iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Both created new visual frameworks for legitimacy — not inherited, but displayed through personal merit and visibility. In Rome, to be seen was to be believed. brill.com/view/journal...

brill.com

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➡️ Marius turned his battle scars into his imagines, presenting his war wounds as earned nobility and proof of service. ➡️ Cicero, lacking both ancestry and scars, embodied shared civic ancestors (maiores nostris) and made his public presence and availability a substitute for family prestige.

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Emily Salamanca’s article, “Reimagining Political Legitimacy: Ancestral Imagines in the Consular Speeches of Marius and Cicero,” explores how Rome’s novi homines — like Marius and Cicero — redefined this visual tradition.

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In Roman politics, ancestral masks — imagines maiorum — were more than symbols: they were visual proof of noble lineage and civic virtue. But what happened when politicians had no aristocratic ancestors to parade?

Fragment of Togatus Barberini - a sculpture showing a Roman noble carrying masks of his ancestors

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Roman army camp found beyond Roman Empire’s northern frontier

A new Roman marching camp discovered in the NL, beyond the borders of the Empire. The site was identified using LiDAR and aerial photography. This was followed by a surface survey with metal detectors and trial excavations, which helped date it to the 2nd century CE. www.uu.nl/en/news/roma...

uu.nl

“What makes this find so remarkable is that the camp lies beyond the frontier of the Roman Empire,” says Saskia Stevens. That border was some 25 kilometres south.

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Reposted by Kamil Kopij

Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal @traj-journal.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

🎉 #TRAJ Volume 8 is launched! Check out the first paper of our Cosmologies Special Issue on pilgrimage routes to Hayling Island in Britain, a review of ancient wine archaeology & more! FREE traj.openlibhums.org/issue/1682/i...

A cover for a journal showing the mosaic floor of the Guildhall in London.

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Kamil Kopij @kkopij.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Delete this post. Don't give them ideas...

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A recent published article presents, for the 1st time, osteological evidence that can be linked to venationes. It concerns bite marks from a large cat—most likely a lion—found on a skeleton from a cemetery in York, which may have been a burial place for gladiators! journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

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Human-animal combats (venationes) are well known from numerous written sources, inscriptions, and artworks scattered across the Roman Empire.

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journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de

Kreiner suggests that although the censuses served military purposes, they also had administrative, fiscal and ideological significance, strengthening the emperor's control and prestige. journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/de...

The Initial Spread of the Provincial Census: Warfare and the Census | Deimos – Zeitschrift für Antike Militärgeschichte

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The author examines specific cases of censuses in Gaul, Spain, Syria and Judea, highlighting their potential connection to the geopolitical situation and military operations at the time.

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He argues that their early introduction was strongly linked to preparations for wars or ongoing military campaigns. These censuses provided key information about human and natural resources necessary to support military operations.

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Thanks to the Bible, we are all familiar with the census of Quirinius, which took place in Judea and Syria in 6 CE. But what was the actual purpose of the census? In his article, Jared Kreiner analyses provincial censuses in the Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus

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Could studies like this one help us one day unravel the mystery of the Sea Peoples – one of the greatest enigmas of the ancient world?

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All of this strongly supports what many archaeologists have been saying for years: that ethnicity does not necessarily equal culture – and that material or linguistic heritage doesn't always align with biological ancestry.

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Earlier hypotheses about a significant input from local populations in Sardinia and Spain also turned out to be unsupported – their genetic traces in nearby Punic settlements are virtually absent.

Still, it remained a minority component, even in Carthage itself. The biggest surprise? A minimal genetic contribution from Levantine Phoenicians. Despite strong cultural, linguistic, and religious ties, the studied Punic populations were genetically distinct from their Levantine ancestors.

On top of that, there was an additional North African admixture – already present among some individuals from Kerkouane (now Tunisia) as early as the 6th–5th centuries BCE, and becoming more evident outside Africa after 400 BCE, including on Sardinia and in Iberia.

Ancient DNA reveals Phoenicians’ surprising genetic ancestry

It turns out that Punic populations in the central and western Mediterranean were primarily characterised by genetic profiles similar to those of Bronze Age populations from Sicily and the Aegean. This Sicilian-Aegean component was clearly dominant. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

nature.com

Phoenician civilization thrived across the Mediterranean for more than 1,000 years.

Ancient DNA reveals Phoenicians’ surprising genetic ancestry

Researchers examined the DNA of individuals who lived between the 8th and 2nd centuries BCE to reconstruct their origins and better understand the demographic landscape of the Punic world. It’s one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind for the Mediterranean; it brought quite a few surprises.

nature.com

Phoenician civilization thrived across the Mediterranean for more than 1,000 years.

Cities and Memory @citiesandmemory.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

esterday, the results of a major aDNA study were published, analysing the genetic material of 210 skeletons buried in areas associated with Punic civilisation – from Spain and Sardinia, through Sicily, to the shores of modern-day Tunisia. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Reposted by Kamil Kopij

Launching today - our biggest ever project! Sonic Heritage explores the sounds of the world’s most famous sights, with 270 UNESCO World Heritage sites and items of intangible heritage, all reimagined by artists to create a new way to experience these incredible spaces 🏛️🎧 citiesandmemory.com/heritage

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An Etruscan inscription on the toga identifies the figure as Aule Metele (Latin: Aulus Metellus). One wonders whether Aule attended a Latin rhetoric school or whether his parents could afford a Greek rhetorician?

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As an illustration, a photo of the Arringatore (also called the Orator), a bronze statue from the end of the 2nd or the beginning of the 1st century BC, depicting a Roman official as a speaker. It can be admired at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze.

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Cicero called these schools (de Orat. 93-94) "schools of impudence" (ludus impudentiae). Although the ban lasted only for a decade (and we don't even know if it was effective), it was a symbolic moment of tension between the elite and the growing need for broader participation in public life.

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This alarmed traditionalists. Officially, the talk was about morality and the mos maiorum. In practice, it was probably more about power and control over public discourse. There were fears about the "impudence" of young orators from lower classes and the potential upheaval in the social structure.

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For centuries, the teaching of eloquence had been reserved for the elite – conducted in Greek, by Greek teachers, for those who could afford a classical education. When schools began to arise teaching in Latin, access to the key tool of a political career – the rhetoric – became much broader.

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