Empire, Oil, and Disaster - blog about my new book

Legio XV Apploinaris

2010-02-01T01:13:00.001-08:00

More on Legio XV Apploinaris: under Titus (?) command that was stationed after Parthian War in Alexandria but was sent under Vespasian command to Judaea (also took Jamala). Fought with Legio V Macedonica on the Western front, while X Fretensis took care of the valley of Jordan river.

(?) Participated in the sige of Jerusalem in 70 (captured the city), winter 70/71 Legio XV is sent to Zeugma on Euprates, then shipped back to Carnuntum in Pannonia.

http://www.livius.org/le-lh/legio/xv_apollinaris.html

Yosef bio details

2010-01-31T23:43:00.000-08:00

Born 37 BC in Jerusalem. One version: Father of a priestly descent, mother claiming royal blood. Second version: a sadducee and aristocrat. Supposed to be very well educated. Assumed to live in a desert with a hermit Bannus for three years (until age of 19). Claimed to be a Pharisee in his autobiography, but showed dislike to them in his books.

In 64 at the age of ~27 (64-37=27) he went to Rome and negotiated the release of Jewish priests. Upon return found the country on a brink of revolt. Claims to be moderate, but joined (or was forced to join?) Zealots and Sicarii rebels once they killed Roman garrison of Jerusalem. Then he was sent North to organize resistance to Romans in Galilee,

John of Gischala (Yohanan mi-Gush Halav) was another leader there, who organized a privae militia of peasants. John and Joseph had a lot of quarrelling resulting in seize the city of Sepphoris. In the Spring 67 Joseph's men were defending Jotapata (Yodfat) that stood on the road to Sepphoris (on the plains of Zebulon?)

Surrendered to Legio XV Apploinaris under questionable circumstances.

Whatever the truth of this implausible story, Josephus was brought before Vespasian and his son Titus. To Vespasian, he explained about an ambiguous oracle that said that

a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab, and break down all the sons of Sheth.
[Numbers 24.17-19]

Almost every Jew believed that this prophecy referred to the coming of the Messiah. However, who said that the ruler who was to rise out of Israel was to be a Jew? Why should Vespasian not become king or emperor? Ridiculous though this may seem to a modern reader, Vespasian was impressed. After all, in Gaul and Hispania an insurrection had started against the emperor Nero, and it was clear to any intelligent observer that civil war was bound to break out. Besides, everybody had observed the comet, resembling a sword, that had stood over the country during the preceding months. Instead of having Joseph crucified, the Roman general kept him in detention. The former Jewish commander became friends with Titus, who was of the same age.

http://www.livius.org/jo-jz/josephus/josephus.htm
http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/
http://www.livius.org/le-lh/legio/xv_apollinaris.html

House of Yosef in Jerusalem

2010-01-31T23:31:00.000-08:00

First of all - about the material. Most stone building in Jerusalem were constructed from limestone or dolomite. Now, there were several kinds of limestone: Senonian limestone - located east of Jerusalem and most available and cheap stone, Cenomanian a.k.a. mizzi ahmar and mizzi yahudz (arabic) limestone - more expensive and hard to handle, and Turonian layers providing mizze helu and meleke. Meleke is soft and easy once digged, but hardens on contact with the athmosphere, It was also most often used with religious structures and very rare now. I have no more details, but I'd expect that house of a priest would be made of the most appropriate stone - meleke.

The color. Limestone in area has multiple colors -- pale, sand, golden, pink and off-white. With the time meleke stone of the Western wall became nearly bright white -- phenomena noticeable with some Greek monasteries made of limestone too. So, I'd assume Yosef's house was made of pale of off-white meleke limestone.

Floor Plan. It seems that normal plan for a house in the area includes 4-6 rooms on the first floor, two floors and flat roofs with the space on them to dine or relax in the evening. Four room floor plan was pretty straightforward: entrance room, back room, another room on the right or left of the entrance room, and another room behind it with or without a door to the back room. Not much privacy. On another hand, if one sent the servants away (was it even possible?), they could have enjoyed relative privacy on the roof, provided they did not talk out loud and noisy like a bunch of Americans in a Parisian cafe these days. But other than that, all conspiracy has to be done either in eateries, or in even more private places outside. Gethsemane garden comes to mind...

The guests more likely were provided with the second floor room, likely above the main or secondary back room, because front ones could have been non-existent and providing access to the roof (stairs take place too).

Misc links:
http://www.livius.org/jo-jz/josephus/josephus.htm
http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/
And, of course, all-knowlegdable wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jotapata (Yodfat)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_stone

Book 2 Chapter IV: Flute players on the streets of Rome

2007-03-10T02:45:00.000-08:00

“As if celebrating in honor of Yosef’s victory, some flute players on the street entertained the crowd, and the sounds of music filled him with joy.”

Was it possible? I mean, flute players on a street? Yes. Specifically, on the Quinquatrus Minusculae (June 12-14, three days around Ides of June) flute players in masks played throughout the city streets.

How often gladiators died on arena

2007-02-17T22:40:00.000-08:00

Just yesterday, I found a very interesting article, which among other things had the following statement: "Roman scholar Georges Ville recently conducted a study of ancient writings which recorded arena deaths during a short period of the 1st Century AD. He discovered that, of the 200 gladiators involved in the documented fights, only 19 of them died."

Impressive, is it? We are accustomed to think about gladiators as a sort of Japanese komikadze, while instead it was definitely a high risk occupation, but hardly a higher risk than a soldier, probably not even close to that! Only 10%, 90% of gladiators successfully lived to the old years, probably already as free Roman citizens.

Slaves prices in Greece and Rome

2007-02-17T02:03:00.000-08:00

Found an interesting information.

Prices on slaves in Greece in around 400-350 BC.

Uneducated slave	~ 2 mins (1.5-2.5 mins)
Skilled slave	3-4 mins
Slave overseer, "manager"	5-6 mins
Slave with special skills and knowledge	10-15 mins
Beautiful girls and dancers	20-30 mins

Greek money:

6 obols	=	1 drahma
100 drahms	=	1 min
60 mins	=	1 talant

Now, Rome.
In Republic and early Empire uneducated slave was 400-500 denarii.
Late Empire (with almost no conquest and cheap source of slaves) 600-700 denarii
(the second price seems questionable, considering inflation)

Comparing with the Greek prices, we get:

Uneducated slave	400-500 denarii
Skilled slave	800-1000 denarii
Slave overseeer, "manager"	1000-1500 denarii
Slave with special skills and knowledge	2000-3000 denarii
Beautiful girls and dancers	4000-6000 denarii

The price of slaves in Rome

2007-02-11T22:19:00.000-08:00

Found such information for the time of Cato, but don't know how reliable it is...

The price of a slave is about a two-year wage of a free man of similar skills.
A free field worker had between 2/3 to 5/6 of a denarius per day, that is about 500-600 in two years.
An unskilled, 20 year old male slave was about 500 denarius.
Related: expected return of 6% (25 denarii per year) and writing off the salve in 20 years.
Keeping a slave was about 1/3 of the wage of a free worker, about 128 denarii per year for an unskilled field worker.
Cost of living at the time for a freeman laborer and his wife was about 300 denarii/year.

Census data for Rome

2006-11-26T23:49:00.000-08:00

Just found an excellent table of Roman Census data published by John Paul Adams from CSUN here.

According to it, population of Rome during King Servius Tullius was aboput 80 thousand people, while in AD 47 it became close to 6-7 millions.

I find very ineteresting a jump in population during the change from the Republic to the Empire:

70/69 B.C. 910,000 / 900,000
28 B.C. (Augustus) 4,063,000

Caveat: data are not 100% reliable, because it's hard to tell who exactly was counted (e.g., slaves apparently were not), if it was a full census, if the numbers were properly copied from manuscript to manuscript, etc. Many believe that numbers prior to 340 BC are not real.

Eestor - battery for electromobils from Texas

2006-10-08T23:23:00.000-07:00

Eestor – Business 2.0, October 2006, p.82

Not exactly about Rome or Egypt, but closely related to getting rid of oil-dependency, which I consider relеvant to this blog and the book. Seems like not only oil-thirsty politicians are coming from Texas. Here is one very positive example that this state may be truly proud of.

A company called EEStor from Texas seems to develop accumulator batteries capable of charging in 5 minutes to store the energy enough for 500 miles of drive with the engine (battery + the motor) cost of only $5200 (the article states that similar gasoline engine is $3000-$5000, but if you ever faced a need to replace one, you know that it’s much more). Considering current electricity prices, this engine will provide an equivalent by mileage of about 45 cents per gallon or $9 to travel 500 miles (compared to $60 on average gasoline car with $3/gallon price)

Sounds really good, unless this technology will also disappear just like the technology of producing light oil from any organic waste (including city sewage) at $17 per barrel, described by Discover back in 2003 (Anything into Oil by Brad Lenley – Discover, Vol 24., No 5, May 2003.)

The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina

2006-09-19T00:29:00.000-07:00

The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina by Frank Rich - ISBN 159420098X, 352 pages, 2006.

Funny, I am not alone in drawing Ancient analogies. The title of the book obviously exploits a similarity to another book "The Greatest Story Ever Sold" considering genesis of the Christiantiy.

Also, amazingly, this book holds #2 sales rank on Amazon!

Ancient Egypt by David P. Silverman – Oxford University Press

2006-08-27T19:31:00.000-07:00

Ancient Egypt by David P. Silverman (Editor) – Oxford University Press and Dunkan Baird Publishers Ltd., 2003 (copyright 1997), ISBN 0-19-521952-X

Another excellent choice by Oxford University Press. Apparently the book was created and prepared by Dunkan Baird Publishers Ltd., and then picked up by Oxford University Press. Well, seems like that how publishing industry will work in the near future – small companies taking the risk and large companies providing large distribution for winners. But anyway, that one was a great choice by OUP editors.

Where was Legio X Fretensis and Centurion Furious in AD 65-66?

2006-08-07T21:22:00.000-07:00

From Wikipedia:

"In 66, the X Fretensis and V Macedonica went to Alexandria for an invasion of Ethiopia planned by Nero. However, the two legions were needed in Iudaea to suppress a revolt."

It means that in 65 (Book II) it was in Judea, and it was sent to Alexadnria soon before the revolt, where it was under direct command of Vespasian.

Roman Triremes

2006-07-27T13:55:00.000-07:00

When working on chapters VI-VII, I thought about sending Judean priests home from Rome by a military trireme. Of course, it’s not a passenger ship, but if the emperor decides they would take anything onboard, and that would bring the priests home quickly. Seems, it was not such a great idea as I cannot find any logical reason why Nero or Tigellinus would bother to do so. I still may send Nil and his company this way. Meanwhile, here is a lot of links to materials about triremes that I found trying to understand how such a travel would look like:

[1] Trireme (From Wikipedia)
[2] The Athenian fighting ship: the trieres
[3] How was a trireme built? by E.J. de Meester
[4] Ships of the Ancient Greeks
[5] The Trireme Trust
[6] Roman Trireme
[7] Athen's Triere -- Greek style triere (broken deck, no cabin)
[8] Ancient Generals: Themistocles: Master of Deception -- Speaks about Greeks, but shows a picture of a Roman trireme (not Greek triere)
[9] The Picture Gallery of Ships -- Just few more pictures of triremes and trieres
[10] X Legio v.1.5 -- Roman trireme (the page is in Russian, but contains a good picture with captain's cabin)

Doctor Noot – did Egyptians really knew dentistry?

