Ancient Rome Research Articles

Claim in a civil proceeding Ancient Rome

The author points out that the lawsuit, as a legal institution, has an extremely long history. Like most civil institutions, its origins are connected with the law of Ancient Rome. The article is devoted to the analysis of the institution of the claim in the law of Ancient Rome. It is argued that subjective material rights were perceived by Roman legislators, court officials and lawyers not from the point of view of their material content, but the ways of protecting these rights. Claims were not derived from subjective material rights, but, on the contrary, they could confirm their existence. Subjective material rights and their judicial implementation were considered as one whole, preventing the Romans from dividing the law into material and procedural law. It is indicated that the lawsuit did not act as a universal procedural tool that protected against all possible civil offenses. Roman law developed as a system of actions that provided protection in a situation where the few laws in the field of civil law were outdated and could not effectively provide protection to the individual. The peculiarity of the claim within three forms of civil process of Ancient Rome is revealed: legislative, formulary and extraordinary. In the period of the legislative civil process, the claim had to be presented to the court in such a way that it repeated the verbal norm of the law, which the person referred to in his case, otherwise he lost it. Quite often, the verbal voicing of one’s claims had to be accompanied by certain gestures literally to the norm of the law. At the time of the formal civil process, the plaintiff presented the claim to the court also orally, but without observing the claim formalism, which made it difficult to access the court. At that time, the praetors began to record the claim in writing in a special act-instructions, where the judge was given instructions on how to resolve the case. With the help of these acts, praetors could protect social relations not regulated by custom or law. The extraordinary civil process brought the institution of the lawsuit closer to its modern understanding: an oral, and then a written claim by the plaintiff to the defendant, which must be decided by the court. The lawsuit was considered as a posed question, to which the court decision should give an answer.

Diapedesis leading to hematidrosis due to abrupt emotional suffering (Review).

Hematidrosis constitutes a rare imposing phenomenon encountered millennia ago. It involves the plexus of small, mostly superficial arteries, veins and sweat glands of various parts of the human body. Bloody sweat implies skin pathology. It has been connected to psychogenic impairment and lacks a clear etiology. The present study conducted a historical review using the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae®, Gallica-BNF and Google Books databases. The year 1900 was the mark for full-text works to be included. A second review of the modern literature, over the last 20 years, was carried out using the PubMed/MedLine database. In both eras, the terms h[a]emat[h]idrosis, diapedesis, sudor sanguineus, plus various others vocables of Hellenic and Latin origin, were used as key words. Cases of persons suffering hematidrosis during stigmata as partly connected to this study were surveyed and discussed separately. References were obtained from the classical Greece, late Hellenic antiquity and Roman era. A number of 70 cases were registered from the Renaissance to 1900, and 44 cases between 2007 and 2022. The later time interval is considered as the selection of references of all time, while the 1870 to 1884 interval followed. Differences in sex were observed (males, 60.6%; and females, 39.4%; vs. males, 25.6%; and females, 74.4%). The scalp, forehead, face, trunk, arms and legs were the most common areas of appearance in both time intervals. The eyes and ears were the most common areas of appearance in the modern era. As regards the limitations of the present review, it should be emphasized that not all historical cases were available for survey. Stigmata were studied independently. Records in etiology hypothesis, pathological description and the manifestation of a cluster of post-triggering effects described were similar over time. The modern way of life, major stressful events, a fear of death, hematological disorders, vessel derangements and deep faith may trigger hematidrosis. This spectacular acute event stimulates alertness in patients, family, caregivers and physicians, and may lead to social isolation and unnecessary diagnostic and/or therapeutic interventions. The present narrative review aimed to connect science with history and religion, promote contemplation among health professionals and highlight a medical peculiarity. An open mind is warranted in order to comprehend phenomena in religion. Education for the family and a knowledge update for health professionals is also necessary.

