#Legion: life in the roman army

[aquitainequeen]

BEST THING IN THE EXHIBIT

[blueiscoool]

What Was Life Like in the Roman Army?

The British Museum’s New Show Offers a Peek

"Legion" showcases objects including scabbards, coins, and the world's only intact legionary shield.

The viral nature of the term “Roman Empire” makes it easy to forget the trend started because ancient Rome had one of the most unforgettable armies in history. A new show at the British Museum is turning the spotlight on the soldiers that helped build and safeguard Roman rule.

Legion: Life in the Roman Army” transports visitors to the million square miles that was once the Roman Empire to explore its unparalleled military might through the eyes of the people who lived it. The museum already has a dedicated gallery space covering the rise of Rome from a small town to an imperial capital, covering a period of about 1,000 years. But the latest show humanizes that collective power through more than 200 exhibits ranging from soldierly objects to everyday items that capture the lives of citizens living under military rule.

Copper alloy Roman legionary helmet.

“Few men are born brave,” wrote Vegetius in the later Roman Empire. “Many become so from care and force of discipline.” From the 6th century B.C.E., soldiering was a career choice and joining the army came with substantial perks (if you lived), including a substantial pension. Foreigners entering the auxiliary troops could also attain citizenship for themselves and their families.

The show traces the journey of a notable Roman soldier, Claudis Terentianus, following him from his enlistment to his participation in campaigns to his retirement. Along the way, visitors can view the armor and weapons soldiers wielded in battle, from a gilded bronze scabbard to a copper alloy helmet to the world’s only intact legionary shield. Domestic objects such as children’s shoes illustrate the family life of military men; coins and tombstones allude to the cost of the empire’s wars.

Also included in the show is an ancient Roman arm guard, found in fragments in 1906 and recently reconstructed by the National Museums Scotland—the first time the artifact can be viewed in its entirety in millennia.

“Sword and sandals, helmet and shield are all on parade here as would be expected, but told through often ordinary individuals,” Richard Abdy, the museum’s curator of Roman and Iron Age coins, said in a statement. “Every soldier has a story: it’s incredible that these tales are nearly 2,000 years old.”

By Jamie Valentino.

A helmet depicting the face of a Trojan.

Sword of Tiberius – Iron sword with gilded bronze scabbard.

Tombstone of an imaginifer’s daughter, 100-300 C.E.

Roman scutum (shield).

Gold coin featuring an oath-taking scene between two soldiers.

A 2,000-year-old Roman cavalry helmet.

[cynicalclassicist]

25th February 2024 British Museum: Legion: life in the Roman army Part 8

Nearly there now!

That's it!

[artbyblastweave]

One of the light-touch worldbuilding/storytelling/dramatic irony moments I really enjoy in Fallout: New Vegas is everything to do with Aurelius of Phoenix, the Legion Slavemaster operating Cottonwood Cove. Nested bit here, right? On first glance it seems like psuedo-Latin gibberish, something grandiose but divorced from meaning, like a lot of the Legion guys- but then you do the double take and realize it's a cognomen, a nickname Romans would receive based on great achievements or conquests-e.g. Scipio Africanus- and that implicitly this is the guy who helped sack the actual former city of Phoenix in Arizona. Stealth Future-imperfect trope, disguised at first glance because "Phoenix" is already a kind of grandiose mythologic-sounding word. And when you realize that, right, it's suddenly very funny, for the same basic reason The Republic of Dave is funny- grandiose terminology juxtaposed with a mundane name from the world we recognize. If it were Aurelius of Boise, Aurelius of Cincinnati, right, there are cities you could use in the pairing that would cause it to parse as much more of an explicit gag. So now it's silly in the way everything about the Legion is silly. But then it wraps back around to actually kind of unnerving, because first off, basically it's an offhand implication of something very nasty having gone down in Phoenix, A City From Real Life That We Recognize, in order for him to have gotten a whole Cognomen out of it. And second, it's obviously not a coincidence that his name doesn't sound dumb. Caesar isn't gonna let a subordinate quote-unquote "earn" a cognomen unless it's useful to him, unless it enhances the brand somehow, and having a guy named "Aurelius of Phoenix" walking around, well, it does do that! It feels calculated. It's not the kind of name that's downstream of cultural decay and half-remembered information. It's another example of how Caesar micromanages his slave army down to their very names, and how he lifts random superficial elements of Roman culture on an ad-hoc basis without integrating any of it on a deeper level. A lot going on, with this one guy's goofy name!

[star-ocean-peahen]

The more you think about Jason Grace's life, the more fucked up it gets.

Like, the whole "joined Camp Jupiter as a three year old" thing. We already know Camp Jupiter is fucked up because it places heavy importance on a child army, despite having plenty of demigod adults at hand, but they straight up recruited a three year old into the military. He showed up and got promptly stuck in a barrack for the rest of his childhood.