2006-03-01T12:17:00.000-08:00

I probably already wrote about that, but let’s do that again.

Yes, they did.

See [1], page 53 for a photo of the first known “false” teeth in the history of the humankind. It’s about 4,500 years old (~2,500 BC). And yes, sometimes Egyptians used metals. These ancient teeth were held together by a gold wire. They also knew how to fill cavities and fight a dental infection. The first known dentist, probably, was Hesi Re, the “Chief of Toothers and Physicians”, who lived about 2,600 BC (~4,600 years ago).

[1] Science in Ancient Egypt by Geraldine Woods – Franklin Watts, 1998, ISBN 0-531-15915-9

Book I of September Ides is coming!

2006-02-16T23:38:00.000-08:00

Official day of publication is Feruary 25! The printed copies are coming. See more at the Galiel.Net - the publisher's site.

Ancient Mathematics in Egypt

2006-02-10T23:16:00.000-08:00

According to [1], about 3,500 years ago (around 1,500 BC), Ahmes the Moonborn wrote a book called How to Obtain Information About All Things Mysterious and Dark. The things “mysterious and dark” was mathematics. It already covered fractions, multiplication and division (including of fractions), calculating the area of a circle (remember? pi=3.1415…), square or triangle (not just a triangle with one right angle, any triangle), volume of some shapes. See [1], page 31.

About a millennium later, some of this knowledge was popularized by a Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras. We still associate some of this knowledge with his name. By the way, did you know that Pythagoras served as an Egyptian priest for many years in the Upper Egypt?

[1] Science in Ancient Egypt by Geraldine Woods – Franklin Watts, 1998, ISBN 0-531-15915-9

Science in Ancient Egypt by Geraldine Woods

2006-01-15T20:12:00.000-08:00

Science in Ancient Egypt by Geraldine Woods – Franklin Watts, 1998, ISBN 0-531-15915-9

A wonderful book for children, and a funny one for adults. While I would not recommend this book as a serious reference – it’s really targeted to children – I would definitely recommend it to young people for school reading, especially if you have a school project on the science in Ancient Egypt.

As any American popular book on Egypt, it has a lot of illustrations, but most of them are relevant, which is a great advantage over similar books. Also, the set of facts to describe is done very intelligently. Apparently, 64 pages book could not really go into details and cover everything, but what to cover and what to leave is picked up well.

Here are a few things mentioned in the book: using triangulation for measuring land, Egyptian ships, building pyramids (sure, how you can miss this one…), using levels, and more. By the way, did you know that Egyptians employed binary base system for multiplication and division (like we use in computers now). By the way, they also put the foundation to the modern decimal system, while alternative civilization of Mesopotamia used 64-base system instead (some traces of it we can see today in a 16-base system popular in the software development).

Also, pay attention to bibliography and links, especially, Egyptology Resources: http://www.newton.cam.ac.uk/egypt/

If you fancy Latin or Greek...

2006-01-09T23:51:00.000-08:00

...but never had a time to really learn these languages, here is a good start. :-)

Who were the priests retained by Nero in Rome?

2006-01-07T15:10:00.000-08:00

Joseph Flavius tells that he was on the mission to Rome somewhere in 62/63-65 to release Judean priests who were held as hostages by Nero. In the book, he will have to meet them, so who were they?

Here is a quote from another Joseph Flavius book, Antiquities of the Jews ([1]):

11. About the same time king Agrippa built himself a very large dining-room in the royal palace at Jerusalem, near to the portico. Now this palace had been erected of old by the children of Asamoneus. and was situate upon an elevation, and afforded a most delightful prospect to those that had a mind to take a view of the city, which prospect was desired by the king; and there he could lie down, and eat, and thence observe what was done in the temple; which thing, when the chief men of Jerusalem saw they were very much displeased at it; for it was not agreeable to the institutions of our country or law that what was done in the temple should be viewed by others, especially what belonged to the sacrifices. They therefore erected a wall upon the uppermost building which belonged to the inner court of the temple towards the west, which wall when it was built, did not only intercept the prospect of the dining-room in the palace, but also of the western cloisters that belonged to the outer court of the temple also, where it was that the Romans kept guards for the temple at the festivals. At these doings both king Agrippa, and principally Festus the procurator, were much displeased; and Festus ordered them to pull the wall down again: but the Jews petitioned him to give them leave to send an embassage about this matter to Nero; for they said they could not endure to live if any part of the temple should be demolished; and when Festus had given them leave so to do, they sent ten of their principal men to Nero, as also Ismael the high priest, and Helcias, the keeper of the sacred treasure. And when Nero had heard what they had to say, he not only forgave (22) them what they had already done, but also gave them leave to let the wall they had built stand. This was granted them in order to gratify Poppea, Nero's wife, who was a religious woman, and had requested these favors of Nero, and who gave order to the ten ambassadors to go their way home; but retained Helcias and Ismael as hostages with herself. As soon as the king heard this news, he gave the high priesthood to Joseph, who was called Cabi, the
son of Simon, formerly high priest.

[1] Antiquities of the Jews - Book XX, From Fadus The Procurator To Florus, Chapter 8 - http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/ant-20.htm

Happy New 2006 Year!

2005-12-31T21:37:00.000-08:00

I wish you all a great year.

By the way, the first book of "The Third Day of September Ides" is already edited and it's going to be published really soon, in first quarter.

Happy New Year!

--Ely

The Last Judean High Priests

2005-12-24T15:01:00.000-08:00

The [1] gives the following list between the ill-famous Caiaphas – you know, AD 33 and around – and to the last High Priest at the time when Titus destroyed the Temple. Although the source looks like the book XX of “Antiquities of the Jews” by Josephus Flavius, the actual list is the latest comment to the book, and I was not able to check this list нуе. But anyway, it contains

Jonathas, who was allegedly killed by the order of procurator Felix, or, may be, by sicarii,
Ismael, who was retained in Rome as a hostage after petitioning in the conflist with Festus, and
Ananias, who was killed by the rebels.

These three give us approximate dates to base the story line. Here is the whole list:

Josephus Caiaphas, the son-in-law to Ananus.
Jonathan, the son of Ananus.
Theophilus, his brother, and son of Ananus.
Simon, the son of Boethus.
Matthias, the brother of Jonathan, and son of Ananus.
Aljoneus.
Josephus, the son of Camydus.
Ananias, the son of Nebedeus.
Jonathas. ?-62
Ismael, the son of Fabi. 62-?
Joseph Cabi, the son of Simon.
Ananus, the son of Artanus. ?-66
Jesus, the son of Damnetas.
Jesus, the son of Gamaliel.
Matthias, the son of Theophilus.
Phannias, the son of Samuel.

As a reminder, at the time described by the books, Ananus also spelled as Ananius seems to be the High Priest.

[1] http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/ant-20.htm

Yosef Ben-Matityahu (37 AD – c.100 AD)

2005-12-17T23:11:00.000-08:00

Yosef Ben-Matityahu a.k.a. Joseph, son of Matthias, a.k.a. Flavius Josephus, is an interesting and somewhat controversial figure of the time described in the book. We remember him as a historian and the author of “Judean War” and “Jewish Antiquities”, but his life seems to be deeply entwined with many historical personages of the time.

Somewhere in 62/63 at the age of 26 he came to Rome to free Jewish priests that were sent there by procurator Felix and held there by Nero. Here is what Joseph writes about this mission: “And when I had thus escaped, and was come to Dieearchia, which the Italians call Puteoli, I became acquainted with Aliturius, an actor of plays, and much beloved by Nero, but a Jew by birth; and through his interest became known to Poppea, Caesar's wife, and took care, as soon as possible, to entreat her to procure that the priests might be set at liberty. And when, besides this favor, I had obtained many presents from Poppea, I returned home again.”

Actually, it seems that “when, besides this favor” was quite a time. He returned somewhere in 65 AD, the year described in the second book, when Judea was already close to the boiling point and merely a year until the revolt. Few things catching the eye here: “Aliturius … much beloved by Nero”, “I had obtained many presents from Poppea”. It sounds almost like he does not want to admit something in public, but cannot resist a temptation to hint at it… although for contemporaries, “beloved by Nero” was hard to call merely a hint. Especially after Nero married one of his “beloved” actors. “Many presents from Poppea” also sounds somewhat ambiguous, especially keeping in mind that Joseph was the petitioner on the whole affair. What were these presents for?

Well, I think you’ve got the idea. When he gets to Judea in 65, he becomes a general in the revolt. When Vespasian surrounded and captured the city of Jotapata in July 67, Joseph and his brothers-in-arms decided to kill themselves before surrendering, and everybody except Josephus committed suicide. According to controversial sources, Joseph fixed the lot to be the last one, and once everybody was dead, surrendered. Then he claimed that the prophecy (of a king coming from Judea that started the war) actually applies to Vespasian. This flattery saved his life and Vespasian held him as a hostage, interpreter, and collaborator. Eventually, Joseph got his freedom, Roman citizenship and became the author of several books of history that made him remembered until our days.

Now, an interesting question: after his first mission to Rome, he returned to Judea in 65 AD, that’s the time when Nil, Benjamin and Isidora are going to Judea. Travel was not safe in ancient times. In fact, Joseph almost drowned on the way to Rome when his ship, with 160 more passengers, sank in Adriatic Sea. Going with a Roman official was much safer, if he would care to pick up a Jewish priest as his fellow traveler. Which is quite possible considering Poppaea’s affection to him, as well as that Joseph certainly was in contact with Benjamin’s teacher, ben-Ata. And if Nil and Isidora took him “into the work” during this trip, would it explain his later behavior? I wonder…

References

[1] Wikipedia:

[2] The Life Of Flavius Josephus, (3)
[3] The Works of Flavius Josephus - Translated by William Whiston
[4] The Works of Josephus
[5] Flavius Josephus Home Page
[6] A Chronology of the Life of Josephus and his Era

Throwing trash on a new Year

2005-12-04T12:23:00.000-08:00

Long ago I’ve heard about a funny Italian custom to throw trash out of windows on a New Year Eve for a good luck. Lately, I walked over an interesting information ([1]) that may light up the history of this custom. Here are the quotes:

“Modern Date : June 15th Market Day”

“This day concludes the previous weeks of religious celebration and purification, and on this day the accumulated trash of the festivals was thrown, ceremoniously, into the Tiber. This was as symbolic of final purification as it was necessary by this time.”

“This is the ancient Egyptian New Year's Day. On this day the Dog Star (Sirius) rises for the first time just before dawn. This event heralded the first flooding of the Nile (usually).”

Interesting, isn’t it? The day followed festivals of Diana, Vesta and Mater Matuta, not to mention several single-day celebrations. So, throwing trash was a quite functional action. Of course, throwing trash into a river does not combine in our minds with purification, but, well, clearly there was not Green party in the Ancient Rome, so let’s just consider it a cultural difference.

Incidentally, the same day was the Egyptian New Year, and Egypt was considered a source of mysteries and magic. What people want on a New Year? Good luck. So, with the time, quite an utilitarian custom of throwing trash on that day combined with a magical mysterious Egyptian New Year become a magical act to obtain a good luck.

