The Ishtar Gate

The Ishtar gate was one of the inner gates of Babylon, decorated with animals in yellow on a blue background.

"It [Babylon] lies in a great plain, and in size it is such that each face measures one hundred and twenty furlongs, the shape of the whole being square; thus the furlongs of the circuit of the city amount in all to four hundred and eighty. Such is the size of the city of Babylon, and it had a magnificence greater than all other cities of which we have knowledge. First there runs round it a trench deep and broad and full of water; then a wall fifty royal cubits in thickness and two hundred cubits in height: now the royal cubit is larger by three fingers than the common cubit. [...] In the circuit of the wall there are set a hundred gates made of bronze throughout, and the gate-posts and lintels likewise."

Herodotus - The History I 177-179
Translated G. C. Macaulay

The invention of writing

We believe today that writing was invented in Mesopotamia, but the Romans had slightly different view - even so,they were not very far from (what we believe to be the) truth.


An Egyptian (of General Antefs) stele, ca 2050 f.Kr, 11th dynasty, probably under the reign of Mentu-hotep II.

"The Egyptians, in their animal-pictures, were the first people to represent thought by symbols: these, the earliest documents of human history, are visible to‑day, impressed upon stone. They describe themselves also as the inventors of the alphabet: from Egypt, they consider, the Phoenicians, who were predominant at sea, imported the knowledge into Greece, and gained the credit of discovering what they had borrowed. For the tradition runs that it was Cadmus, arriving with a Phoenician fleet, who taught the art to the still uncivilized Greek peoples."

Tacitus - Annals XI 14
Translated by J. Jackson

A contest on the sea

The Aeneid is always a good source of exciting episodes. I have previously mentioned a boxing scene from the epic, today it's time for the sailing contest.


A (war?) ship from Ostia. Compare to this merchant ship and this small boat.

"For the first contest enter four well-matched ships of heavy oars, picked from all the fleet. Mnestheus with his eager crew drives the swift Sea Dragon, soon to be Mnestheus of Italy, from whose name comes the Memmian line; Gyas the huge Chimaera of huge bulk, a city afloat, driven forward by the Dardan youth in triple tier, with oars rising in threefold rank. Sergestus, from whom the Sergian house has its name, rides in the great Centaur; and in the sea-blue Scylla Cloanthus, whence comes your family, Cluentius of Rome!"

Virgilius - the Aenaid V 114
Translated by Fairclough, H. R.

Fire and insurances

Fires were common in ancient Rome and houses would be destroyed from time to time. One way to protect yourself was to get an fire and insurance.


A late upper-class house in Ostia.

"You had purchased a house, Tongilianus, for two hundred thousand sesterces; and a calamity but too frequent in this city destroyed it. Contributions poured in to the amount of a million sesterces. May you not, I ask, be suspected of having set fire to your own house, Tongilianus?"

Martialis - Epigrams III.52
Translated by Bohn

Isis: the Ship of Wishes

The quote below may be long, but I promise that it's well worth your time. It's a description of the ship Isis in Lucians book "The Ship of Wishes".


This is, of course, not the Isis -which was bound for Piraeus (Athens port city) in the story. It is, however, a Roman grain merchant ship and the mosaic is from Ostia, Romes port city, which is very much comparable to Piraeus when it comes to grain transports.


"what an enormous ship it was! A hundred and twenty ells in length, as the carpenter told us ; upwards of thirty ells in breadth, and from the deck to the bottom of the hold, where the pump stands, nine and twenty [55x14x13 m]. And what an astonishing mast! What a powerful yard it carried! What monstrous ropes that hold it fast on either side! Did you observe, how the stern rising insensibly in a curve, was ornamented at top with a golden goose? And how at the other end, the prow proportionately swelling forwards, had on the two sides the ftgure of the goddess Isis, from whom as its patroness the ship takes its name? To say nothing of the other decorations and appurtenances, the paintings, the purple flags, and especially the anchors and capstans and windlasses, and of the cabins disposed in the afterpart of the ship. All, in one word, all appeared to me admirable. The sailors, in such a surprising number, that they might be compared to an army, and the cargo, it was said, was so large, as to be sufficient provision for all the inhabitants of Attica [ca 300.000 inhabitants] for a whole year."