Like, why?? Why on earth would they do that instead of giving him to someone in New Rome to raise and inducting him into the legion at a respectable twelve??

And who raised him anyway?? A rotating cast of nineteen-year-old demigods?? His bunkmates in the Fifth?? If he was a young teenager I could see that, but he arrived when he was three, was he even potty-trained??? Did he just grow up being educated by bored teenagers and ghosts, watching as demigods arrived and served and retired, being told that he had to be the greatest of them all?? Did he have any other children to grow up with?? Did the legion even consider him different than the other recruits, or did he have to shovel unicorn dung when he forgot his phonics and live with the constant threat of perhaps being sewn into a bag of weasels??

I find it odd that Jason, as a demigod who grew up in a demigod's world, doesn't have his unique perspective explored more. I find it especially odd that the difference between his childhood and everyone else's is ignored. However difficult and varied everyone else's backgrounds are, they've at least attended a school. They had parents, and family, and a home, at least at one point. They had mortal toys and dwellings and communities that weren't merged inextricably with the myths. They knew where they came from. Do you think Jason, with his powerful, kingly father and impending destiny, ever felt like he didn't know who his family was?

I also find it strange that he doesn't seem to have a very wide network of friends from Camp Jupiter? He has Reyna, who he trusts and works with and depends on. He lists Hazel and Frank among his friends, but they look up to him as a role model. He mentions Bobby and Dakota familiarly, but never again. He's familiar and on good terms with basically everyone—but the only person he seems to consider as a close friend is Reyna. And that wouldn't be odd if he hadn't grown up at Camp Jupiter. He doesn't seem to have any constant companion—anyone he considers his family until he meets Leo.

Maybe he and Leo bonded so well because they both knew what it was like to grow up transiently. To have any constant in your life, and know that the day you would move on or they would move on was fast approaching. Maybe the reason he looked at Camp Half-Blood and admired how united and familial they seemed, and wished Camp Jupiter could be similar, was that he could see in them the family he wished he had.

Honestly, I feel like meeting Thalia should have left him in a lot more turmoil than it did. He grew up with no family but a god for a father, and here's a person who wanted him. Someone who always wanted him because he was Jason, and not the demigod son of Zeus. Maybe even someone to whom he mattered more than his destiny.

I really, really wish we'd gotten to see more of the contrasts between him and Percy. He is explicitly the Romans' version of the hero Percy is, except he's the hero first, and the person second. Jason did everything right! He did everything perfectly, and Percy still got where he did without being trained for it his entire childhood. He's got such a better reason to resent him than "bad vibes". They could have been foils for each other hhhhhhhrngh.

Just. This lonely, idolized, child soldier's life hurts me.

[mmavverickk]

I personally have always felt that, on Jason's end, the rivalry he bad with Percy was done to like meet the expectation of his role S a son of Jupiter. He doesn't even know how to have a genuine rivalry because he's all in his head.

I dunno I might be talking outta my ass

i understand how it comes across that way. honestly, that's probably how rick wrote it. "well these two are kids of the big three, gotta put some tension there."

he clearly didn't think about percy and jason as three-dimensional characters that could have a rivalry grow naturally between them. he thought a rivalry would just be a flat plot point and made something up.

the rivalry should have been jason trying to fill percy's shoes at CHB for months, and still falling short because he's not thinking of percy as a person who can't be replaced rather than just an empty leadership role that needs to be filled.

the rivalry should have been jason learning that percy became praetor after spending less than a week total at CJ—he was literally on a quest 90% of the time. no matter how much he helped in the battle at the end of the book, jason wouldn't think he'd truly earned his position. earning a praetorship, jason would think, takes years of work, not a week.

the rivalry should have been percy remembering how bitter he really is towards the gods as he recovers his memory, percy realizing that CJ deadass has an entire child army, fully sanctioned by the adults in new rome, and realizing that those adults are just as bad as, if not worse than, gods who would send children on life-threatening, world-saving quests, and the only person he can really take that repressed anger and bitterness out on is jason.

the rivalry should have been jason hearing how flippant percy is when talking about these deities that they're meant to worship, how much he insults them and how impertinent he can be without consequence, and he simultaneously envies how much percy's able to get away with and hates how disrespectful he is.

we should have seen roman leader jason, groomed from his toddler years by the legion and lupa herself, who leads a structured, militaristic camp that prioritizes the safety of the many over the safety of the few, bashing heads with greek leader percy, who went from being an outcast to growing into leadership because he wanted to save as many people as he could.

we should have seen jason's envy of the fact that percy had a mother. we should have seen jason's jealousy over how much percy's father loves and values him. we should have seen jason's heartbreak that this self-important, standoffish, disrespectful jerk has the brotherly relationship with thalia that jason's desperate to have.

we should have seen so much more of these two characters that made them seem less like legendary heroes and more like the traumatized teenagers they are.

