Classical Studies 202 Ancient Roman Society Lecture

1
Classical Studies 202Ancient Roman
SocietyLecture 10

• -TAKE UP TEST 2-
• -MYSTERY RELIGIONS-
• -CHRISTIANITY-
• -BREAK-
• -IMPERIAL ART ARCHITECTURE-
• -LIFE AT ROME-
• -FINANCE-

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MYSTERY CULT RELIGIONS

• Traditional State religions Imperial cult too
  impersonal to satisfy needs of the individual
• Common people turn to exciting Eastern religions
• -upper classes turn to philosophy
• Mystery religions offered purification,
  monotheism, communion, life after death
• -secret rites levels of initiation
• Cults come from eastern Mediterranean (exotic)
  often involve ecstasy (dancing, intoxication,
  worse?)

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GREEK/HELLENISTIC CULTS

• Greece
• grain goddess Demeter (Eleusinian mysteries)
• wine god Bacchus (fertility, free from
  inhibitions banned 186 BC)
• Cybele (Asian mother goddess) brings boyfriend
  Attis back to life
• -fertility goddess, protectress (wears walled
  crown), wild animals(lion attendants), cures and
  oracles
• -wild ecstatic state (feel no pain)
• -cult reaches Rome in 2nd Punic war
• -later patronized by Claudius (priesthoods
  opened)

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Cybele Cult (contd)

• Priests (orig. eastern) could be Roman but must
  castrate selves, run through Rome and toss
  genitals at a house
• festival fasting, purification, taurobolium
  (bath in bull's blood) and carry around bulls
  genitals
• popular with women

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THE CULT OF ISIS

• Isis (Egyptian saviour goddess)
• -puts husband Osiris back together
• priests Egyptian
• -use Nile water, street parade, drama,
  penitents, festivals, banquets, interpretation of
  dreams
• ideal mother (nurses son Horus)
• -cult popular among women
• Apuleius Golden Ass (2nd c.) describes
  initiation (ecstacy and flagellation)
• Serapis another similar god (sky/healing god)
• -state-of-the-art temple at Alexandria

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THE CULT OF MITHRAS

• Mithras (Asian/Persian god of light, truth, and
  good god)
• -battles forces of darkness
• -known as Lord of Light, God of Truth,
  Saviour from Death, Giver of Bliss, Warrior
  and Victorious
• comes to Rome in the later half of the 1st c. AD
• followers must be tough, disciplined popular
  with army, merchants and all social classes
• bull-slaying scene, reproduced in underground
  shrines meaning?
• -link to astronomy
• temples built in caves or built to look like
  caves
• belief in prosperity and an afterlife

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Sol Invictus Cult

• Sol Invictus(Sun Unconquered)
• -Sun God cult
• conical black stone is Syrian cult image
• weird rites (perversions?)
• -drums, cymbols and anthems sung by women
• -rites include baptism and ceremonial meal
• -rites often linked to Mithraism

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Christianity

• Christianity (Jewish Palestinian carpenter's son,
  claimed to be son of Yahweh)
• 30 AD crucified by Pontius Pilate (prefect)
• -came back to life after death (reign of
  Tiberius)
• promote love, forgiveness of sins, equality, and
  everlasting life, purification, community,
  communion
• -cult was open to everyone (and so unpopular
  with mainstream Judaism of the time)
• -attracted the poor, slaves, cripples, women,
  and societys outcasts at first
• -spread by travels of early disciples

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Christian Persecutions

• Christianity denied emperor's divinity, thus was
  treasonous
• Rites misunderstood
• -secret meetings in catacombs, bird and fish
  secret symbols, murder, cannibalism, incest
• various persecutions beginning in 64 AD under
  Nero
• Alexemenos prays to his god

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Constantines Role in the Growth of Christianity

• 312 AD wins Battle of Milvian Bridge with divine
  aid
• "In Hoc Signo Vincas" / "In this sign you will
  conquer
• Constantine first to use Chi-Rho symbols
• Christianity legalized by emperor Constantine
  (313) in the "Edict of Milan"
• 321 AD Sunday a legal holiday (brilliant move!)
• 325 AD Council of Nicaea

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Triumph of Christianity

• 380 AD Emperor Theodosias the Great makes it the
  official State religion and bans paganism
• -Christians then begin to persecute pagans!
• -take what is familiar ( pagan) and make it
  Christian to explain their theology
• Christianity combined the strengths of
• -Greek Philosophy
• - Roman Administration
• - and the Jewish faith

