Ancient Superweapons

Something Awful has just put up a long post:

Ancient Superweapons F*****g Rock (my stars, not theirs).

This illustration depicts a Byzantine Greek invention called 'Greek Fire' - and comes from a 12th century codex of Ioannes Skylitzes' Synopsis of Histories - covering the 9th to 11th centuries.

For more information, a short history of Incendiary Weapons in warfare can be found here. The recipe is alas now lost, so we can't test it, but 'Greek Fire' seems to have been a Byzantine invention. It could also be used in small shells, a bit like grenades.

Adrienne Mayor has written about it most recently (intro to her book here).

Another great source for Byzantine and Crusader warfare is The Alexiad of Anna Komnene.
Anna was for a long time brother-less, and had assumed that she would inherit the throne; history didn't work out that way, as first a younger brother was born (1087), and then he inherited the empire and became John II Komnenos (1118 - see the mosaic depicting him from Haghia Sophia in my photo).
She conspired against him several times, until she was forced into exile at a nunnery. There, having been forbidden poems in her youth, least they led her to be lustful, she turned to writing history and produced The Alexiad, a chronicle of her father Alexius I's reign and of his involvement in the First Crusade. Her husband, Nikephoros Bryennios, had been a general in the Holy Land and the assumption is that she derived much of her information concerning military strategy from him. It is available in translation here.

Watchmen: Ozymandias

Augustus liked to point out that it was easier to conquer than to rule. This was a pointed critique of Alexander the Great whose empire might have been vast, but whose floruit was briefly - and descended into internecine war after his death because of it lack of post-invasion planning. In fact, the first half of Augustus' own record of his great deeds, the Res Gestae Divi Augusti written shortly before his death, concentrates mostly on his non-martial work on behalf of Rome.

Ozymandias, the 'villain' of Watchmen, greatly admires Alexander the Great, and like him ... aims for world conquest, sod the consequences in the short term. He's not a straightforward villain; they're not meant to want to save the world in normal graphic novels.

He's also fascinated with Egyptology.

His pet is named Bubastis, after the capital of the 22nd Dynasty Pharaohs, which was in turn named after the lion-faced war goddess Bast. Archaeological excavations have largely borne out Herodotus' 5th century description of the city. Bubastis also features in Ezekiel 30:17 - another sign that Ozymandias is not one of the good guys.

The name Ozymandias derives from a Greek transliteration and corruption of User-maat-re Setep-en-re - which is part of a very long name / title that Ramesses II took when he became Pharaoh circa 1279 BC. Ramesses is better known to us today as Ramesses the Great - or the tyrant that led Moses to ask for our people to be released from slavery, which in turn led to the Exodus to the Promised Land.

As a Great Pharaoh, Ramsses had many statues of himself erected, including this one at Thebes in Egypt. In antiquity, we know thanks to Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, that the base was inscribed with:

King of Kings am I, Osymandias. If anyone would know how great I am and where I lie, let him surpass one of my works

Napoleon has tried to steal the statue from Egypt for the Louvre - hence the bullet holes in it.

In 1813 Henry Salt was given a firman to be allowed to legally do so by the Ottoman sultan.

In 1818 it arrived in the British Museum - but because it weighs 7.5 tons of granite even in its fractured state, a detachment of Royal Engineers led by a veteran of Waterloo was needed to erect it.

The British Museum web site has a podcast about it here.













Percy Bysshe Shelley was inspired to write this sonnet about the sculpture in December 1817:

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

The original part of the poem is inscribed on the base of the statue in Ozymandias's mock-Egyptian temple lair in the movie.

Biblical Era Finds Outside Jerusalem

The full IAA press release below:

Greetings from Ahimelekh and Yehokhil, from Netofa in Judah


Royal seal impressions were discovered in excavations of the Israel Antiquities Authority at Umm Tuba, in the southern hills of Jerusalem.

Royal seal impressions, Image: Mariana Saltzberger , Israel Antiquities Authority

A large building that dates to the time of the First and Second Temples, in which there was an amazing wealth of inscriptions, was discovered in a salvage excavation conducted by Zubair Adawi, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in the village of Umm Tuba in southern Jerusalem (between Zur Bahar and the Har Homa quarter), prior to construction work by a private contractor.

