Welcome again! Ultimately, the hiatus has ended and we’re again to common weekly posts. As we’ve achieved a couple of instances earlier than, this week I’m breaking the hiatus by taking an opportunity to reply a couple of shorter questions posed by my patrons over at Patreon who’re the Patres et Matres Conscripti of the ACOUP Senate. It’s been some time – too lengthy, to be frank – since we’ve achieved one in every of these, so let me reiterate that as with earlier responses, the solutions right here is probably not as exhaustive or cautious as they’d be as a full characteristic publish however replicate roughly what you’d get asking the identical query in my workplace hours or after class.
Simply as a fast advisory earlier than we dive in, one in every of these solutions goes to contain discussing apotropaic (magic protecting) objects, that are ceaselessly *ahem* formed like human anatomy, so in case you learn with little ones, you might wish to give the ultimate question-and-answer a learn over earlier than sharing it with them.
And naturally in case you like what you might be studying right here, please share it; in case you actually prefer it, you may help me on Patreon; as talked about patrons who be part of the Patres et Matres Conscripti get to suggest questions that I reply right here. If you need updates at any time when a brand new publish seems, you may click on beneath for e-mail updates or observe me on twitter (@BretDevereaux) for updates as to new posts in addition to my occasional historical historical past, overseas coverage or navy historical past musings, assuming there’s nonetheless a Twitter by the point this publish goes reside. I’m additionally on Bluesky (@bretdevereaux.bsky.social) and (much less ceaselessly) Mastodon (@bretdevereaux@historians.social).
Onward to the questions!
Douglas Perrins asks, “What was the mechanic that introduced weapons innovation again from the frontier to Rome? Was it advert hoc or systematized?”
That is truly fairly an attention-grabbing query, though sadly the that is case the place we’re largely counting on what we are able to suppose somewhat than what we are able to know.
First, the background: Almost each main weapon or weapons-system the Roman navy makes use of by the Center Republic was adopted from one enemy or one other. Ovid’s quip that fas est et ab hoste doceri (“It’s proper to study, even from an enemy,” Metam. 4.428) was clearly borne out in Roman gear selections. The Roman sword of alternative appears to have been an area Italic variant of the early La Tène sword, earlier than it was overtaken by the adopted Spanish variant of the identical, the gladius Hispaniensis, the place it then served alongside the Roman adopted model of the late La Tène sword, the spatha. The Roman javelin, the pilum, was most likely from Cisalpine Gaul, the Roman Montefortino-type helmet was additionally Gallic, as was Roman mail, the lorica hamata. Roman artillery (catapults) have been Greek, as probably have been Roman warships, though Polybius insists the Romans additionally copied the Carthaginians and so they might nicely have achieved. Within the imperial interval, we see a brand new helmet kind, which we name ‘Gallic’ as a result of it was, together with the famed lorica segmentata (segmented plate armor), most likely picked up within the East from a Seleucid or Parthian supply (their ultra-heavy cataphract cavalry had used that kind of armor for a while). So virtually no a part of the Roman gear set was indigenous to Rome and even Italy.
So how did they go about buying these items? In almost all instances, the sources don’t inform us; generally they’re conscious of the borrowing (the gladius, for example) however don’t element the way it was borrowed. The exception are the ships: Polybius twice notes (1.20.15 and 1.59.8) that the Romans copied Carthaginian ships they captured through the First Punic Conflict – and sarcastically for one of many uncommon instances we’re instructed how they did it, I believe most historical historians doubt the story. For one, it’s a bit too neat and just-so, however extra broadly it was virtually definitely pointless: the Romans had socii specialised in ships (these have been the socii navales, naval-allies) who appear to have largely been Greek and would have been conversant in up-to-date warship designs. Notably, the names within the Roman navy for a ship’s specialist crew have been Greek, not Latin, suggesting that the Roman naval custom was Greek and that the Romans probably relied on Greek naval specialists, drawn from Greek socii in S. Italy to fill these key specialist roles.
So what can we suppose? Effectively, for many instances, we are able to most likely dismiss the concept there was any formalized, state-run system for this. For many of the Roman Republic, troopers provided their very own gear and sure had some discretion (inside limits) on what they bought. We proceed to search out, for example, some La Tène-style swords in second-century BC Roman websites (Grad close to Šmihel, the camps at Numantia close to Renieblas) suggesting that not all Roman troopers converted to the gladius Hispaniensis. There might have been some laws on this – we all know, for example, that absolutely physique armor was required above a sure census requirement (Polyb. 6.23.14) – however inside these limits, troopers appeared to have a good bit of alternative.