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IMPERIAL ART AND ARCHITECTURE

• Combine Etruscan, Greek and Oriental ideas
  (eclectic in all things)
• Reflects the values and ideals of a culture
• Also a way to show off wealth and power
• Sculpture
• intimately linked with Roman funerary practice
• -busts often displayed in homes or at funerals
• -portraiture both idealistic and realistic
• Glorification of the Emperor begins with Augustus

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Roman Sculpture

• Begins to decay in late 2nd century
• -anatomy not as well done
• -expressions more serious and troubled (art
  imitating life?)
• can be huge (head of statue of Constantine is 2.5
  m tall alone!)
• -reflect Eastern god-like awe
• Romans could not work the stone as well as the
  Greeks
• -Roman copies of Greek originals are supported
  by a tree stump, flowing robes or other small
  attachment at the base of the legs
• Cameos common and popular

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Mural Painting

• Found on walls, canvas and ceilings
• Roman artists were renowned for their renditions
  of social or leisure events, mythological themes,
  and nature scenes and landscapes
• Pompeiian style most popular
• House of the Mysteries in Pompeii
• -distance, space, light, expression and
  perspective are shown in great detail
• -painting material was very colourful and
  realistic
• Often paint outdoor scenes as if looking through
  a window
• Most interior Roman painting has maintained its
  colours

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Portrait Painting

• An area where the Romans excelled in art
  (original?)
• -usually painted on canvas or wood
• -facial features are distinct and portray the
  personality of the subject (lady from Egypt with
  stylus)
• -captures the true spirit of the subject
• -realistic vs idealistic
• Clothing is very detailed, with folds and creases
  appearing quite realistic
• Colours used for the subject are soft and subtle,
  while the background is full of vibrancy
• Portraits of the upper classes are also found on
  glass medallions, with a blue background, and
  gold and white outline painting
• Reached its zenith under the Flavian Emperors
  (late 1st century AD)

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Roman Mosaics

• Located mostly on floors
• Labour intensive expensive
• Geometric or abstract patterns with a
  two-dimensional design
• -commonly used materials were marble, glass
  paste and naturals shells
• -pebbles used were mostly black and white
• -black silhouettes with white outlining was
  popular
• -usually contained figures of humans, animas,
  and mythological figures, all contained within a
  floral-type border
• Were placed in houses like carpets, for example,
  in the middle of rooms or near doors
• -Caveat Canum (Beware of Dog) in front of door
  in Pompeii

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The Roman Forum

• Centre of city life (// Greek agora)
• Shops, statues, meeting places, public speaking
  podiums
• Various additions built over the centuries
• -Forum of Caesar (46 BC)
• -Forum of Augustus (2 AD)

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Basilica

• Rectangular, covered building
• Courts, businesses and social gatherings
• Built to be seen from the inside (opposite to
  Greek designs)
• Early Christian churches were converted
  basilicas, or based on their design

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Roman Temples

• Follow Etruscan, and later Greek, lines
• -built on a huge podium
• -cella, columned porch, and triangular pediment
• Romans experimented freely with it
• Temple of Castor and Pollux in Rome on a huge,
  concrete, landscaped podium

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The Roman Baths

• Combined bath, library, gymnasium and community
  centre
• -enclosed gardens
• -about a penny to enter them
• Rrooms heated through the flow of warm air
  through the flues in the wall
• -frigidarium (cold rooms)
• -tepidarium (warm heat)
• -laconia (sweat baths)
• Pompeiis bath (75 BC) an early example
• Baths of Caracalla (217 AD) in Rome had
  libraries, lecture halls, gymnasiums, pools,
  lounges and vast vaulted public spaces decorated
  in statues, mosaics, stuccos and paintings
• -held 1,600 bathers in marble-lined pools
• By the middle of the 4th century AD there were
  952 operating bath facilities in Rome

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Circuses

• Huge race tracks
• -elongated rectangles, curved at one end
• -spina (spine) runs down the middle of the track
  (horses run around)
• Romes Circus Maximus is 2,000 feet long and hold
  ½ million spectators

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The Roman Amphitheatre

• Semicircular
• Much use of arch and concrete
• -Colosseum, in Rome, begun by the Emperor
  Vespasian and opened by his son, the Emperor
  Titus, in 80 AD
• -tiers of seats surround arena
• -arena (sand) in the centre, measuring 500 x
  620 feet
• -rooms, passageways, and elevators beneath arena
  floor
• 4 stories tall, decorated in statues on the
  outside
• -partial retractable canopy on top
• -hold 45,000 spectators
• -buy a seat
• -can be emptied in 10 minutes

