Tartarus and Elysium

Tartarus in ancient Greek mythology is the deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked and as the prison for the Titans. As far below Hades as the earth is below the heavens, Tartarus is the place where, according to Plato, souls were judged after death and where the wicked received divine punishment. Tartarus was also considered to be a primordial force or deity.

According to Greek mythology, the realm of Hades is the place of the dead, but Tartarus also has a number of inhabitants. When Cronus came to power as the King of the Titans, he imprisoned the one-eyed Cyclopes and the hundred-armed Hecatonchires in Tartarus and set the monster Campe as its guard. Zeus killed Campe and released these imprisoned giants to aid in his conflict with the Titans. The gods of Olympus eventually triumphed. Cronus and many of the other Titans were banished to Tartarus.

Aegaeon the Hekantonkheires

Another Titan, Atlas, was sentenced to hold the sky on his shoulders to prevent it from resuming its primordial embrace with the Earth.

Heracles ends up building a large pillar that holds up the sky eventually freeing Atlas from his torment. Originally, Tartarus was used only to confine dangers to the gods of Olympus. In later mythologies, Tartarus became the place where the punishment fits the crime. Mythical figures such as Sisyphus, Tantalus, Ixion, Tityos and the Titan Prometheus met their fates in Tartarus. Tantalus was given eternal punishment where he was condemned to stand in a lake with fruits, but without being able to satisfy his thirst or his hunger.

In Greek and Roman mythology Elysium, also called Elysian Fields or Elysian Plain, was the paradise to which heroes on whom the gods conferred immortality were sent. In Homer’s writings the Elysian Plain was a land of perfect happiness at the end of the Earth, on the banks of the Oceanus. Earlier, only those favored by the gods entered Elysium and were made immortal.

Later Elysium was a place for the blessed dead and entrance was gained by a righteous life.

Roman Concrete

Sunken structures off the Italian coast doesn't sound impressive, but the marvel is in the material. Roman concrete, 'opus caementicium', was a material used in construction until the fading of the Roman Empire.

Roman concrete was based on a hydraulic-setting cement. Roman builders constructed seawalls and harbour piers. The concrete they used outlasted the empire. The concrete, a mixture of volcanic ash and quicklime, has withstood the sea for two millennia.

Tests revealed a rare chemical reaction, with aluminous tobermorite crystals growing out of another mineral called phillipsite. The key ingredient proved to be seawater. As seawater percolated in the cracks in the Roman concrete it reacted with phillipsite found in the volcanic rock and created tobermorite crystals.

Microscopic image shows the lumpy calcium-aluminum-silicate-hydrate (C-A-S-H) binder material that forms when volcanic ash, lime, and seawater mix. It's stronger than when it was first poured.

Caesarea Concrete Bath

The Romans mined a specific type of volcanic ash from a quarry in Italy. Modern seawalls require much steel reinforcement. The Romans didn’t use steel. Their reactive concrete was more than strong enough.

Germanicus

On this day October 10, AD 19, Germanicus died. Germanicus Julius Caesar was born on 24 May 15 BC. Germanicus was a Roman general and politician most famous for his campaigns against Arminius in Germania. He was the son of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia the Younger.

Germanicus was added to his full name in 9 BC when it was posthumously awarded to his father in honor of his victories in Germania. In AD 4 he was adopted by his paternal uncle Tiberius. Ten years later, Tiberius succeeded Augustus as Roman emperor. Germanicus was the father of Caligula, the maternal grandfather of Nero, and the older brother of Claudius.

During the reign of Augustus, Germanicus enjoyed an accelerated political career. He entered the office of quaestor five years before the legal age in AD 7. He held that office until AD 9 where he was made praetor. He was elected consul for the first time in AD 12. The year after, he was made proconsul of Germania Inferior, Germania Superior, and all of Gaul. He commanded eight legions, one-third of the entire Roman army at the time. Germanicus avenged the Roman Empire's defeat in the Teutoburg Forest and retrieved two of the three legionary eagles that had been lost. In AD 17, he returned to Rome, where he received a triumph.

When Augustus' chosen successor, grandson Gaius Caesar, unexpectedly died in AD 4, he considered Germanicus as his heir. His wife Livia persuaded him to choose his stepson Tiberius instead. Many historians wonder what glory might have followed Germanicus and Rome had it not been for the machinations of Livia to put her offspring on the throne.

While in the eastern provinces, Germanicus came into conflict with the governor of Syria, Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso. Piso was a high ranking Roman aristocrat and senator. He opposed the First Triumvirate, and later Julius Caesar. He fought against Caesar in the Great Roman Civil War and against his adopted son, Octavian, in the War of the Second Triumvirate; both times finding himself on the losing side. During their feud, Germanicus became ill in Antioch and died on 10 October AD 19. His death has been attributed to poison by ancient sources, but it was never proven.

The Zodiac drachm

Zodiac drachm with Kronos (Saturn) in Capricorn struck in Alexandria in the 8th year of Antoninus Pius, 144–145 AD. This period is remembered as a time of uninterrupted peace and stability within the Pax Romana. Coins may celebrate the publication of Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos (astrology manual) in the city in that year. Currently 1600 CHF.

The finest known Zodiac wheel type $43,200 in 2011.

