Tag: Rome
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The Iceman Cometh: The Birth of Gaius Octavius and Roman Myth-Making
In the interest of continuing to mix things up, I had meant to pivot back away from Rome this week, though those of you who managed get through last week’s nonsense will be incredulous that I was still finding unused Teutoburg memes among my photo files days after posting. But as I was meditating on what to…
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Missteps and Mayhem: The Battle of Teutoburg Forest and the End of Early Roman Imperial Expansion
“There is a sweeping curve of glen, made for ambushes/ and devices of arms. Dark thick foliage hems it in on either hand,/ and into it a bare footpath leads by a narrow gorge and difficult entrance./ Right above it on the watch-towers of the hill-top lies an unexpected level, hidden away in shelter, whether…
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Barefoot in Rome: The Political Iconography of the Prima Porta Augustus
I’ve been talking a lot about Egypt and Greece for the last month or so, I thought I’d circle back to Rome and talk about some more political art during the early imperial era. Specifically, we’re going to take a deeper look at the the Augustus of Prima Porta, the best-known of Octavius’ portraits and arguably…
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Glory of the Gods: A Brief History of the Ancient Olympic Games
You must be swift as the coursing river/ With all the force of a great typhoon/ With all the strength of a raging fire/ Mysterious as the dark side of the moon — “I’ll Make a Man Out of You”, Mulan This week, I thought we’d tackle something topical and talk about the original Olympic Games,…
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The Law of Unintended Sequels: Ten Unusual and Obscure Roman Deities
“[E]vidently Forculus [the god of the threshold] can’t watch the hinge and the threshold at the same time.” – St. Augustine Nobody enjoys mocking the Egyptian pantheon for its weirdness than the supposedly straight-laced Romans, so I thought as a companion to last week’s entry, we’d give them a taste of their own medicine and…
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Mediterranean Bandstand: Music in the Ancient World
Slide your feet up the street, bend your backShift your arm then you pull it backLife is hard you know (oh way oh)So strike a pose on a Cadillac – The Bangles, Walk Like an Egyptian This week, I thought we’d get back into some more historical pursuits and take a look at the diverse…
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Field Day Part 2: The Carnegie Museums and the Classical World in Imitation
As promised, this week we’re going to continue our tour through the Carnegie Museum of Art (CMOA) and Natural History (CMNH), but I also promise to finally let all of you out of the single room I confined you to last week. [Pictured: People fleeing my attempts to keep them in the Hall of Architecture]…
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Field Day Part 1: The Carnegie Museums and the Classical World in Replica
“One of them said we made going to the moon as exciting as taking a trip to Pittsburgh.” — Henry Hunt, Apollo 13 Now that we’re fortunate enough stateside to be (finally) enjoying a reprieve from Covid restrictions, I was able to resume my nineteen year-strong love affair with Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History in some semblance of…
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Guess Who’s Coming to the Sacrifice: The Ara Pacis and Speculative Archeology
“When I returned from Spain and Gaul after successfully settling the affairs of those provinces, in the consulship of Tiberius Nero and Publius Quintilius, the Senate decreed that the Ara Pacis should be consecrated for my return near the Campus Martius, and ordered that the magistrates, preists, and the Vestal Virgins should there make an…
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Beer Here! : Potent Potables of the Ancient World
Candy/ is dandy/ But liquor/ is quicker — Ogden Nash Over some lovely late-spring cocktails with my parents this past weekend, I asked my mother what I should talk about here this week, and she pointed out I haven’t talked about consumables yet. Ancient food and drink covers a lot of ground, so I thought…
Sarah Holz 