Anthony Majanlahti
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anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
Anthony Majanlahti
@anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
950 followers 82 following 890 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
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
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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
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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
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#SarcophagusSaturday returns us to the #BathsofDiocletian in #Rome with this box from #OstiaAntica of the earlier C2 CE, made for a Greek shoemaker from #Ephesus. At left we see him at work, seated with a shoe in his hands, next to a ropemaker. At right, two musicians play. #AncientBluesky 🏺
SARCOPHAGUS OF TITUS FLAVIUS TROPHIMAS, C. 1OO-140 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN This interesting sarcophagus shows that artisans could have bespoke sarcophagi, which were not exclusively for the rich. At centre is a tabula with an inscription in Greek explaining that this is the coffin of T. Flavius Trophimas, a Greek Roman citizen (perhaps an imperial freedman) from Ephesus, "panmousas" or a cultivator of every art. It was commissioned by his friends Lucius Atilius Artemas and Claudia Apphias, both also of clear Greek origin. To the right of the tabula is a scene with two musicians, the one at far right beating a tambourine, the other in only a loincloth, playing a double flute and holding another flute. Both musicians are dancing in time with each other. On the other side of the tabula, a man is winding a rope from hanging skeins of fibre, while at far left is the deceased, seated as he makes a shoe, with a cupboard topped with wooden shoe-forms suggests his workshop. The inclusion of music in this sarcophagus relief suggests that the deceased, and/or his friends, were devotees of Isis, as the instruments being played frequently form part of representations of Isaic ceremonies.
November 8, 2025 at 11:09 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#FrescoFriday at the #Praedia of #JuliaFelix in #Pompeii (though the #fresco is now in #Naples) gives us a floating scene of a #satyr holding a bucket of #grapes on one shoulder and carrying off a #maenad with his other arm. He seems cannibalistically interested in her forearm. #AncientBluesky 🏺
SATYR AND MAENAD, 62-79 CE. MUSEO ARCHEOLOGICO NAZIONALE DI NAPOLI This centrepiece of a wall (MANN inv. 8598) in the tablinum of the Prædia of Julia Felix shows two floating figures against a yellow background, though there are hints that an Eros was once holding two wreaths above the heads of the figures. The female figure is a Maenad, a Dionysiac devotee, and her natural male counterpart in art is, as here, the male figure of a satyr. He is carrying her off, but she has a devil-may-care manner in her expression, her bare torso, and her right arm flung up into the air as if to say, "Go ahead. Take me to the bed." But is that the satyr's intention? He seems more likely to take her to the kitchen, with his glass bucket on his shoulder and what I would call an unnatural, even hungry interest in her forearm.
November 7, 2025 at 5:14 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
This #funerary #altar for #EpigraphyTuesday and #ReliefWednesday is of late #JulioClaudian date. It names one T. Apusulenus Alexander and his slaves, and the delicate #relief shows a seated woman releasing a dove, helped by an #Eros, while a little girl at left is doing the same. #AncientBluesky 🏺
FUNERARY ALTAR OF T. APUSULENUS ALEXANDER, 41-68 CE. CAPITOLINE MUSEUMS D(is) M(anibus). / T(itus) Apusulenus Alexander / v(ixit) a(nnis) LXXIIX. T(itus) Apusulenus Lucrio, / T(itus) Apusulenus Ianuarius, / T(itus) Apusulenus Iucundus, Apusulena Methe fec(erunt) patr(ono) suo / bene de se merenti. "To the departed shades. Titus Apusulenus Alexander lived 78 years. (His slaves) Lucrio, Ianuarius, Iucundus, and Methe made this for their master, good in himself." Oddly, the rote phrase "et benemerenti", "and well-deserving", seems to have been scratched out. They must have bought a pre-made urn, because the scene doesn't show a man, but a woman at right seated on a klismòs or chair, either releasing or holding onto a dove that is offered her by an Eros. At right, a little girl with a dog leaping up onto her also releases a dove. Alexander must have been a Greek freedman of someone called T. Apusulenus, and his slaves took his former master's name too. The scene and inscription are framed by a Lesbian kymation, the top one having been cut away to make a field on which to belatedly inscribe "D M", "to the departed shades". Is it just me, or does this Alexander not seem to have been truly mourned?
November 5, 2025 at 10:21 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#MosaicMonday takes us back to the #MuseodelleCiviltà in #Rome, this time to look at the dazzling #opussectile floor of the #domus of #PortaMarina from #OstiaAntica, 385-388 CE. Its complex #geometric design makes it the most perfect floor of its kind in #LateAntiquity. #AncientBluesky 🏺
OPUS SECTILE FLOOR, 385-388 CE. MUSEO DELLE CIVILTÀ This extraordinary opus sectile pavement only finds comparisons in the House of Cupid and Psyche in Ostia and in the Diocletianic opus sectile floor of the Curia Senatus, which has been heavily restored. Here we have a background of giallo antico and a complex pattern of polygonal shapes with three recurrent themes, the circle, the four-pointed star, and the strange pelta or C-shaped shield. At the centre of each four-pointed star is a circle of alternating porphyry and serpentino set inside a round frame, or a circle of those marbles inset with a square of giallo antico or brecciated white marble. Within the octagons created between the stars, on a background of pavonazzetto, are circles framed with porphyry, with four peltæ in serpentino. This is a sophisticated and expensive floor, and the room must have had a public or ceremonial function.
