Frank G. Moore: The Gilt-Bronze Tiles of the Pantheon

A lesson in the propagation of error: the tiles were carried off by the Arabs not to Constantinople, but to Alexandria.

Anna Spalding Jenkins: The "Trajan-Reliefs" in the Roman Forum

A description of the Anaglypha Traiani and a survey of various historical and topographical theories about them.

W. N. Bates: Etruscan Horseshoes from Corneto

Four metal objects found in an Etruscan tomb: unique examples of Etruscan horseshoes (probably).

William Warner Bishop: Roman Church Mosaics of the First Nine Centuries

A straightforward survey of the mosaics in about twenty churches in the city of Rome, with the beginnings of a typology. These mosaics even today are difficult to photograph: the nine well-taken photos, though black & white, are thus still of some value, at least on the Web.

George N. Olcott: Unpublished Latin Inscriptions

Thirteen of them, mostly from the northern edges of Rome; but one from Praeneste; includes the titulus on the funerary amphora of some very poor people.

J. B. Carter: Roma Quadrata and the Septimontium

Demythologizing the earliest days of ancient Rome: there was no "Roma Quadrata", and the Septimontium was not an early form of the city, but a rural religious federation.

Christian Hülsen: The Burning of Rome under Nero

Probably an accident: it was an awfully bright moonlight night to be attempting something secretive.

J. B. Carter: Trajan's Balustrades

The majority opinion, that the Anaglypha Traiani represented a panorama including both the Basilica Julia and the Basilica Aemilia, is wrong: the latter is not figured on them.

Tenney Frank: Notes on the Servian Wall

A gateway in the Forum Boarium — The arches in the Wall — Repairs during the civil wars — On the source of building materials.

John R. Crawford: A Child Portrait of Drusus Junior on the Ara Pacis

You'd think the VIP's portrayed on the Ara Pacis would be easy to identify, and that everybody would agree on them. Not on your life: the article presents one of the many possibilities.

Arthur Lincoln Frothingham (an obituary)

P. B. Whitehead: The Church of SS. Cosma e Damiano in Rome

A most misleading title; the article is about ancient Roman topography, and the identification of the ancient building out of the débris of which that church was carved. The author doesn't know what it is, but he says none of the common names for it are right, and it wasn't a temple; he believes it to have been part of the enclosure of the Temple of the Penates.

G. M. A. Richter: Silk in Greece

It is usually stated that Aristotle was the first Greek to mention silk. The author's investigations suggest otherwise, and solve a long-standing mystery as well.

Emerson H. Swift: Byzantine Gold Mosaic

A closer look at the dome of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and the technique by which it was made to appear to be completely of gold.

W. B. Dinsmoor: Repair of the Athena Parthenos

Archaeological investigations show that the Parthenon may have suffered a fire in the late 3c B.C. and been repaired at some point after that; the author also takes a look at what may be gleaned from various sources as to the appearance of the statue of Athena.

Paola Zancani and Umberto Zanotti-Bianco: The Discovery of the Heraion of Lucania

Ancient writers had spoken of a great temple of Hera somewhere in Lucania, which many modern scholars had long thought to be mythical. The authors of the paper found it, including hundreds of ex‑votos from its favissa.

Paola Zancani Montuoro and Umberto Zanotti-Bianco: Excavations at the Heraeum of Lucania

Continuing their work at the site they discovered, the excavators hit the jackpot: more good sculpture, and the ex‑votos now run to several thousand.

William Mercer: Montefalco in Umbria

A summary of the works of art in town, and their condition; with special attention to Montefalco's native painter Francesco Melanzio.

Edwin Post: Pollice Verso

Everyone knows that a fallen gladiator was doomed by a "thumbs-down" gesture from the spectators; alas, about the only certain thing that can be said is that we have no idea what that gesture was. An inconclusive and confusing attempt to sort out something for which we have very little evidence in any direction.

Kirby F. Smith: On a Legend of the Alban Lake Told by Dionysius of Halicarnassus

An attempt at tracing the original form and purpose of the story.

S. B. Platner: The Tabula Valeria

A place in the Roman Forum where you didn't want to be taken: but exactly why, and where was it?

Samuel Ball Platner: The Pomerium and Roma Quadrata

The article uses the ancient references to Roma quadrata to clarify the location of the pomerium.

