports Symmachus included a coherent eulogy of Praetextatus and presented his idealized portrait tinged with his own personal feelings, underpinned by the aspects of conservative ideology cultivated then within the circles of the Roman senatorial aristocracy.

The article reports on a conference on the history of medieval and early modern social networks, held in Fribourg, Switzerland, from October 7-8, 2010. Topics discussed included the political culture of the Italian city-states, networks of courtiers at the courts of Holy Roman Emperors Frederick III and Maximilian I, and relationships between patricians and nobility in Mainz, Germany.

The annual report for 2010 of the Kommission für Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik (Commission for Ancient History and Epigraphy) of the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (German Archaeological Institute, DAI) is presented. It provides information about the commission's publications and research projects in 2010, including on bureaucracy and public administration in the Roman Empire in the 4th and 5th centuries, on Latin inscriptions on the Iberian peninsula, and on titles and forms of address for the Roman emperors. Information on academic conferences, workshops, and lectures convened in 2010 is also presented.

In this contribution, drawing on the comprehensive research by Eugenio Polito, selected examples of image media bearing depictions of weapons are discussed, with a focus on sacred buildings, in particular the imperial cult temple dedicated to Domitian and the Flavians in Ephesus. The historic context of the depictions of weapons and armour in connection with erecting a monument is also highlighted. The heterogeneous composition of weapon reliefs in general and the largely homogeneous typology of the weapons and elements of armour depicted contrast with the equally heterogeneous iconographic representation and stylistic execution. The few preserved examples of depictions of weapons on altars include Octavian's victory monument in Nicopolis which relates directly to the Battle of Actium, and the altar in the Temple of Domitian in Ephesus, which reflects the many victorious military campaigns undertaken by the Flavians during the Dacian Wars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supply of the army along the frontiers of the Roman Empire is a subject of interest of many historians. Emperor and government officials formed strategy of supply of the Roman army. To maintain efficiency of the army and loyalty to authorities, the Roman emperors took a special interest in needs of the military. Therefore Roman soldiers were better supplied than civilians. However the military did not receive products of the exceptional quality. The policy of supply with necessary goods was enough flexible and took into account the size of garrison, and a place of its location. More often, legionaries received foodstuffs from the sources typical of certain area. The main foodstuff of the Roman soldiers were always grain, posca, olive oil or its substitute, and, of course, meat. Products arrived by the way of taxes, and requisitions during military actions or were brought from inhabitants at fixed prices during peacetime. Important source of supply of legionaries was production on military areas (territorium or prata). Supply sources of the main categories of products were of local or regional origin.

One of the functions of a panegyric was to interpret and define roles, and across the Ad Heinricum IV (written c.1085/1086), Benzo of Alba developed distinctive images of rulership. He depicted Henry IV of Germany not simply as a Christian emperor ruling within the traditions of earlier Roman emperors, but also as a second Christ. Benzo also presented Adelaide of Turin, ruler of the mark of Turin and Henry’s mother-in-law, as a princely woman. This new category of quasi-regal ruling woman emerged in the eleventh century in response to broader social and political changes. In his letters to Adelaide, Benzo emphasised her princely status and importance to the imperial cause. Using masculine titles, the classical figure of Egeria, and especially the Virgin Mary, Benzo depicted Adelaide as a quasi-regal ruler, advisor, and mediator. Benzo also drew a series of parallels between Adelaide and Henry using similar imagery, titles, and paired figures, such that Adelaide was Egeria to Henry’s Numa Pompilius, and a second Virgin Mary to Henry’s second Christ. Benzo thus created a remarkable image of Adelaide not simply as a ruler, but almost as a female counterpart to the emperor. Yet elsewhere in the Ad Heinricum, Benzo was more circumspect. He stressed that Adelaide was subordinate to Henry, and used more ambivalent imagery to describe her (even comparing Adelaide with Eve). By this means, Benzo’s image of Adelaide as a powerful princely woman was carefully calibrated to preserve both Henry’s pre-eminent imperial status and the traditional gender hierarchy.

For Roman emperors, loyal advisors in their immediate vicinity were an absolute necessity to ensure good governance. This was the role played by L. Aelius Seianus for emperor Tiberius. Seianus’ exemplary career and climb on the social ladder hit its peak in A.D. 31, when he held the consulship together with Tiberius. A few short months later, he was executed following allegations of plotting against the emperor’s life. With his fall, the networks he had created also disintegrated. This concerned notable figures such as C. Annius Pollio, C. Appius, Iunius Silanus, Mam. Aemilius Scaurus, C. Calvisius Sabinus and L. Annius Vinicianus. This chapter examines Seianus’ networks of support and power, highlighting their dynamics and adaptability.

