Early Roman Research Articles

Same Language, Different Diet

This study uses faunal and epigraphic evidence from the valley of Cabrera de Mar in present-day Catalonia (Spain) as proxies for understanding complex processes and dynamics of cultural change between the late Iron Age and early Roman times. The faunal remains indicate significant dietary change, although the epigraphic evidence implies that language—in contrast—changed at a slower pace, as shown by the use of indigenous onomastics and the continued use of the Iberian script, coin legends included. To ensure an interdisciplinary analysis, the study also discusses change as perceptible in architectural remains, ceramics and funerary practices. Our study shows that cultural change can take place at different levels and according to different rhythms, not only on regional and settlement planes but also at neighbourhood and household scales. Finally, our results highlight the value of archaeology as a tool for studying and understanding colonial encounters.

Greek Migrant Literature in the Early Roman Empire

Abstract This article argues that the concept of migrant literature, developed in postcolonial studies, is a useful tool for analysing Greek literature of the Early Roman Empire (27 BC-AD 68). The city of Rome attracted huge numbers of migrants from across the Mediterranean. Among them were many writers from Hellenized provinces like Egypt, Syria and Asia, who wrote in Greek. Leaving their native regions and travelling to Rome, they moved between cultures, responding in Greek to the new world order. Early imperial Greek writers include Strabo of Amasia, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Nicolaus of Damascus, Timagenes of Alexandria, Crinagoras of Mytilene, Philo of Alexandria and Paul of Tarsus. What connects these authors of very different origins, styles, beliefs, and literary genres is migrancy. They are migrant writers whose works are characterized by in-betweenness, ambivalence and polyphony.

Shedding Light on Roman Glass Consumption on the Western Coast of the Black Sea.

The chemical composition of 48 glass finds from Histria and Tomis, Romania, chiefly dated to the 1st–4th c. AD, was determined using prompt gamma activation analysis (PGAA) at the Budapest Neutron Centre (BNC). Most fragments have composition typical for the Roman naturally colored blue-green-yellow (RNCBGY) glass; Mn-colorless, Sb-colorless, and Sb–Mn colorless glass finds were evidenced, too. Several Foy Série 2.1 and Foy Série 3.2 glass fragments, as well as an HIMT and a plant ash glass sample, were identified in the studied assemblage. The archaeological evidence, the glass working waste items, and the samples with compositional patterns suggestive of recycling are proofs of the secondary glass working activities at Tomis during the Early Roman Empire period.

Was the City-Wall of ʿAroer in the Negev of Judah Built in the Early Roman Period?

Tel ʿAroer, situated in the eastern Negev, was excavated by Avraham Biran and Rudolph Cohen, and the excavation report was published by Yifat Thareani. The excavators dated the city-wall that surrounded the site to the Iron II, concluding that ʿAroer was a fortified stronghold in the border of the Judahite kingdom. A fortified tower was built there in the Early Roman period. This paper argues that the city-wall dates to the Early Roman period and that the city-wall and the fortified tower both formed integral parts of the fortifications of the Early Roman settlement.

Alexandria, Kom el-Dikka, season 2021

Excavations of the central part of the Kom el-Dikka archaeological site in Alexandria have reached early Roman levels and the current investigations of the PCMA UW expedition are focused on completing the excavation of some of the partly uncovered architecture. The southwestern part of House FA was explored, uncovering two fragments of colourful mosaic floors. Building chronology was established based on finds from two deep stratigraphic probes dug inside the structure. The main phases of occupation of House FA turned out to be comprised in a period between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE. The archaeological part of the program was accompanied by current preservation and maintenance work that the team is tasked with in different parts of the site; necessary preservation projects were undertaken this year in the theatre, the portico in front of the theatre and the early Roman buildings in the central part of the site. The mosaics on display in the mosaic shelter have also undergone cyclical conservation treatment.