Was it really the reason for that Italian custom? It’s hard to say. Could be.

[1] Roman Calendar, June 11

Hail Pharaoh Titus Flavius Vespasianus?

2005-11-23T22:33:00.000-08:00

Egyptian, Judean and Syrian legions proclaimed Vespasian as the emperor in July, 69. He came to Rome in September-October 70. Most of this time he stayed in Egypt. Why? Why did he wait a year before claiming the power at home? What was he waiting for?

The Cambridge Ancient History ([1]) with the references to Suetonius, Josephus Flavius and Tacitus gives a few possible answers:

Raising money in a rich province.
Strong defensive position.
Ability to control corn supplies from Egypt.
Ability to attribute corn shortages from Africa to Vitellian and “come to the rescue” with Egyptian corn to raise popularity.
Ability to send others to do preliminary blood work, thus keeping his own hands clean and retaining an image of an emperor who “put no innocent person to death in his reign except when he was absent or unaware.”

While all these reasons seem plausible, and some are even confirmed, there is another complementary answer that may be interesting. Think of it – Vespasian was not of a high enough origin. He needed encouragement and reaffirmation of his right to claim the throne. And here is what, according to The Cambridge Ancient History ([1]), he does:

Suetonius tells about the miracle of healings he performed in Alexandria.
Suetonius and Tacitus reported that he visited Serapeum – the Temple of Serapis in Alexandria – and got their confirmation from Egyptian priests. Tacitus gives the name of the priest and Suetonius notes presentation of the attributes of Egyptian kingship.
Philostratus mentions that after the visit to Serapeum, Alexandrians hailed Vespasian as son of Ammon, legal sovereign of Egypt, “Divine Caesar” and “Lord Augustus”.
Later, some time after 75 AD, Vespasian put a statue of the River God Nile into his Temple of Peace in Rome.

Many authors mention that most of the miracles were arranged by the loyal prefect of Egypt Tiberius Iulius Alexander, but that’s what we would expect anyway. Also, Vespasian was not eager to stress this part of the story. Some authors think that it shows the whole thing was done for the consumption in eastern provinces. This could be true, unless it was supposed to be mostly esoteric, when Vespasian was told that the divine blessing was conditioned on not using it in vain and not overusing it in public. Which we would expect, if Nil and Simaat would be behind that with the purpose of reaffirming the future emperor that he has the right to the throne, rather than a simplistic PR effort.

In any case, what we have in the end, is the Egyptian pharaoh who claimed the title of Roman Emperor and founded the dynasty credited for the period of prosperity and stability.

[1] The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. XI, The High Empire, A.D. 70-192 – Cambridge University Press, Second edition, 2000, ISBN 0-521-26335-2, p.4-7.

Tiberius Iulius Alexander

2005-11-16T10:27:00.000-08:00

Tiberius Iulius Alexander is a very interesting personage of the history, who plays a significant role in the third book. He was a Jew of Greek culture from Alexandria in Egypt. He was a nephew of Philo Judaeus, famous philosopher of the time, follower of Pythagoras and Plato, who is most known for his effort in merging Judaic and Hellenic traditions together in his teachings. While apparently failing in the grand scheme, he contributed a lot to enrichment of both cultures with the elements of each other.

His nephew, Tiberius Iulius Alexander, was granted citizenship by Tiberius, became epistrategos of Thebaid region of Egypt (Thebes) in 42 AD, procurator of Judea in 46 AD, minister bello to Corbulo in 63 AD, Praefectus Aegypti in 66 AD.

His last appointment (made by Nero, by the way) is most interesting for us. That’s when he, along with Legatus Augusti of Syria C. Licinius Mucianus, became the leading promoter of Vespasian. Two legions in Egypt, three legions in Judea and three legions in Syria became the first to acclaim and recognize Vespasian as the emperor (princeps) in July 69 AD (Jule 1 – Calendas Iulius, July 3, and mid-July respectively).

Later, he participated as a commander under Titus in the siege of Jerusalem and eventually become Praefectus Praetorio, the position occupied by Tigellinus during the time described in the first three books.

Now, the interesting question is: what linked these two high officials – Prefect of Egypt and Legate of Syria, to support Vespasian unanimously? Maybe, nothing? I mean, nothing, null, nil, nihil… Nil Nihil?

Actually… Tacitus tells in his Histories ([4]) that Vespasian and Mucianus have not went along well, but – “exitu demum Neronis positis odiis in medium consuluere, primum per amicos,” – after the death of Nero they started to talk primarily through friends.

[1] Roman Careers
[2] Philo Judaeus in Wikipedia
[3] The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. XI, The High Empire, A.D. 70-192 – Cambridge University Press, Second edition, 2000, ISBN 0-521-26335-2, p.4-7.
[4] P. Corneli Taciti Historiarvm, book 2, chapter 5

List of Roman Legions

2005-11-06T23:07:00.000-08:00

The number of legions varied with the time. Augustus inherited about 60 legions after the battle of Actium (31 BC), but soon reduced it to about 28, which is about 150,000 men. The number of legions continued to be around 28 since that time.

Legio X Fretensis was garrosioned in Jerusalem for about 200 years and took part in the siege of Jerusalem and Masada.

Other Syrian legions were Legio III Gallica, Legio VI Ferrata, and Legio XII Fulminata.

Two legions stayed in Egypt and, apparently, were under the command of Vespasian at the time when he decided to go to Rome to claim the power. This legion are Legio III Cyrenaica, and Legio XXII Deiotariana.

Legio I Italica
Legio I Parthica
Legio II Adiutrix
Legio II Herculia
Legio II Parthica
Legio II Traiana
Legio III Augusta
Legio III Gallica
Legio III Cyrenaica
Legio IV Italica
Legio IV Macedonica
Legio IV Martia
Legio IV Scythica
Legio V Alaudae
Legio V Macedonica
Legio VI Ferrata
Legio VII Gemina
Legio VIII Augusta
Legio IX Hispana
Legio X Equitata
Legio X Fretensis - garrisoned in Jerusalem, siege of Jerusalem
Legio XII Fulminata
Legio XIII Gemina
Legio XIV Gemina
Legio XV Apollinaris
Legio XXII Deiotariana

[1] http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/intro/legion.htm

Is the name Isadora (Isidora) really a combinations of names of Isis and Ra?

2005-10-30T23:22:00.000-08:00

It’s hard to say. If you check on Internet, you are likely to see a statement that this is a Latin name meaning “Gift of Isis”. See e.g. [1]. Some politically correct sites translate it as “gift of moon”, which is not much of a difference; they just use the fact that Isis was a moon goddess.

However Latin origin does not make much sense, because suffix “-dora” (-δωρα), meaning “gift/giving”, is actually Greek. See [2] So the current thinking is that this was actually a Greek name with the meaning, as correctly noted, “gift of Isis”, which widely spread across the Roman world after about fourth century BC. After all, cult of Isis spread into the Greece and Rome, so the explanation seems quite plausible. Besides, Egypt was under the Greek rule for quite a while before Roman conquest (Cleopatra was a descendant from the Ptolemy I, one of the Alexander’s the Great generals who’s got Egypt). This means that the name could originate from Egyptian Greeks as well with exactly this meaning.

However, there is still a highly speculative possibility that there was an Egyptian name derived from names of both Isis and Ra, which was later distorted by impudent Greeks to fit their own language. After all, that’s how the very name “Egypt” came to life. And because Isidora was a real Egyptian priestess, I used this explanation to provide her with an “authentic” Egyptian name :-).

[1] Baby names
[2] LGPN Online, Oxford

For reference: some suffixes of Greek names

2005-10-22T16:49:00.000-07:00

For reference: some suffixes of Greek names. They are not just -os or -on, they are longer and they have meanings. Somewhat similar to Egyptian Si-/Sit-/Aken-/etc. prefixes.

γενη/γεηεια ('genos'/'geneia' = ‘birth’),
δοτος/δοτα ('dotos/dota' = ‘giving'),
δωρος/δωρα ('doros/dora' = 'gift’),
φιλος/φιλα ('filos/fila' = ‘loved/loving’),
κλης/κλεια ('klos/kleia' = ‘renown’),
φανης/φανεια ('fanos/faneia' = ‘manifestation’)

[1] http://www.lgpn.ox.ac.uk/names/meaning.html

Where did Nero live after the fire

2005-10-15T23:19:00.000-07:00

Nero’s huge Golden Palace – Domus Aurea – was not really ever completely finished. That’s considering the whole complex including palace, several villas, artificial landscape and lake between Palatine and Esquiline hills. However, a lot of things were done pretty quickly. It’s practically impossible to find out exact dates, Roman historians were not very fond of exact dates, they would rather gossip that after he moved in he said, “At last I can live like a human being,” or about his huge statue called Colossus, and other extravaganza.

Just like many modern writers, they were story tellers, not record keepers. So, it seems that we actually don’t really know when exactly the first villa or other livable edifice was constructed to allow the emperor to move in. In fact, absence of information goes to an anecdotic scale: when I entered “Where Nero lived before Golden Palace was built?” in MSN Search, they gave Google home page as the best search result. And to tell the truth, Google was not that helpful either. Leaving Internet aside, neither were any of the historical books that I have in my library. It seems that historians are simply not that much into the details as we could expect.

Considering this, I took an artistic license to assume that by the summer AD 65, there was already a villa or two, which were the residences for the emperor. The main palace seems to be too large to be erected and fully equipped and decorated by that time. Consider its sheer size as well as a bunch of new ideas and concepts, including mosaic on walls and ceiling or a dome-type revolving roof. So, it seems as a safe assumption that the main palace was still in progress at the time, and the emperor had to live in smaller villa-style buildings that could have being built by that time.

As a side note, mosaic on the ceiling that was introduced first in the West by Nero’s Golden Palace was later adopted in the style of Catholic temples. The lake that I mentioned before was later drained and the famous Flavian Coliseum was built on this place. The name of Coliseum originated in Colossus – the statue of Nero that stood nearby. In fact, rumors in Rome credited the construction of Coliseum to an attempt to shadow the Colossus, which was afterward pretty much in the Coliseum’s backyard.

How much Subura suffered from the Great Fire?

2005-10-09T23:47:00.000-07:00

Subura is the place of Nil’s residence in the first chapters. It’s also the place where most members of Roman Dental and Plumbing Association as well as many professional and trade foreigners like Egyptian, Jews, and Greeks lived. So, naturally, I wondered, should I describe the damage done by the fire? Should I describe the rebuilding effort? If yes, was it state driven or privately funded?

First thing first, the fire is known to affect most of the hills and Subura is right in the middle between then. So there is no way it could have been spared by the Great Fire and undoubtedly suffered from it greatly. Also, according to Tacitis [1] “Rome, indeed, is divided into fourteen districts, four of which remained uninjured, three were leveled to the ground, while in the other seven were left only a few shattered, half-burnt relics of houses.” Considering that the area between Palatine and Esquiline Hills was later used for the Golden Palace, this area was evidently “leveled to the ground”. Also, Tacitus says that “had its beginning in that part of the circus which adjoins the Palatine and Caelian hills” and that “The blaze in its fury ran first through the level portions of the city, then rising to the hills.” If you’ll look to the map, it will be clear that the “level portions” were exactly Subura, from all other directions the place of original incident was enclosed with the hills – Palatine, Caelian and Esquiline.