Images not made by human hands (acheiropoietai, Gr. ἀχειροποίηταιι) played a significant role in Byzantine spiritual culture and history. This paper discusses the emergence and rise of the acheiropoietai, which represented a most important and unusual element in the Byzantine Empire. The author analyses the chronological ancestors of Christian images not made by human hands, i.e. the so-called diipetes (Gr. Διιπετής), and proceeds to demonstrate the disagreements on the topic among some of the Christian Church Fathers. The imagines imperiales, i.e. effigies of Roman emperors, constituted a significant factor in the process leading to the later veneration of images not made by human hands. The most famous of the latter is the image from Edessa, also known in historiography as Mandylion of Edessa.

The eManual Alte Geschichte is a digital introduction to Ancient History and contains mostly Open Educational Resources. Users can learn about Ancient history by using podcasts, ancient sources in translation (and with comments), secondary literature, and other material (such as lists of Roman emperors). Under the direction of Werner Riess, a team of seven contributors created the contents and layout of the blog from November 2015 until June 2017. In a second phase of the project in 2018, the blog will be extended and re-launched in 2019.

13. Abydos – where Alexander started his campaign against the PersiansBetween AD 177/8 and the reign of the emperor Maximinus Thrax (235-238) the city of Abydos in the Troad (modern Çanakkale), situated on the Asian shore of the Hellespont, minted five emissions of medallions with a very interesting reverse image. In the centre of this picture, that may have used a painting as a template, an armoured man is shown with a spear in his left hand. Surrounded by two other combatants he stands on the deck of a vessel, whose stem is decorated with the helmeted head of the goddess Athena. The central male figure waves with his right hand, probably as a command to other ships to follow him. Another significantly smaller vessel, manned by a single warrior who represents the whole crew pars pro toto, is depicted in front of the commander’s ship. We may conclude that the commander’s order is obeyed. In the background of the coin image a trumpeter stands on a tower, obviously giving the signal for departure.The interpretation of this coin image has been long debated. Friedrich Imhoof-Blumer, guided by the coin legends, which were misread as ΛOVKOVΛΛΟC, considered that the coin might depict Sulla and Lucullus crossing the Hellespont from Sestos to Abydos in the year 86 BC, but he was finally unconvinced by this proposal. In 2001 Italo Vecchi, without discussing Imhoof-Blumer’s interpretation, suggested that the scene on the Abydos medallions should be interpreted as Alexander the Great crossing the Hellespont in 334 BC. His proposal was not accepted by Carsten Dahmen, who discussed the Abydos coin image in his book on Greek and Roman coins depicting Alexander, although he was unable to refute Vecchi’s interpretation.Arrian of Nikomedeia, our best source for Alexander’s campaign against the Persians, tells us that Alexander went from Sestos to the top of the Thracian Chersonesos and crossed over from Elaious to the Asian shore. This may discourage us from accepting Italo Vecchio’s explanation, but Arrian’s account includes the observation that different versions of the story of Alexander crossing the Hellespont circulated, and that the story describing the crossing from Elaious, which he followed himself, was the version most commonly adopted by Alexander’s historians. However, other traditions clearly existed, and we should conclude that one of them related the circumstances which were depicted on the Abydos medallions. According to this version Alexander and his army must have crossed the Hellespont from Sestos to Abydos. After leaving the harbour in Sestos, the expedition sailed southwards to the tower of Hero, where Strabo writes that the force of the stream directs the ships to the opposite shore near Abydos. Alexander was the first to land and threw his spear into Asian soil to claim it as his δορύκτητος χώρα (‘spear-won territory’). The people of Abydos may have decided to mint these medallions, illustrating their central role in this tradition, around/on the 500th anniversary of Alexander’s crossing, in response to the publication of Arrian’s Anabasis.Abydos’ historical link with the start of Alexander’s Persian campaign in Asia was a very important aspect of the city’s identity. Other cities of Asia Minor, including Apollonia Mordiaion and Sagalassos, also claimed a special relationship with the Macedonian king. Especially at times when Roman emperors led campaigns against the Iranians (Persians?), identifying themselves as new Alexanders, it was beneficial for a city like Abydos to accentuate its role as the point of departure for Alexander the Great’s world-changing campaign. The traditional view of the Hellespont as the border between Europe and Asia also served to define this military operation as a historic turning-point. Thus the image on the Abydos medallions should be interpreted in the same way as paintings depicting Caesar crossing the Rubicon, Washington crossing the Delaware, Blücher crossing the Rhine, or Napoleon’s traverse of the Alps and the Neman (Memel).14. Antandros, a city at the southern foothills of Mt. Ida: a coin illustrating a scene