Tag: rome

NaNoWriMo Day 10

No green today (1141 words), but it’s been a long, exhausting week at work, so I’ll take that for a Friday night. I’ve written every day and am about 1100 words behind the path to success (as NaNoWriMo calls it) but can make that up. Just not tonight.

But a new fun thing, courtesy of my sister: a fly-over reconstruction of Ancient Rome (link to a write up about it on LiveScience). I’ve only looked briefly, but what a great way to help visualize it. I’ve already posted about the video fly over of Carthage and its ports, so this is a nice and much more elaborate (it seems) counterpart for Rome.

NaNoWriMo Day 9

A good writing day (1863 words). I’ve been working (I’ve probably said) on a sequel to my alernative-myth in which Dido kills Aeneas and raises a Carthaginian empire in place of a Roman one. This novel is set a few hundred years later, at the end of the 6th century BCE around the founding of popular governments (democracy/republic).

Historically, in 510/509 BCE, the Athenians kick out the Pisistratid tyrants and head on the road to deomocracy (which is usually credited to the reforms of Cleisthenes in 503/502 BCE). And in what is a probably a case of synchronism, the Romans kick out the Tarquin kings/tyrants and found the Republic.

What’s striking to me is how both stories of the founding of popular rule are based basically on the woman in fridge trope (which trope I have discussed before). It is such an ancient and pervasive trope, in history stories as well as fiction. In Athens, what sets the revolution in motion involves a sexual shaming of the sister of Harmodius (one of the Tyrannicides). In Rome, it is the rape of Lucretia by Sextus Tarquinius, son of the king, and her subsequent suicide. Both motivate their male relatives to revolution, which leads to popular government.

I’m not a fan of the trope, but yet I find it at the center of some of my action. I think I’m using it subversively (the Tyrannicides in Athens historically fail and die and in my fiction I follow the shamed sister as one of my main characters; in my fiction, Lucretia doesn’t commit suicide – although the public is misled to believe she did – and she too will be a major player), but nevertheless it feels weird.

Onwards tomorrow.

Iridescent Roman Glass

I used to work with a glass archaeologist. I remember when I first saw some pieces of Roman glass. I was blown away (so to speak) by the iridescence of their surfaces. 

1st-2nd cent. CE Roman Glass

I was more than a little disappointed to learn that the iridescence was not intentional nor an effect created by Roman artisanship. Instead, it’s the result of corrosion. But a recent study and article makes me realize how cool that corrosive effect is. As the article says, 

Nature is the ultimate nanofabricator.

The study examines a fragment nick-named the “wow glass” (not pictured here).

As the article explains, colors in this (and other Roman glass and some organic occurrences such as butterfly-wings and beetle-shells)

don’t come from any pigment molecules but from how they are structured.

And this has implications for materials science and practical applications. The whole article over at Ars Technica is a fascinating read that I’d highly recommend.

How often do men think about…

I never thought to ask how often men think about Ancient Rome, but apparently it is a hot topic over on TikTok, started by a Swedish Roman re-enactor. Not being on TikTok myself, I came across it in this WaPo article (no paywall).

Now, I think of Ancient Rome many times a day, but I am a Classicist and Latin teacher, so I think about it for a living. But apparently, in the general populace, there’s a gender split in how often people think about it and men think about it a lot. As WaPo says:

But why does there seem to be a gender divide in who is daydreaming about ancient Rome today?

According to historians, one explanation could be that Western societies have historically overemphasized the aspects of Roman history that are associated with masculinity in the popular imagination.

As one historian they quoted says, 

“But it was also a diverse place: there were numerous forms of masculinity, women could have agency and power, and there were multiple gender expressions and identities, as well as various sexualities.”

A Costumed Gladiatrix Re-enactor

The article is a fun read, especially if you too think about Ancient Rome on a regular basis. Or perhaps a WTF moment if you don’t.