#Legion: life in the roman army
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BEST THING IN THE EXHIBIT
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What Was Life Like in the Roman Army?
The British Museumâs 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 âRoman Empireâ 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 Armyâ 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.
âFew men are born brave,â wrote Vegetius in the later Roman Empire. âMany become so from care and force of discipline.â 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 worldâs only intact legionary shield. Domestic objects such as childrenâs shoes illustrate the family life of military men; coins and tombstones allude to the cost of the empireâs wars.
Also included in the show is an ancient Roman arm guard, found in fragments in 1906 and recently reconstructed by the National Museums Scotlandâthe first time the artifact can be viewed in its entirety in millennia.
âSword and sandals, helmet and shield are all on parade here as would be expected, but told through often ordinary individuals,â Richard Abdy, the museumâs curator of Roman and Iron Age coins, said in a statement. âEvery soldier has a story: itâs incredible that these tales are nearly 2,000 years old.â
By Jamie Valentino.
A helmet depicting the face of a Trojan.
Sword of Tiberius â Iron sword with gilded bronze scabbard.
Tombstone of an imaginiferâs 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.
#What Was Life Like in the Roman Army?#The British Museum#Legion: Life in the Roman Army#Claudis Terentianus#ancient artifacts#archeology#archeolgst#history#history news#ancient history#ancient culture#ancient civilizations#roman history#roman empire#roman legion#roman art#ancient art
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25th February 2024 British Museum: Legion: life in the Roman army Part 8
Nearly there now!
That's it!
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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!
#fallout new vegas#caesar's legion#late night posting so not fully endorsed#but yeah there's a lot going on here#fallout#fnv#fonv#thoughts#meta
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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 everyoneâbut 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 companionâanyone 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.
#and honestly i want to know all about his life before HOO#all the quests he went on! the friends he made! what shaped him into the person he is today!#his identity problems should run deeper than âi like the greek way but i was born a romanâ and âi find it difficult to process the kind of#person my mother was"!#riordanverse#heroes of olympus#jason grace#heros of olympus
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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 CJâhe 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.
#mav.ask#anon#percy jackson#jason grace#heroes of olympus#dark percy jackson#percy jackson headcanon#we deserved that rivalry#PJ JG Rivals
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Titus Flavius and his indelible traces.
Titus Flavius was born in Rome on December 30 of the year 39. He was a direct descendant of a loyal soldier of Pompey the Great during the Civil War against Julius Caesar. After Pompey's defeat at the Battle of Pharsalia, his life was spared by Julius Caesar, returned to home and became a Publicanus (tax collector). In an incredible twist of fate, the Flavians, a family of peasants, who came from the defeat of the past, ended up occupying the throne founded by Caesar's heir.
During reign of 'Caligula' (37-41) Vespasian, father of Titus, was Aedile of Rome. According Suetonius, Emperor passed by a street that was very dirty, ordered Vespasian to be brought and the garbage thrown on him, and then told him "Do your job well, keep the city clean."
During the reign of Claudius (41-54) Vespasian obtained the position of praetor and the command of one of the legions that went to the conquest of Britannia. In 51 was Consul.
After rebellion in Judea in the year 66, emperor Nero chose the experienced general Vespasian to put an end to the conflict. Vespasian went with his son, Titus, who was then 26 years old, and was an excellent army's officer.
In June 68, after of the death of Nero, the first civil war of the imperial era broke out, which would last until December of the following year. In the chaotic year 69, known as The Year of the 4 emperors: the first ,Galba was assassinated; the second, Otho committed suicide; the third, Vitellius, was executed, the fourth, Vespasian was proclaimed emperor by the army, ending the civil war. Titus was left in command against the rebellion in Judea.
A historical event of mystical relevance.
After months of bloody fighting, on August of the year 70, the Temple of Jerusalem was looted, burned and demolished by Titus's troops.
'La distruzione del tempio di Gerusalemme' by Francesco Hayez, 1867
Titus along his father and brother had a triumphal parade in Rome. Years later, in the place where they passed, his younger brother, the Emperor Domitian, ordered the construction of the Triumphal Arch. One of its extraordinary relief depicts the Triumph with the treasures of the Temple. It should be noted that Vespasian and his two sons had the name TITUS FLAVIUS, so emperor Domitian (Titus Flavius Domitian) built the famous Arch of Titus not necessarily in honour of his brother ââ- as is popularly believed - but rather in honour of the Triumph of the Flavians.