from Virgil’s Aeneid and the city’s tutelary goddessAntandros was a small town in the southern foothills of Mount Ida in the eastern part of the Troad. The literary tradition about the city is scarce, and only a few inscriptions have come down to us. We may hope that the Turkish excavations, which started in 2001, will enhance our knowledge. However, we can also gain new information about the city by bringing a nearly unexploited kind of evidence into the discussion, the city’s coins. This helps to create a sharper profile of Antandros and its identity in antiquity.Our literary sources repeatedly mention the city’s rich timber resources and ship-building based on timber brought down from Mt. Ida. The German philologist Klausen observed in 1839 that coins depicting a tree minted by Antandros and its neighbour city Skepsis, alluded to the abundance of forests and timber around these cities, and that the tree should be identified with a significant local species, Klausen’s proposal was ignored by subsequent numismatists and scholars who identified the tree as a palm. Corrections of this misinterpretation by Friedrich Imhoof-Blumer and Louis Robert have not been heeded. We know now that the vegetation of Mt. Ida contains many endemic plants, and one of the most conspicuous is Abies nordmanniana ssp. equi-trojani, the Trojan fir (Turkish fir, Kazdağı fir). Originally the species only grew in this region, but in the last decades it has been introduced to many other parts of the world, especially to northern Germany and Denmark, where hundreds of thousands of examples are grown for sale as Christmas-trees. Homer referred to this particular fir in the Iliad, as it served as a hideaway for Hypnos in the episode describing how hewas collected by Hera when she put her husband Zeus to sleep. Quintus Smyrnaios mentioned the Trojan fir in his account of the building of the Trojan horse: the Greeks cut many specimens on Mount Ida as timber to build that sinister beast.Around ten years ago, a large and very interesting medallion, minted by Antandros in the time of Severus Alexander, was auctioned by the American auction house, the Classical Numismatic Group. The coin’s reverse depicts Aeneas leaving the Troad. He is shown pulling his young son Askanios with his right hand, as he carries his old father Anchises on his left shoulder. In the background we see the rear part of a ship. This coin image recalls the opening scene of Virgil’s Aeneid book 3, where Virgil mentions Antandros by name as the place of Aeneas’ departure from the Troad. By drawing on this tradition, disseminated by the most widely read Latin author, Antandros advertised both its own importance and its affinity with Rome. Another Virgilian passage also illuminates Antandros’ self-promotion. Aeneid 9, 80-92 relates that Aeneas was only able to build the ships that carried him Latium, with the help of a goddess, who provided the necessary timber from conifers growing in her sanctuary. In Virgil calls the goddess Berecyntia, i.e. the Phrygian goddess. As she speaks of Mount Ida as ‘our mountains «montes nostri», she must be identified with the Mater Deum Magna Idaea, also named Kybele, Meter theon, Rhea, Adrasteia, and so forth. Virgil and other authors show that there was a sacred grove with altars of this goddess in the mountainous and thickly wooded area forming part of Antandros’ territory. The head of a goddess, who is depicted on the classical silver coins of Antandros and which until now has been regarded as Artemis Astyrene, should be identified with the Mater Deum Magna Idaea. Her sacred tree was the Trojan fir, under which her lover Attis was killed by a wild boar. She was also venerated by the citizens of Antandros’ neighbours, Skepsis and Skamandreia, and it is no surprise that the Trojan fir, or one of its cones, is also shown on their city coinage. The Antandrian, Skepsian and Skamandreian coins depicting this tree were notdesigned to evoke the natural landscape of Mount Ida, but should be understood as a mark of homage to the Mater Deum Magna Idaea, who also had the function of a ‹potnia theron› and of an oracular goddess.Strabon indicates that the goddess’s cult was closely linked with that of Dionysos, who was widely venerated in the Troad. TImages of a goat, a bunch of grapes and an ivy leaf on the coins of Antandros are to be understood as allusions to Dionysos worship in Antandros and its territory. Further important gods of Antandros were Apollon, his son Asklepios and Hephaistos, whose cultic significance had to do with iron mining and the prosperous blacksmith’s craft at Antandros, that may have produced weapons for the Roman army. According to local lore the Judgment of Paris (Iudicium Paridis) also occurred on Antandrian territory. Another Antandrian medallion refers to the myth that Apollo’s singing was audible near the source of river Skamandros. The true background of this mythical story was revealed by the great German physician Rudolf Virchow, who was unaware of this coin, but reported in his book on the Troad (1879) that both he and his companions heard a singing voice where the Skamandros comes out of the rock.In sum, the coins of Antandros reflect legends and phenomena that instilled its citizens’ sense of the gods’ protection and favour to the city as well as of their own self-worth. Especially under Roman rule such feelings were important in maintaining a small community’s autonomy and status.

