Anthony Majanlahti
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anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
Anthony Majanlahti
@anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
960 followers 82 following 960 posts
Historian living in Rome. 🏳️‍🌈Author of "The Families who Made Rome, a history and a guide" (Chatto, 2004). Currently writing a single-volume urban history of Rome for OUP.
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anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#MosaicMonday takes us back to the #Lateran quarter in #Rome, where the remains of a shattered #opussectile floor from the C4 CE show the longevity of the huge #domus of L. #Licinius #Sura, a general of #Tiberius in the early C1 CE. #AncientBluesky 🏺
GEOMETRIC FLOOR IN OPUS SECTILE, C4 CE. ARCHAEOLOGICAL AREA OF THE OSPEDALE DI S. GIOVANNI The discovery of two statue bases naming L. Licinius Sura give us the identity of the owner of a vast domus on the Caelian hill near the property of the Plautii Laterani, of a similar date, which gave the toponym "Lateran" to the cathedral of Rome. Sura was a general under the emperor Tiberius and an ancestor of the Licinius Sura who was a close friend (lover?) of the early C2 emperor Trajan. The latter Licinius Sura had a different house on the slope of the Aventine. The Lateran domus of the Licinii Surae had extensive gardens making use of the huge amount of aqueduct water that crossed the area, and a gigantic cistern remains to show part of the property's hydraulic work. This floor in serpentino, porphyry, giallo antico, and other marbles was found in a room adjoining the garden.
December 8, 2025 at 12:37 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#SpoliaSunday gives us an example of human remains as #spolia. This is a #cross made of the skulls of the poor dead, collected by a pious confraternity in the C18-C19 to give them #Christian burial in the #crypt of S. Maria della #Morte in #Rome. #AncientBluesky 🏺
CROSS OF HUMAN SKULLS, C18-C19. S. MARIA DELL'ORAZIONE E MORTE The famous Capuchin Cemetery at the mouth of the via Veneto was only one of three crypts in Rome that used human bones as decoration. This one did too, though the construction of the Tiber embankment involved the demolition of three other burial chambers. (The third, that of the Sacconi Rossi on the Tiber Island, has never been open.) This confraternity was given its charter by Julius III in 1552: its purpose was to bury the penniless dead from the land around Rome and those who drowned in the Tiber. It ceased operation after a cholera outbreak in 1837. All that remains is this large underground room with a cross made of skulls, the skull being the classic memento mori, and several glass-fronted cupboards with more skulls in them. Once this crypt held 8000 bodies.
December 7, 2025 at 4:18 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#SarcophagusSaturday at the #BritishMuseum surprises us with quite the little collection of #Minoan funerary furniture, like this terracotta #larnax or #ossuary from 1400-1200 BCE, found at Palaikastro in northeastern #Crete. This one has traces of painted decoration. #AncientBluesky 🏺
TERRACOTTA LARNAX, 1400-1200 BCE, FROM CRETE. BRITISH MUSEUM This terracotta ossuary has rounded loop handles on both lid and box, and shows decoration in black paint that can still be barely made out. The front of the box (and presumably the back) has two recessed panels with quatrefoil and scale designs, while the lid has a pattern of tentacles. This comes from a British excavation at Rousolakkos, a Bronze Age city on the coast of Palaikastro near Mount Dicte, the legendary birthplace of Zeus. The larnax comes from toward the very end of the Bronze Age in Crete, when the island was ruled by Mycenaean Greeks facing the invading Sea Peoples, who would close out the period in chaos and destruction.