A. L. Frothingham: Grabovius — Gradivus, Plan and Pomerium of Iguvium

A mysterious epithet applied to Umbrian divinities in the Iguvine Tables may shed light on the pomerium question, and vice-versa.

J. C. Rolfe: The So‑Called Callium Provincia

A shadowy Roman administrative department: the author believes it to have been headed by proconsuls.

Eugene S. McCartney: Sex Determination and Control in Antiquity

A partial survey of magical and divinatory practices surrounding the gender of unborn offspring, whether human, animal, or plant.

W. F. Albright: The Origin of the Name Cilicia

Brief article offers a chance to brush up on your Babylonian, Assyrian, Cappadocian, and Aramaic.

Tenney Frank: The Letters on the Blocks of the Servian Wall

A large number of signs carved on blocks of the Servian Wall may not be masons' marks after all, but Etruscan as first thought.

J. C. Rolfe: Marks of Quantity in the Monumentum Antiochenum

Jots and tittles revisited (for the first instalment, see below): comparing apices on the Monumentum Antiochenum with those on the Monumentum Ancyranum.

Tenney Frank: Livy and Festus on the Tribus Pupinia

Tenney Frank: Review of A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome by S. B. Platner

J. C. Rolfe: On Suetonius, Nero, 33.1

An opportunity to get a clearer understanding of Roman burial practices, and in particular of the nature of a bustum.

C. U. Clark: Rolfe's Ammianus Marcellinus

A sympathetic review of Vols. II and III.

Harry L. Levy: Catullus, 5, 7‑11 and the Abacus

A thousand kisses, then a hundred, then a thousand . . . then we'll shake 'em all up — not disorderly conduct, but a lesson in Roman arithmetic.

Meriwether Stuart: Pliny, Historia Naturalis, XXXI, 41

According to the manuscripts of Pliny, the Aqua Marcia was once called the Aqua Aufeia. The author emends this to Aqua Aemilia Fulvia.

George A. Barton: reviews of Robert Brown's Researches into the Origin of the Primitive Constellations of the Greeks, Phoenicians, and Babylonians (AJT)

Rather slight: brief notes rather than a real review.

Thomas Ashby, Jr. and George J. Pfeiffer: La Civita near Artena in the Province of Rome

A photoillustrated site reconnaissance of Roman remains in and near a town in the Lazio.

George J. Pfeiffer and Thomas Ashby, Jr.: Carsioli

A detailed site reconnaissance, with photos and maps, of the ruins of a town in the Abruzzo that had barely been visited since the end of Roman times.

J. Tavernor Perry: The Marble and Ceramic Decorations of the Roman Campanili

A survey of the belfries so characteristic of the older churches in the city of Rome.

Milton Garver: Symbolic Animals of Perugia and Spoleto

The Romanesque carving of the façades of two churches: S. Costanzo in Perugia not so symbolic; the bulk of the article is about S. Pietro in Spoleto.

J. C. Rolfe: On "Falces Praeacutae", Caes. B. G. III.14.5

praeacutus sometimes means "very sharp" — something that Lewis & Short doesn't tell you.

H. V. Canter: The Chronology of Sallust's Jugurtha

In his account of the war with Jugurtha, Sallust telescopes a year. The answer to where the year went has evaded several scholars; this is another attempt at solving the matter.

George H. Chase: Archaeology in 1913 (I)

Macedonia; Cyrene; Sardis: temple, necropolis, an important Sidamara sarcophagus; Ephesus; Miletus; Didyma; Phocaea; temple of Apollo of Clarus; Aphrodisias; Chios; Crete: Knossos, Kames Cave, Tylissos.

George H. Chase: Archaeology in 1913 (II)

Crete: Gortyn; Delos; Athens: the Street of Tombs; Sunium; shrine of Amphiaraus near Oropus; Delphi; prehistoric remains near Chaeronea; Tiryns; Orchomenos; Corfu; Rome: the Palatine; Pompeii; Ostia; Veii.

Donald McFayden: The Date of the Arch of Titus

It is commonly accepted that the Arch was built by Domitian immediately after the death of Titus: the author argues that this is impossible, and that the Arch was built after Domitian died.