Preparing Food on Board in Roman Times

Preparing Food on Board in Roman Times

“I desire to live and live... thousands of other lives”: multimythologism in I. A. Bunin’s onomastic code

The article considers the manifestation of multimythologism as a characteristic feature of I. A. Bunin’s artistic worldview at the level of the individual author’s poetic mythonymicon. The paper identifies lexical units referring to the characters (gods, wizards, heroes, fantastic birds and animals), places, magic objects of the mythologies of the ancient Greeks and Romans, Sumerians and Akkadians, Indians and Iranians, as well as Egyptians, Scandinavians and. It is noted that the organization of the sound system of I. A. Bunin’s poetic speech is provided by regular graphic-phonetic transformations of mythonyms, and the uniqueness of the onomastic code of his lyrical texts is created by the inclusion of special mythonyms-bilexemes, onymized appellatives and mythological names with a low level of precedent and occasional units. It is established that for explication of philosophical and symbolic subtexts, representation of key motives and binary oppositions I. A. Bunin subordinates traditional sacral genealogies to the author’s individual picture of the world, matches and simultaneously uses mythonyms belonging to different national mythological onomasticons. The author comes to the conclusion that all the lexical units of Bunin’s poetic mythonymicon are connected by a single ideological attitude, aimed, on the one hand, at overcoming the autonomy of cultural worlds, and on the other hand, at preserving cultural pluralism.

Contaminants in the Soil and Typical Crops of the Pannonian Region of Slovenia

Soil contamination and the uptake of pollutants by food crops are widespread issues that vary greatly by region and are influenced by the mineral composition of the soil and local human activities. The Pannonian region, where agriculture has played a key role since Roman times, has been particularly impacted by the long-standing agricultural and industrial practices. While soil contamination with heavy metals is monitored by the Slovenian government, microplastic contamination and the uptake of pollutants into food crops have yet to become a regular component of monitoring efforts. In this study, we conducted a preliminary investigation into soil and crop contamination across the Pannonian region, focusing on identifying harmful contaminants and their potential uptake into food crops. Both soil and crop samples were analyzed for the presence of heavy metals with proven methods such as atomic absorption spectrometry (FASS), graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GF-AAS), atomic fluorescence spectrometry (AFS), and inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) was found to be a potentially faster method of obtaining data on soil composition. Special attention was also given to the potential presence of microplastics in the region’s soils.

The Origin of the Library in Ancient Greece and Rome (Revising Traditional Views)

The Origin of the Library in Ancient Greece and Rome (Revising Traditional Views)

Braiding Fruits and Flowers as a Wish of Prosperity and Victory over Death in the Carved Festoons of Ancient Rome

Plant motifs had a significant role in ancient cultures, with decorative, artistic, and communicative values. However, little knowledge exists of the botanical composition of festoons, widely used in Greek-Roman art. We analysed 81 festoons, exclusively from sculpture artworks, collected from 13 museums and archaeological sites in Rome (1st century BC–3rd century AD). Using iconographic sources and previous data, we identified the represented species and analysed their abundance and composition using statistical methods (Cluster Analysis, Principal Components Analysis) and diversity indexes (Shannon and Evenness). We documented 3081 botanical elements, identifying 30 taxa, in which fruits with leaves (45%) or alone (10%) represented the most common ones. Laurus nobilis and Quercus cfr. robur were the most frequently depicted species, followed by “pomes” (Pyrus, Malus, Cydonia), Vitis vinifera, Punica granatum, and Ficus carica. Festoons with one or two species can be easily distinguished from those with multiple species, often arranged with figs or vine branches at the ends, with symbolic aims related to fertility, rebirth, and abundance values. A balanced botanical composition also exists, with flowers typically in the middle and a species distribution that is not casual. The results enriched our comprehension of ancient Roman society, considering funerary and celebrative events.

