What’s Domitian’s problem, anyway? Well, his problems were myriad, but he was a very devout person, to the best of his abilities. He was strongly devoted to Minerva, the Roman incarnation of Athena, goddess of wisdom and battle. The Julio-Claudio-Antonian[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
So Domitian thinks he’s going to be emperor… Domitian may have put on a few pounds, with his comfortable life of palaces, parties, and pretty ladies. He did try to behave like a ruler-in-training as well, but his father, Vespasian,[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The sistrum is an instrument used by the Romans (and others) in the worship of Isis, shaken like a rattle. I drew Iusta’s with three bars, but it is also depicted with four, and usually with a looped top reminiscent[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The rectangle in the middle of the atrium floor is a shallow pool, called an impluvium, to catch water running in from the skylight overhead. Traditional Roman mansions had a layout of foyer (fauces—”throat”) leading to the open-to-sky atrium, leading[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
LUPERCALIA! The Ides of February It’s the Roman festival of fertility and taunting Julius Caesar, so put on your furry bikini and go for a run around town (and don’t forget to bring your own furry whip—that’s part of the[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Nihil Humano Me Alienum Puto “Parental Advisory: Naked People in Close Proximity!” Romans had strict ideas of modesty and propriety, but they tended to be happily naked quite a bit—either in an intimate situation, or at the public baths, or[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Helvius (teacher, midnight medic, and philosopher) is reciting lines from the poet Lucan, who wrote goth epics in the court of Nero. Lucan’s uncle was the equally goth, Stephen King-esque poet/playwright/makeover-expert Seneca, best known for his grand-guignol version of Medea.[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
My Etruscan language skills are minimal (well, aren’t everyone’s?), and my reference books on the language are trapped in a box somewhere, I’m not even sure in which state. Etruscan and Samnian were the Cornish and Welsh of Rome, losing[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
A survey of beds in Pompeii and Herculaneum, excluding what are obviously children’s cots, shows that Roman beds tended to be very narrow, even though married couples were expected to spend the night together—for propriety’s sake. I suppose one could[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
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