An Archaeological Survey at el-Janab Cave, Central Samaria

El-Janab Cave (‘Usarin Cave) is a large karst system located about 11 km south of Shechem (Nablus) in Central Samaria. It comprises a series of large chambers connected by narrow passages that developed as a hypogenic cave in Upper-Cenomanian dolomite. During 2017–2018, we mapped and surveyed the cave, retrieving archaeological finds from various periods, including the Late Chalcolithic, early Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age, Iron Age I, Iron Age II, Persian, early Hellenistic, Early Roman, Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. It seems that the cave’s geographical and morphological features—its location in an open but settled landscape and its complex structure of passages leading to spacious chambers—attracted distinct human activities in several periods. In some phases, it was used as a refuge in turbulent times. In this paper, we present the archeological assemblages from the cave and discuss their interpretation and association with the history of the area.

An early Roman burial ground in the port of Berenike on the Red Sea coast of Egypt

The cemeteries uncovered in the Red Sea harbor town of Berenike (Egypt), a thriving commercial center for close to 800 years, have been dated, to the early Roman (1st–2nd centuries AD) and late (4th to mid-6th centuries AD) periods respectively, but the ethnicities and religious proclivities of the deceased buried in these graves escapes interpretation. Several individual burials as well as numerous ring cairn tombs in the Eastern Desert hinterland also contribute to the picture of mortuary differentiation in the town. The Berenike Project aims to launch mapping work and additional excavations in search of answers to these issues

Nicola Terrenato: The Early Roman Expansion into Italy. Elite Negotiation and Family Agendas.

Nicola Terrenato: The Early Roman Expansion into Italy. Elite Negotiation and Family Agendas.

Inscriptions on Ceramic Ring Stands: Discoveries from the Early Roman Period at Khirbet el-Maqatir, Israel

Inscriptions on Ceramic Ring Stands: Discoveries from the Early Roman Period at Khirbet el-Maqatir, Israel

The Reception of Cicero in the Early Roman Empire: The Rhetorical Schoolroom and the Creation of a Cultural Legend by T. J. Keeline

Reviewed by: The Reception of Cicero in the Early Roman Empire: The Rhetorical Schoolroom and the Creation of a Cultural Legend by T. J. Keeline Martin T. Dinter T. J. Keeline, The Reception of Cicero in the Early Roman Empire: The Rhetorical Schoolroom and the Creation of a Cultural Legend. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. 388 pp. ISBN: 9781108426237 Cultural memory is a strange beast indeed. While there is no doubt that Cicero sculpted his own image during his lifetime, he could hardly have foreseen that as soon as the first century AD he would be defined by his style—i.e., that the style would become the man. The incorporation of Cicero into Roman cultural memory is thus highly selective. Without explicitly buying into the framework of cultural memory studies, Keeline, in the revised version of his 2014 Harvard dissertation, illuminates this process in seven chapters by focusing on Cicero’s early reception. The first four chapters on the reception of Cicero in Roman education are followed by three more specialized sections on Cicero in the works of Seneca the Younger, Tacitus, and Pliny the Younger. Reception indeed serves as the overarching framework for this monograph, even though Keeline shies away from deconstructing its tenets. We cannot fathom whether or not Roman schoolboys “enjoyed” reading Cicero as much as today’s students, but Keeline employs Quintilian’s Institutio Oratoria, the commentaries of Asconius, and the Scholia Bobiensia to illustrate how young Romans would have encountered Cicero’s speech Pro Milone in the classroom. The rhetorically focused pedagogical approach—namely, the narrowing of Cicero’s persona and personality in a pedagogical context to a model of eloquence (which strips him of his historical and psychological complexity)—that emerges from this analysis usefully exemplifies the process Keeline expounds in the second chapter. The third chapter highlights the prominence of Cicero’s death in Roman declamation. It proposes that the narrative that Cicero was murdered by Popilius, a former client whom he had previously defended against the charge of parricide, is but an added color of the rhetorician schools. This nevertheless fits neatly with Octavian’s desire to downplay his own role in the proscriptions and shift the blame onto Mark Anthony. Cicero thus does not serve as advocate of Republican freedom but rather as advocate of freedom from Mark Anthony. In addition, the style and content of these declamations left behind traces in the accounts of Cicero’s death by Valerius Maximus and many of the historiographers such as Florus, Velleius Paterculus, and later authors such as Cassius Dio and Appian. In contrast, the chronologically fairly early accounts by Livy and Asinius Pollio still offer a morally more complicated image of both Cicero and the events surrounding his death. In the fourth chapter, Keeline ingeniously examines a group of pseudepigraphic texts that have distilled Cicero to the essence consumed in declamation schools: the Invective against Cicero (Ps.-Sallust) contrasts neatly with the Invective against Sallust (Ps.-Cicero), the Speech delivered the day before Cicero went into exile and the Letter to Octavian (Ps.-Cicero), and a pair of Ps.-Brutus’ letters to Cicero and Atticus (transmitted as Cic. Ad Brut. 1.16 and 1.17). Stylistically faithful, these texts concentrate on major life events such as Cicero’s consulship, his exile, and his speeches against Mark Anthony. [End Page 90] In addition, they provide an inventory of the tropes that formed around Cicero s life and character and subsequently found their way into the historiographical tradition. The book’s second part delves into the oeuvres, of Seneca the Younger (chapter 5), Tacitus (chapter 6), and Pliny the Younger (chapter 7) and analyses how each of them comes to terms with the über-father Cicero. Seneca the Younger adopts neither Cicero’s style nor his philosophy or educational theories. Even in his edifying letters to Lucilius, he only utilises Cicero’s correspondence with Atticus as a foil against which he constructs his own philosophical achievements. While Seneca the Elder engages frequently and substantially with Cicero, in his son’s works Cicero is conspicuous by absence. Tacitus’ Dialogus de Oratoribus is steeped in Cicero as Keeline demonstrates by analysing the speeches by Aper...