George H. Chase: Archaeology in 1914

Sardis, especially the Lydian tombs; Pergamum; Phocaea; Thasos; Delos; Crete: Minoan cemetery at Pachys Ammos; Corinth; Athens: the Erechtheum, possible site of the Odeum, the Street of Tombs; Halae; Delphi; Tiryns; Elis; Corfu; Libarna; Rome: the Palatine, the mithraeum under S. Clemente; Tivoli: Hadrian's Villa; Ostia: Piazzale delle Corporazioni; Pompeii: Via dell' Abbondanza.

Fairfax Harrison: The Crooked Plow

Plowing in Antiquity: debunking the idea that we do it better today; translated selections from Book II of Columella's de Re Rustica.

George H. Chase: Archaeology in 1915

The war mobilization of scholars; Gallipoli; North Africa; Cyrene; Aegean islands; Corinth; Athens: the Ceramicus; Nicopolis; the state of the foreign schools in Athens; Rome; Pompeii; Ostia: thermopolium, Edificio delle Pistrine; Syracuse; Arezzo; Como; Pozzuoli.

John A. Scott: Homeric Heroes and Fish

It has been commented on since Plato: the Homeric heroes don't eat fish. Scott's solution is that Homer was from Smyrna, and fish around Smyrna is not fit to eat. (See also below.)

George H. Chase: Archaeology in 1916

Because of the war, very little news from Greece. Salamis; Tiryns: an important Mycenaean treasure; Gonnoi in Thessaly; Nicopolis; around Corinth: prehistoric sites, especially Koráko; Delos; Rome: activity of the foreign schools much curtailed because of the war; Pompeii: Via dell' Abbondanza, Oscan inscriptions; Ostia; Volubilis; Bulla Regia.

George H. Chase: Archaeology in 1917

Even less news from Greece. Athens: the American School works on Koráko, the Erechtheum and the Propylaea. New details about older discoveries at Salonika; Rome: the hypogeum near Porta Maggiore, a major discovery; Via Appia: excavations under S. Sebastiano; Pompeii; Ostia: the area north of the Via Decumana, the Casa di Diana; Veii; Fabriano: find of an archaic war chariot; Cyrene.

George H. Chase: Archaeology in 1918

Athens: the Propylaea unscaffolded, excavations outside the Dipylon gate; Tiryns; Salonica; Skyros; Delos; Rome: discovery of a statue interpreted by some as a Victory, Flavian foundations near the Clivus Sacer, horrea near the Marmorata, the hypogeum near the Porta Maggiore; some scant information on the rest of Italy and the Italian excavations in Libya.

John A. Scott: Homeric Heroes and Fish (Second Note)

A weak defense of his earlier note.

Eva Matthews Sanford: De Loquela Digitorum

A quick look at how the Romans expressed numbers by means of finger signs: Alcuin's riddle, St. Jerome, Bede, Ermoldus Nigellus, Isidore, and Giraldus Cambrensis.

H. V. Canter: Conflagrations in Ancient Rome

A simple, readable account of fires in the City: how many, when, where, what, why; how they were fought, how Rome was rebuilt after them.

Hattie L. Gordon: The Eternal Triangle, First Century B.C.

Cato lent his wife to friend Hortensius; when the latter died, he took her back.

Oliver L. Spaulding, Jr.: The Ancient Military Writers

A straightforward basic survey of Greek and Roman writers on military matters, by a U. S. Army expert: an excellent starting-point for the investigation of ancient military theory.

William E. Gwatkin, Jr.: Roman Trier

A visit to the town; a good survey of the principal monuments of the Roman Augusta Treverorum.

John N. Hough: Caesar's Camp on the Aisne

Stoffel's excavations at Mauchamp were taken by Rutherford to have revealed Caesar's camp of B. G. II.8.3‑5, and Holmes disagreed, favoring Chaudardes; this paper supports the former. Maps.

Dorothy Kent Hill: "The Temple above Pompey's Theater"

It is usually stated that Pompey put a temple in his theatre as a mere device to make the latter acceptable: the author disagrees.

Mary Francis Gyles: "Nero Fiddled While Rome Burned"

Not really topnotch, and in spots a mere paraphrase of a few dictionaries; still, a fun article that traces just how the idea spread that Nero played a fiddle — and just what that fiddle was.