[museeeuuuum]

I thought that Legion: Life in the Roman Army was… fine? While there were parts that I very much enjoyed, it had several glaring issues concerning accessibility, crowds, and dramatic shifts in tone.

There was also a rat.

[whencyclopedia]

Legions of Pannonia

Located west of the Danube, Pannonia was essential for the protection of the Roman Empire's eastern frontier. It had been occupied since 9 BCE but did not willingly accept Roman authority. Pannonia and Dalmatia revolted in 6 CE, and it would take three years and a total of eleven legions to finally bring Roman victory in 9 CE. To ensure peace, four legions were assigned to Pannonia: X Gemina, XIV Gemina, I Adiutrix, and II Adiutrix.

The Pannonian Revolt

After years of conflict with Rome, Pannonia had finally fallen under Roman control in 9 BCE. The uneasy peace that followed would not last long. After the Roman commander and future emperor Tiberius (r. 14-37 CE) withdrew legions from Pannonia and Dalmatia for his Germanic campaign in 5 CE, the two provinces seized the opportunity to rise up and revolt. The Pannonian rebel army struck first, marching into Macedonia. Meanwhile, Dalmatian rebels began to raid neighboring towns, attacking Roman auxiliaries and massacring Roman citizens. With this initial success, more and more Dalmatians joined in the cause. Eventually, the rebels would number over 200,000 – one-fourth of their combined population. Although surrounded by the rebellious army, the governor of Dalmatia, Marcus Messalinus, and cohorts of the 20th legion were able to rout the rebels. After the Pannonians laid siege to Sirmium (in modern Serbia), the governor of Moesia, Caecina Severus, and his legions marched westward to meet the Pannonian commander and his army and defeated him.

With the Dalmatian attack on Salonae (in modern Croatia) and much of the Adriatic coast in rebel control, panic across Italy forced the Roman emperor Augustus (r. 27 BCE - 14 CE) to recall Tiberius. With Legio VIII Augusta, Legio XI Hispana, Legio XIV Gemina Martia Victrix, Legio XV Apollinaris, and cohorts of the Legio XX, he marched into the rebelling provinces. In addition to Tiberius, Augustus sent the young Germanicus (15 BCE - 19 CE) to the Balkans with a force of evocati and non-citizen troops. Meanwhile, Aulus Caecina Severus and Plautius Silvanus arrived from the East with five legions. In total, the Roman army numbered 10 legions, 70 cohorts of auxiliary, 14 cavalry wings, and 10,000 evocati.

The Pannonians abandoned their plan to march on Rome, and the Dalmatian commander grew suspicious of his counterpart's loyalty to the cause. The Pannonian leader was captured, put on trial, found guilty, and executed. After this, the Roman army laid siege to several Dalmatian towns. Casualties were high on both sides, and it took one-third of the Roman army to finally suppress the uprising. Before the Dalmatian commander was led off to live the remainder of his life in house arrest, he had one final comment, blaming Rome for the war: "We are your flocks, yet you didn’t send shepherds to look after us, you sent wolves." (quoted in Dando-Collins, 234) Writing years later, the historian Suetonius (c. 69 - c. 130/140 CE) wrote in his biography of Tiberius about the seriousness of the rebellion. He said the revolt "proved to be the most bitterly fought of all foreign wars since Rome had defeated Carthage" (Twelve Caesars, 114).

In his The Complete Roman Legions, historian Nigel Pollard places four legions permanently in Pannonia:

Legio X Gemina

Legio XIV Gemina

Legio I Adiutrix

Legio II Adiutrix

Continue reading...

[jeannereames]

Conversely, if you and Alexander talked only once, what do you think he’d ask you? I guess he wouldn’t be surprised to find out there are professors studying his life and reign more than two thousand years after his death - but what do you think he would ask you about the history of, well, himself?

Interesting question. I think it would be difficult for him to know what TO ask. While it’s possible to forecast a little way into the future (science-fiction authors do it all the time), the further into the future we look, the further off-base we get. Unsurprisingly. Things come out of left field that even the most foresighted can’t anticipate.

For Alexander, I do think he realized that he died too soon, and his empire wasn’t established enough yet. Ergo, one of his first questions would likely be, “So, how fast did it all fall apart and who came out on top?”

He might even be weirdly happy to hear the answer. (Not long.) Why? It proved they couldn’t hold it together without him—which underscores his own uniqueness. I realize that’s self-centered on his part, but don’t all of us, deep down, kinda wanna know we’re irreplaceable? How much more for somebody raised in a society where kleos (glory) and timē (public recognition) were so important? An older king might have been more concerned with his “legacy” after ruling for decades. But Alexander was still young. He didn’t have much of a legacy yet to protect, other than his remarkable success. That nobody else could match it would, I think, have pleased him.

