Rome's Original Tituli

I obtained this book on the cheap via Amazon's Kindle, as early church history intrigues me.  However, I have only managed to make my way half way through and I have to say I am disappointed.  I hoped for a book that could offer guaranteed evidence that these are indeed the houses once used as gatherings for the Roman Christians in the 1st century.  Sad to say this is not quite what I have found.  

The author takes us round a variety of Roman churches, many dating back centuries, but there is little real evidence to be found that this church actually stands on a home once used by the early Christians.  It is certainly possible that the churches were, some 300 or so years later, built on houses said to have been used this way, folk memory can indeed be strong.  However, I am dubious about many of the claims made for the origins.  I am certain Peter did not 'say mass' in one of the houses, he may have 'broken bread' or taken part in an 'agape' meal, but here was no 'mass,' taking place, the author is limited on scripture, trusting only to the RC church teachings.  

The impression given is many tales may have had some origin in the past, however, these have been developed by many 'old wives tales,' and these are difficult to accept for those who read the scriptures.  Indeed, when you remember that for many years Rome refused to allow individuals to read the bible for themselves, and some Popes burnt bibles to stop this happening, you can begin to understand where many of the tales came from in past times.  Bible ignorance leaves room for fairy stories.  

Too much of the book is an adoration of RC architecture, detailing altars, statues and chapels.  The US author appears in awe of the RC surroundings, the very surroundings that leave me dead inside.  

It is possible some of the information in this guide book is correct, however, I would need to look at a better more historical tome to discover if it is possible to know for sure whether individual houses were indeed made use of by early Christians.  For some this book may be worth a look, for me it is too limited in approach and with too little historical evidence on offer.

Tea &Talk!

I spent the day in a drowsy dream today.  Nothing got done.  However in the afternoon I went to the 'Tea & Talks' at the museum and listened to a chap discuss ancient places.  Greece, Herculaneum, Rome, Crete and the like.  It was an enjoyable way to spend an hour.  
The picture from Herculaneum revealing the old buildings and the height of the ash that had covered them for hundreds of years was worth seeing alone. These buildings were at least two if not three stories tall and the ash had covered them by almost two stories on top of them.  Thousands died because of the volcano and they remained in the town believing they were safe.  Interestingly Naples, which stands underneath the same smoking volcano, contains two million people.  The centre is full of tourists and the locals live all around the city.  Guess who gets away first when she blows next time?  Italians are not daft!  
I would have liked to visit Crete also, the pictures from there are interesting. Why I am not made able to live in the sun, surrounded by blue sea, is a mystery to me.  As long as a Tesco is nearby and football on the telly I think I could cope.  The large expanse of the ancient cities surprise some folks. I canny see why these guys could build better than us.  Some places the chaps showed featured tunnels, either rough cut, twenty feet wide, or as in Egypt similarly wide by plastered and lavishly painted so you could identify the one buried there.  
So, making my way home through the mire, I considered the bright blue sea, the dazzling sun and the dim lights from the rear of the Town Hall.  It doesn't seem fair does it......?

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The Ancient Near East, A Very Short History.

This wee book is one of dozens produced in this style.  The intention is to produce a short book to inform the reader of a particular subject, and the subjects range far and near.  It looks a worthwhile series.
This book takes us back before what most folks consider to be history, back before the Romans, the Greek, the Egyptians, those places we consider 'ancient' or 'Classical,' to the generations that lived in Mesopotamia long before.  The poor teaching of history, both professional and popular, leaves out what happened in what is now southern Iraq, even though it is considered to be the place humanity apparently began to settle so long ago.  Certainly where the book begins, 3600 BC, large towns were in existence and the usual problems known to us today bothered them also.  Uruk I think it was had 25,000 folks crammed inside the mud brick walls, although many may have dwelt outside of course. Personally I wanted to go further back but if you have no knowledge this is a good place to begun as here at this time writing begins.
As population growth continued small city states developed into empires.  Some were quite keen on peace and prosperity, others were somewhat rough.  It is interesting to see how many leaders built an empire but encouraged people to live peaceful lives.  The Assyrians however were clearly different in this.  While others revealed their works by carvings on walls depicting the temples and cities they built, the Assyrians depicted the king as waving his bow about, taking cities and chasing wild animals.  His peace was putting hooks in the noses of the rebellious.  
This is an interesting, delightful short read, with takes us from a temple document at Uruk in 3100 BC to the Persians ending the Babylonian empire around 500 BC, ish.  If you know nothing about such an important period, and much of what we know was known then, this book is worth a read.  Of course there are problems, the woman who wrote it was American!  This shows clearly in the grammar ....tut! 