December 6, 2025 at 9:13 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#FrescoFriday offers us a #fresco fragment probably from #Pompeii and now in the #BritishMuseum. A well-dressed crowned woman, likely #Phaedra, sits on a lavish couch, a female attendant at her side. There is a psychological intensity about Phaedra which is riveting. 20-60 CE. #AncientBluesky 🏺
FRESCO FRAGMENT, POMPEII (?), 20-60 CE. BRITISH MUSEUM There are only a few Roman frescoes in the BM and this is perhaps the most fascinating one. Its provenance is lost but is thought to be Pompeian. The young queen Phædra (?) is sitting upright on a richly-draped couch, her hair veiled, the drapery of her yellow cloak and red dress falling in natural folds. She's leaning forward, her right elbow on her knee, her hand touching but not supporting her beautiful face. Her other arm is clasped around her, almost hugging herself, but she's too careful to show her tension. Her face, with its anxious eyes and watchful expression, betrays her. Her attendant, at left, may be about to denounce Phædra's stepson Hippolytus, falsely, to his father, Phædra's husband king Theseus, accusing him of sexual aggression against his stepmother; or perhaps the message has already been delivered and Phædra is waiting to hear the outcome. Has her rage at Hippolytus' rejection of her made her go too far? We can't know exactly at what point in the story this scene shows. But we can tell nothing good will come of it.
December 5, 2025 at 4:37 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
This #ReliefWednesday at the exhibition "La Grecia a Roma" at the #CapitolineMuseums, we're admiring an #Attic #relief of dancing #nymphs from 390-380 BCE, borrowed from the #VaticanMuseums. Perhaps from a funeral stela, this dance might be a reminder of how quickly time passes. #AncientBluesky 🏺
MARBLE RELIEF OF DANCING NYMPHS, 390-380 BCE. MUSEO GREGORIANO PROFANO, VATICAN MUSEUMS This beautiful graceful relief of unknown provenance shows three female figures in full figure, holding hands and dancing. Though the faces of the figures are almost completely worn off, the rest of the relief is full of movement and detail. The light dresses of the women cling to their bodies and flutter in the dance. The two figures at centre and at right are looking at each other, the central woman turning her head to look back at the woman on the right. This is not a Dionysiac dance, but might be a representation of the Horai, nymphs of the hours, and their dance might be a lyrical expression of the swift passage of time.
December 3, 2025 at 10:53 AM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#EpigraphyTuesday brings us to a tombstone from the C2 CE, found just outside the #PortaSalaria. It's a sad #inscription with odd spelling, commemorating Gaius Pomponius Heracon, an architect and ship-builder, dead at 25. #AncientBluesky 🏺
TOMBSTONE OF C. POMPONIUS HERACON, C2 CE. CAPITOLINE MUSEUMS D(is) M(anibus). / C(aio) Pomponio / Heraconti / dulcissimo, / M(arcus) Ulpius Hera / et Valeria Sa/tornina (!), pa/rentes, harchi/tecto (!), eabro (!) / nabali (!) optumo (!); / vixit annos XXV. "For the souls departed. The parents Marcus Ulpius Hera and Valeria Saturnina (had this made) for their sweet (son) Caius Pomponius Heracon, great architect and builder of ships, (who) lived 25 years." This touching inscription is evenly though not deeply carved, and the letterforms are good. But the spelling is full of strange mistakes, which might indicate that the carver was illiterate in Latin. Each mistake on its own is forgivable, but five mistakes in a short epitaph? Luckily there's a rough outline of a ship carved below, to help comprehension.
December 2, 2025 at 8:09 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#MosaicMonday takes us into the chapel of S. Giovanni Evangelista in the #Lateran #baptistery in #Rome, which preserves intact its ceiling #mosaic from 461-468 CE, a glorious trellis enclosing the Lamb of God within a wreath, and birds with kantharoi - #syncretic #LateAntiquity. #AncientBluesky 🏺
CEILING MOSAIC, 461-468 CE. CHAPEL OF ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST, LATERAN BAPTISTERY This room, with a Greek cross floorplan, is very difficult to get into as it now functions as the sacristy of the Lateran Baptistery. However, it preserves its dazzling original gold mosaic ceiling, dating from the reign of pope Hilarus in the second half of the C5. The ceiling, four equal vaults meeting at centre, uses the four ribs as supports for a pergola bedecked with fruits and flowers, forming a central square containing a wreath with the haloed Lamb of God at centre. Four garlands drape downwards to make a clover pattern. On green lines following the bottom of the vaults, two per side, are kantharoi filled with fruit flanked by two birds, 4 per side, 16 in total: 4 peacocks, 4 ducks, 4 doves, 4 gallinules (?). The kaleidoscopic symmetry of the mosaic symbolises how the world is multiplied through the bounty of God. It is an extraordinary example of Christian cosmology seen through a late-antique lens.