The relationship between general and special grounds for invalidating debtor transactions in rehabilitation and bankruptcy

The purpose of the study is to conduct a comprehensive analysis considering the relationship between general and special grounds for invalidating transactions within the framework of rehabilitation and bankruptcy procedures, as well as a comparative review of the legislation of other countries. The methodological basis of the research is made up of general and specific methods, such as formal logical, scientific analysis and synthesis, comparative legal, historical and legal. As a result of the study, the emergence and development of competitive and non-competitive challenging of the debtor's transaction as the Institute of Actio Pauliana-Paulian claim, which developed in Ancient Rome, was examined. The features of recognizing a debtor's transaction as invalid on general and special grounds in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, Germany, France are considered, and an analysis of the norms of regulatory acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan is carried out. In addition, the advantages of challenging on special grounds were analyzed, emphasizing the differences in the subject of challenging a transaction in declaring a transaction invalid on general and special grounds. In conclusion, the importance of maintaining a balance between general and special grounds is substantiated, and conclusions are drawn that in order to form a unified judicial practice in domestic legislation, it is necessary to clarify the mechanisms for applying in practice the general and special grounds for recognizing a debtor’s transaction as invalid.

Lavender improves sleep through olfactory perception and GABAergic neurons of the central amygdala

Ethnopharmacological relevanceThe use of lavender as sleep aid or hypnotic agent can be traced back as early as ancient Romans and Greeks. Yet, objective experimental data on whether and how lavender enhances sleep duration or/and sleep quality remain lacking. Aim of the studyWe aimed to characterize the sleep-wake regulating effects of lavender in the mouse and to demonstrate the brain targets and neural circuits involved. Materials and methodsA self-made precise odor delivery system combined with chronic polysomnographic recordings was employed to assess the sleep-wake effects of inhalation with lavender essential oil (LEO, extracted from lavender) and its different constituents during the light and dark phases in free-moving C57BL/6J mice. Neuroviral labeling, in situ hybridization and pharmacogenetics were combined to identify the neural circuits and targets involved. Finally, an insomniac model of DL-4-Chlorophenylalanine (PCPA)-treated mice was established to examine the sleep-inducing potential of LEO. ResultsWe found that inhalation of LEO with a concentration at 25.0% during the light (inactive) phase significantly shortened the latency to non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, increased the total amount of NREM sleep at the expense of wakefulness (W), and enhanced cortical EEG slow wave activities, notably delta power spectra density. We further identified linalool, d-limonene, 1,8-cineole, linalyl acetate and terpinene-4-ol as the major effective sleep-promoting monomer components. Importantly, we found that LEO no longer produced any of the above sleep-promoting effect following either nasal injection of zinc sulfate which interrupts the olfactory pathway, or pharmacogenetics silencing of central amygdala GABAergic neurons. Finally, LEO reestablished NREM sleep with short latency in PCPA-treated insomniac mice, effects comparable with those induced by a potent sedative diazepam. ConclusionsWe have characterized the quantitative and qualitative sleep-promoting effects of LEO and its effective components via the olfactory pathway and central amygdala GABA neuronal targets. The hypnotic property of LEO is reinforced by its ability to restore sleep in insomnia. Our study thus establishes a neurobiological basis for aromatherapy of sleep disorders using lavender.

Phenomenal Eros: For a History of Sensuality

Forty years of scholarship in the history of sexuality and gender studies have delivered a considerable amount of knowledge, framed by an encompassing premise: power is paramount. A preferred object of this kind of attention are the erotic cultures of ancient Greece and Rome. The focus on power leads contemporary scholars to adopt binary thinking, namely the attribution to ancient writers and thinkers of dichotomies such as domination versus subjection, or activity versus passivity. This is a fixist view that obliterates the dialectic of desire and, therefore, its fundamental mobility. Desire aims at the other person’s desire; roles are exchanged; age and social status can play in surprising ways; hyperactivity can become subjugation. It is time for a change. It is time to look at what mattered for the Ancients themselves: the subjective experience of sensations, bodies and situations; the felicitous, ironic, or tragic reversals of intersubjective games. More importantly: the quest for pleasure, rather than the use of pleasures. The Greeks thought the sexual experience as sensuality. And sensuality inflects what they thought about gender. In poetry, narrations and philosophy, concrete details draw our attention to the felt phenomena of lived bodies – in the plural. When we look for the logic of gender, we discover that bodies can be compared, not as totalities, but as bundles of multiple discreet qualities, ready to be combined and recombined, allotted and exchanged. Qualities can be bits and pieces of anatomy, manners and garments; but also fragments of experience, moments of sensory awareness. The logic of the concrete meets the phenomenal body. For the body is a challenge, to be taken up – as a cinematic life, frame after frame. Sensations can be shared across the boundaries of female and male, which are adjectives, not substances. A granular, corpuscular, pointilliste redistribution of traits, distinctive – or not. Sensuality is queer. Like Plato’s pharmacy, erotic materialism can deliver us, beautifully, cathartically, refreshingly from the modern strictures of binary thinking. This is what the Greeks have to tell us. Let us listen!

