Roman Material Culture

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Article

Aezani  

Stephen Mitchell

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
  2. Near East
  3. Roman Material Culture
Was the most important city of northern *Phrygia in Roman times. The well-preserved ruins of the site are dominated by the peripteral (colonnaded) Ionic temple of *Zeus, dedicated under Domitian in ce 92. According to local legend Zeus was born in the Steunos cave which overlooked the river Pencalas near the city (the site has been identified and excavated). There were extensive sacred lands around the city, which were used to settle military colonists from the Attalid and Bithynian kingdoms. A long dispute over the revenues from this land was settled by Roman proconsuls of Asia in the 120s, and this appears to have unleashed a period of great prosperity in the 2nd cent. ce. During this time Aezani was transformed from a modest agricultural town (there are traces of late Hellenistic buildings and it may have been the minting centre for the people of Phrygia Epictetus) into an imperial architectural show-piece, with a theatre, a stadium, a large bath-house, several bridges across the river Pencalas which flowed through the city, and cemeteries full of elaborately decorated tombs. Aezani was an enthusiastic member of the *Panhellenion at Athens, where its best-known citizen and civic benefactor, M.

Article

Antioch(2), Roman Colonia Caesareia  

Stephen Mitchell

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Near East
  2. Roman Material Culture
(Pisidian, or more correctly ‘near Pisidia’), a city in Phrygia Paroreius north of *Pisidia, to be distinguished from the other Phrygian Antioch on the Maeander. It was a Seleucid; Fraser, GET, 328 f. foundation, peopled by colonists from *Magnesia (1) on the Maeander, occupying a strong site in the foothills of Sultan Dağ close to modern Yalvaç. Its fertile territory extended east to Lake Eğridir. The principal Hellenistic remains are at the nearby hill-top sanctuary of *Mēn Askaēnos, where there is an Ionic peripteral temple of the 2nd cent. bce. The temple estates were used to provide land for Roman *veterans of Legions V and VII when the city was refounded as Colonia Caesareia after the creation of the province of *Galatia in 25 bce. It was linked with the other Augustan colonies of the region and with the south coast by a military road, the *via Sebaste.

Article

Carthage, topography  

William Nassau Weech, Brian Herbert Warmington, and R. J. A. Wilson

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Near East
  2. Roman Material Culture
Carthage was founded on part of a large peninsula which stretched eastwards from lagoons into the gulf of Tunis; the isthmus linking it to the mainland further west is c. 5 km. (3 mi.) wide at its narrowest point. Scanty remains of houses of the last quarter of the 8th cent. bce have been found, at one point up to 350 m. (380 yds.) from the shore, suggesting that the settlement then was already of considerable size; but the original nucleus, if there really was a colony here a century earlier to correspond with the traditional foundation date, has yet to be found. Little is known of the archaic urban layout, but surface evidence and cemeteries to the north and west suggest that it covered at least 55 ha. (136 acres). Pottery kilns and metal-working quarters have been identified on its fringes, and the tophet, where child sacrifice to Baal and Tanit took place, has been located on the south; this was in continuous use from the later 8th cent. down to 146 bce.

Article

crucifixion  

George Ronald Watson and Andrew Lintott

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Christianity
  2. Near East
  3. Roman Law
  4. Roman Material Culture
Crucifixion seems to have been a form of punishment borrowed by the Romans from elsewhere, probably *Carthage. As a Roman penalty it is first certainly attested in the *Punic Wars. It was normally confined to slaves or non-citizens and later in the empire to humbler citizens; it was not applied to soldiers, except in the case of desertion. *Constantine I abolished the penalty (not before ce 314). Two inscriptions of the 1st cent. ce from *Cumae and *Puteoli have been found containing the contract of the undertaker both of funerals and of executions of this kind (see lex(2), ‘lex libitinaria’). The general practice was to begin with flagellation of the condemned, who was then compelled to carry a cross-beam (patibulum) to the place of execution, where a stake had been firmly fixed in the ground. He was stripped and fastened to the cross-beam with nails and cords, and the beam was drawn up by ropes until his feet were clear of the ground. Some support for the body was provided by a ledge (sedile) which projected from the upright, but a footrest (suppedaneum) is rarely attested, though the feet were sometimes tied or nailed.

Article

murrina vasa  

David Edward Eichholz and Antony Spawforth

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Near East
  2. Roman Material Culture

Murrina vasa, luxury tableware imported into Rome from the middle east and, being extremely costly, a status symbol. According to *Pliny(1), the chief source (HN 37.18.22), it was made from a soft mineral found in *Persia, and especially in Carmania. The mineral showed a variety of pleasing colours, purple and red predominating; his description suits fluorspar. Roman *Thebes (2) produced imitations in millefiori*glass, of which examples survive (Peripl. M. Euxini 6. 26. 6: μορρίνη).

Article

navies  

Philip de Souza

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Near East
  2. Roman Material Culture
The oldest navy in the ancient world was probably that of the Egyptian pharaohs; see egypt. Very little is known about Egyptian naval development, however, until the *Saites (672–525 bce), one of whom, Necho II (610–595), reorganized the navy to protect Egyptian interests against the Babylonians. The introduction of *triremes, probably under *Amasis (570–526), further strengthened Egypt's navy prior to the Persian conquest.The Persian navy was created under *Cambyses (530–522). It utilized triremes and was crewed by the king's maritime subjects, arranged in territorial or ethnic squadrons (e.g. Egyptians, *Phoenicians, *Ionians). During much of the 5th cent. bce this navy fought in the eastern Mediterranean against the Greek city-states, led by Athens, whose ships were crewed by her citizens and subject allies. From the battle of *Salamis (480) to the battle of Aegospotami (405) the Athenians were the dominant naval power in the region.