J. Hilton Turner: Roman Elementary Mathematics

How the Romans performed basic arithmetic: arithmetic tables; written calculation; finger signs and computation; the abacus and its use, with detailed examples; literary evidence in Catullus, Martial and Symphosius. Sources and references.

S. B. Platner: The Septimontium and the Seven Hills

The history of the "Seven Hills", a defense of Wissowa's theory: and in particular, why there are eight of them, including the Subura, which is a valley (or at least it is now).

F. B. Tarbell: The Form of the Chlamys

You'd think we'd know the shape of one of the commonest of Greek garments, depicted on countless ancient monuments and vases; but things are never quite so simple. Its shape can be deduced, however, from such things as the shapes of the inhabited world according to Strabo, or of the city of Alexandria.

S. B. Platner: Mons and Collis

Of the hills of Rome, traditionally the Aventine, the Caelian, the Capitoline, the Esquiline and the Palatine were montes (mountains); others, and in particular the Quirinal and the Viminal, were colles (hills). There are, however, always exceptions. . . .

S. B. Platner: The Ara Martis

How many shrines of Mars were in the campus Martius (other than that of Callaicus)? Though Hülsen thinks there were two, Platner believes there was only one, just east of the Pantheon.

C. J. O'Connor: The Tabula Valeria and the Tabula Sestia

These were neither paintings nor bankers' offices: rather, legal registries.

E. T. Merrill: The City of Servius and the Pomerium

The pomerium was the entire city of Rome within the ritual furrow, which was outside the wall.

Max Radix: The Wife of Caius Gracchus and Her Dowry

Rebuts the commonly received notion that the Argiletum was the center of the book business in Rome; puts the booksellers just round the corner, though.

Tracy Peck: The Argiletum and the Roman Book-Trade

Rebuts the commonly received notion that the Argiletum was the center of the book business in Rome; puts the booksellers just round the corner, though.

S. B. Platner: Varia Topographica

Basilica Opimia (much visited but not magnificent), Elephas herbarius (it eats grass but is not near an herb market), Thermae hiemales (winter baths, not cold baths), Porta Romana (still a mystery).

Tenney Frank: The Columna Rostrata of C. Duilius

Or more precisely, the controversially dated inscription. The author believes it to be the result of an early original and two restorations, one around 150 B.C., the other in the early Empire.

Tenney Frank: On the Stele of the Forum

Brief note: petrographic analysis suggests that the stele dates to the period of the Etruscan occupation, before 509 B.C.

Edwin W. Fay: The Elogium Duilianum

The author believes there was sufficient knowledge in the time of Tiberius to forge such an inscription, and therefore the inscription is a forgery.

Tenney Frank: Notes on Latin Inscriptions

(a) an inscription in the Museo Torlonia, very likely a Renaissance fake; (b) the inscription on the Tomb of Bibulus.

Monroe E. Deutsch: Pompey's Three Triumphs

People said Pompey had celebrated three triumphs. Brief and otherwise pointless article collects the citations.

William T. M. Forbes: The Silkworm of Aristotle

The author, an entomologist, attempts to identify the specific insect(s) written of by Aristotle with modern species.

William M. Green: The Lupercalia in the Fifth Century

The Lupercalia holiday is one of those things that people just like to lie about; incredible amount of garbage about it on the Web. To counteract that a bit, here's one scholar's conclusions as to just what the Christian Church's involvement was with the pagan festival.

J. V. A. Fine: A Note on the Compitalia

It is usually stated that Julius Caesar suppressed this festival. Not so: the author found some inscriptions proving that people were still running them; the hardest part of the question is dating the inscriptions so as to clinch his argument.

C. M. Bowra: Simonides on the Fallen of Thermopylae

The dirge written by Simonides, of which Diodorus gives us a fragment, was written for performance at a heroön in Sparta.

Whitney J. Oates: The Population of Rome

The author puts it at 1,250,000 in the time of Augustus; on grounds no less tenuous than those of the scholars with whom he disagrees.

A. T. Olmstead: Cuneiform Texts and Hellenistic Chronology

The author sorts out some errors in chronology made by others who, though consulting Babylonian astronomical texts, failed to distinguish between actual contemporary records and calculations made much later.

Philip W. Harsh: Angiportum, Platea, and Vicus

Diffuse and poorly organized, but everything you wanted to know about the nomenclature of Roman streets; sort of.

