#roman gaul

[uncleclaudius]

Plaster cast of the face of an infant who was buried in Lutenia (modern-day Paris) around 200 CE. The mask was probably created accidentally when cement leaked into the sarcophagus.

[mapsontheweb]

Roman Gaul

[talesfrommedinastation]

pspspspsp I'm working on a lil' project that unfortunately has been shelved due to longfic work, novel prep, work in general, and the fact that I'm a parent who just got elected to a museum board!

The Bad Batch/Clone Wars....ROMAN EMPIRE AU!

Clone Force 99 (Nonaginta Novem) the auxiliary legion who assists in the rescue of soldier/scholar Resonare (Latin for 'Echo') from deep within enemy lines in Germania. Captain Rex fits in, too.

Man, Rex was MADE for a Roman AU but I digress.

The auxiliary is composed of foreign soldiers who Don't Quite Fit In with the rest of the troops due to their unorthodox methods.

We got a hunter from Mauretania (Hunter), a demolitions expert and builder from Aegyptus (Wrecker), an assassin/sicarii from Judaea (Crosshair), and, of course, a druid/warrior scholar from the Veneti tribe in Gaul.

Yup, that's Tech. And figuring out what to do about his goggles was interesting. But there's always face tattoos.

(I threw in my OC as a Celtic lady from Hibernia because I Freaking Could)

I love studying ancient Gaul and Britain. I blame watching this (kind of terrifying but educational) video while on spring break as a kid:

At some point (8:19) it gets to an animated story with a guy in black robes wearing a deer skull talking about revenge, so, yeah. 'Educational but terrifying' was the average day for us in the 90's.

Anywho, I'm digressing beyond digressing on this fine OC Sunday. Enjoy!

@eyecandyeoz @deezlees @thecoffeelorian @sued134 @techs-stitches @autistic-artistech and all my other OC makers!

[quotesfrommyreading]

It’s difficult to estimate with any precision the volume of trade flowing between Rome and Gaul. But the number of shipwrecks found off the Gaulish coast surges after 150 BC, peaking at about 100 BC. This suggests an exponential rise in the volume of trade over that half century.

For the most part, the vessels’ cargos were dominated by wine. The Madrague de Giens wreck was carrying around 7,000 amphorae when it sank off Hyères (south-eastern France) in about 50 BC. The quantity of amphorae discovered on the wreck suggests that the annual export of wine to the Gauls had reached about 100,000 hectolitres a year by the first century BC – a volume that would have generated about 40 million amphorae over the century. It is hardly surprising, then, that the Roman stereotype of a Gallic man was of a drunkard slurping wine through his long, drooping moustache.

The wine was transported along two major trade routes. One started at Narbo (modern-day Narbonne, founded in 118 BC), snaked along the river Aude and then overland to Tolosa (Toulouse) on the Garonne. The other travelled up the Rhône to Cabillonum (Chalon-sur-Saône) in the territory of the Aedui.

From these major transhipment centres, the wine was then taken into Gaulish territory to the principal settlements within easy reach of the frontier – places such as Bibracte, Jœuvres, Essalois and Montmerlhe. Roman traders may well have been resident in these native centres to oversee the exchanges. There were certainly Italian merchants in Cabillonum as late as 52 BC. These men were charged with ensuring a steady flow of slaves to markets in a bid to meet the Roman estates’ demand for a staggering 15,000 Gaulish slaves every year.

  —  The Celts: were they friends or foes of the Romans?

[a-modernmajorgeneral]

Gallic Wars, (58–50 bce), campaigns in which the Roman proconsul Julius Caesar conquered Gaul. Clad in the bloodred cloak he usually wore “as his distinguishing mark of battle,” Caesar led his troops to victories throughout the province, his major triumph being the defeat of the Gallic army led by the chieftain Vercingetorix, in 52 bce. Caesar described these campaigns in De Bello Gallico (“On the Gallic War”).

A coin from Narbonne that was the first Roman colony in Gaul, c. 118 BCE.

Obverse: Goddess Roma with a Gallic helmet

Reverse: Naked Gaul warrior holding a speer, a shield and a horn is driving a biga

https://smb.museum-digital.de/index.php?t=objekt&oges=144845

Source: Münzkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz.CreatoR: Lutz-Jürgen Lübke (Lübke und Wiedemann)          Copyright Notice: CC BY-NC-SA            

[autismmydearwatson]

Still more important is the realization that all those generations of British people (largely men), who were educated in the classics, were being taught to understand and sympathize with the Greeks and Romans. When thinking of the long confrontation between the Celts and Romans, therefore they instinctively sided with the Romans. They would have all read Tacitus' warning: "Remember, they are barbarians..." For the Romans were seen as the bearers of civilization and the ancient Britons as the uncivilized.....