The following article presents the late Roman legal regulations concerning the counterfeiting of money. This kind of crime was prosecuted in the Roman republic on the ground of lex Cornelia de falsis, but under Roman emperors new qualification was added - the counterfeiting of the money stamped in the imperial mints, which was prosecuted under lex Iulia de peculatus. Interestingly, the editors of the imperial codes of laws (Theodosian and Justinian Code) did not put the late imperial constitutions on counterfeiting of money in the titles which were devoted to these two leges. Instead, they created separate title - De falsa moneta (respectively CTh 9.21 and C 9.24). The article discusses the question of terminology used in relation to the techniques of the counterfeiting of money and to the offenders, and, furthermore, the question of criminal liability for forgery, the problem of aiding or abetting, and the circumstances in which the crime was committed. In addition, the author raises the issue of ban of the export of gold outside the Roman state, the prohibition of extraction of the precious metals from the bimetallic money and prohibition of damaging of the gold solidus by the cutting off its edges.

At the death of Germanicus in 19 CE, the behaviour of the emperor Tiberius came under scrutiny. How would he react to his nephew’s death? According to Tacitus, the failure of Tiberius to make a public appearance was seen as telling, surely it indicated that Tiberius did not wish his lack of remorse and grief to be witnessed (Ann. 3.2-3). Tiberius’ behaviour as a mourner needed to match his behaviour as emperor – secretive, untrusting, inappropriate and quintessentially bad. This paper explores how the Roman emperors from Augustus to Nero were presented as mourning for those that they had lost, highlighting the importance of mourning in the evaluation of character. How an emperor acted as a mourner, whether, for example, he wept openly or shunned the public, could be a considered act of self-presentation, which was open both to contemporary popular scrutiny and posthumous evaluation. The emotion of grief, and the genuineness of its expression, especially through the shedding of tears, became part of a public performance as emperors negotiated the machinations of dynastic succession. How an emperor wept, who for and for how long, could be both a significant measure of his character and of the perceived character, and or importance, of the deceased. An emperor’s tears could come at a reputational price both for himself, and for others.

A Roman family consisted of the pater familias, his wedded wife, two or three children, house slaves, freedmen, friends and customers. In ancient Rome, the husband ruled the family and his wife was subjected to him. Was marriage a relationship similar to today’s marriages? An analysis of source materials will bring answers to those questions. Family – related politics applied by Roman emperors, marital law, paternal authority and protective law will be presented. Romans attributed the following features to women: modesty, weakness, lack of endurance, unfamiliarity with state affairs, and also purity and faithfulness to the husband. In ancient Rome, wives and mothers were supposed to manage the household and raise children. A fully valid marriage for Romans was a relationship called matrimonium legitimum, and only such relationship had social and legal impact. Legal marriage existed in Rome as either a marriage with authority over the wife, this was the cum manu relationship, or as matrimonium without the authority of the husband – the sine manu marriage.

The tenth book of the Theodosian Code provides a valuable insight into the different aspects of mining exploitation during the Late Roman Empire. The main issue was a shortage of mining labour. According to Constantine’s fiscal policy, miners were permanently tied to their profession. They had the right to sell their property, loca metallica, but under difficult conditions. The forced mining labour was passed over from them to the potential buyers. Over time, miners became tied to the place of their origin and their children had to take on their fathers’ professions. The continuous invasions of the barbarian tribes as well as the suffered losses encouraged miners, in spite of the prohibition, to escape their duties and leave their homes. The miners from Gaul were desperately trying to escape to Sardinia in order to find better working conditions. Those in the eastern part of the Empire tried to acquire the status of colons inhabiting private landowners’ estates. The flow of escaping miners became a regular occurrence and the Roman emperors introduced laws which penalised anyone found harbouring miners. The unsatisfactory application of the imperial edicts resulted in a series of new edicts aimed at addressing the same problem. The warning given to the local judges by Emperor Gratian in his decree declared in 378. AD clearly shows that the imperial edicts were not regularly applied in practice. The following period would be marked with new invasions that would have serious consequences on the mining exploitation and make the control of different social categories and state officials even more difficult.

