Week 12 - The Roman Provinces

Question 1

East

Answer 1

• way more citiy strcutures, more built up than the west

Question 2

individual everyday people perspective

Answer 2

• they were distressed because of the powerful
• they were perverted by violemce, favourtism and bribery
• lots of distrust

Question 3

Romanization

Answer 3

• making culture more Roman
• colonization
• forced their cultural standards on others
• created colonies to directly Romanize areas

Question 4

Hellenization

Answer 4

• making culture more Greek

Question 5

Roman Provincial Coinage

Answer 5

West: supplied with coins by the central Roman mint
East: created their own imperially approved silver and bronze coinages at local mints

Question 6

Palmyra (city) Syria

Answer 6

• major trade hub between Asia and Europe
• 2nd century Bce: First urban development
• 64 BCE: the Roman Province of Syria
• The Palmyrene Empire under Zenobia
• Main languages: Greek and Aramaic

Question 7

Palmyrene Funerary Relief

Answer 7

• no invidiaulized faces
• combination of the local and Greco-Roman in style, dress, attributes and inscriptions
• inscriptions usually in Aramaic
• men dressed as priests
• women were jewlerry and turbans
• message of grief and name

Question 8

Palmyrene vs Roman elements in sculptures

funerary style

Answer 8

• poses are similar
• women meant to show modesty in both contexts
• both have inscriptions
• way more detail in Palymyrene with backdrop

Question 9

The City of Palmyra city plan

Answer 9

• theatre
• agora
• tetrapylon
• bath compplex
• diotecian
• Greco-Roman influences
  -local culture: their temples/own local gods

Question 10

Temple of Bel, Palmyra

Answer 10

• dedicated to local patron deity Bel
• combination of local and Greco-Roman elements
• main room, columns all around, big stairway
• stair is on longside, not centered
• people can go upstairs and stand on roof top

Question 11

The Destruction of Palmyra

modern day

Answer 11

• Isis control, large sections of the site were destroyed
• many artifacts were saved through Asaad (murdered by Isis)
• today: preservation work underway

Question 12

Leptis Magna, history

Answer 12

• located in modern Libya
• punic settlement
• early imperial construction
• hometown of Septimius Severus: Roman emperor
• Destructions in 5th and 7th century
• Excavation started in 20th century

Question 13

City Plan

Answer 13

• imperial Pre-Severan

markets, old forum, theatre, amphitheatre and temples

• septimius severus
  colonnaded street, tetrapylon, forum , harbour

Question 14

The Freestanding Arch

Answer 14

• uniquely Roman form of commemoration
• Triumphal arch: made to commemorate a military victory
• triumph: a military parade to celebrate a victorious general; voted on by the senate

Question 15

Arch of Septimius Severus from Leptis Magna

Answer 15

• major scenes: sacrifice, dextraum iunctio, two trimuphal processions

Question 16

Damnatio memoriae

Geta and Caracalla

Answer 16

• government could vote against sanctions of people memory from the public
• Geta was erased because he was assasinated
• his name was erased everywhere, his pictures had to be erased
• his face is defaced

Question 17

City of Trier

the tetrarchy (when emperors divided into four parts)

Answer 17

founded by Diocletation (empire divided in 4 between two senior Augusti and two junior Caesares)
- capitals at nicomedia, milan, trier, sirmium
- other prominent cities include split
- Rome is the “symbolic” capital of the empire

Question 18

Trier

Answer 18

• founded as an army camp by Augustus
• latin name: Augusta Trevorum
• Abandoned as administrative centre at the end of the fourth century

Question 19

Trier: Porta Nigra

North gate of Roman trier

Answer 19

• turned into a medival church
• modern restoration starting in 19th century

Question 20

Basilica of Constantine

Answer 20

• originally an imperial palace
• later converted into a church