On another hand, being a poor part of the city, where “economically disadvantageous” lived, Subura was not probably the center of Nero’s efforts to rebuild the city. Consider that all historians repeat as his important and good contribution the idea of building porticos in front of buildings that may be used by firefighters. Then consider a typical street view of Subura-like district of a Roman city. That’s multi-storied multi-family dwellings facing the street. There is simply no place for porticos in front of them unless you eliminate the street completely. So, clearly his notable efforts were concentrated on the hills, where the more (albeit not most) privileged lived. He probably helped to rebuild on the swamps between the hills, where Subura was, but that was next in line and the idea of “giving it back to the swamp” could have crossed his mind on more than one occasion. Sounds familiar, isn’t it?

Anyway, the bottom line is that Subura was affected and unlikely to be rebuilt by the time, but because it was a poor part of the city it did not looked that bad, at least comparing to a normal picture. Also because most buildings were brick and stone, that were not exactly ruins, but rather a lot of smoked buildings, maybe with failed internal structure, but outside walls mostly intact. Think of an abandoned industrial district of an American city for a visual.

[1] The Annals by Tacitus, Book XV

Should there be some internal politics in early Christians communities at the time?

2005-09-30T23:48:00.000-07:00

Not exactly. The Christianity was still just establishing itself. It seems that there was already some skirmish between the Christian Jewish community of Jerusalem and the followers of St.Paul, and it was probably the time when the sects started to form, not so much as a result of opposing views as the result of a still relatively small number of people dispersed over a huge territory, absence of a developed tradition and poor communications between local communities.

It’s just local communities seeking the answers, were not able to rely on an established tradition or a word from other communities, and they had to find the answers themselves. Not surprisingly, they were coming up with different answers, which later resulted in significant skirmishes, development of orthodoxal views and eventual labeling everybody else as heretics. But in 60-70s AD these differences were yet at the stage of accumulation, not open hostilities.

One relevant fact is that most of Christian are dated by the second century AD or later. See, for example, [1].

[1] Lost Christianities: The Battles For Scripture And The Faiths We Never Knew by Bart D. Ehrman - Oxford University Press, 2005, 224 p., ISBN 0-19-518249-9

For reference: Subura (modern Suburra)

2005-09-24T09:34:00.000-07:00

A very poor and criminal area of Rome, originally a marshland, between the hills on the East of Forum, which in turn was a marshland between Palatine and Capitoline hills.

Also a sort of the “red light district” of Rome with available women. Cloaca was crossing it from its sources on Quirinal, Viminal and Esquiline hills to Forum and Tiber river.

It is located to the East of Forum, Capitoline and Palatine hills, to the South of Quirinal and Viminal hills, to the West of Esquiline hill, and to the North of Caelian hill.

[1] Subura
[2] Wikipedia: Suburra

For reference: Cloaca (Cloaca Maxima – The Great Sewer)

2005-09-16T01:07:00.000-07:00

Cloaca seems to have originated from the open streams carrying water from Quirinal, Viminal and Esquiline hills and passing through the Forum area to Tiber. Considering the map of Rome, it clearly had to pass Subura (Suburra) on the way.

Coincidentally, the word is also used in a different meaning, although quite complementary to this one (see the third link).

[1] About.com: Cloaca Maxima
[2] Wikipedia: Cloaca Maxima
[3] Wikipedia: Cloaca

For reference: Seven Hills of Rome

2005-09-09T21:28:00.000-07:00

Palatine Hill (COLLIS PALATINUS)
Aventine Hill (COLLIS AVENTINUS)
Capitoline Hill (COLLIS CAPITOLINUS)
Quirinal Hill (COLLIS QUIRINALIS)
Viminal Hill (COLLIS VIMINALIS)
Esquiline Hill (COLLIS ESQUILINUS)
Caelian Hill (COLLIS CAELIUS)

[1] Wikipedia: Seven Hill of Rome

Floor plan of a Roman house

2005-08-29T10:28:00.000-07:00

This information is everywhere, but just for the record…

A normal Roman house has a front door facing a street with a short passage way behind it. On the right and the left of the passageway behind walls without doors are rooms facing the street that sometimes rented to storekeepers. The name for these rooms is taberna. Does it remind the word tavern? That’s not an accident. These rooms also provide an isolation from the street noise.

The passageway is opening into the atrium – the main reception area. In the middle of the atrium the is a small pool – impluvium – that collects the rainwater coming through the opening in the ceiling – compluvium. On the right and the left side of atrium there are bedrooms – cubiculum – and an open shrine – lararium. The farther end of atrium also has the dining room – triclinium – and the owner study room – tablinum. Triclinium usually has a table and three coaches around it, so that the diners can eat while reclined on them.

Tablinum usually has two entrances – to atrium and to the back part of the house centered around a small garden – peristylium – often surrounded with columns. Around peristylium are bathrooms – latrina, kitchen – culina, and summer triclinium.

A house usually does not has windows and most f the light comes through the openings in the roof – compluvium and roofless peristylium. Remember? Roman houses did not had electricity.

Lod also Lydea, called later Diospolis (also Lydda, Lud)

2005-08-23T13:25:00.000-07:00

Coastal town 10 miles SE from Joppa. Mostly relevant to Book 3. May be encountered in the end of Book 2.

The city was first mentioned in Thutmosis III list of towns of Canaan in ~1465 BCE.
In Roman period counted as village but have enough population for a city.
In 43 BCE Cassius, the governor of Syria, sold inhabotants into slavery.
In 66 CE Cestius Gallus, the Roman proconsul of Syria burned it on the way to Jerusalem.
In command of John Essene at the beginning of the First Jewish War (66-70CE)
Vespasian occupied it in 68 CE.
In 200 CE emperor Septimus Severus established a Roman city Colonia Lucia Septimia Severa Diospolis (Διόσπολις).
The legendary birthplace of St. George; hence its name Georgiopolis in late Byzantine and crusader sources.

[1] See the site "Christus Rex et Redemptor Mundi"

Was there a glass in Nero’s time?

2005-08-18T21:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, there was. It seems that glass was invented about 1500 BC with the first vessels dated roughly to the time of the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III (1479-1425 BC, see, e.g. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia as a general reference). However, it was usually highly colored and produced using the older core technique when molten glass was put around a form made of clay and dung. Although it does not sound very appetizing, the latter was used to make sure the form can be removed later without breaking the vessel.

The glassblowing technique was invented around 1st century BC in Phoenicia and spread widely allowing glass to become an everyday material for windows, vessels and other containers. Also, as a result, by the end of the 1st century colorless glass become the most popular kind, although the older colored varieties were still actively used for luxury items, as well as low quality items when the color was simply a result of polluted materials.

I am busy right now, but I will be back...

2005-07-05T01:01:00.000-07:00

I have not posted anything for almost 6 weeks now. The excuse is that I am actually working on a different book right now. It will be called "Disinfect Your Mind" and devoted to mind viruses. You can read more on the Disinfect Your Mind site.

Meanwhile, I found the following Cold War Era poster on Internet. It's 55 years old (1950), but the idea of the poster strikes as something familiar and a little closer than that. See for yourself:

"New Order" is written on bones with svastika under the cliff. "Democratic World Order" is written on the man's poster.

Pharaoh's People: Scenes from Life in Imperial Egypt by T. G. H. James

2005-05-14T13:02:00.000-07:00

Pharaoh's People: Scenes from Life in Imperial Egypt by T. G. H. James

Do you remember what position Joseph from the Bible had in the Egypt? He was the royal vizier, of tjaty in Egyptian. This book has a chapter on the role of tjaties in the government, life of the country and the whole Egytian history.

Other chapters cover such topics as bucolic life, literacy and status (and you thought the modern life is tough because you have to put your kids through college!), scribes and craftsmen, and the Egyptian economy.

Living in Ancient Egypt by Don Nardo (editor)

2005-05-14T12:28:00.000-07:00

Living in Ancient Egypt by Don Nardo (editor) -- Exploring Cultural History

Pretty goos introductory book at how the life in the Ancient Egypt looked like. By "introductory" I don't mean stupid bunch of illustrations that move from one book on the Ancient Egypt to another, but rather easy language description of family life, status of women (impressively high by the way), everyday food and drink, sport, games, school, professional life -- doctors, metalsmiths, scribes. Plus, of course, the usual stuff -- religion, tombs, but in separate chapters.

Comparing Egyptians and Babylonians...

2005-03-19T00:08:00.000-08:00

Quoting [1], p.64:

"Given the fundamental differences in temperament between the Babylonians and the Egyptians, we can hardly be surprised by the fact that we scarcely possess any of the innumerable little documents, meticulously detailed and sometimes breathing an agreeable sense of humor, from which we derive our detailed knowledge of the latter. Egyptian tombs are full of scenes of everyday life with some words of humorous comment: even in death they kept their sense of humor and their zest for life. In marked contrast, when a scene of Mesopotamian domestic life finds its way to bas-relief, it is only incidental to the main theme, which is always glrification of the gods or of a king."

Oh, the sweet nectar of a well-formed thought. I hardly have anything to add to that.

[1] Everyday life in Babylon and Assyria by Georges Contenau - Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd, London, 1954, 324 P. -- authorized translation from the French "La Vie quotidienne A Babylone et en Assyre".

Grain prices again...

2005-03-15T14:51:00.000-08:00

A very interesting article indeed: How Excessive Government Killed Ancient Rome: "A measure of Egyptian wheat, for example, which sold for seven to eight drachmaes in the second century now cost 120,000 drachmaes"

Free grain for Praetorians

2005-03-15T14:42:00.000-08:00

Notable fact: Nero included Praetorians in the grain allowances/distribution. Quote:
How Excessive Government Killed Ancient Rome: "Although subsequent emperors would occasionally extend eligibility for grain to particular groups, such as Nero's inclusion of the Praetorian guard in 65 A.D"

The origin of the name "Egypt"

2004-07-26T23:04:00.000-07:00

Egypt or Aegyptos or Aegyptus is a Greek distortion of the Egyptian Het-Ka-Ptah (Hw.t-kA-PtH) - "the place of Ptah", "the place where the projection of Ptah manifested", that was found on a stela on the site of Memphis (Mn-nfr, Men-Nefer, "The Beautiful Monument"), an older name inb-hD ("The White Walls").

Interesting, but after inventing this name by distorting the original Egyptian sentence, Greeks forgot about it, and was so puzzled by this name that invented a myth about the king Aigýptos ("supine goat"), who supposedly ruled the Egypt and gave him his name ([6]).

[1] Stephen Mehler's Research
[2] Memphis
[3] Memphis
[4] A brief introduction to Coptic Egypt
[5] Inscription of the royal scribe Amenhotep
[6] Aigyptos

Did Egyptians really were monotheists?

2004-07-25T22:51:00.000-07:00

Well, this is a very politically charged question. So charged, that you may be attacked by merely stating your opinion, whatever it is. So let me just quote the Egyptians, and judge for yourself... The quote is taken from [1], p.xcii.

"God is one and alone, and none other existeth with Him - God is the One, the One hath made all things - God is a spirit, a hidden spirit, the spirit of spirits, the great spirit of the Egyptians, the divine spirit - God is from the beginning, and He hath been from the beginning, He hath existed from old and was when nothing else had being. He existed when nothing else existed, and what existeth He created..."