December 1, 2025 at 6:11 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
For #SpoliaSunday, this #relief of an acanthus plant is carved into #Pentelic marble from #Athens, a prestige marble for a major public building, perhaps the Porticus Minucia. It was cut into a rectangular panel and used as a paver in the C9 church of S. Nicola de Calcarario. #AncientBluesky 🏺
RELIEF SLAB IN PENTELIC MARBLE, C. 150-100 BCE. AREA SACRA DI LARGO ARGENTINA This slab has a delicate light relief of acanthus on it, with little flowers emerging from the stems. These seem to be Greek acanthus leaves, which finish in small points; Italian acanthus has rounded, not pointy, leaves, so this may have been carved in Greece. The marble is certainly Greek. However, the drilled holes to create shadow are a Roman tecnique. Perhaps this was made by a Greek stoneworker in Rome, for the interior of one of the temples in the Area Sacra di largo Argentina or for the Porticus Minucia we can still find on the eastern side of the Area Sacra. It was cut down into a floor slab, carved side down, for the C9 church of S. Nicola de Calcarario, the guild church of the lime-burners, later S. Nicola de' Cesarini, which was demolished in 1926-1929 by order of Mussolini.
November 30, 2025 at 1:52 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#SarcophagusSaturday at the #BritishMuseum offers us this splendid stone #sarcophagus in #nenfro, a volcanic #tufo, with a lid like a pitched roof with a #sphinx at each end. The box itself has two figures on each side, male and female. It was once stuccoed and painted all over. #AncientBluesky 🏺
STONE SARCOPHAGUS WITH ROOF LID. ETRUSCAN, C. 325-250 BCE. BRITISH MUSEUM This sarcophagus is striking for its lid, each end decorated with a sphinx. Knotted snakes lie across its centre. Female heads decorate the angles of the pediment with antefixes below. Along both sides are antefixes with female heads. All sides of the chest are decorated with floral and animal designs in low relief. Inturning figures appear at both ends of each long side: here we see a winged female, perhaps one of the Lasas (attendant divinities), holding a hammer and probably a nail, which when struck into a wall symbolises finality and time fulfilled. The male figure is a winged soldier. At centre is an inscription with the name of the deceased, which unfortunately is Vel Urinates.
November 29, 2025 at 9:26 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#FrescoFriday brings us back to #Pompeii via the #BritishMuseum, where a fragmentary #fresco roundel shows us a very vivid couple, painted rapidly and realistically with a skill that gets more striking the more one looks. 20 BCE-20 CE. #AncientBluesky 🏺
FRESCO ROUNDEL FROM POMPEII, C. 20 BCE - 20 CE. BRITISH MUSEUM This is part of a genre of wall paintings in Pompeii and Herculaneum, and across the Roman world, images in roundels (part of the leafy frame survives at right) that resemble portrait busts. Sometimes they may depict actual people, perhaps the residents of the house, and sometimes they appear idealised. In this case it's hard to tell. We see here a couple, male and female, looking upward and to our right, in 3/4 view. The male bust at left may be represented as a philosopher with his torso bare, but his face is remarkably individual, his brown hair tousled, his expression verging on apprehension. Next to him, the woman, presumably his wife, has an Augustan-era hairstyle and traces of what might almost be a little hat in blue grey, but is likely a headscarf. She seems idealised. A stop-gap placeholder for a future wife?