Clans of Roman Italy

Clans of Roman Italy Roman Roth Terrenato, N. 2019. The Early Roman Expansion into Italy: Elite Negotiation and Family Agendas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. xx + 327, 43 black-and-white illustrations. ISBN 978–1–108–42267–3. £75.00. I In 381 bc the city-state of Tusculum became the first community to be incorporated into the Roman state as a municipium, probably by inclusion in the tribus Papiria to which it belonged in historically better documented times.1 Livy informs us that the incorporation came in the wake of an impending war between Tusculum and Rome, which was averted by the community's surrendering itself to the Roman troops that had menacingly entered the town's territory.2 Yet its allegiances remained uncertain, so that by the time Rome's Latin allies revolted from her forty years later, Tusculum appears to have been on the rebels' side. Livy represents this as the result of a factional struggle within the municipium when he describes the restitution of the town to its citizen status in 338 bc in the following terms: Tusculanis seruata ciuitas quam habebant crimenque rebellionis a publica fraude in paucos autores uersum ('The Tusculans retained the citizen status which they had and the charge of rebellion was laid against a few ringleaders while the community was absolved from that of collective betrayal', Livy 8.14.4). [End Page 268] This incident provides a prime example of the fact that Rome's successful expansion in Italy depended on loyal members of local elites being in control of her allied communities or, as in this case, of a recently incorporated municipium.3 By the same token, it was possible for those elites to lead their city-states to break away from Rome – or at least attempt to do so – which raises the question what motivated such individuals to be either loyal or opposed to the emerging imperial power. In the case of Tusculum, this issue again arose only fifteen years after the town had been allowed to retain its citizen status. In 323 bc, Livy writes of a recent rebellion in which the Tusculans were said to have sided with the people of Velitrae and Privernum.4 The tribal assembly rejected the proposed terms of punishment – execution of adult males, sale into slavery of women and children – almost unanimously, except for the tribus Pollia, which Livy (8.37.7–12) suggests was the reason why candidates from this tribe usually failed to gain the Papiria's vote ad patrum aetatem ('down to our fathers' time'). Again significant is the fact that the status of the town was preserved although at least some of the Tusculans – almost certainly members of the elite – had attempted to break their allegiance to Rome yet another time. There is yet another twist to the tale; one of the Roman consuls who were elected for the following year (322 bc) was L. Fulvius Curvus, member of a prominent Tusculan family and generally considered to have been the first immigrant homo nouus who attained the consulship.5 Although Livy does not comment on this, the Elder Pliny supplies additional information on both the man and his rise to power, which is as intriguing as it is confused.6 According to Pliny, Fulvius had in fact been consul of 'the rebellious Tusculans' only recently and obtained the same office as soon as he had changed sides and joined the Romans, to the point of celebrating a triumph over his town of origin. Since this anecdote is recorded neither by Livy nor, more importantly, in the fasti triumphales, we ought not to lend it too much credence. Rather, its roots might be traced to later Republican discourses of noble origins.7 In turn, these were quite possibly elaborated upon by the exemplary tradition [End Page 269] of the early Empire that also provides a context for this and many other chapters in the seventh book of Pliny's Naturalis Historia.8 Still, there is rarely smoke without fire. In this case, the fact that this anecdote could credibly be circulated during later times invites the suspicion that the historical rise of the Fulvii had something more to it...