In the field of taxation there existed many casuistic crimes of Roman criminal law, committed both by tax payers and tax collectors, but non-payment of taxes was not one of them. As a rule taxpayers risked confiscation of property by avoiding the fulfillment of their obligation. There exists some historical evidence, however, which suggests the possibility of imprisonment of taxpayers. Was it possible to inflict criminal punishments in such cases? Legal texts give some reflections to the contrary– Roman emperors prohibited the use of imprisonment in non-criminal matters. The number of these prohibitions indicates, that there were many situations of this kind. It seems that especially in the provinces the governors abused their power and used illegal measures, such as tortures, whipping and imprisonment, to force citizens to pay taxes.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the negative characteristics of the Roman emperor Constans I (337-350), according to the earliest preserved information from the late 4th century histories of Aurelius Victor, Eutropius Pseudo-Victor and Eunapius of Sardis. The earliest account of Constans' downfall is around 361 recorded by Aurelius Victor in his short history De Caesaribus. Victor wrote that Constans became more arrogant and aggressive after he defeated his elder brother Constantine II in 340. Also, he was not cautious enough for his young age, was hated due to his bad subordinates and did not respect his soldiers properly. But, the most outrageous fact was according to Victor, that the emperor had homosexual affinity towards his young and attractive barbarian hostages. The record of less moralistic Eutropius in his Breviarium ab Urbe condita, written in 369, is shorter but sharper. In the beginning the reign of Constans was vigorous and righteous but his character deteriorated after his illness. Following that, the young Augustus befriended himself with corrupted companions and turned to severe vices. His reign grew unbearable to his subjects and unpopular among the army ranks. Briefer then Eutropis is the testimony of an anonymous Latin author of Epitome de caesaribus who was contemporary to the Eastern Roman emperor Arcadius (395-408). This Pseudo-Victor wrote down that Constans devoted himself to hunting session, thus allowing plotters to dethrone him. Finally the single Greek author in this series, Eunapius (died after 404), whose istoria h meta Dexippon survived in fragments and Zosimus' late fifth century abridgment, called Constans the worst among the most intolerable tyrants. The Lydian sophist, as far as we could conclude from Zosimus', also recorded Constans' inclination towards young barbarians whom he allowed to mistreat his subjects. Because of wretchedness in the provinces of his realm, the courtiers led coup d'etat through Augustus' hunting session. Although vivid and informative, the real weight of these four accounts could be estimated only through comparison with the other, real or traditional, dreadful emperors described by the four authors. For example, the youthful age was important component of the bad reigns of Otho, Domitian and Gallienus, as Victor emphasizes. Eutropius' pattern of the promising start of the Emperor's reign and his later disgrace was similarly used in his assessment of Gallienus and Constantine the Great. According to Pseudo-Victor, Valentinian I could be estimated as the perfect prince if there had not been his poor selection of advisers. Constans' homosexual leaning towards young barbarian hostages could be observed from the two points. The first would be the remark that these barbarians were dubious companions for the Roman emperors, just as some of the rulers were blacklisted for their, real or assumptive, sympathy and meekness for women, eunuchs and courtiers. Gratian and Theodosius I were specially ill-famed for their affinity for Alan mercenaries and Gothic refugees respectively. On the other hand, slandered Licinius was praised for his strength in cultivating his courtiers and eunuchs. In relation to Constans' homosexuality, it is essential to note that one of the fundamental keys to the bad emperor's character was his breach of sexual taboos. In the inaccurate 4th century tradition Caracalla was known for his marriage with his stepmother, or Gallienus for his barter with Marcomanic king, in which he allegedly traded part of Pannonia Superior for the barbarian concubine. Explicitly, homosexuality was ascribed to Domitian, Carinus and Maximian Herculius. Finally, although the remarks on Constans' unpopularity and death were taken from the earliest preserved sources, it is clear that only a decade after his demise, the tradition, framed in already existing negative pattern, was established. This version of the events, probably maintained in lost Kaisergeschichte, was firstly acknowledged and then further supplemented by these four authors. In this context it is attractive to note down old samples of dire regimes and Roman historical tradition, still preserved both by the Latin and Greek authors in later 4th century. Then again, this fact is not very helpful in tracing the real character omissions of the deceased emperor Constans. .