Would he have asked about his family? Probably. But I think it’d be part of the larger question of what happened next and who came out on top.

He’d LOVE that Rome named him “the Great.” In his own day, he was known as “the invincible” anikētos; “the Great” is Roman.

Yet I don’t think he’d have seen Rome coming. I expect he’d predict Carthage as the dominant Western power. Remember that, in his day, Rome wasn’t especially notable. This was still the Early Republic. Plebians were relatively new into the Senate, Rome was nowhere near in control of all the peninsula and just starting the shift from a Greek- and Etruscan-style phalanx to what would become the legion.

Reputedly, Alexander of Epiros (before his death in 331) resented Alexander of Macedon’s early successes, claiming he (Alexander of Epiros) was fighting real men in Italy while his nephew “waged a war against women” (e.g, barbarians). That’s a typical Western-centric view.* At the time, however, Persia had the most powerful army in the world. Whatever Livy claimed, had Alexander brought the Macedonian military machine west instead of east, he’d have mowed through Italy, just like in Greece, Thrace, and Illyria. It took another hundred-plus years of Roman military development to result in the wins at Magnesia or Cenoscephalae. Italy/Rome at that point was just no match for Macedon, much less Macedon under Alexander’s command.

But hoo-boy, he’d want to know about the legion, even if he wouldn’t know enough to ask directly. He might ask about future military innovations.

Also…he’d be PISSED that more people in the West today recognize the name of Julius Caesar than Alexander of Macedon. 😉 “Why didn’t Shakespeare write a play about ME???” But he’d be tickled there are more stories about him in more varied world cultures than there are about Caesar (true fact). IOW, Caesar may be more famous in the West, but Alexander is more famous in the larger world (thanks to the Alexander Romance).

Last, he might ask me about my world. If we assume he knew I was 2300+ years in his future, I think he’d naturally want to know what life is like in my time. I mean, wouldn’t we ask what life would be like 2300 years in our future? He’d probably be fascinated by the changes, although perhaps not the ones we’d anticipate.

Long ago, on a drive from Kentucky back to Nebraska, my son and I had a fun conversation about a fictional interview between Alexander and Stephen Colbert (Ian’s favorite talking-head person at the time). Stephen Colbert would ask Alexander what were the three most surprising things he’d found about the future? Would it be medical breakthroughs? Computers? The rise of democratic states? Flying through the air (and into space)? Etc.

Nope. The three things I think would surprise him the most are:

1. Near-instantaneous speed of communication 2. Easy availability of information (even if it may be wrong) 3. Changes in the importance of religion (at least in some places)

It was such an interesting conversation, I turned it into what’s now the opening Power-point in my World History I class! Ha.

————

* This supposed claim of Alexander of Epiros may not even be real. It’s recorded by Roman Cheerleader Livy, where of course the West is more powerful than the weak, decadent Oriental East.

[kneelingshadowsalome]

So if konig speaks german, but he's part of the roman army, am I missing something or just overthinking?😂

It's a good question! Even though I call him Roman!König, König in this AU is not actually "Roman". It's simply more convenient to call him that because the AU is set in the times of the Roman Empire etc. But it's in truth very misleading!

König comes somewhere from Germania or Noricum (modern day Germany and Austria) and therefore speaks some form of Old Saxon, I guess? I've made him talk modern German, again, for convenience's sake. He probably speaks OKish Latin, and has earned freedom and even citizenship after serving in the legion, but he's not Roman Roman.

König has actually had a very rich life before he meets reader/Fee, we'll hear more of it in the next chapter ^^

[aquitainequeen]

[blueiscoool]

How Hadrian’s Wall is Revealing a Hidden Side of Roman History

A party invitation. A broken flipflop. A wig. Letters of complaint about road conditions, and an urgent request for more beer.

It sounds like the aftermath of a successful spring break, but these items are nearly 2,000 years old.

They’re just some of the finds from Hadrian’s Wall – the 73-mile stone wall built as the northwestern boundary of the Roman Empire, sealing off Britannia (modern-day England and Wales) from Caledonia (essentially today’s Scotland).

While most of us think of Pompeii and Herculaneum if we’re thinking of everyday objects preserved from ancient Rome, this outpost in the wild north of the empire is home to some of the most extraordinary finds.

“It’s a very dramatic stamp on the countryside – there’s nothing more redolent of saying you’re entering the Roman empire than seeing that structure,” says Richard Abdy, lead curator of the British Museum’s current exhibition, Legion, which spotlights the everyday life of Roman soldiers, showcasing many finds from Hadrian’s Wall in the process. A tenth of the Roman army was based in Britain, and that makes the wall a great source of military material, he says.

But it’s not all about the soldiers, as excavations are showing.

A multicultural melting pot

Hadrian, who ordered the wall to be built in 122CE after a visit to Britannia, had a different vision of empire than his predecessors, says Frances McIntosh, curator for English Heritage’s 34 sites along Hadrian’s Wall.