Considering the limited area of the excavation and the rural nature of the structure that was revealed, the excavators were surprised to discover in it so many royal seal impressions that date to the reign of Hezekiah, King of Judah (end of the eighth century BCE). Four “LMLK” type impressions were discovered on handles of large jars that were used to store wine and oil in royal administrative centers. These were found together with the seal impressions of two high ranking officials named Ahimelekh ben Amadyahu and Yehokhil ben Shahar, who served in the kingdom’s government. The Yehokhil seal was stamped on one of the LMLK impressions before the jar was fired in a kiln and this is a very rare instance in which two such impressions appear together on a single handle.

Royal seal impressions, Image: Mariana Saltzberger , Israel Antiquities Authority

Another Hebrew inscription, 600 years later than the seal impressions of the Kingdom of Judah, was discovered on a fragment of a jar neck that dates to the Hasmonean period. An alphabetic sequence was engraved with a thin iron stylus below the vessel’s rim in Hebrew script that is characteristic of the beginning of the Hasmonean period (end of the second century BCE). The letters hay to yod and a small part of the letter kaf were preserved on the sherd. Similar inscriptions bearing alphabetic sequences were discovered in the past, usually on ostraca (inscriptions written in ink on pottery sherds) or engraved on ossuaries (stone receptacles in which human bones were buried). The alphabetic inscription that was discovered in this instance is unique and the significance of it requires further study: was this a “writing exercise” done by an apprentice scribe or should we ascribe it some magical importance?

The remains of the large building included several rooms arranged around a courtyard. Pits, agricultural installations and subterranean silos were hewn inside the courtyard. A potter’s kiln, a large columbarium cave in which there is a rock-hewn hiding refuge, pottery vessels, etc were also discovered inside the built complex. The pottery vessels that were recovered from the ruins of the building indicate it first dates to the end of the Iron Age (the First Temple period) in the eighth century BCE. Following its destruction, along with Jerusalem and all of Judah during the Babylonian conquest, Jews reoccupied it in the Hasmonean period (second century BCE) and it existed for another two hundred years until the destruction of the Second Temple. During the Byzantine period the place was reinhabited as part of the extensive rural settlement of monasteries and farmsteads in the region between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

Some three years ago the impressive remains of a monastery from this period were excavated that together with the remains of the current excavation confirm the identification of the place as “Metofa”, which is mentioned in the writings of the church fathers in the Byzantine period. The name of the Arab village, “Umm Tuba” is therefore a derivation of Byzantine “Metofa”, which is Biblical “Netofa” and is mentioned as the place from which two of David’s heroes originated (2 Samuel 23:28-29).

The Heliodoros Stele: New Fragments

The IAA press release below:

New Inscriptions found at Beit Guvrin- Maresha National Park Reveal more information on a Royal Stele at the Israel Museum (16/2/2009)

The inscriptions, found by Dr. Ian Stern of "Archeological Seminars" at an Israel Antiquities Authority excavation, relates to the Maccabean revolt.

The Heliodoros Stele - with all of its pieces restored - photograph Peter Lenny, Israel Museum Jerusalem

A royal Greek inscription- "The Heliodoros stele"- consisting of 23 lines inscribed on limestone, was exhibited at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, two years ago, on extended loan from Michael and Judy Steinhardt, New York. It is considered one of the most important ancient inscriptions found in Israel. Recently, three smaller fragments of a Greek inscription were found at an Israel Antiquities Authority excavation at Maresha, located inside the National Park of Beit Guvrin, under the supervision of Dr. Ian Stern and Bernie Alpert. Dr. Dov Gera, who studied the inscriptions shown to him by Dr. Stern, determined that the fragments were actually the lower portion of "The Heliodoros stele". This discovery confirmed the assumption that the stele originally stood in one of the temples in Maresha- Beit Guvrin National Park today. The new fragments were discovered in a subterranean complex by participants in the Archaeological Seminars Institute's "Dig for a Day" program.

The Heliodoros Stele - with all of its pieces restored - photograph Peter Lenny, Israel Museum Jerusalem

As published by Professor Cotton and Wörrle, in 2007, this royal stone stele bears a proclamation by the Seleucid king, Seleucus IV (father of Antiochus IV), and dates to 178 BCE. The contents of the stele shed light on the Seleucid government's involvement in local temples, mentioning an individual named Olympiodoros, the appointed "overseer" of the temples in Coele Syria – Phoenicia, including Judea. The order of the king was sent to Heliodorus, who was probably the same person mentioned in II Maccabees 3. According to the story in Maccabees, Heliodorus, as the representative of King Seleucus IV, tried to steal the wealth from the Temple in Jerusalem but instead was severely beaten as a result of divine intervention. Three years later Seleucus IV was assassinated and was succeeded by his son Antiochus IV, who was the ruler who according to II Maccabees eventually issued an edict of persecution against the Jewish people and desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem leading to the Maccabean Revolt.