November 28, 2025 at 7:29 PM
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It's #PhallusThursday and time to party! I'm wearing my party outfit of a cloak, a wreath crown, and absolutely nothing else; I'm bringing an #amphora and an enormous #Roman sausage! From c. 50 BCE, in a fresco possibly from the #necropolis of #VillaPamphili. #AncientBluesky 🏺
DIONYSIAC FIGURE, C. 50 BCE. THE BRITISH MUSEUM. This detail of a fresco bought from a French nobleman in 1873 shows part of a Bacchic dance in a garden, in a fresco that is said to have come from the necropolis of Villa Doria Pamphilj and probably does. This mostly naked man with right arm upraised in celebration is already drunk and in movement, carrying an amphora in the crook of his arm. His lineaments are sketched in with red paint and this is almost more of a drawing than a painting, but it's all expertly done with great economy. He's nude from his navel down, and his long phallus is delineated by a line that ends in a dot at the tip of his foreskin. Remember that for the Romans, you were not offensively naked unless the foreskin was retracted.
November 27, 2025 at 6:45 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#ReliefWednesday this week focuses on this lovely little #terracotta roundel with an #Eros emerging from the centre of a flower, his hair braided in the centre. He holds a folding mirror in his surviving hand and shows traces of #polychromy. From #Centuripe in #Sicily, C2 BCE.
TERRACOTTA ROUNDEL, C2 BCE. THE BRITISH MUSEUM The Sicilian town of Centuripe in the province of Enna began its life as a village of the Siculi, but was thoroughly Greek by the C5 BCE and joined the Romans against the Carthaginians in the Second Punic War. Cicero described it as "by far the richest city in Sicily" and it produced magnificent painted terracotta dishes and architectural elements. Here we see a gently-smiling Eros, wings outspread, turning his head to look down at the folding mirror he holds in his right hand. Traces of red and white paint remain on his hair and clothes, on his wings and on the flower roundel from which he is emerging.
November 26, 2025 at 12:56 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
For #EpigraphyTuesday we find a damaged C1 CE #cippus from along the #viaPortuensis west of central #Rome that records a probable road repair by the sixth #Prætorian Cohort, but using unfamiliar #Roman numerals cut with elegant precision into the yellow tufo. #AncientBluesky 🏺
CIPPUS WITH INSCRIPTION, AFTER 6 CE. DRUGSTORE MUSEUM COHORS VI PR(ÆTORIA) / MVNIT / PER P(EDES) ∞∞ [---]CLX[---?] "The sixth Prætorian cohort made (this) for 2160 (Roman) feet". Damage to the third line makes other letters illegible. The numeration is not our familiar Roman numerals, but uses what we think of as the infinity symbol, ∞, in place of the more familiar M to indicate 1000. It's used twice here, so 2000. Then comes C, 1000, then the upside-down T which is an alternate for L, 50, and X, 10. Adding this up gives us a significant distance, 2160 feet or 640 metres, which probably refers to roadworks, or, less likely, hydraulic works, both of which fell into the purview of the Prætorians. The crumbly stone of the cippus is tufo lionato, or Monteverde tufo, distinguished by its yellow colour.
November 25, 2025 at 10:55 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
For #MosaicMonday we are on the #Lateran estate of the #domusAnniorum in #Rome. The enterprising noblewoman Domitia Lucilla, mother of #MarcusAurelius, built a #fullonica or washhouse on the edge of the property, and had it paved with this huge black and white geometric #mosaic. #AncientBluesky 🏺
GEOMETRIC MOSAIC, C. 140-150 CE. EXCAVATIONS UNDER THE OSPEDALE DI S. GIOVANNI Domitia Lucilla, as a widow, took a keen interest in the economic life of her estate, making it not just comfortable but profitable. Far from the gardens and the residential buildings, she ordered the construction of a moderately-sized, but not small, fullonica or washhouse. This took advantage of the large amounts of aqueduct water available in the area for rinsing, but the whole process involved vast amounts of urine collected from the public latrines, in order to break down the cloth fibres to full it, that is, to make it hold together better. It was stinky work and slaves had to spend their days treading the dirt (ammonia in urine is also a cleaning agent) out of white clothes, up to their knees in pee. When they stepped out, at least they had this lovely mosaic of black half-circles and white incurved hexagons to walk on.
