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Please make yourself at home !
(To a slave) : Bring more cushions for our footstools.
Have you been to Reate recently ? The Cato Consular Library has just opened there. All Rome is talking about it ! The most wonderful tour takes you around the place telling you everything you’ve always wanted to know about Cato the Censor. There is nothing like it even here in Rome.
This plaque, available at the library, is offered as a souvenir. I think the praefectus should be made consul this year for doing such an outstanding job.
Some olives before we dine ? From the Villa Venafra, where else ! A very dear friend introduced me to a new supplier in the Subura, the Oleum et Bacca.
Here is a label from a jar of their olive oil. The steward of the Villa took me on an instructive tour of the olivetum. Rarely have I passed a more enjoyable day in the country. If you appreciate the finer things for your table, or simply for a sore muscle, I urge you to make an appointment for the tour at the first opportunity.
On one of my more recent trips to Seleucia Pieria, I attended the Inaugural Lecture at the Magus School of Astronomy and was awarded the School Pin. |
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There is so much to see in Reate. This fine painting is available at the villa of Lucius Terentius Furianus.
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My first Saturnalia ever was a night to go down in history. Truly a magnificent start to the festival ! A wonderful banquet in an exquisite setting, exceptional entertainment, the company of friends, and the food....
Best of all were the presents. This divine plaque, created by Alal-Sin Malachus.
I also received some delightful poems by Senex Caecilius, and beautiful cards from some of Rome’s most talented citizens. They are on display in the Bibliotheca.
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20 Articles
Murder in Proconsular Africa, Oct 19, 2008 - 16:43
Telling the story (with a dash of dramatic license) of the murder of L.
Cornelius Lentulus, governor of Africa Proconsularis in the early first century
C.E., and of how an innovative clause in his last will and testament
prompted the emperor Augustus to amend Roman law, thus affecting the
lives of millions of Roman citizens until the fall of the empire, and perhaps
still affects some people’s lives today.
Travels Through Sabine Lands, Aug 7, 2008 - 07:59
Travelogue, or memoirs of a visit to Sabinium that I was lucky enough to undertake in the first week of July 2008.
Was Apollo Lovable ? Love, Theology and Divine Beauty, Apr 19, 2008 - 17:30
Résumé : He was beautiful, a god of light, of learning, of
music and poetry, the one to whom the Muses deferred. Like his father
Zeus, divine Apollo seduced many, mortals and immortals. Why then did he
have so many unhappy love affairs ? The water-nymph Daphne, the kings’
daughters Marpessa and Coronis, the youths Hyacinth and Cyparissos,
are all famous characters out of Apollo’s unhappy love myths. After a brief
résumé of these stories, this article looks at them from a
theological perspective. It asks what the Ancients thought about their gods,
what theology their religion was based on, and throws a bridge across the
cultural gap that separates two radically different definitions of divinity.
Roman Contacts with the Pythian Oracle at Delphi, Mar 29, 2008 - 21:04
The Pythian Oracle of Apollo at Delphi was for centuries a rallying-point
for all who claimed to be free Greeks interested in knowing what advice the
god might give on matters private and public. Non-Greeks too, and
Romans in particular, held the oracle in great esteem. The Sibylline Books,
a collection of Apollonian oracles kept in Rome, were a sort of holy
scripture more easily accessible to Romans than the Pythia. What was the
extent of Rome\'s devotion to the Delphic Apollo ? This article looks at the
legends and the history of Romans at Delphi.
End of the Seleucid Empire : Rome’s “Imperium” in Syria, Mar 18, 2008 - 16:20
The end of the Seleucid Empire is often dated to the year 64 B.C.E. in which the great Roman soldier Pompey decided
to attach the tattered remains of the Seleucid Empire to Rome’s
growing list of provinciae. Another Roman General, Lucullus, had
recently restored the Seleucid monarchy after chasing Mithridates VI
Eupator out of Pontus and Tigranes II of Armenia out of Syria. Why the
change in policy towards this dying Near Eastern kingdom ? This article
looks at the way Rome understood “imperium” as not only compatible
with, but also a guarantee of “freedom.”
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