In short, it can be determined that this royal stele originated in the city of Maresha, and adds important archaeological evidence and historical context for understanding the period of time leading up to the Maccabean Revolt, an event celebrated each year on the holiday of Hanukah. Dr. Ian Stern, excavation director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority adds, “this discovery is the fruit of a joint effort on the part of the Archaeological Seminars Instititute’s “Dig for a Day” program, the Israel Antiquities Authority and the staff of the of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority in the National Park of Beit Guvrin”.

The stele at The Israel Museum has been published by H. Cotton and M. Wörrle (2007, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik) and the portion found in the Maresha excavation will be published soon by D. Gera (forthcoming, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik( .

Why Don't We Gas Holocaust Deniers?

I'm getting a little annoyed with the increase in Holocaust deniers - for example, the Fragrant Fascist, Michele 'Lady' Renouf (pictured left), who was featured in this article which I found via Prof. Deborah Lipstadt's blog:

Lady Michele Renouf: mistress of reinvention - The Australian
(only part of the article is available online at the newspaper's web site, but the rest of it has been transcribed here).

I know that most historians like to discuss ideas ad nauseam. I prefer to test them where possible. In the past, this has involved trudging through fields to work out if battles took place there, and if so how.

The main claim of Holocaust deniers, which 'backs up' their denial as it were, is that there were no gas chambers and that they did not work, so Jews could not have been killed, and therefore there was no Holocaust and it's all Jewish propaganda.

Quite a few concentration camps survive, as do the architectural blue prints.

My suggestion is, to conclusively settle the argument once and for all, that we invite all those who think that the Holocaust did not take place to gather for afternoon tea in one of these gas chambers. Then turn on the gas. If indeed the gas chambers do not work, the Holocaust deniers will have made their point and I promise never to 'pretend' that there was a Holocaust ever again. And if the gas chambers do work ... no loss.

This strikes me as a win-win situation for us all, and I invite Miss Renouf to take me up on the experiment.

The Fall of the West: Soldiers

I've been reading Adrian Goldsworthy's wonderful The Fall of the West, as has Mary Beard who reviewed it for the Sunday Times here.

I will be blogging many aspects of the book, but the one that I wanted to start with is the question of what Roman soldiers wore, because Goldsworthy included amongst his illustrations the all too rarely used fresco from Dura Europas on the banks of the Euphrates in Syria. He also tells the story of the discovery of the fresco, and of the site thereafter, by British soldiers trying to dig a machine gun position in 1920.

Most peoples' idea of a Roman soldier, or at least a Roman commander, is some variation of this statue of Augustus excavated in the villa at Prima Porta owned by his wife Livia.

Romans did not wear trousers, and like the Greeks before them thought that it was a sign of great barbarity. The barbarian Persians covered their legs in trousers, as in the movie 300; the uncivilized Germans did the same. The civilized Greeks and Romans did not, according to axiom. Actually Roman military uniforms were constantly changing from the time Gaius Marius first standardised them at the end of the second century BC. At some point the uniform embraced trousers, which became part of standard clothing by the Byzantine period.

This fresco decorated a wall of the Temple of the Palmyrene Gods at Dura Europas, which was founded under the Seleucids, and became an outpost of Palmyra under the Romans. All four walls of the room showed scenes of sacrifice, this one a ceremony undertaken by the XXth Palmyrene Cohort of auxiliaries stationed in the town. Sacrifices were normal before battles, so military leaders had to be familiar with basic religious practices - which they also sometimes abused to their advantage.

Rome held Dura ['fort'] from AD 165 to 256 - winning it from the Parthians then losing it to the Sassanids. This particular army is known to have been permanently garrisoned in the city, and because of its destruction and thus the survival of a great deal of information about the soldiers, we can date the fresco pretty accurately to circa AD 238.

The standard prominently painted in the center identifies the troops, and painted labels further clarify who they were: the Tribune Julius Terentius, named in Latin, and the priest Themes son of Mokimos, named in Greek.
The gods, filling the left hand of the scene, can be identified by their halos (which were not a Christian innovation). The three standing figures in the upper register are either gods, and so would include Mars and a local variant of Baal as warrior; or, as Goldsworthy notes is equally possible, the Three Emperors that briefly reigned together in 238 (Balbinus, Pupienus and Gordian III). The two seated women are the Tyche or personifications of Dura and Palmyra as her mother-city.