[1] The Egyptian Book of the Dead: (The Papyrus of Ani) Egyptian Text Transliteration and Transalation / E.A. Wallis Budge - Dover Publications, Inc., New York, Unabridged reprint of 1895 edition, 378pp. - ISBN 0-486-21866-X

Few more dates from Heliopolis history

2004-07-19T21:38:00.000-07:00

Persian invasions in 525 BCE and 343 BCE.
"Cleopatra needles" removed to Alexandria by the Emperor Augustus in AD 23.

Was the Jewish temple in On functional in AD 64?

2004-07-14T20:34:00.000-07:00

Yes, it was. Here is fragment from Joseph Flavius describing how it was actually closed after the rebellion:

(4)[433] And now Lupus, the governor of Alexandria, upon the receipt of Caesar's letter, came to the temple, and carried out of it some of the donations dedicated thereto, and shut up the temple itself. And as Lupus died a little afterward, Paulinns succeeded him. This man left none of those donations there, and threatened the priests severely if they did not bring them all out; nor did he permit any who were desirous of worshipping God there so much as to come near the whole sacred place; but when he had shut up the gates, he made it entirely inaccessible, insomuch that there remained no longer the least footsteps of any Divine worship that had been in that place. Now the duration of the time from the building of this temple till it was shut up again was three hundred and forty-three years.

For reference, Strabo, who visited the city around AD 30, found the temple of Ra functional as well and the priests still around, even though the city was almost "deserted".

What Egyptians thought about Jews and their exodus from Egypt?

2004-07-12T23:38:00.000-07:00

Egyptian priest and historian Manetho, who live around 300 BC, wrote that "It was also reported that the priest, who ordained their polity and their laws, was by birth of Heliopolis, and his name Osarsiph, from Osyris, who was the god of Heliopolis; but that when he was gone over to these people, his name was changed, and he was called Moses."

Original works of Manetho did not survived 2 millennia, but fragments of his writings came to us from the works of people who argued with him, like Josephus Flavius. AFAIK, none of the facts reported by Manetho was refuted by modern history and a number of them were confirmed with archeological evidence.

Overall, it seems that Egyptians did not like Jews. During Ptolemaic period Jews successfully competed with Egyptians for the place at the royal court, the privilege Egyptian aristocracy would rather keep for themselves. That was probably most likely reason for such an attitude, although it is hard to say today for sure.

What was the name of Heliopolis in AD 64?

2004-07-12T23:23:00.000-07:00

Well, the Greeks (and Romans, of course) called it Heliopolis, how else. The question is how Egyptians called it? The first century AD is the time when the last Egyptian language evolved - Coptic language. It evolved from the older Egyptian but used Greek alphabet (with few extra letters) and on the later stage included a number of new Christian terms.

We know that in Coptic language Heliopolis was called On. This is also the name used in the Bible.

We know that ancient Egyptians used the name Iunu, we know that from their texts.

We know that in the First century AD (and actually quite a bit before that) there was a significant difference between spoken and written Egyptian language.

So while Egyptian could call Heliopolis "On", they could had continue writing "Iunu" in hieroglyphic documents. Or "On" from the Bible could have replaced Iunu in spoken Egyptian when it evolved into Coptic. What it means is that in the first case it was most certainly called On in AD 64 - spoken language changes are faster than written language, but not so fast; while in the second case it could be still Iunu, because Christianity still did not got enough momentum around.

The version of taking the name from the Bible seems possible, but less probable. After all, how many French people call themselves “Gauls” in the normal life? So, essentially, I had to make an guess that it was a natural development of the Egyptian language and hence it was already called On, although Simaat should have knew about the ancient pronunciation.

"First priests" -- were they really heads of the temple police?

2004-07-12T23:01:00.000-07:00

Well, here is some real background. In Egyptian temples the High Priest was normally also called "the first prophet". The second guy after him was not the "first priest", he was called "the second prophet". So, here my account is a bit frivolous, it's pretty much a freeform translation rather than the strict one. In my defense I can say that there were cultures where the second guy was called "the first priest".

However, what's important is that this second guy controlled all the administrative life of a temple, including the temple security or police. So in reality this second guy was even more powerful than I describe. He controlled not only police, but pretty much the budget and all the workers of the temple as well.

What was the condition of Heliopolis in AD 64?

2004-07-10T02:05:00.000-07:00

After Alexadnria was built, many monuments of Heliopolis were moved there. It still kept its role of the religious center, but it declined gradually. It anyway declined since the old times (around 1500 BC), in part due to the Persian invasions in 525 BC and 343 BC ([1])

One of the most well known monuments of Heliopolis are "Cleopatra needles" ([2]). They were erected around 1500 BC, moved to Alexandria in AD 23 by Augustus, and now they are in London and the Central Park in New York.

According to Strabo (~64 BC - AD 24) it was almost uninhabited in the beginning of the new millenia, although the priests were there and ceremonies continued ([4]).

[1] Heliopolis, Egypt's Iunu By Marie Parsons
[2] Heliopolis/On Encyclopaedia of the Orient
[3] HELIOPOLIS hé-lé-‘äp-e-les
[4] Heliopolis, Wikipedia

How Egyptian river vessels looked like

2004-07-09T22:31:00.000-07:00

Of course, there were papyrus boats, like the one, which Thor Heyerdahl used to travel from Egypt to Florida. However, one could expect that Nil would rather chose a more comfortable vessel. River granary ships were large and hence more comfortable. Besides, they just delivered the grain to Alexandria and had to go back up the stream before the river level would go up (the peak was in August-September).

Such ships were made out of a wooden framework covered with wood or papyrus lashed together with ropes. After the material got enough moisture, it swallen and made a watertight seal making the ship body usable.

Quotes from Nil's blog on the main site

2004-07-09T22:28:00.000-07:00

See:
From the private blogs of Nil and other personages about the events that happened long ago if they happened at all. Have fun.

Map of Alexandria is posted on the main site

2004-07-09T22:21:00.000-07:00

See maps at septemberides.us site. Big red star indicates the palace and the residence of the prefect of Egypt.

Two stellas stood in front of it, known as "Cleopatra needles". They were brought from Heliopolis by Augustus. Today one of them is on the bank of Thames river, UK; another in the Central Park, New York.

How much fare from Joppa to Alexandria could cost?

2004-07-01T21:10:00.000-07:00

The price was very flexible and depend mostly on which of the sides wanted a deal more, if there were other alternatives available, etc. Keep in mind, for Jason it was practically something for nothing. He anyway was going to Alexandria. An extra person on board did not matter much. Nil was very much like a modern hitchhiker on a highway. However, Jason knew that there is no much competition to him, so it made sense to try to make some income. Besides, Jason did not had any reasons not to take Nil, but except for money, he did not had any reasons to take him either.

How much could he hope to get? There are two sides in the equation. First, it should be something noticeable enough to bother. That’s pretty much the reason why we don’t see books for 50c around anymore, although the technology would allow to print at this price. It should be a business, not “a coin for good luck.”

Imagine a plastic 2-liter Coke bottle filled with grain. That amount of grain would cost 3 sesterces in Rome, or almost a silver coin (1 denarius = 4 sestertii). In a province it easily could cost just one sestertius. This amount of grain is enough to make about 10 simple meals for a small family of two adults and two children (remember, that time family with two children was a small family), that is to live several days. Because the crewmembers of Jason were poor, it would be a tangible enough benefit. One sestertius could be also a one-day wage of a simple laborer like a mule driver or a brick maker. So assuming that Jason wanted to use the chance to cheer up his crew of eight people and get for himself something, probably at least a half of what he gives to the whole crew, that makes 12 sesterces (equal 3 denarii) the bare minimum below which Jason would not get interested.

What’s the upper limit? Technically, the price of the boat, pardon, the ship. Jason’s ship is, frankly speaking, just a boat, and not very large (see the description in the text). Assuming that five master could make such a boat in a week, and assuming that boat builders make twice as much as simple laborers, we have the labor cost for making a boat equal 5 men * 6 days (they worked 6 days in a week, not 5) * 2 sest. = 60 sestertii = 15 denarii, still well below 1 aureum. Add material, and profit margin, and you get the market price of such a boat somewhere around 20 denarii.

Hence, we have the upper and lower limit. For 3 denarii Jason would be barely interested, for 20 denarii Nil could buy another boat of the similar size.

Granted, these estimates are highly speculative in the nature and not quite precise. But keeping in mind that fares really varied wildly depending on the circumstances and personalities involved, it a good evaluation to see what Nil and Jason could talk about and what they could agree in the end.

What other money were around?

2004-06-30T19:21:00.000-07:00

In Eastern provinces many other kinds of money were used at the same time with Roman. Here are few:

Greek coins:
Didrahma a.k.a. tribute = 2 drahmas
Drahma a.k.a. piece of silver ~ 1 denarius
Lepton a.k.a. mite ~ 1/2 quadran

Jewish coins:
Gold shekel = 15 silver shekels
Silver shekel ~ 4 denarii
Beks, bekah = 1/2 silver shekel
Gerah = 1/20 silver shekel ~ 1/5 denarius

Ch. 14: Meaning of Egyptian names

2004-06-29T20:20:00.000-07:00

Just FYI, here are few Egyptian names mentioned in chapter XV:

Akenisis - the servant of Isis (compare e.g. with Akenaten - the servant of Aten)

Akeni - short form for Akenisis, not very respectful when used to address a seventy year old man

Simaat - the son of Maat, goddess of justice

Khenemetre Siptah (next chapter) - joined with Re, son of Ptah

Who was the prefect of the Egypt in AD 64?

2004-06-29T19:12:00.000-07:00

Here is a short list a the prefects between AD 56 and AD 71:

Claudius Palpilus	56
Lucius Julius Vistinus	59
Gaius Caissina Tuscus	67
Tiberius Julius Alexander	68
Tiberius Julius Lopos	71

Clearly, in AD 64 it was Lucius Julius Vistinus, who was already on this post for five years.

[1] Encyclopedia of the Rulers of Egypt The Romans
[2] Egyptian Chronology

Where three investigators could meet in the morning?

2004-06-29T18:41:00.000-07:00

Really? The palace is too official. Besides, where exactly in the palace they could meet? It was an official building. Of course, Galen apparently had enough power to arrange that, but it is also simply inconvenient.

The inn, where Nil stayed, by itself is not a good choice either. That's more of a style of some Conan Barbarian and his friends to drop by somebody's room.

The temple is also a bad choice. Again, it's possible, but inconvenient.

Meeting on the street with a very rough ways to measure the time is even more questionable. It's not fun to work there and back again on some corner waiting for your visavi's to appear. Who had a date in this style, would udnerstand.

So the natural choice was a tavern. The name chosen arboitrary (among Greek male names of the time) resulted in the tavern of old Amphion.

What is "Idios Logos"?

2004-06-27T09:26:00.000-07:00

Originally "Idios Logos" comes as a concept of community and the common space of common sense shared by the people of the same community.

However, in Roman (and seemingly Ptolemaic) Egypt the post called Idios Logos was responsible for the "private account" that kept the records of people and property liable for taxation. To put it simple, Idios Logos in Roman-Egyptian beaurocracy was an equivalent of IRS. In line of its responsibilitie it was also aware of a number of related events and facts, like sacred vessels in the temples, current religious practices, and the changes in status of ordinary citizens.

