a home without books is a body without soul

Hello, I hope you find this interesting. I'm basically going to put up absolutely anything which I find interest to do with the Ancient World. I'm 17, currently doing A Levels and hope to study Ancient History at University.

[allthingsold-blog]

So.. it would appear that the last update I gave to this was when I let people know I was getting uni offers.. over 2 years ago. I did indeed go on to study Ancient History at Manchester University as I hoped to do and have now just finished my 2nd year and am awaiting my results. So far my time there has gone well, I have got good grades made a lot of friends and well simply put, had the time of my life. I hope if anyone reads this who has any interest in going to university to study Classics, History, Ancient History, or in fact anything else just goes for it because believe me it's worth it.. and if you are looking into one of my subject areas (mentioned above), or in Manchester University, then do not hesitate to get in touch as I will be more than willing to help. However, as is quite clear I completely lost touch with this blog.. I used it as a means to enhance my chances of getting into my university of choice, and once I realised that aim had been achieved, I lost interest - although lets not forget the fact that I have had a very busy two years. Therefore if you do wish to contact me about anything, and I highly doubt that anybody will. Please find me at [email protected]! Thank you anyone who has ever viewed this blog, it means a lot to me, and maybe one day I will return to it, and be able to post with the keen eye of one who has seriously studied that which he is talking about. Jamie

[allthingsold-blog]

where is the painting of julius caesers death located

There are many, which in particular are you referring to?

[allthingsold-blog]

Which uni are you planning on going to?

Sorry this is such a late reply I have no idea when you even asked this, but I'm at Manchester.

[allthingsold-blog]

Hey historical buddy! How are you?

wadup? i'm good how you doing?

[allthingsold-blog]

have started getting uni offers.. so happy at the moment :)

[allthingsold-blog]

So sorry I haven't updated this in so long.. I've had so much school work to do, and on top of reading additional material (both in prep. for uni and for my history course) I just haven't had the chance. I will return though!

[cheshicat]

Claudia Octavia, Nero’s stepsister and first wife.

Claudia Octavia did not have a happy life.  Her mother was executed for conspiring to murder her father Claudius.  Her stepmother arranged her marriage to Nero in order to ensure her son the future as emperor, cutting off her previous engagement to Lucius Silanus.  Nero may have poisoned Octavia’s brother in order to become emperor.  She was often caught in power struggles between Nero and his mother, which Nero ended by murdering his mother.  He found his wife boring and cheated on her rampantly, apparently tried to strangle her many times and eventually divorced her when his mistress Poppaea Sabina.  

After the divorce Nero exiled Octavia on false charges of adultery, torturing her closest maids to death when she protested.  His exile of her made the Roman people extremely angry.  Nero decided to solve this problem by having Octavia murdered.  She was tied up and had her veins cut, then suffocated in an extremely hot bath.  Octavia was then decapitated so her head could be sent to Poppaea.

[ancient-britain]

The Celtic Druids

 The Druids were simply the priests of Celtic tribes in Britain, but this definition doesn’t grasp how really influential they were on society. They were political advisors, teachers, healers and the arbitrators within Celtic tribes. They had so much authority in fact that they spoke before the King in council, and were the ones to upheld the law. In a sense they were the ones which held the Celtic culture together. 

After the Romans first visit to Britain in the first century BC, they brought back horrific stories of the Druids practices, with Julius Ceaser saying that the native Celts “believe that gods delight in the slaughter of prisoners and criminals, and when the supply of captives run short, they sacrifice even the innocent”. No accounts of human sacrifice was left by the Celts, but recent archaeological discoveries have found evidence of human sacrifice and even cannibalism. Lindow Man (in the image above) is a 2,000 year old bog-mummified body. He had manicured fingernails and finely trimmed hair and beard, suggesting that he was of high status, and possibly a Druid himself. However they also found that his body had been violently smashed, and his neck strangled and slashed. Other evidence which leads archaeologists to believe it was a human sacrifice, was the find of pollen grains of Mistletoe found with him, which was a sacred plant to the Druids.

