"But in the arrangement of my material I have adopted the same haphazard order that I had previously followed in collecting it. For whenever I had taken in hand any Greek or Latin book, or had heard anything worth remembering, I used to jot down whatever took my fancy, of any and every kind, without any definite plan or order; and such notes I would lay away as an aid to my memory, like a kind of literary storehouse, so that when the need arose of a word or a subject which I chanced for the moment to have forgotten, and the books from which I had taken it were not at hand, I could readily find and produce it."
Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae ("Attic Nights"), Preface
Latin place names follow the usage of Richardson (1992) A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, and adhere as well as to the topographical dictionaries of Platner and Ashby (1929), Nash (1968), and Ward-Perkins (1981). Many of these names are not in the genitive but are nouns and their appositive or nouns and their adjective, a grammatical convention that I confess not to understand. Greek usage tends to follow The Oxford Classical Dictionary--for example, "Phidias" instead of "Pheidias" but "Polycleitus" rather than "Polyclitus" or "Polykleitos." Even then, I probably am not consistent.
The illustrations originally were constructed on a Macintosh, the lower gamma value of which makes them appear darker than intended when viewed on a PC. Many, too, were scanned at lower resolution to allow for faster viewing, but, now that computers are more powerful, are being rescanned and presented in a larger format. The use of a digital camera and scanning from the film negative of older pictures rather than the print also have made for better images. They were designed to be viewed at 1024 x 768 pixels on a PC (or at 832 x 624 on a Macintosh).
The essays tend to meander, with links in the text leading to more detailed discussions of the matter at hand. (The most indulged degree of separation is an essay on aconite poisoning that ends with a discussion of C. cedonulli). A more systematic overview is provided by the Site Map or, better yet, the Index. Apologies probably should be made for the linear quality of the essays, with linked topics elaborating on others, much like footnotes. The advantage is that one can read an essay at varying levels of detail; the disadvantage is that, in overlooking a linked term, one might miss an additional two or three (or more) essays nested deeper within the broader discussion. The selection of topics, too, is idiosyncratic and personal. There are essays on the pearls of Cleopatra and red mullets, on aconite poisoning and tulipmania, Nero as the Antichrist and the Amazon types of Ephesus, the letter Z and Aspasia of Miletus. But there is nothing on Roman politics or economics.
Topics are linked only once, as part of the discussion at hand. When a topic is discussed more than once--for example, the Arch of Claudius, which is mentioned both in Roman Britain and the Aqua Virgo--the reader should remember to click on the link at the top of the page to return to the main essay and on the back button for the previous page. All this, no doubt, will seem rather clumsy when frames would have made for a more elegant interface.
The Encyclopaedia Romana first was posted on April 17, 1997 and, in one way or another, is revised almost daily. There also is a discussion of the Roman province of Britannia which, in an excursus, extends to the Norman period, as well as essays on Greek courtesans and the end of paganism.
I am not a classicist (more's the pity) but do read all the primary sources in their most authoritative translation and compare secondary sources before presuming to make any statement of my own. If there is an excess of quotations, it is because the Encyclopaedia, more than anything else, is an aide-mémoire. Although I would like to blame the amanuensis or cats on the keyboard for what errors there are, they remain my own. (Typographical and spelling errors are a continuing mortification.) And I am painfully aware that only works in English have been read, which should make it abundantly clear that these essays cannot presume to be original or exhaustive.
It has been seven years now since the Encyclopaedia Romana first appeared and, because I sometimes am asked about it and my qualifications as author, I thought on this, its septennial day, I would try to say something about both.
The genesis derived from having played SPQR (an acronym for Senatus Populusque Romanus, "The Senate and People of Rome"), an online game set in the Roman Forum in AD 205. The early emphasis in the Encyclopaedia on architecture and the imperial forums was prompted by a desire to better understand that time and place.
SPQR still can be played at Ancientsites.com (at least, the first chapter) and very satisfying it is, as this screen shot attests. (The Aerarium beneath the steps of the Temple of Saturn is highlighted because that is where the final clue is to be found.)
I have a master's degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and am on the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco. But it is my library privilege at the Berkeley campus, where seemingly no book or journal cannot be found, that has made this work possible.