Whereas widespread tradition likes the picture of uniform Roman troopers, they have been by no means uniform in that approach. Even into the imperial interval, in case you noticed a Roman legion marching down the street, you’d probably see troopers sporting mail (lorica hamata), segmented armor (so-called lorica segementata) and scale armor (lorica squamata) all in the identical unit. It’s additionally doable you may see an officer sporting a Greek-style muscle cuirass and I wouldn’t be shocked if, no less than early on, one may see Greek-style textile armor, although the proof for its use by the Romans on the common is nearly non-existent.
So we typically suppose that the adoption of private gear was most likely advert hoc: Roman troopers may begin by looting enemy gear they thought carried out nicely or stuffed a distinct segment. What’s clear is that then we now have Roman artisans – within the Republic, nonetheless very a lot personal issues, not state fabricators – copying what they’re seeing. We will inform as a result of whereas they match the shape, they don’t at all times make them the identical approach (for example, Roman Montefortino helmets aren’t manufactured the identical approach, structurally, as their Gallic forebears). Sooner or later – in some instances, this clearly occurred inside a couple of a long time (mail, particularly, takes off fast) – the adopted gear turns into ‘normal’ as increasingly troopers use it and stress to adapt kicks in. Which will in flip have been codified by modifications to laws implied by Polybius’ declare that, by maybe 216, mail was required for the First Class of Roman heavy infantry.
The tempo of navy change definitely slows through the early and excessive imperial durations, but it surely doesn’t cease. As Ian Haynes notes in Blood of the Provinces (2013) the auxilia – models recruited of non-citizen residents of the empire – appear to have have performed a job, presumably casual, within the dissemination of weapons and techniques. Cohorts of auxilia have been usually recruited from specific ethnic teams throughout the empire, no less than initially, and anticipated to battle in native model with native gear, however we quickly see each the auxilia adopting a number of Roman-style equipment and likewise weapons utilized by the auxilia drifting into extra widespread utilization within the Roman military, both within the legions or in different auxilia cohorts. Consequently, whereas these cohorts are likely to preserve a particular fight function – a cohort of archers or cavalry or horse archers or mild infantry remained as such – their ethnic and gear distinctiveness declines over time as techniques and gear normalize. That most likely wasn’t the supposed function of the auxilia, but it surely was a long-term impact.
Matthew Planchard asks, “What’s your system for annotation, note-taking and synthesis of the entire content material you learn and see?
Ah! That is far scarier than our upcoming spooky Halloween query!
So the very fact is, I’m horrible at taking and preserving notes and at all times have been. A serious top-down overhaul of my note-taking methodology has been on my to-do checklist for some time and I hope to implement that in my subsequent huge undertaking. I haven’t been in a position to do it but for the present e book undertaking exactly as a result of this undertaking is constructed atop my dissertation analysis.
For the dissertation, I stored the majority of my notes in OneNote (a part of the MS Workplace suite). The most important chunk of this was preserving observe of the entire artifacts I used to be gathering information on, because the core of the undertaking was contemplating a complete bunch of arms and armor – I ended up with one thing like 400 items for the dissertation (and the determine has gone up considerably for the e book undertaking). To maintain observe of that, I created an ordinary ‘template’ note-card with a header that gave each bit a singular numbered ID, together with an simply searchable identifier (so “110 – Roman – Gladius Hispaniensis” for example, is without doubt one of the Grad close to Šmihel swords) after which the cardboard for each bit consists of the entire measurements I had for it, scanned photographs of it, date, findspot, bibliography, and any notes. I initially spaced the numbers out so every preliminary digit was a class (0xx was pre-Roman Italic, 1xx was Roman and so forth) however a number of classes (Spain and Gaul) burst their edges, requiring me to exchange this technique for the ultimate catalog of artifacts within the dissertation.
