r/ancientrome

Author and source: balawat

A Roman clay vessel depicting Venus and Mars on a ship with a Latin text meaning “Voyage of Venus”. This dates to the end of the 2nd or beginning of the 3rd century AD and is on display in the Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon-Fourvière in Lyon, France.

The Marlborough Antinous - a Roman black chalcedony intaglio portrait created circa AD 130–138, depicting Antinous, Emperor Hadrian's favourite. Carved from deep black chalcedony and mounted in a modern gold setting, it was formerly part of the Giorgio Sangiorgi Collection before being acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum.

I do believe Caligula was self aware but vindictive person who was spiteful of his position. Historian Aloys Winterling has argued that many of his actions traditionally treated as evidence of insanity make considerably more sense if Caligula was deliberately attacking the political fiction on which the early Principate operated.

As princeps senators would have competed to flatter him, vote him honors and obtain his favor and we know Caligula hated them. Augustus was extraordinarily skilled at maintaining that fiction but I do believe it is likely that Caligula didn't care enough or was too disgusted to maintain the facade/contradiction. He didn't respect ritual and his sense of humor was spiteful, (the Jewish embassy example, a horse as consul).

Caligula's background may attest to this. As a child, he watched his immensely popular father Germanicus die, then saw his mother and brothers destroyed through a political system supposedly built on law, honor, and senatorial dignity. Later, while living under Tiberius, he survived by hiding his feelings, flattering the emperor, and carefully performing loyalty. He was a cunning with self-control and he wasn't raised to be disillusioned from the reality of the world. He learned firsthand that people often say or do whatever power requires them to say or do and was intimate with that revelation. When he became princeps and earned a title of unchecked authority at only twenty-four, the situation reversed: senators and courtiers now performed the same submission toward him that he had once performed toward Tiberius. That experience may have made him deeply cynical towards the system he ruled and especially toward an aristocracy whose claims to dignity and independence he knew were largely theatrical and instead of Caligula becoming more sympathetic, he may have become contemptuous.

I bet he wanted to push boundaries and see how far he could go. His humiliations of senators, insistence that extravagant vows be literally fulfilled was likely in my opinion a form of revenge. I bet you he was cunning enough to understand the game he was playing but spiteful enough to see how far he could stretch his authority. He didn't care for theater since he could wield himself as a dangerous force

Mostly conjecture of course and projection but I think it's fun to put myself in the little boots of other and that it's very plausible given how Caligula had demonstrated cleverness/capability early on and the insanity claims to be a sudden development. There is a saying that wealth doesn't corrupt but instead reveals the true nature of a person. Trauma/abuse is a cycle.

I find Caligula to be one of the more unusually relatable rulers. I'm prone to think he was definitely a "we live in a society" type of guy. Resentment towards hypocrisy combined with resentment toward one’s own former powerlessness.

What are your thoughts and criticisms? What are your perceptions interpretations and opinions of such an enigmatic figure?

I was wondering this because I thought the Romans were a mixed Latin-Samnite People before settling in the area now known as Rome or were just outcast Etruscans, help?

These were the Old Roman Infantry during the rule of Roman Kingdom King Servius Tulius, I wanted to know what factors that got them disbanded after the last king was overthrown, like in their arms, armor, tactics and organization?

Maybe a silly question I know, but commuting to my job in London, taking the train, waking up, grabbing a coffee etc, got me thinking.

Was Rome in the morning just a horde of people walking to whatever market stall or blacksmith’s they worked at?

Did Caesar have to commute by foot to the forum?

What’s the deal?

Not sure if this is the right community to ask this, I'd appreciate a pointer to the right one if not.

The text seems to be Latin but in Greek symbols, possibly a transition period between the two languages?

I know the symbols are hard to read, I tried to make them more legible with my edits but it's still not easy to see

Some more photos can be found at https://maps.app.goo.gl/gZxGhCZNyN4a1tvu8

Edit: Kainepolis* not Callipolis

Hello everyone, as the title says, I would like to know what happened to soldiers who were severely wounded or disabled in war; below are some questions I have asked myself, and I hope someone can answer them.

1. What was the discharge procedure?
2. How was the retirement payment calculated as opposed to those who completed the full 25 years?
3. What became of those who could no longer work in the fields or perform heavy labor? Were there "lighter" jobs or administrative roles or did disabled veterans have to rely just on their families and charity?

I hope someone can clear up my doubts by providing some cool information, thanks everyone in advance.

Image is from Wikipedia, it depicts roman military doctors, detail in the Trajan's column (I thought it would be significant).

Almost every map depicting the Roman Empire tends to depict a solid mass of land spanning countries and continents under direct Roman control.

Would Roman authority extend across the entire entire landmass? Or was it only across core cities/regions connected by networks of communication and trade, with large areas in the interiors and borders having little to no control by Roman authority?