This detail shows the trousers clearly (the legs are much darker than the skin on the faces or hands), as well as closed toed shoes or boots. The higher ranked officers have purple or deep red stripes on the sleeves of their tunics. They also have ochre tunics, except for Terentius, who wears a longer fringed white cloak. All but one of the Romans has brown hair, showing that blonds were the exception in that part of the world, and most have the beards which became popular from Hadrian onwards.

Terentius probably died in April 239, as comemmorated by a memorial by his wife as well as a gaffito.

This image comes from a highly illustrated edition of Virgil known as the Vergilius Romanus, which dates from the 5th century (now in the Vatican). The uniforms of the soldiers - including trousers and fish-scale armor - reflect the period of its creation rather more than that of Augustus. The codex also includes a scene depicting dining, which was still practiced reclining at the time. [Photo]

This image shows a panel from a floor mosaic in a villa in Argos, Greece, depicting the seasons, dating to circa AD 500. April on the right is shown holding a lamb, and March on the left is represented by a soldier. The soldier's costume is deliberately Classicising and therefore an anachronism; we see this in military representations from the Hellenistic period onwards, with martial monuments erected and decorated with equipment no longer in use. Another panel from this floor provides our first evidence for falconry. [Photo]


The Fall Of The West: The Death Of The Roman Superpower: The Long, Slow Death of the Roman Superpower by Adrian Goldsworthy - Amazon.co.uk

How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower by Adrian Goldsworthy - Amazon.com

Today In The Post ...

.... I received a copy of Adrian Goldsworthy's The Fall of the West. The book will be published on the 26th of February, and I will be blogging as I read it.

Dr. Goldsworthy is a wonderful historian, and as I disclaimer I should add that I will almost certainly love the book - not just because we are friends, but because I think he writes and researches wonderfully well.

His In the Name of Rome: The Men Who Won the Roman Empire (Phoenix Press) is the book that ignited my interest in Marius though, alas, Marius does not feature in this book.

The general who is covered by a chapter in Goldsworthy's book is Zenobia (also the subject of a just-published short biography by Pat Southern: Empress Zenobia: Palmyra's Rebel Queen). Zenobia is interesting as she is part of a long tradition of warrior queens in the region - after Boudicca and Joan of Arc, she tends to be the third woman who bore arms that people tend to name.

The book is weighty, and lavishly illustrated - I was thrilled to see the fresco of the soldiers from Dura Europas - with plenty of maps to clarify everything.


The Fall Of The West: The Death Of The Roman Superpower: The Long, Slow Death of the Roman Superpower by Adrian Goldsworthy - Amazon.co.uk

How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower by Adrian Goldsworthy - Amazon.com

Artemisia of Halicarnassus in the Suda

I'm trying to write something about Artemisia I of Halicarnassus. I'm tempted to call her Artemisia I of Caria, but whether she ruled all of Caria or not is still highly debated.

Artemisia, like her fourth century name-sake, was not only an able ruler but one of the few female admirals. They were also both accepted as Satrap by the Persian court despite there being adult men in the line of succession [Suda A 4030]:

Ἀρτεμισία: αὕτη ἠρίστευσε κατὰ Περσῶν: δι' ἣν εἶπεν ὁ βασιλεὺς, ὡς οἱ ἄνδρες γυναῖκες γεγόνασιν, αἱ δὲ γυναῖκες ἄνδρες. Ἀρτεμισίαι δὲ δύο γεγόνασι, Καρικαὶ γένος καὶ βασιλίδες ἀμφότεραι, ὧν ἡ μὲν πρώτη γέγονε κατὰ Περσίδα, ἡ δὲ νεωτέρα, ἧς καὶ Δημοσθένης ἐν τῇ περὶ τῆς Ῥοδίων ἐλευθερίας μνημονεύει, θυγάτηρ μὲν ἦν Ἑκατόμνου, γυνὴ δὲ καὶ ἀδελφὴ Μαυσώλου.

This woman was outstanding in serving Persians; because of her the King said that the men had become women and the women men. Two Artemisias existed, Carian by nationality and queens both. The first of them lived in the Persian period; the younger, of whom Demosthenes makes mention in On the freedom of the Rhodians, was daughter of Hekatomnos and both wife and sister of Mausolus.