“Make Rome Great Again” Preceded “Make America Great Again”: The Ancient Romo-Nationalism of Biblical Writers

The ideas about religious, sexual, gender, ethnic, urban, moral, and family decay that underlie “Make America Great Again’s” message have notable antecedents in ancient Greek and Roman mythologies about societal degeneration. Roman writers promoted a Romo-nationalist version we can call “Make Rome Great Again” that served to make the patriarchal, exploitative, and imperial power of elite Roman men seem like the solution to societal crisis. Biblical writers like Paul did not subvert these harmful Romo-nationalist logics but instead participated in them to describe gentile degeneration and sexual sin. Recognizing this troubling zone of contact between the Bible and MAGA-like ideologies can reveal the harm they cause and explain the depth of their attractiveness to White Christian nationalists.

Ancient Greek and Roman Crip Lit

Abstract: The study of disability in the ancient world is a burgeoning field and is rapidly garnering interest outside of academia, as well. This brief article argues that we can expand our engagement with the topic—and with ancient literature broadly—by acknowledging the disabled status of some Greek and Roman authors, many of whom are mainstays of our traditional literary canon. Disability-informed approaches to themes like embodiment and phenomenology can contribute to a more complex and grounded under-standing of ancient life and experience, as well as deepen our understanding of topics like Stoic philosophy, ancient temporalities, Greek tragedy and the discourse of disability in the ancient world.

Hydrogeological and historical aspects of the water supply of Benevento town since Roman times

The research analyses the historical evolution of the water supply systems of the city of Benevento (southern Italy) during centuries. We focused on three main historical periods, namely the Roman, Lombard and Papal times, and the recent-present times. During this long historical time, the water supply amount and quality have changed many times, and this has probably affected the well-being and growth of the city. The best water quality characterized the Roman times, when large karst springs were tapped, feeding the town for centuries. In this period, the town experienced the largest population expansion. On the other hand, the most depressed period was the Papal times, coinciding with the isolation of the city, as it was an enclave of the Pontifical State. During this period, the water supply from external sources was not guaranteed and therefore it primarily derived from the local, low-quality water resources. Only after the unification of Italy, and also after the Second World War, the water supply systems have been improved, and new aqueducts have brought again high-quality waters to Benevento coming from karst aquifers. Nowadays, the drinking water management of Benevento is still a matter of debate. In the near future, the water from a dam-reservoir (Campolattaro dam, Tammaro River) will be exploited to guarantee the water needs of the city, and water-supply systems will undergo further changes . The knowledge about the historical evolution of the water supply of Benevento represents an essential requirement for consciously analyzing the future planning and management of water resources.

The Role of Incubation in Ancient Greek Asklepieions

The sanctuaries of Asklepios served a healing function in the Greek world throughout antiquity. In modern historiography, it is believed that the sick were treated there by incubation, i.e., sleeping in the temple to obtain a divinatory dream. However, the sources are not clear on this matter. In this article, I analyse four sources that, in my opinion, are the most representative of the issue of treatment methods in the Asklepieions. From the classical period, inscriptions describing healings from Epidauros and the comedy "Wealth" by Aristophanes are extremely important, while from Roman times they include "The Sacred Tales" by Aelius Aristides and the Apellas’ inscription from Epidauros. It is significant that none of these sources describes the incubation ritual, and the treatment methods presented in them are rational from the viewpoint of contemporary medicine. Incubation was practiced in the Asklepieions, but its role, in my opinion, was much smaller than commonly believed.