Justin, in his epitome of Pompeius Trogus, proclaims to have extracted only what "was most worthy of being known; and, rejecting such parts as were neither attractive for the pleasure of reading, nor necessary by way of example, have formed, as it were, a small collection of flowers, that those who are acquainted with the history of Greece might have something to refresh their memories, and those who are strangers to it something for their instruction" (Preface, IV).
In these selected essays on the history and culture of Rome, I hope that my own florilegium is found to be as enjoyable.
James Grout
April 17, 2004
In anticipation of my retirement from UCSF, the Encyclopaedia moved to the University of Chicago on August 16, 2005, a transition (my fourth) facilitated by Bill Thayer and James Eason that is gratefully acknowledged. In its earlier incarnations, the Encyclopaedia had links, now long dead, at
Ancientsites.com (http://www.ancientsites.com/as/er/encyclopaedia_romana.html)
University of Guelph (http://langmuir.physics.uoguelph.ca/~aelius/encyclopaedia_romana.html)
University of California, San Francisco (http://itsa.ucsf.edu/~snlrc/encyclopaedia_romana)
I now have come to the decennial anniversary of the Encyclopaedia Romana, in celebration of which Rome was revisited (as was Sicily, Greece, and Turkey). Taken with a digital camera, the pictures now are larger (6 x 4 inches) and displayed at a higher resolution (100 pixels/inch).
April 2007
I invite you to write to me at the following address, which
is presented as an image to discourage it being exploited by
spammers and phishers, the bane of any e-mail account.
The pseudonym was used when I played SPQR and is that of Lucius
Aelius Stilo Praeconinus (c.154-74 BC), a grammarian and the
first Roman philologist. An antiquarian, Stoic, and the teacher
of Varro and Cicero, his cognomen Stilo (stilus,
"pen") is a reminder of the orations he wrote for others.
Praeconinus derives from his father's occupation as a public
crier (praeco).
If these essays are cited, one appropriate format is that of the American Psychological Association, which looks like this--
Grout, J. (n.d.). Encyclopaedia Romana: The Hippodrome at Constantinople. Retrieved December 13, 2007, from http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/circusmaximus/hippodrome.html
If a picture is to be used elsewhere, do please ask. Most are my own and permission is readily given. Many were taken in 2007 and 2008. Older pictures from England, France, and Spain can be recognized by their frames and smaller format.
The selection button
is a silver denarius issued by Marcus Junius Brutus issued
in 42 BC to commemorate the assassination of Caesar on the Ides
of March, 44 BC. It was worth four bronze sesterces at a time
when the normal wage for an unskilled laborer was three sesterces.
(Matthew 20:2 speaks of laborers in the vineyard earning one
denarius per day.) On the reverse, there is the cap of
liberty (pileus), flanked by two daggers and the legend
EID MAR (Idus Martiae). On the obverse is a portrait of
Brutus, himself, and the legend BRVT IMP L PLAET CEST (Brutus
Imperator, L. Plaetorius Cestianus, the moneyer who
minted the coin). It is one of the very few coins to be described
in the ancient literature. Cassius Dio relates that "Brutus
stamped upon the coins which were being minted his own likeness
and a cap and two daggers, indicating by this and by the inscription
that he and Cassius had liberated the fatherland" (XLVII.25.3).
Minted while on the march in northern Greece, the coin type was
recalled by the victorious Mark Antony and Octavian and melted
down. Only fifty-six examples are known to exist, from seven
obverse and twenty-five reverse dies; in 1994, one sold at auction
for $123,500.
During the Republic, a living person could not be represented on official coinage, although as moneyer in 54 BC Brutus did show his own purported ancestor, who had expelled the last of the Tarquin kings and proclaimed a new republic in 509 BC. Minting money for an anticipated campaign in Parthia, Caesar was the first to portray himself on a Roman coin. To republicans such as Brutus, the portrait of Caesar, who had been declared dictatus perpetuus in February, was further evidence of his aspiration for kingship. It is all the more ironic, therefore, that Brutus, the self-proclaimed savior of Roman liberty, would put his own effigy on such a coin and declare himself Imperator. It is ironic, too, that after defeat at the second battle of Philippi (October 23, 42 BC) Brutus killed himself with the same dagger that he had used to murder Caesar.
Shakespeare concludes his play Julius Caesar (V.5) with the declaration by Brutus that
"I shall have glory by this losing day
More than Octavius and Mark Antony
By this vile conquest shall attain unto"
Although the victors would write the history of the battle, with this coin, at least, Brutus spoke the truth.