“All the emperors before him were about expanding the empire, but Hadrian was known as the consolidator,” she says. He relinquished some of the territory acquired by his predecessor Trajan, and “decided to set the borders” – literally, in some cases, with wooden poles at sites in Germany, or with stone in Britannia. Where those poles rotted thousands of years ago, the wall is still standing: “A great visual reminder” of the Roman empire, says McIntosh.

It’s not just a wall. There’s a castle every mile along, and turrets at every third-of-a-mile point, with ditches and banks both north and south. “You can imagine the kind of impact that would have had, not just on the landscape but on the people living in the area,” says McIntosh.

And thanks to the finds from the wall, we know a surprising amount about those people.

Although historians have long thought of army outposts as remote, male-dominant places, the excavations along the wall show that’s not the case. Not only were soldiers accompanied by their families, but civilians would settle around the settlements to do business. “ You can almost see Housesteads as a garrison town,” says McIntosh. “There were places you could go for a drink and so on.”

The Roman rule of thumb was not to post soldiers in the place they came from, because of the risk of rebellion. That meant Hadrian’s Wall was a cultural melting point, with cohorts from modern-day Netherlands, Spain, Romania, Algeria, Iraq, Syria – and more. “It was possibly more multicultural because it was a focus point,” says McIntosh, who says that the surrounding community might have included traders from across the empire.

Soldiers were split into two groups. Legionaries were Roman citizens from Italy, who had more rights than other soldiers and imported olive oil, wine and garum (a sauce made from decomposing fish).

They worked alongside auxiliaries – soldiers from conquered provinces, who had fewer rights, but could usually acquire citizenship after 25 years of service.

Soldiers carved their names and regiments on stones to show which part of the wall they built – around 50 of them are on display at Chesters fort.

But the wall shows that women and children were equally present.

McIntosh says that pottery brought to the camps – from the Low Countries and North Africa – shows that the soldiers “brought their families, who cooked in traditional style.” Archaeologists have found what seems to be an ancient tagine for North African-style cooking.

A tombstone from Arbeia fort for a woman named Regina shows she was a freed slave from southern Britain who was bought by – and married to – a Syrian soldier.

Another woman buried at Birdoswald fort was laid to rest with chainmail that appears to be from modern-day Poland. “Perhaps she married someone in the army,” says McIntosh, who calls the wall a “melting pot of people from all over the world under the banner of the army.”

“They brought their own religions, as well as worshipping Roman gods and adopting local deities,” she adds. At Carrawburgh, a temple to Mithras – an originally Persian deity – sat near a spring with a shrine to a local water spirit.

‘Wretched little Brits’

Some of the most extraordinary finds from the Roman empire are coming from one site on Hadrian’s Wall: Vindolanda. Here, archaeologists have found a wealth of organic remains because of what curator Barbara Birley calls the “unusual conditions onsite.”

At Vindolanda there are the remains of at least nine forts over 14 levels. “When the Romans would leave, they would knock down timber forts, and cover the area with turf and clay, sealing the layers underneath,” she says.

“Because it happened so many times, the bottom five or six layers are sealed in anaerobic conditions, so things don’t decay. When we get down there, we get wooden objects, textiles, anything organic.”

Vindolanda has the largest collection of Roman textiles from a single site in western Europe, as well as the largest leather collection of any site in the Roman empire – including 5,000 shoes, and even a broken leather flip-flop. “We probably had a population of 3,000 to 6,000 depending on the period, so 5,000 is a lot,” says Birley. For Abdy, the shoes evoke the conditions of the wet borderlands. “Women’s and children’s shoes are hobnailed – you needed it in the mucky frontier dirt tracks. They’re very evocative.”

There’s even a wig made from a local plant, hair moss, which is said to repel midges – the scourge of Scotland during the summer. A centurion’s helmet is also crested with hairmoss – the ancient equivalent of spraying yourself with insect repellent.

The first woman to write in Latin

One of the most famous finds is the trove of wooden writing tablets – the largest found anywhere.

“They give a snapshot of what life was actually like,” says Birley. “We understand so much more from written correspondence than from ‘stuff,’ and, archaeologically, it’s the stuff that usually survives – things like metals and ceramics.

“These were written in ink, not on a wax stylus tablet, and we believe they were used for what we’d put in emails: ‘The roads are awful,’ ‘The soldiers need more beer.’ Everyday business.”

The tablets – or “personal letters” as Birley describes them – were found on the site of a bonfire when the ninth cohort of Batavians (in the modern-day Netherlands) were told to move on.

“They had a huge bonfire and lots of letters were chucked in the fire. Some have been singed – we think it may have rained,” she says. One of them calls the locals “Britunculi” – “wretched little Brits.” Another talks about an outbreak of pinkeye. One claims that the roads are too bad to send wagons; another laments that the soldiers have run out of beer.