November 24, 2025 at 9:21 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
For #SarcophagusSaturday we're looking at a strange but coherent #pastiche in the #BritishMuseum in #London. This sad little C3 CE child's #sarcophagus with a #Dionysiac #thiasos and two lion heads has a modern lid, into which the C1 CE figure of a sleeping #Silenus has been set. #AncientBluesky 🏺
CHILD'S SARCOPHAGUS A LENÒS, C3 CE. BRITISH MUSEUM This very small "tub-shaped" sarcophagus was acquired from the earls of Carlisle in 1996. Its lid is a fake, a pastiche with a modern bed (not really a kline despite its rounded raised back and sides) supporting a possibly Claudian sleeping Silenus based on a model from the C2 BCE. The sarcophagus features two main scenes framed by two pairs of lion heads holding heavy rings. On the front of the casket at the centre Bacchus is supported by a young follower, while a maenad runs ahead with a panther. On the back is a scene of three boys pressing grapes in a vat. At the ends are shown groups of centaurs and maenads playing horns, lyres and flutes, and Pan.
November 23, 2025 at 1:16 AM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#FrescoFriday brings us back to the C4 CE, where around the new basilica built by #Constantine at the #Lateran in #Rome in 313, a borgo developed, including the Hospitium Angeli, whose oratory had this #fresco of a certain Genovius, putting his hand on the head of a youth. #AncientBluesky 🏺
SCENE OF UNCTION, C4 CE. FRESCO FROM THE ANCIENT ORATORY OF THE OSPEDALE DELL'ANGELO. OSPEDALE DI S. GIOVANNI This detached fresco comes from the ancient oratory of St Michael the Archangel, the chapel of the pilgrim hospital of the same name which preceded the current Ospedale di S. Giovanni. The chapel building still survives, much altered, and these frescoes are being restored before they are returned to their original site. This fresco, within a red and black frescoed frame, shows the figure of a young man identified in a painted inscription as "Genovius servus sanctorum" administering holy oil to the head of a youth with his right hand, while in his left hand he holds a horn he is using as a container for the oil. Genovius has a friendly honest face.
November 21, 2025 at 1:20 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
For #EpigraphyTuesday, we're in the #domusAnniorum, the house of the Annii Veri near the #Lateran in #Rome, to see a lead pipe stamped clearly with the name of Domitia Lucilla, mother of the emperor #MarcusAurelius, noblewoman and entrepreneur.
FISTULA PLUMBEA WITH THE NAME OF DOMITIA LUCILLA, AFTER 124 CE. EXCAVATIONS UNDER THE OSPEDALE DI S. GIOVANNI DOMITIAE LUCILLAE = of Domitia Lucilla This senatorial noblewoman, rich from inheriting her mother's brick factory north of Rome near modern Bomarzo, married Marcus Annius Verus, brother-in-law of the emperor Antoninus Pius. She was widowed in 124 and in her own right made many alterations to the huge estate, part villa, part domus, of her husband's family. Here we see part of a long lead pipe that brought water to the copious fountains of the estate, stamped in two places with her name. She raised her two children, Marcus Aurelius and Annia Cornificia Faustina, in this house, and educated a young nobleman alongside Marcus, the future imperial candidate Didius Julianus.
November 18, 2025 at 6:09 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
For #MosaicMonday we're underground to discover the aristocratic district of #domus around the #Lateran in #Rome, including this C3-C4 CE #mosaic in a small house next to the #DomusAnniorum. The human bust emerging from an #acanthus plant is a Season, probably Winter. #AncientBluesky 🏺
MOSAIC PAVEMENT, LATE C3-C4 CE. EXCAVATIONS UNDER THE OSPEDALE DI S. GIOVANNI IN LATERANO This detached and fragmentary mosaic pavement comes from a room facing onto a garden, in a small domus backing onto the huge domus of the Annii Veri and possibly, at the time of the making of this mosaic, incorporated into the larger domus, by then part of the imperial demesne. It has a geometric design with black blocks set in a brick pattern surrounded by "mortar" in white mosaic. The border has black and coloured designs including four busts representing the Seasons, of which one and a half survive. Here we see the probable figure of Winter, head in a white hood.