I found this excellent source on the topic (I referred a specific chapter), however keep in mind that it is in Russian.

Few more links on Roman Egypt...

2004-06-27T09:04:00.000-07:00

[1] Leuven Homepage of Papyrus Collections - in particular this one
[2]University of Toronto - CLAB06H3 The Mediterranean World: II Rome
- in particular
V. The Roman Empire: The Army and the Provinces in the 1st Cent AD

Roman authorities of the Egypt

2004-06-23T22:51:00.000-07:00

On the top was the prefect, a Roman of equestrian rank.

Following officials were reporting to him:

Iuridicus, the legal adviser, to put it simply lawyer;

Chief Priest, responsible for administration of temples;

Dioiketes, financial officer;

Idios Logos;

Procurators, who were responsible for financial administration; and, of course,

Military commander.

This was the central governing unit that supervised four regional administrators called in a Greek style Epistrategoi. Interesting to notice is that prefect of Egypt had a bunch of procurators to help him in contrast to Judea, where the procurator was the actual governor of the province.

All officials listed so far were either Romans of equestrian rank or Roman government appointees. As mentioned in the previous note, I expect that the Chief Priest was Egyptian or at least Greek, as Romans usually put real priests as the High or Chief priests in provinces.

Each epistrategoi supervised a region consisting of nomes. Each nome had a staff of Graeco-Egyptians headed by strategos or administrator of the nome with royal scribe, accountant, district and village scribes. Strategos supervised town concillors and magistrates as well as villages elders who were elected or co-opted.

[1] Ian Shaw The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt - Oxford Univercity Press, 2000, ISBN 0-19-280293-3

Who ruled Egypt in AD 64?

2004-06-16T21:39:00.000-07:00

In contrast to Judea, the governor of Egypt was called "prefect" (or more exactly "praefect"). Procurators were among his direct reports and were responsible for financial and other important matters, including such tasks as supervising loading grain to the ships going to Rome. Both prefect and procurators were of equestrian rank.

[1] Ian Shaw The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt - Oxford Univercity Press, 2000, ISBN 0-19-280293-3

How Alexandria looked like?

2004-06-15T23:30:00.000-07:00

Alexandria was built on a strip of land between the sea and the Lake Mareotis. The lake served as a harbor for the river ships coming down the Nile with inland shipments.

On the sea side Alexandria had to harbors. The Great Harbor (Eastern) was enclosed between the Cape Lochias, Island of Pharos (with lighthouse) and artificial damb ("Heptastadion") connecting the island and the mainland. This harbor was able to take the largest ship. Small island with a palace separate a Royal Harbor inside the Great Harbor. On the west side the Island of Pharos and the damb surrounded the second - Eunostos Harbor The island itself had a small prehistoric harbor, although probably suitable for smaller ships.

The city had four main quarters from (west to east): Necropolis - the Western cemetery and gardens, Rhakotis - the Egyptian quarter, Royal quarter, and Jewish quarter. Egyptian quarter took the most part of both sea harbors, with Royal quarter taking an eastern part of the Great Harbor. Jewish quarter started to the East of the Cape Lochias and was not connected to the harbors, although a small smuggler ship or a boat could probably get beached on the coast facing it.

The Island of Pharos had a lighthouse and two temples - the temple of Isis, and the temple of Poseidon. Another temple of Isis was on the Cape Lochias.

Clearly there should have been a lot more temples around in the city itself, we know for example about the temple of Serapis in the Egyptian quarter.

[1] Ian Shaw The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt - Oxford Univercity Press, 2000, ISBN 0-19-280293-3

How lighthouse in Alexandria looked like?

2004-06-14T21:07:00.000-07:00

Alexandria had a lighthouse on a small island of Pharos. Pharos lighthouse was a three storeys tower about 135 meters high with the bottom one square, middle one octagonal, and the top one circular, each smaller than previous.

Don't mix it up with the Colossus of Rhodes, the lighthouse on the island of Rhodes (don't mix it up with Rodes Island in US :-)) built as a gigantic statue that was constructed in 282 BC and destroyed by earthquake in arond 226 BC.

[1] Ian Shaw The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt - Oxford Univercity Press, 2000, ISBN 0-19-280293-3
[2] The Colossus of Rhodes

Valuable resources of Egypt in Roman times

2004-06-12T22:52:00.000-07:00

Of course, #1 item was grain. As already mentioned, Egypt provided Rome with about 1/3 of al the grain it consumed.

However, it was not the only important part of Egypt export. Construction stone, especially red granit of Aswan was traditionally highly valued in Rome. Among other minerals, Egypt had noteworthy gold mining in the upper Egypt.

Also it's worth to mention that traditional Egyptian estate was mostly built around wine making, not grain. The wine was primarily produced for export.

The ships with grain delivering it from the estate to Alexandria normally were ecorted by a soldier assigned to control that nothing is stolen or replaced with a cheaper kind. In Alexandria the grain was reloaded into huge (for the time) ships that were taking the grain to Ostia (the main Rome port). Ship were leaving somewhere in May-June and the way (with prevailing opposite winds) required sometimes as long as a month or two.

[1] Ian Shaw The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt - Oxford Univercity Press, 2000, ISBN 0-19-280293-3

The city of Joppa

2004-06-08T22:30:00.000-07:00

The city of Joppa is the closest port to Jerusalem. Today it's called Jaffa/Yaffa and pretty much represents the Southern part of Tel-Aviv. The sandy shores are covered with stones here and there, so this place was not very hospitable to seamen. Combined with prevailing waves coming from the west directly into the coast dcking at the harbor is problematic, most ships anchor in about mile or so from the shore.
Anyway, the ships that are really just large boats not to mention fishing boats probably still were docking/beached there.

The city was in order Canaanite, Egyptian, Phoenician, Philistinian, and Jewish. At the time of Judah Maccabeaus about 200 Jews were drowned, and the retribution came swiftly in around 144 BC. After that a lot of Jews settled in the city.

In AD 67 Joppa was destroyed by Vespasian army as a strong supporter of revolted Jews. Hence we can conclude that in AD 64 it was mostly Jewish city, although as any port it should had some Greek/Philistine influence.

Among geographic details noteworthy is the central hill about 100 feet high called Andromeda hill. According to the legend this is the hill to which Andromeda was chained as a sacrifice. Modern tourists can still view the spot and the iron ring in the rock.

This is one of the oldest cities in Israel. Jewish legend derives its name from Yaphet/Japhet, the son of Noah. Greek legend consider it's origin to be Jopes, another name of Cassiopeia.

[1] Joppa

On Ch.12,14: Gessimus Florus

2004-06-01T21:39:00.000-07:00

Gessimus Florus is not so significant personage to be mentioned in many sources. All we know about him pretty much comes from works of Joseph Flavius [1]. Here is the quote from chapter 11 of book XX:

"1. NOW Gessius Florus, who was sent as successor to Albinus by Nero, filled Judea with abundance of miseries. He was by birth of the city of Clazomene, and brought along with him his wife Cleopatra, (by whose friendship with Poppea, Nero's wife, he obtained this government,) who was no way different from him in wickedness."

[1] Josephus Flavius Antiquities of the Jews Book XX From Fadus the Procurator to Florus.

On ch.12: Nero's wives

2004-06-01T21:27:00.000-07:00

Nero was married three times (not counting his politically correct marriages to a boy and a male ex-slave).

His first wife was Octavia, the daughter of the Emperor Claudius. He married her before Claudius died in 54 and divorced and executed her in AD 62.

His second wife was Poppaea Sabina. He married her in 62 and kicked to death in 65. In 63 she had a girl who died soon after the birth.

He married his third wife Stalina Messalina in 65 after executing her husband.

According to sources, Poppaea was his mistress for some time before he married her, and she was the reason why he decided to abandon and kill Octavia. Poppaea's husband was Otho, who became the Emperor after Nero and Galba.

[1] P. Corneli Taciti Annalum, XIV, XV
[2] Svetoni Tranqvilii Vita Neronis, 35 (XXXV)

On Ch.9: Again, grain price in Rome

2004-06-01T20:57:00.000-07:00

The previous post on the price of the grain [1] seems to be pretty acurate. I calculated that the price for grain was 3 sestercii per modius. Corneli Taciti wrote in his Annals XV.39 [2] "pretiumque frumenti minutum usque ad ternos nummos", "the grain price was lowered everywhere to 3 coins (sestercii)".

[1] On ch.9: How much olive oil and wheat cost in Ancient Rome?

[2] P. Corneli Taciti Annalum, XV

On ch.10/11: Distance between Caesarea and Jerusalem

2004-05-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

Straight line distance is around 50 miles. As Albinus travel with two cohorts we have to count their speed. Normal speed for the army was 18 miles per day with up to 30 miles of a forced march. So we have something between 2.7 and 1.6 days. It seems more reasonable to make it three days for two reasons:
- getting into the city in the morning provided Albinus with a demonstration of force;
- there was not real reason to force soldiers to go fast. Albinus should have the cohorts well rested and in the best shape when coming to the capital of a troubled province.

On ch.10/11: What was the age of most personages who met in Jerusalem?

2004-05-27T22:38:00.000-07:00

King Herod Agrippa II was 37.
Procurator Lucceius Albinus birthday is not known, but he is likely to be older than fifty, because of his position.
Eleasar should be no younger than 30, as assumed by his post of the Governor of the Temple.
High Priest Ananias/Ananus should be in his fifties-sixties, because he already had a son who already was at least 30 (Eleasar).

On ch.10: Who was the king of Arabia at the time?

2004-05-27T22:32:00.000-07:00

Malchus II (40-70 AD), who succeeded Aretas IV (8 BC-40AD), who was contemporary of Herod the Great and August Octavian. Malchus II had friendly relations with the Romans and helped Vespasian and Titus to conquer Jerusalem in 70 AD.
[1] Petra

On "war for profits"

2004-05-26T20:01:00.000-07:00

A quote from the article on MSN:
"Terrorism and war. A terrorist attack in the Middle East, especially on oil production facilities, could hurt supply. Worries about this are leading futures traders to bet on higher rather than lower oil prices ahead. Instability in Iraq also raises questions about that country's ability to add substantially to the world supply anytime soon."

"Oil companies' profits. Some lawmakers say the oil companies are just too greedy. 'Big oil companies and refiners are getting rich and middle-class families are getting gouged,' Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said in a recent Senate speech, The Associated Press reported. 'It's clearly documented that refiner margins have doubled and tripled. The oil companies weren't content to make 25 cents on every gallon of gasoline. They now make 50 to 75 cents for every gallon of gasoline,' Reid said."

Interesting that in the post about a week ago, I estimated 2004 oil companies profits as "between $43 and $131 billions". According to this article, they have extra 25-50 cents per gallon. That makes it about [$.25,$.50]*42*9 mln.*365 = ~ between 34 and 70 billions per year.

By intersecting these two intervals, we are getting a more narrow estimate of between 43 and 70 billions in 2004 extracted out of our pockets.

See also Chapter 9 of September Ides.

A word about Caesarea

2004-05-25T20:47:00.000-07:00

Caesarea (Caesarea Palaestina a.k.a. Caesarea Maritima) was built on marshes by Herod I (Herod the Great) somewhere between (according to different sources) 40 BC and 13 BC. It was originally planned as Roman-style city. It is located on the sea-coast approximately half-way between cities of Joppa (on South) and Acco (on North) about 30 miles from each of them. In AD 6 the city became the seat of the Roman procurators of Provincia Iudaea. The city had a large harbor, a temple of Caeasar, Herod's palace, and amphitheatre. Actual site is known and currently represent one of the tourist attractions.