Some modern historians agree that such a Triumph was not due to what happened in Jerusalem, since the First JewishâRoman War did not really end completely in August 70, but in April 73 at Masada. The real reason was the accession to the throne of Vespasian, and the presentation of Titus as heir. As Dio Cassius recounts, with Vespasian declared emperor, Titus and his brother Domitian received the title of Caesar in the name of the Senate.
But Vespasian become emperor by defeating other Romans in a civil war. Triumphal parades could not be held by defeating other Romans, so the rebellion in Judea was just a perfect excuse for the celebration.
The Triumph of Titus: The Flavians, by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1885)
The central figure in white (pontifex maximus) is not Titus but his father ââVespasian. Behind him we see his youngest son Domitian, holding the hand of his wife Domitia Longina, and behind them is Titus, dressed as his father. She looks romantically at Titus, and he returns a knowing look. Lawrence Alma-Tadema thus portrayed the historical rumour that Emperor Titus Flavius was having an affair with his sister-in-law.
Vespasian decided to tear down the Domus Aurea, the palace that Nero had ordered to be built for his own enjoyment, and build "a palace for the enjoyment of the people". He saw his work almost completed but died of illness on June 23, 79, at his estate. The next day Titus Flavius ââââsucceeded him.
A mess with the gods.
Four months later a tragic event occurred. The peaceful mount Vesuvius exploded; Some Roman cities literally disappeared with their inhabitants, others were severely damaged with many dead and wounded. Among the dead was the prestigious writer and Naval Commander Pliny the Elder, a close friend of the imperial family, who had dedicated his book 'Naturalis historia' to Titus.
Emperor immediately went to the scene of the disaster. He made immense works and donations to help those affected in the area.
Months after the eruption of Vesuvius, while Titus was visiting devastated Pompeii for the second time, a fire broke out in Rome that lasted three days. Several important buildings were severely damaged, according to Dio Cassius the Pantheon, the Temple of Jupiter, the Theatre of Pompey, among others. To make matters worse, a brief but mysterious plague broke out immediately after the fire, although it is not known what kind of disease it was or how many died.
Soon rumors began to circulate that the gods had a personal problem with Titus because of his forbidden love for Princess Berenice, great-great-granddaughter of Herod the Great. The ancient Romans believed that when a misfortune affected everyone, such as natural disasters and plagues, it was due to the wrath of the gods and that this happened when the gods did not like the ruler.
Although he was a very popular emperor, he did not want to risk those tragedies affecting his image, so he decided in the year 80 to accelerate his father's work, which still had to wait to be completed. And so began the inauguration of the most famous "stadium" in history : The Flavian amphitheater.
There were 100 days of games: Recreations of naval battles, with that monumental site full of water, exhibitions of wild animals and the legendary gladiator fights. Those shows were free for the people.They had never seen an amphitheater of such grandeur.
Very soon the people of Rome forgot about Vesuvius, the conflagration, the plague, and Berenice.
In fact, its height and shape were a real architectural novelty, something completely different from the classic Roman amphitheatres. Because of the sculpture, Nero's Colossus, the only thing that Vespasian did not order to be demolished and that remained imposing next to the amphitheatre, over time people began to say "let's go to the Colossus" (the Colosseum). Ironically, the great work that Vespasian ordered to be built to replace the Domus Aurea, and Titus officially inaugurated, instead of being known as the Amphitheatre Flavius, went down in history with the name of the sculpture that Nero ordered to be built.
A sesterce from the time of Emperor Titus.
The pseudo-Nero
After Nero's death, rumors began to circulate that his suicide was not real. Years later, this rumor had spread throughout the empire and even beyond its borders. Suetonius wrote about an event that he experienced during the reign of Domitian: "Twenty years after his death, when I was young, a man of obscure origin appeared, who claimed he was Nero;Â And the name Nero was still in such favour with the Parthians that they supported him vigorously and surrendered him with great reluctance."
The Parthians were happy believing that Nero was alive because during his reign he signed the peace treaty.
Titus had to face the rebellion of a guy called Terentius Maximus, another Pseudo-Nero that according Dio Cassius "He resembled Nero in voice and appearance and, like him, he played the lyre." The impostor had a lot of followers in the eastern Roman provinces. The Parthian king received this man and made preparations for him to return to Rome as legitime emperor but he was executed when his true identity was revealed.
On September 13, 81, Titus died at the age of 41 on his father's farm, due to fever. His brief reign was very prosperous and popular and free of military and political conflicts. Having only a daughter (Julia Flavia), his successor was his brother Domitian who ruled for 15 years.
According to Roman writers, his last words were: "I regret nothing except one thing"; And some believe that he regretted not marrying Berenice.
The Colosseum and the Wailing Wall are undoubtedly the two indelible traces of Titus Flavius.
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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.