November 17, 2025 at 11:17 AM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#SpoliaSunday shows the ruthlessness of #spolia reuse and today is no different. Here under the "new ward" of the Ospedale S. Giovanni in #Rome, from the C18, we find a C2 CE marble #pilaster built into the foundation, probably from the family #domus of #MarcusAurelius. #AncientBluesky 🏺
PILASTER, C. 140 CE, IN FOUNDATION, C18. OSPEDALE DI S. GIOVANNI IN LATERANO The vast complex of the medieval and modern hospital of San Giovanni - Addolorata at the Lateran covers and conceals an aristocratic district with several large domus incuding the domus Anniorum, the huge residence of Annius Verus and his wife Domitia Lucilla, the parents of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. This broken marble pilaster, still in situ, comes from a garden peristyle with two pools. Between the pilasters, a marble transenna or balustrade separated the garden from the shady covered peristyle that surrounded it.
November 16, 2025 at 7:28 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
For #SarcophagusSaturday we're back at #PalazzoMattei di #Giove in #Rome, where a #sarcophagus front from 200 CE shows five arches with scenes related to #Mars and #Cupid, a strange duo. The man buried in this box wanted us to know he was a lover *and* a fighter. #AncientBluesky 🏺
SARCOPHAGUS FRONT WITH SCENES OF MARS AND CUPID, C. 200 CE. PALAZZO MATTEI DI GIOVE This Severan-era sarcophagus front, enclosed within a rich C17 stucco frame including the eagle of the dukes of Giove at bottom centre, has five scenes on it, each in its own pilastered arch. At far left a pair of Erotes on a pedestal are holding the helmet of Mars, and the next scene at right shows Cupid (Eros) and Psyche embracing. At centre, Mars, nude except for his helmet and shield, is chatting with the Vestal Rhea Silvia, who's explaining that she's taken an oath of virginity and can't do nuthin' with no one. Mars looks peeved. In the next scene, he's striding toward her naked sleeping form, being led by Cupid. He's clearly about to fall upon her with lustful intent, and generate Romulus and Remus thereby. The rightmost scene shows a pair of figures on a pedestal. The man, in a very short tunic, seems to be telling the events to an extremely cross Venus.
November 15, 2025 at 12:51 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
This #FrescoFriday, why not add some spice to your relationship by holding the head of #Medusa just out of sight of your girlfriend? This #fresco, now in #Naples, was found in 1760 in #Pompeii, purportedly in the same room as the famous so-called "Sappho". #AncientBluesky 🏺
PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA, 45-79 CE. MUSEO ARCHEOLOGICO NAZIONALE DI NAPOLI This fresco was found in the Insula Occidentalis in zone VI of Pompeii in 1760, in a period when excavations were just pillaging expeditions on behalf of the king of Naples, in search of precious objects and "the best" frescoes, abandoning or even destroying the latter if they seemed inferior. Findspots were barely recorded. This large fresco was considered worthy. It shows the mythological lovers Perseus and Andromeda, not long after Perseus freed her and turned the sea monster threatening her and her town to stone using the head of Medusa. Andromeda is leaning on Perseus' bronzed shoulder, but he is holding Medusa's head over theirs, toying with it rather dangerously. Both of them have two subtle rays of light shining from their foreheads, perhaps indicating their love for each other or their heroic/mythical status.
