Scholarly Societies Project

Recently I was taking advantage of JSTOR's Early Journal Content initiative (reported here). Anyone who has used journals knows that most resources are cited in abbreviated form. Modern journals regularly include lists of common abbreviations, but citations in early journals are more troublesome. For one, journals of that era seldom published abbreviation lists, expecting anyone interested in the field to be familiar with the resources. Another problem is that journals (and the societies that sponsor them) sometimes change names and sometimes disappear entirely. In my case, I wanted to search my university's library database for a cited journal, "Mon.  Mém.  Acad.  Insc.", that was published in 1906, but I needed to expand that to the full form. Luckily, there is a site for that.

Open Yale Course: Roman Architecture

The "Open Courseware" movement started over 10 years ago in Germany and got a big boost a few years later from MIT. Yale Open Courses, offered under a Creative Commons 3.0 licence, offers HSAR 252: Roman Architecture. 

The lectures are delivered by Yale's Professor Diana E. E. Kleiner. This comprehensive course consists of 23 lectures, each roughly one and a quarter hours long. Kleiner starts with an overview of Roman city planning. The focus is initially on Rome and central Italy but later shifts to the provinces. Her topics include city planning, historical development, notable structures, interior decoration and more. The recording quality is quite good. The downloadable material includes a "credits" file for the images in each lecture. This file very usefully has links to the images online, when they are available. The YouTube videos are subtitled.

Texts used are:

• Ward-Perkins, John B. Roman Imperial Architecture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994.
• Claridge, Amanda. Rome: An Oxford Archaeological Guide, second edition, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

The course home page: ( http://oyc.yale.edu/history-art/hsar-252 ) has a zip file download of course materials. This 10 Mb download includes web pages and PDFs. There are links to YouTube and iTunes.

Freevideolectures.com: ( http://freevideolectures.com/Course/2466/Roman-Architecture ) additionally offers the videos embedded in their pages with the option to download the video and audio (mp3) files.

YouTube playlist: ( http://www.youtube.com/yalecourses#g/c/BCB3059E45654BCE )

Online study groups are possible through OpenStudy, details are on the course home page.

This is a small version of the introductory lecture. Larger, higher definition versions are available on the sites listed above.

Two (small) initiatives from JSTOR

JSTOR has recently announced two initiatives that, while limited, will add some welcome resources for the independent researcher.

"Early Journal Content": This gives free and open access to anyone, anywhere to "...journal content in JSTOR published prior to 1923 in the United States and prior to 1870 elsewhere..." That is half a million articles in 200 journals they say. Some of this may already be available in some form online (thank you, Google!) but this should fill in any gaps and make access simpler and more uniform. Clearly this material is dated, but that does not mean it is without use, obviously. (Read JSTOR's announcement.)

"Register & Read": This gives free read-only (no downloads) access to a limited number of current journals. You access the journals through your free "MyJSTOR" account. The list of journals is posted online (xlsx format). The program has not started yet, and JSTOR mention that they may adjust the program as it goes ahead. There is a PDF of information about the program and a video as well.  (Read JSTOR's announcement.) It is good to see Mnemosyne on the list, and there are a few other journals that may be of use to the Roman history student, but with all the limitations you will probably end up going to your public library, if you are lucky enough to live near one with JSTOR access.  Still, I recommend that everyone show their support by at least trying out MyJSTOR.


You can keep up with JSTOR developments on Twitter or on Facebook.

Lanciani: Cybele's Needle Found and Lost?

In "Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries" by Rodolfo Lanciani (published by Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston and New York, 1898) in chapter V on pages 127, 128 we read [my emphasis]:

"In the year 549 of Rome, the high-priests, after consulting the Sibylline books on the issue of the second Punic war, found that, to insure the safety and the prosperity of the Roman Commonwealth, it was necessary to send an embassy to Pessinus in Phrygia, to get possession of a meteoric stone, fallen from heaven, which was worshipped there under the name of the "Great Mother of the Gods," or Cybele. The embassy succeeded in securing the stone, and I need not repeat the beautiful description which Livy [h]as left (xxiv. 14) of its arrival and solemn reception in Rome. On April 4th of the following year, 550, the precious relic was deposited temporarily in the temple of Victory, on the Palatine; and twelve years later it was finally located in a temple built for the purpose by the censors M. Livius and C. Claudius, known to topographers and historians as the temple of the great mother of the gods: aedes magnae Deum Matris. We possess a very accurate description of this meteoric stone [ed: In Servius VII, 188] : it was conical in shape, of a deep brown color; it looked like a piece of lava, and ended in a point so sharp that Servius calls it acus Matris Deum, the "needle" of Cybele. The stone was set in a silver statue of the goddess, in place of the head.

