RogueBelle

howpeoplelived:

Apartments (Insula) in Rome

In Rome and Ostia, most commoners could not afford to live in private villas, and instead dwelled in apartment buildings, or Insula. These buildings were usually two or three stories tall, but could be as high as six stories, with the size and quality of the apartments diminishing as one moved up in floors. Shops and businesses often occupied the ground floors. Insula were built and owned by wealthy men, who acted as landlords and put the spaces out for rent, but were also charged with maintaining them (something that, like the owners of tenements in the 19th century, they usually failed to do). Interestingly enough, despite the huge disparity between these landlords and their tenants, Rome was not generally segregated into strictly rich and poor neighborhoods, and insula often stood alongside homes of the wealthy. 

Life in these buildings wasn’t super fun - insulae had no running water, toilets cellars, or ovens, which meant that dwellers had to use public fountains, public toilets, and had to buy ready-made food from bakeries or street food sellers. The living quarters were dark, cramped, and unsanitary, and had a high risk of catching fire and even collapsing due to shoddy construction from money-pinching landlords or contractors. Because the insula lacked even the most basic necessities, most people were forced to spend the bulk of their social time outside - on the street, in shops and public baths, or in places of entertainment like the coliseum. [x]

(via myancientworld)

eccecorinna:

senpai-has-noticed-you:

sometimes i think i’m arrogant but then i remember that julius caesar was kidnapped by cilician pirates and when they demanded a ransom of 620 kgs of silver he got mad because he thought he was worth more than that and made them raise it to 1550 kg

And then he was bros with them for a bit, before later coming back and killing them all. Despite being genuinely bros.

Caesar was a pretty intense dude.

And, like, while they were being bros, he would tell them, “Btdubs I’m totally going to come back and crucify you all,” and they were like, “Lulz, okay, buddy, but I’m pretty sure you’ll never find your way back to our super-secret pirate hideaway.” But then he did. And did.

Okay, so I went and read some of the other responses to that “How many pagans are vegan/vegetarian vs meat-eaters” post, and… omg, caught between laughing and having to resist the urge to snark (which is why I’m posting separate rather than reblogging).

Because one girl went on this huge thing explaining about the pagan worldview and how it teaches that all life is equal, and that means animals and plants and everything, but, y’know, Circle of Life and stuff so eating meat is still okay, but really also how a big part of pagan culture was the idea of the hunt, and it was an important and spiritual thing for them, and so getting your meat that way must be better, but no judgment, y’know? And yes, she did qualify that she can’t speak for every variety of paganism, but still, the way she phrased the entire thing was like she was, anyway. She clearly evinced absolutely no understanding of any other tradition.

And I’m just sitting here, with my largely Roman-derived conceptions, thinking about how, well, yeah, some of them liked to hunt for sport, but most of them liked having their slaves pick up meat from their favorite butcher in the Forum Boarium, and how they’d eat pretty much anything you could think of if you slapped enough spice on it or glazed it in honey.

IDK, I just sort of have to shake my head at the idea of “pagan culture/worldview” in general and in particular the propagation of a made-up idea of it reflecting only a very narrow understanding of Celtic-derived paganism seen through a very wooby hippy filter with no real historical context whatsoever.

mellonikan:

… is that we’re all familia.

Familia means family, and family means we all try to off each other while trying to usurp the imperium of Rome.

…

…

…

Wait.

(via eccecorinna)

novitas-romanitas:

Agrippina the Elder - daughter of M. Vipsanius Agrippa and Iulia Augusti (Julia the Elder), granddaughter of Augustus, wife of Germanicus, mother of six children including Caligula and Agrippina the Younger.

Take some time to read about this fascinating woman!

myancientworld:

Trajan’s Column was dedicated to the emperor in May 113 AD. It depicts the 1st and 2nd Dacian Wars (101-2 AD, 105-6 AD), but there are only 18 battle scenes, with the majority showing the daily activities of the army. There are 2500 figures, at least 60 of which are of Trajan himself, and the scenes are carved in low relief. Whilst scholars such as Lepper and Frere argue that the column is parallel to Trajan’s account of the wars in his Dacica (just one line of the book survives), Settis disagrees, believing that due to the repeated formulas, there are also elements of propaganda and is thus not an accurate historical account.

fyeahancientrome:

I would do anything for love, but I won’t do that. Happy Lupercalia!

I dunno, sounds like a cracking good time to me. ;)

myancientworld:

Gaius Marius and his military reforms

Gaius Marius was a Roman general and statesman, born in 157 BC and died in 86 BC aged 70. 

His tactical reforms expanded some traditions, and also helped with the efficiency of the army. Plutarch describes how Marius adjusted the heavy pilum (the javelin), although later on Caesar moved away from this. Marius also made his men carry their supplies rather than relying on carts and mules, as this had slowed the army down. Lastly, Marius also ensured that the Eagle standard (the aquila) was employed by each Roman legion.