November 14, 2025 at 11:54 AM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
For #ReliefWednesday we're at an Iron Age #palace or #anaktoron in #Lucania to look at the #frieze on the façade, with battling hoplites in terracotta from 560-550 BCE. This is contemporary with the late regal period in archaic #Rome. #AncientBluesky 🏺
ANAKTORON FAÇADE FRIEZE, 560-550 BCE. MUSEO ARCHEOLOGICO NAZIONALE DI POTENZA This terracotta decoration, fragmentary as it is, testifies to the great palace or anaktoron built atop the flat plain of the hill of Torre di Satriano in the province of Potenza in northern Basilicata, replacing an earlier edifice that was destroyed by fire (regime change?). This magnificent frieze of warriors shows the clash point between two armies. From left, a hoplite wearing a helmet and short shorts is raising his spear and an elongated shield against the enemy, similar but with a round shield, who is backed by a warrior riding a horse, with another horse beside him. The elegant bas-relief has inscriptions in Laconic-Tarantine Greek dialect on the back, so we know these artisans were literate, Greek, and from Taras, later Taranto.
November 12, 2025 at 9:29 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
Putting the #pig into #EpigraphyTuesday with this altar from 140 CE dedicated to Hercules by one Lucius Antonius Caricus. Lovely #Antonine formal script and on both sides, a high #relief showing a splendid pig, the unfortunate sacrifice. From the #BathsofDiocletian. #AncientBluesky 🏺
ALTAR TO HERCULES, 140 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN This altar was found when the artificial hill called the Monte di Giustizia, where today's piazza dei Cinquecento now lies, was demolished in order to build Termini train station in the late C19. It was broken into pieces which were all found and put back together. The fairly good C2 formal script says L(ucius) Antonius / Caricus Hercul(i) / d(onum) aram d(edit). / Imp(eratore) T(ito) Aelio Anton(ino) / Pio III, M(arco) Aelio / Aurelio Caesare co(n)s(ulibus). "Lucius Antonius Caricus gives this altar to Hercules as a gift. Titus Aelius Antoninus Antoninus Pius emperor (and consul for the third time) and Marcus Aelius Aurelius Caesar (consul for the first time)". On the side of the altar we can see a splendid pig, with bristled spine and downturned head, apparently content to submit to being sacrificed. A similar porcine offering is on the other side.
November 11, 2025 at 7:48 PM
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#MosaicMonday takes us into a corridor with linear #fresco decoration and an intact geometric #mosaic floor, c. 150 CE, in the stupendous #VilladeiQuintili along the #Appia south of #Rome. The villa was the cause of its builders' death: #Commodus had them killed and took it. #AncientBluesky 🏺
MOSAIC FLOOR, C. 150-182 CE. VILLA DEI QUINTILI This massive suburban villa was built by the rich senatorial brothers Sextus Quintilius Valerius Maximus and Sextus Quintilius Condianus, who were held in such high regard by Antoninus Pius that he made them both consuls in 151 CE. Unfortunately their service and loyalty did not protect them from the envy of the last of the Antonines, Caracalla, who so badly wanted this luxurious property that he trumped up treason charges against them and put them to death in 182. He immediately took possession of the villa and adapted it to his own use; it remained an imperial property until the C6 and underwent many restorations and alterations. Here we have a short, semi-basement corridor with a simple geometric pattern of rows of black alternating triangles to create white hexagons between them, framed with a wide black mosaic border.
November 10, 2025 at 9:52 PM
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For a belated #SpoliaSunday, this wall holds the collection of antiquities owned by #AntonioCanova, the great C18-C19 sculptor of #neoclassicism, now set into the wall of his studio. Many pieces of sarcophagi, and part of a C1 CE #funerary #statue found in and around #Rome. #AncientBluesky 🏺
FRAGMENTS OF ANCIENT SCULPTURE, C1-C3 CE. VIA ANTONIO CANOVA These pieces of ancient reliefs, statues, and architectural elements were gathered by the sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822) for inspiration in this house, or rather series of houses, he bought in 1803 as a residence and workshop. Through various phases of its life, the workshop has been much altered and part of it has been sold off to make a small emergency medical centre replacing the huge, now closed, hospital of S. Giacomo in Augusta across the street. Pieces of Canova's collection have been stolen from off the façade but what remains is a testament to his fascination with ancient art.
November 10, 2025 at 9:08 PM