Among the 1,700 letters are 20 that mention a woman called Sulpicia Lepidina. She was the wife of the commander of the garrison, and seems to have played a crucial role. There’s a letter to her from another woman, Paterna, agreeing to send her two medicines, one a fever cure.

Birley says it’s similar to today. “If you’re a group of moms, still today we say, ‘Do you have the Calpol?’ It’s very human.” For Abdy, it’s a sign that women were traders. “She’s clearly flogging her medicines,” he says. “It’s really great stuff.”

Another tablet is an invite from Claudia Severa, the wife of another commander at a nearby camp. It’s an invitation to a birthday party. Under the formal invitation, presumably written by a scribe, is a scrawl in another hand: “I shall expect you, sister. Farewell, sister, my dearest soul.”

Presumably written by Claudia herself, it is thought to be the earliest example of a woman’s handwriting in Latin.

Without the organic finds – the shoes and the letters that indisputably belonged to women, unlike jewellery or weaving equipment – it’s difficult to prove conclusively that women lived in significant numbers. Vindolanda “illustrate the missing gaps,” says Abdy. For Birley, they prove that women were as crucial a part of army communities as men. “Before the Lepidina tablets were found we didn’t really understand the interactions between the soldiers and their wives,” she says. Another tablet is written by what is thought to be a Spanish standard-bearer’s common-law wife, ordering military equipment for her partner.

“The Vindolanda collection is showing that there weren’t just camp followers and prostitutes; women were part of everyday life, and contributing to the military community in many ways,” says Birley.

Abdy says that Hadrian’s Wall is interesting because the resident women span “all classes of society,” from Regina – the dead freedwoman, who would have been “bottom of the heap” – to the trader Paterna and the noblewoman Lepidina.

And of course, there’s the wall itself.

“In the Netherlands and Germany the finds are often stunning and better preserved – you go to museums and are bowled over. But in terms of structural remains, Hadrian’s Wall must be among the best,” says McIntosh, modestly, of her site.

Abdy agrees: “I can’t think of many symbols so redolent of imperial will than that wall.”

By Julia Buckley.

[cynicalclassicist]

25th February 2024 British Museum: Legion: life in the Roman army Part 7

Getting towards the end...

Retiring from the army...

[elmflowers]

one day ill be able to extrapolate this into a full au, but ive always thought that camp jupiter shouldve been a private school rather than a camp.

not only would that inform the sort of structure and uniformity riordan’s romans value and place high emphasis on, it would also show how important and all consuming new rome is, and would serve like one of those military schools.

and hey, maybe we can rework the whole child army thing and instead of you know sending children to war, the teachers at the academy are part of the twelfth legion. graduates who willingly joined the legion because they truly believed in the duty and responsibility that comes with it rather than like. 13 year olds with swords that have a minimum of ten years to serve in the legion. and almost all faculty are alumni and bear the responsibility of quests and such.

hell we can also keep the nepotism! the cohorts would become different dormitories/house-like things and letters of rec would still determine your cohort and how teachers treat you or something, i dont know. but as per real life schools, nepotism can TOTALLY still be a thing in jupiter academy.

it also acts as a good foil to camp half blood, which is a summer camp. instead of having the school year off, jupiter academy would have the summer off. they would mirror each other perfectly! hypothetically that would have at least a couple campers go to jupiter academy during the school year and then come back to chb for the summer and create a new age of greco-roman demigods that intermix cultures and share it and all that nice shit. yknow?

and for a spice of adventure, finals could include field tests wherein a group of demigods + a staff member go on a quest and if they come back alive they pass and if they dont well uh. conquer or die i suppose.

these quests would probably be pretty tame and not on the level of “find zeus’s lightning bolt again” or “literally go to greece and close the doors of death and suffer” or “there is a labyrinth and it craves Blood”, and more like “this minor god needs help finding a thing” or “theres a monster that took over the local starbucks go kill it”.

i think with this rework it would make way more sense why percy and annabeth would want to settle in new rome. because like. gestures. child army? child fucking army????????? the child army?????????????? i know theyre desensitized but child army????????????

anyways, new rome and subsequently jupiter academy would be a hypothetically much safer place for demigods to grow up as there are adult demigods + legacies actively watching out for them and making sure they can learn as much as possible in a relatively controlled environment, where they can fuck up and people wont die. where they dont get quests like “go free artemis” or like “literally free death trapped in alaska fucking everything up”.

anyways i might make concept art for this or something lmao, thoughts everyone?

[planet-gay-comic]

The Deep Bonds and Rebellion of Gladiators in Ancient Rome Insight into the World of Gladiators

In ancient Rome, the life of a gladiator was marked by constant danger, harsh discipline, and a struggle for survival. These fighters, often slaves or prisoners of war, were trained in gladiator schools and lived under extreme conditions, which brought both physical and psychological burdens. In this tense and intense atmosphere, deep emotional bonds often developed among the gladiators. There are indications that these bonds were not only of a camaraderie nature but also had homoerotic or homoromantic elements.