High resolution paleo-hydrological record from carbonate deposits in the Roman aqueduct of Traconnade (Aix-en-Provence, SE France)

Carbonate deposits in aqueducts are potential valuable archives of the paleo-hydrological record for the Roman period. Here we present a new high-resolution record from carbonate deposits in the aqueduct of Traconnade built for Aix-en-Provence, the Roman city of Aquae Sextiae. As its name indicates, Aquae Sextiae was built around an abundant source of water but its development, like other ancient cities, required good management of this resource. Through a combination of micromilling and in situ analysis (LA–MC–ICPMS) on thin sections, we measured geochemical variations (stable isotopes and trace elements) and performed sampling for absolute UTh dating. Geochronological results based on classical correction and isochron along with archaeological observations confirm that the carbonate concretion was deposited in Roman times on the walls of the Traconnade aqueduct, built no later than 140 CE. Carbonate δ18O records document the presence of clear geochemical cycles that were mainly controlled by seasonal variations in temperature and δ18O from water circulating in the aqueduct. Minima and maxima in δ18O values were attributed to summer and winter conditions, respectively in agreement with the modern spring’s stable isotope values. The other tracers (Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca and δ13C) also show marked cyclicities with maximum values occurring in summer. The enrichment in trace elements and δ13C were linked to processes occurring during dry periods (1) prior precipitation of calcite in the epikarst, and/or (2) a greater degree of CO2 degassing. The geochemical variations in Ba/Ca, U/Ca and Rb/Ca behave differently and their co-variations may reflect the water-rock interactions in the karst system. We highlight that these tracers can be used as a proxy for intense precipitation events, occurring frequently during autumn. The Traconnade aqueduct carbonate provides sufficient temporal resolution to explore environmental variations on a seasonal scale. These results suggest the occurrence of a double rainy season (spring and autumn) in the Aix-en-Provence region, similar to present-day climatic conditions. Our study confirms the high potential of aqueduct concretions for paleohydrological studies.

The germs of environmental protection in Roman law

AbstractMost legal institutions of modern civil law have their origins, at least in principle, in Roman law. This can also be seen in cases and legal reasoning related to the environment since certain rudiments or precursors of modern environmental law can be found in the writings of classical Roman jurists. Nevertheless, it would be an overstatement to speak of Roman environmental law. The focus of Roman classical jurists was on the protection of concrete property rights, mainly in neighborhood contexts. Only a few cases show that the underlying motive of legal argument was the protection of public interest, which brings these cases closer to the idea of modern environmental law.

Revisiting the Issue of Attribution of Some Catacomb Monuments Groups from the South of Eastern Europe in the Late 3rd – early 5th Centuries

The catacomb funerary ritual had a widespread occurrence among the southern Eastern European population in late Roman times and at the beginning of the Great Migration Period. The Alan culture monuments of the 2nd – 4th centuries AD from the North Caucasus and the “Alans-Tanaites” nomadic culture of the late 3rd – 4th centuries AD feature the burial ritual most widely and vividly. Evidently, the migration occurred in a westerly direction from the “Alan-Tanaitian” culture area in the late 3rd century, resulting in the appearance of a group of under-kurgan burials in the steppe zone of the Dniester-Danube interfluve. It is possible that the people who left these kurgans in the 4th century were assimilated by the Chernyakhov culture bearers and switched to a sedentary lifestyle, having lost the kurgan funeral ritual (Belen’koe burial ground) but retained the catacomb burial structure of almost predominantly type II. The catacomb burials under the kurgans graphically feature the Alans-Tanaites fate after the encounter with the Huns, who defeated and subjugated the Alans-Tanaites, partly incorporating the vanquished population into their military and political union. The Alans-Tanaites took part in the campaign in Transcaucasia and Western Asia as part of the Hunnic army (395–398), as evidenced by the specific forms of the catacombs in the kurgans of the Palasa-Syrt burial ground from the Western Caspian region. A group of kurgan catacombs in the Middle Don and the Left Bank of the Dnieper features the partial outflow of the Alans-Tanaites from the Volga-Don steppes under the pressure of the Huns in the course of their expansion. A part of the Alans-Tanaites participated in the movement of the Huns to the west, as evidenced by the catacombs in the Budzhak steppe dating back to the last quarter of the 4th century.