A magyar építész és a lengyel falusiak

The church building can be described as neo baroque with a historicizing facade formally referring to the early Roman Baroque, for example the Diocletian "therma" windows. On the other hand, the cross-gable dates to the 18th century like St. Anthony's Church in Lviv (Lember) from the 19th century. All in all, the building shows the stylistic features of Kováts' unique work as outlined in his theoretical manifestos as "the basic principles of modern architecture". Even now, surveys have revealed that after more than 100 years this building is in good condition, which stands as a testament to the villagers who built it.

«БОЛЬШОЙ СТИЛЬ» В ИСКУССТВЕ БОСПОРА: СВИДЕТЕЛЬСТВА, ИСТОКИ И РАЗВИТИЕ

Among the objects of greek art of the Bosporan production, greek archaic art basis is quite clearly observed. We can interpret it as the preserva- tion of early aesthetic ideas in the perception of plastic form, a certain “manner of vision”, transferred with the Hellenic impulse to a new environment in the C. 6 BC. Over time, the plastic manner was modified, but the “archaic trace” in the sculpture was preserved. Undoubtedly, it became the defining basis of a peculiar local form, which was gradually filled with elements learned from subsequent masters of the new “classical” schools. A relief with a battle scene (Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts) turned out to be a kind of key to understanding the bright variety of local art, which was proposed to be distinguished and designated as the “Bosporan style”. We can also refer to it a number of other monuments of monumental sculpture, both of the late 6 th and 4 th centuries BC, and later, including the widespread Bosporan tombstone steles of the Hellenistic and Early Roman era. There are reasons to assume the existence of the Bosporan style in the forms of architectural deco- ration, and in torevtik (gold objects from the Donetsk and Stavropol mounds: Perederieva Mogila and the mound, excavated in 2013 in Stavropol), and even in small forms – terracotta plastic – this style is reflected: the statuette of a horse- man from the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in the composition, flattened surface of the relief and characteristic details resembles the style of the Bosporan steles of late Hellenism. All this translates the phenomenon under consideration into the status of the so-called “Grand Style”, that is, an artistic manner that manifests itself in various categories of culture and for several centuries has de- termined the expressive appearance of the Bosporan environment.

The option of Roman canal construction by Drusus in the Vecht river area (the Netherlands): a geoarchaeological approach

Abstract This paper presents a geoarcheological study on potential canal subsections present in the Roman-age Vecht branch of the Rhine-Meuse delta (the Netherlands).The first Roman canals in this delta were dug around 12 BC by Drusus, but their location has been the subject of debate since the 16th century, with various hypotheses proposed. Based on actual palaeogeographical knowledge of the Rhine-Meuse delta, the Utrechtse Vecht hypothesis is considered the most plausible. Within the study area, in the northern part of the Vecht system, natural sections of this river may alternate with possible artificial reaches, created at the time of Drusus. Such artificial canals, being part of an otherwise natural channel belt system, can widen and deepen overtime, eroding all or most of the recognizable features associated with their original construction. As study area was chosen a relatively straight section of the Vecht between two former lakes. Two approaches were used. The first approach centred upon mapping channel morphology and recording sediment stratigraphy of the river deposits through detailed auger coring. Results corroborated the hypothesis of an originally straight feature (landform), confirming that it might have started life as a dug course, but not providing preserved archaeological remains of this stage. The second approach was chronological, whereby a programme of 14C dating was undertaken to refine the understanding of the origin and development of this reach of the Vecht, allowing earlier chronological investigations to be further contextualised and reassessed. A significant challenge to understand age control and floodplain evolution is the degradation of the top of the clayey peat that was observed below the levee deposits; this degradation is due to the lowering of groundwater levels and causes the end of peat growth to be dated as older than it actually is. Using new radiocarbon dates we have reconstructed that the Overmeer-Nigtevecht reach of the Vecht between two former lakes started life as a straight channel. We have constrained its age to be closer to the time of Drusus’ activities (early Roman age). Although we have not found in situ remains of Drusus canal(s), these two new insights make the Vecht option, effectuated by a series of short canals, more likely to be the Drusus canal(s).