Homoerotic Relationships Among Gladiators Ancient Roman society had a complex and less rigid view of sexuality compared to many modern cultures. Relationships between men were not uncommon and could take on different social roles depending on the context. In the gladiator schools, known as Ludi, the fighters lived and trained in close quarters. This close proximity and constant confrontation with death and injury could foster emotional and physical bonds among the fighters. Literary and artistic sources from that time suggest that such relationships existed and even formed an important part of the social fabric within the gladiator barracks.

The Gladiator Rebellion: The Spartacus Revolt The harsh conditions under which the gladiators lived eventually led to one of the most famous uprisings in antiquity: the Spartacus Revolt. In 73 BC, about 70 gladiators, led by the Thracian fighter Spartacus, rose against their Roman masters. With improvised weapons, they managed to escape from their school in Capua. The uprising quickly grew as many other slaves and oppressed individuals joined them.

Spartacus and his comrades formed a formidable army and raided through Italy. Their fight against the Roman legions was characterized by remarkable tactical skill and unwavering courage. The Roman leadership, initially surprised and overwhelmed, eventually deployed the experienced general Marcus Licinius Crassus to quell the rebellion.

The Decisive Battle and Its Consequences After several battles and skirmishes, Crassus managed to corner the rebels. In the final battle in 71 BC, Spartacus and his followers were decisively defeated. Spartacus himself likely fell in the battle, although his body was never found. As a deterrent, Crassus had about 6,000 captured slaves crucified along the Via Appia from Capua to Rome.

Aftermath and Significance The Spartacus Revolt remains a symbolic example of resistance against oppression and exploitation in the ancient world. It highlights the extreme social inequalities and the brutal conditions under which slaves and gladiators lived. Additionally, it offers a fascinating insight into the complex emotional and social dynamics within the gladiator communities, including the possibility of deep homoerotic bonds.

Thus, the history of the gladiators is not only a story of combat and violence but also a story of courage, loyalty, and deep human relationships that could flourish even under the harshest conditions.

Image generated with StableDiffusion SDXL, overworked with inpainting and composing

[dandelion-blues]

A PJO Headcannon

Idea time:

So, I was reading this fic (it's really good so far btw) and the author was thinking of making Nancy a demigod, and who her godly parent should be, and I thought of Laverna.

Laverna, the Roman Goddess of thieves, cheats, and the Underworld. She was believed to rule Rome's underground with her army of outcasts.

Here I'm thinking that Nancy is just a kid acting out, abandoned by her mom, and being a bully when seeing someone that's like her and has one parent (Percy) and taking it out on him. Also, in the books, Rick described Nancy in an unflattering way, which could go with her feeling like an outcast and whatnot.

It's not an excuse to her behavior, but I think it'd actually be pretty cool to give Nancy a bit more of a backstory. Like how some bully's lash out to hurt, so they don't feel the hurt themselves. And we only knew Nancy as a 12 year old.

But what if when Nancy grows older and learns of her heritage, she doesn't join the Legion like many demigods, but ends up forming a group of other outcasts who feel unloved and were thrown out by society.

Backstory:

Nancy wasn't sure how old she was when she knew that her dad didn't love her like other parents loved their kids. Five? Younger? Nancy didn't know, but she knows it's been a fact of her life for a very long time.

But Nancy got by. After all, even if she didn't have her dad's love, she had his money. That's why she went to expensive boarding schools was sent away and wore pristine itchy uniforms.

Nancy grew up around the cold walls and fleating sunlight of dorms and schools, and it was home to her. Moreso than the beach house her dad lives in.

The damp underground smell when the rain soaked the cracked cement and the running tracks dirt was euphoria. While the sea salt smell on her dad was like a smothering perfume on his skin that was a reminder of all the nonexistent hugs and loving caresses she would never have.

And Nancy's mother. Well, as far as Nancy is concerned, she doesn't exist. Ignoring all the times she cried for a parent, a mother, to love her.

Dad called her mom some whore, and left it at that.

Still, sometimes Nancy's dad would say how Nancy was taking after her mother's unappealing beauty.

Her too orange freckles smeared across her face like powdered cheese instead of like glinting bronze or perfectly clear skin.

Ignoring how Nancy actually liked her freckles. She loved cheese because she imagined it was for royalty to be served at balls like the most divine dishes. At least she loved cheese until other kids started making fun of her cheese powder freckles like they were disgusting.

And that's not even touching on Nancy's frizzy red hair. Hair that Nancy thought was like Ms. Frizzle, the most adventurous and brave woman Nancy saw as a kid. The woman that Nancy looked up to and learned from on TV.