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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 â 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 didnât 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...
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So, I mentioned here that I had many more thoughts on the Tevinter Imperiumâs military and its pay, which ties a lot into my thoughts on the Soporati class. And someone was brave enough to encourage me to keep going. (And my beta is going Through it right now, so I really ought to stop dumping more one-shots in her inbox like a child collecting cool rocks.)
Oooh, my friends, I am unleashed. đ€Ł
So, first things first, Tevinter, in the world of DA, is very clearly patterned on the Roman Empire. Itâs not one for one, of course, âinspired byâ and âthe same asâ are two very different things. Nonetheless, there is a lot of real world Roman Empire influence in the gameâs conceptions of game world Tevinter. So many of my thoughts, here, are influenced by the realities of life for soldiers in the armies of the Roman Empire (and the Republic, as DA takes from that time period too, just less so).
We learn throughout the games that Tevinter is structured into roughly five classes (but arguably six, thereâs some questions there that the other post digs into). Three citizen classes: Altus, Laetan, and Soporati. Two non-citizen classes: Liberati and slaves. The Altus and the Laetans are mage citizen classes, the Soporati the non-mage citizens of the Imperium and by far the most numerous citizen class. The Liberati (freed slaves) and slaves arenât (full) citizens of the Imperium, even though theyâre ruled by it.
By virtue of being part of the Altus and Laetan classes, mage citizens have educational and professional opportunities that many Soporati lack. Indeed, based on what we can glean in-world, the Soporati largely are a poor class other than a fortunate few who manage to scrape up and/or inherit money through one of two ways. One, the merchant class. Most Soporati merchants are also not well-off in Tevinter. But a limited few are.
And then thereâs the Imperial legions.
The way the Imperial legions are talked about in the games, they seem to be one of the few options for achieving financial stability and security for Soporati in Tevinter. Note: This is not the case for the Liberati or the slaves, as they are not citizens and thus not allowed to join the Legion.*
And broadly that may be true. If we take as a given - and this is admittedly a big ask - pay and military structure work similarly in the Tevinter legions as it did in the Roman ones, a standard, enlisted legionnaire would receive: (1) room, (2) board, (3) salary, and (4) retirement (and potentially also bonuses). The salary for the average legionnaire is likely very small. Less than most jobs likely pay. An average legionnaire probably has a lower salary than Tarquin or Rana Savas. HOWEVER, since the Legion is providing housing and food during service, legionnaires have guaranteed disposable income in a way that most Soporati donât appear to. Higher ranking members of the legions, officers, would receive 2x-10x the salary, depending on the specific rank. At the end of it all, theyâd receive a retirement (in Rome this was property and/or 10+ years salary).
In exchange for those financial benefits (again, taking similarity to the Roman legions as a given, which is a big assumption), legionnaires: serve a fixed term (it was around 20 years during the Roman Empire, but that isnât my headcanon for Tevinter); cannot marry during their term; cannot own property during their term; are subject to brutal discipline; and have a very high death rate during their term. Like 50% or more high. Even for officers. These restrictions mean that their wealth canât be passed on as easily (remember, no marriage), isnât as stable (no property), and isnât guaranteed (no retirement if you die or are dishonorably discharged, and pay can be suspended as discipline). They may not be able to inherit, depending on if one headcanons Roman inheretence laws as also being mimicked in-game by Tevinter.
Add to that that many Soporati members of the legions are likely not used to managing much money (making them, however accidentally, more prone to mismanaging it) and are sending money home to parents/siblings/loved ones. On average, most legionnaires likely have very little actual wealth. They just have free housing and food. Theyâve essentially given themselves, at great personal risk, to the Imperium to fight on behalf of a country they have very little say in the governance of because itâs a better shot than being potentially homeless or forced to sell themselves into slavery.
This is quite possibly - though again, Iâm relying on at least one major assumption here - the existence that is sold as one of the only paths to stability and security for the Soporati class. Which I feel like says a lot about how little the rest have.
* Tevinter may have forces akin to the Roman auxiliaries (how non-citizens could serve in a military capacity in the Roman Empire) that include the Liberati or slaves (and we know from in-universe sources they do get used as mercenaries, bodyguards, or spies), but thatâs never made clear.
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Conversely, if you and Alexander talked only once, what do you think heâd ask you? I guess he wouldnât 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?
What Would Alexander Want to Know about Himself in History?
Interesting question. I think it would be difficult for him to know what TO ask. While itâs 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 canât anticipate.