A cave in Alveston, England found to have 150 skeletons, dating back to the time of Roman invasion. They had evidence of skull-splitting blows, suggesting Druids may have killed the victims in a single event, possibly escalated from the Roman invasion itself. However most disturbingly, they found a thigh bone which had been broken in the exact way you would on an animal in order to get the bone marrow out. This was an extremely rare find though, and may have been an act of desperation due to extreme hunger.

Much of the Druids practiced on the Isle of Anglesey. However due to the disgust the Romans had for the Druids, in 61 AD all Druids on the Isle were exterminated. This effectively destroyed Druidism as a religious force, until it’s revivial in the 19th century. 

[cass-attack]

Naqsh-e Rustam also referred to as Necropolis is an archaeological site located about 12 km northwest of Persepolis, in Fars province, Iran.

Four tombs belonging to Achaemenid kings are carved out of the rock face. They are all at a considerable height above the ground.

The tombs are known locally as the ‘Persian crosses’, after the shape of the facades of the tombs. The site is known as salīb in Arabic (صليب), perhaps a corruption of the Persian word chalīpā, “cross”. The entrance to each tomb is at the center of each cross, which opens onto to a small chamber, where the king lay in a sarcophagus. The horizontal beam of each of the tomb’s facades is believed to be a replica of the entrance of the palace at Persepolis.

One of the tombs is explicitly identified by an accompanying inscription to be the tomb of Darius I the Great (c. 522-486 BC). The other three tombs are believed to be those of Xerxes I (c. 486-465 BC), Artaxerxes I (c. 465-424 BC), and Darius II (c. 423-404 BC) respectively. A fifth unfinished one might be that of Artaxerxes III, who reigned at the longest two years, but is more likely that of Darius III (c. 336-330 BC), last of the Achaemenid dynasts.

The tombs were looted following the conquest of the Achaemenid empire by Alexander the Great.

[satsuma-laginger]

Nike of Samothrace, Musée du Louvre ca. 190 B.C. The winged goddess Nike (pron. [nǐːkɛː], Greek word for “victory”) was the daughter of the titan Pallas and the nymph Styx. The image of this goddess is widely known throughout the Hellenistic period and was traditionally associated with victory in war, athletics and poetry contests. The Nike was originally placed on the bow of a sculpted warship, commemorating a naval victory, and it’s designed to seem as if she is landing in a powerful headwind, with her wings still wide open.

I just really really like this.

[allthingsold-blog]

A bust of Gaius Julius Octavian, Augustus, the first Roman Emperor who ruled from 27 BC to 14 AD.

[allthingsold-blog]

Let us live, my Lesbia, let us love, and all the words of the old, and so moral, may they be worth less than nothing to us! Suns may set, and suns may rise again: but when our brief light has set, night is one long everlasting sleep. Give me a thousand kisses, a hundred more, another thousand, and another hundred, and, when we’ve counted up the many thousands, confuse them so as not to know them all, so that no enemy may cast an evil eye, by knowing that there were so many kisses.

Catullus

[allthingsold-blog]

The remains of the Antonine Wall. The Antonine Wall was the northernmost barrier of the Roman Empire and ran for approximately 39 miles across the central belt of Scotland. It was abandoned after only 20 years when Roman soldiers retreated to Hadrian's Wall.

[allthingsold-blog]

Even you, Brutus?

Julius Caesar

[cheshicat]

Vespasian, found of the Flavian dynasty

He is well known for his successful campaign against Judaea and various monumental projects- such as one you may have heard of, the Coliseum!

[allthingsold-blog]

I'm sure his most famous campaign was conquering Britain.

[allthingsold-blog]

This painting "Death of Julius Caesar" painted in 1798 by Vincenzo Camuccini depicts the conspirators encircling and murdering Julius Caesar. The assassination (March, 44 BC) was brought about shortly after Caesar had been named "dictator perpetuo" by the Senate, they assassinated him out of fear of the senate being overthrown.

[allthingsold-blog]

The Fall of the Roman Republic

I find the pace at which the Roman Republic grew, and then fell, absolutely fascinating. It seems that the oligarchy was in such a dominant position at the start of the 2nd Century that the fall of the Republic would of been unfathomable at the time. Then a few key events sent it all tumbling.. and greedy people of course.