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Theatres

• Oval amphitheatre with a semi-circular stage
• Built on Greek models from southern Italy an
  across the eastern Empire
• Intricate backdrops were contributed under the
  Empire
• Stage and seating area
• Theatre of Pompey (55 BC)
• Theatre at Bosra could seat 15,000 add 6,000
  standing

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Arches

• Victorious sculpture
• Arch of Titus in Rome commemorates the capture of
  Jerusalem after the Jewish Revolt in 71 AD
• Arch of Constantine (315 AD) covered in sculpture
  from earlier monuments of Trajan, Hadrian and
  Marcus Aurelius
• -round medallions on it from Hadrians reign
• -earlier sculpture re-worked to look like
  Constantine

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Columns

• Popular commemorative sculpture
• Trajans Column (113 AD)
• -tells the story of the Dacian War in sculpture
• -spiral band of relief winds up the column (3 ½
  feet tall and 800 feet long)
• -reads like a scroll
• -2,500 figures on it
• -Finer sculpted figures near the bottom
• -painted, gilded and metal work

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Pantheon

• Built by the Emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD)
• -House of all Gods
• Cylindrical, drum-shaped building, capped by huge
  dome and entered through a deep porch with
  Corinthian columns
• Top of dome is 110 feet tall ( to the distance
  of the diameter of the drum)
• -many square recesses in inside of roof to hold
  statues of deities (represents the heavens)
• -small oculus (eye) opening in top of dome to
  let in light (represents the sun)
• Originally roof gilded in gold!

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Aqueducts

• Water from mountain streams could be carried from
  40 miles away using gravitational flow to
  reservoirs near cities
• Channels in arches were lined with hard,
  water-proof cement
• Often built into bridges and supported by arches
• Water then went through smaller pipes made of
  lead, wood or terra cotta, into fountains, houses
  or public baths
• 1st century AD Rome had a population of 1 million
• -aqueducts provided 455 L of fresh
  water/person/day
• Rich have running water on main floor, in kitchen
  and lavatory
• Many public fountains (some still used today)

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Roman Roads

• 4.5 m wide, with a 120 cm foundation
• 85,000 km of roads built
• 1 Roman mile 1,000 paces
• Mile comes from the Latin milia passuum ("one
  thousand of paces), which was approximately 1620
  yards, 1480 meters
• each mile marked by a 2-metre tall pillar, called
  a Milestone (miliarium)
• Most roads originally built by Marius Mules

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ROMAN HOUSING AND FURNITURE

• The Roman house (domus)
• -compluvium (opening in roof to let in light and
  rain)
• -impluvium (collects rainwater from compluvium)
• -atrium (central living room surrounded by other
  rooms)
• -hortus (small garden furthest away from the
  front door)
• -lararium (shrine to household gods)
• -fauces (entrance passage)
• -tablinum (passage room)

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The Roman House (Domus)

• -triclinium (dining room)
• -cubiculum (bedroom)
• -peristylium (elaborate colonnaded garden)
• -hypocaust (heating system beneath floor)
• -rich could have running water
• -tabernae (shops) in front rooms facing the
  street (in wealthier homes)
• Very bright and airy homes
• All decoration on the inside
• -façade is plain and whitewashed

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Larger Roman House
32
Roman House With Tabernae (Shops) in Front of
House
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Roman Apartments

• Insulae/islands (apartment blocks)
• -built in grid blocks
• Stone main floor (shops or expensive apartments)
• -wood and stone filler upper floors
• Could have central courtyard (air light)
• No limit to occupancy
• Cook on open braziers (fire hazard)
• Problem with disrepair
• Augustus limits height to 21 m (69 feet)
• 350 AD 1,790 private homes and 46, 602 insulae

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Roman Furniture

• Few pieces of furniture
• sella (backless arm-chair)
• cathedra (high-backed ladies' chair)
• Cubile (bed) of simple frame, leather webbing and
  thin mattress stuffed with straw or wool
• Arca (chest for blankets or clothes)
• Lasanum (chamber pot)
• -busts, statues, decorations, lamps, tables
  (tables are expensive and often ornate)