MONEY CIRCULATION OF OLBIA PONTIUS AT THE FINAL STAGE OF CITY’S HISTORY

The aim of the study is to explain the unusually high for provincial city percentage of Roman denarii among the coins of ancient Olbia. Research methodology – principles of science, historicism, objectivity, generalization, historical-genetic and historical-typological. Scientific novelty. Some researchers of Olbia connected the final stage of its history with presence of barbarians, carriers of the Chernyakhiv culture (the second third of 3rd – the beginning of 5th c., the dominant population – the Goths). Other researchers believed that the material culture of the city retains its ancient character to the end. Modern analysis of finds from the late Roman layers of Olbia and its surroundings demonstrates undeniable Chernyakhiv analogies and shows the inclusion of the city in political and economic system of barbarians. The truth of this statement can be verified by comparing the numismatic materials of Chernyakhiv culture and Olbia of Roman times. In the area of this culture within the borders of former USSR, finds of more than 26 thousand Roman coins have been recorded. Coins modern to this culture (3rd – 4th c.) are a minority, and 78,7% are represented by earlier silver denarii of the 1st – 2nd c. The barbarians received these denarii from Rome as military contributions and subsidies or wage to military units. Some coins were put into circulation for internal payments. P. Karyshkovsky made statistical calculations of coins of the 1st – 4th c. from Olbia and found some local peculiarity. Unlike other ancient cities of Northern and Western Black Sea coast, among the Roman and provincial coins found in Olbia, the majority are denarii of the 1st – 2nd c.: 53,5% of finds. However, in Histria city (Western Black Sea Coast) denarii make only 17,3%. The peculiarity of Olbia collection can be explained by the history of this city. After the Gothic conquest (between the late 250s and early 270s), Olbia was reborn as small fortified town, a trade and craft center inhabited by Goth barbarians. The distribution of coin finds from the second half of 3rd to the beginning of 5th c. corresponds to the situation in Chernyakhiv culture. Issues of coins of that time came to its population in small quantities. However, the barbarians owned a large mass of old denarii of 1st – 2nd c. Some of them fall into the cultural layer of Olbia, which creates a false picture of money circulation of the city in early Roman times. The percentage of such denarii in Olbia without the participation of the later “Chernyakhiv” addition should be close to the percentage of denarii in Histria (17,3%). Conclusions. A feature of the money circulation of Olbia in Roman times is relatively large number of finds of denarii of the 1st – 2nd c. This can be explained by the fact that in the third quarter of 3rd c. the city was included into political and economic system of Chernyakhiv culture, where the main currency was the silver denarii of the 1st – 2nd c., which by that time were out of circulation in the Empire. The Olbia collection of Roman coins should be divided into the “Ancient” and “Chernyakhiv” (or “Late Antique”) periods, and the latter, in addition to coins of the second half of 3rd – 4th c., contains most of the denarii of the 1st – 2nd c.

Common and Uncommon Jewish Purity Concerns in City and Village in Early Roman Palestine and the Flourishing of the Stone Vessel Industry: A Summary and Discussion

Abstract A stone vessel industry existed in early Roman Palestine (first century CE), and many of these utensils were either hand-carved or made on a lathe. The stone vessels were part of the tableware within Jewish households from different socio-economic levels of society in cities and villages. This research indicates that stone vessels were not as “common” in Jewish settlements of that time as has previously been thought. The article’s purpose is to sum up the new archaeological data on the subject. It deals with manufacturing processes, morphological aspects. This article also offers a refined chronological scheme for stone vessels (late first century BCE–mid-second century CE) in Judea, and it incorporates hitherto unpublished data from the excavation of a quarry-cave manufacturing site at Tel el-Ful, as well as providing detailed information on the typological frequency of stone vessels from sites at Jerusalem, notably at Mount Zion.