      
Life is not fair.  These chaos arrived to entertain the kids and found rain and gloom.  Some sun on Saturday for them and a wee bit more on Sunday but not much and by teatime they are dismantling everything to head off to the next place.  The town was quiet at the weekend, a Carnival in a nearby town taking the kids away.

Yet when once they leave the sun shines.  Not that I have seen much of this. They claim, as they always do, the sun will be a belter tomorrow and Friday and warnings have been issued.  Climate change is occurring and we had better realise this.  Could it really be the end of the world this time?  Maybe we had better give that some serious consideration.

They done it again.  Out of the blue this appears outside my window, badly parked,  and no polis in sight!  Why?  What were they doing?  Who were they visiting?  Why do they never explain their movements to me, that's what I want to know.  All this integrity for them, they will never get to be Chief Constable if they insist on doing the job properly I'll tell you that! 

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The Letters of the Younger Pliny

Pliny the Younger (61-113 AD) came from the aristocratic class of Roman society. He developed a career as a lawyer and a taste for Literature pursuits. Later his diligence and ability saw him sent to Bythnia and Pontus as Governor. The letters found here give an interesting insight into the workings of Roman society. Allowing for his editing of the letters before publication, the attitudes and concerns of Rome are revealed. There we see little difference between their preoccupations and ours. Marriage, families, advancement for friends, occasional news worthy stories, the deaths of friends and servants arise again and again. People, in spite of the culture in which they dwell are at heart, the same worldwide and at all times. While not writing history as such his letters betray the inner workings of the Roman mind and the society around him.

One much read letter describes the eruption of Vesuvius as it buried Pompeii and Herculaneum. From the other side of the bay the young Pliny watched as his uncle attempted to rescue those engulfed by the volcano. His uncle dying in the attempt. His description is so good those who study such things use it today to help understand eruptions of this kind. One of course is expected any day soon. Good luck Napoli!

Pliny comes over as caring, for friends, for honest endeavour, for his country and indeed for his servants, his slaves. While some treated slaves badly Pliny appears to have looked after his well, suffering when they were sick and depressed when they died. His refusal to allow 'Chained slaves' to work his land shows his humanity towards even the lowest strand of society. This does not mean he opposed the concept of slavery, and possibly never thought much about it, slavery was there and it was a punishment for crime against the state so was acceptable. Cruelty he appears not to have enjoyed, although he appears willing to allow the death penalty whenever it was required.

He did however use torture on slave women, the normal method of the time, to enquire about Christianity when governor. This he decided was '..a degenerate sort of cult carried to extravagant lengths.' Those who refused to renounce their belief he had executed as '..their stubbornness and unshakable obstinacy should not go unpunished.' He was remember, a decent Roman! The cruel ones leave little room for imagination.

This is an excellent book well worth reading. It says much about Roman society and indeed about ourselves. For in history we see ourselves as we really are!

Spelling Nazis

Can I just point out that while we all can make use of the spellchecker found on Blogger, and indeed on most browsers, the correct spelling of some words remains in dispute. This applies also to names and none more so than from names from antiquity. By antiquity I do not mean your granny and her doing in the junk shop, I mean the ancient 'classical' world of long ago.

(At this point I must point out for our younger readers that the term 'Classical' has nothing to do with the music you so detest and which intellectuals like I and the entire Radio 3 audience happen to appreciate - barring those screeching women singers of course.)

We must take into account that ancient words had a habit of being written in Greek or Latin or Aramaic or Akkadian. Thus when translated the correct spelling is less to do with the actualpronunciation of the word in its setting but relates to the one doing the translating. The wide variety of accents available today indicate a similar situation existing in the ancient world. So for instance 'You say potato and I say potato, you say tomato and I say tomato,' does not reveal that the one gives the word correctly and the other does not. And we all know who is right! I happen to know that the ancient people of Cyprus spoke in a Scots like accent, they were hardy, highly intelligent, and I must add humbly, nice, which proves this to be the case. Therefore I must point out to the spelling Nazis who are among us that the name 'Barnabus' is correctly spelt, and the use of 'Barnabas,' is mere middle class Tory, 'Daily Mail' reading snobbery.

I rest my case.


p.s., I have discovered I spelt spellchecker wrong!