C. U. Clark: Rolfe's Ammianus Marcellinus

A sympathetic review of Vol. I.

T. Rice Holmes: The Battle-Field of Old Pharsalus

A serried critique of Leake, Mommsen, Heuzey, Stoffel, Kromayer and others who place the battle south of the Enipeus River: 13 reasons why only the north bank will do.

A. E. Housman: Manilius, Augustus, Tiberius, Capricornus, and Libra

An exploration of the horoscopes of Augustus and Tiberius; its effects on the dating of Book IV of Manilius. The problematic Capricorn-sign of Augustus is resolved not as the sign under which he was conceived, but his moon sign.

J. P. Postgate: Review of La Patria di Properzio by Giulio Urbini

A savage little review: first a sneer, then a guffaw, and ends in a sniff.

W. Y. Sellar: The Birth-Place of Propertius

A review of Urbini by another name; less savage, and possibly correct as to where Propertius was born — but the author/reviewer tries to evaporate a large lake by sleight-of‑hand. . . .

F. J. Haverfield: Three Notes on Roman Britain

Rutupinus a metonymic term for "British"; legio not always a legion (it matters in the chronology of the Roman withdrawal from Britain); decurio may be a member of a cantonal senate, as in the case of St. Patrick's father.

T. Rice Holmes: Last Words on Portus Itius

Much too sanguine a title; the paper kicked off an exchange of half a dozen more. [Not all appeared in the CR: for convenience, I've collated them on their own page.]

T. Rice Holmes: An Explanation

Portus Itius. . . .

F. J. Haverfield: Portus Itius

Wissant provides neither harbor, nor camping-ground for all those men, nor water.

T. Rice Holmes: F. H. on Portus Itius

Plenty of water (from local sources); in the Middle Ages armies regularly used Wissant as a port.

F. J. Haverfield: Portus Itius

Those medieval armies were small, and there still isn't enough water.

T. Rice Holmes: Portus Itius

The mechanics of just how those ships would have staged their departure, and exactly how much water was available for men and beasts. Wissant may not be the place, but should be considered: Boulogne is not the certain site.

E. E. Genner: Portus Itius

A brief note showing from a modern parallel how it might not be so implausible to apply the name Portus Itius to a place that already had a name.

E. A. Freeman: The Tyrants of Britain, Gaul, and Spain

A narrative, collated all in one place from the various sources, of the confusing rivalries between emperors and pretenders, A.D. 406‑411.

J. B. Bury: A Note on the Emperor Olybrius

The historian John Malalas (9c, in Bury's view) brings his overlooked piece to the puzzle of how Olybrius came to be emperor in the West.

J. Bryce and C. Jireček: Life of Justinian by Theophilus

No, Justinian's name was never "Uprauda" (or "Vpravda"), and his mother was not "Bigleniza", either. An imposture that stood for over 250 years, debunked; whose, is not absolutely certain — but it's hanky-panky in the Balkans, designed to give them a pedigree.

J. R. Macpherson: The Church of the Resurrection, or of the Holy Sepulchre

The Jerusalem church and its buildings, from 330 A.D. to modern times, seen thru the principal source texts; including details about its destruction by Moslems in 614 and again in 1010.

F. J. Haverfield: 710‑712English Topographical Notes

On some Latin names of English towns in Bede; and on Bannavem Taberniae.

B. W. Henderson: The Campaign of the Metaurus

The author examines in great detail the three sites most commonly held for the battle; rejecting the left bank site of S. Silvestro, but coming to no conclusion between the left bank site of La Lucrezia and the right bank site of S. Angelo. Maps.

F. J. Haverfield: Two Reviews

— of Caesar's Conquest of Gaul by T. Rice Holmes, and Vercingétorix by Camille Jullian.

F. J. Haverfield: The Last Days of Silchester

Not conquered, sacked and burned by the English; but abandoned.

J. B. Bury: The Date of the Notitia of Constantinople

Mention of the city wall as "double" dates the Notitia to 447‑450.

A. E. R. Boak: Late Imperial Coronation Ceremonies

A summary of the coronations of Leo I, Anastasius, Justin I, Leo II, and Justinian; some general conclusions as to the constitutional position of the Roman Emperor in that period.