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LIFE AT ROME

• (sources Horace, Juvenal, Martial)
• -Martial describes Rome as noisy, smelly,
  crowded, hot foul!
• Flooding of the Tiber (smell, mess, health
  safety hazard)
• Campus Martius ("field of Mars")
• health Cloaca Maxima (central sewer)
• air pollution and fire hazards (cooking over open
  fire, fires, candles, bad air days)
• overcrowding insulae (apartment blocks) often
  collapse
• -unsafe streets contrast Pompeii, Antioch
• Forum (market and business centre)
• Basilica (meeting hall, law court)

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Literature On Life in Rome

• Novius is my neighbour I can lean out the
  window and touch him by hand. (Martial I, 86,
  1-2)
• He observed that every day in Rome buildings
  caught fire, or collapsed, because they were so
  large and close to each other. (Plutarch,
  Crassus, III)
• Two of the tabernae have fallen down, and the
  walls of the others have all cracked my tenants
  are gone and the mice as well! (Cicero, ad
  AttXIV, 9.1)

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Literature On Life in RomeBeware The Barbers

• Those scars you see on my chin, like the marks on
  some old boxers face, were not made by my angry
  wife in one of her tempers, but by the cursed
  hand and blade of Antiochus. The he-goat is the
  only beast with any sense he wears a beard to
  escape Antiochus. Martial, Epigrams, 11.84)

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The Daily Routine in Rome, According to Martial
(Epigrams, 4.8)

• The first and second hours wear out the
• Clients at their morning salutation.
• The third hour puts the hoarse barristers
• Through their paces
• Romes varied businesses last right
• Through the fifth hour
• The sixth hour gives the exhausted time
• To rest, until
• The seventh hour wakes them up again.
• From the eighth to the ninth is enough
• For the well-greased wrestlers
• The ninth hour invites us to dent the
• Cushions on the dinner-couches,
• But the tenth that is the time for my
• Poems.

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ROMAN COINAGE F I N A N C E

• early Rome wealth based on property
• coinage begins 3 rd century B.C. (no paper money)
• The as is the smallest coin in value
• -1 sesterce 4 asses (singular as)
• -1 denarius 4 sesterces
• -1 aureus 25 denarii
• -as is made of bronze (later copper)
• -sesterce is made of silver (later brass)
• -aureus is made of gold
• Values change over time based on inflation and
  devaluation

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Sample prices from Diocletians Edict of Maximum
Wages and Prices (301 AD)

• ITEM PRICES
• ¼ bushel of wheat 100 denarii
• ¼ bushel of beans 60 denarii
• 1 pint of good Falernian wine 30 denarii
• 1 pint of ordinary wine 8 denarii
• 1 pint vinegar 6 denarii
• 1 pint best quality honey 40 denarii
• 1 pound beef 8 denarii
• 1 pound pork 12 denarii
• 1 pound fattened goose 200 denarii
• 1 pound second quality fish 16 denarii

41
Sample prices from Diocletians Edict of Maximum
Wages and Prices (301 AD)

• Farm workers or Mule Drivers
• 1st quality boots w/o hobnails 120 denarii
• Patricians shoes 150 denarii
• Womens boots 60 denarii
• WAGES
• Farm labourer, with meals, daily 25 denarii
• Baker, with meals, daily 50 denarii
• Barber, per man 2 denarii
• Painter, walls, with meals, daily 75 denarii
• Clothing guarder at baths, per bather 2 denarii
• Unskilled day labourer, per day 1 denarius
• Elementary teacher, per boy, monthly 50 denarii
• Mule driver, with meals, daily 25 denarii
• (Note a teacher would need 15 fulltime students
  to make the same wages as a mule driver in one
  month!)

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Controlling Finance

• Temple of Juno Moneta mint (board of three)
• Temple of Saturn holds aerarium (state treasury)
• -controlled by quaestors (financial magistrates)
• -under Empire, fiscus (fund controlled by
  emperor)
• coin dies anvil (heads), punch (tails)
• coins spread by government, army, and
• money-changers (also test coins)
• money-lenders (give credit at auctions accept
  deposits)

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Gathering Revenues

• revenues from rentals, mines, booty
• provincial taxes (Italy exempt) fixed sum or
  part of harvest
• publicani (holders of state contracts)
• census every 5 years (tax registration)
• taxes become city responsibility in Empire
• customs duties
• taxes on inheritance(5 ), manumission, slave
  sales, auctions
• tax collectors hated!(some things never change)