"Among the wild manias of Helagabalus, Herodianus describes the attempt to collect in his private chapel, attached to the palace of the Caesars, the most sacred relics of the Roman Empire, such as the Palladium, the ancilia, and, of course, the meteoric stone of Pessinus. So far as this last is concerned he succeeded in his attempt: he stole the relic from the temple, and placed it in his chapel, under the name of Sol Helagabalus, the Sun Helagabalus. The description left by Herodianus of the stone is absolutely identical with the description of the needle of Cybele. "The stone," he says, "is very large, shaped as a cone, and black in color. People think it a stone fallen from heaven, and believe also that some accidental irregularities in the surface represent the image of the sun, modelled by supernatural hands."

"When the excavations of the palace of the Caesars began, about twenty years ago, I felt sanguine of the recovery of this relic, since it was an object too common to have attracted the attention either of the barbarians, when they pillaged the palace, or of former excavators, unacquainted with its value. My hopes were disappointed, however; and it is only lately that I have learned of its discovery, and probable destruction, in 1730. In reading the book written by Monsignor Francesco Bianchini on the excavations carried on in the Palatine by Duke Francis of Parma, at the beginning of last century (a book which is little known in spite of its enormous size and the useful information it contains), I have found the following passage. After describing the discovery of the private chapel of the emperors, Monsignor Bianchini says: 'I am sorry that no fragment of a statue, or bas-relief, or inscription has been found in the chapel, because this absence of any positive indication prevents us from ascertaining the name of the divinity to whom the place was principally dedicated. The only object which I discovered in it was a stone nearly three feet high, conical in shape, of a deep brown color, looking very much like a piece of lava, and ending in a sharp point. No attention was paid to it, and I know not what became of it.'"

Thus far, Lanciani, but in "Myth and Geology" edited by Luigi Piccardi and W. Bruce Masse, M. D'Orazio produces the text of Arnobius (VII, 49) saying it was "...a kind of stone, not a large one, one that can be carried in a man's hand without strain...". Thus, whatever was found by Bianchini cannot have been the stone described by Arnobius.

Part of the mystery is cleared up by a careful reading of Herodianus. The text cited by Lanciani is a description of a stone in a temple of Elagabalus in Emesa, but the image of the Great Mother that was brought to Rome came from Pessinos in Phrygia; in short, there were two different stones. Ironically, we have to accept the word of the Christian apologist Arnobius on the rough size of the Needle of Cybele. Arnobius' purpose is to ridicule it, so he may be reducing its size, but the fact remains that Lanciani erred about its size, or at least he had no evidence to call it "large". What then did Bianchini find? Herodianus says that after the death of Elagabalus, all cult objects were returned to their proper places, and some writers seem to use that as the basis for the notion that that the stone of Emesa was returned there after Elagabalus' death. D'Orazio however says that "...the Emesa stone was never seen again" and the unspecified cult objects to which Herodianus refers may be just the various Roman cult objects that Elagabalus had moved from their various sites to the Palatine . It is unclear what was found in 1730; it could have been the Emesa stone, but there is no firm evidence for this.

How could Lanciani have confused the two stones? It is possible that he was unaware of how many meteoric cult objects existed in the ancient world. The Piccardi and Masse text enumerates them.

References

• Servius (Maurus Servius Honoratus) late 4th century.
• Herodianus ( Herodianus of Syria, historian c. 170 - 240, not Aelius Herodianus, grammarian c. 180 - 250)
• Arnobius (Arnobius of Sicca) died c. 330.
• Lanciani's text: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/_Texts/Lanciani/LANARD/5*.html
• "Myth and Geology", Luigi Piccardi, W. Bruce Masse.