For Alexander, I do think he realized that he died too soon, and his empire wasnât established enough yet. Ergo, one of his first questions would likely be, âSo, how fast did it all fall apart and who came out on top?â
He might even be weirdly happy to hear the answer. (Not long.) Why? It proved they couldnât hold it together without himâwhich underscores his own uniqueness. I realize thatâs self-centered on his part, but donât all of us, deep down, kinda wanna know weâre irreplaceable? How much more for somebody raised in a society where kleos (glory) and timÄ (public recognition) were so important? An older king might have been more concerned with his âlegacyâ after ruling for decades. But Alexander was still young. He didnât 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 itâd be part of the larger question of what happened next and who came out on top.
Heâd LOVE that Rome named him âthe Great.â In his own day, he was known as âthe invincibleâ anikÄtos; âthe Greatâ is Roman.
Yet I donât think heâd have seen Rome coming. I expect heâd predict Carthage as the dominant Western power. Remember that, in his day, Rome wasnât 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 Macedonâs early successes, claiming he (Alexander of Epiros) was fighting real men in Italy while his nephew âwaged a war against womenâ (e.g, barbarians). Thatâs 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, heâd 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 Alexanderâs command.
But hoo-boy, heâd want to know about the legion, even if he wouldnât know enough to ask directly. He might ask about future military innovations.
AlsoâŠheâd be PISSED that more people in the West today recognize the name of Julius Caesar than Alexander of Macedon. đ âWhy didnât Shakespeare write a play about ME???â But heâd 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 heâd naturally want to know what life is like in my time. I mean, wouldnât we ask what life would be like 2300 years in our future? Heâd probably be fascinated by the changes, although perhaps not the ones weâd 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 (Ianâs favorite talking-head person at the time). Stephen Colbert would ask Alexander what were the three most surprising things heâd 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 whatâs now the opening Power-point in my World History I class! Ha.
ââââ
* This supposed claim of Alexander of Epiros may not even be real. Itâs recorded by Roman Cheerleader Livy, where of course the West is more powerful than the weak, decadent Oriental East.
#asks#Alexander the Great#what would Alexander the Great want to know about the future?#Classics#Alexander the Great and Rome#alternate history#Successor Wars
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How Hadrianâs 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.
Theyâre just some of the finds from Hadrianâs Wall â 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 todayâs Scotland).
While most of us think of Pompeii and Herculaneum if weâre 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.
âItâs a very dramatic stamp on the countryside â thereâs nothing more redolent of saying youâre entering the Roman empire than seeing that structure,â says Richard Abdy, lead curator of the British Museumâs current exhibition, Legion, which spotlights the everyday life of Roman soldiers, showcasing many finds from Hadrianâs 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 itâs 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 Heritageâs 34 sites along Hadrianâs Wall.
âAll the emperors before him were about expanding the empire, but Hadrian was known as the consolidator,â she says. He relinquished some of the territory acquired by his predecessor Trajan, and âdecided to set the bordersâ â 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: âA great visual reminderâ of the Roman empire, says McIntosh.
Itâs not just a wall. Thereâs a castle every mile along, and turrets at every third-of-a-mile point, with ditches and banks both north and south. âYou can imagine the kind of impact that would have had, not just on the landscape but on the people living in the area,â 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 thatâs not the case. Not only were soldiers accompanied by their families, but civilians would settle around the settlements to do business. â You can almost see Housesteads as a garrison town,â says McIntosh. âThere were places you could go for a drink and so on.â
The Roman rule of thumb was not to post soldiers in the place they came from, because of the risk of rebellion. That meant Hadrianâs Wall was a cultural melting point, with cohorts from modern-day Netherlands, Spain, Romania, Algeria, Iraq, Syria â and more. âIt was possibly more multicultural because it was a focus point,â 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 â 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 â 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 â from the Low Countries and North Africa â shows that the soldiers âbrought their families, who cooked in traditional style.â 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 â and married to â a Syrian soldier.
Another woman buried at Birdoswald fort was laid to rest with chainmail that appears to be from modern-day Poland. âPerhaps she married someone in the army,â says McIntosh, who calls the wall a âmelting pot of people from all over the world under the banner of the army.â
âThey brought their own religions, as well as worshipping Roman gods and adopting local deities,â she adds. At Carrawburgh, a temple to Mithras â an originally Persian deity â sat near a spring with a shrine to a local water spirit.
âWretched little Britsâ
Some of the most extraordinary finds from the Roman empire are coming from one site on Hadrianâs Wall: Vindolanda. Here, archaeologists have found a wealth of organic remains because of what curator Barbara Birley calls the âunusual conditions onsite.â
At Vindolanda there are the remains of at least nine forts over 14 levels. âWhen the Romans would leave, they would knock down timber forts, and cover the area with turf and clay, sealing the layers underneath,â she says.