Again, Roman coinage...

2004-05-25T19:50:00.000-07:00

Sizes and weights of some actual coins:

Copper As, 28 mm (Caligula)
Silver Denarius, 19 mm, 46 BC (Julius Caesar)
Silver Denarius, 19 mm, 3.8 grams (Augustus Octavian)
Silver tetradrachm (provincial issue made for use in the province of Syria), 25 mm (Nero)
Bronze dupondius, 27 mm (Nero)
Follis, copper showing through silver wash, 27 mm (Diocletian, Minted in Trier, Germany, c. AD 305)

By the way, "follis", the coin introduced by Diocleatian, suffered from so terrible inflation that it gave the name to what we now call "follis".

See Coins from Famous People in History

Gaius Ophonius Tigellinus

2004-05-24T19:39:00.000-07:00

Gaius Ophonius Tigellinus (sometimes called Sophonius, sometimes spelled Ofonius in English) was born in Agrigentum (other names Agrigento, Acragas or Akragas), the Greek city-colony on the south of Sicily. Some of the remains of this city are dated as old as 5 BC. He was of humble origin and probably of Greek descent.

He was banished once by Caligula in 39, returned by Claudius in 41. Then he inherited a fortune and started to breed racing horses. That's how he became acquainted with Nero. In 62 he became the prefect of the praetorian guards.

He betrayed Nero short before his fall, and bought life with presents during Galba’s short reign. Later he had to commit a suicide when Otho became an emperor in 69.

[1] Annals by Tacitus, XIV, XV, XVI

See also Google search on “Tigellinus”, see for example, fact-index.com, 1911encyclopedia.org or romansonline.com

Published chapters 7, 8, and 9

2004-05-23T23:10:00.000-07:00

See September Ides site.

On ch. 5: Navigation in Anctient Rome times

2004-05-19T21:55:00.000-07:00

Normal sailing period was considered from May 27th to September 14th.
March 10th to May 27th, and September 14th to November 10th were also considered reasonable periods.
The rest of the time in the winter navigation was practically impossible because of storms. This period was called mare clausum ("closed sea") used today to indicate territorial waters. See e.g. [1].

Nil came to Tarentum in late March, when mare clausum just ended, but the best navigation time did not yet started.

[1] Ostia - A Mediterranean Port

On ch.9: How much olive oil and wheat cost in Ancient Rome?

2004-05-19T21:10:00.000-07:00

According to [1] in AD 301 one sextarius of fresh olive oil cost 40 denarii, and second quality olive oil 24 denarii. These prices were based on Diocletian's "Edict of Maximum Prices" published in AD 301 to hold inflation.

Now we have two problems: (1) This is not Imperial or Republican silver denarius, that's "Denarii Communes" - invention of the rulers of declining Rome to control the exchange rate. (2) There is 237 years between these prices and AD 64.

According to the same [1] in 300-301 1 gold aureus was equal to 1200 d.c., and in 301-307 it was 2400 d.c. Let's assume that (1) gold aureus did not lost much since Nero's time, which makes sense as it was one of the things inflation was measured against, and (2) devaluation of d.c. in 301 happened at the same time with the edict, and hence prices in the edict are applicable to 301-307 exchange rate.

Then we can convert d.c. into Imperial coinage used in Nero's time (see previous post on Roman money.) Then in AD 64 one sextarius of fresh olive oil cost 40 d.c. = 40/2400 au = 1 2/3 ses/sextarius = 6 2/3 as/sextarius, and for the second quality olive oil it was 24 d.c. = 24/2400 au = 100*24/2400 ses = ~1 ses/sextarius

Now, one more thing. Oil is measured in liquid units, while modius in previous post is a dry unit. According to [2] in 1 modius there are about 16 sextarii. Here is a small table of convertion to cubic meters from [2]:
culeus 0,5246
amphora 0,02623
cognius 0,00327875
sextarius 0,000546458
hemina 0,000273229
cyathus 0,000045538
ligula 0,000011385
modius 0,00875
sextarius 0,000546875

So, although it's not correct to measure oil in modii, we can technically say that olive oil have cost about 26-27 sestercii/modius for fresh olive oil and 16 sestercii/modius for the second quality.

For reference, most grains were about 50-100 d.c per modius:
Oat 30 d.c. = 5 as
Whole millet 50 d.c. = 8 1/3 as = ~ 2 ses
Barley, peas, and beans 60 d.c = 10 as
Wheat, cleaned barley, crushed millet, peas, and beans 100 d.c = 16 2/3 as = ~4+ ses

So we can consider an average grain price to be around 3 sestercii per modius.

[1] How much things cost in Ancient Rome
[2] Converter on the Web

On ch.9: How much oil and grain Rome consumed per year?

2004-05-19T19:28:00.000-07:00

According to [1] Rome consumed yearly 60,000,000 modii of grain (~=420,000 tonnes = 525,000,000 litres) 20,000,000 modii of them were from Egypt.

Notice that this estimate is made based on two sources:

One anonymous source at the time of August stated that Egypt provided 20,000,000 modii of grain in the year.

Another - Joseph Flavius - said that at the time of Nero Egyptian grain fed Rome for four months a year, that means that it was 1/3 of the whole annual supply.

There is almost a century between these two dates so the calculated 60,000,000 number is more indicative than precise.

How much oil then? I did not found the exact amount, but considering that the main food of Romans were porridge and bread, and both on average require about 10% of fat (modern non-low-fat recipes start from 11%), it seems safe to assume that oil import to Rome should be about 10% of grain import. Add here other uses of oil and 10% seems to be even more safe low estimate.

Hence, annual consumption of olive oil in Rome have to be 6,000,000 modii or more.

[1] Merchant vessels and maritime commerce in Roman times

"War for oil" or "War for profits"?

2004-05-18T21:40:00.000-07:00

Anti-war press often mentions "war for oil". Pro-war press answers that American companies got very little of Iraqi oil, so where is the oil in "war for oil"? Here I have to agree with the latter. Wars are not really waged for oil, not yet anyway. They are waged for profit. But where is the profit? Here it is.

In 1996 I was buying gazoline at a gas station for $1.10/gallon. According to EIA crude oil was about $20/barrel in 1996.

In early 2004 crude oil was ~$30/barrel. Following proportional logic, the price at the gas pump should be $1.10 * 30 / 20 = $1.65

On 5/11/2004 I filled the tank for $2.50/gallon.

The difference is $0.95 per gallon.

Where does these $0.95 per gallon go? It does not go to oil producers (Saudis, Iraqis), they have the crude oil price. Hence? Yes, oil companies.

Now, how much do they get total? It's hard to tell precisely, but let try to find a rough number. According to the same source [1] in U.S. 9 million barrels of gasoline is produced (and apparently consumed) daily.

9000000 barrels per day
42 gallons per barrel
$0.95 extra per gallon
----------------------
$359.1 millions per day or roughly $131 billion per year

Of course, currently (May 04) we have a peak price. In January I've seen the prices as "cheap" as $1.95 per gallon, which leaves only 30c extra or about 1/3 or this estimate. If we take it as a low estimate, then we can have both upper and low estimates of what oil companies are getting.

In 2004 oil companies will get somewhere between $43 and $131 billions.

That has nothing to do with Iraqi oil per se, like getting contracts for Iraqi oil or selling it. This is a pure profit from waging war in the main oil region of our planet, destabilizing this region, and hence getting the prices up. All the Iraqi oil can go to Europe or burn in the place, and U.S. oil companies still will have these money.

Now, I understand that this calculation is rough and approximate. So, if I am wrong, please, explain. Post a comment explaining why they don't.

[1] U.S. Energy Information Administration

Working on chapter 9: Who could have Nero and Tigellinus talk about oil prices with?

2004-05-17T22:14:00.000-07:00

Proconcul of Africa was my original candidate. Even though he spent most of the time in place, he could come visit Rome with some report or something like that. Still, leaving the province for too long does not seems to be usual or logical. Most province governors were sitting firmly in place and did not travel to Rome unnless asked to.

But then I found that Galba, the next Roman emperor, was also proconcul of Norh Africa, although about 20 years before from AD 45 to AD 47. Could he be the one who have lended an advice? And could be his position in Spain be a reward for that advice or a help with its execution? When I checked the date and the answer was "no". Galba was appointed an imperial legate of Hispania Tarraconensis (largest of Spain provinces) in 61, about three years before the described events.

But then, again, that's not a history textbook, that's a fiction, so why not? Let assume that in this version of Rome Galba got his post in Spain in 64-65.

[1] An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors: Galba (68-69 A.D.)

How Christians were treated in Ancient Rome...

2004-05-17T21:43:00.000-07:00

You probably know, but just in case... Here is what Cornelius Tacitus wrote in his annals in AD 109 (see, e.g. [1]):

"...Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. ..."

Modern historians are not sure that Tacitus is truthful here, many Roman historians did not bothered much with checking the facts. Although it shows for sure how Christians were treated in Rome at the time of Tacitus himself.

[1] The Annals by Tacitus -- translation of [2], or the printed book here.

[2] Cornelii Taciti Annalium ab excessu divi Augusti libri.

Working on chapter 9: Who was proconcul of North Africa in AD 64?

2004-05-16T23:32:00.000-07:00

Frankly, I don't know yet. BUT: in 68 (apparently somewhere in late Srping) Lucius Clodius Macer, proconcul of North Africa, revolted against Nero independently from Vindex and Galba. It's likely that he was proconcul of North Africa for 4 years, that is in AD 64. It's no guarantee, of course, but it seems that you need to be in place for more than a couple of year to start a revolt and rely on local legions.

Working on chapter 10: Who ruled Judea in AD 64?

2004-05-16T03:11:00.000-07:00

King: Herod Agrippa II.

The king of Judea was Herod Agrippa II (AD 27 - circa 93) He is mentioned in Acts 25:13 before St.Paul is sent to Rome. Some sources say he was not actually a king but rather tetrarch, which was a lesser title, although Josephus Flavius states that he was actually a king. He received his education in Rome at the court of Emperor Claudius, and he remained loyal to Rome during the revolt in 66-73.

He is different from his father, Herod Agrippa I (circa 10 BC - AD 44), grandson of the Herod the Great, who was raised at the court of the emperor Tiberius and made friends with future emperor Caligula. Caligula made him tetrarch of Judea in AD 37. Agrippa I is mentioned Acts 12 as prosecutor of Christians.

He is also different from the uncle of his father Herod Antipas (21 BC - AD 39), who was tetrarch of at the time a separate area of Judea. When Herod Agrippa I was given his part, Antipas asked Caligula for a title of king, and instead was sent to Gaul, while his part of Judea was passed to Agrippa I. Herod Antipas is the one who was mentioned in the trial of Jesus Christ.

And he is definitely different from Herod the Great (circa 74 BC - circa 4 BC), founder of Herodian dynasty, who replaced previous Hasmomaean dynasty.