Basically the reason we think about the Roman legions the way we do is due to this guy. There were some more tweaks and reforms under Caesar and under the emperors, but this is the dude who gave the legions both the formation we think of and the training that made them the nigh-unstoppable force capable of conquering the entire Mediterranean. He’s the reason Rome had a standing army, not just folk who would have to be recruited, trained, and marched out when disaster threatened. He standardised their equipment, too, and he organised the legions into 6000 men, 4800 fighting with 1200 non-combatants, broken down into cohorts, centuries, and contubernia.

OH YEAH and he also made the legions open to any Roman citizen, not just those with wealth. By opening military careers to the Head Count, he fundamentally changed not only the army but also the basic power structure of the Republic. The lowest and least-enfranchised citizens all of a sudden had an avenue open to them by which they could earn prestige, wealth, and property — because Marius also insisted on providing retiring soldiers a pension, including land from newly-conquered provinces, which had the added benefit of getting Roman citizens settled into these territories (most still capable of picking up a sword again in case of sudden rebellion).

Dude was a badass, is what I’m saying. One of the greatest military minds ever to walk the earth.

ORBIS

Spanning one-ninth of the earth’s circumference across three continents, the Roman Empire ruled a quarter of humanity through complex networks of political power, military domination and economic exchange. These extensive connections were sustained by premodern transportation and communication technologies that relied on energy generated by human and animal bodies, winds, and currents.

Conventional maps that represent this world as it appears from space signally fail to capture the severe environmental constraints that governed the flows of people, goods and information. Cost, rather than distance, is the principal determinant of connectivity.

For the first time, ORBIS allows us to express Roman communication costs in terms of both time and expense. By simulating movement along the principal routes of the Roman road network, the main navigable rivers, and hundreds of sea routes in the Mediterranean, Black Sea and coastal Atlantic, this interactive model reconstructs the duration and financial cost of travel in antiquity.

Taking account of seasonal variation and accommodating a wide range of modes and means of transport, ORBIS reveals the true shape of the Roman world and provides a unique resource for our understanding of premodern history.

Okay, this is seriously the coolest thing I’ve seen on the Internet in a really long time.

Not only does it calculate times and routes, it can estimate prices, adjust for seasonal variants, give you the shortest versus the cheapest versus the fastest, and (this is so fucking cool) the little thing at the bottom shows when you’ll hit which intermediate landmarks, how long you’re at sea versus on land, etc.

I may disappear into this and never be heard from again. This is exactly what Aven has been needing. I’m pleased to see that I estimated Rome-to-Massilia correctly, but I see now I may have a quicker route for Narbo-to-Toletum.

The only impediment to its usefulness for me is that it’s all clearly done height-of-Empire — which is no surprise, that’s when you have the most places to go and the best information about how long it took. But I will still have some fudging to do since a lot of these roads didn’t exist yet at the end of the Republican and the very start of the Principate.

But, on the whole, these are my reactions to this thing existing:

(Source: orbis.stanford.edu)

collectivehistory:

Today in History: Jan 16, 27 BC – Gaius Octavianus was given the title Augustus by the Roman Senate when he became the first Roman emperor.

Augustus  was the founder of the Roman Empire and its first Emperor, ruling from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD. 

Born into an old, wealthy equestrian branch of the plebeian Octavii family, in 44 BC Augustus was adopted posthumously by his maternal great-uncle Gaius Julius Caesar following Caesar’s assassination. Together with Mark Antony and Marcus Lepidus, he formed the Second Triumvirate to defeat the assassins of Caesar.

Following their victory at Phillipi, the Triumvirate divided the Roman Republic among themselves and ruled as military dictators. The Triumvirate was eventually torn apart under the competing ambitions of its members: Lepidus was driven into exile and stripped of his position, and Antony committed suicide following his defeat at the Battle of Actium by Augustus in 31 BC.

After the demise of the Second Triumvirate, Augustus restored the outward facade of the free Republic, with governmental power vested in the Roman Senate, the executive magistrates, and the legislative assemblies. In reality, however, he retained his autocratic power over the Republic as a military dictator. By law, Augustus held a collection of powers granted to him for life by the Senate, including supreme military command, and those of tribune and censor. It took several years for Augustus to develop the framework within which a formally republican state could be led under his sole rule. 

The reign of Augustus initiated an era of relative peace known as the Pax Romana (The Roman Peace). Despite continuous wars or imperial expansion on the Empire’s frontiers and one year-long civil war over the imperial succession, the Mediterranean world remained at peace for more than two centuries. Augustus dramatically enlarged the Empire, annexing Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, and Raetia, expanded possessions in Africa, expanded into Germania, and completed the conquest of Hispania. Beyond the frontiers, he secured the Empire with a buffer region of client states, and made peace with the Parthian Empire through diplomacy. He reformed the Roman system of taxation, developed networks of roads with an official courier system, established a standing army, established the Praetorian Guard, created official police and fire-fighting services for Rome, and rebuilt much of the city during his reign.

Augustus died in 14 AD at the age of 75. He may have died from natural causes, although there were unconfirmed rumors that his wife Livia poisoned him. 

(via eccecorinna)