November 3, 2025 at 11:23 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#SpoliaSunday gives us a #sarcophagus from 200-225 CE decorated with the #Muses but recarved on three sides for reuse as the tomb of Jacopa dei Prefetti di Vico in 1398, sister-in-law of the reigning pope #Boniface IX #Tomacelli, a prestige coffin for a powerful woman. #Rome #AncientBluesky 🏺
SARCOPHAGUS WITH MUSES, 200-225 CE, REUSED AND RECARVED IN 1398. CAPITOLINE MUSEUMS This early C3 sarcophagus was recycled as a water basin and then was taken and recarved to serve as the tomb of Jacopa dei Prefetti di Vico, from an old medieval noble family whose name is recalled in via de' Prefetti. Crosses are carved on the short sides of the sarcophagus and on the new front, formerly the back, are two crests and the inscription "Here rests the body of the magnificent and powerful domina lacopa dei Prefetti di Vico, marchioness of the March of Ancona, once wife of the magnificent and powerful dominus Andrea Tomacelli knight marquess of the March of Ancona, who died in the year of our Lord 1398 in the sixth indiction on 15 October. May her soul rest in peace, amen".
November 3, 2025 at 12:56 AM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
A C3 CE child's #sarcophagus for #SarcophagusSaturday, this one from the Altemps collection in #PalazzoAltemps in #Rome. Two #Erotes hold up a central #clipeus with a sad inscription on it, and on either side are two more, the other four representing the seasons. #AncientBluesky 🏺
CHILD'S SARCOPHAGUS WITH EROTES, C. 240-250 CE. PALAZZO ALTEMPS This tiny sarcophagus of Luni marble was able to be replaced here in the courtyard fountain of palazzo Altemps, after the family had removed it when they sold the palace. Now it is dry, but it once had a jet of water pouring into it, and emerging from the hole at bottom centre to fall into a lower basin, also now dry. The inscription says "D. M. FYRMIUS METRAS ET AELIA CHRYSOTYCHE C. FYRMI METRAE FILIO DULCISSIMO FEC(ERUNT)", "to the departed shades. Fyrmius Metras and Ælia Chrysotyche made this for their sweetest son C. Fyrmius Metras." The central clipeus bearing the epitaph is held by two Erotes and supported by two winged sphinxes. At right and left are four other Erotes which represent the seasons, of which I can only identify one, Winter, at far right, because he's wearing a tunic and cloak instead of just a cloak. The seasons evoke circular time and the hope of rebirth.
November 1, 2025 at 10:16 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
Costume suggestions for #FrescoFriday #Halloween from a #fresco from the #domus of the #Farnesina, 30-20 BCE: this odd pair of women in long chitons, one in front with a shield on her head topped with olive branches, and another taller woman behind, holding a menacing little saw. #AncientBluesky 🏺
SCENE FROM A CORRIDOR IN THE DOMUS OF THE FARNESINA, 30-20 BCE. PALAZZO MASSIMO ALLE TERME A baffling scene from a myth or a ritual. Against a blue-green background, two women are walking toward the right. Both are wearing long plain chitons with red lines along the sides going from shoulder to hem. The shorter woman in the front seems to be wearing a shield on her head, convex side out, which is covered with leafy branches of laurel or olive. She holds another branch in her left hand and steadies the shield with her right. She looks a bit downtrodden. Behind her, at left, is a taller woman (?) whose face is missing, dressed identically. In both hands she holds a very strange tool in black, a straight diagonal line which expands upward like 3 sides of a rectangle before returning to its original line. A dotted line closes off the bottom of this shape, and I've interpreted this as a sort of jigsaw, possibly for cutting the branches the woman in front is carrying. I have no idea what is going on here. The internet offers no clues. But I *can* say with confidence that if you wear these outfits for Halloween, absolutely no one will guess who you are.
October 31, 2025 at 12:40 PM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
A magnificent #statue of a #priestess of #Isis, from the #Serapeum of #Tauromenium, today's #Taormina, from around 200 CE. The knot in her dress identifies her. She's holding a cista or container indicating that she is about to initiate a believer into the Isaic mystery cult. #AncientBluesky 🏺
STATUE OF A PRIESTESS OF ISIS, C. 200 CE. PALAZZO CIAMPOLI, TAORMINA Ancient Tauromenium was the centre of a major cult centre of the Roman Egyptian gods Isis and Serapis, one of the most important centres in the Mediterranean. None of the Serapeum survives today, but this statue and various other pieces of decoration have been found in excavations near the church of S. Pancrazio. This statue has a particular delicacy and grace in its carving. The priestess of Isis is identifiable by the famous Isaic knot in her dress, between her breasts. Her broken right arm would have held a sistrum or ceremonial rattle, and her left hand holds a rounded cista which contained items and substances used in the initiation of new members into the mystery cult of Isis.
