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Reposted by Dr Crom

Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

ClassicsBluesky 🏺🧵

#LatinForTheDay - 7 October - meets #ClassicsTober Day 7: Φαρμακίς (witch, Sorceress) #Juvenal

“hic magicos adfert cantus, hic Thessala vendit
philtra, quibus valeat mentem vexare mariti
et solea pulsare natis. quod desipis, inde est,
inde animi caligo et magna oblivio rerum...

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Reposted by Dr Crom

Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

#EpigraphyTuesday – The dedication to ‘Virgo Caelestis’ from Carvoran Fort, ca. Late 2nd Century AD. Presented as a poem rendered in ten iambic senarii, the piece has been the focus of much discussion. #Latin #AncientHistory 🧵🏺

Image: Great North Museum: Hancock (NEWMA : 1816.8). 📸 Pete Savin

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Reposted by Dr Crom

Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

#OnThisDay - 7 October - ca. 14 BC Drusus the Younger, son of the Emperor Tiberius, was born. His death in AD 23 was thought natural, though it was later alleged that he had been poisoned by Sejanus. #AncientHistory 🏺

Image: RIC Tiberius 45; ANS 1957.172.1519. Link - numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric....

Obverse of a Roman as: Head of Drusus, bare, left.

Reverse of a Roman as: Legend surrounding large S C.

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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 20h

Hey you guys! 😊

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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 20h

'A' for me!

Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

The Image at the head of this thread is 'A Sorceress' by John Duncan, 1898 (University of Dundee Fine Art Collections: DUNUC ARTS:27).

Link - artuk.org/discover/art...

#LatinForTheDay #Juvenal 🧵🏺

A Sorceress | Art UK

A Sorceress by John Duncan (1866–1945), 1898, from University of Dundee Fine Art Collections

artuk.org

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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

In this extract of Satire 6, Juvenal focusses on Caesonia - Caligula's fourth wife - suggesting that his 'madness' may be blamed on a love-potion which she gave him. The charm in question is a 'hippomane', made from the membrane covering a foal's forehead just after its birth.

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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

'What woman wouldn’t follow in the footsteps of an emperor’s wife?
Everything was ablaze, the fabric of the world was rending,
As if Juno herself had driven her husband mad.’

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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

'You’ve got no clue what you’ve done. All the same, you could bear it,
Providing you don’t go completely off your rocker, like Caligula – Nero’s
Dotty Uncle – for whom Caesonia concocted that pick-me-up,
Muddling in a little horse-head charm, plucked from a tottering foal....

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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

‘This one deals in magic spells, this one’s flogging Thessalian
Philtres – y’know the ones I mean – them that a wife’ll use to befuddle
Her hubby’s head, so he’ll bend over and have his arse spanked!
That’s why you’ve lost it; that’s why your mind’s muddled and...

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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

"quas modo gessisti. tamen hoc tolerabile, si non
et furere incipias ut avunculus ille Neronis,
cui totam tremuli frontem Caesonia pulli
infudit. quae non faciet quod principis uxor?
ardebant cuncta et fracta conpage ruebant
non aliter quam si fecisset Iuno maritum
insanum.”

Juvenal, Sat. 6.610-620

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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

ClassicsBluesky 🏺🧵

#LatinForTheDay - 7 October - meets #ClassicsTober Day 7: Φαρμακίς (witch, Sorceress) #Juvenal

“hic magicos adfert cantus, hic Thessala vendit
philtra, quibus valeat mentem vexare mariti
et solea pulsare natis. quod desipis, inde est,
inde animi caligo et magna oblivio rerum...

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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

For more on the 'cohors I Hamiorum' and this inscription, see:

Birley, Anthony R. “THE ‘COHORS I HAMIORUM’ IN BRITAIN.” Acta Classica 55 (2012): 1–16.

jstor.org/stable/24592...

#EpigraphyTuesday #Latin 🧵🏺

THE "COHORS I HAMIORUM" IN BRITAIN on JSTOR

Anthony R. Birley, THE "COHORS I HAMIORUM" IN BRITAIN, Acta Classica, Vol. 55 (2012), pp. 1-16

jstor.org

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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

For the RIB entry for this piece (1791), see:

romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions...

RIB 1791. Dedication to Virgo Caelestis | Roman Inscriptions of Britain

romaninscriptionsofbritain.org

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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

Thus there is no need to seek the connection with Julia Domna for our inscription.

Equally, the explicit mention of a single emperor at the end of the text – ‘dono principis’ (by the Emperor’s goodwill) – would seem to count against the Severan date.

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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

This altar inscription to the ‘Syrian Goddess’, set up under the governorship of Calpurnius Agricola, would date to ca. AD 161-6.

Image: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge (D 1970.4.1-2). Link - collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/4684...

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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

However, this has led to some confusion over the dating of the inscription, with many of the early studies erroneously suggesting a connection between this deity and Julia Domna. However, earlier epigraphic evidence from Carvoran would seem to count against this.

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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

Certainly the representation of the goddess on the coins of Septimius Severus matches elements described in the poem.

Reverse of a Roman aureus: Dea Caelestis, draped, riding right on lion, holding thunderbolt in right hand and sceptre in left hand; below, water gushing from rock.

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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

It is likely that ‘Dea Caelestis’ refers to Tanit, who was the tutelary deity of Carthage and indeed of Roman Africa in general.

Image: RIC IV Septimius Severus 266 (aureus); Münzkabinett Wien (RÖ 36842). Link - numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric....

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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

Thus the inscription seems to form a dedication to the goddess as thanks for the promotion in status he had earned from the Emperor.

The text, however, has provoked much debate, not least in terms of its dating.

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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

'...Thus has Marcus Caecilius Donatianus understood,
Directed by your divine spirit, while serving in the post of
Prefect with tribune’s rank, by the Emperor’s goodwill.’

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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

'...The Syrian Goddess, weighing life and law in the balance.
Syria brought forth her star in the heavens, so that she might
Be worshipped in Libya: from this we have all grown wise....

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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

Translation:

‘The Maiden Goddess on her lion shines in her station on high,
That corn-bearing inventress of justice, founder of cities,
From whose gifts it is possible to come to know the gods.
Thus is she Mother of the gods, Peace, Virtue, and Ceres,...

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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

"Libyae colendum: inde
cuncti didicimus.

ita intellexit numine inductus
tuo

Marcus Caecilius Do-
natianus militans

tribunus
in praefecto dono principis”

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Dr Crom @doccrom.bsky.social · 1d

Text

“Imminet Leoni Virgo caeles-
ti situ

spicifera iusti in-
ventrix urbium conditrix

ex quis muneribus nosse con-
tigit deos:

ergo eadem mater divum
Pax Virtus Ceres

dea Syria
lance vitam et iura pensitans.

in caelo visum Syria sidus edi-
dit...

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