Lucian - The Ship of Wishes 435-437
Translated by W. Tooke

Aqueducts

One of the major aqueducts near Porta Maggiore (Rome).

"For four hundred and forty-one years from the foundation of the City, the Romans were satisfied with the use of such waters as they drew from the Tiber, from wells, or from springs. Esteem for springs still continues, and is observed with veneration. They are believed to bring healing to the sick, as, for example, the springs of the Camenae, of Apollo, and of Juturna. But there now run into the City: the Appian aqueduct, Old Anio, Marcia, Tepula, Julia, Virgo, Alsietina, which is also called Augusta, Claudia, New Anio."

Frontinus - De Aquis I 4
Translated by C. Bennett

Becoming a landlord in Rome

I sometimes find myself believing that the high price that land goes for in our cities is a modern phenomena. Oh well, it's not. Notice in consideration of the passage below that a rank-and-file soldier made around 900 sesterces per year, a labourer 1000 sesterces and the minimum fortune for a senator was 800.000 sesterces (50's -40's BC)


Caesar had to, even considering the huge amount of money he paid for the land, improvise a little when constructing his forum. These are the remains of shops on the south side.

"We behold with admiration pyramids that were built by kings, when the very ground alone, that was purchased by the Dictator Cæsar, for the construction of his Forum, cost one hundred millions of sesterces! If, too, an enormous expenditure has its attractions for any one whose mind is influenced by monetary considerations, be it known to him that the house in which Clodius dwelt, who was slain by Milo, was purchased by him at the price of fourteen million eight hundred thousand sesterces!"

Pliny the Elder - Naturalis Historia (the Natural History) XXXVI.24
Translated by John Bostock, H.T. Riley

Vota pro salute imperatoris

The Romans had a very strict, almost juridical, from of a religion. The Vota pro salute imperatoris (for the health or safety of the emperor and his family) is one of the more extreme form of ritualised legal behaviour towards the gods. This was a vow that was renewed and for filled every year as long as the gods kept the emperor safe - it would, on the other hand, be considered breaking and agreement (from the gods side) if the emperor died.

The vow would normally be uttered on the 1st of January (OCD 3 s.v. votum), but notice that the (rather old) commentary on the quote below state that it was to eb done on December 30th.


The emperor Trajanus.

"To the emperor Trajan

We have acquitted, Sir, and renewed our annual vows for your
prosperity, in which that of the empire is essentially involved,
imploring the gods to grant us ever thus to pay and thus to repeat
them."


"Trajan to Pliny

I received the satisfaction, my dearest Secundus, of being
informed by your letter that you, together with the people under
your government, have both discharged and renewed your vows to
the immortal gods for my health and happiness."

Pliny the elder - epistulae X 35 & 36
Translated by William Melmoth

Last day of the year, 66 bc

It's the last day of the year and many of us look back on past events, me too, even if it's going to be a little further back normally. Here's what was going on in Rome on this day more than 2000 years ago.

Happy new year!


The comitia in Rome is long gone, but the one in Paestum. You'll find more pictures from the site earlier on in the blog (temple of Hera I, temple of Hera II and the temple of Athena)

"Can the limit of this life, O Catiline, can the breath of this atmosphere be pleasant to you, when you know that there is not one man of those here present who is ignorant that you, on the last day of the year, when Lepidus and Tullus were consuls, stood in the assembly armed; that you had prepared your hand for the slaughter of the consuls and chief men of the state, and that no reason or fear of yours hindered your crime and madness, but the fortune of the republic?"

Cicero - in Catilinam I.15.3
Translated by C. D. Yonge & Henry G. Bohn

I hold thee fast, Mother Earth!

I couldn't resist presenting another quote from Frontinus Stratagems. You might want to compare the quote below to Suetonius - De Vita Caesarum, Divus Julius 59.


A rostrum, ship beak, from a tomb monument just outside of Porta Marina in Ostia.

"Gaius Caesar, having slipped as he was about to embark on ship, exclaimed: "I hold thee fast, Mother Earth." By this interpretation of the incident he made it seem that he was destined to come back to the lands from which he was setting out"

Frontinus - Stratagems XII
Translated by Charles E. Bennett