#ParcoArcheologicodelCelio
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paulalock.bsky.social
Blowing in the wind: A rare example of an anemoscope — an ancient device used to indicate the direction of the wind. It features the names of the winds and their quirky personifications, lips pursed in the act of blowing. #ParcoArcheologicodelCelio #Rome. #StormDarragh #AncientBluesky
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December 8, 2024 at 11:26 AM
anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
#EpigraphyTuesday takes us into the #ParcoArcheologicodelCelio in #Rome to find a late-Republican #cippus testifying to the remarkable social mobility of #Ostia, the port of the Urbs. Call the #purpurarius, I need a new stripe on my tunic! #AncientBluesky 🏺
GUILD CIPPUS FROM OSTIA (?), C1 BCE. PARCO ARCHEOLOGICO DEL CELIO This late Republican cylindrical base records a project funded "ex pecunia decuma"—from a religious 10% tithe pooled by a local guild. The text tells us a lot about social mobility. Five magistri oversaw the works, with a 4-to-1 ratio of freedmen to free-born citizens. We have L. Modius Philomusus, a freedman who got rich as a luxury purple-dye merchant (purpurarius), alongside fellow liberti L. Bennius Mida (the freedman of an unnamed woman, perhaps a Bennia), M. Aeficius Menopo, and Q. Atonius. The lone free-born Roman is Sex. Herennius Rufus of the Palatine tribe. Here, a traditional citizen and entrepreneurial former slaves with Greek names worked side-by-side, using devotions and trade wealth to shape their community. This list testifies to how high a savvy merchant could climb in Rome's roaring commercial world.
May 26, 2026 at 3:34 PM