But of course, her dad hated her hair. While his hair was brown and straight, her's was a mess. A reminder of her mother.

And all these unapealing beauty marks just added up and up like a neverending pile of stones titering precariously over her, waiting for her to give up and let the stone's fall and crush her under the weight of her ugliness.

Each insult from her dad, from her peers, from adults around her, added more cracks to the stone tower. Her crooked teeth (she thought she looked like a fiercesome pirate), her prominent nose (a good detective always has a big nose), her tallness (she liked being taller than kids her age, made her not feel as small), her squinty eyes (like she was looking to steal something. It's true, she likes shiny things, besides surely they can do without some of their possessesions because they smile so carelessly without a worry).

So yeah, Nancy gets it. She's not attractive, but so what? Because of this, she's learned to use her words and body language to get what she wants. Other kids will use puppy eyes, and she'll call an adult a pervert and pickpocket from the "concerned" adults around her. And guess what? She'll get more than the kid who uses puppy eyes.

But she won't ever get a parent's love.

And now that Nancy's twelve, and going to sixth grade, she knows all the tricks. How to be the top dog at school, and be the teacher's favorite.

She'll surround herself with worshipers, and her heart will finally not feel so empty.

But why?

Why?

Why are there still people ignoring her?

And why does the one boy that smells like sea salt bring tears to her eyes?

It's because he reminded her of her dad. Her dad and that horrible beach house that she desperately tries to forget once school starts again.

And why does that boy, who seems to come from nothing, seem to have such a carefree smile?

No, it's not carefree. Nancy can see that it's strained, like hers.

But why does he still seem so happy?

Is it because of that cripple, Grover?

No, if that was it that Nancy would be happy. After all, she has better, more superior friends.

And yet why isn't she happy like him?

Why?

It makes Nancy furious. Her heart hammers in her chest, and her eyes sting. She clenches her teeth and balls her hands into fists.

What right does that nobody have to be so happy?

Is it because he has a mom that mails him blue cookies and handwritten letters in a cheap tuba ware box?

That he has a parent that loves him unlike her?

It doesn't matter because Nancy will do whatever it takes to wipe that happy smile off of Percy's face if it's the last thing she does.

Nancy's face burns bright red with pure retribution when it never seems to work. Her eyes gleam with fury as Grover and Percy seem to have gotten closer than ever after she started to pick on them. At least their math teacher, Mrs. Dodds seems to hate Percy just as much as her.

Whatever, she has more plans. Nancy rolls her eyes and washes her face as she gets ready for bed. She glances in the mirror, looking at all her ugly traits. Her yellowish eyes like pyrite, fake gold, glaring back at her while she scowls.

Ugly, deformed little girl. Trying to fill your empty heart again?

"Shut up!" Nancy yelled at her mirror self, and the other her seemed to grin maliciously back.

Ugh, your voice sounds as disgusting as how the rest of you looks.

"Stop." Nancy's voice cracks, her eyes watering, as she starts to tremble.

Tch, pathetic. Don't pretend to have emotions now. You mons-

Nancy screams and punches the mirror, the glass splintering before her as it cracks and falls.

Nancy sheild's her face in her arms, as the glass shattered and broke completely, thudding loudly as the pieces hit the sink and floor.

Nancy stood there a moment, breathing heavily, her heart pounding wildly. She lowers her arms, her left hand throbbing with pain, and looks at the shattered glass all on the ground and sink. Her blood mixes with the pure white tiles painting her crime scene red.

And for a second, when Nancy glances at the shard pieces, she doesn't see herself, but Percy. Another scarred kid with anger issues and wants to be heard. And then it's gone when Nancy blinks.

Nancy breathes a moment before slumping to the ground, laughing hysterically.

She's going crazy, hasn't she?

Seeing things?

Having more strength than a twelve year old girl should have?

H-how did she even do that?!

The mirror shouldn't have broken that easily!

Maybe she really is some depraved lunatic villain after all.

Nancy shakes her head in disbelief, some giggles spilling past her lips.

She looks at her blood entranced. It shines bright red and leaves her body. Has she ever lost so much blood before? She doesn't think she has.

Nancy continues to laugh and giggle.

She really is crazy isn't she?

Then, Nancy feels a lump in her throat, tears threatening to spill as she shutters a dry sob.

She's a monster!

And Nancy's leaves the bathroom in horror, her heart beating rapidly. She sinks into her bed covers, wincing as her hand is still bleeding, but she ignores it, like she ignores everything else and she forces herself to fall asleep in her single dormitory. Alone, not noticing tears leaving her eyes as she wants to forget everything and dream of everything she'll never have.

And the anguish Nancy feels only makes her feel more helpless and angry. So she does the only thing a twelve year old can think of when she has nothing else. She lashes out at the world - at everyone. Especially at those who dare to stand up to her. To be so happy when she never will be!