Alongside that, I had a OneNote folder in the identical pocket book for every chapter and if I hit one thing I assumed was helpful, I might create a card or add it to an current card, organized topically. I didn’t hew as tightly to that system as I should have achieved and so additionally ended up with fairly a couple of miscellaneous phrase paperwork with scattered notes as nicely. However every chapter acquired its personal drafts folder, so these notes have been no less than sorted that approach (together with every chapter’s ‘bitx field,’ my time period for paragraphs I’ve written however both pulled out of the draft or not but positioned in them; I by no means delete something – it simply will get pulled over into what’s mainly a ‘holding bin’ doc, one for every chapter).
By way of synthesis, this helps for what a historian is usually anticipated to do, significantly in footnotes, which is to doc earlier works, particularly the place their positions battle: so-and-so (1999) says X however such-and-such (1987) says Y, to which what’s-his-face (2012) agreed, constructing on the work of that-old-fellow (1935). Ideally, my notes put these positions subsequent to one another, so I can see the contrasts. That mentioned, after I write, I virtually at all times wish to have the issues I’m citing – books, articles and first sources – in entrance of me (as you may think, this implies when writing, my workplace is a multitude – stacks of books, usually with index playing cards holding pages, throughout). That’s an possibility for an historical historian in a approach that it wouldn’t be for a modernist who, in any case, can not take away paperwork from an archive and may most likely solely scan or photocopy a lot.
That’s, to be frank, not the perfect system and if I used to be a extra fashionable historian coping with archival data, it might be woefully inadequate. However as an historical historian with a comparatively smaller assortment of sources which I can extra simply verify again on, I can get away with the disorganization. Nonetheless, I’m attempting, as I spin up e book undertaking to, to put the groundwork for being far more systematic.
Tom Roeder asks, “What are the biggest gaps within the literary proof in antiquity? The place do you would like you had extra info?“
It is a query that we might go a couple of methods with, relying on how we’re enthusiastic about gaps and the way broad a internet we’re casting for ‘literary proof.’
Taking the kind of broadest doable brush to this query whereas confining myself to the Mediterranean, my first reply can be Iron-Age Phoenician Literature, particularly Carthaginian literature. We have now a bit little bit of Bronze Age mythology however from the Iron Age, we now have very little – mainly simply scraps. This was a literate society and we all know from the Greeks and the Romans that they have been writing historical past, mythology, poetry, agricultural treatises, philosophy and all types of different stuff, functionally none of which survives besides in tiny fragments or references. That leaves us virtually completely reliant on the Phoenicians Greek and Roman enemies to grasp their tradition, which is a tragic state of affairs certainly.
If we wish to get into particularly Greek and Roman literature, I believe we have to begin with lacking genres. Greek Comedy, for example, was damaged into durations: Outdated, Center and New. We have now some Outdated Comedy (Aristophanes, particularly), however solely snippets of New Comedy (Menander) survive, though a papyrus with huge chunk of one in every of his performs, Dyskolos, provides us some window into New Comedy – that mentioned, most of what we all know comes from Roman variations of Greek New Comedy by the Roman playwrights Plautus and Terence. Greek Center Comedy, nonetheless, wasn’t so tailored and survives solely in scattered fragments, leaving us not figuring out quite a bit about it as a transitional literary kind between the opposite two.
We will additionally speak in eras, as a result of there are additionally clear chronological preferences and gaps. We’ve talked about this earlier than, however preserving works was costly and never each period’s authors have been seen as fairly so indispensable. The clear ‘winners’ of this strategy of preservation have been the Classical interval in Greece and the Late Republic in Rome, partially as a result of they’ve a dense focus of authors thought of ‘the perfect’ and thus used as school-texts for instructing (which ensured plenty of copies). The ‘losers’ right here have been the Greek Hellenistic interval and the excessive and late Roman imperial durations: each durations the place we all know there’s a lot of writing happening, however which don’t excite the identical kind of consideration and consequently, preservation is quite a bit thinner. One among my hopes with the prospect of ‘unrolling’ the carbonized papyri of the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum (that is the ‘Vesuvius Challenge‘) is that due to the date of the library (destroyed in 79 AD) it might need a number of Hellenistic literature, though given the aim of the library, it’s more likely to be a lot of Epicurean philosophy. Wouldn’t have been my alternative, however hardly unhealthy to have extra texts!