All manner of pressure was brought to bear to ensure that British schoolboys empathized with Rome. From the sixteenth century to the mid-twentieth, every educated person was required to learn Latin. Caesar and Tacitus were among the very first authors which all those pupils were obliged to read. Yet no one taught them anything about the Celts, let alone a Celtic language. Even today, when the teaching of classics in the United Kingdom has sharply declined and Celtic studies receive a measure of official support, for every British schoolchild that learns even a little about the native Celtic heritage, there are a hundred that still learn about the heritage of Rome.

A whole literary genre was devoted to strengthening the bond of identity between the modern Britons and the Ancient Romans. Any number of books and poems have been written to invite the reader to stand in Roman shoes, to put oneself shoulder to shoulder with the legions in the eternal struggle of civilization against barbarity.

-Norman Davies, The Isles

[illustratus]

St Martin and the Beggar by Alfred Rethel

[a-modernmajorgeneral]

(x)

Archaeologists Uncover ‘Astonishing’ Remains of Horses Buried 2,000-Years-Ago

Archaeologists in France have uncovered nine “astonishing” graves containing the skeletons of 28 horses that were buried about 2,000 years ago, though their precise cause of death remains a mystery.

Discovered in Villedieu-sur-Indre, a commune in central France, two of the graves have been fully excavated so far, the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) said in a statement.

The horses have been radiocarbon-dated back to somewhere between 100 BC to 100 AD.

Archaeologists found 10 complete horse skeletons in one pit and two in the other, all carefully placed in the same manner lying on their right flank with their heads to the south.

All these horses were buried at the same time shortly after their deaths, archaeologists said after observing the position of the skeletons and the connections between the bones.

Another grave is situated between these two pits but it contains two medium-sized dogs, both lying on their left side with their heads facing west.

Archaeologists have yet to fully excavate the remaining graves but have already identified a total of 28 horses from the skulls and coxal bones that appear on the surface.

Killed in battle, or ritual sacrifice?

However, the horses’ precise cause of death still remains unclear.

Archaeologists have ruled out an epidemic since there are no foals or mares in these graves; all the skeletons are fully-grown stallions aged over four years old. That leaves, archaeologists said, the possibilities that these horses were either killed in battle or as part of a ritual sacrifice.

When these horses died about 2,000 years ago, there was a fortified Celtic settlement known as an oppidum just a few hundred meters away and this location mirrors that of two other similar horse burial sites that archaeologists had previously uncovered in the same region.

Due to this location, they have hypothesized that the horses’ deaths at the sites could be connected to the battles of the Gallic Wars in which Julius Caesar conquered Gaul between 58 - 50 BC.

There may be another explanation, however: ritual sacrifice.

“The hypothesis that these animals were sacrificed as part of a complex ritual, of which only a few scraps remain, must also be considered,” the INRAP statement said.

If these horses were indeed buried as part of a ritual rather than killed in battle, the sheer number shows the “importance and extent of the sacrifice,” the statement added.

Other finds at the site, which sits on the slope of a valley, include buildings, pits, ditches and a road that archaeologists dated to the late 5th and early 6th centuries.

By Issy Ronald.

[escapismsworld]

The Ludovisi Gaul (Galatian Suicide), 2nd Century BC

The Ludovisi Gaul is an ancient Roman statue depicting a Gallic man plunging a sword into his breast as he holds up the dying body of his wife. This sculpture is a marble copy of a now lost Greek bronze original.

📸 Palazzo Altemps, National Museum of Rome, Italy

[didoofcarthage]

Aureus with female head wearing oak wreath (obverse) and trophy with Gallic shield and carnyx (reverse), minted under Julius Caesar

Roman, Republican Period, after July 13, 48 B.C.

gold

British Museum

[mapsontheweb]

Main roads of Roman Gaul

[paganpillar]

Creative journal entry inspired by Cernunnos!

[quotesfrommyreading]

So, from Hengistbury Head on the Dorset coast to Marseille on the banks of the Mediterranean, over the course of six decades from the end of the second century BC, the Romans and Celts established a trading relationship that brought both sides prosperity. Unfortunately, that relationship was highly vulnerable. In the face of two destabilising forces that exerted themselves upon western Europe in the first century BC, it was destined to turn spectacularly sour.