October 30, 2025 at 10:19 AM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#ReliefWednesday gives us a #market scene from #OstiaAntica, a bustling stall where clients on the left argue, while two women are selling fruit from full baskets on their counter. A huge wicker container holds snails, a delicacy. But what are the two monkeys? Pets or meat? #AncientBluesky 🏺
MARKET SCENE, C. 100 CE. MUSEO DI OSTIA ANTICA. This relief in Proconnesian marble is from via della Foce in Ostia Antica. It shows a busy market scene, with customers arguing with each other at left, while, below some butchered fowl, another man is buying fruit from one of the two women behind the counter, which has two heaping baskets of fruit on it. A large wicker container next to the fruit evidently contains snails, as an oversized one is trying to make a break for it. At right, two monkeys are sitting on the counter, waiting for something to happen. Are they for sale or are they the pets of the women? If they are for sale, are they meant to be killed and eaten? Is this the ancient equivalent of the wet market at Wuhan?
October 29, 2025 at 2:53 PM
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Floating up from the darkness of late antiquity is this #opussectile #octopus from the #domus of #PortaMarina in #OstiaAntica, now in the #MuseodelleCiviltà in #Rome. This sea creature in giallo antico comes from somewhere in the famous opus sectile room, dating from 385-388 CE. #MosaicMonday 🏺
This delightful cephalopod in giallo antico was found in a pile of similar loose pieces of cut stone on the floor of the opus sectile hall of the domus of Porta Marina. Evidently they had never been installed, as they had no trace of the adhesive material (bitumen) that held such pieces to the wall. Was this house abandoned before it was finished, or did the design plans change midway? It is certainly hard to place this octopus in the decorative program of the room. On the tentacles, the suckers are clearly indicated, and there are two eyes on the main body, with a rather irregularly inscribed line within the main body, outlining most of it but creating a concave curve between the eyes, giving this octopus a worried frown.
October 28, 2025 at 1:02 PM
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#EpigraphyTuesday shows us ideal formal #epigraphy, with this fragmentary base from the #Forum of #Augustus dated to 2 BCE of a statue of #Aeneas: "AEN[E]A[S PRIMVS]/LATIN[ORVM REX] / REGNAV[IT ANNOS III]", Aeneas, first king of the Latins, ruled three years". #AncientBluesky 🏺
Here we see a single block of Luni white marble, which shows signs of being broken intentionally for the lime kilns, on display in the Museum of the Imperial Fora in Trajan's Markets. There are still traces of red paint in the inscription, of which little remains. This piece comes from one of the exedræ in the Forum of Augustus, probably the central part of the northern exedra which was dedicated to the ancestors of Augustus, the legendary Trojan hero Aeneas being the essential one. Son of Venus and the lucky Trojan royal Anchises, his adventures were recorded, and embellished, in Augustan poetry, specifically the epic Aeneid by the poet Virgil.
October 27, 2025 at 11:44 PM
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On 9 September 1349 a devastating #earthquake shook #Rome. The façades of the eastern buildings of #TrajansMarkets fell into the street below, and the last house had to be completely rebuilt in what I would call opus incertissimum, including a #cipollino column for #SpoliaSunday. #AncientBluesky 🏺
This photo shows the end of the series of Trajanic buildings rising over Trajan's Markets, with an ancient paved road beside it and the colossal Torre delle Milizie (c. 1200) visible at the end. The 1349 earthquake tilted the tower, and the tilt is still visible: the tremor also brought down the upper third of the tower. The side of the house we see here is built on the foundations of its Trajanic predecessor, and further along, other rooms still have their ancient brick interiors but have needed rebuilt medieval façades. Two spolia columns are embedded in this wall on the upper level, one at the front (to the right) and the other, of green Carystian cipollino, toward the street façade.
October 26, 2025 at 10:10 AM
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#SarcophagusSaturday takes us into #palazzoBarberini in #Rome to see this beautiful tub #sarcophagus in white marble surrounded by continuous #strigillation. This is an elegant #Dionysiac coffin: here the wave forms represent wine as well as the circular nature of time, and more. #AncientBluesky 🏺
SARCOPHAGUS A LENOS, C2-C3 CE. PALAZZO BARBERINI The sarcophagus a lenos, "tub-shaped", allowed wealthier people a showier coffin without corners, capable of being put on a base and admired from all sides. Three notches on the far rim show where the heavy lid would have been attached. The form is that of an elegant tub, complete with lion heads holding marble rings in their mouths, alluding to the portability of the real tub, which would be used for stomping grapes to make wine. The strigillation is continuous, alluding simultaneously to the river Styx, the river Oceanus that was thought to gird the world, as well as the cyclical nature of time, and the ripples in the wine that brings sleep, a metaphor for death.
October 25, 2025 at 11:58 AM