The Zodiac Drachm is highly sought after. Struck to celebrate the Great Sothic Cycle, the coins feature 16 variations pairing the 12 zodiac signs with Greco-Roman deities and planetary symbols. The Great Sothic Cycle refers to the flooding of the Nile River and the beginning of a new eon, marked by the appearance of the phoenix, a mythological bird which was reborn every 500 to 1000 years out of its own ashes. The ultimate project for collectors, coins often feature zodiac constellations alongside portraits of deities, like a centaur drawing a bow (Jupiter in Sagittarius) or the Dioscuri twins (Gemini).

The set comprised one design specific to each of the 12 signs of the Zodiac plus four variant versions of a complete Zodiac wheel incorporating all the signs of the Zodiac in their correct order.

Eros - Cupid

A Roman fresco from Herculaneum with cupids around a lyre. It dates to the 1st century AD and is now on display in the National Archeological Museum in Naples, Italy. In early Greek art, Eros wasn’t an infant. He was a winged adolescent, representing powerful desire. He was sometimes depicted as small and shown annoying his mother Aphrodite. By the Hellenistic period, Eros had grown much softer and childlike. In Roman culture, Eros turned into the Cupid we recognize today.

Ancients do well in uncertain economic times

Heritage offered rarities in 2020 and prices aren't going down as interest remains strong. Ancients tend to retain their value and in most cases rise in value over time. Ancients in good condition invariably attract museums, and that supports ever rising prices.

Featured was a Titus as Augustus (AD 79-81). AE proto-contorniate sestertius. NGC VF 5/5 - 1/5, double holed and plugged. Rome, AD 80-81. Extremely rare and one of the most sought after architectural type of Roman coin. Septimius Severus (AD 193-211). AV aureus. NGC Choice MS 5/5 - 5/5, Fine Style. Rome, AD 200-201. Julia Domna.

Aurelian (AD 270-275). AV binio or heavy aureus. NGC AU 5/5 - 3/5, brushed. Siscia. IMP C L DOM AVRE-LIANVS AVG, radiate, cuirassed bust of Aurelian right, seen from front / CONCORD-IA AVG, Concordia seated left, patera in right hand, double cornucopia in left. RIC V.I 164. Calicó 3982. Extremely rare - only example known.

Rome's news readers - praeco

In the Roman Republic and Empire, the newsreader (praeco) would read aloud the Acta Diurna. These were daily, official notices and public records. They were carved on stone or metal and presented in message boards in public places. The Acta Diurna (Latin for "Daily Acts") was essentially the world's first newspaper. Initiated by Julius Caesar in 59 BC, criers would read these updates on military victories, legal proceedings, and public events to the illiterate or gathered public.

The publication covered a wide range of official and social information. Decrees, legal proceedings, and outcomes of trials were advertised. Social updates included prominent births, marriages, and deaths. General news might include gladiator event results, military victories, weather, and even human-interest stories. After a few days, the postings were taken down and archived.

Chemical warfare is ancient history - Dura-Europos

Researchers claimed in 2009 to have found the first evidence of chemical weapons, dating from a battle fought at the ancient Roman fortress of Dura-Europos in modern-day Syria. 20 Roman soldiers unearthed beneath the town's ramparts didn't die of war wounds, but from poison gas.

War in antiquity rarely matched the heroism of myth. To stave off a Roman siege in A.D. 189, the defenders of the Greek city of Ambracia built a flamethrower that coughed out smoking chicken feathers.

At Themiscrya, another Greek outpost, Romans tunneling beneath the city contended with not only a charge of wild beasts but also a barrage of hives swarming with bees. Roman armies routinely poisoned the wells of cities they besieged.

Roman general Sertorius in 80 B.C. had his troops pile mounds of gypsum powder by the hillside hideouts of Spanish rebels. When kicked up by wind, the dust became an irritant, smoking the insurgents out.

In 332 B.C., the citizens of the doomed port of Tyre catapulted basins of burning sand at Alexander the Great's advancing army.

Poisoned arrows appear in classical literature. The epics of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey both insinuate the use of the poisoned arrows in the Trojan War. The myths of Hercules also allude to the use of poisoned arrows; after he slew the Hydra he dipped his arrowheads in the venom. Scythians were famous for their poisoned arrows. The poison was a concoction of decomposed poisonous snakes and human blood incubated in a manure heap. One of the terms that the Greeks used to describe this poison was toxikon, which stemmed from toxon meaning a bow. Our modern word toxicology derives from this.

Greek fire was an incendiary weapon developed c. 672 and used by the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. The Byzantine formula was a closely guarded state secret. The composition of Greek fire remains a matter of speculation with proposals including combinations of pine resin, naphtha, quicklime, calcium phosphide, and sulfur. Byzantine use of incendiary mixtures used pressurized nozzles or siphōn to project the liquid onto the enemy.

Even in antiquity, some feared the lurking consequences of unleashing what we call chemical weapons. The ancient Greek tale of Pandora's box offers a metaphor for their use. Pandora's box is an artifact in Greek mythology which contained all the evils of the world. The phrase "to open Pandora's box" means to perform an action that may seem small, but that turns out to have severely detrimental and far-reaching consequences.

The Dura-Europos shield is the only surviving fully intact rectangular 'long shield' (scutum) from the Roman Empire. It was discovered in the 1930s in Dura-Europos. The artifact dates to the mid-3rd century CE (about 250–256 CE)

The rectangular arched shield is mainly made of wood. It was found broken up into thirteen parts. It is made from strips of wood that are 30 to 80 mm wide and 1.5 to 2 mm thick. They are put together in three layers, so that the total thickness of the wood layer is 4.5 to 6 mm.

In the center of the shield is a hole that was cut into the wood after the board was made, the umbo (central boss) is missing.