Dan's Roman History

An amazingly detailed mosaic depicting a day's events at the Colosseum. We see executions, musicians, gladiator contests and Beastiari fighting animals.

Image: Oxford Classical Dictionary.

Two great actors died too early. From two of our favourite shows: Ray Stevenson as Titus Pullo (age 58) from HBO's Rome and Andy Whitfield from STARZ's Spartacus (age 39). Apart from being gifted actors in their own right, both their characters were alpha males, the leads in their shows. They were funny, handsome, and the shows they starred in drove a huge resurgence in 'Sword and Sandals' Roman history TV. They are both dearly missed. R.I.P boys.

The visually stunning and arguably finest marble Sarcophagus ever produced in Rome and is dated ca 260-270 AD. It is known as the "Dionysus and the Four Seasons" as it depicts a heavy usage of Dionysian (Bacchus) features and deities and other images associated with each of the four seasons.

It was discovered on the Duke of Beaufort's Estate, in Badminton House, Gloucestershire. An inscription records that it was placed in the mansion in 1733 and this is why it is also referred to as the "Badminton Sarcophagus"

A feature that makes this piece unique is that the Four Seasons are generally depicted as female, but here we see young men in their late teens or early twenties. It was bequeathed to the Met in 1955.

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Photo: CC-BY-SA Public Domain.

One dangerous woman working behind the patriarchal scenes. ROME, our favourite TV show.

Legio XXI Rapax recruitment poster 😀🏛🏺

In 1985 a two year construction project began to bring a 2000 year old Athenian Trireme back to life. It was built perfectly according to every shred of ancient evidence that research academics could find, a private financial group was established along with the Greek Navy and wooden naval vessel builders undertook the daunting task of building the "Olympias"

The Olympias was built from various types of expensive wood: Douglas Fir, Virginia Oak and rather exotic Nigerian Hardwood called "Iroko" The ram was constructed from 200 kg of pure bronze. A genuine example can be seen in the Piraeus Archaeological Museum and a photo has been included.

Experts correctly and wisely decided to use high tensile steel (instead of extremely expensive h**p rope) that could withstand the constant variations in pressure being exerted upon the cables from the flexing of the wood of the ship. To view this beautiful Trireme it is displayed out of water and under cover at a Naval Museum in Palaio Faliro in Athens.

The project was such a success that the Greek Navy commissioned the Vessel and designated it as the "Olympias"

Images:
*George E Koronaios (ship) CC-BY-SA
*Sb2s3 (ram) CC-BY-SA
*Etienne Hebinger (illustration)

Etruscan warriors readying for battle against the Celtic tribes that began to move onto the Italian Peninsula during the 4th-3rd centuries BC. Mattia Delphos Gatto Delphos Gatto is the main image and his group Leoni di Nemea "RUVA LEU" (Lions of War) He is wearing heavy state-of-the-art infantry armour. It comprises linothorax with bronze plates and scales overlaid for double projectile stopping power. He would have shone like a god in direct sunlight.

Many people see bronze artefacts on my page and presume it had a brown/greenish colour to it, which is incorrect. Bronze gleamed like gold when cared for. It only discolours through a process of oxidation (rust) that changes its appearance. We call this effect petina.

Photos: Rachele Lori

For those of you that know the history of William Caxton and the first printing press you will get a chuckle out of this as it is funny on a lot of levels! 😆

Titus pullo holding the heads of the men who beheaded Pompey Magnus. It must have seemed like a good idea at the time when someone said (famous last words) "Let's chop off his head and give it to Caesar in a gift basket, he'll just love it" 🎉👑💀🔥👍