An account of the alterations making in the Pantheon at Rome

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Volume 50 PANTHEON XVI (1757)

An account of the alterations making in the Pantheon at Rome: In an extract of a letter from Rome to Thomas Hollis, Esq; communicated by John Ward, LL.D. R.S. Vice Pres.

Read Mar. 3, 1757

A project was lately laid before the government by Paolo Posi, an architect, for modernizing the inside of the Pantheon, and unfortunately approved. In consequence of which, the dome has already been cleaned, and rough cast; and the remainder of the lead taken away, which served as a lining to the silver work, that originally covered it. The vestiges of the cornices, and other ornaments of the silver work, were still discernible in the lead, which was fastened by very large iron nails. All this was effected by a movable scaffold, that was fixed to the bronze cornice of the open circle above, whereby the temple is illuminated, and descended to the cornice of the Attic order, being as curious in the contrivance, as detestable for the purposes intended by it. It is true, we could not before see the dome in its pristine glory; but we had the satisfaction of viewing the traces and remains of what it had been.  Nor could the adepts in architecture sufficiently admire the skill and sagacity of the builder, who, composing it of a number of small arches, which together formed formed a kind of network, and filling up the intervals between with pumice stones and mortar, gave it that strength and lightness, whereby it has probably stood so many ages.

The evil would be comparatively small, had the project extended no farther, than what has been related; but they are now busy in removing the Attic order, to make room for a new invention, suitable to the trifling taste, which at this day prevails. And not content with that, they think of taking away the ancient pavement; and, what is still worse, its peculiar beauty, the open circle at the top, to place a lanthorn [lantern] instead of it, as is usual in modern cupolas.

You had the good fortune, Sir, to view this remarkable temple, in that state, wherein it was left by the ancient barbarians; but those, who see it hereafter, will find it in a much more deplorable condition, stripped of its precious marbles and ornaments; and so disguised by modern alterations, that the noble form given it by Agrippa will no longer be distinguishable.

It is said Il Signor J. B.  Piranesi, the architect, who published the antiquities of Rome, and divers ingenious works of that kind, has taken accurate plans of the order, and every other particular relating to it. These he proposes to engrave and publish, with exact explanations annexed to them; together with a plan of the whole, as he believes it appeared in its original splendor and perfection; that posterity may not be deprived of informations, which are of so great benefit and importance to all lovers of architecture. It is also said, that the engineer [carpenter], who invented the scaffolding, has made an exact model of it for him; which he intends to publish as a part of the work before-mentioned.




N. B. I have updated some of the spelling and punctuation to correspond with modern conventions.

It is easy to find discussion of the removal of the original attic decoration (e.g., here) , but it is less common to see mention of the removal of the lining of the dome.

Cicero—The Duties of Government Officials (Harper's Magazine)

Harper's Magazine recently carried a book notice which demonstrates the relevance of Cicero's "De Officiis" ("On Duties") to the 21st century. The pressures facing those in office, and the temptations, were well known to Cicero. In the third part of his book, Cicero challenges us to think outside the box. If we seem to be faced with a choice between doing what is "right" or doing what gives us "advantage", the basic problem is that we misunderstand the situation, says Cicero. He forces us to look more carefully, because, he says, doing the right thing is always the more advantageous choice, and he explains why.

"Cambridge University Press has just published Steve Sheppard’s new book I Do Solemnly Swear, an inquiry into the moral obligations of legal officials. Like Sir Edward Coke before him, Sheppard has taken a series of quotations from De Officiis as the epigram for each chapter, which in a sense is an extended meditation on Cicero’s text and an ample demonstration of its modernity. The work is a wonderful discussion of material that is, to our lasting harm, long underappreciated." Cicero—The Duties of Government Officials (Harper's Magazine)

Bill Thayer's site, Lacus Curtius, has the entire 1913 Loeb text of "De Officiis" (in English) online.

Major sites re-opening in the Forum area

There have been several notices recently of major re-openings in the Forum area.  The underground area of the Flavian Amphitheater is opening to groups (by reservation only) and the third level is set to open as well. This is in addition to the recently announced opening of the Temple of Venus and Roma. There is also word that the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, and possibly other temples as well, are set to be reopened within the next year.

Now is the time to plan a trip to Rome!

Read more: 
Colosseum 
Venus and Roma