Aubrey Diller: A Review of Stevenson's Ptolemy

The review is not savage, but depressing: Edward Stevenson perpetrated one of the worst "scholarly" editions I've ever seen. Prof. Diller's review, to which I thoroughly subscribe to the extent of my own expertise as a professional translator, is a matter of personal vindication to me: in my misguided enthusiasm when I first went on the Web in the mid‑1990s, Stevenson's Ptolemy cost me many hours of unproductive work before I realized it was not worth putting online.

D. G. Hogarth: Alexander in Egypt and Some Consequences

Why exactly did Alexander the Great head off to Egypt at the beginning of his soldier's career when one might have expected him to go straight for the Persian jugular? And, yes, a look at the long-lasting consequences of the expedition.

L. W. King: The Origin of the Province of Kommagene

Not quite where it had been thought to be; an Aryan enclave in a Semitic Near East.

W. Warde Fowler: Mundus Patet

A simple explanation of the dates on which the mundus was opened: August 24, October 5, November 8.

F. J. Haverfield: Roman Silver in Northumberland

An 18c find of Roman silver plate not far from Hadrian's Wall, including the famous Corbridge Lanx; includes the history of the find and the legal wrangling over possession of the pieces. Illustrated.

F. J. Haverfield: The Name Augustus

Why did Octavian pick that particular name rather than some other august appellation?

J. S. Reid: Roman Ideas of Deity

Miscellaneous critiques of Warde Fowler; and views on the Roman triumph.

J. B. Bury: Justa Grata Honoria

Or: What a Difference an Indiction Makes! Sowing havoc in the empire, it was not a rebellious young girl, but an ambitious grown woman who reached out to Attila.

J. B. Bury: The Notitia Dignitatum

S. B. Platner: Brief reviews of Töbelmann's Bogen von Malborghetto and Hülsen's Römische Antikengärten.

J. P. Postgate: The Site of the Battle of Pharsalia

J. J. Hartman: de porticu Claudia

An emendation to Martial II.9‑10.

The Eclipse of Pericles

An exchange of correspondence between W. T. Lynn and S. J. Johnson, the latter arguing for March 30, 433 B.C. and the former upholding the more usually accepted date of August 3, 431.

Rutilius Claudius Namatianus

A graceful critique of the de Reditu suo.

J. C. Rolfe: The Use of Devices for Indicating Vowel Length in Latin

Jots and tittles: on apices and the long I's found in some of the more carefully cut Roman inscriptions, an exhaustive look at the Monumentum Ancyranum and the speech of Claudius at Lugdunum. (I was very gratified to discover that top-level scholars are just about as mystified as I am.)

Alfred Gudeman: Literary Frauds among the Romans

Entertaining essay surveys all of them — except the biggest and most egregious one of them all.

Morris Hicky Morgan: Remarks on the Water Supply of Ancient Rome

We often read that Rome was better supplied with water than modern cities. The author tracks down the source of the statement to an early‑19c estimate; examining the water supply question afresh, he finds the opposite is true.

William A. Oldfather: Livy I.26 and the Supplicium de More Maiorum

The ancient Roman capital punishment: not hanging, not crucifixion, but tying you to a tree and beating you to death. A grueling, exhaustive, convincing survey of the question; impalement and decimation thrown in for good measure.

Roland G. Kent: The Etymological Meaning of Pomerium

It is commonly stated, based on certain ancient authors, that pomerium stands for *postmoerium. The author argues with other ancient authors, that it stands for *promurum.

John C. Rolfe: Notes on Suetonius

On the Regia, Aug. 31.5 and 76.2; on "Hoc age", Cal. 58.2; Gal. 20.1; on the posture of Tiberius, Tib. 68.3.

Eugene Tavenner: The Roman Farmer and the Moon

A sourcebook: Pliny, Columella, Varro, and others on the agricultural properties of the moon: waxing, waning, or invisible.

Eugene S. McCartney: Spontaneous Generation and Kindred Notions in Antiquity

Eels from dew, scorpions from crocodiles, mice from licking salt, and mares born of the wind: even Aristotle couldn't fight it all. An exhaustive survey, in the animal kingdom at least.

Arthur Stanley Pease: Notes on Ancient Grafting

Everyone knows that the Romans practised exotic multiple grafting, of such things as papayas and tomatoes on avocado trees. It's of course not quite that simple. . . .