The major source for Artemisia's life is Herodotus. The historian was born in Halicarnassus, and grew up hearing of her great deeds from men who had served under her in battle. As well as his own Histories, we learn a few facts about him from the Suda. Herodotus, though a fan of Artemisia, was not so keen on her grand-son [E 536]:

Ἡρόδοτος, Λύξου καὶ Δρυοῦς, Ἁλικαρνασεύς, τῶν ἐπιφανῶν, καὶ ἀδελφὸν ἐσχηκὼς Θεόδωρον. μετέστη δ' ἐν Σάμῳ διὰ Λύγδαμιν τὸν ἀπὸ Ἀρτεμισίας τρίτον τύραννον γενόμενον Ἁλικαρνασσοῦ: Πισίνδηλις γὰρ ἦν υἱὸς Ἀρτεμισίας, τοῦ δὲ Πισινδήλιδος Λύγδαμις. ἐν οὖν τῇ Σάμῳ καὶ τὴν Ἰάδα ἠσκήθη διάλεκτον καὶ ἔγραψεν ἱστορίαν ἐν βιβλίοις θ#, ἀρξάμενος ἀπὸ Κύρου τοῦ Πέρσου καὶ Κανδαύλου τοῦ Λυδῶν βασιλέως. ἐλθὼν δὲ εἰς Ἁλικαρνασσὸν καὶ τὸν τύραννον ἐξελάσας, ἐπειδὴ ὕστερον εἶδεν ἑαυτὸν φθονούμενον ὑπὸ τῶν πολιτῶν, εἰς τὸ Θούριον ἀποικιζόμενον ὑπὸ Ἀθηναίων ἐθελοντὴς ἦλθε κἀκεῖ τελευτήσας ἐπὶ τῆς ἀγορᾶς τέθαπται. τινὲς δὲ ἐν Πέλλαις αὐτὸν τελευτῆσαί φασιν. ἐπιγράφονται δὲ οἱ λόγοι αὐτοῦ Μοῦσαι.

Son of Lyxus and Dryo; of Halicarnassus, from a prominent family; he had a brother Theodorus. He migrated to Samos of Lygdamis, who was the third tyrant of Halicarnassus after Artemisia: Pisindelis was the son of Artemisia, and Lygdamis the son of Pisindelis. In Samos practised the Ionian dialect and wrote a history in nine books, beginning with Cyrus the Persian and Candaules the king of the Lydians. He went back to Halicarnassus and drove out the tyrant; but later, when he saw that the citizens were jealous of him, he went of his own will to Thurii, which was colonized by the Athenians, and after he died there, was buried in the agora. But some say that he died in Pella. His Books bear the inscription of the Muses.

There is also a cryptic reference in the Suda [P 1551] to a Pigres, brother of Artemisia the wife of Mausolus:

Πίγρης, Κὰρ ἀπὸ Ἁλικαρνασοῦ, ἀδελφὸς Ἀρτεμισίας, τῆς ἐν τοῖς πολέμοις διαφανοῦς, Μαυσώλου γυναικός: ὃς τῇ Ἰλιάδι παρενέβαλε κατὰ στίχον ἐλεγεῖον, οὕτω γράψας: μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος, οὐλομένην. μοῦσα, σὺ γὰρ πάσης πείρατ' ἔχεις σοφίης. ἔγραψε καὶ τὸν εἰς Ὅμηρον ἀναφερόμενον Μαργίτην καὶ Βατραχομυομαχίαν.

A Carian from Halicarnassus; brother of Artemisia, the woman of military renown, wife of Mausolos. Pigres was the one who inserted elegiac lines into the Iliad, writing thus: 'sing, goddess, of the ruinous wrath of Achilles, son of Peleus. Muse, for you possess the means of all wisdom'. He also wrote the Margites and Battle of Frogs and Mice attributed to Homer.

The Batrachomyomachia may in fact be as late as the Roman period. Idreus and Pixodorus are the only known brothers of Artemisia and Mausolus. The assumption is that Pigres was the brother of Artemisia I of Halicarnassus, which raises an interesting point; we know that she was chosen to rule instead of her son, the assumption being that the son was too young. If she also had a brother, why was he not made Satrap?

This and other obscure points will be taking up much of my time, so posting might be a little light.

Artemisia was an extraordinary woman, and well worth reading up about - some extracts from Herodotus about her life can be found here.