The first factor was population pressure. This had built up in the north-east when Germans from across the Rhine began to raid south, and the Helvetii tribe, living in what is now Switzerland, migrated en masse to the west. The prospect of Germans occupying the Alps was a cause of concern to the Roman elite, not least because migrating German tribes had menaced Rome 40 years earlier. These concerns were to play into the hands of the second destabilising force, Julius Caesar.

  —  The Celts: were they friends or foes of the Romans?

[flowersandfigtrees]

The Celtic goddess Sequana in her duck-boat.

Bronze, Gallo-Roman era, Archaeological Museum of Dijon

[thestarlightforge]

In another episode of “Suzanne Collins and Francis Lawrence write essays with faces”

And MORE

[blueiscoool]

Coin reveals little-known Roman ruler

Treasure hunters have unearthed a coin bearing the head of a virtually unknown Roman ruler who briefly held power in Gaul around A.D. 270 as the empire teetered.

It is only the second coin ever found showing the head of Domitianus, who seized power — and the mint — in the breakaway Gallic Empire, which included modern England, France and parts of Germany and lasted for 15 turbulent years.

“We know next to nothing about Domitianus, except that he was ‘punished’ by the Roman Emperor Aurelian for treason,” Richard Abdy, curator of Roman coins at the British Museum, told Reuters. “But at least now we know what he looked like.”

Studied by coin experts

The first coin bearing Domitianus’ head was found in the Loire area of France in 1900, dismissed as a fake because his name was unknown and then lost from sight in a small museum in Nantes until very recently.

“It is now being studied by numismatists. When I showed our coin to the woman who has been working on it she jumped for joy because it bore out everything she had said about hers,” Abdy said, noting the French coin had been dated to A.D. 271.

The Gallic Empire was established in 260, when rule from Rome was weakening, by Postumus. He was succeeded nine years later by Marius, who held the throne for a matter of weeks before being strangled and in turn replaced by Victorinus, who ruled until 271 when he too was murdered.

Domitianus is believed to have murdered Victorinus, who had a habit of raping the wives of his subordinates, before himself being ousted by Tetricus. Tetricus ruled from 271 to 274, when he was defeated by Aurelian and the empire was restored.

Found on farmland

The British coin, which goes on show at the British Museum starting Wednesday, was found on farmland near Oxford just under a year ago as part of a hoard of 5,000 Roman coins fused together in an earthenware pot.

“It is a type of coin we know as a ‘radiant’ because there are rays radiating from his head. It is a two-denarii piece, which at that time, when they were coining money as fast as they could, would have been worth a couple of hours’ work,” Abdy said.

The base metal coin, which originally had a surface coating of silver, is now conservatively estimated to be worth a five-figure sum, Abdy said.

At the time it was minted, the once-mighty Roman Empire was undergoing a period of intense flux.

The years between 270 and 285 were marked by chaos in the empire, with more than 20 different emperors and 30 different pretenders fighting for power. Only one of these leaders died a natural death.

By Jeremy Lovell.

Original posted Feb. 24, 2004.

The Coin Hoard

Until this discovery was made some scholars doubted the historical significance of Domitianus who is named just twice in the historical sources. The Oxfordshire coin provides archaeological evidence suggesting that he successfully proclaimed himself emperor of a breakaway part of the Roman Empire during the reign of Aurelian (AD 270-5).

Richard Abdy (Curator of Roman coins at the British Museum) said that ‘during the 270s AD the fabric of the Roman Empire had become strained. Breakaway empires, like the so-called ‘Gallic Empire’ that included Britain, were established and ruled by a succession of rebel emperors. Finding a coin produced in the name of Domitianus means that he should now be recognised as one such rebel emperor.’

The failure of Roman writers to identify him as a rebel emperor even led the only other coin of Domitianus – found in France in 1900 – to be dismissed as a modern fake. The new discovery was struck from the same dies that were used to produce this earlier find and has therefore put its authenticity beyond any doubt.

Ian Leins (Finds Adviser, Iron Age and Roman coins, Portable Antiquities Scheme) said ‘the portrait on the new coin very closely resembles that of the rebel emperors Victorinus and Tetricus. It is highly possible that other coins of Domitianus exist in the collections of museums and individuals but have escaped detection. It is important that people start to pay more attention to these often neglected finds and record them with their local Finds Liaison Officer.’