Надання безоплатної правової допомоги населенню у процесі здійснювання навчальної діяльності: аспекти міжнародного та українського історичного досвіду

The article highlights the issues of international and Ukrainian historical experience of providing legal aid in general, and frees legal aid in the course of educational activities in particular. The author traces the peculiarities of this process from its origins to the present day. The author argues that the provision of free legal aid in the context of educational activities is a multifaceted process which, both in the world and in Ukraine, has been taking place for centuries in various forms and under the influence of various factors. It is emphasized that its undoubted prerequisite was the legalization of the legal profession and the establishment of an extensive system of legal education. The author emphasizes that these facts were the result of the growing importance of law in the process of regulation of social relations. The author analyzes the main stages and features of the European historical experience of legal aid in the period of Antiquity, theMiddle Ages and theModern era. The author also considers some historical experience of providing free legal aid in the context of educational activities which took place in Ukraine. The author proves that Ancient Rome was a pioneer in creating an extensive system of legal education and developing various forms of legal aid. The author establishes that the real establishment of the system of free legal aid, in particular, in the course of educational activities, took place only in the 1920s, and at first it was localized and limited mainly to the United States. It is argued that its implementation became possible as a result of a long scientific discussion in previous years, during which a new approach to legal training with a priority on practice was developed, and a form of such training – “legal clinic” – was found. The author shows that legal clinical education is considered to be one of the most effective today. The nature and peculiarities of the spread of legal clinical education, as well as the development of the relevant legal framework in Ukraine are traced.

Stoic Economics: A Theoretical Examination of a Shift in Consumer Philosophy towards Stoicism

Since the advent of modern economic thought, particularly within Behavioral Economics, consumer behavior has primarily been driven by psychological and utilitarian beliefs that prioritize self-interest and material accumulation. Now, as consumer mindfulness becomes a prevalent issue, we look to philosophy — rather than psychology — as a framework for consumer behavior. Stoicism, originating in Ancient Greece and Rome, has always been applied to individual well-being but has never been considered in the context of collective economic behavior, despite its basis aligning well with the basic economic problem of scarcity. We examine whether and to what extent virtue-based principles of Stoicism can shift economic activity, both for consumers and the economy at large. Through understanding of key tenets of stoicism, and translating these philosophical ideals to economic assumptions, we find that the stoic focus on long-term stability, rational decision-making, and the use of wealth for public good leads to deviations from the status quo of market activity.

A mathematical perspective on Romanisation: Modelling the Roman road activation process in ancient Tunisia.

Romanisation is a multi-faceted historical phenomenon with profound and lasting cultural impact on the ancient world. In the modern-day territory of Tunisia, this is particularly manifest during the first four centuries AD, under the reign of the Roman Empire. We derive a reduced, operational concept of Romanisation as a cultural diffusion process that is observable in the archaeological remains of the Roman era settlement system. We then introduce a novel mathematical model that computes spatio-temporal approximations for the Romanisation of the settlement system. The model is based on the concept of temporal road activation and makes minimal assumptions regarding input data quality. The results of our study contribute to the understanding of the time dynamics of the region's road network, under the influence of Romanisation. Our model can be applied in similar archaeological research scenarios, to generate spatio-temporal backbones for the analysis of otherwise intractably complex social processes.