Lastly, we are able to take into consideration particular works that will be significantly transformative to have. Each classicist has their very own misplaced works they’d like to have. I believe my first alternative must be Claudius’ (sure, the emperor; he was a historian too!) histories of Carthage and the Etruscans, two societies about which we’re poorly knowledgeable. Likewise, Aristotle reportedly wrote down descriptions of the federal government of 158 governments, of which just one – for Athens – survives. Nearly any of those can be superb to search out – the Athenaion Politeia was a revelation on its discovery in 1891 – however the crown jewel would virtually definitely be the Structure of Carthage that was in that assortment of 158. Smaller-ball stuff, however a whole copy of Livy or Polybius – we’re lacking most of each – might fairly radically reshape the research of the Roman Republic and the broader Hellenistic world.
To shut out, I do wish to notice since we’re mentioning preservation, one deliberate sequence for the weblog most likely a while subsequent 12 months goes to be How Did They Make It: Books, overlaying the manufacturing of the codex (most likely with an addendum on papyrus scrolls), which is able to give us some area to additionally speak about preservation.
Lastly, in an appropriately Halloween temper, Laura Fox asks, “With October closing in, What did the Romans take into consideration “spooky” stuff – ghosts, monsters, witchcraft, and many others.? In the event that they noticed things like threats, what did they do to mitigate the hazard?“
That is truly a very neat query, as a result of on the one hand, Greek and Roman literature characteristic a reasonably sturdy set of ‘spooky’ tales, usually the place it’s clear that the story is all in enjoyable and nobody is anticipated to take its supernatural components significantly critically, however whereas for us moderns there’s usually a pointy divide between spooky tales and non secular perception, for the Greeks and Romans that is one thing extra of a continuum from frivolous tales all the way in which to well-evidenced non secular apply.
On the extra frivolous finish, you will have, for example, among the tales in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses (usually recognized in English as The Golden Ass) which options a variety of tales regarding witches – usually from the attitude of unreliable narrators, although the primary character and narrator, Lucius, ultimately dabbles in witchcraft and turns himself right into a donkey, with the remainder of the story relating his efforts to get remodeled again right into a human. The reader isn’t actually anticipated to take these tales significantly critically: they’re largely for humor worth. Likewise, in Petronius’ satirical Satyricon (62-3), the characters Niceros and Trimalchio commerce spooky tales, first a werewolf story from Niceros a few soldier who visited a graveyard with him and remodeled right into a wolf, then a narrative from Trimalchio about witches who might curse with a contact and stole kids, changing them with bundles of straw, although we actually don’t take any of those characters critically within the novel.
Shifting to one thing barely extra critical, the Romans additionally instructed ghost tales. Pliny the Youthful tells such a story in a letter to Lucius Licinius Sura (Plin. Ep. 7.27), full with a ghost haunting a home in Athens, full with a ghostly apparition showing with rattling chains, although within the story the haunting is discovered by the thinker Athenodorus to be brought on by the improper burial of a physique, wrapped in chains, beneath the home. The tales Pliny tells are mainly innocent, however not like Apuleius, he appears to credit score their truthfulness.
After all these tales mix into mythology correct. As recalled in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (and elsewhere), a set of myths associated to transformations Zeus/Jupiter punished some evil-doers with being remodeled into wolves, significantly the legendary determine Lycaon. Each Odysseus (within the Odyssey) and Aeneas (within the Aeneid) go to the underworld and Aeneas can also be visited at one level by the ghostly apparition of his lifeless spouse Creusa. As mirrored in Pliny’s story, it was thought that one consequence of improper burial was the potential that the indignant lifeless may hang-out the residing (one thing that additionally happens in Mesopotamian faith, by the by).
However after all Roman religion is one in which the whole universe is alive with divine and semi-divine powers, that are managed and channeled by ritual, so naturally all of this blends into small-scale non secular apply. The Romans believed in a couple of supernatural perils: not solely might hostile spirits doubtlessly do hurt, so too might human people who, deliberately or inadvertently, drew on religious powers. For each the Greeks and the Romans, curses have been actual issues one particular person might name down on one other and spoken or written curses might thus have actual energy that wanted to be counter-acted or warded off. Not solely was a spoken curse an issue, however the evil eye – a glare with evil intent – might additionally undertaking dangerous religious power; within the Roman considering this was intently linked with invidia, normally translated as “envy.” However the etymology right here is telling: invidia comes from invidere, which in flip is in+videre (‘to see, understand, discern) – it’s a intense trying into or certainly, trying in opposition to. And so invidere can imply “to envy, to loath” but in addition “to solid the evil eye upon,” a hateful look supposed to hurt. Somebody appeared upon with highly effective envy was themselves vulnerable to a kind of curse.
