― Marcus Aurelius
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The ruins of the Chedworth Roman Villa in Gloucestershire, England and an artists impression of what it may of looked like at the time. It’s one of the largest Romano-British Villas in the country and includes mosaics, two bathhouses, hypocausts, a water-shrine and a latrine. Today the Villa is owned and maintained by the National Trust.
Emperor Marcus Claudius Tacitus
After the death of Emperor Aurelian, the Roman armies asked the Senate to select the next emperor, and Marcus Claudius Tacitus, an elderly and respected senator, was finally chosen.
His reign was brief (from September 275 to about March 276) but he did win a victory over the Goths in Asia Minor before he was apparently murdered by his own troops at Tyana in Cappadocia. He attempted but failed to reestablish senatorial control over the army.
A coin depicting a cleanly-shaven Alexander the Great.
In the time of Alexander the Great the custom of smooth shaving was introduced. Reportedly, Alexander ordered his soldiers to be clean shaven, fearing that their beards would serve as handles for their enemies to grab and to hold the soldier as he was killed. The practice of shaving spread from the Macedonians, whose kings are represented on coins, etc. with smooth faces, throughout the whole known world of the Macedonian Empire. Laws were passed against it, without effect, at Rhodes and Byzantium; and even Aristotle conformed to the new custom, unlike the other philosophers, who retained the beard as a badge of their profession. A man with a beard after the Macedonian period implied a philosopher, and there are many allusions to this custom of the later philosophers in such proverbs as: “The beard does not make the sage.”
Berserks, or Berserkers, originated in Norse mythology. These were warriors who dressed in bear skins and were known for working themselves up into a frenzy before battle. They are also described in the sagas as being fantastically ugly.
Berserkers often went unarmored into battle, save the bear and wolf skins that so feared their enemies. From those skins and their ruthless fighting style they gained a reputation as shapeshifters. Berserkers were also closely associated with Odin, the Allfather, who was also reputed to have shapeshifting abilities and was equally fierce in battle.
It is possible that Berserkers were members of the cult of Odin, whose practices were secretive, but which is associated with rituals that involved the wearing of animal skins. Some theorize that the source of the famed “berserker rage” is the ingestion of mind altering substances, namely the Amanita muscaria mushroom. Other theories include mental illness and self-induced hysteria.
In ancient Roman religion, the festival of Epulum Jovis was celebrated on the 13th of November, held in honour of Jupiter.
As well as Jupiter, statues of Juno and Minerva were actually taken down from the Capitoline Hill, which was where the festival was based, and ‘joined in’ with the feast.
They had mirrors held up for them to check their appearance, had their cheeks coloured, and either reclined on the couches or sat upright.
Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name and indeed the goddess herself was originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron: “Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals”. The Arcadians believed she was the daughter of Demeter.
In the classical period of Greek mythology, Artemis was often described as the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. She was the Hellenic goddess of the hunt, wild animals, wilderness, childbirth, virginity and young girls, bringing and relieving disease in women; she often was depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows. The deer and the cypress were sacred to her. In later Hellenistic times, she even assumed the ancient role of Eileithyia in aiding childbirth.
Unknown Artist (Roman), Marble head of an athlete, c. 138-192.
On this calyx krater, we see Odysseus and his men blinding the one-eyed Cyclops, Polyphemus.
In Book 9 of Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus and his men reach the land of the Cyclopes, an uncivilised, monstrous land. Odysseus leads some of his men into the cave of Polyphemus the Cyclops, who lives here. The men are terrified as they watch Polyphemus devour a couple of their comrades, and he then places a large rock in the entrance to the cave so they cannot escape. They remain trapped in the cave, terrified, as Polyphemus sleeps. After a few more of his men have been eaten, Odysseus devises a cunning plan to successfully escape. They burn the end of an olive tree, get Polyphemus so drunk that he passes out, and then they ram the sizzling tree into his single eye.
Homer uses vivid language here to make the pain seem realistic- ‘twisted it in his eye till the blood boiled up’, ‘the scorching heat singed his lids…while his eyeball blazed’.
Odysseus tells the Cyclopes that his name is ‘Nobody’, so when the other Cyclopes hear Polyphemus shrieking ‘Nobody is hurting me!’, they do not think to help. Odysseus then ties himself and his crew to the underbellies of his sheep, so when he lets his sheep out, he is unaware that Greeks are leaving. It is only when they are leaving in their boats that Odysseus declares his identity. However, Polyphemus is the son of the Sea-God Poseidon, who will avenge this brutality.
An assortment of denarii.
These Roman coins were found in Germany, which have the correct chronology with the Battle of Teutoburg, 9 AD. The Germanic tribes were defeated by the Romans between the Rhine and the Elbe, and marked the end of the Roman northern expansion to Germany.