Procurator: Lucceius Albinus

This is a bit more tricky. Flavius ([1]) mentions four procurator before the revolt:

Felix Antonius

Porcius Festus

Lucceius Albinus

Gessius Florus

According to [2] Felix was recalled in AD 62, and Florus was procurator in AD 64-65, although according to [1] he was around until the actual revolt in AD 66. This also agrees with Christian sources, where St.Paul is arrested during Felix's term (Acts 23:24), tried and sent to Rome by Festus (Acts 24:27), and spent in Rome several years (Acts 27:9, 27:12, 28:11, 28:30) before he was executed, which is dated by AD 64 - AD 67.

So it seems like the question is if it was still Albinus or already Florus? Unfortunately it is not clear what was the month when Florus succeeded Albinus. Florus is more interesting option from the storyline point of view, because about him Flavius said: "Who by the barbarity of his government forces the Jews into the war." However, it's still an early spring, so educated guess have to be that it was Albinus. It's still ok for the story line, as according to Flavius he "steal and plunder every one's substance", "burden the whole nation with taxes", let criminals out of prison for bribes. Flavius called him "an arch-robber, or a tyrant". And, after all, could it be that Nil's report resulted in his replacement? Giving the ground to such a report would be a nice turn.

High Priest: Ananias

That was easy. For reference, Caiaphas who is mentioned as the High Priest during the Jesus Christ trial, held this position for about 19 years from AD 18 to AD 37. High Priest Ananias is mentioned in Acts (e.g. Acts 24:1), as well as by Flavius. Flavius mentions that there were two high priests - Ananias and Jonathan, but Jonathan was killed early in Felixes' term at power, while Ananias is mentioned in the description of the revolt in AD 66.

Flavius also mentions that in 66, right before the revolt, Ananias' son Eleazar "was at that time governor of the Temple," and that he was actually the one who brought the idea of rejecting sacrifices for/from foreigners (including the Roman Emperor), which ended up with the revolt. It's hard to tell what exactly "governor of the Temple" did, but considering relations with Ananias, it was probably somewhat similar to the "first priest" in some (e.g. Egyptian) temples. "First priest" was often successor to the High Priest as well as the head of the temple police and secret service. So, in this role he is likely to meet Nil.

Just FYI, in Encarta Encyclopedia I found the name of a member of the Sanhedrin Johanan ben Zakkai who escaped and later played important role in saving Jewish tradition by founding a school at Jabneh (near modern Tel-Aviv). Gamaliel of Jabneh or Gamaliel the Younger was probably also a member of the Sanhedrin but I did not found a certain confirmation. His got his name ("of Jabneh") after the revolt when he headed the school founded by Johanan ben Zakkai.

[1] The War of the Jews by Josephus Flavius

[2] Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)

[3] The Lives of the Caesars by Suetonius – English-only e.g. Oxford Press, 2001, ISBN 0192832719; Latin-English parallel: Harvard University Press, 1998, ISBN 0674995708; or search Internet online for the text.

[4] Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia

By the way, did the fire really happened on the third day of September Ides?

2004-05-15T23:54:00.000-07:00

No, it happened (according to textbooks) on July 18th AD 64, that is A.D. XV KAL AVG or the fifteenth day of August Kalends, or (acording to Tacitus [1]) on July 19th AD 64, that is A.D. XIV KAL AVG or the fourteenth day of August Kalends.

Why did I moved the historical date to the third day of September Ides? Hm-m-m, well, say, I wanted to keep Nil's travel in spring and summer. Good enough? Check the Roman calendar at September Ides site

[1] Cornelii Taciti Annalium ab excessu divi Augusti libri.

Working on chapter 9: How much of the cost of a crude oil is in gasoline?

2004-05-14T18:49:00.000-07:00

According to National Geographic ([1]) with a reference to Energy Information Administration and American Petroleum Institute the average American price of 1 gallon of gasoline consists of:

27% Taxes
48% Crude oil
15% Refining
10% Distribution and marketing

Apparently, ancient Roman proportions for olive oil were different. However, I think I will use the number for the real oil, it will make the picture more vivid. :-)

Besides, transportation of olive oil from Northern Africa was done by large biremes, so the cost of transportation was distributed over the large size, and hence should not be too high. Also, absence of refinery should affect the cost structure in favor of the wholesale oil cost in Africa. So, 48% paid in Africa seems to be not too much off the point anyway. That's, of course, the numbers that don't keep into account the profit.

[1] National Geographic, Vol.205, No 6, June 2004, p.80-109

Working on chapter 9: How much gasoline US produces/consumes?

2004-05-14T18:48:00.000-07:00

According to the Energy Information Administration ([2]) daily production of gasoline in the United States is about 9 million barrels per day. I guess that means about the same or more consumption. As a reminder, 1 barrel is 42 gallons (when oil is concerned).

That's hardly relevant to the ancient Rome, but will be useful in the example I'll publish soon.

[1] Energy Information Administration - http://www.eia.doe.gov/
[2] U.S. Gasoline - EIA update.

What coins were used in the time of Nero?

2004-05-14T18:35:00.000-07:00

What coins were used in the time of Nero?

The coinage system was quite irregular and complicated in Rome at mostly all the times.

In 23 BC Augustus (the first emperor after Gaius Julius Ceasar) introduced the imperial system based on four metals – (1) gold, (2) silver, (3) brass (80% copper, 20% zinc), and (4) bronze (copper and tin) or copper. The coins were:

aureus (or denarius aureus) made of gold, 1/40 of Roman pound (~8.4 g) = 25 denarii
denarius made of silver, 1/84 of Roman pound (~4 g) = 4 sestertii
sestertius made of brass = 2 dupondii
dupondis made of brass = 2 asses
as made of bronze = 2 semii
semis made of brass = 2 quadrans
quadran made of bronze

Their exchange rate was:
1 aureus = 25 denarii = 100 sestercii = 200 dupondii = 400 asses = 800 semii = 1600 quadrans

Nero reduced the weight of aureus to 1/45 of Roman pound (~7.5 g or 0.0165 lb) of gold, and sestertius to 1/96 of Roman pound (~3.5 g or 0.0077 lb) of silver with up to 10% of copper. That was later used as one of the charges against Nero, expressed frivolously as “he minted bad money”. It happen after most of the events described in the book (the first book, I hope :-)), when Nero resumed official coinage in 64 (yes, after the fire, why else?)

Anyway, the coins looked relatively close to the modern ones, at least in size. If you want to imagine aureus and sestertius size think of a half-dollar and a quarter, only made of gold and silver appropriately. This similarity in size is especially visible compared to Republican coins like bronze asses (sing. as or aes, full original name aes grave) up to 4 inches (100 mm) in diameter and weighed one Roman pound (0.74 lb or 335.9 g.) introduced around 289 BC.

About the same time few other smaller (but not small at all) coins were introduced including semis, one half of the as, quadrans, quarter of the as, and uncia, 1/12 of the as. One half, quarter and 1/12 were not just denomination, that was exactly the weight/size of the coins. By the way, uncia is what we know now as ounce. If you noticed, measures of weight and money were closely interconnected in Rome. Quadran had later evolved in Britain into “farthing”, remember “Not a brass farthing!” in “My Fair Lady”? It was so small in monetary sense that it was that nominal fee for the reception for one day in Roman thermae (baths.) Insignificant in monetary sense, it was still originally pretty heavyweight for a change. It was originally ¼ of the Roman pound (libra, that’s why we write lb for a pound) or 84 g.

Anyway, even the smallest of republican coins – uncia – was about 28 g or, as it’s easy to guess, roughly about an ounce. Imagine yourself going around with such “change” in the pocket. Later during the Punic Wars, when bronze was highly needed for weapons, as and all its derivatives were significantly decreased in mass and around 155 BC it was about 1 ounce or 1/12 of its original size.

The quality of the mint was poorer than with the modern coins, especially with the coins produced in colonies. Before Nero resumed official coinage, the shortage of coins in Britain and Gaul resulted in local coinage of a very disparate mint quality.

Notice that golden and silver coins were for official use such as salaries, while the rest of coins (brass, bronze) were used in everyday trade, at least at first before the following debasement. So in a tavern and when buying an olive oil Romans were likely to use sestercii (pl. of sestertius, in English it should probably look likes “sesterces”) or smaller coins. In particular “as” (pl. asses) was a very popular coin.

Beside this system, older coins were still used for as long as 3rd century as well as variety of local currencies.

Sources (among others):
[1] Life in Ancient Rome by F.R. Cowell – A Perigree Book, 1980, ISBN 0-399-50328-5
[2] Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome by Lesley Adkins and Roy A. Adkins – Oxford University Press, 1994, ISBN 0-19-512332-8
[3] The Lives of the Caesars by Suetonius – English-only e.g. Oxford Press, 2001, ISBN 0192832719; Latin-English parallel: Harvard University Press, 1998, ISBN 0674995708; or search Internet online for the text.

Working on chapter 9: What were the liguid units in Rome?

2004-05-14T18:30:00.000-07:00

What were the liguid units in Rome? Was there an equivalent of a barrel? Gallon?

Here are the main liquid units that were used in trade:

1 congius = 12 heminae = ~0.9 U.S. Gallon
1 amphora or cadus (a cubic Roman foot) = 8 cognii = 25.79 liter = ~7 US gallons
1 culleus = 20 amphorae = ~144 US gallons

Also:
1 cochlear/cochlea (snail shell) or ligula (spoonful) = about 1.14 centiliters or 0.34 fluid ounce
1 ciathus = 4 cochlearia
1 acetabulum = 6 cochlearia
1 quartarius = 2 acetabula
1 hemina = 2 quartarii
1 sextarius = 2 heminae = ~ half a pint

culleus - leather bag for holding liquids
hemina -ae - half of pint

Modern US units
1 barrel = 42 gallon for crude oil, 40 gallons for “proof spirits”, 31 gallon for fermented liquors
1 US gallon = 4 quarts = 128 US fluid ounces =3.7853 l
1 quart = 2 pints = 0.9464 l
1 pint = 0.4732 l

As we see, congius is almost identical to a gallon, and probably was used in the street (retail) trade. The wholesale trade of olive oil was apparently based on larger units like culleus and amphora. However, amhora is only about 7 gallons, and culleus is around 144 gallons. So we don't have an equivalent of the modern oil barrel (42 gallons).

[1] Latin Dictionary: Latin-English, English-Latin - HarperCollins, 1957, 1993, ISBN 0-00-458644-1
[2] Life in Ancient Rome by F.R. Cowell – A Perigree Book, 1980, ISBN 0-399-50328-5
[3] Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome by Lesley Adkins and Roy A. Adkins – Oxford University Press, 1994, ISBN 0-19-512332-8

Here is how the book starts...

2004-05-13T21:57:00.000-07:00

The Third Day of September Ides

Ancient Rome, early spring A.D. 64, alternate universe...

Some history-literate readers will say that the story does not reflect true historic events. "Hey, Rome did not depend on olive oil from Greece! And anyway, how can oil prices get an empire into economical trouble? D'oh!... Not that oil!"

The answer is simple: this is an alternate universe, where anything is possible. And if you don't see a connection with our world, maybe it's because there is none. Or maybe, it's because you just don't see it.

Beware of September Ides

2004-05-12T22:58:00.000-07:00

This blog will be used while I write my book on the Empire, Oil, and Disasters... No, that's not what you think. Well, not exactly, if you know what I mean...

And the book will show up (6 chapters are already there) on September Ides site.

Welcome!