How did one shield in opposition to such evil energies? We name any kind of ritual or superstition supposed to chase away evil spirits or energies or simply unhealthy luck an apotropaic apply from the Greek ἀποτρέπω, ‘to show [something] away.’ The standard approach to make sense of Roman superstition in that is that the Romans regarded the evil eye as essentially female and feminizing in its nature (it isn’t exhausting to notice that the folds of the attention may considerably somewhat resemble the folds of some female anatomy), so the response was to counteract this power with one thing masculine, typically phallic. Certainly, one nonetheless sees in some fashionable Mediterranean cultures, together with in Italy, the signal of the horns (corna) used to ward away unhealthy luck: the image evoking the horns of a bull, an emblem of masculine power.
Roman practices might be extra specific than this. Priapus, a Greek and Roman fertility god marked by his monumental phallus, seems generally as an apotropaic machine, with work or statues of the god (ceaselessly in gardens, with which he’s additionally related) thought to chase away the evil eye. Younger boys appear to have been thought significantly weak to the evil eye, presumably as a result of they hadn’t but absolutely developed their very own masculine presence, and younger Roman boys consequently wore an amulet referred to as a bulla, a small container which typically contained a carved phallus (a phallus-shaped allure known as a fascinus), a kind of protecting magical phallic booster, because it have been. An attention-grabbing development I recall from a convention paper I listened to – however alas, can not at the moment discover the reference – is that whereas Roman boys left behind their bullae after they grew to become adults, we generally discover these amulets in Roman legionary contexts on the frontier, the place they appear to be worn not by boys however maybe by the troopers themselves. The considering seeming to be that Roman troopers stationed out on the Rhine or Danube, in an odd nation with unusual gods, may nicely require a bit extra additional religious safety.
Likewise, a normal in a triumph was clearly the goal of a number of invidia – the triumphing normal, in any case, was attaining and being lauded for the best doable achievement in Roman society. Partly to chase away that envy, his troopers sang baudy, usually insulting songs (humor was thought to decrease invidia), however Pliny the Elder additionally notes (HN 28.4.7) {that a} fascinus was hung beneath the overall’s chariot as an apotropaic machine. There’s additionally a suggestion {that a} triumphing normal might need worn a bulla through the triumph, however the proof on that’s skinny.
Now you might nicely ask what precisely ladies and ladies have been alleged to do and my sense is that a part of the reply is that the Romans didn’t actually know. Magic, witchcraft and the evil eye are typically female-gendered of their legends and considering. Roman ladies are generally proven sporting a crescent-shaped amulet, the lunula (‘little moon’) rather than the bulla, however we even have references to women in Roman literature (Plautus’ Rudens 1171) having bullae and my understanding is that some bullae have been recovered in burial contexts have been the deceased was feminine. So in some instances, a Roman lady may, like a Roman man, attempt to chase away evil with a phallic apotropaic machine. Alternatively, although they’re fairly uncommon, my understanding is we additionally generally discover amulets formed like feminine genitalia, which can nicely have had the same kind of logic to their perform, boosting a girl’s female power to withstand the evil eye.
For evil spirits, the opposite method was to try to ward them off with one thing horrifying. By far probably the most pervasive type of this in antiquity was the gorgoneia, a stylized depiction of a gorgon’s head (that’s, a creature like Medusa). That method – one thing scary to frighten away evil spirits – seems in various cultures the world over, so it isn’t shocking to see it in Greek and Roman apply. Notably, each the Greeks and the Romans tended to treat what we’d name ‘liminal areas’ (the limen is the edge of a door) – locations midway between two states of being – as significantly weak to evil spirits: doorways, crossroads, graveyards. We are likely to see apotropaic gadgets in these contexts extra usually: for example the Greeks usually put up hermai (or herms) at crossroads: a plinth with a sculpted head (of Hermes, the god that protects vacationers) normally with a distinguished phallus on the decrease a part of the sculpture; these gorgon-faces usually shield entryways for comparable causes.
In any case, Pleased Halloween! My hope over the following few weeks is to cowl a couple of of the longer ACOUP Senate requests, beginning with the ‘afterlife’ of the Roman Republic’s establishments, alongside some Tolkien content material, some associated to season 2 of Rings of Energy and a few not.
