And here it is! After many recommendations that she come on as a guest, @sarahebond.bsky.social stopped by to talk about her book Strike and labor in Roman Antiquity. Apologies for the somewhat esoteric Roanoke talk, but Roanoke is the best for a reason!
classicalantiquitypod.com/2025/12/15/s...
It’s been fab being on Channel 5’s Pompeii: Life in the City with @k8lister.bsky.social & @thehistoryguy.bsky.social. As well as talking all things #Roman, I got see the House of the Vettii before opening hours. Amazing 😍 @royalholloway.bsky.social @rhulhistory.bsky.social @rhulclassics.bsky.social
Google maps view showing driving route from Crotone south along the coast to a promontory labeled Capo Colonna at the bottom of the map.
Map of Italy showing Capo Colonna on the southern coast of Italy
photo of a single Greek Doric column on the left and a modern lighthouse on the right at dusk.
Now let's head out of Crotone towards Capocolonna, the coastal promontory the Romans once called Lacinium, and where the Greeks had built a sanctuary to Hera in the 8th c. BCE. Its name ("Cape of the Column") comes from the single column of the temple that is still standing.
photo: flic.kr/p/fPCMgk
Calendar Mosaic from Thysdrus (El Jem) showing Aprilis. Two women celebrate an April rite of Venus. Dated to the 1st half of the 3rd century AD. Sousse Archaeological Museum, Tunisia.
Mosaic of the Seasons and the Months. The month of April with Venus, the divinity of the month, riding on a bull that represents the zodiac sign of Taurus, 3rd century AD, found in Hellin (Albacete). National Archaeological Museum of Spain, Madrid.
The bronze statuette depicts Venus emerging from a bath, with her right hand holding a strand of hair and her left hand holding a mirror (only the handle remains). From Ovilava/Municipium Aelium Ovilava in Noricum. Dated to the 1st or 2nd century AD. Stadtmuseum Wels, Austria.
Welcome Aprilis!
April was sacred to Venus. On the Kalends of Aprilis, the Romans celebrated the Veneralia, a festival honouring Venus Verticordia. According to Ovid, the cult image of Venus was bathed in the ritual act of lavatio. The celebrants bathed communally, crowned in wreaths of myrtle.
The first pair of roundels on the south side depicts Antinous, Hadrian, an attendant and a friend of the court (amicus principis) departing for the hunt (left tondo) and sacrificing to Silvanus, the Roman god of the woods and wild (right tondo).
The second pair of roundels on the south side depicts a bear hunt (left tondo) and a sacrifice to the goddess of hunting, Diana (right tondo).
On the north side, the left pair depicts a boar hunt (left tondo) and a sacrifice to Apollo (right tondo). The figure on the top left of the boar hunt relief is clearly identified as Antinous, while Hadrian, on horseback and about to strike the boar with a spear, was recarved to resemble the young Constantine. The recarved emperor in the sacrifice scene is likely to be Licinius or Constantius Chlorus.
On the north side, the right pair depicts a lion hunt (left tondo) and a sacrifice to Hercules (right tondo). The figure of Hadrian in the hunt scene was recut to resemble the young Constantine, while in the sacrifice scene, the recarved emperor is either Licinius or Constantius Chlorus. The figure on the left of the hunt tondo may show Antinous as he was shortly before his death, with the first signs of a beard, meaning he was no longer a young man. These tondi are framed in purple-red porphyry. This framing is only extant on this side of the northern facade.
#ReliefWednesday - The Hadrianic reliefs (tondi) that adorned the Arch of Constantine's north and south sides. The common theme suggests they belonged to a lost monument for Hadrian, likely a tetrapylon. The tondi depict Hadrian, Antinous and court members hunting and offering sacrifices to deities.
#FrescoFriday - The magnificent Garden Fresco from the triclinium of Livia's villa at Prima Porta. This Second style fresco presents a variety of plants, fruits, flowers and birds rendered in a naturalistic way. It is one of the most stunning frescoes from the Roman world!
#SarcophagusSaturday - The Pashley Sarcophagus, a sarcophagus showing the triumphal return of Dionysos from India. A Satyr carries a child behind an elephant, while two Maenads play the 'aulos' and two Satyrs sit on it. Found in Arvi (Crete), dated AD 125-150.
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (UK).
For an extra-special treat, I've cleaned up these lithographs depicting the women of the Villa Arianna by Wilhelm Johann Karl Zahn. The reason the lines look so exact is that he traced them in situ in the villa. Some artistic license in the details. 🏺
'Pompeji, Herculanum und Stabiae' 1842.
A limestone #ReliefWednesday from the 18th Dynasty that depicts blindfolded #musicians performing in a palace. Vocalists standing on the left, string players kneeling on the right. From a tomb in el-Amarna, now at the British Museum.
Walk with me around Linlithgow Palace in West Lothian, Scotland. Mary QoS was born here, as was James V. Pictures taken this morning.
For #ReliefWednesday, we are off to the Louvre to see a 2nd century sarcophagus that was reworked in the 14th century. Armed with a spear and holding a shield, this military figure is said to be a saint, although his identity (George? Theodore?) is based on speculation. Found in Asia Minor.
![Translation taken from http://www.attalus.org/ docs/sig2/s763.html. When Bouleides son of Metrodoros was hipparch. Soterides the gallos offered a prayer to Mother (?) Kotyana on behalf of his own partner Marcus Stlaccius son of Marcus, who served in the allied force that was sent to imperator Gaius [Julius] Caesar, son of [Gaius], in Africa, under the command of the hipparch Theognetos son of Apollonios, in the quadrireme ship Soteira; Marcus was taken prisoner from Africa and carried off linto slavery], but the goddess spoke to me in a [dream], telling me that Marcus had been taken prisoner, but [had been saved from] great dangers; I called upon [her]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:pmyz5zagg4dlamp2oiiihh6y/bafkreiccvo2wdo4kympkjhnmp3bxcd5py33ebeooa7653uweei6zzq4qrm)
Translation taken from http://www.attalus.org/ docs/sig2/s763.html. When Bouleides son of Metrodoros was hipparch. Soterides the gallos offered a prayer to Mother (?) Kotyana on behalf of his own partner Marcus Stlaccius son of Marcus, who served in the allied force that was sent to imperator Gaius [Julius] Caesar, son of [Gaius], in Africa, under the command of the hipparch Theognetos son of Apollonios, in the quadrireme ship Soteira; Marcus was taken prisoner from Africa and carried off linto slavery], but the goddess spoke to me in a [dream], telling me that Marcus had been taken prisoner, but [had been saved from] great dangers; I called upon [her]
A fragmentary marble #ReliefWednesday from the #Louvre, wherein a gallus priest named #Soterides thanks his patron goddess #Cybele for reassuring him in a dream that his partner Marcus survived the Battle of #Thapsus...wow.
Inscription in alt text, found near #Cyzicus in Turkey.