Amphorae of Roman Time from Excavations at Settlement on Berezan Island (in Collection of Odesa Archaeological Museum of NAS of Ukraine)

The author presents the finds of amphorae of the Roman time, which were found on the island of Berezan. Materials that are introduced into scientific circulation are stored in the depositaries of the Odesa Archaeological Museum of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. They are mainly represented by fragments of amphorae, which were found as a result of the work of archaeological expeditions headed by M.F. Boltenko (1927, 1928, 1930, 1931, 1946) and V.V. Lapin (1960, 1961) at Berezan settlement. Some of the finds also came from the island of Berezan, but the year and place of their finding are unknown.
 A comprehensive study of amphorae fragments gives the opportunity to reconstruct the trade relations of the settlement, which was located on the island of Berezan in the first centuries AD. Products in transport amphorae appeared on the island in the early Roman time. Thus, in amphorae of type Vnukov S І, dating no later than the first third of the 2nd century AD, Heraclean wine, made according to Coan recipe, was imported. Subsequently, the products of Heraclea Pontica sporadically came in amphorae of variant Vnukov S IVC.
 The peak of trade activity of the settlement was attained in the end of the 2nd – the middle of the 3rd century AD. The range of products imported in transport wares during that period was rather wide. Heraclean wine was imported in large quantities (in amphorae of variant Vnukov S IVD) as opposed to much lesser quantities of the Aegean wine (in vessels of type Kapitän II) and Cilicia wine (in amphora of type Agora G 199). Probably, there was wine in amphora of type Zeest 72 or Zeest 73, which came to the island from an unidentified production site.
 Bosporus ‘salsamentum’, which had been very popular among the inhabitants of Berezan settlement since the end of the 2nd century AD was transported in amphorae of type Zeest 75 (variants A, C, D), and from the beginning of the 3rd century AD, also in a rather rare container of type Krapivina 27 (variants ‘a’ and ‘b’). Salted fish was also imported from the non-localized center in vessels of variant Zeest 75B. In addition, a small amount of purchased olive oil was imported in amphorae of type Zeest 80 from several production sites located in the Aegean and the Black Sea regions. Single items represent variants of amphorae that cannot be correlated with already known types.
 In Berezan collection of the Odesa Archaeological Museum of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, no ceramic containers were found, which could be dated only later than 264. However, vessels of types Zeest 72 and Kapitän II could come to Berezan in the 4th century AD.

Painting, Poetry, and the Invention of Tenderness in the Early Roman Empire By Hérica Valladares. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2021. Pp. 266. $99.99. ISBN 9781108835411 (cloth).

<i>Painting, Poetry, and the Invention of Tenderness in the Early Roman Empire</i> By Hérica Valladares. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2021. Pp. 266. $99.99. ISBN 9781108835411 (cloth).

Early Rome to 290 BC: The Beginnings of the City and the Rise of the Republic

Early Rome to 290 BC: The Beginnings of the City and the Rise of the Republic

Anticancer Activity of Aqueous Extracts from Asparagus officinalis L. Byproduct on Breast Cancer Cells.

Cultivation of asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.; Asp) for food and medicinal use has taken place since the early Roman Empire. Today, Asp represents a worldwide diffuse perennial crop. Lower portions of the spears represent a food industry waste product that can be used to extract bioactive molecules. In this study, aqueous extracts derived from the non-edible portion of the plant (hard stem) were prepared and characterized for chemical content. Furthermore, the biocompatibility and bioactivity of Asp aqueous extracts were assessed in vitro on normal fibroblasts and on breast cancer cell lines. Results showed no interference with fibroblast viability, while a remarkable cytostatic concentration-dependent activity, with significant G1/S cell cycle arrest, was specifically observed in breast cancer cells without apoptosis induction. Asp extracts were also shown to significantly inhibit cell migration. Further analyses showed that Asp extracts were characterized by specific pro-oxidant activity against tumoral cells, and, importantly, that their combination with menadione resulted in a significant enhancement of oxidants production with respect to menadione alone in breast cancer cells but not in normal cells. This selectivity of action on tumoral cells, together with the easiness of their preparation, makes the aqueous Asp extracts very attractive for further investigation in breast cancer research, particularly to investigate their role as possible co-adjuvant agents of clinical drug therapies.