âBecause it happened so many times, the bottom five or six layers are sealed in anaerobic conditions, so things donât decay. When we get down there, we get wooden objects, textiles, anything organic.â
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 â including 5,000 shoes, and even a broken leather flip-flop. âWe probably had a population of 3,000 to 6,000 depending on the period, so 5,000 is a lot,â says Birley. For Abdy, the shoes evoke the conditions of the wet borderlands. âWomenâs and childrenâs shoes are hobnailed â you needed it in the mucky frontier dirt tracks. Theyâre very evocative.â
Thereâs even a wig made from a local plant, hair moss, which is said to repel midges â the scourge of Scotland during the summer. A centurionâs helmet is also crested with hairmoss â 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 â the largest found anywhere.
âThey give a snapshot of what life was actually like,â says Birley. âWe understand so much more from written correspondence than from âstuff,â and, archaeologically, itâs the stuff that usually survives â things like metals and ceramics.
âThese were written in ink, not on a wax stylus tablet, and we believe they were used for what weâd put in emails: âThe roads are awful,â âThe soldiers need more beer.â Everyday business.â
The tablets â or âpersonal lettersâ as Birley describes them â were found on the site of a bonfire when the ninth cohort of Batavians (in the modern-day Netherlands) were told to move on.
âThey had a huge bonfire and lots of letters were chucked in the fire. Some have been singed â we think it may have rained,â she says. One of them calls the locals âBritunculiâ â âwretched little Brits.â 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. Thereâs a letter to her from another woman, Paterna, agreeing to send her two medicines, one a fever cure.
Birley says itâs similar to today. âIf youâre a group of moms, still today we say, âDo you have the Calpol?â Itâs very human.â For Abdy, itâs a sign that women were traders. âSheâs clearly flogging her medicines,â he says. âItâs really great stuff.â
Another tablet is an invite from Claudia Severa, the wife of another commander at a nearby camp. Itâs an invitation to a birthday party. Under the formal invitation, presumably written by a scribe, is a scrawl in another hand: âI shall expect you, sister. Farewell, sister, my dearest soul.â
Presumably written by Claudia herself, it is thought to be the earliest example of a womanâs handwriting in Latin.
Without the organic finds â the shoes and the letters that indisputably belonged to women, unlike jewellery or weaving equipment â itâs difficult to prove conclusively that women lived in significant numbers. Vindolanda âillustrate the missing gaps,â says Abdy. For Birley, they prove that women were as crucial a part of army communities as men. âBefore the Lepidina tablets were found we didnât really understand the interactions between the soldiers and their wives,â she says. Another tablet is written by what is thought to be a Spanish standard-bearerâs common-law wife, ordering military equipment for her partner.
âThe Vindolanda collection is showing that there werenât just camp followers and prostitutes; women were part of everyday life, and contributing to the military community in many ways,â says Birley.
Abdy says that Hadrianâs Wall is interesting because the resident women span âall classes of society,â from Regina â the dead freedwoman, who would have been âbottom of the heapâ â to the trader Paterna and the noblewoman Lepidina.
And of course, thereâs the wall itself.
âIn the Netherlands and Germany the finds are often stunning and better preserved â you go to museums and are bowled over. But in terms of structural remains, Hadrianâs Wall must be among the best,â says McIntosh, modestly, of her site.
Abdy agrees: âI canât think of many symbols so redolent of imperial will than that wall.â
By Julia Buckley.
#How Hadrianâs Wall is Revealing a Hidden Side of Roman History#Hadrianâs Wall#emperor hadrian#northwestern boundary of the Roman Empire#Britannia#Caledonia#roman legions#ancient artifacts#archeology#archeolgst#history#history news#ancient history#ancient culture#ancient civilizations#roman history#roman empire#long post#long reads
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25th February 2024 British Museum: Legion: life in the Roman army Part 7
Getting towards the end...
Retiring from the army...
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So if konig speaks german, but he's part of the roman army, am I missing something or just overthinking?đ
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 ^^
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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 riordanâs 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 âfind zeusâs lightning bolt againâ or âliterally go to greece and close the doors of death and sufferâ or âthere is a labyrinth and it craves Bloodâ, and more like âthis minor god needs help finding a thingâ or âtheres a monster that took over the local starbucks go kill itâ.
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 âgo free artemisâ or like âliterally free death trapped in alaska fucking everything upâ.
anyways i might make concept art for this or something lmao, thoughts everyone?
#camp jupiter#new rome#hoo#heroes of olympus#the heroes of olympus#pjoverse#rrverse#riordanverse#elm rambles#jupiter academy
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